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 journeys. 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 excited to be talking with Rhonda Broussard today. She is an author and entrepreneur, a futurist. She's also the founder and CEO of Beloved Community. She has been working in the nexus of equity, equity in schools, equity at work and equity home and beloved community really brings this idea to light that when we create sustainable paths to equity, racial economic equity, that we can create this beloved community, it's this quote by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, that “to create a beloved community that would require a qualitative change in our souls, as well as a qualitative change in our lives.” So I'm thrilled Rhonda to be having you today. She's also the author of One Good Question: How Countries Prepare Youth to Lead. And she has a partner Kim and their bilingual family, they live in the Bulbancha land, and it's also known as New Orleans where she teaches African dance. And I'm so thrilled that you're here, Rhonda, thank you.

Rhonda 1:50 Thank you so much for having me. I'm like listening to you introduction. Like, oh, I want to talk to Rhonda, this sounds fascinating. We all do areas, and I'm like, oh, yeah, just sounds like a great person.

Analiza: We have to pat our back. So how often do we do that Rhonda, where we say, well, we are a badass. And let's recognize that, like, let's love ourselves. So thank you for saying that. I'm curious, why have you always been that way where you're just like, I'm going to teach dance. I'm going to be at this nexus. I'm going to be this author, when you were young, thinking about your identity. How did that shape you?

Rhonda: That's a really good question. Certainly like my, what I thought I would be in the world has changed a lot. When I was very young, I thought it would be a teacher. And so to go into teaching in the classroom as my first career, my mother reminded me she was like, this has been on your brain since you were little. I definitely thought I was going to be a lawyer at some point. And then we did some mock trials at school. And I was like they're locking. I don't like this. People will lie on the stand. So that was out the window. I thought about journalism, I call myself often an armchair anthropologist, and select this thread that carries throughout all of my work is this really deep belief in our shared humanity, right?

And that, like how do we find the ways in which we are inextricably linked, and then my actual family, my family of origin, the adult family that I've created, has impacted so much on my leadership journey, like they're not before I had kids. I definitely didn't, wasn't planning a career in leadership. I was a classroom teacher and thought I'd be a teacher forever, maybe a building principal one day, and my children absolutely inspired me to start a network of schools that I ran for eight years, the experience with my I'm from Lafayette, which is a couple hours west of New Orleans, and we're the birthplace, the center of French speaking Louisiana. And so growing up in that space, growing up with my grandparents, who are four, my grandparents grew up speaking French and Creole and at home and learning to speak English in schools. It made this indelible mark on me around connecting to my family through language. So as a teenager, I decided I was going to be bilingual, I was gonna hold on to my family's language, I would teach my kids our language, raise my kids and our language and didn't think that was going to be any part of my vocation. And come to find out it mattered to me a lot. And so being able to really lean in on this conversation and movement to have more black and brown young people in the States, say I'm proud to have two languages, I'm proud to have three languages and not have to hide that anymore. Really, mark the first part of my career.

Analiza: I mean, it is a myth, right Rhonda that there is one language as someone who my parents didn't speak to me purposefully in Tagalog, because they wanted me to learn English and to speak proper English. It's really inspirational to hear that you decided that you would learn that you would teach your children and that you would allow even grow an organization build and grow an organization where that is a beautiful thing that there is this reach back to your ancestors through actual language. So can we talk about that? Wonder because this concept of ancestors? Did you as a young child, or even as you think about your experiences with them your ancestry through language, beyond language? How has that an arm chair anthropologist trying to find ties with humanity? Have you found this like connection to ancestry to further you, yourself, and you as a leader trying to carry this work forward for others,

Rhonda: The place where I first found it was joy, right? My grandparents raised me until I was nine. And so, and my grandmother was my mother, for all intents and purposes until she passed. And the thing that I hold most about her was what it looked like for her to be in joyful moments. And for her, it was almost always in our language, right? Like, she spoke English, she went to the school board, her English was fine. But if she was going to be on the phone to gossip, if there was Sunday morning, coffee, it was Friday night car games, right? The language of joy for her was different. And so I wanted to be in that. And this is a whole different part of my story. But I started dancing in my teens, like actually studying dance, and preparing for dance performances. And when I started doing West African dance in Cameroon, and then I came back to the States to study all of these older black women who were in their 50s. My grandmother was in her 50s, when she passed, who was in her 50s. And who were teaching dance class became like surrogate mother figures, right? Like that was my actual physical way to be in community with her was to be in these dance companies and dance programs where I got to learn from and you know, when someone passes, you often hold on to that stage, right? Like they didn't advance past that stage. And so it kept recreating itself with women who are leading African dance communities across the country. And that was probably my first real grounding in that I can hold her and it reaches back to all of these other ancestors. And then understanding what it means for people from any place in the world. To be able to identify like this, here is a practice that keeps me grounded and connected. I got lucky that on my university campus, there was a denim class, I went to school in St. Louis. And so Katherine Dunham was from St. Louis, there are Dunham experts in the region who would come and teach classes. And I was like, What is this? I would hear the drums, walking across campus and just like walk to the drums, like, this is a class, I can get credit for this. Let's sign up, please. Right. But then it just made space for me to understand that there are different languages that connect us. And for me, dances is the one Rhonda,

Analiza: Hearing your story and knowing that you're a leader, you've been a leader of schools and leader, Beloved Community. I'm curious, how can you and it's beautiful that you had access to dance as a young girl and then also as a college student, and even as a dance instructor now that you have this beautiful pathway of language and dance to stay connected and help your children stay connected? How do you encourage others to have that pathway when maybe it's not so clear, or maybe I didn't have the lineup here's like, here's ways in which I would support others or suggest to others to consider so that we can have this way of being present with it in our daily lives rather than a once in a blue moon or even never.

Rhonda: Before talking about that y'all whoever's listening to this podcast, I don't want you to look out here and think I'm gonna go take a dance class with Rhonda Broussard. I'm not teaching dance right now. And it is rare that I'm in that role.

Analiza: I took it I took a dance class from Rhonda Broussard, just to be clear, I was fortunate too so I'm like, Ooh, you're a dance teacher.

Rhonda: I love it. I love it. I love it. It is in my spirit. I'm like, This is what I have. When I talk to my team about things like, what happens in retirement? What do I do during this next act? It is absolutely more dance, more dance instruction, more dance, teaching more dance, like learning through dance is a high priority. But yeah, the Google search will not help you do that right now. So the question that Analiza…

Analiza: I'm curious, how would you suggest others reach back to their ancestry? So it's present in their daily lives not having this beautiful childhood where it was already part of it?

Rhonda 9:15 Yeah, I mean, I think this is true for entrepreneurship. Like if you're doing this activity, if I want to create something, I think it's true for any artistic passion or inspiration. I think it's true for family connection, you have to find time to be quiet with your own self. And it's hard to quiet your mind. It's hard to quiet your heart, when you are always moving in service to other people. And anything that can help you do that. And do it for a sustained period of time is going to make space for you to identify what that connection is for you. And so when I think about it on the entrepreneurship side, it's hard to develop a whole model for an organization or business when you're working on somebody else's mission. And you're dedicated to that mission you need Some way to step aside and clear your brain.

And I think I said this to my kids, when we were moving home in 2016, I was like, Look at my daughter, when she was little would come to dance classes with me and try her own dance classes. And, and I said, you don't, you don't have to do what I do. But you have to figure out what your thing is, you have to figure out what your arts connection is, you have to figure out what your relationship to this place is. Because they used to think like, oh, you're from Louisiana, we're not from Louisiana. And when we came home, the dance company that I started working with, or that I selected to start working with was high on my list, because they had a youth company. And the youth company didn't dance, they did well, they were still dancing. And this is different enough, you're not doing what I do. But we get to be in a community together. And you get to make your own relationship to this art form into the city in this place. And I think that really matters.

Analiza: I love the way in which you encouraged your daughter to stay in connection to ancestors, but to do it in her own way. Like you can be you don't have to do what mom is doing to be able to do this and find your own path. And do that through stillness instead of a blind, therefore you're doing therefore I will do well, I love that choice.

Rhonda: Now, I will tell you when she started undergrad this year, someone else on campus told her about some Afro fusion Afro futurist course that she could take. And she named it to me, I got excited on the inside my heart was like, Oh, my babies might be doing dance. But I will not tell her that she's not listening to the podcast, I will not tell her that because I want her to find her own path.

Analiza: You have to be a choice, right? Rhonda hammer is not usually in a parenting technique, it's effective.

Rhonda: It's so hard. It's so hard.

Analiza: Rhonda, let's talk about you in your leadership role. And there's been so much backlash, as you know, against DEI and the politics, etc. Critical Race Theory, just how do we continue the work given the reality that our country is very divided? That there are sometimes ramifications like funding or support that's pulled from organizations in schools, young people? I'm curious, what's your view on this? And can you share anything that's going on in your work that could help?

Rhonda: My first view is when I think about the attacks on critical race theory on targeting LGBTQ students and teachers and schools, districts at the state and federal level, I go back to the fact that our ancestors had to do all of this education at home, right. For centuries, we didn't have any education about who we were as a people. And we didn't have any role models in the official K 12 education system that showed you here are adults who grew up queer and are leading lives and all these different ways, right, we had to learn that in community from so from if we're thinking about having to learn to read under penalty of death, if we're thinking about it from having to learn about who our heroes were, and what the civil rights movement was, even in the 80s. Right.

I grew up in a time period where Martin Luther King Day was not yet a federal holiday. And so my mother would organize at her job over like the lunch breaks, she would organize and set up tables for me. And then my siblings, when they came along later to come in and lead conversations and hold space for all of the workers around who aren't in with the King Jr. was so that we could have our own opportunity to celebrate his life, to name the struggle to look at what we were moving forward. And we didn't get that in school. Right, we did the same thing around Black History Month, we would do the same thing for Juneteenth. And in this contemporary experience, we forget that our communities are the ones who have always provided that instruction for us. So go deeper into the community. And I say this, not just as an educator, I see it as a mother who's often giving people advice on, you know, what kind of schools to look at for your kids, you're always going to have to supplement something in your children's education and their upbringing. School can't do it all. We don't want school to do it all. And so in this moment where this school trademark is under attack, we have to remember that we have the community resources to continue this education at home. So that's one, don't give up the education that our communities already know how to do.

And then the second piece is like here are all the things that we can be thinking about for those of us who are educators, or on the policy side or on the funding side, about the ways that policy protects practice, about the value of belongingness for young people and for our educators themselves. We need to be thinking about ways to build our training and support for elected and appointed school board members. That's the place where we're starting to see most of the fracture happened in terms of policies that are being passed around text around curriculum around access to programming. That's where your biggest local impact is. So what's happening? Sitting here for our election appointed school board members, how do we influence and hold accountable the ones who are there for what it means to really deeply value inclusion and equity within our schools? And for the bravest among us? How do we put our heads in the ring to say I actually want to be a part of holding on to this for our community, in the face of small numbers of agitators who are having outsized impact.

And I think there's also some space when we think about what opportunities funders have. So not only like the training and support for elected appointed school board members, but thinking about this bigger pipeline of progressive candidates and local elections? How do you just prepare more people to think about their own lived experience and enter into this, there are a series of progressive candidate preparation programs that folks could go to, to learn, right? Like one is literally just called run for something like, yep, we'll teach you how to run. And here's what matters to you. And here's how you can impact change at the local level. And I think it's, if you're sitting in the district seat, like, district level superintendent, or even state level, Department of Education, the questions about what we can do, and what's going to come under attack, I think are where people are most afraid, right? Because people will fear that a lawsuit is coming and out of that fear not take action. And my perspective is, well, let's do it and get sued. Right? And so how do you understand it from the district level? How do you understand it from the state level? How far can we push? And then either we get sued or we sue them? And that's like, I'm not a litigator. Right? That's not my area of expertise at all. But this is what actual strategy looks like in this current iteration of a civil rights movement. Litigation was a tool. And as and frequently used to in the 60s, when we think about things like desegregation, it's a tool that we have started using less and less, or we think is less available to us. We're like, oh, the ACLU does that. But the ACLU also needs named plaintiffs. So you need to be able to show up and say, Here's how far we can push in our community. And we will be a named plaintiff for that suit, so that we can continue this work. I think it requires a lot of bravery at different levels, to push back right now.

Analiza: Rhonda, when I hear your different strategies, first, let's start at home. Let's do our part in educating our children about our, the history, our ancestors, it's connected to, you know, continuing the self belief, but also, this idea that there's you know, we don't depend on schools, we shouldn't depend on schools for all the things that we can take charge there, and then expanding our locus of control two, how can we support candidates with either training, or even be a candidate ourselves, which when you said that I was like, Oh, my God, that sounds super scary. So we'll talk about that. And then also like litigation, which honestly, when I think about tools, that's not the first one that comes to mind, you're just like, alright, we can do that, too. As leads of organizations, we do have enough resources to make sure we can protect ourselves. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't even step up to the plate. And so that's really powerful. I want to talk about risk and bravery, because I'm not sure about you. But just as I was like, Oh, of course, here, litigation that's gonna be handled by someone else, in my mind, honestly, to the idea of putting myself out there. It's hard, putting myself out there as a candidate is even just like not even the fun part of the possibilities. So there's a lot there. So I want to make sure I am needed and yet these times call for bravery. I'm curious. What comes to mind for you about bravery. In these times for you, personally, as a leader, I know that you've founded and led a beloved community, but what does that mean? Right, like bravery in the sense of yeah, you need to run for something. I'm curious, what are your thoughts on that?

Rhonda: Yeah. When you first started this conversation, I thought, am I brave? And am I doing the things that I'm espousing? And so I'm gonna sit with that for a little while my son asked me when he was little, he's like, are you going to be an activist when you grow up, and I appreciated his one generosity of thinking that I still had growing up to do and to that I can become an activist at whatever age and so I still hold on to that with me. Alice Walker has a book called Hard times require furious dancing. And that is the place that grounds me, as we know, from a dance perspective, but also naming that we have always created moments of joy within the hard times right within the context and the oppression and genocides that our families have faced for centuries. I think there are some people who know from a young age, they want to be in public service, and they want to be front-facing elected roles and public service. There are other folks who know I want to be in public service, but I want to be the behind the scenes functionary who is doing the nitty gritty work of policy change and influence and strategy. And some people don't figure out either of those things until they're inspired by some life event that's happening. What I think about when I'm naming this bravery is to know which of those folks you are first.

And this goes back to some other conversations we're having about how well do I love myself? And how well do I know who I am? And how I'm showing up in the world? Once you can get clearer about, are you trying to live that external facing life? Or do you want to be doing more of the behind the scenes work, then you can start to find like, here's this pathway that demystifies all of that for me. And I think bravery comes in being in proximity with people, organizations, ideas that help you demystify it, which is why some of the organizations like runforsomething or Manzoni in Arizona are so helpful, because they're like, Yeah, this is how it works. This is the whole process. Here's what you do, here's what other people do. Here's how you build campaign structure and funding and, and then there are organizations that once you get elected, help you figure out how to actually navigate the role of that particular elected official, like school board partners who work with elected school board members. And so just the idea that you don't have to do it all by yourself, you just have to figure out where you want to start. And once you can get clear about that. I think this is true for everything.

Once you can clearly articulate like, this is what matters for me who's want to talk about is manifesting, if you want to talk about it as prayer, if you want to talk about it a strategy, you have to be able to envision where you're headed, communicate it to yourself, and I think communicate it to at least one other person out loud or in print. And then the universe will help you identify the resources that are going to help you get there. And I think that's where bravery comes, it's one step at a time. And then being able to have great counsel for people who have gone before you and done it the way that you want to see yourself lead, or people who've gone before you and who have had some missteps and can share their lessons so you don't fall down the same path. Yeah,

Analiza: I hear you saying, know yourself, make sure you're clear about what vision, right, what is it that you want to see in the world, and know yourself, and also enough to know where your strengths lie, so that you can play the role, and that there are resources, and people who can support us that even though it will be scary, because I can't imagine that it's not going to be scary at some point, that you're not alone,

Rhonda: I would add one more thing to is to identify, particularly in this with the speed of internet and public comment, and public criticism on everything that you might do in the public eye, I would also name something that I think is unique for folks who are entering into that level of public activism and public engagement that was less, maybe less true for folks in previous generations is you've got to find what your support community is, you've got to find where you go for your own reset, how you block out all of the not just blackout, but release the toxicity that gets directed towards you, I think particularly about younger generations who do a lot of their activism online, and so are constantly bombarded with messages from people that they don't know, that are denigrating them that are challenging them that are threatening them that are threatening to cause physical harm to them. And how do you know that all that exists and still make space to release, process, protect yourself so that you can keep doing the work?

Analiza: Self love means self care? And you don't have to do it by yourself? Find your people? Exactly, exactly. Once you live beloved community, it is beautiful in my mind, like a sort of inner love, love of others, larger group of others. And as you said, that's how we make change. So I love that so much. I'm curious, when you think Rhonda about change, especially given the context of the world today. There's this change in our love and also this political public profile, which you can choose to step into, however you define bravery. What are other ways in which as a just organization in general, not necessarily schools, but just in organizations in general, as we think about how to stay static, keep di centered, right? There's like technical changes, right? You've got to have a DEI stay. Remember this like, okay, checklists, as social media thing you put out there you hired maybe a DEI officer, usually a person of color, you know, it's like, boom, boom, and everyone's like, hey, get on the bandwagon.

And now people are I don't even know if they're renewing those contracts. People are firing their DEI officers. We're not at one point in time. It's a long time, we're part of a long, long history. And you are a typology, that armchair anthropologist, and you said this earlier, like, how do we find ties of staying together and we talked about love? I'm curious, what are where can we come back to in terms of as an organist session in a practical way, if you're leading an organization, nonprofit corporate, and you're trying to find historic practices, or just even practices that you can implement today, to find ways of not making not swinging back, right, the pendulum from one side to the other, I'm curious what you would offer in terms of, you know, people, you've read historic moments, or just even daily current practices that you could share with us.

Rhonda: The hard part for me is that the pendulum keeps swinging. And so the examples that we have are of the return, right, and that the moment that we're living in the States is not dissimilar to what is happening in Brazil, or what's happening in Italy, or other countries where there's a more fascist, or totalitarian expectation of governance, and then all the ways that our democracy is broken. And, and I actually, like, I don't have a hope right now, for what that looks like. I mean, I think, when we talk about it, beloved, and the what is on the other side of this, we typically hold up the work of abolishing apartheid in South Africa, and what it took for them to get government level buy in to establish the truth and reconciliation committees to do the work of truth and reconciliation to do the work of reparations, and all the ways that their country still struggles. Today, like the other side of this moment, isn't a panacea.

And so that they're the closest example that we name in that way. Here are the very specific things that made it possible for a deep commitment to humanity, and a deep commitment for justice to prevail. It hasn't stopped systemic racism in their country. But it did make some very clear and has been continuous, clear and continuously protected guidelines for people. So to me, it feels like that becomes the North Star of like, okay, in our lifetimes, maybe we can get to that and still be ready to keep doing this work of Beloved Community on the other side, it's not gonna go away. It's called comfort Annalisa. It's called comfort. But yeah, that's, that's where I am.

Analiza: Thanks for that, Rhonda. It's not easy, right. And it is emotional to see the pendulum swinging. But know that even with history on our side that you know, things continue to swing back and forth globally, even where do we find hope? And it's hard. So connected to that idea. And I'm wondering, this idea of dismantling the system, right? And also, what can I do in my vicinity of control at home? So this at home at work in my community? I'm just curious, when you say like, we need to do that kind of system work, right? And I'm just like, Yeah, let's do it. You know? Where does that happen? Right? Like, how do you mean, I know we have a case, example, Mandela in South Africa. And that's all incredibly important and beautiful. I'm curious, when we think about our context in America, like, what would that look like? I know, we're being the armchair all this here. But like, where else can we do it? Right. And you have so much context as a teacher and in your work? So I'm curious, like, do you have thoughts on how that could be done in our own way? What could a gathering look like? Would you know, gotta go get the people in the seats to run for something? And then we do it then like, how could this possibly and I know we're throwing, you know, on the wall, so it is okay to be messy? So I'm curious, what could that look like? If you could have it your way?

Rhonda: Yeah, I like this kind of dreaming. So in the, from the Thich Nat Hanh perspective, right, the larger your beloved community, the more you can accomplish in the world. So in my way, it would be really thinking about all the different roles that people have to play. Right, there are the roles for the agitators, there are roles for organizers their roles for folks who are more on the policy side, their roles for people who are doing daily service, and Frontline facilitation with current power holders, their roles for the people who do shadow work, in terms of what they fund and don't fund in communities. And so we've been talking recently, in this kind of informal space with other people of color who are either nonprofits or in funding land. And we've talked about how where we get stuck, is thinking that we all have to be moving towards the exact same end. And so the folks who are on the abolitionist side, don't want to engage with folks who are Dei, because we're like, that sounds transactional, and we want something that's more radical, or folks who are moving towards liberation agenda gets stuck because we're like, oh, you're talking about moving dollars, and we're talking about getting rid of capitalism. And those aren't the same things. Right.

So the part of it is admitting that the tools that we have right now are imperfect. How can we leverage these imperfect tools towards the collective future? And how can we all align on where we're headed, and the fact that we have different roles to play to get there, as opposed to? If you're not moving towards this radical future in the same way, with the same perspective, then it's not worth a collaboration. And that's been sitting with me a lot. What are the ways that we collaborate with folks who are doing more on the ground action? What are the ways that we collaborate with folks who are in funding space? Or who is in a research space? What are ways that we collaborate with folks who are in elected and political strategy work? Because we all have a different role to play?

Analiza: Rhonda, do you see any of these spaces being created even on a small scale, where they're, even though we might not even share the same vision, but just to have a bigger belief in equity, right? Like if we could just say like, we want more, and not get bogged down in like, you know, what, exactly doesn't matter. Like we want things to be more fair, across all the lines of difference? Can we work together? And I'm just curious, where have you seen just for hope, right? Here's an example. Maybe in the present time. Yeah, can we come? Come here like, Okay, here's a temporary time, okay. Here's where I'm seeing even a small version of this, where we can point to learn or point to find inspiration.

Rhonda: So the example I think of right now is campaigning for our shared future, which is, in this kind of watchdog space, particularly around all the issues we've been talking about for anti CRT and anti LGBTQ student and teacher access to public education. They have the purview of, okay, here's what's happening from a political perspective, here's what might be happening locally on the ground. Here's how we equip educators, advocates, community leaders with more knowledge, etc, for how they can push back in their local communities. And there are funders who clearly are funding that work. So funders who think about okay, what is our role in advocacy? So it's not just Yes, we're going to provide some direct funding for nonprofits who are doing this work right now. But we also have to be a part of funding this long game. And so it's funding the communications and organizing groups, it's funding the pipeline of candidates, it's funding the candidate training programs, right? Not necessarily the candidates themselves. But do we have more fertile ground for people to go and learn how to do this? And so there are definitely funders who think about their role in advocacy in that way. That's like, I can move the needle faster if I vote Obama Foundation, and get more progressive women to be running for elections, than if I am right trying to fight in every school district in our state, because they're starting to advance some of these more oppressive local policies. So I think of orgs, like that, that are looking at this bigger picture. But I want to know, like you like, if there is a big playbook, I don't know what it is. I want someone to distill it for me. So that I can see this is where we play as Beloved, this is where I might play as an individual. And this is what I can trust is happening in all these other other spaces.

Analiza: Yeah, I mean, honestly, Rhonda, the work we're trying to do, I feel like we're playing in the same pot, right? Like, okay, how can we lower that? Can we add a little life raft so that it's not so hot, right? Or can we live someone up and I'll be hot or you won't? And but we're still in the same hot pot. Right? Right, right. And I'm like, Luke, you need to change something about this pot, get out of this pot or do something else. And it's when I look at some of the historic history of how things happen, change happened and how calculated it was done some of the incredibly ethical, I was just like, Wow, that really happened that happened. And it was orchestrated by a few pretty powerful people. If we can bring it to the people ourselves to move we have moved in the history and we've got incredibly smart, committed people I wonder if we can work in collaboration coalition's and multiracial difference, and it could be this beloved community where we might not agree on everything, but at least we agree on the bigger idea that we gotta get out this hot pot, right. And can we move forward in some way together? So I love that so much Rhonda with this, like, so many stumper questions I gave you thank you for your willingness.

Rhonda: Yeah, this is great. We just need to talk more. I think you're gonna come to a lot of things together. Together.

Analiza: Let's move to lightning round. Are you ready?

Rhonda: Oh, lightning round. Okay. Sure.

Analiza: Chocolate or vanilla?

Rhonda: Vanilla. That's so sad for my life. But yeah.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Rhonda: Cooking

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Rhonda: Those are my options. Climb a mountain.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals?

Rhonda: Where socks with shoes? That's only inside the house, not outside of the house?

Analiza: How would you rate your karaoke skills on a scale of one to 10, 10 being Mariah Carey?

Rhonda: 10. Okay, 4.

Analiza: What's the recent book you read?

Rhonda: Oh, I'm reading some Ross Gay right now, The Book of Delights.

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

Rhonda: Dance, like by myself in a dance class on the dance floor, any kind.

Analiza: Well, it's a good professional development you've done.

Rhonda: I recently did the heart of black leadership with the Rockwood Institute. And it was the first time I've had a professional development that really provided care and inspiration.

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

Rhonda: Boss Mama, all of us really, mama is hard work. And I think anytime you can figure out how to keep yourself afloat, how to keep your kids afloat, without losing so that your kids get to experience this fullness of you is a boss move.

Analiza: And what advice would you give your younger self?

Rhonda: My younger self was just as opinionated but a lot quieter. And so I will just tell her it's okay. It's okay to speak up.

Analiza: Where can we find you? I know your website, or your website and other LinkedIn and social media.

Rhonda: Yeah, I do. So you can find me at Rhonda broussard.com. And I'm on LinkedIn and Instagram. Yeah, I'm in those two places most consistently.

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

Rhonda: I really do think that we should be learning more about our local elections, local candidates, even for races down ballot races where you might not be thinking a lot about who your insurance commissioner is or, but how do we understand the people and build relationships with people who are going to be making more and more decisions that impact us? Rhonda.

Analiza 37:14 Thank you so much for going on this journey with me from young Rhonda to if we could be our way. So I appreciate you and your wisdom and stories.

Rhonda: Oh, thanks so much for having me. And I'm serious. We should continue this conversation in other formats. It'd be great.

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 an analizawolf.com/freebonus. Thank you so much.