November 19, 2025 • 54 mins
This week, Mandi Money brings the BAFAM a special “Best Of” mash-up episode featuring two powerhouse women who’ve carved out space in the C-suite and beyond. From boldly leaving corporate America to building whole new tables (not just getting a seat at one), these conversations are all about self-belief, wealth-building, and trusting your gut—even when everyone else thinks you’re wild for betting on yourself.
This ep revisits conversations with:
✨ Christina Mancini, CEO of Black Girls Code [link to full EP]
✨ Gabrielle Gambrell, media executive at Hachette Book Group [link to full ep]
Both women share the real talk behind their boldest career pivots, what it takes to thrive in rare professional spaces, and why betting on yourself is the ultimate flex.
Quick reminder: if you want YOUR question featured on the show, head to brownambitionpodcast.com and submit it through our website, or slide into our DMs on Instagram at @BrownAmbitionPodcast.
And while you’re there, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts—it seriously helps other people find the show and helps us climb back into that top ten for business podcasts.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, ba fam, let's be real for a second, and
y'all know I keep it a book. The job market
has been brutal, now not brutal trash, especially for women
of color. Over three hundred thousand of us have disappeared
from the workforce this year alone, and not by choice,
but because of layoffs, disappearing DEI programs, and stagnant wages
(00:20):
that keep cutting us out of opportunity. Our unemployment rate
has jumped to over seven percent, while our pay gap
continues to widen. I know all of that sounds dire,
but here's what I want y'all to know. You do
not have to wait for the system to save you.
That's exactly why I created the Mandy money Makers Group
coaching community. It is a coaching community that is built
(00:41):
for us by us. Inside the community, we're not just
talking about how to negotiate or to how to get
the job that you want. It's about finding purpose in
your career. It's about finding communities and others, feeling seen,
feeling heard, and also having a sounding board and a
mirror to reflect your own magic, your own sparkle right
(01:03):
back to yourself. In this community, you'll get group coaching
led by me, but you also get peer to peer
accountability with proven tools and resources that can help you
do what we have always done since rise. Even when
the odds are stacked against us, despite all the challenges,
we will rise. If you're interested in joining the Mandy
(01:24):
money Makers community and having that support to bolster you
and help you tap back into your magic so that
you can lead your career with intention and heart and
your own intuition, trusting that again, please join us. You
can find information in the show notes of today's episodes
or go to mandymoney dot com slash community. That's Mandy
(01:47):
m A n d I money dot com slash community.
I would love to see y'all there. Enrollment is open,
so please go check out mandymoney dot com slash community today. Hey,
ba fam, how's it going? Welcome back to the show.
(02:08):
This is Brown Ambition For those of y'all who are
new here. My name is Mandy woodri Off Santos aka
Vandy Money. I am your ever grateful, ever present host,
and I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you
for spending some time with me. Thank you for spending
this time with yourself, giving yourself a little bit of
time to think about what's happening in the world where
(02:29):
you're at with your financial and your professional goals, and
being kind enough to invite me in along for the
journey with y'all. Today, I've got a special episode for y'all.
I'm going to be doing what I'm calling the BA
Best of c Suite Edition, taking a look back at
a couple of my favorite interviews over the past year.
One with the chief marketing officer of one of the
(02:52):
biggest publishing houses in the world, Gabrielle Gambrel from Hashet
slash Grand Central Publishing. We've also got the CEO of
Black Girl's Code, Christina Mancini. This had to definitely was
one of my top top top interviews. Both of these
women extraordinary, have risen through the ranks to take up
(03:12):
space in rare, rare air for women of color, and
they are doing it with class and with gusto and
a level of energy and inspiration still even advanced as
they are in their careers, and I'm excited for y'all.
If you've whether you've heard these before or it's your
(03:32):
first time catching up on these, you are in for
a treat. But before I get there, I wanted to
do as I do, which is to give my VA
fam a shout out those of y'all who have been
engaging with the podcast on YouTube, on Spotify of course,
on Apple Podcasts, the og and just say thank you
for taking the time to join the conversation. We had
(03:54):
some really funny, really like lots of comments more than
usual on some of my res sent videos from last
week's episode. If you haven't checked it out, you know
what you're waiting for. Do that and come on back.
But I want to shout out a couple of YouTubers.
My most recent interview was with the author CJ. Farley.
(04:14):
He wrote an incredible book that just came out. It's
called Who Knows You by Heart. It features a black
female protagonist, Octavia, and how she navigates a rapidly changing
tech big tech scene and how AI can be as
nefarious as we all know, and sort of the implications
it has on her career in her life. And one
(04:35):
of y'all on YouTube, we'll call it. TJ Smith on
YouTube says a while brown am vision clip on my FYP,
I scrolled to the next YouTube short and was listening
while doing other things, nodding along ingesting the info. Then
I heard the sound and instantly hit my BA dance lmao.
Looking forward to listening to the full episode. I thank
(04:58):
you so much t J. Smith. But also it's really
awkward for me to say texting shorthand like out loud,
like am I supposed to say laugh in my ass off?
Or I'm also say lmao. I don't know. It just
sounds awkward. But thank you TJ for commenting, and that's
so funny. I'm glad that our shorts are showing up
in the YouTube feed. Shout out to my wonderful VA
(05:19):
Cameron who helps me upload our content to YouTube. Couldn't
do without you. Listener Nick Nick on NYC said, Christopher
is a rock star. Thank you for this interview. Now
my other clip from my episode from last week, the
main show from last Wednesday, I talked about Trump's plan
for a fifty year mortgage, and y'all know how I feel.
(05:42):
By now y'all know how I feel about it, which
is like this is the most hair brained as nine
way of trying to quote unquote increase home ownership and
affordability in this country. It is such a dumb idea
and the Dingo Ady on YouTube said, the only way
I'd ever do a fIF your mortgage is if there
was a federal law capping the interest rate at something
(06:04):
like three percent to avoid this exact scenario, allow people
to effectively get into a house, allowing them to pay
more when they can, but without letting the bank screw
over the consumer. The Dingo Yes, I think that's actually
a great idea, Like if that would change everything, if
they said there's going to be a cap. However, why
would banks agree to that? Banks don't like that. Banks
(06:27):
don't banks barely like the fixed rate mortgage product that
they already have at just thirty year mortgage. Fixed rates
are when you know, you get a mortgage and it's
locked in at that rate for the term of the loan.
A bank hates that because what's going to happen when
interest rates start to go up, like let's say the
Fed increases rates down the line, and then you still
have a homeowner who's got you'll use your rate as
(06:51):
an example, three percent fixed. Now the bank is having
to pay because you know, when the rates go up,
savers people with money in the banks, we get paid
more from the bank. They have to pay us a
higher interest rate. Typically those rates go up, so then
you have that half of the bank. The bank is
paying its savings customers, people with money in the bank,
(07:11):
paying them more interest on their deposits. At the same time,
they're still getting the same old three percent from their homeowners.
They're borrowers, and banks don't like that. They don't like
to give more than they get. I don't know, if
you're on them. That's kind of how like capitalism work.
That's not what they like to do. But I do
like this idea, and maybe one day, but I don't
(07:32):
think this president, if this comes to me, I don't
think it's going to be this administration that would enact that.
So but thank you for the comment. And I'm actually
terrified about this fifty year mortgage becoming a thing because
I hate to say it, but The New York Times
did an entire episode this morning actually on the Daily
that was all about the fifty year mortgage, and I
was like, damn if that's sort of like mainstreaming it
(07:55):
at that point. And you know, you can argue as
you want about the relevancy and the ethical you know,
the coverage the New York Times does and whether we
should all, you know, be consuming it. But at the
same time, it is that girl when it comes to
traditional media right now, So big deal for them to
be doing a whole episode on it and legitimizing this
idea that he has. I also talked about last week
(08:18):
about the Black Friday boycott. I talked about, you know,
having those conversations with your family about, you know, how
the holidays are going to look and if you don't,
if you're not financially in a place where you can
show up the way that maybe you have in the past,
having those tough conversations and YouTube viewer listener, I'll just
call her, uh, I'll call her because her name is
(08:42):
a bunch of letters and symbols. User nine CV seven
Helping w says, I make beautiful crocheted hats and scarves,
so those will be my gifts and I will be
dumping the rest of my money into index funds while
the stock market is all read buying stock on the
cheap to be ready for the opportunities that will come
when we have our blue wave, blue heart What do
(09:06):
you call that flexing bicep emoji? Yes, okay, I love this.
Making crocheted hats and scarves and then dumping the rest
of my money into index funds while the market is
all read. Yes, we love that. I mean, whether the
market is red, black, whatever it is. You know, with
the with the guidance of you know, your holistic picture
(09:27):
of your financial situation, you know, you know what's going
on in y'all's in y'all's finance is better than I do.
But I know personally, whenever I have dump money into
the stock market, especially when I'm doing it for a
long which is how I usually invest, I'm always investing
for the long term. Anytime I've tried to invest for
the short term, your girl has fallen straight on her ass,
(09:48):
as so many of us do. All Right, the research
doesn't lie. Long term investors win. So I love that. Yes,
investing that for the long term in your case seems
to be the best bet and you can let that
money grow. Yes, And I'm just gonna cry about thinking
about all the toys and legos and party favors that
I bought for my kids that will never appreciate in
(10:09):
value and in factor at the bottom of drash sheep
right now, probably floating in our oceans, when I could
have been investing but that's not helpful thinking, isn't. No,
it's not. But I'm happy for you. And oh yeah,
some comments on my Kayla Andicle video user Amanda URS
said love Kayla Nicole and appreciated her apology. This is
(10:30):
about Kaylnicle apologizing for those tweets that she should have
had cleaned up long before. Amanda R. Says, I love
Kayla Nicole and appreciated her apology. But yeah, even as
a quote unquote nobody I cleaned up my social media.
She ate the Tony Braxton tribute so bad they had
to find something on her. Yes, she did, and she
should have known better. But since I published you know
(10:53):
my take on this whole situation, Kayla n Cole has
issued an apology, So I think that that was the
right thing to do. And I'm also going to say
that I wouldn't have had to do that if you
had had the foresight to clean up your socials as
we all should, even like miss Amanda says, the nobody's
all right. That's gonna wrap up my little comment shout outs.
(11:15):
If you have loved to comment, thank you so so much.
You can engage with our content on YouTube. You can
also leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. We didn't
get no new Apple reviews, but I would love to
have read them if we did. This is your this
is your chance and give me a reason and read
some new reviews. In the meantime, let's get into today's show.
Today I got a special best of Mashup episode featuring
(11:38):
two powerhouse guests who dropped some serious gems when they
joined me earlier this year, talking about career pivots, personal finance,
and building wealth on your own terms, which is what
brad Ambition is all about. First up, I've got Christina Mancini.
She is the CEO of Black Girl's Code, who talked
about why she left Corporate America as she had a
(11:58):
great gig at Salesforce and she left to build her
own table, not just a seep, with the whole damn table.
And then we're going to catch up with Gabrielle Gambrell,
a media executive at hash at Book Group who literally
rocked out to Michael Jackson's Human Nature in a job
interview and got hired on the spot early in her career.
(12:18):
And if you're someone whether you're in the beginning of
your career, the messy middle of your career. Like so
many of us, I know you're going to be inspired
by Gabrielle's grit and determination and just her charisma and
ability to keep pushing. It's always inspiring to me. I'm
so grateful that these two women said yes when I
invited them to the show, and I'm excited for you
(12:39):
to get to look back. So, without further ado, let's
kick it off with the conversation around why these two
women made bold career moves when everyone else thought that
they were crazy, and how they figured out why betting
on yourself is often the best investment you can make.
I want to start there. Can you tell be a
fam a little but about your decision to leave corporate
(13:01):
You were a big batty in tech at Salesforce and
now you're running a nonprofit. So talk to me, talk
to us a little bit about that decision and what
brought you to Black Girls Code.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Absolutely, I did have a wonderful career. I started my
career in media and television. I transitioned into technology. You know.
I was at summer camp last week in Atlanta and
Representative Kim Schofield was speaking to our girls, and one
of the girls asked her why did she get into politics?
And she said she wanted to make sure that people
(13:32):
without a always had a voice. And I think that
that really sums up why I wanted to get into technology.
I did not come up through the traditional educator channels
for this line of work. I came through corporate and
I was in the rooms that I want to get.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Our participants into.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And so I come with that intention, like what are
the things I wish I.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Knew then that I know now?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
And what are the things that I was trying to
solve for at one company that I can now solve
for at scale?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And so that's why I'm here.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I want to inspire, educate, and launch these girls into
these big jobs at tech so that they can save
us all.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that that is why
you started this podcast.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
It's pretty similar. Yeah, I mean also, I was bored.
I was.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I was bored.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
No, not bored as in like I have nothing to do,
bored as in surrounded by people who didn't look like
me every day. And I was also in media covering
personal finance, and I wanted to I wanted to feel
the energy, giddiness, the excitement there wasn't a lot of
that excitement in like doing it for a cause. Maybe
I was a little bit of a bleeding heart at
(14:49):
the time. And I met my co host at the time, Tiffany,
at a conference, and we had such We were both
so equally passionate about doing this work and really closing
the racial wealth gap and talking to when of color,
and I just didn't get that where I was working
at Yahoo Finance at the time. So for me, this
was an outlet. It was an outlet and a place
to take all my enthusiasm. And at the same time,
now it's been ten years and I have chosen to
(15:11):
keep doing it again and again. I've left corporate. I
left corporate back in twenty twenty one. And definitely my
why now is because you know, I was going to
ask while you were speaking, I was going to ask
you Sometimes there's a bit of a pressure on women
of color when we reach these high rankings in corporate America,
like stay there, we need you representation, da da da.
(15:32):
But at the same time, and I did feel that
way because when I was in corporate, I wasn't as
senior level as you were, but I was making hiring
decisions I was hiring. I hired a team of forty
and you know, I really wanted to make sure that
they were diverse and that little bit of power and responsibility.
It took it very seriously and it was a privilege
and some power. That being said, I wanted to get
(15:54):
your take on that and your answer to anyone who
may say, but we need you when corporate.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I think that we need a whole bunch of us
in corporate. And I was doing this work off the
side of my desk for many years.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
You know, I launched multiple programs.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Even when I was in film, and then also when
I was at Salesforce. And at Salesforce, I launched our
make Change series are leading through Change series, trying to
motivate people to think different about using their platform to
affect change and instead of just going to work every
day and thinking like, oh, I got to tick all
these boxes in my playbook, Like what if you thought
(16:32):
about how you could use the space and influence you
have to affect change. And so there's this incredible pressure
when you as you rise through the ranks in corporate,
when you get to the spaces where you are, in
fact the only one to create space for others, and
it is the right type of pressure.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
But for me, I couldn't get enough people at the table.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I wanted to actually encourage us to start building our
own tables, and so, yes, I suffered that pressure. It's
the pressure of wanting to mentor and sponsor everybody while
you still have your regular day job. And I think
that's a really interesting conversation in itself around thinking through
what is mentorship versus sponsorship. Everybody wants mentorship, but it
(17:17):
presents itself in different ways.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
For me, I'm not super chatty.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I'm going to go straight to action items, and so
I think I am a better sponsor. But in order
to be a good sponsor and find the right sponsors,
you need to really think about what your value proposition is,
and you know, start thinking about who's your mentor that
you have coffee with and you want to have small
talk with, and who's your sponsor who's going to be
(17:42):
in the room. I used to say, you know, fighting
for you in rooms where you're not and now where
we are right now, which is an epidemic of no
black women in tech, I would say it is fighting
to make sure that you yourself are in the room
to present your own projects so that you can accelerate
your career.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Okay, you said, you said so much there. I have
a lot of respect for anyone who's clear on what
they what they're able to offer. I've read a group
coaching community called the Mandy money Makers, and one of
my makers last week, she's incredible networking and she'll she'll
send an email, but she'll meet up and she'll meet
up with people in person and then keep the relationship
going via email. And she had said how someone that
(18:20):
she was reaching out to or hoping to get some
advice on breaking into this new field had posted on
LinkedIn this post that was like, we're being inundated by
mentorship and advice emails and virtual one on ones and
we can't do it all. I hope you guys understand
if we don't get back to you, this is why.
And part of me as a coach, I'm just like, oh,
that's kind of a shame, because you hope people will
have the bandwidth. At the same time, I respect a boundary, right,
(18:43):
and I think what you're really vocalizing what a lot
of the few of us that do make it to
the top can feel a bit overwhelmed by the pull
back to look back and bring others forward while trying
to like survive, survive where we are one of the
few only differents, you know, make sure that we our
asses don't get let go because our margin of error
(19:03):
is like super duper raised or things like.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
This big magnifying class on you already you can't make any.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Mistakes, exactly, it feels, or so it feels.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, I just wanted to acknowledge that and just say
that that is completely fair. At the same time, you
do offer this window of saying, here's what I can do. Yes,
I can have a list of batties that I know
I can support, you know, and how does someone get
on your sponsorship list? How do we can sponsor?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, I like how you position that because I feel
like I'm curating a massive pipeline of batties at Black
Girl's Code, you know. I was at Salesforce. I met
incredible leaders there, and when I came over to Black
Girl's Code, it was October of twenty twenty three, and
I remember being just blown away by the level of
(19:53):
talent that I could see in our participants that were
in these programs. And that was the to it was
actually part of my interview was that I wanted to
expand the age range black girls. COVID was already participating
in colleges and careers as so much as like how
to talk to a recruiter, how to articulate your value proposition,
and they're still crushing it and we're still doing it,
(20:14):
and we're building out how to show up at more
college campuses. But I really wanted to introduce more technical
training as well, and I wanted to support our communities
beyond college, and that was the workforce development expansion.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
You know, it's funny because as.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You think about women and women of color in corporate
you should assume that if someone is making it up
through the rings, that they're a total baddie because they
are going. But I'm saying that as I say, you know,
someone as be like for some newsletter, like what do
I wish people would understand or think about or consider?
(20:55):
And it is, you know, this sense of as we're
talking about this not celebrating resilience.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
What I would actually love is if.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
When we talk about women of color that we don't
have that adjective celebrated when it's connected with us, right,
so strong wouldn't you rather work at a place where
you were just celebrated for being innovative, brilliant, creative, but
not resilient.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Work shouldn't be a battleground.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, exactly. I've talked to us before. When I'm talking
to usually white men in my space, so podcasting, so
this could be like one of my one from my
network for example. So these are corporate spaces. I'm a
podcast so I all talk to white dudes occasionally and
fortunately not always, because I get to do this work
and there's usually a there often is a point when
(21:46):
they try to connect with me on their struggle story,
you know, Like I mean, I could tell you, sure
do I have some do I have some challenges, but
like I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Like
I wasn't starving, I wasn't poor, and like you know
all that, and but that does get to be a
little bit tiresome that you you feel like people want
(22:09):
they want to feel better about themselves for somehow rescuing you,
for giving you a chance.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
No, you still would have been in the streets if
it weren't promotion.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
I hate that, man, I hate that so much.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I hate especially in tech.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It was my biggest back, Like this, this tiresome trope
of rags to riches. I did not come from rags.
I had a great background and that's my story. And
if it's not your story, you don't owe anyone that story.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
I hate.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
There's this book What We Build with Power that I love,
and in it he talks about this concept of feeling
the need to sell trauma for access. It starts around
high school when you're doing your scholarships, Like.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, yes, I really struggle with my college essay.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
I was like, I have a good family.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I don't know what to tell you, but if you don't,
it's still not their business. I was speaking at Princeton
and I had a mom like, we had some Jack
and Jill students come and listen, and some of our
BGC community, which always makes me happy, came up from
(23:22):
the city to listen to me speak. And one of
the moms of the high school kids said, well, if
I don't talk about her resilience, how does she differentiate herself?
Speaker 1 (23:36):
So her excellence.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
So if we're not taught early how to articulate, it's
not bragging, not bragging. I know that I'm very intelligent,
I know that I'm very creative. I know that I
am a visionary executive, So I don't feel the need
to humble myself when I'm talking about what my skill
set is. If you're hiring me, you know why you're
(24:00):
hiring me. It's not for any of my past. It's
none of your business, honestly, and so I want our
girls to learn that it's none of our business.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
You choose who deserves to hear your story, not the
other way around. I've seen it.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I've been at keynotes where the sad story comes on.
Someone reaches out to the person who is featured and
they're like, tear, You're so strong, and you get like
a little check for your charity, and that's it.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
That's not what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I'm talking about, how do we set you up for
success and advance you in your career or set yourself
up so that you can be an entrepreneur and people
are buying the things that you create, not.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Your past, not your trauma.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
That's why I love this work, going back to like
my first camp that I went to, when I saw
these little girls coding and making something new, move that
didn't move before. Watch the light bulb turn on and
the joy. That's what we sell, that's what we talk about.
(25:07):
That's you know, in this AI moment where everybody's talking
about AI and this great hype cycle, the very things
that make us different and differentiate us from machines is
our imagination, our creativity, our critical thinking. Those are the
things we need to nurture. Those are the things we
need to talk about, just like everybody else.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, and I think too, just seeing the girls see
each other in that context, like I just imagine I
want to go to one of these camps and.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Just personally, we just just that the camps in Atlanta,
and I just was like man, being around each other
in a safe space. That's we This centers that we're
building out in Inglewood, California are for that. I think
what we're missing is a town square. We're missing these
(25:54):
third spaces where we can gather and learn together. It
gives me infinite joy to participate in it. Spend a
lot of time on the road speaking and meeting with partners,
but I reserve the right when I feel depleted of
energy to go spend time with our learners. It is incredible,
and you have to come with me to one of them.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I insist.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I you know, as you're speaking, I'm thinking about the
way that I look at my children. I have two
little boys, they're five and two, and I look at
them as a reprieve from all the stuff, Like I'll
get on the floor build some legos, and it's the
sort of meditation. It's like it takes you out of
this even this morning, you know, And I know you
must feel this way, or maybe you don't because you've
(26:38):
been You're much more, you know, so much more wisdom
and time, you know, in a high but truly, like
you know, I consider you to you have more experience
coping with all the things. But some mornings I wake
up and it's just it's it's suffocating. How many different
feelings and emotions and things to do and like that
are tugging you in all these different directions. And my
(26:58):
kids are at camp in school right now, so I
don't have them. I can't. I could build a lego
by myself, I guess, But anyway, I did a little
meditation instead. That having the kids there is so nice,
and I love that you are staying grounded in the girls.
You know that y'all are working with that so talk
to me about For those who may not know NBA fan,
we've heard of Black Girl's Code. We know that you
(27:20):
know you're on this mission to get a million girls
in tech, black girls in Tech by year twenty forty.
Such a huge, amazing goal. And I know that you're
planning new things and expansions, but can you break down
what exactly the structure of Black Girl's Code is today?
If someone wants to learn more, get their girls involved,
get themselves involved as a parent, to help you get
(27:41):
to that million, that million number.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It's a great honor to lead this organization. The organization
was founded in twenty and eleven, truly visionary at the time.
You know, at the time there was not a lot
of these programs out there, and so when I came
in twenty twenty three, my focus was again to launch.
So there's always been this access, inspiration, education, but I
(28:10):
wanted to connect it to results.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
A quick way to get grounded.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
In what we are doing right now is we AREBGC
dot Org is our website, and parents can sign their
kids up for upcoming programs. We are in the last
quarter of thirteen summer camps that we've been running all
summer shout out to my BGC team. They have been
literally nationwide all over the place, including in Puerto Rico.
(28:36):
We have our summer camp coming up right now next
week in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
These like week long, couple weeks long.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
It depends like they We've been testing different lengths, so
some are one week, two week, and some are four weeks.
I think we're landing somewhere around the two week is
the optimum length, and we stay connected through the year
with additional pop ups and emerge programming that is again nationwide.
(29:04):
We have ongoing free YouTube programming with this series called
Code Along, and the streamer Kilani Jules just won the
Young Artist Award for Host of a Streaming Series for
our Code Along Juniors, so we're really proud of her.
That YouTube series has reached over eight million views and
(29:28):
it is a great introduction to code if you cannot
get to one of our live experiences. But we try
to get around the nation as much as possible to
inspire and engage with as many potential students and bring
them into the BGC family. We've also been working really
hard to activate our alumni and bring them back into
(29:49):
the full A lot of them are now teachers assistants.
They've been supporting us in our summer camps and also
with our virtual programs. So we have quite a bit
going on, but I think we need to do even more.
The way that there's this mass exodus of people of
color from tech is really worrisome for me.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Heyba, fam, we got to take a quick break, pay
some bills, and we'll be right back. So I want
you to talk about your career, but I also want
to talk about your badass origin story. Where did you
build that confidence and just the way that you approach
your career, which is so head on, fearless and like
(30:33):
a straight shooter to the point you're going to look
at opportunities, You're going to do things fast and make
like big decisions.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Well, thank you for saying all those kind things. I
think a huge part of who I am today and
how I navigate spaces and how I show up has
to do with the fact that I am from Los Angeles, California,
and one of the greatest cities in the world, and
growing up in Los Angeles, you see a lot of prosperity.
I actually come from humble beginnings, but because you're surrounded
(30:59):
by all the luxurious things, and luxury I always grew
up like, how was that obtainable? If they have it,
that means I can have it too. So how do
I put myself in the position knowing I don't come
from a lot. I come from a highly educated family.
I'm a fourth generation college graduate. I don't take that
lightly as a black woman. My great grandparents attended HBCUs
(31:20):
because they couldn't attend elsewhere, and so a lot of
my ambition comes from being from Los Angeles. And then
I will say my parents are both pretty much go getters.
They get things done, they make things happen, as well
as my godmother who raised me, my late godmother, who
my daughter is named after. So I look at my grandparents.
My grandmother Black Women, born nineteen twelve, one of the
(31:41):
first black women to graduate from Smith College, went on
to get several degrees from Eastern Michigan University, Howard University.
She met my grandfather Howard University alum. He attended Howard
and medical school. So I always looked at them and
saw their accomplishments, their goals. And my grandfather went to
medical school, but yet he was season fashion designer. He
(32:01):
designed clothes for the Jackson Five and the Supremes and
Sammy Davis Junior and so many great black musicians. So
I look at a lot of the things they accomplished,
and I knew very early on that I could be
whatever my heart desired.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
That's incredible. I didn't know that about your great grandfather.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, my great watched the met did that?
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Did he pass that?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well?
Speaker 1 (32:22):
I don't know if you ever got to meet him
great grandfather.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
No, my grandfather, my grandfather, I met your grandfather or yep, yep.
My dad is the youngest of five kids. So my
grandmother had my dad at fifty five zero. So my
grandparents are much older. They're no longer, of course, but
that was a work that was absolutely positively. They were like, wait, huh,
come again on what? So my grandmother was born in
(32:46):
nineteen twelve, my dad's mother, and my grandfather was born
in nineteen seventeen and Augusta, Georgia, so that Georgia connection,
and so fashion has always been a huge part of
my upbringing. My parents used to hold fashion shows for
those in the Los Angeles community. My dad is the
best dressed guy I've ever seen. He thrust us up
to go to the grocery store, from head to toe accessories.
(33:08):
Like he cares very much about fashion. Every time he
comes in town from Los Angeles, first thing he does
is like, let's look at your closet and see.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
What's going on.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
So all of a Suddings really helped to shape you know,
who I am and how I show up in the world.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Dang, I wish I had a fashion I mean, like,
I love my parents, but it was giving. We shop
at Ross dress for Less. We shot at you know Sears.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Listen, we shop at Ross. We love Ross. But I'm
not the most patient person. It's something that I'm working on.
It's a room for improvement for me, growth opportunity. But
my parents will find some jewels and Ross. They go
to the thrift stores. My cousin had a thrift store
at one point, so they are very patient shoppers. I
love Ross. I wish we had it in New York.
(33:48):
You know, Marshall's is by our house. I go to
Marshall's all the time TJ Max, which is super close
to our house. But I got to work on my
patients while I'm there because I'm like, I don't say
anything and I just leave.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
But the way that you present yourself. It is something
that I admire. You will do the color coordinated family
photo shoot and I just like I saw you were
featured in Munamammy. How you say it? Munamomy? They did
a story when it was Gigi, your daughter's first birthday
and birthday. Yeah, you got both Jeffreys decked out in
the pink gotband. Husband is in the pink cable net sweater.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yes, yes, yes points.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
How does that presentation factor into your career? How has
it factored into your career? Do you think it's something
that you use like as armor. Does it help or
is it just you know, it's just something that you've always,
based on your childhood, innately cared about.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
That's a great question. I actually had a conversation recently
with someone so talking a little bit about my career.
I interned at WABC Disney ABC on a show that
was at one point Live A Regis and Kelly, which
is now Live with Kelly and markham Swellows. And from ABC,
I went to Paaramott CBS. I was there for seven years,
then I went over right here at NBC Universal. I
worked for Comcast NBC and so working in television work
(35:00):
and broadcasts. You're surrounded by beautiful, theo looking people. You're
surrounded by best stressed. There's a time where I was
working at NBC and my pockets weren't like that, but
a lot of people during lunch breaks were going to
shop on Fifth Avenue and get outfits. So I think
because I've worked in careers that are kind of fancy,
if you will, or honestly, and I tell my mentees.
(35:21):
I teach at Columbia University, I teach at NYU. I
tell my students, my mentees that in certain industries, how
you show up can dictate your success. In media and entertainment.
I'm very proud to work in media. I'm very proud
to work in entertainment. But a lot of it is
based on visuals, and that's just the fact of the
industry that a lot of people are very judgy or
(35:41):
it's like, oh, you know that girl who's always dressed
really nice? Are the one whose face is always done
and those types of things. So I think my life
being from Los Angeles, my family as well as my
career trajectory has impacted kind of how I show up
and doing the little family photos. My goal is that
my children look back. My daughter will look back at
her first birthday and say, oh, look at my family,
(36:02):
they all dressed in pink, my favorite color for my birthday,
or just having those really special moments to look back
to and smile.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you remember, but
you're the one who sent me the link to like
this family photographer who was doing baby newborn baby photo shoots. Yeah,
and that's the only way I ever got like the
beautiful family photos of like the newborn photos of my boy.
And I wouldn't have even thought to look that person
up if it weren't for you. So I feel like
being in your presence, I am elevating my You're.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
Too kind of, You're too kind of. Those are some
beautiful photos, though, gorgeous photos.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Oh it's okay, and I have them forever and yeah,
very precious all right. Career, so you are a maven.
Like if you look up that phrase in the dictionary,
if it even is in there, I would see your face.
And I know that you're in publishing now. But for you,
like just the communications career, that's always been the focus, right, Yeah,
can you talk about the early career moves you made
(36:56):
that felt really instrumental to getting you to where you
are now.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah, so I would take it all the way back
to high school. Two pivotal things happen in high school.
I attended Pacific Palisades Charter High School. So my high school,
we all know what happened in the Palisades area. Gosh, yeah,
so he was burned it did. But I believe, I'm
on a bunch of alumni boards that there are a
lot of individuals in the community. They're working. I think
we may even be working out of the schools, may
(37:21):
now be in Santa Monica for the time being, but
I feel very confident it'll be back before we know it. So,
while I was at Palisades, I've always liked English, always
liked writing. There's always that one teacher that has a
huge impact on you. My English tenth grade honors English teacher,
mister Dan Zinger, was like, you're a great writer. You've
got to get the gap. And I was like, do
(37:42):
I have to get the gap? And he's like, yeah,
your pearers appropriately named you. And that kind of stuck
with me. And so in high school, eleventh grade, I
became editor in chief of the school newspaper, the tideline.
My journalism teacher. He was over it. He was about
to graduate. He's like, listen, you're smart. You're editor in
chief of the paper. Grade the class. Everyone grades. No
way a fifteen year old. I was fifteen. I graduate
(38:03):
high school. I seventeen. I was fifteen and eleventh grade,
sixteen or seventeen senior year. A fifteen year old should
not be responsible for people's grades and how they go
to college. And I was signing articles, I was grading,
and I was in the system putting their grades in.
During that time in high school, I learned that I
loved writing. I love storytelling. I love journalism and media.
And I also learned I loved teaching. I was in
(38:24):
front of the classroom and editing stories and signing stories,
talking about pop culture. And so my undergraduate degree is
in broadcasting. It's in journalism. And so I actually wanted
to be on air, and then I realized I'm kind
of shy, believe.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
It or not.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
And so then I was like, Okay, I'll be a
TV producer. And so when I was working at ABC,
I was working in production. I was working in talent relations,
working with the stars that are coming on the show.
On ABC's Live Regis and Kelly, and I was helping
to produce segments and then, being very honest, I graduated
with honors, had a three point nine GPA, and I
was making minimum wage because typically when you start in
(39:01):
television production, you start as a production assistant. And at
that time, in two thousand and seven, I think it
was like seven dollars an hour, and seven dollars an
hour is not enough to live comfortably in New York City.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Not at all moving at that time, Like how were
you making?
Speaker 4 (39:15):
I was sharing, I was renting a room with roommates,
so I don't know, I was paying like seven hundred
dollars a month. I had a car, I had school loans.
I have my master's, but I graduated with one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars in school loans. And so in
high school. Also, so in high school, I was editor
in chief of the newspaper. I worked at a law
(39:36):
firm filing papers, and I worked at the mall. So
in high school, I also had three jobs. My entire
college career had three jobs, and right now I have
three jobs. So that's like something else too. I'm always
working all the time, and so anyways, I couldn't afford
to live. I was struggling. I was babysitting, I was
a waitress. I was working at a country club in Newroschelle,
New York, Wika Gail country Club. And I was like,
(39:56):
I didn't go to college. You graduate with a three
point nine to be struggling. It's amazing at Disney ABC.
What a dream. This is your dream that you get
hired after your internship. But I touched based on one
of my mentors, and I was very honest and I said,
I am financially struggling. I only make minimum wage. And
he said, come over to CBS, come my assistant. You'll
make thirty thousand dollars a year. And girl, I thought
thirty thousand. I was like, oh my god, I'm going
(40:17):
to make thirty thousand dollars and I would have benefit
something I didn't have working in production. So I made
the pivot from Disney ABC to CBS Corporation. Actually I'm
a sales assistant.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
A mentor.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Just to interrupt, which I know I'm gonna need to
because I know you, I'm gonna you know me. You
get in there, you got me pause, let's double click
on that. So the mentor because that is pivotal, and
I hope people are understanding that it was a relationship.
You're really good at like building these relationships. Yes, where
did you Where did you meet that mentor? And that's yeah,
(40:50):
how did that help you?
Speaker 4 (40:52):
Sou senior year of college, Iona University, where I'm happy
to serve on the board, Go Gills. Iona had to
meet a career mentor night and so they had different
individuals alumni who are working in the industry, and I
went above and beyond that. I went to my career
services office and I said, please give me a list
of every single alumni who work in entertainment, who work
(41:13):
in television, who work in film, who work in sports,
and it was thousands of people. I emailed each and
every person.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Aba, fam, We're going to take a quick break, pay
some bills, and we'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Really yes. And so one of the individuals who I
emailed was at the career mentor event and he's like,
let's meet in person. I'm going to actually be on
campus and so I met him. His name is Martin
Daily and he's from the Bronx and he was executive
vice president of network Sales at CBS, and so that's
who I called, and I was just very honest and said,
(41:51):
I'm financially struggling. I'm at Disney ABC. He said, come
over be my assistant, and so I went over as
a sales assistant. I have no desire to work in sales.
I don't like numbers. I'm a storyteller. I was literally
entering numbers and Excel all day long, praying to God
to get me out of it. And so again he
was my mentor and he was my boss, and he
(42:11):
said listen. Simultaneously, I was in college getting my masters
in sports at Entertainment pr because I realized the TV
production thing isn't going to work out. And it's interesting
because those I interned with, those who I was a
production assistant with, they are all executive producers. Now I
have friends with executive producers at Tamern Hall. I have
friends who all I worked with executive producers at Conde
Nass GQ, and so they most of them their parents
(42:34):
helped them out financially or they had a little bit
of a cushion and help to live off of that
seven dollars an hour, which wasn't the case for me.
So while I was at CBS. My mentor said, Hey,
just start meeting people. Tell them you're in grad school.
Start volunteering with different people at CBS. And I'm like,
what okay, And so my goal was I went on
(42:55):
a spree of meeting senior executives VPR above SVP EVP,
and so my goal was each person you meet with,
impress them, google them, talk about them, talk about the
career trajectory, how like, oh my gosh, she does these
amazing things. Tell me about yourself. I learned being from
LA that everyone likes talking about themselves. Everyone wants an
(43:15):
opportunity to feel like a celebrity.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
It was like, you put it on the podcast because
that's literally what I'm like, Wow, not too much on
what I do the secret sauce.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
Yeah. Everyone likes the opportunity a platform to talk about themselves.
So when I was at CBS, I went on a
road show. It was a domino effect. Everyone I met
with was really impressed. Eventually I met with the EVP
Chief Communications officer at CBS and the head of HR
who I met with prior said I'm gonna warn you.
Bill Schwartz has a reputation of being no nonsense. People
(43:45):
are terrified of him. There's books written about him, even
a movie, and so she's like, come correct when you
meet with him? And I was like, okay, how would
you get a meeting with him?
Speaker 3 (43:53):
You just email this.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
I just kept I kept no, I got a referral.
So as I started meeting with VP SVP, EVP, eventually
every person it was a ripple effect. Every person was like, Hey,
I just met this young lady, got Brielle Simpson at
the time. She's amazing, she's ambitious, she's in graduate school
to do PR. She's a sales assistant right now. She
doesn't want to be a sales assistant. Can you just
(44:15):
meet with her? And I only met with these people
for five to ten minutes because very busy people are
not they don't have a bunch of time. But in
that ten minutes, I talked about how amazing their career was.
I kissed up to them a little bit, and then
they're like, Okay, here's somebody else I want you to meet.
My goal and attention of every meeting I had was
for them to introduce me to someone else senior. So
now I'm just making a network of senior executives within
(44:39):
the company. Eventually I was referred to speak to the
head of chard, chief human resources officer, who said, what
do you want to do. You're a sales assistant. I
was twenty one at the time, because I graduated college
at twenty years old. I was twenty one and I said,
I'm in school getting my master's in PR. I want
to do PR. She said, okay, I'm going to introduce
you to Gil Schwartz. So the head of hl I
(45:00):
sent an email to the chief communications officer and said, Hey,
there's this young lady. She's super ambitious. I want you
to meet her. I know you don't have anything open
on your team, go be with her. So talk about
being emotionally intelligent and reading the room. I came in
my best suit. I was suited and booted, pinstriped suited,
and I had my portfolio. I had my resume, I
(45:20):
had writing samples from stuff I worked on in grad school.
And it was a few days after Michael Jackson died
and Gil Schwartz he had a lot of guitars in
his office. So I walked in and I said, Hi,
I'm Gabrielle. I'm so excited to meet you, and I
have my resume here. I know you're so busy. I
won't take up too much of your time. And he says,
sit down. He said, do you know Michael Jackson was murdered?
(45:42):
And it was just a few days later, and I
was like, I don't think Michael Jackson was murdered. I
think he died and something. He was like, it's going
to come out that Michael Jackson was murdered and someone's
going to go to jailbur and I was like, okay.
So he picks up his guitar. He starts playing like
human Nature and then I just started buying it out
a little bit, trying to hold a note. Guy why
white guy, Gil Schwartz, Jewish Man Okay? And we're like,
(46:04):
tell me, it's just young man nature. Why why right?
And so we're just jamming out and then at the
end of it, he's like, you want a job, right,
And I was like I would love a job. He's like, okay, done,
And I said, do you want to look at my resume?
Do you want to look at my portfolio? He said,
are you smart? I said yes. He said will you
work hard? I said yes. He's like, okay, I'll find
a job. For you. I'll make a job for you.
And that's how I came to the PR team at
(46:25):
CBS and I was there for seven years. We've done
everything from the Super Bowls, the Grammys, two and a
half men, How I met your mother, sent of interests
with Tarajip Hitson sixty minutes. So that like being able
to just read the room and vibe out with this guy.
And we later found out that Conrad Burray went to
jail for murdering Michael Jackson, which at the time, he
(46:47):
was just yeah, careful.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Because my like quasi adhd brain undiagnosed, I might go
down that little that little path.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
But let's just tell that that was the thing, right.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
But Gale or Bill Gail Gil.
Speaker 4 (47:00):
Shorts, he passed away a few years ago. He's actually
from Westchester. He's from New Rochelle named skill Gil Schwartz. Yeah,
so a job was creative for me and that's how
I finally got my pivot into CBS PR team and
I was there for seven years. And then during that time,
like just being able to take advantage of opportunities. There
(47:20):
was a lot of conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion,
and Gil called me in his office one day. I said, Gabby,
you're black. I said yes. He said, people keep asking
about diversity and stuff. You care about that, right, I said, yes, Skill,
I care very much. He said, come up with a
deiicom strategy and figure it out. Give us some press
talk about how we care about diversity and talk about
our diverse staff and our diverse talent. And I was like, okay,
(47:42):
So I did that. Led Diversity Communications, came up with
a DEI plan, got a ton of pr hits for
the chief diversity officer who's now by mentor you're retired, right, Oh, yeah,
so we need to be talking. We must be talking
two thousand and nine, twenty ten, a long time ago.
And then that caught the eye of Comcast.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
The same age, because because.
Speaker 4 (48:07):
I graduated college so early, we're the same age. I'm
only like a month older than you, I know, But like, how.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
But I was like figuring my shit out in two
thousand and nine, trying to get a job after college. Meanwhile,
you're just like in the c suite, you know, chatting
with the head of comms for a CBS.
Speaker 4 (48:24):
Okay, Gabriel, I tried. I tried, and it worked out,
and so comcasts. NBC said hey, we need some diversity help.
Can you come over and lead our diversity comms? So
then I left, went right there to thirty rock.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
On the network. So you quit?
Speaker 4 (48:40):
Yep, yep, I quit?
Speaker 1 (48:41):
Okay, how did that go?
Speaker 4 (48:43):
It was interesting because I went to my boss at
the time and I said, hey, NBC reached out to me.
They slid in my DMS on LinkedIn and they have
an opportunity to be a director of Diversity Communications dual
report into their chief of Comms and their chief diversity officer.
And I think it's a great opportunity at Disney ABC.
I've worked at CBS and now I can work at NBC.
(49:04):
And I was like twenty six years old at the time,
and my boss said, don't do it. You're not going
to like it over there. Stay here. What do we
need to do to make you stay? And I said,
I don't even think. I think it's more about the
opportunity to do something different. I've been here for seven
years and I think I just want to do something different.
And he said, listen, one day you will have my job.
Just stay here. It's going to take you twenty years.
(49:26):
We'll have my job. One day and I was young.
I was like, I would have wait twenty years, Like
I just would have That's not would've tried to do.
And so we kept in contact. I left. I went
over to NBC, which is how I know Chris Nelson.
Christopher Nelson worked at NBC with me, so that's how
we met. And then I was there for three years.
I did some other things after that. After that, I
(49:46):
went to IPG FCB Global, which is a marketing advertising agency.
I reported into the Chief of comm Chief marketing Officer.
It was amazing. I was twenty seven, twenty eight thirty
by the time I got there, and I was traveling
the world.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
All right, ba, fam, Can we just take a moment
to appreciate the brilliance that we just heard. Thank you
again to Christina and Gabrielle. They really gave us the
blueprint for paving our own path and not waiting for
anyone else's permission, which is the inspiration that I think
we really need right now. And if you got nothing
else from today's episode, I just hope that you heard this.
You don't need permission to build your own table, and
(50:27):
you don't need to sell your struggle to prove you belong.
You absolutely can bet on yourself. I don't care what
people think about you, whether they think that you're crazy
or irresponsible, or you know, doing things that don't make
sense to them. It's none of their business. As Tabatha
Brown would say, it's whether you're thinking about a career pivot,
you're trying to figure out how to build wealth while
(50:49):
actually enjoying your life, or you just need a reminder
that your story is yours to tell on your terms.
This episode was for you. Be a fam all right.
Resonated with you. Please do me a favor, Share it
with someone who needs to hear it. Tag Brown Ambition
on social media, leave us a review, let us know
which moment really hit home for you. I love hearing
(51:10):
from you always, Bafam and I have to say happy
happy holidays that are coming. Next week's going to be
a normal one for Brown Ambition. We're going to be
on the air. I'll see you on Friday this Friday
for Baq and A. I'll see you Sunday for the
Washday wou saw. Next week, I've got a special episode
of Brown Ambition Nerd Whallet crossover episode on the Wednesday
(51:32):
before Thanksgiving and then we'll have a little bit of
a throwback for that following weekend with Baqa and Washday
wou Saws. Just trying to be sure that I'm there
for y'all through this holiday season. If there's anything that
you want to hear or you have questions for the show,
don't hesitate to reach out. You can hit me up
Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com or find me
(51:52):
on ig at Brown Ambition Podcast and just slide into
my DMS. I can't wait to hear from y'all. All right,
take Fam, bye, Hey, ba Fam. Let's be real for
a second, and y'all know I keep it a book.
The job market has been brutal, now not brutal trash,
(52:14):
especially for women of color. Over three hundred thousand of
us have disappeared from the workforce this year alone, and
not by choice, but because of layoffs, disappearing DEI programs,
and stagnant wages that keep cutting us out of opportunity.
Our unemployment rate has jumped to over seven percent while
our pay gap continues to widen. I know all of
(52:36):
that sounds dire, but here's what I want y'all to know.
You do not have to wait for the system to
save you. That's exactly why I created the Mandy money
Makers Group coaching community. It is a coaching community that
is built for us by us. Inside the community, we're
not just talking about how to negotiate or to how
to get the job that you want. It's about finding
(52:57):
purpose in your career. It's about finding community and others,
feeling seen, feeling heard, and also having a sounding board
and a mirror to reflect your own magic, your own
sparkle right back to yourself. In this community, you'll get
group coaching led by me, but you also get peer
to peer accountability with proven tools and resources that can
(53:19):
help you do what we have always done since rise.
Even when the odds are stacked against us, despite all
the challenges, we will rise. If you're interested in joining
the Mandy money Makers community and having that support to
bolster you and help you tap back into your magic
so that you can lead your career with intention and
(53:40):
heart and your own intuition, trusting that again, please join us.
You can find information in the show notes of today's
episodes or go to mandymoney dot com slash community. That's
Mandy m ndimney dot com slash community. I would love
to see y'all there. Enrollment is open, so please go
(54:02):
check out mandymoney dot com slash community today
Hey, ba fam, let's be real for a second, and
y'all know I keep it a book. The job market
has been brutal, now not brutal trash, especially for women
of color. Over three hundred thousand of us have disappeared
from the workforce this year alone, and not by choice,
but because of layoffs, disappearing DEI programs, and stagnant wages
(00:20):
that keep cutting us out of opportunity. Our unemployment rate
has jumped to over seven percent, while our pay gap
continues to widen. I know all of that sounds dire,
but here's what I want y'all to know. You do
not have to wait for the system to save you.
That's exactly why I created the Mandy money Makers Group
coaching community. It is a coaching community that is built
(00:41):
for us by us. Inside the community, we're not just
talking about how to negotiate or to how to get
the job that you want. It's about finding purpose in
your career. It's about finding communities and others, feeling seen,
feeling heard, and also having a sounding board and a
mirror to reflect your own magic, your own sparkle right
(01:03):
back to yourself. In this community, you'll get group coaching
led by me, but you also get peer to peer
accountability with proven tools and resources that can help you
do what we have always done since rise. Even when
the odds are stacked against us, despite all the challenges,
we will rise. If you're interested in joining the Mandy
(01:24):
money Makers community and having that support to bolster you
and help you tap back into your magic so that
you can lead your career with intention and heart and
your own intuition, trusting that again, please join us. You
can find information in the show notes of today's episodes
or go to mandymoney dot com slash community. That's Mandy
(01:47):
m A n d I money dot com slash community.
I would love to see y'all there. Enrollment is open,
so please go check out mandymoney dot com slash community today. Hey,
ba fam, how's it going? Welcome back to the show.
(02:08):
This is Brown Ambition For those of y'all who are
new here. My name is Mandy woodri Off Santos aka
Vandy Money. I am your ever grateful, ever present host,
and I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you
for spending some time with me. Thank you for spending
this time with yourself, giving yourself a little bit of
time to think about what's happening in the world where
(02:29):
you're at with your financial and your professional goals, and
being kind enough to invite me in along for the
journey with y'all. Today, I've got a special episode for y'all.
I'm going to be doing what I'm calling the BA
Best of c Suite Edition, taking a look back at
a couple of my favorite interviews over the past year.
One with the chief marketing officer of one of the
(02:52):
biggest publishing houses in the world, Gabrielle Gambrel from Hashet
slash Grand Central Publishing. We've also got the CEO of
Black Girl's Code, Christina Mancini. This had to definitely was
one of my top top top interviews. Both of these
women extraordinary, have risen through the ranks to take up
(03:12):
space in rare, rare air for women of color, and
they are doing it with class and with gusto and
a level of energy and inspiration still even advanced as
they are in their careers, and I'm excited for y'all.
If you've whether you've heard these before or it's your
(03:32):
first time catching up on these, you are in for
a treat. But before I get there, I wanted to
do as I do, which is to give my VA
fam a shout out those of y'all who have been
engaging with the podcast on YouTube, on Spotify of course,
on Apple Podcasts, the og and just say thank you
for taking the time to join the conversation. We had
(03:54):
some really funny, really like lots of comments more than
usual on some of my res sent videos from last
week's episode. If you haven't checked it out, you know
what you're waiting for. Do that and come on back.
But I want to shout out a couple of YouTubers.
My most recent interview was with the author CJ. Farley.
(04:14):
He wrote an incredible book that just came out. It's
called Who Knows You by Heart. It features a black
female protagonist, Octavia, and how she navigates a rapidly changing
tech big tech scene and how AI can be as
nefarious as we all know, and sort of the implications
it has on her career in her life. And one
(04:35):
of y'all on YouTube, we'll call it. TJ Smith on
YouTube says a while brown am vision clip on my FYP,
I scrolled to the next YouTube short and was listening
while doing other things, nodding along ingesting the info. Then
I heard the sound and instantly hit my BA dance lmao.
Looking forward to listening to the full episode. I thank
(04:58):
you so much t J. Smith. But also it's really
awkward for me to say texting shorthand like out loud,
like am I supposed to say laugh in my ass off?
Or I'm also say lmao. I don't know. It just
sounds awkward. But thank you TJ for commenting, and that's
so funny. I'm glad that our shorts are showing up
in the YouTube feed. Shout out to my wonderful VA
(05:19):
Cameron who helps me upload our content to YouTube. Couldn't
do without you. Listener Nick Nick on NYC said, Christopher
is a rock star. Thank you for this interview. Now
my other clip from my episode from last week, the
main show from last Wednesday, I talked about Trump's plan
for a fifty year mortgage, and y'all know how I feel.
(05:42):
By now y'all know how I feel about it, which
is like this is the most hair brained as nine
way of trying to quote unquote increase home ownership and
affordability in this country. It is such a dumb idea
and the Dingo Ady on YouTube said, the only way
I'd ever do a fIF your mortgage is if there
was a federal law capping the interest rate at something
(06:04):
like three percent to avoid this exact scenario, allow people
to effectively get into a house, allowing them to pay
more when they can, but without letting the bank screw
over the consumer. The Dingo Yes, I think that's actually
a great idea, Like if that would change everything, if
they said there's going to be a cap. However, why
would banks agree to that? Banks don't like that. Banks
(06:27):
don't banks barely like the fixed rate mortgage product that
they already have at just thirty year mortgage. Fixed rates
are when you know, you get a mortgage and it's
locked in at that rate for the term of the loan.
A bank hates that because what's going to happen when
interest rates start to go up, like let's say the
Fed increases rates down the line, and then you still
have a homeowner who's got you'll use your rate as
(06:51):
an example, three percent fixed. Now the bank is having
to pay because you know, when the rates go up,
savers people with money in the banks, we get paid
more from the bank. They have to pay us a
higher interest rate. Typically those rates go up, so then
you have that half of the bank. The bank is
paying its savings customers, people with money in the bank,
(07:11):
paying them more interest on their deposits. At the same time,
they're still getting the same old three percent from their homeowners.
They're borrowers, and banks don't like that. They don't like
to give more than they get. I don't know, if
you're on them. That's kind of how like capitalism work.
That's not what they like to do. But I do
like this idea, and maybe one day, but I don't
(07:32):
think this president, if this comes to me, I don't
think it's going to be this administration that would enact that.
So but thank you for the comment. And I'm actually
terrified about this fifty year mortgage becoming a thing because
I hate to say it, but The New York Times
did an entire episode this morning actually on the Daily
that was all about the fifty year mortgage, and I
was like, damn if that's sort of like mainstreaming it
(07:55):
at that point. And you know, you can argue as
you want about the relevancy and the ethical you know,
the coverage the New York Times does and whether we
should all, you know, be consuming it. But at the
same time, it is that girl when it comes to
traditional media right now, So big deal for them to
be doing a whole episode on it and legitimizing this
idea that he has. I also talked about last week
(08:18):
about the Black Friday boycott. I talked about, you know,
having those conversations with your family about, you know, how
the holidays are going to look and if you don't,
if you're not financially in a place where you can
show up the way that maybe you have in the past,
having those tough conversations and YouTube viewer listener, I'll just
call her, uh, I'll call her because her name is
(08:42):
a bunch of letters and symbols. User nine CV seven
Helping w says, I make beautiful crocheted hats and scarves,
so those will be my gifts and I will be
dumping the rest of my money into index funds while
the stock market is all read buying stock on the
cheap to be ready for the opportunities that will come
when we have our blue wave, blue heart What do
(09:06):
you call that flexing bicep emoji? Yes, okay, I love this.
Making crocheted hats and scarves and then dumping the rest
of my money into index funds while the market is
all read. Yes, we love that. I mean, whether the
market is red, black, whatever it is. You know, with
the with the guidance of you know, your holistic picture
(09:27):
of your financial situation, you know, you know what's going
on in y'all's in y'all's finance is better than I do.
But I know personally, whenever I have dump money into
the stock market, especially when I'm doing it for a
long which is how I usually invest, I'm always investing
for the long term. Anytime I've tried to invest for
the short term, your girl has fallen straight on her ass,
(09:48):
as so many of us do. All Right, the research
doesn't lie. Long term investors win. So I love that. Yes,
investing that for the long term in your case seems
to be the best bet and you can let that
money grow. Yes, And I'm just gonna cry about thinking
about all the toys and legos and party favors that
I bought for my kids that will never appreciate in
(10:09):
value and in factor at the bottom of drash sheep
right now, probably floating in our oceans, when I could
have been investing but that's not helpful thinking, isn't. No,
it's not. But I'm happy for you. And oh yeah,
some comments on my Kayla Andicle video user Amanda URS
said love Kayla Nicole and appreciated her apology. This is
(10:30):
about Kaylnicle apologizing for those tweets that she should have
had cleaned up long before. Amanda R. Says, I love
Kayla Nicole and appreciated her apology. But yeah, even as
a quote unquote nobody I cleaned up my social media.
She ate the Tony Braxton tribute so bad they had
to find something on her. Yes, she did, and she
should have known better. But since I published you know
(10:53):
my take on this whole situation, Kayla n Cole has
issued an apology, So I think that that was the
right thing to do. And I'm also going to say
that I wouldn't have had to do that if you
had had the foresight to clean up your socials as
we all should, even like miss Amanda says, the nobody's
all right. That's gonna wrap up my little comment shout outs.
(11:15):
If you have loved to comment, thank you so so much.
You can engage with our content on YouTube. You can
also leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. We didn't
get no new Apple reviews, but I would love to
have read them if we did. This is your this
is your chance and give me a reason and read
some new reviews. In the meantime, let's get into today's show.
Today I got a special best of Mashup episode featuring
(11:38):
two powerhouse guests who dropped some serious gems when they
joined me earlier this year, talking about career pivots, personal finance,
and building wealth on your own terms, which is what
brad Ambition is all about. First up, I've got Christina Mancini.
She is the CEO of Black Girl's Code, who talked
about why she left Corporate America as she had a
(11:58):
great gig at Salesforce and she left to build her
own table, not just a seep, with the whole damn table.
And then we're going to catch up with Gabrielle Gambrell,
a media executive at hash at Book Group who literally
rocked out to Michael Jackson's Human Nature in a job
interview and got hired on the spot early in her career.
(12:18):
And if you're someone whether you're in the beginning of
your career, the messy middle of your career. Like so
many of us, I know you're going to be inspired
by Gabrielle's grit and determination and just her charisma and
ability to keep pushing. It's always inspiring to me. I'm
so grateful that these two women said yes when I
invited them to the show, and I'm excited for you
(12:39):
to get to look back. So, without further ado, let's
kick it off with the conversation around why these two
women made bold career moves when everyone else thought that
they were crazy, and how they figured out why betting
on yourself is often the best investment you can make.
I want to start there. Can you tell be a
fam a little but about your decision to leave corporate
(13:01):
You were a big batty in tech at Salesforce and
now you're running a nonprofit. So talk to me, talk
to us a little bit about that decision and what
brought you to Black Girls Code.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Absolutely, I did have a wonderful career. I started my
career in media and television. I transitioned into technology. You know.
I was at summer camp last week in Atlanta and
Representative Kim Schofield was speaking to our girls, and one
of the girls asked her why did she get into politics?
And she said she wanted to make sure that people
(13:32):
without a always had a voice. And I think that
that really sums up why I wanted to get into technology.
I did not come up through the traditional educator channels
for this line of work. I came through corporate and
I was in the rooms that I want to get.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Our participants into.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And so I come with that intention, like what are
the things I wish I.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Knew then that I know now?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
And what are the things that I was trying to
solve for at one company that I can now solve
for at scale?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And so that's why I'm here.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I want to inspire, educate, and launch these girls into
these big jobs at tech so that they can save
us all.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that that is why
you started this podcast.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
It's pretty similar. Yeah, I mean also, I was bored.
I was.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I was bored.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
No, not bored as in like I have nothing to do,
bored as in surrounded by people who didn't look like
me every day. And I was also in media covering
personal finance, and I wanted to I wanted to feel
the energy, giddiness, the excitement there wasn't a lot of
that excitement in like doing it for a cause. Maybe
I was a little bit of a bleeding heart at
(14:49):
the time. And I met my co host at the time, Tiffany,
at a conference, and we had such We were both
so equally passionate about doing this work and really closing
the racial wealth gap and talking to when of color,
and I just didn't get that where I was working
at Yahoo Finance at the time. So for me, this
was an outlet. It was an outlet and a place
to take all my enthusiasm. And at the same time,
now it's been ten years and I have chosen to
(15:11):
keep doing it again and again. I've left corporate. I
left corporate back in twenty twenty one. And definitely my
why now is because you know, I was going to
ask while you were speaking, I was going to ask
you Sometimes there's a bit of a pressure on women
of color when we reach these high rankings in corporate America,
like stay there, we need you representation, da da da.
(15:32):
But at the same time, and I did feel that
way because when I was in corporate, I wasn't as
senior level as you were, but I was making hiring
decisions I was hiring. I hired a team of forty
and you know, I really wanted to make sure that
they were diverse and that little bit of power and responsibility.
It took it very seriously and it was a privilege
and some power. That being said, I wanted to get
(15:54):
your take on that and your answer to anyone who
may say, but we need you when corporate.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I think that we need a whole bunch of us
in corporate. And I was doing this work off the
side of my desk for many years.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
You know, I launched multiple programs.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Even when I was in film, and then also when
I was at Salesforce. And at Salesforce, I launched our
make Change series are leading through Change series, trying to
motivate people to think different about using their platform to
affect change and instead of just going to work every
day and thinking like, oh, I got to tick all
these boxes in my playbook, Like what if you thought
(16:32):
about how you could use the space and influence you
have to affect change. And so there's this incredible pressure
when you as you rise through the ranks in corporate,
when you get to the spaces where you are, in
fact the only one to create space for others, and
it is the right type of pressure.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
But for me, I couldn't get enough people at the table.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I wanted to actually encourage us to start building our
own tables, and so, yes, I suffered that pressure. It's
the pressure of wanting to mentor and sponsor everybody while
you still have your regular day job. And I think
that's a really interesting conversation in itself around thinking through
what is mentorship versus sponsorship. Everybody wants mentorship, but it
(17:17):
presents itself in different ways.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
For me, I'm not super chatty.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I'm going to go straight to action items, and so
I think I am a better sponsor. But in order
to be a good sponsor and find the right sponsors,
you need to really think about what your value proposition is,
and you know, start thinking about who's your mentor that
you have coffee with and you want to have small
talk with, and who's your sponsor who's going to be
(17:42):
in the room. I used to say, you know, fighting
for you in rooms where you're not and now where
we are right now, which is an epidemic of no
black women in tech, I would say it is fighting
to make sure that you yourself are in the room
to present your own projects so that you can accelerate
your career.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Okay, you said, you said so much there. I have
a lot of respect for anyone who's clear on what
they what they're able to offer. I've read a group
coaching community called the Mandy money Makers, and one of
my makers last week, she's incredible networking and she'll she'll
send an email, but she'll meet up and she'll meet
up with people in person and then keep the relationship
going via email. And she had said how someone that
(18:20):
she was reaching out to or hoping to get some
advice on breaking into this new field had posted on
LinkedIn this post that was like, we're being inundated by
mentorship and advice emails and virtual one on ones and
we can't do it all. I hope you guys understand
if we don't get back to you, this is why.
And part of me as a coach, I'm just like, oh,
that's kind of a shame, because you hope people will
have the bandwidth. At the same time, I respect a boundary, right,
(18:43):
and I think what you're really vocalizing what a lot
of the few of us that do make it to
the top can feel a bit overwhelmed by the pull
back to look back and bring others forward while trying
to like survive, survive where we are one of the
few only differents, you know, make sure that we our
asses don't get let go because our margin of error
(19:03):
is like super duper raised or things like.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
This big magnifying class on you already you can't make any.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Mistakes, exactly, it feels, or so it feels.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, I just wanted to acknowledge that and just say
that that is completely fair. At the same time, you
do offer this window of saying, here's what I can do. Yes,
I can have a list of batties that I know
I can support, you know, and how does someone get
on your sponsorship list? How do we can sponsor?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, I like how you position that because I feel
like I'm curating a massive pipeline of batties at Black
Girl's Code, you know. I was at Salesforce. I met
incredible leaders there, and when I came over to Black
Girl's Code, it was October of twenty twenty three, and
I remember being just blown away by the level of
(19:53):
talent that I could see in our participants that were
in these programs. And that was the to it was
actually part of my interview was that I wanted to
expand the age range black girls. COVID was already participating
in colleges and careers as so much as like how
to talk to a recruiter, how to articulate your value proposition,
and they're still crushing it and we're still doing it,
(20:14):
and we're building out how to show up at more
college campuses. But I really wanted to introduce more technical
training as well, and I wanted to support our communities
beyond college, and that was the workforce development expansion.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
You know, it's funny because as.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You think about women and women of color in corporate
you should assume that if someone is making it up
through the rings, that they're a total baddie because they
are going. But I'm saying that as I say, you know,
someone as be like for some newsletter, like what do
I wish people would understand or think about or consider?
(20:55):
And it is, you know, this sense of as we're
talking about this not celebrating resilience.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
What I would actually love is if.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
When we talk about women of color that we don't
have that adjective celebrated when it's connected with us, right,
so strong wouldn't you rather work at a place where
you were just celebrated for being innovative, brilliant, creative, but
not resilient.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Work shouldn't be a battleground.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, exactly. I've talked to us before. When I'm talking
to usually white men in my space, so podcasting, so
this could be like one of my one from my
network for example. So these are corporate spaces. I'm a
podcast so I all talk to white dudes occasionally and
fortunately not always, because I get to do this work
and there's usually a there often is a point when
(21:46):
they try to connect with me on their struggle story,
you know, Like I mean, I could tell you, sure
do I have some do I have some challenges, but
like I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Like
I wasn't starving, I wasn't poor, and like you know
all that, and but that does get to be a
little bit tiresome that you you feel like people want
(22:09):
they want to feel better about themselves for somehow rescuing you,
for giving you a chance.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
No, you still would have been in the streets if
it weren't promotion.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
I hate that, man, I hate that so much.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I hate especially in tech.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It was my biggest back, Like this, this tiresome trope
of rags to riches. I did not come from rags.
I had a great background and that's my story. And
if it's not your story, you don't owe anyone that story.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
I hate.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
There's this book What We Build with Power that I love,
and in it he talks about this concept of feeling
the need to sell trauma for access. It starts around
high school when you're doing your scholarships, Like.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, yes, I really struggle with my college essay.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
I was like, I have a good family.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I don't know what to tell you, but if you don't,
it's still not their business. I was speaking at Princeton
and I had a mom like, we had some Jack
and Jill students come and listen, and some of our
BGC community, which always makes me happy, came up from
(23:22):
the city to listen to me speak. And one of
the moms of the high school kids said, well, if
I don't talk about her resilience, how does she differentiate herself?
Speaker 1 (23:36):
So her excellence.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
So if we're not taught early how to articulate, it's
not bragging, not bragging. I know that I'm very intelligent,
I know that I'm very creative. I know that I
am a visionary executive, So I don't feel the need
to humble myself when I'm talking about what my skill
set is. If you're hiring me, you know why you're
(24:00):
hiring me. It's not for any of my past. It's
none of your business, honestly, and so I want our
girls to learn that it's none of our business.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
You choose who deserves to hear your story, not the
other way around. I've seen it.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I've been at keynotes where the sad story comes on.
Someone reaches out to the person who is featured and
they're like, tear, You're so strong, and you get like
a little check for your charity, and that's it.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
That's not what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I'm talking about, how do we set you up for
success and advance you in your career or set yourself
up so that you can be an entrepreneur and people
are buying the things that you create, not.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Your past, not your trauma.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
That's why I love this work, going back to like
my first camp that I went to, when I saw
these little girls coding and making something new, move that
didn't move before. Watch the light bulb turn on and
the joy. That's what we sell, that's what we talk about.
(25:07):
That's you know, in this AI moment where everybody's talking
about AI and this great hype cycle, the very things
that make us different and differentiate us from machines is
our imagination, our creativity, our critical thinking. Those are the
things we need to nurture. Those are the things we
need to talk about, just like everybody else.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, and I think too, just seeing the girls see
each other in that context, like I just imagine I
want to go to one of these camps and.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Just personally, we just just that the camps in Atlanta,
and I just was like man, being around each other
in a safe space. That's we This centers that we're
building out in Inglewood, California are for that. I think
what we're missing is a town square. We're missing these
(25:54):
third spaces where we can gather and learn together. It
gives me infinite joy to participate in it. Spend a
lot of time on the road speaking and meeting with partners,
but I reserve the right when I feel depleted of
energy to go spend time with our learners. It is incredible,
and you have to come with me to one of them.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I insist.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I you know, as you're speaking, I'm thinking about the
way that I look at my children. I have two
little boys, they're five and two, and I look at
them as a reprieve from all the stuff, Like I'll
get on the floor build some legos, and it's the
sort of meditation. It's like it takes you out of
this even this morning, you know, And I know you
must feel this way, or maybe you don't because you've
(26:38):
been You're much more, you know, so much more wisdom
and time, you know, in a high but truly, like
you know, I consider you to you have more experience
coping with all the things. But some mornings I wake
up and it's just it's it's suffocating. How many different
feelings and emotions and things to do and like that
are tugging you in all these different directions. And my
(26:58):
kids are at camp in school right now, so I
don't have them. I can't. I could build a lego
by myself, I guess, But anyway, I did a little
meditation instead. That having the kids there is so nice,
and I love that you are staying grounded in the girls.
You know that y'all are working with that so talk
to me about For those who may not know NBA fan,
we've heard of Black Girl's Code. We know that you
(27:20):
know you're on this mission to get a million girls
in tech, black girls in Tech by year twenty forty.
Such a huge, amazing goal. And I know that you're
planning new things and expansions, but can you break down
what exactly the structure of Black Girl's Code is today?
If someone wants to learn more, get their girls involved,
get themselves involved as a parent, to help you get
(27:41):
to that million, that million number.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It's a great honor to lead this organization. The organization
was founded in twenty and eleven, truly visionary at the time.
You know, at the time there was not a lot
of these programs out there, and so when I came
in twenty twenty three, my focus was again to launch.
So there's always been this access, inspiration, education, but I
(28:10):
wanted to connect it to results.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
A quick way to get grounded.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
In what we are doing right now is we AREBGC
dot Org is our website, and parents can sign their
kids up for upcoming programs. We are in the last
quarter of thirteen summer camps that we've been running all
summer shout out to my BGC team. They have been
literally nationwide all over the place, including in Puerto Rico.
(28:36):
We have our summer camp coming up right now next
week in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
These like week long, couple weeks long.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
It depends like they We've been testing different lengths, so
some are one week, two week, and some are four weeks.
I think we're landing somewhere around the two week is
the optimum length, and we stay connected through the year
with additional pop ups and emerge programming that is again nationwide.
(29:04):
We have ongoing free YouTube programming with this series called
Code Along, and the streamer Kilani Jules just won the
Young Artist Award for Host of a Streaming Series for
our Code Along Juniors, so we're really proud of her.
That YouTube series has reached over eight million views and
(29:28):
it is a great introduction to code if you cannot
get to one of our live experiences. But we try
to get around the nation as much as possible to
inspire and engage with as many potential students and bring
them into the BGC family. We've also been working really
hard to activate our alumni and bring them back into
(29:49):
the full A lot of them are now teachers assistants.
They've been supporting us in our summer camps and also
with our virtual programs. So we have quite a bit
going on, but I think we need to do even more.
The way that there's this mass exodus of people of
color from tech is really worrisome for me.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Heyba, fam, we got to take a quick break, pay
some bills, and we'll be right back. So I want
you to talk about your career, but I also want
to talk about your badass origin story. Where did you
build that confidence and just the way that you approach
your career, which is so head on, fearless and like
(30:33):
a straight shooter to the point you're going to look
at opportunities, You're going to do things fast and make
like big decisions.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Well, thank you for saying all those kind things. I
think a huge part of who I am today and
how I navigate spaces and how I show up has
to do with the fact that I am from Los Angeles, California,
and one of the greatest cities in the world, and
growing up in Los Angeles, you see a lot of prosperity.
I actually come from humble beginnings, but because you're surrounded
(30:59):
by all the luxurious things, and luxury I always grew
up like, how was that obtainable? If they have it,
that means I can have it too. So how do
I put myself in the position knowing I don't come
from a lot. I come from a highly educated family.
I'm a fourth generation college graduate. I don't take that
lightly as a black woman. My great grandparents attended HBCUs
(31:20):
because they couldn't attend elsewhere, and so a lot of
my ambition comes from being from Los Angeles. And then
I will say my parents are both pretty much go getters.
They get things done, they make things happen, as well
as my godmother who raised me, my late godmother, who
my daughter is named after. So I look at my grandparents.
My grandmother Black Women, born nineteen twelve, one of the
(31:41):
first black women to graduate from Smith College, went on
to get several degrees from Eastern Michigan University, Howard University.
She met my grandfather Howard University alum. He attended Howard
and medical school. So I always looked at them and
saw their accomplishments, their goals. And my grandfather went to
medical school, but yet he was season fashion designer. He
(32:01):
designed clothes for the Jackson Five and the Supremes and
Sammy Davis Junior and so many great black musicians. So
I look at a lot of the things they accomplished,
and I knew very early on that I could be
whatever my heart desired.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
That's incredible. I didn't know that about your great grandfather.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, my great watched the met did that?
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Did he pass that?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well?
Speaker 1 (32:22):
I don't know if you ever got to meet him
great grandfather.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
No, my grandfather, my grandfather, I met your grandfather or yep, yep.
My dad is the youngest of five kids. So my
grandmother had my dad at fifty five zero. So my
grandparents are much older. They're no longer, of course, but
that was a work that was absolutely positively. They were like, wait, huh,
come again on what? So my grandmother was born in
(32:46):
nineteen twelve, my dad's mother, and my grandfather was born
in nineteen seventeen and Augusta, Georgia, so that Georgia connection,
and so fashion has always been a huge part of
my upbringing. My parents used to hold fashion shows for
those in the Los Angeles community. My dad is the
best dressed guy I've ever seen. He thrust us up
to go to the grocery store, from head to toe accessories.
(33:08):
Like he cares very much about fashion. Every time he
comes in town from Los Angeles, first thing he does
is like, let's look at your closet and see.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
What's going on.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
So all of a Suddings really helped to shape you know,
who I am and how I show up in the world.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Dang, I wish I had a fashion I mean, like,
I love my parents, but it was giving. We shop
at Ross dress for Less. We shot at you know Sears.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Listen, we shop at Ross. We love Ross. But I'm
not the most patient person. It's something that I'm working on.
It's a room for improvement for me, growth opportunity. But
my parents will find some jewels and Ross. They go
to the thrift stores. My cousin had a thrift store
at one point, so they are very patient shoppers. I
love Ross. I wish we had it in New York.
(33:48):
You know, Marshall's is by our house. I go to
Marshall's all the time TJ Max, which is super close
to our house. But I got to work on my
patients while I'm there because I'm like, I don't say
anything and I just leave.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
But the way that you present yourself. It is something
that I admire. You will do the color coordinated family
photo shoot and I just like I saw you were
featured in Munamammy. How you say it? Munamomy? They did
a story when it was Gigi, your daughter's first birthday
and birthday. Yeah, you got both Jeffreys decked out in
the pink gotband. Husband is in the pink cable net sweater.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yes, yes, yes points.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
How does that presentation factor into your career? How has
it factored into your career? Do you think it's something
that you use like as armor. Does it help or
is it just you know, it's just something that you've always,
based on your childhood, innately cared about.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
That's a great question. I actually had a conversation recently
with someone so talking a little bit about my career.
I interned at WABC Disney ABC on a show that
was at one point Live A Regis and Kelly, which
is now Live with Kelly and markham Swellows. And from ABC,
I went to Paaramott CBS. I was there for seven years,
then I went over right here at NBC Universal. I
worked for Comcast NBC and so working in television work
(35:00):
and broadcasts. You're surrounded by beautiful, theo looking people. You're
surrounded by best stressed. There's a time where I was
working at NBC and my pockets weren't like that, but
a lot of people during lunch breaks were going to
shop on Fifth Avenue and get outfits. So I think
because I've worked in careers that are kind of fancy,
if you will, or honestly, and I tell my mentees.
(35:21):
I teach at Columbia University, I teach at NYU. I
tell my students, my mentees that in certain industries, how
you show up can dictate your success. In media and entertainment.
I'm very proud to work in media. I'm very proud
to work in entertainment. But a lot of it is
based on visuals, and that's just the fact of the
industry that a lot of people are very judgy or
(35:41):
it's like, oh, you know that girl who's always dressed
really nice? Are the one whose face is always done
and those types of things. So I think my life
being from Los Angeles, my family as well as my
career trajectory has impacted kind of how I show up
and doing the little family photos. My goal is that
my children look back. My daughter will look back at
her first birthday and say, oh, look at my family,
(36:02):
they all dressed in pink, my favorite color for my birthday,
or just having those really special moments to look back
to and smile.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you remember, but
you're the one who sent me the link to like
this family photographer who was doing baby newborn baby photo shoots. Yeah,
and that's the only way I ever got like the
beautiful family photos of like the newborn photos of my boy.
And I wouldn't have even thought to look that person
up if it weren't for you. So I feel like
being in your presence, I am elevating my You're.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
Too kind of, You're too kind of. Those are some
beautiful photos, though, gorgeous photos.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Oh it's okay, and I have them forever and yeah,
very precious all right. Career, so you are a maven.
Like if you look up that phrase in the dictionary,
if it even is in there, I would see your face.
And I know that you're in publishing now. But for you,
like just the communications career, that's always been the focus, right, Yeah,
can you talk about the early career moves you made
(36:56):
that felt really instrumental to getting you to where you
are now.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah, so I would take it all the way back
to high school. Two pivotal things happen in high school.
I attended Pacific Palisades Charter High School. So my high school,
we all know what happened in the Palisades area. Gosh, yeah,
so he was burned it did. But I believe, I'm
on a bunch of alumni boards that there are a
lot of individuals in the community. They're working. I think
we may even be working out of the schools, may
(37:21):
now be in Santa Monica for the time being, but
I feel very confident it'll be back before we know it. So,
while I was at Palisades, I've always liked English, always
liked writing. There's always that one teacher that has a
huge impact on you. My English tenth grade honors English teacher,
mister Dan Zinger, was like, you're a great writer. You've
got to get the gap. And I was like, do
(37:42):
I have to get the gap? And he's like, yeah,
your pearers appropriately named you. And that kind of stuck
with me. And so in high school, eleventh grade, I
became editor in chief of the school newspaper, the tideline.
My journalism teacher. He was over it. He was about
to graduate. He's like, listen, you're smart. You're editor in
chief of the paper. Grade the class. Everyone grades. No
way a fifteen year old. I was fifteen. I graduate
(38:03):
high school. I seventeen. I was fifteen and eleventh grade,
sixteen or seventeen senior year. A fifteen year old should
not be responsible for people's grades and how they go
to college. And I was signing articles, I was grading,
and I was in the system putting their grades in.
During that time in high school, I learned that I
loved writing. I love storytelling. I love journalism and media.
And I also learned I loved teaching. I was in
(38:24):
front of the classroom and editing stories and signing stories,
talking about pop culture. And so my undergraduate degree is
in broadcasting. It's in journalism. And so I actually wanted
to be on air, and then I realized I'm kind
of shy, believe.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
It or not.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
And so then I was like, Okay, I'll be a
TV producer. And so when I was working at ABC,
I was working in production. I was working in talent relations,
working with the stars that are coming on the show.
On ABC's Live Regis and Kelly, and I was helping
to produce segments and then, being very honest, I graduated
with honors, had a three point nine GPA, and I
was making minimum wage because typically when you start in
(39:01):
television production, you start as a production assistant. And at
that time, in two thousand and seven, I think it
was like seven dollars an hour, and seven dollars an
hour is not enough to live comfortably in New York City.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Not at all moving at that time, Like how were
you making?
Speaker 4 (39:15):
I was sharing, I was renting a room with roommates,
so I don't know, I was paying like seven hundred
dollars a month. I had a car, I had school loans.
I have my master's, but I graduated with one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars in school loans. And so in
high school. Also, so in high school, I was editor
in chief of the newspaper. I worked at a law
(39:36):
firm filing papers, and I worked at the mall. So
in high school, I also had three jobs. My entire
college career had three jobs, and right now I have
three jobs. So that's like something else too. I'm always
working all the time, and so anyways, I couldn't afford
to live. I was struggling. I was babysitting, I was
a waitress. I was working at a country club in Newroschelle,
New York, Wika Gail country Club. And I was like,
(39:56):
I didn't go to college. You graduate with a three
point nine to be struggling. It's amazing at Disney ABC.
What a dream. This is your dream that you get
hired after your internship. But I touched based on one
of my mentors, and I was very honest and I said,
I am financially struggling. I only make minimum wage. And
he said, come over to CBS, come my assistant. You'll
make thirty thousand dollars a year. And girl, I thought
thirty thousand. I was like, oh my god, I'm going
(40:17):
to make thirty thousand dollars and I would have benefit
something I didn't have working in production. So I made
the pivot from Disney ABC to CBS Corporation. Actually I'm
a sales assistant.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
A mentor.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Just to interrupt, which I know I'm gonna need to
because I know you, I'm gonna you know me. You
get in there, you got me pause, let's double click
on that. So the mentor because that is pivotal, and
I hope people are understanding that it was a relationship.
You're really good at like building these relationships. Yes, where
did you Where did you meet that mentor? And that's yeah,
(40:50):
how did that help you?
Speaker 4 (40:52):
Sou senior year of college, Iona University, where I'm happy
to serve on the board, Go Gills. Iona had to
meet a career mentor night and so they had different
individuals alumni who are working in the industry, and I
went above and beyond that. I went to my career
services office and I said, please give me a list
of every single alumni who work in entertainment, who work
(41:13):
in television, who work in film, who work in sports,
and it was thousands of people. I emailed each and
every person.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Aba, fam, We're going to take a quick break, pay
some bills, and we'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Really yes. And so one of the individuals who I
emailed was at the career mentor event and he's like,
let's meet in person. I'm going to actually be on
campus and so I met him. His name is Martin
Daily and he's from the Bronx and he was executive
vice president of network Sales at CBS, and so that's
who I called, and I was just very honest and said,
(41:51):
I'm financially struggling. I'm at Disney ABC. He said, come
over be my assistant, and so I went over as
a sales assistant. I have no desire to work in sales.
I don't like numbers. I'm a storyteller. I was literally
entering numbers and Excel all day long, praying to God
to get me out of it. And so again he
was my mentor and he was my boss, and he
(42:11):
said listen. Simultaneously, I was in college getting my masters
in sports at Entertainment pr because I realized the TV
production thing isn't going to work out. And it's interesting
because those I interned with, those who I was a
production assistant with, they are all executive producers. Now I
have friends with executive producers at Tamern Hall. I have
friends who all I worked with executive producers at Conde
Nass GQ, and so they most of them their parents
(42:34):
helped them out financially or they had a little bit
of a cushion and help to live off of that
seven dollars an hour, which wasn't the case for me.
So while I was at CBS. My mentor said, Hey,
just start meeting people. Tell them you're in grad school.
Start volunteering with different people at CBS. And I'm like,
what okay, And so my goal was I went on
(42:55):
a spree of meeting senior executives VPR above SVP EVP,
and so my goal was each person you meet with,
impress them, google them, talk about them, talk about the
career trajectory, how like, oh my gosh, she does these
amazing things. Tell me about yourself. I learned being from
LA that everyone likes talking about themselves. Everyone wants an
(43:15):
opportunity to feel like a celebrity.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
It was like, you put it on the podcast because
that's literally what I'm like, Wow, not too much on
what I do the secret sauce.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
Yeah. Everyone likes the opportunity a platform to talk about themselves.
So when I was at CBS, I went on a
road show. It was a domino effect. Everyone I met
with was really impressed. Eventually I met with the EVP
Chief Communications officer at CBS and the head of HR
who I met with prior said I'm gonna warn you.
Bill Schwartz has a reputation of being no nonsense. People
(43:45):
are terrified of him. There's books written about him, even
a movie, and so she's like, come correct when you
meet with him? And I was like, okay, how would
you get a meeting with him?
Speaker 3 (43:53):
You just email this.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
I just kept I kept no, I got a referral.
So as I started meeting with VP SVP, EVP, eventually
every person it was a ripple effect. Every person was like, Hey,
I just met this young lady, got Brielle Simpson at
the time. She's amazing, she's ambitious, she's in graduate school
to do PR. She's a sales assistant right now. She
doesn't want to be a sales assistant. Can you just
(44:15):
meet with her? And I only met with these people
for five to ten minutes because very busy people are
not they don't have a bunch of time. But in
that ten minutes, I talked about how amazing their career was.
I kissed up to them a little bit, and then
they're like, Okay, here's somebody else I want you to meet.
My goal and attention of every meeting I had was
for them to introduce me to someone else senior. So
now I'm just making a network of senior executives within
(44:39):
the company. Eventually I was referred to speak to the
head of chard, chief human resources officer, who said, what
do you want to do. You're a sales assistant. I
was twenty one at the time, because I graduated college
at twenty years old. I was twenty one and I said,
I'm in school getting my master's in PR. I want
to do PR. She said, okay, I'm going to introduce
you to Gil Schwartz. So the head of hl I
(45:00):
sent an email to the chief communications officer and said, Hey,
there's this young lady. She's super ambitious. I want you
to meet her. I know you don't have anything open
on your team, go be with her. So talk about
being emotionally intelligent and reading the room. I came in
my best suit. I was suited and booted, pinstriped suited,
and I had my portfolio. I had my resume, I
(45:20):
had writing samples from stuff I worked on in grad school.
And it was a few days after Michael Jackson died
and Gil Schwartz he had a lot of guitars in
his office. So I walked in and I said, Hi,
I'm Gabrielle. I'm so excited to meet you, and I
have my resume here. I know you're so busy. I
won't take up too much of your time. And he says,
sit down. He said, do you know Michael Jackson was murdered?
(45:42):
And it was just a few days later, and I
was like, I don't think Michael Jackson was murdered. I
think he died and something. He was like, it's going
to come out that Michael Jackson was murdered and someone's
going to go to jailbur and I was like, okay.
So he picks up his guitar. He starts playing like
human Nature and then I just started buying it out
a little bit, trying to hold a note. Guy why
white guy, Gil Schwartz, Jewish Man Okay? And we're like,
(46:04):
tell me, it's just young man nature. Why why right?
And so we're just jamming out and then at the
end of it, he's like, you want a job, right,
And I was like I would love a job. He's like, okay, done,
And I said, do you want to look at my resume?
Do you want to look at my portfolio? He said,
are you smart? I said yes. He said will you
work hard? I said yes. He's like, okay, I'll find
a job. For you. I'll make a job for you.
And that's how I came to the PR team at
(46:25):
CBS and I was there for seven years. We've done
everything from the Super Bowls, the Grammys, two and a
half men, How I met your mother, sent of interests
with Tarajip Hitson sixty minutes. So that like being able
to just read the room and vibe out with this guy.
And we later found out that Conrad Burray went to
jail for murdering Michael Jackson, which at the time, he
(46:47):
was just yeah, careful.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Because my like quasi adhd brain undiagnosed, I might go
down that little that little path.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
But let's just tell that that was the thing, right.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
But Gale or Bill Gail Gil.
Speaker 4 (47:00):
Shorts, he passed away a few years ago. He's actually
from Westchester. He's from New Rochelle named skill Gil Schwartz. Yeah,
so a job was creative for me and that's how
I finally got my pivot into CBS PR team and
I was there for seven years. And then during that time,
like just being able to take advantage of opportunities. There
(47:20):
was a lot of conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion,
and Gil called me in his office one day. I said, Gabby,
you're black. I said yes. He said, people keep asking
about diversity and stuff. You care about that, right, I said, yes, Skill,
I care very much. He said, come up with a
deiicom strategy and figure it out. Give us some press
talk about how we care about diversity and talk about
our diverse staff and our diverse talent. And I was like, okay,
(47:42):
So I did that. Led Diversity Communications, came up with
a DEI plan, got a ton of pr hits for
the chief diversity officer who's now by mentor you're retired, right, Oh, yeah,
so we need to be talking. We must be talking
two thousand and nine, twenty ten, a long time ago.
And then that caught the eye of Comcast.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
The same age, because because.
Speaker 4 (48:07):
I graduated college so early, we're the same age. I'm
only like a month older than you, I know, But like, how.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
But I was like figuring my shit out in two
thousand and nine, trying to get a job after college. Meanwhile,
you're just like in the c suite, you know, chatting
with the head of comms for a CBS.
Speaker 4 (48:24):
Okay, Gabriel, I tried. I tried, and it worked out,
and so comcasts. NBC said hey, we need some diversity help.
Can you come over and lead our diversity comms? So
then I left, went right there to thirty rock.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
On the network. So you quit?
Speaker 4 (48:40):
Yep, yep, I quit?
Speaker 1 (48:41):
Okay, how did that go?
Speaker 4 (48:43):
It was interesting because I went to my boss at
the time and I said, hey, NBC reached out to me.
They slid in my DMS on LinkedIn and they have
an opportunity to be a director of Diversity Communications dual
report into their chief of Comms and their chief diversity officer.
And I think it's a great opportunity at Disney ABC.
I've worked at CBS and now I can work at NBC.
(49:04):
And I was like twenty six years old at the time,
and my boss said, don't do it. You're not going
to like it over there. Stay here. What do we
need to do to make you stay? And I said,
I don't even think. I think it's more about the
opportunity to do something different. I've been here for seven
years and I think I just want to do something different.
And he said, listen, one day you will have my job.
Just stay here. It's going to take you twenty years.
(49:26):
We'll have my job. One day and I was young.
I was like, I would have wait twenty years, Like
I just would have That's not would've tried to do.
And so we kept in contact. I left. I went
over to NBC, which is how I know Chris Nelson.
Christopher Nelson worked at NBC with me, so that's how
we met. And then I was there for three years.
I did some other things after that. After that, I
(49:46):
went to IPG FCB Global, which is a marketing advertising agency.
I reported into the Chief of comm Chief marketing Officer.
It was amazing. I was twenty seven, twenty eight thirty
by the time I got there, and I was traveling
the world.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
All right, ba, fam, Can we just take a moment
to appreciate the brilliance that we just heard. Thank you
again to Christina and Gabrielle. They really gave us the
blueprint for paving our own path and not waiting for
anyone else's permission, which is the inspiration that I think
we really need right now. And if you got nothing
else from today's episode, I just hope that you heard this.
You don't need permission to build your own table, and
(50:27):
you don't need to sell your struggle to prove you belong.
You absolutely can bet on yourself. I don't care what
people think about you, whether they think that you're crazy
or irresponsible, or you know, doing things that don't make
sense to them. It's none of their business. As Tabatha
Brown would say, it's whether you're thinking about a career pivot,
you're trying to figure out how to build wealth while
(50:49):
actually enjoying your life, or you just need a reminder
that your story is yours to tell on your terms.
This episode was for you. Be a fam all right.
Resonated with you. Please do me a favor, Share it
with someone who needs to hear it. Tag Brown Ambition
on social media, leave us a review, let us know
which moment really hit home for you. I love hearing
(51:10):
from you always, Bafam and I have to say happy
happy holidays that are coming. Next week's going to be
a normal one for Brown Ambition. We're going to be
on the air. I'll see you on Friday this Friday
for Baq and A. I'll see you Sunday for the
Washday wou saw. Next week, I've got a special episode
of Brown Ambition Nerd Whallet crossover episode on the Wednesday
(51:32):
before Thanksgiving and then we'll have a little bit of
a throwback for that following weekend with Baqa and Washday
wou Saws. Just trying to be sure that I'm there
for y'all through this holiday season. If there's anything that
you want to hear or you have questions for the show,
don't hesitate to reach out. You can hit me up
Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com or find me
(51:52):
on ig at Brown Ambition Podcast and just slide into
my DMS. I can't wait to hear from y'all. All right,
take Fam, bye, Hey, ba Fam. Let's be real for
a second, and y'all know I keep it a book.
The job market has been brutal, now not brutal trash,
(52:14):
especially for women of color. Over three hundred thousand of
us have disappeared from the workforce this year alone, and
not by choice, but because of layoffs, disappearing DEI programs,
and stagnant wages that keep cutting us out of opportunity.
Our unemployment rate has jumped to over seven percent while
our pay gap continues to widen. I know all of
(52:36):
that sounds dire, but here's what I want y'all to know.
You do not have to wait for the system to
save you. That's exactly why I created the Mandy money
Makers Group coaching community. It is a coaching community that
is built for us by us. Inside the community, we're
not just talking about how to negotiate or to how
to get the job that you want. It's about finding
(52:57):
purpose in your career. It's about finding community and others,
feeling seen, feeling heard, and also having a sounding board
and a mirror to reflect your own magic, your own
sparkle right back to yourself. In this community, you'll get
group coaching led by me, but you also get peer
to peer accountability with proven tools and resources that can
(53:19):
help you do what we have always done since rise.
Even when the odds are stacked against us, despite all
the challenges, we will rise. If you're interested in joining
the Mandy money Makers community and having that support to
bolster you and help you tap back into your magic
so that you can lead your career with intention and
(53:40):
heart and your own intuition, trusting that again, please join us.
You can find information in the show notes of today's
episodes or go to mandymoney dot com slash community. That's
Mandy m ndimney dot com slash community. I would love
to see y'all there. Enrollment is open, so please go
(54:02):
check out mandymoney dot com slash community today
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