Bet on Your Own Blaze

Dom: [00:00:00] Welcome to Just One Q, the podcast where we explore the latest ideas in workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion in conversation with thought leaders and DEI experts. Each episode, I ask our guests one key question and a bunch of follow up questions, highlighting their area of expertise in DEI.

The goal is to leave you with the tools and insights that you need to drive change in your own life, both personally and professionally. I’m your host, Dominique Attrell. I’m a DEI educator and advocate working for Dialectic, an inclusive workplace learning consultancy in lovely Guelph, Ontario, which is situated on the treaty lands and territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the traditional lands of the Chonnonton and Haudenausaunee peoples.

On this week’s episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Tashion Macon. Dr. Tashion describes herself as a culturalist and a communications and cachet catalyst. She leverages her training and experience in [00:01:00] psychology, marketing, and popular culture to empower individuals and institutions to live their purpose, achieving peak performance and successful outcomes.

Dr. Tashion had humble beginnings growing up in East St. Louis, Illinois. And her hugely successful career in marketing and branding has included branding of multi award winning artists, such as Usher, Pink, and Dr. Dre. Her visionary strategies have catapulted sales and her awareness for iconic brands, including the U S O C winter Olympics, Burger King, the world cup, and the Oprah Winfrey show.

Through it all, she remains convinced that spirituality is the anchor, and it’s the secret to sanity, serenity, and unshakable success. Dr. Tashion is committed to the exploration, exposition, and evolution of emotional and spiritual health and workplace wellness. She writes evocatively about the intersection of spirituality, stardom, and success, and their implication on the soul in society.

And [00:02:00] she’s committed to advancing access, agency, and ascension, one born of experience and steeped in wit and wisdom. And today we’re going to be chatting about her new book, Coming in Hot, a blueprint for Black women setting the world ablaze, which delves into the corporate structure with a historical and cultural lens on issues faced specifically by Black women.

Dr. Tashion, I am so glad to have you here today. Welcome to the podcast.

Tashion: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I am so pleased and honored and happy to be here with you today.

Dom: Fantastic. Well, honestly, given the depth of your work and career, we could take this conversation in so many directions. I mean, you’ve brushed shoulders with a lot of greats and you’re a great yourself.

So there’s lots that we could, uh, we could dive into, but to give ourselves some direction, I do really want to focus on answering a key question and that is, It’s one that is really, uh, talked about with nuance in your book, and it’s how can Black women thrive in [00:03:00] work and in life. Um, I mean, you’ve written this beautiful book centering the experiences of Black women in the context of corporate America.

And I guess I want to start just by asking, who can benefit from reading this book?

Tashion: Thank you for that question. Um, I believe every woman, um, and man actually, um, every ethnicity can benefit from reading Coming In Hot. Uh, for me. The reason I say that is I am a fundamental, I fundamentally believe that connection, collaboration and camaraderie is rooted in essence, more than ethnicity, like community can be created, um, by virtue of gaining additional insight into the context of lived experiences.

I also believe that biases and boundaries. Are broken down, [00:04:00] um, by proximity to one another, um, being able to open ourselves up from a point of essence more than ethnicity around the environments, uh, that we are all living in and certain conditions that we’re all living in. So I believe a lot of people, men and women, um, I often say men who believe and support women in leadership.

Would benefit from this book, to understand what’s happening. And I also think there’s a lot of data in the book. Um, when I was writing the book, honestly, the data can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be defining or defeating. It can really be directional. And that’s what I’m hoping that people who read the book would kind of understand.

Dom: Hmm. Yeah. Is this, I mean, obviously some of that data points toward. The struggle of [00:05:00] black women accessing corporate spaces, climbing the ranks, etc. Are there other, um, kind of important reasons that this is like the right cultural moment to center black women?

Tashion: Yes, I think one of the things that sparked my, um, interest in writing the book additionally was an article that came out in Fortune magazine that revealed that black women, working women, the most degreed class of educated women in our nation, would lose two million dollars In their arc, their career arc that they would lose two million dollars in total, and that was, um, baffling to me, baffling to me because there’s often this conversation around generational wealth, where I’m going well you can’t close the generational wealth gap if women are losing two million dollars, and they are the primary workforce right? [00:06:00] So if black women are losing two million dollars. Then Hispanic women are losing money. Caucasian women are losing millions of dollars as our Asian American women. So women are losing millions of dollars in their career lifespan. And I thought this is, this is something that has to be discussed. We’re talking about closing the wealth gap, what it means to close the wealth gap, and even when you’re leading, you’re losing.

Even when you are getting more degrees, you’re getting fewer dollars, like it just wasn’t balancing for me. And I thought it was important to bring forward and to center the conversation, uh, particularly around black women, because again, they are the most degreed and most denied.

Dom: Absolutely. Um, you also mentioned to me in passing that you wrote, uh, The book that you wish that you had read when you were 20.[00:07:00]

Um, so what is your, what is your message to Black women and, you know, as you’ve mentioned, to the other folks who are currently or historically excluded from, from corporate spaces or who are in those spaces but are, are tired of the fight to stay in it or, or are being passed over? Uh, what is, what is your message to those women and those people?

Tashion: Oh, thank you so much for that question. Um, for me. At 20, I wish I had this book so that I could count, I could, you know, count the cost and the coins for my own career that I would have known how to curate a career that was unique to me, my value system, the missions of my life, understanding how the structures worked.

Critical components around how you engage in these spaces. That would be a critical value to me or would have been and still is a critical value to me [00:08:00] at 20 years old, graduating from college. I didn’t know that. You could really be smart and graduate at the top of your class and be a humble person and want to work well with others.

And you were going to encounter significant boundaries and biases. And, you know, as I share with you, when you are a, what I call the multicultural majority, I don’t use the language minority. But we are. We are raised to understand the dominant perspective. We, we, we take that with us everywhere we go. We, it is centered in how we experience our lives, our communities, and society at large.

It wasn’t until I was in these corporate spaces that I realized that there were people [00:09:00] who had never really encountered or had proximity to otherness. Ever And so it was difficult for them to accept and or acknowledge my giftings. It was almost an assault against the concept of their existence because of where they may have been.

So for the young woman that’s graduating from college now, I would like her to know that. I would like for her to utilize this book as information and insight around environments. She would like to be in, whether it’s a doctor at a hospital, a lawyer at a law firm, a teacher at any school or a private school or a charter school, to understand how to do a litmus test of the leadership you’re serving and the environment you’re placing yourself in.

Dom: I mean, something that you talk about in the book a lot [00:10:00] is sort of, you know, Preserving a sense of, of dignity or value or, uh, purpose that is. Apart from what the workplace is going to give you, particularly if you’re a person who is having those experiences that you’ve just described of being passed over of, uh, you know, your success feeling like an affront to somebody else.

Um, so something that you said to me is, you know, the, the, the idea of your title, not being the most important, um, piece of your identity. Can you say more about that?

Tashion: Absolutely. I talk about how your title was something you rent, your talent is something you own. And from that perspective, knowing that a title may change, but your talent, even if your talent does change, it can be enhanced, it can evolve, but it’s something that is a part of you that you take with you wherever you go.

Um, and if we [00:11:00] disassociate with titles, and stay connected to our talent. I believe fundamentally we might find that we zig and zag in our careers. We may find that we’re not just trying to punch above ourselves and, you know, knock out a ceiling. I think if we stay connected to our, our talent, we can transcend these ceilings.

Right, that that the title sometimes keeps us connected to the hierarchical historical nature of a corporation. And so we want the director title because of the cachet the corporate structure has created and also the money that’s associated with it, or we want the senior vice president or the C suite title.

Well, you can zig and zag and get it the same way. I also think that it’s important again. It’s not about your [00:12:00] title. It’s about your talent. I talk about in the book, the importance of serving on boards, right? To get connected to a nonprofit and, and use your talent in that space. Your title is a volunteer, right?

Or you may chair a certain aspect of the organization. The board, but what’s going to happen is you’re going to get in proximity with people that will learn you differently. And then those people become part of your community. And I have found often that in those spaces, someone may say, Hey, I’m looking for in a whole nother part of a conversation or part of a town or at a conference or whatever I’m looking for X, Y, Z.

And the board member thinks of you, you don’t work for the board member, but you place your talent. In the proximity of a more relaxed environment so you can thrive. We’re spending 40, [00:13:00] 50, 60 hours of the week trying to survive. It’s trauma, it’s struggle, it’s duress. When I’m saying no, let, let the title sit over here, right?

And I often say you can drive with both of your feet. Your, your, your success in your career is a stick shift. You’re going to have to drive with both of your feet. The left is going to have to be what it is. The corporate space is going to have to be what it is, and then you have to create these alternate universes where you, you are your best and your highest self and you are valued and you’re come forward for you.

Dom: Yeah, that’s amazing advice for everyone. It sounds also. Difficult and exhausting to have to drive with both of your feet, to have to have both of those things on at the same time. Like when I’m thinking of it from a personal level, right, there’s sort of that linear progression that we’re sort of taught [00:14:00] to focus on and having time and energy to invest in that other part, um, in that talent part and honing that and, um, placing value on that is also really.

I guess energetically intensive. Do you have any advice for where to find that extra time or how to do that in practice?

Tashion: I’ll say it this way, and I hope this helps because as I’ve lived this out, I had to come to a decision. There was my job and there was joy and my joy was not intensive. So though I’m driving quote unquote with both of my feet, joy was filling me. I was spending less time [00:15:00] in angst and duress. In a job as, you know, as glorious as my career has been, and I’m grateful for it, and I talk about it in the book. I also started to see trends of extractionists, extractionism, right? I started to see fewer and fewer women in leadership as my career progressed. That, um, and then I definitely saw fewer and fewer women of color.

And then fewer Black women at all. So, how I envisioned my career and my own desire for my life, as I looked around, I was like, okay, this may not happen here, but it doesn’t mean it cannot happen. So, where do I now place my joy? This is my job. [00:16:00] And so, I think when we get into our joy, it becomes less intensive.

Like, it may be something, and I’m making this up, but If we can find the time to commit 40 hours, 45 hours, let’s say to your job, whatever that is, but you love baking cakes. If you’re spending 70 hours in a job that you cannot find joy in baking cakes, then so much is being extracted from your soul anyway.

And I think it’s important that we suspend the notion that we collapse the notion that we must find all of our joy. In our job.

Dom: Absolutely. Yeah. And like, this is some such a [00:17:00] nuanced conversation because your book has at once, um, this idea, right, that your value is not there. Um, or it shouldn’t be completely there that you, you know, you need to invest in your, your joy and your values and really take time to figure out what that is so that you kind of have that fire.

Right. Um, And then you also, uh, at the same time, make a lot of space and give tremendous practical advice for women who do want to enter and climb and be in those very difficult to navigate corporate spaces. Um, and you don’t exclude that as, you know, You know, something that can bring people joy either.

Um, so you do give great advice to people who, who do want to see themselves thrive in those corporate spaces too. And I really did enjoy that, that nuance in your book. It’s not one or the other necessarily. Um, so what, I mean, what about those [00:18:00] women, um, and those, People who do want to go straight in and focus on the career and who do derive joy or some sort of satisfaction from, from that, from that environment.

Do you have advice for them specifically?

Tashion: Oh, absolutely. Number one, I celebrate them. I think that, um, there’s a way that, that environment or that culture calls for them. And they answer that call. I think they navigate it differently. Because they are called to it, I think, so for me, whether you are, so I think there’s the entry level, the emerging level, the established level, and you know, the completely evolved level in your career, the entry level and the emerging leaders level, I would say, it’s important to [00:19:00] have a mentor and a mentor will help you with who.

And, and, and what, right. Um, but as you progress, understanding that you will need a sponsor and a sponsor is a person who is speaking your name in rooms that you are not in, who can advocate for you and advance your career in conversations. You are not in and to to also accept that a mentor and or a sponsor may not be the same ethnicity or gender as you that sometimes women as a whole become disappointed.

When the greatest champion isn’t another [00:20:00] woman or another woman of their ethnicity. And this has happened for Asian American women. It’s happened for Latino women. It’s happened for black women and it’s happened for Caucasian women. They will have a sense of deep despair and disappointment or deep disappointment that, you know, this is a woman like me.

She looks like me. We probably have the same pedigree. We went to the same school. You know, or I went to an Ivy League, she went to an Ivy League, and we get in this space. And she’s really not rocking for me. She’s really not, she has no connection or care. Right. And so I think understanding at the entry level and as an emerging leader, and even as one that is progressing swiftly, that your mentor and your sponsor may not be your same ethnicity or your same gender.

Dom: It’s just having an open [00:21:00] mind about that, or

Tashion: Absolutely. An open mind and understanding its essence, not ethnicity, even in the climb, you know, that’s really true. So that’s what I would say for a woman who, or a man, who’s called to these spaces. Um, number one, I celebrate them. Number two, just hope that they craft it in a way that it looks That the people you are connected to look more like your values and your mission, more than the quest for the money, because the money is going.

Dom: Yeah, the money’s going to come. Yeah, I like that. And I think, you know, I’m going to read a couple of excerpts if you don’t mind, just some, a couple of parts of your book that I’m still carrying with me. Um, the first is. The goal is not to think that you would do the work for free. The goal is to do what you love [00:22:00] and get fully compensated for it.

You deserve to be acknowledged in the form of a paycheck for everything you bring to the company. And, um, and in another chapter, this is kind of related, you emphasize that. As you do your work, know that it is your right to decide the trajectory of your career. Seize success in your own way, in your own time, and on your own terms.

So I love, like I just feel like those really, Um, and I think that, um, you know, I think it’s important to capture a lot of what we’re talking about here, that flexibility and creativity in crafting your own, uh, sort of your own career adventure. And then also, um, yes, make sure you’re passionate, but make sure you’re also being fully compensated for it.

Tashion: Oh, yeah. Make sure you’re passionate and you are getting the paycheck for, um, for the work. You know, I think that, listen, we don’t get our work. We get what we negotiate. [00:23:00] And I do think, um, particularly African American women, um, and women at large would fare well to take a negotiating class. I think when we talk, I wish someone would have said that to me.

When, you know, I got my first promotion, um, because we process it as if something’s being given versus something we’ve earned. And when it’s something, I don’t know anything, let’s say, for example, a house that has value or even, or we have a need of that. We don’t look at the comps. We look at the comps for houses.

We look at the comps. If you live in a major city, you look at what’s the range for apartments? What’s the rental range? What can this car be worth if it’s new or if it’s pre owned or if it’s certified, but when it comes to jobs, it’s as if [00:24:00] we’re so grateful that we just take what’s given. We don’t process it from an economic lens that we’ve earned it.

And because we’ve earned it, I should be fully. Equipped with knowledge about what the market will bear from a, um, salary range and be willing to at least negotiate. And again, negotiating may not mean that you get everything you desire, but I think the practice of it gives voice to women to be confident and comfortable as well as courageous in, um, their value.

Dom: Absolutely. I love that advice. It’s, uh, something that I take to heart. And, uh, you know, like I am a recently divorced person and it becomes so much more important all of a sudden [00:25:00] to negotiate because, uh, people don’t always view. You know, you as a woman also as the head of a household, and there are a lot of assumptions that are made there about how much money you should or need to earn.

And, uh, so I’ve had a kind of a crash course in self taught I got to say, but that’s something that’s become important in my life too. And I can really see the value of shifting that mindset and also learning some, some skills. Um, even something as simple as like. Watching YouTube videos or reading articles about this, just to help train your mindset, um, into knowing what your value is and doing that, like you said, that comparables shopping around, seeing, seeing what you’re worth.

Tashion: And I had two mentors. Um, one was a, um, a Caucasian woman and one [00:26:00] was a, um, an African American man. One was three, and one was a Caucasian man that, um, identified as gay. And ironically, they gave me the same advice in different ways, and I’m going to synthesize it for you. Um, when I was struck out in business on my own, the advice was negotiate your time, not your rate.

And an example of that, let’s say for example, your baseline retainer. Would be, I’m gonna use round numbers, a thousand dollars a month, but a client comes to you and says, well, I can only pay, I got 6, 000, right? But I want you to work for 12 months at $500. Your negotiation is would welcome the opportunity to work with you.

I can do [00:27:00] this work for $6, 000 in six months. So you don’t, you, you negotiate your time. Not your rate. So you still thousand dollars and you free up 50 percent of your time to get additional clients instead of the $500 because what’s going to happen, you’re going to show up a hundred percent. So you can’t show up a hundred percent for half the money.

You can show up a hundred percent for your fair market value and then do the work in a compressed timeframe. And that has served me well for over 15 years.

Dom: Yeah, that’s great advice. I like how practical that is. Thanks for that tidbit. It’s uh, something else I’ll put in my pocket. As you’ve mentioned, I mean, you mentioned this in, in your book and, you know, we talk about, This book is good for even a broader range of people, um, so you’re not talking about, you know, a monolith [00:28:00] in terms of identity here, like, you’re not talking like all black women are the same or want all the same things, black women are not a monolith, and this advice applies even beyond, uh, that, that identity, but, you know, in your book, you also do talk about the ways that black women in particular, as a group have been kind of forged in fire.

That’s the language of the book. You use this analogy of stained glass, which I really love. Um, but I want to ask you what, what does it look like when black women do bring their full value and experience into the workplace? And I’m talking specifically about black women here.

Tashion: I would say, um, what happens is difference.

As a weapon loses it loses its complete power. Um, the, the social benefit, uh, and the cultural narrative and the change within organizations [00:29:00] that are black, black women lead there’s trends there. There’s data that talk that speaks to. How well the whole of the department or how well the whole of the organization begins to thrive.

Like our current climate right now, like this conversation we have that we’re having couldn’t be more perfect, like, and, and again, not being partisan at all, but I’m speaking of a woman who is being lifted up right now for consideration as our president of the United States. And this woman happens to be African American and Asian American and the way we have seen difference attack the weaponization of otherness. It’s profound. It is, it is [00:30:00] literally a social experiment. I’m watching it. You have people, you have women with black women, women with black men, white dudes for Kamala, white women for Kamala. Um, you have African American and the AAPI community. Locking arms, legs, joints.

I mean, it’s, it’s been beautiful to behold. And for me, my highest hope is that we pay attention to it, that the divisiveness never wins when difference is placed at the top, not the top of the ticket, at the top, at the top of the C suite, at the head of the table. It’s, we’re watching it. [00:31:00] Divisiveness is completely and utterly defeated when difference is placed at the top.

Dom: I love that so much. The idea of difference as a weapon losing its power and how Um, important, I mean, identity is so important in leadership. I mean, we can kind of, there are obviously many other factors to talk about when we talk about leaders. There are, you know, is obviously, you know, competence and the style and all of these things.

Um, but I, I do 100 percent agree with you that that identity matters in terms of placing the right person at the top. Can definitely change the flavor of everything that happens within an organization and, uh, people need to just shift gears, like difference. isn’t at the top of, top of mind anymore. It’s been [00:32:00] almost like, not that every issue is solved, not that, you know, racism magically poof goes away, but that it’s, it’s impact, uh, can be kind of, um, softened or yeah.

Tashion: It’s just, it’s, it’s addressed differently and it’s, it’s addressed through the truth of existence versus, um, you know, this ethereal thing, right. It’s lived out. It’s existential, right? Um, because I think we have talked about, we’ve used a lot of words, um, diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging. We’ve used, um, affirmative action.

We’ve used, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve had all of these terms, simply trying to get to a place where our country [00:33:00] lives up to its idea and ideals of equity, that we all are created equal. And in the creation of being made equal, we all have an opportunity to advance without radical resistance. Right. Or relentless resistance that shows up as racism, it shows up as sexism, it shows up as any kind of phobia, transphobia, whatever phobia you can think of, it shows up, right?

And so for me, when you place difference at the top, all of the weaponization of it loses its power because now there is. The personification, [00:34:00] the personification of what is possible, what is powerful, what is purposeful. It can be lived out.

Dom: I love that. Um, you know, I mentioned before that you give in your book so much practical advice for people who are navigating these complex spaces and something that you touch on is responding to microaggressions and in particular you name You know, this, the stereotype of the angry black woman, which, um, personally, I just find this stereotype to be profoundly abusive and gaslighting.

Like I, it, um, has always bothered me. I mean, they’re all terrible, but that one in particular feels. abusive because it’s really trying to silence Black women’s legitimate anger about their experiences [00:35:00] of racism, um, that is ongoing and colonization in the past and that is ongoing. So when that stereotype is at play, a person’s anger or emotion suddenly becomes somebody else’s power against them.

And I find that to be so damaging. In your book, you know, you have an interesting perspective on anger. And, um, so I want to ask you, does it have any uses to you? Does it have any value to you? And if not, what do you do with that anger? Where do you put it?

Tashion: Yeah, I think, um, two things. I think Black women traditionally get to anger because their ambition is denied.

Ambition isn’t anger. And I think as they show up [00:36:00] in their ambition, you know, they, black women are the most, again, we have the most PhDs, we have the most MBAs. And so you’re making this investment in yourself in an educational system because we’re sent out into the world. That’s. That education is the great equalizer.

It’s not an equalizer. Education is a great entry point. Right. But that narrative wasn’t really spoken often in, in a lot of homes. It was, this is the equalizer. So the disappointment occurs when you have, um, done the thing educationally. Uh, and you’ve gotten into the halls of power of corporate spaces and your ambitions.

Right? And then as you were asking specific questions around, can you give me any feedback around what I can improve [00:37:00] or what would be the next step to advance in my career? And there’s a dead pan face and no one has anything to say, but they keep you at a certain level. Then of course frustration occurs.

So before you even get to anger, there’s frustration. The dominant perspective jumps to anger because a woman of color, a black woman is using her voice. She’s asking specific questions. So it is abusive and it is gaslighting. And for me, what I chose to do was like, okay, there’s a book called, um, the dance with anger and that anger is informative and to do the work of unpacking anger.

And as I. I read that book in my, you know, my work in psychology, I read the book and I was always just an avid reader of human behavior and things [00:38:00] like that. And so the dance of anger really talked about unpacking why you’re connected to a codependent experience. Some may call it a relationship. You can have this, let’s say for the, for the sake of this conversation, staying in a space where you’re having a codependent relationship with an environment that is Intentionally committed to resisting it.

So the question becomes, do you love yourself more than you love this environment? And from there, I, I moved to, okay, you don’t fight fire with wind. You fight it with water. So either what I’m choosing to do with my wind, W I N D is create my wind W I N. So I’m a [00:39:00] fan, my own flames. And I’m going to water their fire.

I’m going to put water, I’m going to douse that. And I’m going to use the anger to deconstruct a codependent relationship with an environment that is intentional on resisting me because all environments won’t. And sometimes it’s just opening ourselves up, saying, okay, the promotion may not come from here. Just let me, I remember once, I just started applying for jobs. That was, that was my practice. It’s my practical way of not letting anger sit in my body. I said, okay, I’m going to apply for 10 jobs every week at a minimum.

Some days the anger may have been more difficult to manage. [00:40:00] And so I was really firing off resumes, right? Um, But I learned as I practiced caring for myself, doing something for myself, deconstructing that codependent relationship with an environment, it completely changed the way opportunity showed up for me.

And I did begin to attract opportunities for growth, opportunities for promotion. I was interviewing, and even that created hopefulness. And so that’s what I would say. I hope I answered the question.

Dom: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it’s, um, yeah, it’s a really useful take on anger. Right. It’s like, don’t sit in it.

Use it as a signal to say, Hey, this is not a good relationship. This is not where your promotion is going to come [00:41:00] from. This is not where your value or your purpose is going to come from. So reconsider where it should come from and don’t let it have power over you.

Tashion: Right. Because I do think, um, well, I know when you look at the health data, black women are dying.

You know, we have the highest cases of heart disease, the highest cases of blood pressure. Um, black women in their birthing years or dying from having Children, um, Black women are not, you know, they’re not, they’re, they’re not even able to have a baby or hold a baby in their body. Um, I had a friend who, she had a very high power position and she and her husband really wanted a child.

And it wasn’t until she left the job that she was able to carry her child to full term and, and you know, he’s [00:42:00] 20 years, he’s 22 now. And we’re so grateful for his presence in our, in our sacred village. And I think about. If she hadn’t made that decision to disconnect from that environment, her life wouldn’t be full because what she had in her hand wasn’t the fullness of her life.

The job was in one of her hands, but the fullness of her life is her and her husband. They wanted a baby and they wanted to expand their family. And she has not gone hungry. She is. been promoted and got another job, the same kind of level and skyrocketed from there, but her life was made full. And so we have to think in terms of, um, our bodies and our health, um, in these spaces and the cost to our health in these spaces.[00:43:00]

Dom: That’s amazing. Um, I have a couple of last questions, but one is this bonus question that I ask on almost every episode and it’s, is there anybody’s work that you’d like to amplify as connected to the things that you’re speaking about today?

Tashion: Yes. Um, the book I would like to really promote is a book called the body keeps, the score. Um, brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma by Dr. Kolk, K O L K. Um, because the body does keep the score and I don’t know, I was just really awakened and I’m so grateful. You know, for being awakened to the works of like Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay, and as I was awakened to that work, and I kept delving into my calling, why, [00:44:00] why I am here, not just my career.

Right. And I do believe a day comes when your calling comes calling, and it may call you from your career. Um, and some people, their career is their calling, and for others, it’s not. And, and what I noticed as I began to read these books, like the level of cancer that’s showing up in women’s bodies, um, we have cancer rates in this country that are unprecedented and it’s not just stress, it’s duress, like working in conditions of extreme duress.

Your body keeps the score and your body will break down your worth, a life fully lived your worth, a leadership [00:45:00] opportunity that does not destroy your life.

Dom: It shouldn’t need to be said, but there it is, right? Like it really just does. It really just does need to be said. Thank you for those recommendations. I, I completely agree. I’ve done a little bit of my own reading on that subject, you know, the connection between inflammatory disease and colonization.

Uh, there’s a lot of really interesting work in that field right now, um, written by medical doctors and I, uh, I’m very convinced that there is a physical connection there as well. Um, Before we leave off, I’d, I want you to tell us about your book. Um, tell us, tell us where can we find it, uh, where should we be reading it.

Tashion: Thank you. Uh, coming in hot, um, became an international bestseller. I’m so grateful, um, for the [00:46:00] audiences, um, the women groups, what I call the blaze babes. Uh, they are buying the book, um, of every ethnicity and I’m so grateful for that. So the book is found on Amazon. You can purchase the book coming in hot.

Um, by Dr Tashion Macon Coming in Hot: A Blueprint for Black Women Setting the World Ablaze. There’s something in there for everyone. 

Tashion: I’m so grateful again to the Blaze Babes who are, uh, buying the book and I also call them the Blaze Beaus, who are men who are buying the book for their daughters, their sisters, even their colleagues, uh, in the workspace.

I believe workplace wellness is possible. Please purchase the book. If you find anything meaningful, please write a review. It helps. The book. I am on a mission to. Really support women and men who support women to bet on their own blaze and to believe. And that for me is having the courage to believe in yourself.

And so that’s what I’ll say to [00:47:00] every woman, um, that’s listening to your podcast. I want to encourage you from one woman to another, uh, to bet on your own blaze. It’s a beautiful thing and it’s a beautiful life. And you get one, one life. Live it. In a way that honors everything about yourself, not just your job, also your joy.

Dom: Amazing. Thank you so much for being here with me, Dr. Tashion Macon it’s been a pleasure speaking with you and I’ve learned a lot from you and from your book.

Tashion: Thank you so much.

Dom: If you want to stay connected with Dr. Tashion Makin, her writing, and also the podcast that she co hosts called The Title Podcast, check all the links down in the show notes.

As always, I welcome any of our listeners to reach out to me if you’d like to be a featured guest on this podcast or if you’d like to sneakily nominate someone. My email address is in the show notes too. If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a rating and a review, or share this [00:48:00] episode to your own socials.

It really does help to get the podcast into more ears. I’m Dominique Attrell. Thank you so much for listening and see you next time on Just One Q.