‘The Memo’ is Minda Harts’ Love Letter to Black Women in the Workplace

Minda Harts, founder and CEO of The Memo, is regarded as one of the top voices when it comes to advocating for black women in the workplace. Her company, The Memo L.L.C., is a career development company providing tools, access, and a robust community for women of color and for the companies where they work. She also leads the Women of Color Equity Initiative, which focuses on increasing the number of women of color in management and C-suite roles in corporate and not-for-profit organizations through the Women of Color Equity Initiative.

Harts is on a mission to equip women with the tools they need to build their own seats to bring to the table. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Memo, and she says that it is a love letter to black women in the workplace.

Related: Black Women in the Workplace Are Still Finding Their Footing on the Corporate Ladder

As black women find their footing on the corporate ladder, Harts works around the clock with leaders facilitating tough conversations about equity and inclusion. To date, Harts has lead conversations and hosted workshops at Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Intel, SXSW, TIME INC, Campaign For Black Male Achievement, General Assembly, Ellevate Network, We Work, THE WING, and more.

In March, Harts joined BLACK ENTERPRISE at the 15th Annual Women of Power Summit to lend her expertise on the “Working While Black” and “Winning against Microaggression on the Job” session.

During the Summit, we sat down with Harts to recap her experience at the Summit as a speaker after once being an attendee, her agency for advocating for others, and actionable steps women can take in the workplace to stand in their greatness.

Minda Harts on Shaking the Table

Tune in as Harts shares her experience and the importance of black women being heard and seen in the workplace.

 

To learn more about the work that Harts is doing, click here.

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Meet The Polyglot Who Started The First Black-Owned Online Korean Language School

Learning a new language can be an extremely useful tool is forging new business relationships and expanding your operations to international markets. As business becomes more globalized and the internet allows us to connect with people around the world, speaking multiple languages becomes a valuable asset. One entrepreneur used his passion for learning foreign languages to open an online language school to inspire others to learn about new cultures.

Los Angeles-born Nathan Thornton started SmarterKorean, an online Korean language school where he works as an online Korean language coach & South Korea expert assisting expats to live, travel, and work in South Korea comfortably and with confidence. Driven by his own passion to study in South Korea and attending the IPAG Business School in Paris, France, Thornton is currently fluent in Korean, English, and French, stating that learning the language has been extremely useful in his professional career.

“Learning Korean opened up a multitude of doors for me both professionally and personally,” says Thornton in a blog interview with Black Girls Learn Languages, “Korean has helped me stand out in my job applications, work for international companies in both South Korea and Spain, ask for competitive salaries, and allowed me to open my own online business. Being able to speak Korean allowed me to experience living in South Korea on a much deeper level with a different understanding of the culture.”

Thornton goes on to explain how his passion for language learning started at a young age as a way to deal with stresses at home. “I used the Korean language as a way to escape my abusive household and create a better life for myself. Learning Korean as a teenager helped to develop confidence and discover a new culture,” he explains. “I was determined to learn Korean well enough so that I could escape my violent home life, apply for a scholarship and go to university abroad.”

He says he is currently moving toward his fourth language and looking forward to seeing where it takes him. “Now, I have fallen in love with the Russian language and am excited to see where it takes me in the future!”

from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/2xcQqo8

Meet The Polyglot Who Started The First Black-Owned Online Korean Language School

Learning a new language can be an extremely useful tool is forging new business relationships and expanding your operations to international markets. As business becomes more globalized and the internet allows us to connect with people around the world, speaking multiple languages becomes a valuable asset. One entrepreneur used his passion for learning foreign languages to open an online language school to inspire others to learn about new cultures.

Los Angeles-born Nathan Thornton started SmarterKorean, an online Korean language school where he works as an online Korean language coach & South Korea expert assisting expats to live, travel, and work in South Korea comfortably and with confidence. Driven by his own passion to study in South Korea and attending the IPAG Business School in Paris, France, Thornton is currently fluent in Korean, English, and French, stating that learning the language has been extremely useful in his professional career.

“Learning Korean opened up a multitude of doors for me both professionally and personally,” says Thornton in a blog interview with Black Girls Learn Languages, “Korean has helped me stand out in my job applications, work for international companies in both South Korea and Spain, ask for competitive salaries, and allowed me to open my own online business. Being able to speak Korean allowed me to experience living in South Korea on a much deeper level with a different understanding of the culture.”

Thornton goes on to explain how his passion for language learning started at a young age as a way to deal with stresses at home. “I used the Korean language as a way to escape my abusive household and create a better life for myself. Learning Korean as a teenager helped to develop confidence and discover a new culture,” he explains. “I was determined to learn Korean well enough so that I could escape my violent home life, apply for a scholarship and go to university abroad.”

He says he is currently moving toward his fourth language and looking forward to seeing where it takes him. “Now, I have fallen in love with the Russian language and am excited to see where it takes me in the future!”

from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/2xcQqo8

A Brave New Book Reveals Alicia’s Keys to Success

Usually, books are packaged with personal endorsements—the most famous and impactful ones the author can get. But More Myself: A Journey, Alicia Keys’ new memoir, has only one endorsement on the back cover: her own.

“I’m done with dimming my light,” she writes. “Writing this book has been about meeting myself, with all my wounds and vulnerabilities, exactly as I am—and then, at last, having the courage to reveal my full face. it has been about realizing that, in order for the truth to set me free, I must first be brave enough to birth it.”

The 15-time Grammy Award-winning musician, singer, and songwriter, whose career seamlessly encompasses equally passionate work as an actress, producer, entrepreneur, and activist, was also already a New York Times best-selling author (for her previous book, Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics).

Known (most recently) for her natural-girl look and a consistently soulful vibe that’s equal parts hippie and ‘hood, Keys strips away the years and any old fears of vulnerability and disapproval to reveal her true self and what it took to become, own, and amplify all that she is—with or without makeup, or a microphone.

Raised by her single, white mother, Terri Augello, to proudly own her inner light and darker skin as a black girl, by calling out her own contradictions and unfinished-ness, Keys enables us to accept and even celebrate our own. “I am frightened and I am fearless,” she concludes. “I am weak and a warrior. I am uncertain and I am confident. And by learning to embrace the paradox in all of it, I am more myself.”

Reading More Myself: A Journey is a great way to chase away the quarantine-and-curfew blues with some calm and engaging contemplation from an artist whose reflections on her own journey from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to the higher ground of her own heart, will stir and uplift you.

Here is a small sample of life lessons, in the key of Alicia:

Success is a hungry tiger, always growling for its next meal.

 

In life, we don’t get what we ask for, we get what we believe.

 

I don’t have to fit in. None of us does. Our uniqueness isn’t a scar, but a beauty mark.

 

An aha moment is not a happy ending – it’s an open doorway, one you have to choose to walk through.

 

There is power in sisterhood. Our voices are strongest as part of a chorus.

 

With every word and every intention I am creating the masterpiece that is my life.

 

Bliss is a beautiful destination, but you can often only reach its shores after a turning point.

from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/39UxKH9

A Brave New Book Reveals Alicia’s Keys to Success

Usually, books are packaged with personal endorsements—the most famous and impactful ones the author can get. But More Myself: A Journey, Alicia Keys’ new memoir, has only one endorsement on the back cover: her own.

“I’m done with dimming my light,” she writes. “Writing this book has been about meeting myself, with all my wounds and vulnerabilities, exactly as I am—and then, at last, having the courage to reveal my full face. it has been about realizing that, in order for the truth to set me free, I must first be brave enough to birth it.”

The 15-time Grammy Award-winning musician, singer, and songwriter, whose career seamlessly encompasses equally passionate work as an actress, producer, entrepreneur, and activist, was also already a New York Times best-selling author (for her previous book, Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics).

Known (most recently) for her natural-girl look and a consistently soulful vibe that’s equal parts hippie and ‘hood, Keys strips away the years and any old fears of vulnerability and disapproval to reveal her true self and what it took to become, own, and amplify all that she is—with or without makeup, or a microphone.

Raised by her single, white mother, Terri Augello, to proudly own her inner light and darker skin as a black girl, by calling out her own contradictions and unfinished-ness, Keys enables us to accept and even celebrate our own. “I am frightened and I am fearless,” she concludes. “I am weak and a warrior. I am uncertain and I am confident. And by learning to embrace the paradox in all of it, I am more myself.”

Reading More Myself: A Journey is a great way to chase away the quarantine-and-curfew blues with some calm and engaging contemplation from an artist whose reflections on her own journey from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to the higher ground of her own heart, will stir and uplift you.

Here is a small sample of life lessons, in the key of Alicia:

Success is a hungry tiger, always growling for its next meal.

 

In life, we don’t get what we ask for, we get what we believe.

 

I don’t have to fit in. None of us does. Our uniqueness isn’t a scar, but a beauty mark.

 

An aha moment is not a happy ending – it’s an open doorway, one you have to choose to walk through.

 

There is power in sisterhood. Our voices are strongest as part of a chorus.

 

With every word and every intention I am creating the masterpiece that is my life.

 

Bliss is a beautiful destination, but you can often only reach its shores after a turning point.

from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/39UxKH9