Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise Podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud, Filipina American mom of two, and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the US Air Force. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. We'll be talking with successful CEOs and C suite women leaders of color and learning about their leadership tourney's. If you're a woman or woman of color, who wants a seat at the table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show.

I'm thrilled to be talking with Chandra Roxanne today, she is the leader of a new fund called the Astia hedge fund. It's a 20 million fund. And it's all about backing Black and Latina startup founders. In fact, when the umbrella fund Astia, back in 2018, discovered their investments, they saw that they're all about backing woman founders, but they didn't have any one of those founders, being Black. Chandra has come into play, really leading the push to invest in black and brown women. And we're really, really thrilled to come and talk with her today. She's actually also a person who is really committed to racial justice. She came from the London School of Economics, before that she did nonprofit work. So I'm so excited to talk with you, Chandra about your work, and even the reparations work you're doing. Thank you so very much for being here.

Chandra Roxanne: Thank you for having me.

Analiza: Chandra, let's talk about your identity, and how many pivots have happened in your life? And just can you share for us? How did that identity even as young Chandra drive your career? How did that play a role in the choices that you made.

Chandra Roxanne: I'm a proud descendant of Africans that were enslaved and slave in Southern Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay Area. And I'm also a proud descendant of the Piscataway Indians that also occupy that space prior to the arrival of the Europeans, as well as the Africans. And this is very, very important to me, because the work that I feel that I'm doing at Astia feels very much like an ancestral call. And that came to me or that became very clear to me during my studies, actually at the London School of Economics. And so it's only been within the last two years that I have felt or have seen more consciously, a guidance by an ancestral hand. And so I went into that work with one question. And one question only and that was - can capitalism function consciously.

And so it was during my studies LSC, and every course trying to figure this out that I realized one of my teachers of our research, our course on research, she, we had very, a lot of conversation about positionality, because the world of sociology is having its own me a couple moment, and trying to figure out or in questioning its conventions, its canon, its way in which it is seeing people and viewing people and studying people, and whose position is the right, whose eye is the right one. And so we were often pushed to think about what is your unique positionality. And, you know, oftentimes, we were, you know, the conventional belief was that you put that aside to be quote, unquote, objective.

But when I went to the LSE, they said, No, you actually offer a very unique perspective. So you bring that to bear not for confirmation bias, but you bring that for holistic understanding of how the people that you are studying, and more importantly, the people that we quote, unquote, are allowed to study. And that was really key. And so in answering that question, what positionality do I bring to capitalism? That's when I realized, well, wait a minute.

My ancestors very bodies were used as the blueprint for capitalism. And so I got I was really curious as to all the seminars and conversations that I was going to about rethinking capitalism, reimagining capitalism, you know, changing capitalism, and there were no descendants of Africa there. There were no Asians there, there were no Latinos there. And so I felt there were no Aboriginal or Piscataway, Indians, American Indians there. And so I felt very much that if anyone is to think about how we imagined capitalism, it should be the very people again, whose very bodies were used to do develop this system and not just develop the system of capitalism, but also develop the management techniques that we use to this day, I mean, even the concept of human capital, capital being something that you own capital being this inanimate thing that you give it a definition and it is to be exploited, it is to be utilized, and you're supposed to maximize utilization of this thing. And then guess what, when it no longer when you can no longer maximize utilization, then you dispose of it and get something out. I mean, that the incentives that we use everything and so, so very much call, you might want to say an ancestral call that this is my work, my lifelong work is to continue answering that question, how do we institutionalize consciousness and capitalism.

And so when I think about venture capital, again, being a woman, and it was reflecting on my history with money, but then my mother's history with money, I remember her, and even my mother's not ancestors, it's still her legacy that is part of some of the decisions that I'm making it even being at Astia. I remember my mother saying to me that she received an allowance and I balked at the word allowance, that the amount of money that she was seeing was disgraced. I mean, it was shocking. But the fact that she used the term that we often use with children, and allowance is what really, really unsettled me. And I began thinking about my motivation to get into finance, even as a young kid, my motivation to start working, because I could see that I was being defined by someone else, because I didn't have money, and they could dictate, and they could use it as a tool to make me dependent. And they could also use as a tool to determine my value. And I just remember needing to work like not having a language, but intuitively understanding that and observing that, I decided to start working at the age of 15. And I remember receiving my very first paycheck and the sense of power that I had, and the fact that I could now say no, to people, I don't want your hand me downs. I don't want what you give me because you think less of me based off of what you're giving me and the quality of what you're giving me now I can buy my own, and to be able to even gain a kind of respect from my own father and to be like, it's shifted my relationship with him and my place in the world in a way that my mother's place never shifted, because she never made her own money.

And so when I was at the LSE, I also wanted to study women and money and the way that it's used as a tool to infantilize us, it's in our language, to control us the fact that we make up 50%, the United States, we make up 50% of the population, and yet less than 2% is going to female entrepreneurs, what is that about? And being really inspired by an article that I read in McKinsey, regarding the transfer of wealth that will be happening by 2030. And it will be transferring into the hands of women and understanding that we have a real opportunity to capitalize on this effort on this transference and to become not just commodities, and not just clients of other people when it comes to wealth management. But that we could actually be architects and realizing that is what our real duty is as women that's what my real duty is, as a descendant of Piscataway, Indians and enslaved Africans is it's my duty to be an architect of the very economy in which I live, I move, I breathe, we live, we move we breathe, we have our families, we raise our children, we establish our communities, it is our duty, and I feel is that we have not been made aware of that, that that somehow we belong to other things, other people, other systems, for our exploitation when the reality is we are no longer own. We are owners. We are no longer just economic actors. We are the architects of that very economy in which we are acting. That is what my purpose is. That is what my duty is. And that is what my focus is.

And so again, my lifelong pursuit, is how do we institutionalize capitalism and the reason I've always been interested in venture capital as a tool again, originally, I thought about as a tool to replace aid and Baroness Dambisa Moyo wrote a book called Debt Aid, I think almost a decade ago and about the problem the economic problem of aid that was being given to sent to the African continent and how it was undermining the the ability of Africans to have their own economy define it and have it grow and develop. And when I read that book, I realized that my own intuition about using a different tool to develop not just Africa, but to develop an economy was right on. And so I look at venture capital, again, a tool, early stage venture capital as a tool for incubating consciousness. And so when you think about the work that we do at the early stages, rather than trying to convince established businesses to become conscious, which is what some of my colleagues are doing, I'm more interested in well, what if we just develop them? What if we scale consciousness, as we scale the business, and we operationalize the principles of consciousness into the very fibers of the businesses, and what kind of economy my feeds my sort of my argument is that if we do this successfully, we will then be able to architect a more conscious form of capitalism

Analiza: Chandra, the idea of your ancestral calling, and to be proud of where we've come from, and also to recognize that there was real pain and sacrifice and bodies that were built, that our system now has been built upon this this paradox, right of like, I am proud, and yet there was massive harm done, and how do I recognize the system, and also change it and realize that I can, and that I love my mother, just like you love yours, and our parents, and yet the ways in which my mother practiced were the reason why we do this work, that there's actually involvement and that there's a real case for money, because sometimes we're like, we don't need money, let's just go off and be hippies. But actually, that money has been used as a tool. But how can we actually now create and the architects, as you said, have a system that allows to be empowered.

I also appreciate Chandra, that HBR article about how the transfer of money to women has to be recognized, and that because of that transfer, there's a shaping a consciousness, I feel like I do reading and I talk with people, and I just want to name Chandra, that what you're talking about is exciting, empowering.

And I think for me, there's consciousness, right? And there's liberation and reparation. And they're like all living in different work. I mean, I come from nonprofit, we're all doing this work, but I'm not sure it's gotten to this depth of system level. So I want to ask you about the integration, the tactics, because as a VC you also want to name it's not about change management with established organizations, it feels like you're building and in that creation of hopefully, growth, that's where we want to focus. And it's not easier, but it's compared to like a stodgy like white supremacist organization. It has more opportunity. And so I want to talk about that. Because the how of creating conscious capitalism, by investing in particularly Latina and Black women. Can you talk about even just bring us to the - here's a case like, here's a business, here's what they're doing. And here's in your vision, 2030 or beyond? Here's how that will scale? Can you talk about that?

Chandra Roxanne: There's a video that we're using to show how do you operationalize these principles, the video is called Beyond Zero. And it's a beautiful case study of interface, which was a carpet company. And actually, I wrote about this from my LSE dissertation, just about the ways in which they were institutionalizing these principles. So as a carpet company, and the owner, who has since passed, not recalling his name at the moment, but I will, he realized he literally had his own sort of, you know, as we were saying, In my culture, they will say, a come to Jesus moment, where he realized that he was a plunder of the earth. I mean, he was polluting the earth. And you know, with his carpet company, and he was just on this mission of, we are going to become more conscious.

And so one of the things that just absolutely love that in this process of them really thinking about how do we operationalize this is that they actually brought on a team of people who were biologists and you think, what do biologists you know, have to do with carpet? Because they went through this series of explorations of you know, they have glue, right? That is part of their company, like this part of the process of, you know, laying down a carpet. And so they went and they asked, well, how does nature glue things together? And so when they begin exploring that they realize, well, Nature doesn't glue things together. So then if nature doesn't glue things together, what are the ways in which nature assemble things? And so they then figured out like, all these different ways that you see nature assemble things in a very sustainable manner. And so what they did was they were able to not only get rid of the glue, get rid of the bucket, get rid of the roller that's necessary, get rid of all of that. And, of course, all of the environmental impacts from having their carpet glued down, and they created these little suction cups. And they got away from just having a large sort of roll out carpet. And they started creating squares, because when they went and looked at nature, they realized that nature the way the carpet of nature is a very kind of organized disablement. And so if you were to pick up a couple of leaves from nature, it would not change the whole carpet, the natural carpet, like the way in which the elements work, you should not need to replace the whole thing in order for them to be changed. And so they stopped creating these sort of long straps of you know, pieces of carpet that you need to change, and they started creating these little squares that are held together by suction. And so if you mess up one of the squares, you just pop it out and pop the other one in. And the design works, because you don't have to have an actual design to fit. I mean, all of that like getting like just being able to understand like going to the natural world and allowing the wisdom from the natural world to now inform the very product that they're known for.

Obviously, one of the things that I've started to do is just really think about language. And so we think about, I'll do it in two parts. So one part and think about language, one of the principles of consciousness that I really like to follow, we talk about higher purpose, you know, we look at business as being noble. And so in the startup world, we think about whenever you're pitching the question we ask you like, what is the problem that you're trying to solve. But if we can go one step further and say, really great that we're solving that problem, but there is an even higher purpose that we are pursuing. And we're doing it through the means of business, because business is a noble pursuit for our higher consciousness. And so I just got that lexicon into people's language, and it came about like, I realized that some headway is starting to be made just among investors that we were at our annual LP meeting this past March for Women's International Day. And I see Oh, was talking to the LPS doing her opening. And she literally use the word higher purpose. And I almost fell off my chair, because like, that's the start. That's the seed that's planted where you're now getting into people's lexicon. And if we can just start there of what higher purposes and have people conscious that we are solving a problem, but there's something even beyond the problem that we're after. And that is what is pulling us forward.

So in a in a very general way of being able to help our startups understand, Yes, like, let's get your understanding of higher purpose into your language so that when you're thinking about your GTM strategy, that you're thinking of it from that place of our higher purpose, when you're thinking about iterating on your product, you're thinking about it from the higher purpose to what you are striving, when you're thinking about your scale and making sure you get you want to scale rapidly. But we also want to scale consciously, in alignment with the higher purpose. And hopefully, what I have heard some entrepreneurs say is that, you know, it's opening up creativity, the ability to think about, if we're going to do this, but we're going to be aligned with our purpose, we may need to innovate a bit, so that we are staying in alignment with that, which brings about, you know, really exciting solutions and resolutions that may not have been thought previously.

But driving down into Black women and Latinas is not just higher purpose. But for me, it is about shifting the consciousness regarding who these women are. And so when we think of like the the narratives that are circulating in the industry, that, first of all, you know, Black women and Latinas are economic actors, that they're actors that we act upon, they're not active economic actors that, you know, directly impact and affect the economy and shape the economy is what I'm looking for, that they shaped the economy, that they’re global citizens, that they actually see problems that the other entrepreneurs do not see simply because of where they're positioned in the economy, that somehow they don't build scalable businesses or that their businesses are more risky than others, like all of that is circulating against them.

And so to be able to come into the space and say, No, we're going to change the narrative, we're going to change that consciousness about these women and understand that they show up different how their businesses operate are different, that the way in which they have to navigate the entrepreneurial space is so very different because they have very little money to work with. And so they've got to be very creative, not only in how they use their money, but even how they obtain their money because they're not coming from rich families, they're not coming from inheritance. They're not coming from trust funds. And so my number one step has been twofold. Helping these entrepreneurs understand their higher purpose, but more importantly, helping the venture space, just understand that these women exist. And who are these women truly, like actually putting out a more accurate view of these women, these founders into the space.

Analiza: Chandra, in understanding these examples, like the carpet company, and how you take this higher purpose concept, even for your own personal journey of realizing your own higher purpose, and helping others find their higher purpose. And then using businesses as a way to tap into their higher purpose. It's this beautiful multiplicity of individual to communal that we can all be at a higher purpose, which is really empowering, because I often hear businesses, you know, their capitalist is not the can't serve the higher good. It's all about driving money. But in this view, actually, if we are aligned with our higher purpose, there's so much that we can serve and give.

And with that, I'm curious, as you think about the drive for higher purpose, I mean, can you just talk about how a woman of color can tap into because you find it your higher purpose, ancestral calling, it's so beautiful, and I was like, did you read a book, bring walking in nature? Like, how did that happen? So that you can also take that story and then translate to other women of color so that they can tap into their higher purpose? Can you talk about that journey for you?

Chandra Roxanne: Absolutely. And I would say that I strongly believe that. And I think, you know, when I love language, I'm trying to find a new word for us. Because I feel as though again, all the language is about us BIPOC Women of Color, they just don't really suit us when it comes to not only who we are, but how we function in the world. And so, you know, I've been tossing around the idea of women of the rainbow, but I understand that the LGBTQ community with that people associate the rainbow with that particular community. So I don't want to steal anything from them or take any thing away from that community. But there's something to be said just about how distinct colors in the rainbow function because I think that there is some wisdom there on the individual women have different cultures, but then also how we function together, because I think it's really very important that we look to our own culture first. And then we can look to the cultures of other women to create our own sort of canon, because my purpose canon of what being a woman is, or even what are higher purposes as well, because it really was me like my teacher prompting and saying, wait a minute, like validating first validating that your position in society gives you a unique perspective, that is not to be set aside in this very serious work of research of economic and social research. But know that needs to be brought to bear as a very necessary lens that helps us to see what helps us see and fill in the blind spots, quite frankly. And it's also a way to shift power.

Because, you know, we have a lot of conversations about, well, whose gaze, if you set aside your gaze, what you're saying, what you're then playing into, is that there is this supreme gaze and because the canon is mostly white men, well, then that is the gaze through which I have to see not only myself, but everyone else and the research that I'm doing. And so in a very real way we are relinquishing our power, right back to the very system that we are trying to change. But by simply saying no, there is a power in your position, and in your perspective.

And so what is that like to really investigate? Like, what is my position as a Black woman in American society? And just asking that question, and really tracing back to, you know, I am a descent I'm a woman, I'm a descendant, and not just a descendant of one place in Africa, I haven't figured out yet where I'm a descendant of, but I'm a descendant of this continent called Africa. And I'm also a descendant of this place called America. And I'm not a descendant of Idaho or Florida. I'm a descendant of Southern Maryland, like all of the really getting into the nuances of things really began to expand my consciousness and realize, I am a part of a legacy.

That is the thing that and this is a then this gets into the emotional reparations work because one of the things that we believe in the work that we were doing, I'm still an ambassador for that organization. So I'm still very much involved. But one of the things that we believe about when it comes to emotional reparations is the restoration of cultural identity. The restoration history because when you strip people of their cultural identity, then you're able to replace them. And you're able to make them into something else or even make them into objects.

And so what that did, you know, by asking that question about where do I sit? I'm not saying that where I sit is where I want to be. I'm not saying that where I said is right or wrong, just sort of being in the space as this is where I sit, you know, in the American economy, and being able to then trace back to my cultural identity, and then gleaning from that, my ancestral purpose, and it almost feels very much that by exploring that question, and exploring, like the Piscataway Indians, and we know who were they in Southern Maryland, and what happened to them in Southern Maryland, in addition to of course, the African slave trade and, and being able to then understand and see these people as having their own culture, and what was disrupted in order to have what we have now as capitalism, but being able to go back and allow it felt very much like I was reclaiming my ancestors, reclaiming a legacy that I did not know that I had, reclaiming and activating a legacy that I am a part of, that I did not realize that I was a part of, and through that activation, realizing, Oh, my goodness, there is something beyond the American concept, or there's something higher than just me being an American, when you come here, or when you are forced to have your language removed, and your culture removed.

And you even have people that are changing history and want you to feel as though you and your people have contributed not only nothing to America, but nothing to the world, then you then think that America as it is presented to you is the beginning and the end. And it is not it is part of a story. It is part of a legacy, and that your legacy extends far beyond not only America, but my legacy extends far beyond the even concept of America and being able to reach back and now pull that wisdom forward. And understanding my goodness, we are made to believe that, you know, this form of capitalism is the end all and be all but it is not. And so I would say that if we can look back into our cultural troves, there, we will find our connection to the higher purpose and it will be activated. And when we're able to then compare notes with Asians and Latinos, and Native American Aboriginal people and Indian people then will be able to see, okay, what their legacy was in a higher purpose there, and oh, my purpose is fitting in and connecting with their higher purpose, we are able to then a legacy that is beyond this concept of America, even this concept of the Western form of capitalism, we can make it better.

Analiza: So I want to connect here, because I've been doing racial equity work with leaders, and we do affinity group work. And then we try to do multiracial work together. And everyone has this hope that we can make things more just but I think the piece that we're missing is that we're actually using as our construct America, beginning to end and here we are, what can we do with what we have yesterday? Let's figure it out.

But actually, there's so much strength in where I came from, and where you can, and where we all came from? Yes, all of that is a different color paradigm just because in terms of mental model, the gaze, the gaze is no longer the white gaze, right? This is the construct here measured by the Yes, right? Yeah. And no longer is it that because my people are proud people, indigenous people from the Philippines. And there is beauty in that. And that gaze is a beautiful gaze, and a sharing space and a communal gaze. Maybe yours is too and actually, if we can see the commonality, and the humanity and the rainbow, well, I'll use that word because I do like that. Because yeah, I'll call it yellow, whatever that means, but like my yellow part matters without in the rainbow, it would not be a rainbow. That's, that's amazing. It is. So I stand in my yellow and really proud and I want you to prove your color and the different shades because we're not all one monolith. And we all contribute. And so there's a whole other paradigm of like, there's white, right? No, no, actually, there's a whole rainbow that stands to that. And should we define it together?

Because with that, we no longer get stuck with flow systems are so terrible and how do we fix it and yes, that's all true at the same time, could we reframe? Because this is so much more empowering, right? And it's so much more? I bring something to the table? And I know yes to that be. And maybe it's even, I see why you start from the beginning because change management is hella hard. Yes, you know, but if we could start with something beautiful in the beginning, then that pupa right goes into this butterfly, I know you believe in this butterfly evolution when amorphous concept, but it becomes something that's all of us, and gives me so much hope me personally. And also just like, connects me back to my parents and ancestors. And this passage that I know, I want to know more about. So yeah, that's how I took what you shared. I think I could, you know, work to design something that could bring creativity, possibility and fun, right into creative vision. But how was that landing with you?

Chandra Roxanne: This is wonderful, because this is why I like the concept of the rainbow is because there is no assimilation, right? Because assimilation is really erasure. So the concept of the rainbow is like, you are distinct. And that distinction is so very necessary for the existence number one, but if we want to create secondary and tertiary colors, then we began collaborating, not at the expense of the distinct, but at the expanded consciousness of the whole coming together. So now you have purple, and now you have green. But if you get rid of red and blue, you will no longer have green. So you have it's that balance of being distinct. And yet knowing where to collaborate for that secondary and tertiary colors. That's like the depth of consciousness that we want is the second and the third. And the fourth, I want to give you an example of this. There's this incredible, it's give me chills.

And this is what really helped me to understand this even prior to my study at the LSE is that I came across this incredible artists here, her name is Monica Ong. And Monica works across different media. But she calm like totally beautiful that she's exploring her own history. And by exploring her own history, what she is revealed to me is not only where we overlap at me as a black woman, and her I believe Monica is Chinese American, she is a Chinese woman, but the distinction as well. But she's also helping me to understand and even helping, I think herself understand some of the Chinese culture.

So what my very first interaction with her was that she had these bottles like they were at her exhibition is these bottles, and she created these little brown bottles, and they're all elixirs. And on the front of them, there are different things like, you know how to have a boy, or like white names. I never knew that the Asian culture and members of the Asian culture struggled with whitening in the same way that black Americans and even Africans struggle with whitening, and listening to her and for each of these elixirs. She then wrote poetry that was sort of revealed, you know what they were but within the context of her family, but I remember this one arresting picture where it was like, can you find my mother? And what happened is that it was a family picture where her mother felt so cursed because she had all girls, so Monica's mother was dressed up in the picture to be a boy. So she could put out that she had a boy, because she just felt that she was cursed, because she had all girls and just sort of hearing that story and realizing that, yes, there is a distinction in the Asian culture.

And yet, there are these points where we overlap. It's like you struggle with that to wow, like, I didn't realize that, and I just began to see that, you know, there is a real play here that we need to act on in the sense of being able to honor the distinctions of our culture, and yet at the same time to move forward that we are collaborating because we do have shared goals, we do have, in many ways, shared struggles, or at least the effect of shared struggles and there is a real need and what assimilation does is it actually creates division. And we cannot have a kind of capitalism or the kind of economy that I see, if people have women of the rainbow, remain separated from one another, separated from our own knowledge, but then separated from the knowledge that we share across one another. This is very powerful, what can happen when that we are able to own this place called Earth that we occupy and truly own that each of us has our own sort of nuanced way in which we have to navigate this space.

And so it is you will not find in books and workshops and webinars that, honestly are made for the white culture, you will not find the necessary nuances that we need in order to navigate this space successfully. But they are there in our culture, they are there in our cultural tropes. They are there in our own heroes and our own heroes and our own inventors and our own artists. They are not just our own artists today, but in our own artists that again, predates America, or what we know as America. And it's so very important for us to have our own cannon that comes from us. And you think about the power of saying, we are going to create our canon, you're not going to hand to us what our canon is, we are going to go explore that. And we will decide what our canon will be for helping us to move to recognize our higher purpose, and then to move forward in our higher purpose.

Analiza: As a woman of color, I feel so empowered. And there's work we want to do together as people of color, Rainbow, how verbal looking still language, they're problematic. Also, how do we do this with white people? I know that's a heavy question. I want to ask you that question before we close up with lightning round questions. But is there a way in which we can do this work in coalition with white people? How would you suggest that looks, especially as we are reaching brat back into our ancestry? bringing that forward finding shared commonalities? Is that a similar process that we can use with white people? What does that look like? I know the reparations there's real peace here. But if you can share any insights on that, I'd love to hear

Chandra Roxanne: Yes, I'm going to go back to my work with emotional reparations because we took the stance like our emotional emancipation circles are specifically for Black people. Yes, we received a lot of requests, you know, to take into to have to take our work to like the Latino community, the Asian community, and yes, even the white community.

And I am 100% behind this that our number one priority, we eventually created a separate program called journey of discovery, which was for a more mixed group, but our emotional reparations, our students, our emotional emancipation circles that were designed by Black Psychologists who had history and training in African psychology. So it could be culturally grounded. That was specifically and we protected that, you know, we kindly asked, you know, those who had shown up who are not from the African diaspora to.

I do think that there will be a time for working and communing with the white culture. But that is not the priority. The priority is our own cultural groups. Because there are so much harm that has been done that getting back to being able to see one another, you know, if you're in a group with other Asian adults, and being able to see each other as Asians not with that filter, but to be able to have that true, how do we see ourselves as opposed to how do they see us? How do we see ourselves that is so very necessary because I feel that there has to be very strong, unshakable, unmovable, unbreakable community among the distinct groups before you can begin talking about a second layer of collaboration with other groups. And then that third layer of collaboration with white individuals or white groups, I would say yes, but not right now.

And honestly, I feel as though you may think about the work of Tim Wise, when you think about the work of Robyn D'Angelo, when you think about the work of Janet Elliot, there are white males and white females who are doing this work in the white culture. And that is for them to do, I think there's a propensity for white individuals to put the onus on Black agents, Indians, Latinos, to teach them and to bring them in and to center them. And what we need centered in our cultural groups is us and our ancestors. And to be very clear on that. And so I would say collaboration with white individuals on the white culture is a tertiary thing to be explored after the distinct group after the collaboration with the other distinct groups, because there has to be unity in there as a group economics rainbow economics prior to that, and 100% behind that our first priority is us.

Analiza: Yeah. Chandra, oh my goodness. Such an amazing conversation. Let's do a lightning round questions. Are you ready?

Chandra Roxanne: I’mready

Analiza: Chocolate or vanilla?

Chandra Roxanne: Chocolate.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Chandra Roxanne: Oh cooking

Analiza: Would you rather climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Chandra Roxanne: Climb a mountain.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals?

Chandra Roxanne: I've never done that. No. But like to what like to take out the trash? Yes.

Analiza: How would you break your karaoke skills? Scale of 1 to 10, 10 being Mariah Carey,

Chandra Roxanne: Like negative one.

Analiza: What's a recent book you read?

Chandra Roxanne: I've read the 1619 project.

Analiza: What's your favorite way to practice self care?

Chandra Roxanne: Nothing.

Analiza: What's a good professional development program you've done?

Chandra Roxanne: So I would say the return repurpose fellowship that I did with Judy and Linda, which is sort of the pre EvolveMe, but I think it's similar. That program, it was incredible. It was exactly what I needed. And I credit where I am today, even the venture capital, and the things that I talked the way that talk about magic, all of that came up in during the Return with Purpose Fellowship. I mean, that was Judy and Linda - it was wonderful learning from two women who were in their element.

Analiza: What's your definition of a Boss Mama?

Chandra Roxanne: My definition of a Boss Mama is Harriet Tubman.

Analiza: What advice would you give your younger self?

Chandra Roxanne: You know what you know. So trust that above what other people are telling you what they know.

Analiza: And where can we find you like LinkedIn?

Chandra Roxanne: So LinkedIn is only place on that

Analiza: Last question - do you have a final ask recommendation or any parting thoughts to share

Chandra Roxanne: The work that we're doing Astia and who the Astia edge that could be shared with a Latina, or a Black woman in a way or in a sphere that lets me know that there are people here that are wanting to help, that are wanting to fund offer serious funding to their businesses, while at the same time offering serious support to them. And so just to make the work, more aware more in the consciousness of Black women and Latina founders,

Analiza: Sounds great. Chandra my gosh, what a pleasure. Thank you for all the stories and want to see wisdom and inspiration for me personally, many of our listeners, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Chandra Roxanne: Thank you so very much. It was a pleasure.

Analiza: Thank you so much for carving out time today to hear today's podcast. Three things before you go. First, if you found it helpful, please leave a five star review. Second, please share with someone else you can share the link and posts on Facebook and say check it out. Lastly, I want to thank you for being a listener and you can go to get a free self care bonus called juice your joy at analizawolf.com/freebonus. Thank you so much.