In a season when so many Black women are being laid off, Mercedes Swan makes the case for the women who are choosing to leave: the ones walking away from a job that is quietly making them sick. A career coach with a background in HR and DEI, Mercedes lived it herself, an ADHD diagnosis, depression, and anxiety she traces to a toxic workplace, before building her own business. She and Laura get honest about how to tell when the environment is the problem, how workplace trauma reshapes your relationship with rest and your own worth, and how to break what she calls the toxic job search cycle so you do not flee one bad situation straight into another. Practical, validating, and clear-eyed about the real constraints of bills and family. In this episode: How to know a job is toxic, starting with the simplest signal: your discomfort is enough The toxic job search cycle (fight, flight, freeze, fawn) and how it lands you in the next bad job The "limiting belief buster" exercise, plus how to plan your exit and recover your energy while you are still inside a hard environment   About Mercedes Mercedes Swan is the Career Love Coach and creates empowering and safe places for high-performing and purpose-driven Black women. Leveraging her experience in HR and DEI, she has a mission to close the pay, promotion, and inclusion gap for Black women and other historically marginalized groups on the way to collective career liberation. She is the founder of the Black Woman Bliss Community and Career Love, a social impact organization. Connect with Mercedes Website: https://www.mercedesswan.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdswan/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mercedes.swan  IG:https://www.instagram.com/mercedes.swan  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFeD9kqBQ53Lg17SaTh1bSQ  Threads: https://www.threads.com/@mercedes.swan  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2205202599758678   BWL Resources: Join Black Woman Leading, The Collective - a membership community.  Learn more at https://blackwomanleading.com/the-collective/ Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today! Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0  Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg  Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment - https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

The conversation you have been avoiding is the one that is costing your relationship the most. We tell ourselves that staying quiet is the kind thing — that silence protects the people and connections we care about. But research tells us something different. Avoidance is not kindness. It is distance. In this solo episode, Laura breaks down four types of difficult conversations that show up in our professional and personal lives — feedback conversations, boundary-setting conversations, repair conversations, and courageous truth-telling — and gives you a practical strategy for each one. She also names something that most general advice on this topic misses entirely: for Black women, speaking up carries a real and documented cost. And so does staying silent. The question is not whether there is a cost. The question is which cost you are choosing to pay, and which relationships and values you are honoring with that decision. Whether you are a formal leader or someone with influence over people, processes, or culture, this episode is your reminder that it is your job to go first. In this episode: Why we avoid difficult conversations and what the research actually says about the cost — especially for Black women The four types of difficult conversations and a practical strategy for each one How to prepare your nervous system before you lean in, and why regulation is the foundation that makes every strategy actually work Resource mentioned: S8E16: Setting Boundaries with Clarity and Confidence - https://blackwomanleading.com/s8e16-setting-boundaries-with-clarity-confidence/ Download the companion guide: Leaning In: My Difficult Conversations Planner - https://blackwomanleading.com/difficult-conversations-planner/ About Laura Laura Knights is the Creator of Black Woman Leading® and host of the podcast. She is an executive coach, speaker, facilitator, and licensed clinical social worker with 20+ years of experience creating personal and professional development programs that have touched leaders worldwide. Her expertise and background in business, human resources, adult education, and social work uniquely equip her to teach others how to deal with both the "head work" and "heart work" required to succeed at work and in life.  She is the Founder and CEO of Knights Consulting LLC,  a leadership development consultancy that provides customized training and coaching programs to create more confident leaders and high-performing teams. Black Woman Leading® is a research-backed initiative which offers leadership development programming, a podcast, and an annual conference for Black women professionals. Black Woman Leading® is an initiative of Knights Consulting LLC. Learn more at blackwomanleading.com. BWL Resources: Join Black Woman Leading, The Collective - a membership community.  Learn more at https://blackwomanleading.com/the-collective/ Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com   Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today!   Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0    Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg    Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment - https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

Middle management may be the hardest seat in any organization: accountable to the leaders above you, responsible for the team below, with authority that is real but limited. And roughly 80 percent of an organization's people are led from that exact seat. Kelli King-Jackson, an executive coach with more than 800 hours coaching Black women in predominantly white spaces, joins Laura to reframe the middle as one of the most powerful positions in an organization, once you learn to influence rather than simply manage. She breaks down the real difference between influence and manipulation, how to manage up by understanding what your leaders actually care about, how to build trust with your team by "sharing the code," and what introversion, neurodiversity, and AI all mean for the way Black women lead from the middle right now. In this episode: Why the middle is uniquely hard, and uniquely powerful, for Black women, and how to stop experiencing it as only a squeeze Influence versus manipulation: managing up by learning how your leaders are persuaded, and translating for the team below Building trust downward by "sharing the code," plus what introversion, neurodiversity, and AI now require of leaders in the middle   About Kelli Kelli King-Jackson is the founder of Kelli King-Jackson, LLC, a social impact firm focused on coaching, leadership assessments, strategic advising, and facilitation. With more than 25 years of experience across nonprofits and philanthropy, she has coached Black women and femmes leading in predominantly white spaces for over 800 hours. Kelli is an ACC‑level coach, a 21/64 certified philanthropic advisor, and co‑founder of The Bayou Collective in Houston.   Connect with Kelli Website: https://www.iamkelli.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkingjackson   BWL Resources: Join Black Woman Leading, The Collective - a membership community.  Learn more at https://blackwomanleading.com/the-collective/ Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com   Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today!   Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0    Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg    Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment - https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

Deme Jackson had the receipts: an HBCU grad, a decade advising C-suite leaders, a nonprofit founder. And still, after repeated layoffs and real workplace trauma, her confidence had fallen behind her competence. In this episode, she and Laura name a gap so many high-achieving Black women live in: you can have done all the work and still not feel like the woman your résumé describes. Deme shares how a toxic corporate experience chipped away at a confidence she once took for granted, how a trusted coach reminded her she did not need to relearn confidence but catch up to it, and how community, visibility, and radical self-work helped her rebuild. She also opens up about founding the Lotus Club and turning her own healing into a lifeline for other Black women navigating workplace trauma. In this episode: The difference between self-esteem and self-confidence, and why layoffs and toxic workplaces damage both How a trusted mirror in community helped Deme catch up to the confidence that never actually left Closing the gap between skill and confidence, and what it means to be bold before you fully feel ready, her Bloom Boldly season   About Deme Deme Jackson is a communications executive, strategist, and entrepreneur whose career began on a production set. She spent her early career in film and television production before pivoting into strategic communications, where she has spent over a decade advising C-suite leaders and leading crisis communications for notable brands including the City of Dallas, Motel 6, Chili's, and Drybar. In addition to serving as a Public Information Officer for one of the top 10 municipalities in the country, she founded F.U.E.L., the city's first Young Professionals Employee Resource Group. That experience, paired with her own encounters with being overlooked and undervalued as a Black woman in the workplace, led her to found The Lotus Club, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting Black women navigating workplace trauma through healing, empowerment, and community. Deme also founded Deme & Co., a boutique communications consultancy serving executives, entrepreneurs, and public figures. She is a 2025 recipient of the Pearl C. Anderson Rising Star Award and a proud Clark Atlanta University alumna. Outside of work, she's an avid cook and collector of African American cookbooks, a hobby that reflects her love of storytelling and preserving culture through food. Connect with Deme Website: http://www.thelotusclub.co Instagram: @bloomwithtlc, @astoldbydeme LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/demejackson/   BWL Resources: Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today! Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0  Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg  Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment - https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

At a career crossroads, by choice or by circumstance? Natina Hill, affectionately known as the Pivot Muse, joins Laura with a real strategic framework for making your next move, especially urgent in a moment when over 600,000 Black women have been economically impacted and AI is reshaping what our skills are worth. A serial entrepreneur, ed-tech founder, and self-described polymath, Natina is candid that she is one of the 600,000, having lost significant contract income to the DEI rollback. She and Laura walk through the pivot she teaches: start with the heart work of naming the grief and fear (because fear restricts movement), then move to the head work of taking honest inventory of your mastered skills, skill-stacking them into new roles, and using AI tools as your free personal strategist. It is a grounded, hopeful, practical roadmap for anyone who got the rug pulled out and wants to turn this season into a strategic one. In this episode: Why every strategic pivot starts with a mindset shift, and how to sit with the grief of a layoff before you try to move (heart work before head work) The inventory-and-skill-stacking method: naming what you have mastered over your career, and what actually energizes you, then repurposing it into your next role How to use AI as a free strategist to research how your industry is changing, translate your experience, and find the roles you are missing, plus how to protect your kids by learning it yourself   About Natina Natina Marie Hill is affectionately known as the pivot muse, a perfect name to describe her life and career journey. She attributes her success to learning how to strategically navigate in and out of life's most challenging and rewarding situations. She's a Rochester, New York native and an Atlanta transplant since 2000. Although she's ventured down many paths, her career has been rooted in business and tech advocacy. Hill is the EdTech Founder of AI STEAM Lab and Future Hackathon™, innovation labs supported by Microsoft that advances AI literacy and fluency in underserved communities. With more than 25 years of experience and through her nonprofit organization, Hill Innovation Learning Labs Foundation, she is developing training and workforce development solutions to help individuals and organizations thrive in a digital world by confidently navigating emerging technologies and preparing for the future of work. Hill is also a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and creative. She owns Hill Consulting & Strategy Firm, PenHaus Media, and melanin muse®, where she directs and produces everything from films, global travel journeys, to large conferences. Hill is proud to serve as an advisory board member for the Women Entrepreneurial Opportunity Project (WEOP).   Connect with Natina Website: https://aisteamlab.com/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/natinamariehill/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natina.marie   BWL Resources: Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today! Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0  Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg  Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment - https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

Most money advice is tactical: budget this, invest that. Dr. Billina Shaw brings something almost no one else does, a psychiatrist's lens. A Yale-educated, triple board-certified psychiatrist turned financial wellness strategist, she joins Laura to go underneath the numbers to the behavioral and psychological roots of how we relate to money. Fresh off her own pivot, laid off from a federal role and ninety days into full-time entrepreneurship, Billina gets vulnerable about discovering that her own anxiety wasn't about the bills, it was about worth and identity. She and Laura name financial trauma and how it shows up, especially for Black women carrying the "slave and save" mentality, and walk through her Aligned Health and Wealth framework: aligning with purpose, identifying with abundance, abolishing limiting beliefs, and acting with authority. A grounding, judgment-free conversation about building wealth from the inside out. In this episode: What financial trauma is, the three forms it takes (history, household, and her story), and how it quietly drives overspending, hoarding, and avoidance Why budgeting alone never fixes it, and how positive reinforcement and abundance, not shame, actually change our relationship with money The Aligned Health and Wealth framework, and why disentangling your worth from your work is the first inside-out move   About Dr. Billina Dr. Billina Shaw is a Yale-educated, triple board-certified psychiatrist turned financial wellness strategist who helps women build aligned wealth from the inside out. Through her coaching practice, Freely Flourish Financial™, she draws on her behavioral health expertise and signature framework to help high-achievers untangle the beliefs and behaviors holding back their personal growth and that of their wallets. A physician and former federal behavioral health Senior Medical Advisor, she brings rare depth to a simple idea: true prosperity starts with alignment.   Connect with Dr. Billina Website: www.freelyflourishfinancial.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dr-billina Instagram: @drbillina   BWL Resources: Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat. June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL. Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube. Subscribe to the BWL channel today! Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0 Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment - https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected] Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/ Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/ Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

Neuroscience strategist Keyshawn Hughes joins Laura to explain what's actually happening in the brain when we communicate, and why so many of us feel more connected online yet lonelier than ever. The founder of Neuro Savvy Leadership breaks down her memorable framing of a world running on "dopamine hits" while starving for "oxytocin drips," the slow, in-person bonding that real relationships require. She and Laura explore how threat and reward show up in our tone and body language, what happens neurologically when Black women go silent or shrink in unsafe rooms, and how to build the self-awareness and strategy to communicate with confidence. A fascinating, practical bridge between brain science and everyday connection. In this episode: Dopamine hits versus oxytocin drips: why digital busyness leaves us lonely, and how to rebuild real connection What fight, flight, freeze, and fawn look like at work, and how to move out of them safely Practical tools to communicate clearly and advocate for yourself without shrinking or over-explaining   About Keshawn Keshawn Hughes, M.S. is a NeuroLeadership Strategist, Executive Coach, and Founder of NeuroSavvy® Leadership, equipping HR and corporate leaders with neuroscience-backed tools to boost productivity, retention, and engagement. With a Master's in Strategic Communication, she has facilitated over 400 leadership engagements since 2021, helping organizations build thriving cultures. Keshawn's upcoming book, NeuroSavvy® Storytelling, shares strategies that move people to believe, align, and take action. Based in Atlanta, she brings the same heartfelt approach to life with her husband and child who inspire her daily.   Connect with Keshawn Website: http://www.keshawnhughes.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NeuroLeaderKHughes Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keshawnhughes/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keshawnridgelhughes/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@keshawnhughes1576   BWL Resources: Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today! Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0  Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg  Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment - https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

What does it take to lead well when the ground will not stop shaking? In this solo episode, Laura introduces the Future-Ready Leader Model, a tree-based framework for leading from the inside out, through your roots, your trunk, and your branches. Roots. Your internal foundation: Self-awareness, emotional regulation, values, and grounding. Trunk. Your strategic positioning: The clarity and intentional choices that keep you standing. Branches. Your expansive impact: The influence, relationships, and reach beyond your role. You were not designed to only lead when things are easy. Future-ready leadership is not about becoming someone different. It is about going deeper into who you already are, and growing anyway. "You can have the most impressive branches in the room. But if your roots are shallow, one hard wind takes you down." Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment. Fifteen questions, about five minutes, and you get your profile, your scores across all three dimensions, your strengths, your growth edge, and three next steps.   https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/    About Laura Laura Knights is the Creator of Black Woman Leading® and host of the podcast. She is an executive coach, speaker, facilitator, and licensed clinical social worker with 20+ years of experience creating personal and professional development programs that have touched leaders worldwide. Her expertise and background in business, human resources, adult education, and social work uniquely equip her to teach others how to deal with both the "head work" and "heart work" required to succeed at work and in life.  She is the Founder and CEO of Knights Consulting LLC,  a leadership development consultancy that provides customized training and coaching programs to create more confident leaders and high-performing teams. Black Woman Leading® is a research-backed initiative which offers leadership development programming, a podcast, and an annual conference for Black women professionals. Black Woman Leading® is an initiative of Knights Consulting LLC. Learn more at blackwomanleading.com.   BWL Resources: Now enrolling for both the August sessions of the Early Career and Mid-Career programs.  Learn more at https://blackwomanleading.com/programs-overview/ Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today! Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0  Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg  Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

After nearly 30 years in public service, Dawn Pinnock stepped into an entirely new sector as president and CEO of the Center for Urban Community Services, and had to rebuild something she had spent decades earning: her professional relationships. In this episode, she and Laura break down what it takes to recalibrate how you connect when you are deeply established in one world and starting fresh in another. Dawn shares the exact process she used, taking honest stock of her track record, gathering candid feedback from longtime supporters and even former opponents, and turning those themes into a story she could lead with. It is a masterclass for anyone pivoting, by choice or by layoff, who worries the social capital they built no longer counts. In this episode: Why being "known but not networked" is a real distinction, and how to translate a strong reputation into new rooms Dawn's first-90-days playbook: honest self-assessment, feedback focus groups, and positioning yourself as a learner who still brings value How the relationships you build internally with your team become the springboard for the ones you build outside About Dawn Dawn M. Pinnock has spent nearly 30 years in public service driving change. As President and CEO of the Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS), she leads one of the city's most effective social service organizations, supporting over 50,000 people each year on their path to housing stability and long-term well-being. Before joining CUCS, she served as Commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). In this role, she created the city's first community-based hiring model, advanced family-forward policies for more than 320,000 employees, managed 22 million square feet of city-owned and leased office space, and made New York greener through fleet electrification and large-scale energy efficiency upgrades. Pinnock serves as a Trustee and adjunct professor at Metropolitan College of New York, and in 2026 was appointed to Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Commission on Government Efficiency, a newly formed Charter Revision Commission tasked with modernizing city government. Connect with Dawn Website: https://www.cucs.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cucs/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cucs_nyc/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CUCSnyc   BWL Resources: Now enrolling for both the August sessions of the Early Career and Mid-Career programs.  Learn more at https://blackwomanleading.com/programs-overview/ Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today! Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0  Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg  Download the free Black Woman Leading Career Reset Kit - https://blackwomanleading.com/career-reset-kit/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay  

Fear never fully goes away, so what if the goal was never to get rid of it? Caressa Bell, a Gulf War veteran, former Fortune 50 executive, and author of Manufactured Fearlessness, joins Laura to reframe fearlessness as something you build, not something you're born with. Drawing on the moment she deployed to war with a newborn at home, Caressa shares how "moving even when you're not ready" became the practice that carried her through a military career, two decades in corporate leadership, and the leap into entrepreneurship. She and Laura dig into leading yourself before you lead others, reading what's really happening "beyond the veil" in a room, and why so many of us are far more ready than we let ourselves believe. A galvanizing conversation for any Black woman standing at the edge of a bold move. In this episode: Why fearlessness is manufactured: how to feel the fear, look back at everything you've already done afraid, and move anyway "Beyond the veil": reading the unspoken dynamics in a room so you can lead and position yourself strategically Why you have to lead yourself first, and how knowing your gifts and triggers is the foundation for leading others   About Caressa Caressa Bell is an Executive Strategist, Leadership & Transformation Coach, Gulf War Veteran, and former Fortune 50 Executive with more than 30 years of leadership experience spanning military service, corporate transformation, and entrepreneurship. Throughout her career, she has led billion-dollar portfolios, enterprise-wide transformation initiatives, and teams of more than 200 professionals. Today, through her work, speaking, and upcoming book Manufactured Fearlessness: Own Your Leadership, Own the Room, she helps leaders build the courage, clarity, and confidence to Lead Yourself. Lead Others. Leave a Legacy. Connect with Caressa Join the waitlist for Caressa Bell's upcoming book, Manufactured Fearlessness: Own Your Leadership, Own the Room, and be the first to receive launch updates, exclusive content, and release announcements: https://www.iamcaressabell.com/manufactured-fearlessness Website: http://www.iamcaressabell.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caressabell/  Instagram: @claritywithcaressa   BWL Resources: Now enrolling for both the August sessions of the Early Career and Mid-Career programs.  Learn more at https://blackwomanleading.com/programs-overview/ Join us at the 2027 Black Woman Leading LIVE! Conference & Retreat.  June 1-4, 2027, Clearwater Beach, FL.  Save your seat at www.BWLretreat.com Full podcast episodes are now on Youtube.  Subscribe to the BWL channel today! Check out the BWL theme song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68EqEJjXq0  Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg  Download the free Black Woman Leading Career Reset Kit - https://blackwomanleading.com/career-reset-kit/   Credits: Learn about all Black Woman Leading® programs, resources, and events at www.blackwomanleading.com Learn more about our consulting work with organizations at https://knightsconsultinggroup.com/ Email Laura: [email protected]  Connect with Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraeknights/  Follow BWL on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/blackwomanleading  Instagram: @blackwomanleading Facebook: @blackwomanleading Youtube: @blackwomanleading  Podcast Music & Production: Marshall Knights - https://marshallknights.com/  Graphics: Dara Adams Listen and follow the podcast on all major platforms: Apple Podcasts  Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Audible Podbay