March 3, 2022 • 38 mins
As a culture strategist at her core, Tanarra Schneider has always been on a personal quest to marry her passion and purpose of centering humans in everything that she touches. In this episode, we start at the roots of Schneider’s life growing up as a biracial kid in Chicago, up through her current role as a Managing Director of Leadership and Culture at Accenture.
We explore:
- The importance of supporting your mental health and recognizing when you need support
- How the privilege of taking a break can provide centering and an opportunity to recast your future
- Delegation of responsibilities as a form of power for you and empowerment for the people who work with you
About Tanarra Schneider
Based in Chicago, Schneider is a skilled user experience strategist, with a passion for solving key business and social problems by putting the user first. She believes strongly in working with teams and that titles and labels are meaningless – it's the work you do that counts. Her fascinating professional background includes dancing, cooking, event planning, designing and more, and this has provided a holistic approach to her teams and her work.
Among the solutions, she has influenced or created are high fashion websites, customer support tools, intranets, extranets, learning management systems, social health programs, and learning applications. She loves to synthesize concepts visually – and believes a picture IS worth 1000 words. In the near future, Schneider is leaning into her own personal passion projects, including launching a personal coaching consultancy and a project marrying two of her favorite loves, food and storytelling.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jessica Hartley (00:01):
Welcome to the hustle grind shine and reignite
podcast. I'm your host, JessicaHartley. Join me on another
journey with amazing andtalented professionals of color.
We laugh and cry and take notes.
But most of all be inspired allof this and more on our next
episode of hustle, grind, shine.
(00:24):
And let's go Hello, andwelcome to another episode of
hustle, grind, shine andreignite. I am your host,
Jessica Hartley, and I am so sopleased to introduce you to my
guest today. My guest istonight, Schneider, and she is a
(00:47):
cultural strategist and amanaging director at Accenture.
She is also a certified badass,and I am so excited to have her
with me today. Welcome tomorrowto
Tanarra Schneider (01:01):
the show.
Thank you for having me. I'm sohappy to be here. Seriously.
Jessica Hartley (01:07):
I'm so excited.
Well, we're gonna get into allthe juicy bits and all the good
things. But I'm going to take usback to the beginning. We love
to start with childhood. And sopeople's childhoods are amazing,
some are challenging, but we'dlove to hear about growing up
what was home life, like? Whatwas growing up like and what did
you want to be, we always loveto kind of start with kind of
where we were and what wethought we wanted to be. And as
(01:30):
many of us, as you know, in ourcareers, especially as women and
women of color, usually where westart is not where we are today.
I mean, it's a nice littlejourney along the way, and
sometimes a roller coaster ride.
And so we'll get into that. Buttake us back to the beginning.
Where did you grow up and talk alittle bit about little tonnara
for us?
Tanarra Schneider (01:51):
Oh, little tonnara Wow. Yeah, so I am
sitting now and did grow up inChicago. I'm a born and bred
Chicago. And it's interestingthough, thinking about this. I
really am like a product of thiscity that was born on the south
side. I grew up on the northside, my parents moved back to
the south side. So I did too,and then moved to the west side,
(02:15):
like a little bit of everywhere.
So really, genuinely like a trueproduct of Chicago. I left for a
while and swore I was nevercoming back here and clearly
never say never because it'llget you every time.
Jessica Hartley (02:26):
I sure well. I mean, I said that about Georgia.
I just knew I was like movedback to Georgia. And yeah, here.
I mean, New York, all over. Andhere I am back. So it's amazing
how we wind up back where westarted
Tanarra Schneider (02:40):
different.
But it is it's different. Butyeah, I am. I'm biracial, my
mom's white, my dad's black. AndI grew up in Chicago in a time
when I think Chicago was reallyin transition. So I think I
probably felt pretty at homehere. Always being a little bit
between lots of worlds. Yeah,we've you know, just like real
quick on the like the families,because you're right, not
(03:02):
everybody's childhoods are easy.
And frankly, mine was fairlyeasy. I was really privileged to
have a mom who worked her buttoff. So I went to a wonderful
private school. That was notalways easy. I tried it a lot of
my success. I think in lateryears to the education I have, I
also credit my therapy bills tothe school I went to. So yes,
(03:24):
there was a lot of that. Yes.
Yeah. So you know, I grew up akid of the city, very much
ambitious and silly andwonderful. And I was born in the
70s, you know, born in 75. So Igot the benefit of the wonderful
silliness of the 80s. And someof the craziness of that. And,
you know, watching America alsograpple with itself in the wake
(03:44):
of like, the end of the Cold Warand all sorts of other stuff,
right? And I lived really closeto Boys Town. So I grew up with
this sort of really adventuroussense of who you could be. Yeah.
But also in a household that wasvery clear that I was going to
go to college and have a jobthat to earn money and did all
of those things, right? Like Iwas, I was gonna be all those
(04:06):
things. I wanted to be a dancer.
I wanted to be a dancer.
Jessica Hartley (04:13):
And did you dance and did you dance school
in high school? I
Tanarra Schneider (04:17):
started when I was four. And I danced my
entire life until I could notdance anymore, which was in my
20s I started out in
Jessica Hartley (04:28):
ballet started out in ballet, as many of us do.
I did ballet as well. Yeah,yeah.
Tanarra Schneider (04:33):
And then you know what, at the time would
have been like lyrical and jazz?
What I think we now think of ascontemporary when we sort of
meld all those styles together.
But yeah, so really like deepballet roots and then some
lyrical and some jazz andperformed in you know, musicals
and stuff like that in schooland you know, couldn't sing to
(04:54):
say my life but it was alwayslike, you know, waving a rose in
the back. Of course, I coulddance
Jessica Hartley (05:00):
According to the Yeah, me in the same day, I
can do a little duty Bob hereand there on the shower. But
other than that,
Tanarra Schneider (05:07):
that's like, I'll sing karaoke because it's
supposed to be bad. But that'sabout as far as we take that.
Jessica Hartley (05:14):
So now talk to me about that, that delta, I
feel like us of this generation,especially the parents, and the
generations before there waslike, if you could afford to
send your kid to college, youknow, they couldn't go you went,
my parents were both collegeeducated as well, very blessed
in that respect. But though thatcomes with expectations, and I,
(05:34):
you know, I've been tellingfolks recently, I'm like, Hey, I
wanted to be an actress, Iwanted to be a star, and I love
acting and being on stage anddid plays and all of that. But
there was always thisunrelenting. That's cool, that's
a hobby, you need a degree and areal job and all those things.
So how did you square that? Whenyou went to college? And you
(05:56):
know, what did you major in? Andhow did that then get you into,
I guess, the start of yourprofessional career? Well, yeah,
Tanarra Schneider (06:03):
I'm not sure I ever fully squared it. I think
a couple things happened alongthe way. That probably made it
easier. So when I say I, youknow, I attribute my therapy
bills to the school I went to Iwas not kidding. It was not an
easy place to go to school. Itafforded me a lot of
opportunities. There were we hadamazing arts programs, and I was
able to dance at that school.
Like I was dancing at a company,like we had amazing teachers and
(06:25):
things like that. And that wasincredible. But a couple things
didn't happen. One, myselfconfidence was absolute garbage.
And so I ate my way throughmiddle school. And I played a
lot of sports and I dance, so itkept me You know, I think
healthy, but certainly notpetite in any way. And I'm
already almost five, nine.
Jessica Hartley (06:48):
So I'm gonna say you're tall, taller girls.
Yeah,
Tanarra Schneider (06:51):
probably wasn't going to be a ballerina.
And, frankly, you know, by thetime I got to high school, so I
had diverse interests, I playedbasketball along the way. I had
played volleyball and softballas well. So I was really into
sports. At the same time. I wasalso never going to be a
professional dancer, I got hurtreally badly when I was 17. I
tore my labrum in my right hip.
Yeah, oh, my
Jessica Hartley (07:13):
goodness dancer, and what, uh, oh, man. I
mean, those are things that asan adult are hard to navigate.
But even I mean, even with thehealing powers of being young
and being 17, what verytraumatic,
Tanarra Schneider (07:25):
it was. And I think the pain was such that it
was, how do I just get throughthis so I can keep doing what I
love to do. And you know, at thetime, that was all about
cortisone therapy, right, so Iwas getting cortisone shots so
that I could keep dancing, andthat did more damage in the long
run than anything else. But bythe time I got to college, you
know, I graduated, I didn'treally know what I wanted to do.
(07:47):
I thought I wanted to go intophysical therapy. There were
probably some reasons for that,right? I spent quite a bit of
time dealing with my ownphysiology and everything else.
And I was like the trainer forthe boys cross country team. And
so I thought I wanted to getinto physical therapy, it was at
least an avenue to somethingthat seemed interesting. And I
went to University of Illinois,and my first year, my freshman
(08:08):
year, biology 120. So I wasgonna be a biology major, pre
PT, the class was 750 people inthe dark at one o'clock in the
afternoon. How many specific Istayed away for
Jessica Hartley (08:21):
those classes?
Oh, man, they were
Tanarra Schneider (08:24):
always so hard. They call them weed out
classes for a reason. Right? Soyeah, I was good at biology, I
was good at chemistry. But thestructure of it just didn't
work. For me, it's I eventuallyfound my way into two things, I
found my way into an English Litprogram, which I was always
super intrigued by stories,whether it was you know, writing
(08:44):
them, reading them, acting them,whatever it was. And I was
really intrigued by the factthat I had studied so many dead
white men in high school, thatare in African American studies.
So I need to go I needed to gostudy people who look like me
read people who look like me diginto that part of my life a
whole lot more. So that got methrough college, and technically
(09:08):
three and a half years, thebiggest accomplishment for me
and I think the thing that maybewas one of the things that
pushed me was I spent a lot oftime around people who were
really smart trying to figureout what they wanted to do. And
a lot of my friends have endedup being teachers in one way or
another. And so it's like maybeeducation, right, maybe
education. And I did actuallyboth participate in and lead the
(09:30):
dance company at the AfricanAmerican Cultural Center in
college. And wow, it was great.
And I loved teaching dance likeI have always loved that part. I
love choreography. I think Ilike everything more than I like
dancing. And so that has led meto this space of like creating
for others. Yeah, Ichoreographed West Side Story is
the spring musical or collegeand
Jessica Hartley (09:50):
everybody's talking about it now with that
movie. Come Yeah.
Tanarra Schneider (09:54):
I'm so excited. It's gonna be good. But
all of that led me to be like Istill don't entirely know. So I
think I'll go to graduateschool. started to grad school
at UCLA to get a dual master'sin education and African
American Studies. It was theworst decision of my life and
the best decision for so manyreasons.
Jessica Hartley (10:11):
So tell me about that. Why was it the
worst? Well, let's start withthe worst and then go on with it
the best. So sometimes I like totell people I said, sometimes
you do something to know thatyou don't want to do it. Right.
So very curious. So
Tanarra Schneider (10:23):
I have a deep, both love and loathing for
academia at this point in mylife, it is actually kept me
from going back to school again,except for one instance, which
is a very specialized moment inmy life. But I went to UCLA and
a fellowship to UCLA, whichthere were only two of us that
year, who were Fellows is a hugehonor. And the dean of the
(10:44):
program was batshit, crazy,which was heartbreaking because
she was a black woman fromChicago. And I thought it was
going to be amazing. And shetook me under her wing, and I
thought this was going to befantastic. And I had to have an
on campus job. And so I workedfor her. And I, it turned out
that she was disorganized,unethical, all sorts of stuff
(11:08):
that just really was just Itdestroyed me in so many ways. It
was also during proposition 209.
In California, when they weretrying to rescind all of the
ethnic studies programs, becausethey were trying to do away with
firmed of action. Remember that.
And our program was a programand not a department on the frm
side. So we lost all of ourprofessors back to their home
(11:29):
department. So then I tried torely on education to get me
through that first year thinkingthat I would spend time my
education classes. And thereason that I went there was
because there was a professorthere who I thought was a God,
he had written so many amazingbooks around progressive
education. And I was so excited.
And we had a class together onmathematics. And he basically
made a pass at me in like theworst possible way. And it was
(11:53):
like, my eyes were just so opento like the worst of humans in
these spaces of privilege, wherethey feel like they can wield
power in any way they want to.
And because you are stuck therein their minds, and there's
nowhere you can go. They justuse you in any way they see fit.
(12:14):
And so I was really, really,really, like just a mess. I got
a job interning at the Museum ofTolerance that summer while I
was deciding whether I was goingto stay or go. And yeah, that
was the turning point for me.
And I only know that inhindsight that it did not occur
to me then. But it was it didn't
Jessica Hartley (12:31):
it didn't even feel like amazing. It was
amazing. Yeah, talk to me aboutthat. How did you even find out
about the opportunity there? Andwhat did you do?
Tanarra Schneider (12:40):
I was looking for a place where I could
leverage the technologyknowledge I was starting to
build because part of the work Iwas doing under this professor
was building the first web sitefor Studies in the African
diaspora. And so I had reallystarted to understand
technology. And I was buildingmy own computers. And I was
(13:02):
doing all these things. And theywere looking for I was just
looking literally lookingthrough job listings, and had at
least access to like grad leveljob listings, because of my
position with this professor. SoI happened to come across a few
postings and they were lookingfor folks who were really
interested in the kind of theintersection of stories and
culture and could talk about andthink about technology. And so I
(13:27):
went I just I applied and rightthis is the day where you send a
resume in like there's noLinkedIn about applying for
resume had to be submitted.
Jessica Hartley (13:39):
Know how good they don't know how good I mean,
I get the automated systems noware awful. But I'm like y'all
don't remember where you have togo get this special paper from
Staples or Office Depot
Tanarra Schneider (13:51):
with the resume paper.
Jessica Hartley (13:53):
If you know and you get the folder if you could
afford it, because that stuffwas expensive at 2030 $40 for
the paper, the two types ofpaper and then the matching on
the lope and writing nicely andall of that and then handwriting
thank you notes if you did thatas well that people would have
known.
Tanarra Schneider (14:10):
And it was it was so great. I was invited in
for the interview and I show upand I mean they have to show is
this beautiful Holocaust Museumin Los Angeles. I'm a black
woman. But my last name isSchneider. So you there's no
pictures on the internet y'all.
I just want to emphasize this.
So you can
Jessica Hartley (14:32):
be surprised.
Tanarra Schneider (14:34):
They're like to nourish nighter and I was
like yeah, that's me. Hi, howyou doing? It was just sort of
this hilarious moment, but itwas so beautiful for me because
my family and my mom is Jewishby heritage. I grew up in
synagogues with my best friends.
As a kid. We didn't practice butI know so much about it and I've
spent so much time around it. Itwas just such a wonderful like
(14:55):
homecoming in some ways becauseI got to Explore so much of who
I am in a very different waythat I never thought I would be
able to, and learn so much moreabout myself and about justice
and about the way we treatpeople and about the true
genuine source of evil and fearand how you overcome that. And
(15:17):
there were Holocaust survivorsthat were there every week
telling their stories. And theyhad an exhibit on Rwanda at the
time. So I got to learn aboutthat. And I was a docent in the
Holocaust exhibit. And then Igot to work on programs for
kids. Because education was oneof the things I was focused on,
I got to write, you know,exhibit work and tour work for
kids who are too young to be onthe museum floor. It's pretty
(15:40):
rough. Yeah, it's very. And soit just taught me a lot about
how do you take the skills youhave, and make them relevant in
a space that seems entirelyforeign? And I think that's
probably one of the hallmarks ofmy career.
Jessica Hartley (15:55):
So would you say that was the point really,
for you where you saw? Well, Iguess, first, did you go back?
Did you go back and finish? Ordid you was that like the
catalyst that said, I found thepurpose and calling that is not
in this place? No, the catalyst
Tanarra Schneider (16:12):
is my parents, my parents called me
and said, You're coming home.
Actually, moreover, my dadcalled me, he never called me to
tell me anything. My dad calledme and said, I'm coming to get
you, you have a week back yourstuff. Wow. Because they were so
worried about my mental health,you're so worried about me that
I tend to be fairly rebellious.
So I don't always listen, I alsoknow when to listen. And I knew
(16:36):
when to listen, I knew I had tolisten, I didn't, there was no
magic moment, there was no lightbulb that went off, I was fully
immersed in that experience. Andit was wonderful. I still didn't
entirely know what to do withit. But I also did know that
UCLA was not going to be a placethat I could exist and be
healthy.
Jessica Hartley (16:53):
Yeah, we could do episodes for days on the
challenges of what of academiaand then also how people of
color experience academia,health as students and graduate
students, but also as professorshaving to navigate you know, not
unlike how we have to navigatethe troubled waters of corporate
America, right every day. So youmoved into, I mean, ultimately,
(17:17):
you moved into this amazingfrontier. And I call it a
frontier because you know,everyday things are changing and
growing and moving and shiftingas we think about the
intersection of design, andtechnology, and user experience
kind of all coming together andwhat that means, not just in
connecting right from acapitalist perspective of
(17:39):
connecting brands and consumerstogether, but I mean, it is also
about creating betterexperiences for patients in
healthcare, right, and thingslike that. Talk a little bit
about your career arc. So youwent back home. Yeah, dad is
like, I'm coming to get my girl,we gotta go. We love you. We
care about you. God bless thoseparentals and guardians, and
(18:02):
just angels that look out for usthat know better for us if we
don't, God bless us that havethose in our lives. So talk a
little bit about that sort ofcareer arc that got you sort of
leaving, going leaving UCLA,going back to Chicago, and then
kind of forging a new path fromthere. Yeah,
Tanarra Schneider (18:20):
it's a giant, loopy roller coaster. I mean,
it'd be great if it was an arc,but it's a weird, loopy roller
coaster. So back to Chicago andcouldn't find a job. Remember,
all those resumes were talkingabout sent out like 40 of those
things, could not find a job. SoI started temping, because I
needed to make money. I was onlygonna stay at home for so long.
I got a job working for a smallfinance and insurance brokerage
(18:41):
firm called mesurer. Financial,and they needed somebody for
eight weeks, somebody was goingout the executive system was
going out on that leave. So Iwas an EA for eight weeks. But
what happened there was that Iwas an EA in a technology
department. And inside of thetechnology department, there was
a woman who ran all of theirinternal training. And so again,
(19:03):
right, that pivot of takingskills and things you do that
are relevant in differentcontexts. I took everything I
knew about teaching fromteaching dance, and all sorts of
other stuff. Everything I knewabout writing because the
materials they were using toteach were terrible. And I
started teaching classes becausethey were moving. You had
support staff that was movingfrom like window or typewriters
(19:23):
and brain screen terminals toWindows and Office. And that is
a leap. And I think that's thebeginning of you know what you
said like this idea of creatingexperiences for people that
where they can thrive butfrankly, start with that just
don't suck. Things that don'tterrify people, and I watched
women who were in their 50sClose enough to retirement come
(19:46):
into my classroom, afraid theywere going to lose their jobs if
they couldn't learn how to usethis new software and learn how
to use a computer. One of thembrought a box tissue every day,
and she cried every day, right?
But I started to realize thatthere was actually something
that was relevant for me that Icould do bringing all bits of me
my creativity, my ability towrite my ability to see people
(20:06):
to take my time and to teach ina way that was probably much
less like corporate version,read the manual and a lot more.
Okay, let's do step one. Nowlet's do step one and step two.
Now let's do step one, step two,and step three, which really
goes back to choreography? Forme, it's like, how do you build
something? Right? Yeah. So yes.
(20:29):
And so that's I mean, that'swhere like that is the through
line for my career islegitimately creating
experiences and systems wherepeople can thrive. But let's
start with ones that don't suck.
Like we just, we have to startsomewhere. And so it's taken me
a bunch of different places, Iwent from there, and I got a
full time job there, stay therefor a while and went to like my
(20:49):
first sort of outside consultingcompany from there building
software to teach people in thatsame way, I found a company that
was really cool at the time thatwas doing some unique stuff with
being able to capture Livesoftware, and then turn it into
a training mechanism where youcan make it a safe to fail
environment, so that you canlearn and you could start over
again, and it didn't messanything up. I went and did
(21:12):
that. And then I did big systemsimplementations, like I went
from there to doing big tech andlike SAP and PeopleSoft for
Tribune Company. And, you know,there's just nothing like trying
to blueprint, a system from theground up to try to make sure it
doesn't suck a lot. And a lot ofit did. Yeah, it's
Jessica Hartley (21:33):
hard. But I
Tanarra Schneider (21:34):
learned a lot. And I'm not a technologist,
right? I'm a storyteller. And Iam truly, you know, I am a
strategist in so many ways. AndI became a designer over time,
right? I didn't go to DesignSchool. And we didn't really
know what UX I didn't know whatUX and service design all those
things were then. But as mycareer grew, and as I started to
do other things like that timeat Tribune really starting to
understand the intent and theoutcome. And that's what design
(21:56):
is, right? It's making theintended outcome match one
another. And I would just addthrough a process that is
uniquely human and humancentered, right. So really
trying to understand and map howpeople work and what they need
from a system and what thebusiness needs. I've been able
to carve this really interestingspace where I've done everything
from do that work that I talkedabout to move to New York to
(22:17):
stand up Jeff Lou's elearningplatform and program from the
ground up, then I went agencyside because I was like, this is
kind of cool. What does it looklike on the other side, when I
did it for clients, like cardio,and Chanel and Citibank? And,
you know, I think one of myproudest moments is I designed
what would become the cookingschool for America's Test
Kitchen and cooks illustrated.
That's amazing. That was so muchfun. And it ties very directly
(22:41):
to the one educationalexperience that I did manage to
go back and have, which is Iwent to culinary school midway
through because I needed abreak. So after I left Tribune,
I took a break for about a yearand a half. And once culinary
school, and then I cooked for awhile. And even that still about
creating amazing experiences forpeople because I was really
(23:02):
interested in catering notnecessarily working in big
kitchens, but in creatingbespoke events, creativity,
problem solving, right? Yeah,well, there, yeah, I'll leave
someone going, you know, and Iwent did my way through a bunch
of agencies, and ended up whereI am now, which was, you know,
seven years of leading designpractice inside of Accenture in
(23:24):
various ways. And now as theNorth America lead for
leadership and culture, becauseit's still about now making
systems truly organizationalsystems and companies suck less,
and spaces where people canthrive. Same thing, it's the
same exact thing, I just nolonger want to talk to you about
your technology, which I know islike heresy at the company that
(23:47):
I work at, there's so manybrilliant technologists, I need
to be a humanist and I was atechnologist and designer for
seven years and now it's time tobe a humanist again,
Jessica Hartley (23:58):
I love that time to be a human, less human,
they suck less, and help peoplethrive. I love that. Talk to me
about thank you for sharing thatyou took a break. Because I feel
like we don't give ourselves theability to take a break. And
it's hard and to take a break isalso you know, we'll recognize
(24:18):
that there's a privilege in whatwhat it means to take a break
and taking a break to meandifferent things for different
people. Sometimes that's asabbatical sometimes it's a
career pivot or shift. And Iguess how have you and for many
of us, I think it's a journey.
You talked about how hard yourmom worked in your mom bit
working on parents working hard,and I think we often come from
roots of hard working guardiansand parents and so we see that
(24:40):
hustle and grind. What we didn'tsee a lot of in a lot of cases
sometimes it's care forthemselves. And we're always you
know, when women are often thecaregivers and I also know that
you're like me a mother as well.
How's your journey been oflearning to take care of
yourself and What that means forself care, self love, time and
(25:04):
rest. How's that been for you?
Tanarra Schneider (25:07):
I'm terrible.
I'm getting better at it. Sopart of what started me to take
a break, I was 27. So notparticularly old, had not been
working that long, but I havebeen working really hard. So
when I was doing all the systemswork attributes, I was flying
back and forth every week, verymuch like a consulting gig,
(25:28):
right, I was at home for maybethree days every week, didn't
see friends didn't see familygained a whole bunch of weight,
treated myself terribly, did notwork out was not disciplined
about that stuff. And the nightbefore my 26th birthday, I was
in a hotel room in FortLauderdale, Florida, and I had
panic attack, supposed to meetmy team for dinner, and I
(25:50):
couldn't leave the hotel roomcould not get off the floor. And
I knew I could not spend manymore days like that, if I was
going to make it. And I don'tmean like, I meet you live and I
was going to live, I needed todo something else. And I'm
pretty sure I told my motherright around that time that I
(26:10):
was when this particular projectwas done, I was going to leave
and go to culinary school. And Iwas making six figures at 26. So
when you say that to somebodywho has sprint and worked their
butts off and worked overtime,and comes from very meager
resources, and has made a lifefor herself working very, very
hard, that is like stabbingsomebody in the face. And I
(26:31):
think she thought I was nuts.
But I also knew I had to do it.
And I did and it was absolutelythe right thing for me to do.
Over time, I've gotten a littlebit better at it. And I've
gotten a little bit worse at it.
And a lot of our environmentsdon't create spaces for us to do
that. Right? We don't whetheryou have the privilege or not,
and I was privileged enough atthe time to have made enough
(26:54):
money that I could take thatbreak and go to school, I did
some consulting and contractingon the side just because I
couldn't help myself. But it ishard, especially when you have
kids to feel like you can takethat break. And I am a single
mom, her dad and I sharecustody. So I am well aware that
like I have to be able to takecare of her have to be able to
take care of us. And so now I'mtrying to get better at boundary
(27:16):
setting. I was terrible about itduring the pandemic, which I
think a lot of people were I waspretty bad at it prior to that
if I'm honest.
Jessica Hartley (27:24):
Video, I think we a lot of
Tanarra Schneider (27:26):
us were Yeah.
And so I'm learning I'mlearning. I've just taken myself
down to a four day a weekworkweek, it does mean those
Monday through Thursday is realbusy. Right? It's really busy.
It also really helped meprioritize my time, it's given
me an opportunity to begenerous, and it sounds crazy.
But delegating actually is oneof the most generous things we
can do as leaders, because whenwe hold on to everything, our
(27:48):
people don't get a chance tolearn. They don't get a chance
to grow. So I don't tie mydaughter shoes every day,
because she's learned how to tieher shoes. Why would I do all of
the work on my team, my team'snot gonna learn to tie their
shoes. So I am tryingdesperately to remember that my
team is brilliant. The people Iwork with are entirely capable.
(28:10):
And it's actually beneficial foreverybody. If I step away for a
day, as long as I get my workdone, I'm not a bottleneck for
anybody else. I should be ableto step away for a day and think
and clear my head and be thekind of mother human being boss,
daughter, friend, all thosethings. I need to be some
learning. Yeah.
Jessica Hartley (28:32):
I love that.
Thank you for sharing so much. Ithink, you know, it's so
important that we talk about notonly the successes and the wins,
but the challenges and the veryhuman challenges. Same for me, I
have never been it's usuallyjust like, go go go and then
crash. You know, you had yourcrash at 2726. Myself. Mine was
and you know, you don't realizeit again until much later. But I
(28:56):
was like crazy busy. That middleschool, high school college, I
was on the Red Cross Youth boardand traveling, I was doing all
the things that people do intheir 20s when they have a full
time job. Internships, I mean, Iwas going hard. I graduated
school in three and a half yearsbecause I got to finish early
and all these things. And so Itell people, people will you
(29:18):
know, you move to New York, whatdid you do that first year like
the first six months, in six tonine months right before
actually 911 happened? I did notdo it. I stayed home I worked at
an internet company. I stayedhome. I did my job every day.
But I went to the library and Iordered takeout and I watched
eight at the time it was ondemand. We didn't have all the
(29:39):
things that we have now. Wedidn't have Netflix and watch on
I didn't do anything. Do youwant to go out? No, I didn't go
anywhere for like six months. Itwas like literally my version of
a crash because I had burnedmyself out between high school
and college. So still learningwhat it means to take care of
myself and to pause and beingmindful Also what I'm doing in
(29:59):
what I'm showing my children.
Because I watched my mom Mom isamazing. But she never rested.
She always worked. She went backto school, she did all these
things. Suddenly now you knowthat she's retired and a
grandmother that I see the rest.
And I want to try to show mykids now what it means to to
(30:21):
show my daughter who's five,what it means to take care of
yourself now with self caremeans down, you know?
Tanarra Schneider (30:27):
Yep, absolutely. Yeah.
Jessica Hartley (30:30):
Talk to me about what reignite you. So when
we're talking about, you know,self care, and what brings you
excitement, what gets you, youknow, as you're thinking about
even just the future, and like,what you're excited about what
is coming on the horizon? I knowall of us are like, how can we
(30:51):
at least movie on the madness ofthis pandemic right now. So we
can start hoping and wishing forfuture? What does that feel like
for you, when you think aboutthe word reignite and just sort
of fueling yourself what getsyou excited?
Tanarra Schneider (31:06):
I think there's a couple of things that
really get me excited. So oneis, like so many people, I have
decided to redesign my spaceduring this time and actually
find that that is huge. So myhouse is under construction will
be done in a couple of weeks. Soexciting. But actually found
that that is something thatreally fuels me, I love hands on
(31:30):
design. And I've gotten so faraway as in my leadership roles
from making things, right. So Iam a creative, I did go to
culinary school, I like to cookI like to sew. So honestly, like
one of the things that fuels meis art projects with my daughter
and thinking aboutwhat's the right fiber kind of
(31:51):
curtains for this room, like allof those details, just really do
energize me. And they've givenme an idea of like, where some
spaces I want to spend timegoing forward, as I think about
five or so years down the road,what I want to be doing, and I'm
not somebody who likes a fiveyear plan, like I've got some
next steps, real comfortablewith ambiguity. So got a couple
(32:11):
things that are on the horizon.
And the other one is reallygetting back into food and
storytelling into material. Sothat little project that I'm
working on right now that maybeyou'll join me for one of these
days,
Jessica Hartley (32:30):
in call me to food storytelling or to
Tanarra Schneider (32:36):
Yes, to explore the origins of food, and
I wanted to explore the originsof people all at the same time.
So um, there's a little, there'sbeen content creation happening
in the background that I'mreally, really excited about.
That should show up in the formof like a video series and
podcast at some point next year.
So really looking forward tolike making things again, I
think that's the stuff thatfeels me, I think a lot during
(33:00):
the day. And I spend a lot oftime kind of in thought
leadership spaces, and coachingothers, which is something I
absolutely adore doing. And I'mdoing more and more of these
days, but really want to makesome stuff.
Jessica Hartley (33:12):
Oh, I love it.
I love it. The making is soimportant. And something that
even me doing this, this podcastof this show was something for
me to say, you know, we do a lotof to your point, the brain
work, and a lot of the emotionalwork in our leadership spaces. I
have people call me like, oh,come do this role. And I'm like,
I don't think you understand Idon't build websites anymore. I
(33:33):
coached the other eye coach Oh,that you know, I'm thinking
about other things and otherchallenges and problems and
coaching others to your point, Ilove that the note about the
delegation, like the biggestthing we can do is give
responsibility and support toothers. So but I love this idea
of getting back to making thisthese are forms of making and
(33:53):
creation as we close down. And Ijust want to say thank you so
much for sharing so much aboutyour journey, and your life in
your story and the rollercoaster, and all the beauty that
has made Sinara you're just sucha light. For many of us. It's an
honor and I in the prep session,were just sort of chatting. And
(34:14):
I was like I've spent so muchtime around tomorrow, but we've
never actually had theopportunity to work together.
But you know the impact thatpeople can have when they cast a
halo and you've never actuallyworked with them? What advice
would you give or as you thinkabout all the things that you've
learned and that you'veexperienced as we think about
young people. I have so muchempathy for the young generation
(34:36):
right now that is, you know,high school college, thinking
about career battling this ideaof passion and purpose and
profit and in what it means tofulfill them and sustain them.
What advice if you had to giveone or two pieces of advice to a
young man of color a young womanof color, who's navigate some of
(34:58):
those challenges and all of themidst of in a pandemic, and
technology shifts in themetaverse and just just so much
things that I think areoverwhelming our senses in
keeping us from just being sortof grounded and rooted. What
advice would you have for ayoung person these days?
Tanarra Schneider (35:19):
I think there's two things. One, it is
entirely okay to feel the waythat you feel, don't let anybody
tell you, you shouldn't feelthose things. A lot of people
are going to tell you how youshould feel about something,
whether it's something thathappened at work, something
that's happening in the world, alot of people are gonna tell you
how to feel. Don't let them dothat. Feel the way you feel. In
(35:39):
doing that, though, you aloneare not the answer to any one of
these things that we are facing.
Whether it is inequities inbusiness, lack of diversity in
the place you work at systemicsocial inequality, you alone are
not the answer. So take abreath, and focus your impact.
If you try to solve everything,you are going to burn yourself
(36:02):
out, and you will solve nothing.
So take a breath, focus yourimpact and find others to work
with not just people who thinklike you and talk like you and
look like you build a coalitionof people you can work with. So
you have different perspectives.
And you can challenge oneanother, on your thinking echo
chambers are very easy to find,especially now and regardless of
(36:26):
what side of an issue you fallon. So take a breath, find a
coalition make an impact.
Jessica Hartley (36:35):
I love that focus, focus. I think that is
something that I am continuingto work on. already working on.
You know, because we're, we wantto help everybody we want to say
you know, save the world. Andsometimes you have to save
yourself before you can save theworld. Thank you tomorrow, you
have been so just delightful andinsightful. And I know your
(37:00):
story in your journey is goingto just really help to ignite in
be a catalyst to others. So Iappreciate all the honesty and
transparency that you haveshared with me and with our
audience and listeners today.
And I am so excited about someof these projects that you have
coming up and look forward tohopefully having you back to
share more about the newprojects that you got on the
(37:22):
table. Appreciate you so much.
Thanks.
Tanarra Schneider (37:25):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me.
Jessica Hartley (37:31):
Thank you for listening to another episode of
hustle, grind, shine andreignite. If you'd like this
episode, like subscribe andshare on all your favorite
podcasts. I hope you'll tune into the next episode featuring
another amazing and talentedprofessional. In the meantime,
(37:52):
shine bright
Welcome to the hustle grind shine and reignite
podcast. I'm your host, JessicaHartley. Join me on another
journey with amazing andtalented professionals of color.
We laugh and cry and take notes.
But most of all be inspired allof this and more on our next
episode of hustle, grind, shine.
(00:24):
And let's go Hello, andwelcome to another episode of
hustle, grind, shine andreignite. I am your host,
Jessica Hartley, and I am so sopleased to introduce you to my
guest today. My guest istonight, Schneider, and she is a
(00:47):
cultural strategist and amanaging director at Accenture.
She is also a certified badass,and I am so excited to have her
with me today. Welcome tomorrowto
Tanarra Schneider (01:01):
the show.
Thank you for having me. I'm sohappy to be here. Seriously.
Jessica Hartley (01:07):
I'm so excited.
Well, we're gonna get into allthe juicy bits and all the good
things. But I'm going to take usback to the beginning. We love
to start with childhood. And sopeople's childhoods are amazing,
some are challenging, but we'dlove to hear about growing up
what was home life, like? Whatwas growing up like and what did
you want to be, we always loveto kind of start with kind of
where we were and what wethought we wanted to be. And as
(01:30):
many of us, as you know, in ourcareers, especially as women and
women of color, usually where westart is not where we are today.
I mean, it's a nice littlejourney along the way, and
sometimes a roller coaster ride.
And so we'll get into that. Buttake us back to the beginning.
Where did you grow up and talk alittle bit about little tonnara
for us?
Tanarra Schneider (01:51):
Oh, little tonnara Wow. Yeah, so I am
sitting now and did grow up inChicago. I'm a born and bred
Chicago. And it's interestingthough, thinking about this. I
really am like a product of thiscity that was born on the south
side. I grew up on the northside, my parents moved back to
the south side. So I did too,and then moved to the west side,
(02:15):
like a little bit of everywhere.
So really, genuinely like a trueproduct of Chicago. I left for a
while and swore I was nevercoming back here and clearly
never say never because it'llget you every time.
Jessica Hartley (02:26):
I sure well. I mean, I said that about Georgia.
I just knew I was like movedback to Georgia. And yeah, here.
I mean, New York, all over. Andhere I am back. So it's amazing
how we wind up back where westarted
Tanarra Schneider (02:40):
different.
But it is it's different. Butyeah, I am. I'm biracial, my
mom's white, my dad's black. AndI grew up in Chicago in a time
when I think Chicago was reallyin transition. So I think I
probably felt pretty at homehere. Always being a little bit
between lots of worlds. Yeah,we've you know, just like real
quick on the like the families,because you're right, not
(03:02):
everybody's childhoods are easy.
And frankly, mine was fairlyeasy. I was really privileged to
have a mom who worked her buttoff. So I went to a wonderful
private school. That was notalways easy. I tried it a lot of
my success. I think in lateryears to the education I have, I
also credit my therapy bills tothe school I went to. So yes,
(03:24):
there was a lot of that. Yes.
Yeah. So you know, I grew up akid of the city, very much
ambitious and silly andwonderful. And I was born in the
70s, you know, born in 75. So Igot the benefit of the wonderful
silliness of the 80s. And someof the craziness of that. And,
you know, watching America alsograpple with itself in the wake
(03:44):
of like, the end of the Cold Warand all sorts of other stuff,
right? And I lived really closeto Boys Town. So I grew up with
this sort of really adventuroussense of who you could be. Yeah.
But also in a household that wasvery clear that I was going to
go to college and have a jobthat to earn money and did all
of those things, right? Like Iwas, I was gonna be all those
(04:06):
things. I wanted to be a dancer.
I wanted to be a dancer.
Jessica Hartley (04:13):
And did you dance and did you dance school
in high school? I
Tanarra Schneider (04:17):
started when I was four. And I danced my
entire life until I could notdance anymore, which was in my
20s I started out in
Jessica Hartley (04:28):
ballet started out in ballet, as many of us do.
I did ballet as well. Yeah,yeah.
Tanarra Schneider (04:33):
And then you know what, at the time would
have been like lyrical and jazz?
What I think we now think of ascontemporary when we sort of
meld all those styles together.
But yeah, so really like deepballet roots and then some
lyrical and some jazz andperformed in you know, musicals
and stuff like that in schooland you know, couldn't sing to
(04:54):
say my life but it was alwayslike, you know, waving a rose in
the back. Of course, I coulddance
Jessica Hartley (05:00):
According to the Yeah, me in the same day, I
can do a little duty Bob hereand there on the shower. But
other than that,
Tanarra Schneider (05:07):
that's like, I'll sing karaoke because it's
supposed to be bad. But that'sabout as far as we take that.
Jessica Hartley (05:14):
So now talk to me about that, that delta, I
feel like us of this generation,especially the parents, and the
generations before there waslike, if you could afford to
send your kid to college, youknow, they couldn't go you went,
my parents were both collegeeducated as well, very blessed
in that respect. But though thatcomes with expectations, and I,
(05:34):
you know, I've been tellingfolks recently, I'm like, Hey, I
wanted to be an actress, Iwanted to be a star, and I love
acting and being on stage anddid plays and all of that. But
there was always thisunrelenting. That's cool, that's
a hobby, you need a degree and areal job and all those things.
So how did you square that? Whenyou went to college? And you
(05:56):
know, what did you major in? Andhow did that then get you into,
I guess, the start of yourprofessional career? Well, yeah,
Tanarra Schneider (06:03):
I'm not sure I ever fully squared it. I think
a couple things happened alongthe way. That probably made it
easier. So when I say I, youknow, I attribute my therapy
bills to the school I went to Iwas not kidding. It was not an
easy place to go to school. Itafforded me a lot of
opportunities. There were we hadamazing arts programs, and I was
able to dance at that school.
Like I was dancing at a company,like we had amazing teachers and
(06:25):
things like that. And that wasincredible. But a couple things
didn't happen. One, myselfconfidence was absolute garbage.
And so I ate my way throughmiddle school. And I played a
lot of sports and I dance, so itkept me You know, I think
healthy, but certainly notpetite in any way. And I'm
already almost five, nine.
Jessica Hartley (06:48):
So I'm gonna say you're tall, taller girls.
Yeah,
Tanarra Schneider (06:51):
probably wasn't going to be a ballerina.
And, frankly, you know, by thetime I got to high school, so I
had diverse interests, I playedbasketball along the way. I had
played volleyball and softballas well. So I was really into
sports. At the same time. I wasalso never going to be a
professional dancer, I got hurtreally badly when I was 17. I
tore my labrum in my right hip.
Yeah, oh, my
Jessica Hartley (07:13):
goodness dancer, and what, uh, oh, man. I
mean, those are things that asan adult are hard to navigate.
But even I mean, even with thehealing powers of being young
and being 17, what verytraumatic,
Tanarra Schneider (07:25):
it was. And I think the pain was such that it
was, how do I just get throughthis so I can keep doing what I
love to do. And you know, at thetime, that was all about
cortisone therapy, right, so Iwas getting cortisone shots so
that I could keep dancing, andthat did more damage in the long
run than anything else. But bythe time I got to college, you
know, I graduated, I didn'treally know what I wanted to do.
(07:47):
I thought I wanted to go intophysical therapy. There were
probably some reasons for that,right? I spent quite a bit of
time dealing with my ownphysiology and everything else.
And I was like the trainer forthe boys cross country team. And
so I thought I wanted to getinto physical therapy, it was at
least an avenue to somethingthat seemed interesting. And I
went to University of Illinois,and my first year, my freshman
(08:08):
year, biology 120. So I wasgonna be a biology major, pre
PT, the class was 750 people inthe dark at one o'clock in the
afternoon. How many specific Istayed away for
Jessica Hartley (08:21):
those classes?
Oh, man, they were
Tanarra Schneider (08:24):
always so hard. They call them weed out
classes for a reason. Right? Soyeah, I was good at biology, I
was good at chemistry. But thestructure of it just didn't
work. For me, it's I eventuallyfound my way into two things, I
found my way into an English Litprogram, which I was always
super intrigued by stories,whether it was you know, writing
(08:44):
them, reading them, acting them,whatever it was. And I was
really intrigued by the factthat I had studied so many dead
white men in high school, thatare in African American studies.
So I need to go I needed to gostudy people who look like me
read people who look like me diginto that part of my life a
whole lot more. So that got methrough college, and technically
(09:08):
three and a half years, thebiggest accomplishment for me
and I think the thing that maybewas one of the things that
pushed me was I spent a lot oftime around people who were
really smart trying to figureout what they wanted to do. And
a lot of my friends have endedup being teachers in one way or
another. And so it's like maybeeducation, right, maybe
education. And I did actuallyboth participate in and lead the
(09:30):
dance company at the AfricanAmerican Cultural Center in
college. And wow, it was great.
And I loved teaching dance likeI have always loved that part. I
love choreography. I think Ilike everything more than I like
dancing. And so that has led meto this space of like creating
for others. Yeah, Ichoreographed West Side Story is
the spring musical or collegeand
Jessica Hartley (09:50):
everybody's talking about it now with that
movie. Come Yeah.
Tanarra Schneider (09:54):
I'm so excited. It's gonna be good. But
all of that led me to be like Istill don't entirely know. So I
think I'll go to graduateschool. started to grad school
at UCLA to get a dual master'sin education and African
American Studies. It was theworst decision of my life and
the best decision for so manyreasons.
Jessica Hartley (10:11):
So tell me about that. Why was it the
worst? Well, let's start withthe worst and then go on with it
the best. So sometimes I like totell people I said, sometimes
you do something to know thatyou don't want to do it. Right.
So very curious. So
Tanarra Schneider (10:23):
I have a deep, both love and loathing for
academia at this point in mylife, it is actually kept me
from going back to school again,except for one instance, which
is a very specialized moment inmy life. But I went to UCLA and
a fellowship to UCLA, whichthere were only two of us that
year, who were Fellows is a hugehonor. And the dean of the
(10:44):
program was batshit, crazy,which was heartbreaking because
she was a black woman fromChicago. And I thought it was
going to be amazing. And shetook me under her wing, and I
thought this was going to befantastic. And I had to have an
on campus job. And so I workedfor her. And I, it turned out
that she was disorganized,unethical, all sorts of stuff
(11:08):
that just really was just Itdestroyed me in so many ways. It
was also during proposition 209.
In California, when they weretrying to rescind all of the
ethnic studies programs, becausethey were trying to do away with
firmed of action. Remember that.
And our program was a programand not a department on the frm
side. So we lost all of ourprofessors back to their home
(11:29):
department. So then I tried torely on education to get me
through that first year thinkingthat I would spend time my
education classes. And thereason that I went there was
because there was a professorthere who I thought was a God,
he had written so many amazingbooks around progressive
education. And I was so excited.
And we had a class together onmathematics. And he basically
made a pass at me in like theworst possible way. And it was
(11:53):
like, my eyes were just so opento like the worst of humans in
these spaces of privilege, wherethey feel like they can wield
power in any way they want to.
And because you are stuck therein their minds, and there's
nowhere you can go. They justuse you in any way they see fit.
(12:14):
And so I was really, really,really, like just a mess. I got
a job interning at the Museum ofTolerance that summer while I
was deciding whether I was goingto stay or go. And yeah, that
was the turning point for me.
And I only know that inhindsight that it did not occur
to me then. But it was it didn't
Jessica Hartley (12:31):
it didn't even feel like amazing. It was
amazing. Yeah, talk to me aboutthat. How did you even find out
about the opportunity there? Andwhat did you do?
Tanarra Schneider (12:40):
I was looking for a place where I could
leverage the technologyknowledge I was starting to
build because part of the work Iwas doing under this professor
was building the first web sitefor Studies in the African
diaspora. And so I had reallystarted to understand
technology. And I was buildingmy own computers. And I was
(13:02):
doing all these things. And theywere looking for I was just
looking literally lookingthrough job listings, and had at
least access to like grad leveljob listings, because of my
position with this professor. SoI happened to come across a few
postings and they were lookingfor folks who were really
interested in the kind of theintersection of stories and
culture and could talk about andthink about technology. And so I
(13:27):
went I just I applied and rightthis is the day where you send a
resume in like there's noLinkedIn about applying for
resume had to be submitted.
Jessica Hartley (13:39):
Know how good they don't know how good I mean,
I get the automated systems noware awful. But I'm like y'all
don't remember where you have togo get this special paper from
Staples or Office Depot
Tanarra Schneider (13:51):
with the resume paper.
Jessica Hartley (13:53):
If you know and you get the folder if you could
afford it, because that stuffwas expensive at 2030 $40 for
the paper, the two types ofpaper and then the matching on
the lope and writing nicely andall of that and then handwriting
thank you notes if you did thatas well that people would have
known.
Tanarra Schneider (14:10):
And it was it was so great. I was invited in
for the interview and I show upand I mean they have to show is
this beautiful Holocaust Museumin Los Angeles. I'm a black
woman. But my last name isSchneider. So you there's no
pictures on the internet y'all.
I just want to emphasize this.
So you can
Jessica Hartley (14:32):
be surprised.
Tanarra Schneider (14:34):
They're like to nourish nighter and I was
like yeah, that's me. Hi, howyou doing? It was just sort of
this hilarious moment, but itwas so beautiful for me because
my family and my mom is Jewishby heritage. I grew up in
synagogues with my best friends.
As a kid. We didn't practice butI know so much about it and I've
spent so much time around it. Itwas just such a wonderful like
(14:55):
homecoming in some ways becauseI got to Explore so much of who
I am in a very different waythat I never thought I would be
able to, and learn so much moreabout myself and about justice
and about the way we treatpeople and about the true
genuine source of evil and fearand how you overcome that. And
(15:17):
there were Holocaust survivorsthat were there every week
telling their stories. And theyhad an exhibit on Rwanda at the
time. So I got to learn aboutthat. And I was a docent in the
Holocaust exhibit. And then Igot to work on programs for
kids. Because education was oneof the things I was focused on,
I got to write, you know,exhibit work and tour work for
kids who are too young to be onthe museum floor. It's pretty
(15:40):
rough. Yeah, it's very. And soit just taught me a lot about
how do you take the skills youhave, and make them relevant in
a space that seems entirelyforeign? And I think that's
probably one of the hallmarks ofmy career.
Jessica Hartley (15:55):
So would you say that was the point really,
for you where you saw? Well, Iguess, first, did you go back?
Did you go back and finish? Ordid you was that like the
catalyst that said, I found thepurpose and calling that is not
in this place? No, the catalyst
Tanarra Schneider (16:12):
is my parents, my parents called me
and said, You're coming home.
Actually, moreover, my dadcalled me, he never called me to
tell me anything. My dad calledme and said, I'm coming to get
you, you have a week back yourstuff. Wow. Because they were so
worried about my mental health,you're so worried about me that
I tend to be fairly rebellious.
So I don't always listen, I alsoknow when to listen. And I knew
(16:36):
when to listen, I knew I had tolisten, I didn't, there was no
magic moment, there was no lightbulb that went off, I was fully
immersed in that experience. Andit was wonderful. I still didn't
entirely know what to do withit. But I also did know that
UCLA was not going to be a placethat I could exist and be
healthy.
Jessica Hartley (16:53):
Yeah, we could do episodes for days on the
challenges of what of academiaand then also how people of
color experience academia,health as students and graduate
students, but also as professorshaving to navigate you know, not
unlike how we have to navigatethe troubled waters of corporate
America, right every day. So youmoved into, I mean, ultimately,
(17:17):
you moved into this amazingfrontier. And I call it a
frontier because you know,everyday things are changing and
growing and moving and shiftingas we think about the
intersection of design, andtechnology, and user experience
kind of all coming together andwhat that means, not just in
connecting right from acapitalist perspective of
(17:39):
connecting brands and consumerstogether, but I mean, it is also
about creating betterexperiences for patients in
healthcare, right, and thingslike that. Talk a little bit
about your career arc. So youwent back home. Yeah, dad is
like, I'm coming to get my girl,we gotta go. We love you. We
care about you. God bless thoseparentals and guardians, and
(18:02):
just angels that look out for usthat know better for us if we
don't, God bless us that havethose in our lives. So talk a
little bit about that sort ofcareer arc that got you sort of
leaving, going leaving UCLA,going back to Chicago, and then
kind of forging a new path fromthere. Yeah,
Tanarra Schneider (18:20):
it's a giant, loopy roller coaster. I mean,
it'd be great if it was an arc,but it's a weird, loopy roller
coaster. So back to Chicago andcouldn't find a job. Remember,
all those resumes were talkingabout sent out like 40 of those
things, could not find a job. SoI started temping, because I
needed to make money. I was onlygonna stay at home for so long.
I got a job working for a smallfinance and insurance brokerage
(18:41):
firm called mesurer. Financial,and they needed somebody for
eight weeks, somebody was goingout the executive system was
going out on that leave. So Iwas an EA for eight weeks. But
what happened there was that Iwas an EA in a technology
department. And inside of thetechnology department, there was
a woman who ran all of theirinternal training. And so again,
(19:03):
right, that pivot of takingskills and things you do that
are relevant in differentcontexts. I took everything I
knew about teaching fromteaching dance, and all sorts of
other stuff. Everything I knewabout writing because the
materials they were using toteach were terrible. And I
started teaching classes becausethey were moving. You had
support staff that was movingfrom like window or typewriters
(19:23):
and brain screen terminals toWindows and Office. And that is
a leap. And I think that's thebeginning of you know what you
said like this idea of creatingexperiences for people that
where they can thrive butfrankly, start with that just
don't suck. Things that don'tterrify people, and I watched
women who were in their 50sClose enough to retirement come
(19:46):
into my classroom, afraid theywere going to lose their jobs if
they couldn't learn how to usethis new software and learn how
to use a computer. One of thembrought a box tissue every day,
and she cried every day, right?
But I started to realize thatthere was actually something
that was relevant for me that Icould do bringing all bits of me
my creativity, my ability towrite my ability to see people
(20:06):
to take my time and to teach ina way that was probably much
less like corporate version,read the manual and a lot more.
Okay, let's do step one. Nowlet's do step one and step two.
Now let's do step one, step two,and step three, which really
goes back to choreography? Forme, it's like, how do you build
something? Right? Yeah. So yes.
(20:29):
And so that's I mean, that'swhere like that is the through
line for my career islegitimately creating
experiences and systems wherepeople can thrive. But let's
start with ones that don't suck.
Like we just, we have to startsomewhere. And so it's taken me
a bunch of different places, Iwent from there, and I got a
full time job there, stay therefor a while and went to like my
(20:49):
first sort of outside consultingcompany from there building
software to teach people in thatsame way, I found a company that
was really cool at the time thatwas doing some unique stuff with
being able to capture Livesoftware, and then turn it into
a training mechanism where youcan make it a safe to fail
environment, so that you canlearn and you could start over
again, and it didn't messanything up. I went and did
(21:12):
that. And then I did big systemsimplementations, like I went
from there to doing big tech andlike SAP and PeopleSoft for
Tribune Company. And, you know,there's just nothing like trying
to blueprint, a system from theground up to try to make sure it
doesn't suck a lot. And a lot ofit did. Yeah, it's
Jessica Hartley (21:33):
hard. But I
Tanarra Schneider (21:34):
learned a lot. And I'm not a technologist,
right? I'm a storyteller. And Iam truly, you know, I am a
strategist in so many ways. AndI became a designer over time,
right? I didn't go to DesignSchool. And we didn't really
know what UX I didn't know whatUX and service design all those
things were then. But as mycareer grew, and as I started to
do other things like that timeat Tribune really starting to
understand the intent and theoutcome. And that's what design
(21:56):
is, right? It's making theintended outcome match one
another. And I would just addthrough a process that is
uniquely human and humancentered, right. So really
trying to understand and map howpeople work and what they need
from a system and what thebusiness needs. I've been able
to carve this really interestingspace where I've done everything
from do that work that I talkedabout to move to New York to
(22:17):
stand up Jeff Lou's elearningplatform and program from the
ground up, then I went agencyside because I was like, this is
kind of cool. What does it looklike on the other side, when I
did it for clients, like cardio,and Chanel and Citibank? And,
you know, I think one of myproudest moments is I designed
what would become the cookingschool for America's Test
Kitchen and cooks illustrated.
That's amazing. That was so muchfun. And it ties very directly
(22:41):
to the one educationalexperience that I did manage to
go back and have, which is Iwent to culinary school midway
through because I needed abreak. So after I left Tribune,
I took a break for about a yearand a half. And once culinary
school, and then I cooked for awhile. And even that still about
creating amazing experiences forpeople because I was really
(23:02):
interested in catering notnecessarily working in big
kitchens, but in creatingbespoke events, creativity,
problem solving, right? Yeah,well, there, yeah, I'll leave
someone going, you know, and Iwent did my way through a bunch
of agencies, and ended up whereI am now, which was, you know,
seven years of leading designpractice inside of Accenture in
(23:24):
various ways. And now as theNorth America lead for
leadership and culture, becauseit's still about now making
systems truly organizationalsystems and companies suck less,
and spaces where people canthrive. Same thing, it's the
same exact thing, I just nolonger want to talk to you about
your technology, which I know islike heresy at the company that
(23:47):
I work at, there's so manybrilliant technologists, I need
to be a humanist and I was atechnologist and designer for
seven years and now it's time tobe a humanist again,
Jessica Hartley (23:58):
I love that time to be a human, less human,
they suck less, and help peoplethrive. I love that. Talk to me
about thank you for sharing thatyou took a break. Because I feel
like we don't give ourselves theability to take a break. And
it's hard and to take a break isalso you know, we'll recognize
(24:18):
that there's a privilege in whatwhat it means to take a break
and taking a break to meandifferent things for different
people. Sometimes that's asabbatical sometimes it's a
career pivot or shift. And Iguess how have you and for many
of us, I think it's a journey.
You talked about how hard yourmom worked in your mom bit
working on parents working hard,and I think we often come from
roots of hard working guardiansand parents and so we see that
(24:40):
hustle and grind. What we didn'tsee a lot of in a lot of cases
sometimes it's care forthemselves. And we're always you
know, when women are often thecaregivers and I also know that
you're like me a mother as well.
How's your journey been oflearning to take care of
yourself and What that means forself care, self love, time and
(25:04):
rest. How's that been for you?
Tanarra Schneider (25:07):
I'm terrible.
I'm getting better at it. Sopart of what started me to take
a break, I was 27. So notparticularly old, had not been
working that long, but I havebeen working really hard. So
when I was doing all the systemswork attributes, I was flying
back and forth every week, verymuch like a consulting gig,
(25:28):
right, I was at home for maybethree days every week, didn't
see friends didn't see familygained a whole bunch of weight,
treated myself terribly, did notwork out was not disciplined
about that stuff. And the nightbefore my 26th birthday, I was
in a hotel room in FortLauderdale, Florida, and I had
panic attack, supposed to meetmy team for dinner, and I
(25:50):
couldn't leave the hotel roomcould not get off the floor. And
I knew I could not spend manymore days like that, if I was
going to make it. And I don'tmean like, I meet you live and I
was going to live, I needed todo something else. And I'm
pretty sure I told my motherright around that time that I
(26:10):
was when this particular projectwas done, I was going to leave
and go to culinary school. And Iwas making six figures at 26. So
when you say that to somebodywho has sprint and worked their
butts off and worked overtime,and comes from very meager
resources, and has made a lifefor herself working very, very
hard, that is like stabbingsomebody in the face. And I
(26:31):
think she thought I was nuts.
But I also knew I had to do it.
And I did and it was absolutelythe right thing for me to do.
Over time, I've gotten a littlebit better at it. And I've
gotten a little bit worse at it.
And a lot of our environmentsdon't create spaces for us to do
that. Right? We don't whetheryou have the privilege or not,
and I was privileged enough atthe time to have made enough
(26:54):
money that I could take thatbreak and go to school, I did
some consulting and contractingon the side just because I
couldn't help myself. But it ishard, especially when you have
kids to feel like you can takethat break. And I am a single
mom, her dad and I sharecustody. So I am well aware that
like I have to be able to takecare of her have to be able to
take care of us. And so now I'mtrying to get better at boundary
(27:16):
setting. I was terrible about itduring the pandemic, which I
think a lot of people were I waspretty bad at it prior to that
if I'm honest.
Jessica Hartley (27:24):
Video, I think we a lot of
Tanarra Schneider (27:26):
us were Yeah.
And so I'm learning I'mlearning. I've just taken myself
down to a four day a weekworkweek, it does mean those
Monday through Thursday is realbusy. Right? It's really busy.
It also really helped meprioritize my time, it's given
me an opportunity to begenerous, and it sounds crazy.
But delegating actually is oneof the most generous things we
can do as leaders, because whenwe hold on to everything, our
(27:48):
people don't get a chance tolearn. They don't get a chance
to grow. So I don't tie mydaughter shoes every day,
because she's learned how to tieher shoes. Why would I do all of
the work on my team, my team'snot gonna learn to tie their
shoes. So I am tryingdesperately to remember that my
team is brilliant. The people Iwork with are entirely capable.
(28:10):
And it's actually beneficial foreverybody. If I step away for a
day, as long as I get my workdone, I'm not a bottleneck for
anybody else. I should be ableto step away for a day and think
and clear my head and be thekind of mother human being boss,
daughter, friend, all thosethings. I need to be some
learning. Yeah.
Jessica Hartley (28:32):
I love that.
Thank you for sharing so much. Ithink, you know, it's so
important that we talk about notonly the successes and the wins,
but the challenges and the veryhuman challenges. Same for me, I
have never been it's usuallyjust like, go go go and then
crash. You know, you had yourcrash at 2726. Myself. Mine was
and you know, you don't realizeit again until much later. But I
(28:56):
was like crazy busy. That middleschool, high school college, I
was on the Red Cross Youth boardand traveling, I was doing all
the things that people do intheir 20s when they have a full
time job. Internships, I mean, Iwas going hard. I graduated
school in three and a half yearsbecause I got to finish early
and all these things. And so Itell people, people will you
(29:18):
know, you move to New York, whatdid you do that first year like
the first six months, in six tonine months right before
actually 911 happened? I did notdo it. I stayed home I worked at
an internet company. I stayedhome. I did my job every day.
But I went to the library and Iordered takeout and I watched
eight at the time it was ondemand. We didn't have all the
(29:39):
things that we have now. Wedidn't have Netflix and watch on
I didn't do anything. Do youwant to go out? No, I didn't go
anywhere for like six months. Itwas like literally my version of
a crash because I had burnedmyself out between high school
and college. So still learningwhat it means to take care of
myself and to pause and beingmindful Also what I'm doing in
(29:59):
what I'm showing my children.
Because I watched my mom Mom isamazing. But she never rested.
She always worked. She went backto school, she did all these
things. Suddenly now you knowthat she's retired and a
grandmother that I see the rest.
And I want to try to show mykids now what it means to to
(30:21):
show my daughter who's five,what it means to take care of
yourself now with self caremeans down, you know?
Tanarra Schneider (30:27):
Yep, absolutely. Yeah.
Jessica Hartley (30:30):
Talk to me about what reignite you. So when
we're talking about, you know,self care, and what brings you
excitement, what gets you, youknow, as you're thinking about
even just the future, and like,what you're excited about what
is coming on the horizon? I knowall of us are like, how can we
(30:51):
at least movie on the madness ofthis pandemic right now. So we
can start hoping and wishing forfuture? What does that feel like
for you, when you think aboutthe word reignite and just sort
of fueling yourself what getsyou excited?
Tanarra Schneider (31:06):
I think there's a couple of things that
really get me excited. So oneis, like so many people, I have
decided to redesign my spaceduring this time and actually
find that that is huge. So myhouse is under construction will
be done in a couple of weeks. Soexciting. But actually found
that that is something thatreally fuels me, I love hands on
(31:30):
design. And I've gotten so faraway as in my leadership roles
from making things, right. So Iam a creative, I did go to
culinary school, I like to cookI like to sew. So honestly, like
one of the things that fuels meis art projects with my daughter
and thinking aboutwhat's the right fiber kind of
(31:51):
curtains for this room, like allof those details, just really do
energize me. And they've givenme an idea of like, where some
spaces I want to spend timegoing forward, as I think about
five or so years down the road,what I want to be doing, and I'm
not somebody who likes a fiveyear plan, like I've got some
next steps, real comfortablewith ambiguity. So got a couple
(32:11):
things that are on the horizon.
And the other one is reallygetting back into food and
storytelling into material. Sothat little project that I'm
working on right now that maybeyou'll join me for one of these
days,
Jessica Hartley (32:30):
in call me to food storytelling or to
Tanarra Schneider (32:36):
Yes, to explore the origins of food, and
I wanted to explore the originsof people all at the same time.
So um, there's a little, there'sbeen content creation happening
in the background that I'mreally, really excited about.
That should show up in the formof like a video series and
podcast at some point next year.
So really looking forward tolike making things again, I
think that's the stuff thatfeels me, I think a lot during
(33:00):
the day. And I spend a lot oftime kind of in thought
leadership spaces, and coachingothers, which is something I
absolutely adore doing. And I'mdoing more and more of these
days, but really want to makesome stuff.
Jessica Hartley (33:12):
Oh, I love it.
I love it. The making is soimportant. And something that
even me doing this, this podcastof this show was something for
me to say, you know, we do a lotof to your point, the brain
work, and a lot of the emotionalwork in our leadership spaces. I
have people call me like, oh,come do this role. And I'm like,
I don't think you understand Idon't build websites anymore. I
(33:33):
coached the other eye coach Oh,that you know, I'm thinking
about other things and otherchallenges and problems and
coaching others to your point, Ilove that the note about the
delegation, like the biggestthing we can do is give
responsibility and support toothers. So but I love this idea
of getting back to making thisthese are forms of making and
(33:53):
creation as we close down. And Ijust want to say thank you so
much for sharing so much aboutyour journey, and your life in
your story and the rollercoaster, and all the beauty that
has made Sinara you're just sucha light. For many of us. It's an
honor and I in the prep session,were just sort of chatting. And
(34:14):
I was like I've spent so muchtime around tomorrow, but we've
never actually had theopportunity to work together.
But you know the impact thatpeople can have when they cast a
halo and you've never actuallyworked with them? What advice
would you give or as you thinkabout all the things that you've
learned and that you'veexperienced as we think about
young people. I have so muchempathy for the young generation
(34:36):
right now that is, you know,high school college, thinking
about career battling this ideaof passion and purpose and
profit and in what it means tofulfill them and sustain them.
What advice if you had to giveone or two pieces of advice to a
young man of color a young womanof color, who's navigate some of
(34:58):
those challenges and all of themidst of in a pandemic, and
technology shifts in themetaverse and just just so much
things that I think areoverwhelming our senses in
keeping us from just being sortof grounded and rooted. What
advice would you have for ayoung person these days?
Tanarra Schneider (35:19):
I think there's two things. One, it is
entirely okay to feel the waythat you feel, don't let anybody
tell you, you shouldn't feelthose things. A lot of people
are going to tell you how youshould feel about something,
whether it's something thathappened at work, something
that's happening in the world, alot of people are gonna tell you
how to feel. Don't let them dothat. Feel the way you feel. In
(35:39):
doing that, though, you aloneare not the answer to any one of
these things that we are facing.
Whether it is inequities inbusiness, lack of diversity in
the place you work at systemicsocial inequality, you alone are
not the answer. So take abreath, and focus your impact.
If you try to solve everything,you are going to burn yourself
(36:02):
out, and you will solve nothing.
So take a breath, focus yourimpact and find others to work
with not just people who thinklike you and talk like you and
look like you build a coalitionof people you can work with. So
you have different perspectives.
And you can challenge oneanother, on your thinking echo
chambers are very easy to find,especially now and regardless of
(36:26):
what side of an issue you fallon. So take a breath, find a
coalition make an impact.
Jessica Hartley (36:35):
I love that focus, focus. I think that is
something that I am continuingto work on. already working on.
You know, because we're, we wantto help everybody we want to say
you know, save the world. Andsometimes you have to save
yourself before you can save theworld. Thank you tomorrow, you
have been so just delightful andinsightful. And I know your
(37:00):
story in your journey is goingto just really help to ignite in
be a catalyst to others. So Iappreciate all the honesty and
transparency that you haveshared with me and with our
audience and listeners today.
And I am so excited about someof these projects that you have
coming up and look forward tohopefully having you back to
share more about the newprojects that you got on the
(37:22):
table. Appreciate you so much.
Thanks.
Tanarra Schneider (37:25):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me.
Jessica Hartley (37:31):
Thank you for listening to another episode of
hustle, grind, shine andreignite. If you'd like this
episode, like subscribe andshare on all your favorite
podcasts. I hope you'll tune into the next episode featuring
another amazing and talentedprofessional. In the meantime,
(37:52):
shine bright
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