All right. Well, I will get started with my little Lightning talk. So, hello, welcome. Taken me 30 some years to get to this point. But I can proudly say my name is Jordan G her and I am a black queer woman, why this matters. I'll explain later.Um Today, I wanna talk about cultivating and searching for diversity, um which I think is essentially the same thing. It's not about numbers, but it's more about the connections and in the spirit of that. Um While I talk about my perspective and background, I'd love for you all to make connections. Um So feel free to add your own thoughts, reactions. Um However, you're feeling in the chat. So I'm sure we all think about diversity from an individual view and it's certainly at the forefront of a lot of companies minds. So I'm wondering if maybe you've been wondering the same thing too, how can we have a diverse workforce if we aren't including people who can bring diverse perspectives and experiences? That's an open ended question. I'm I'm truly asking. Um And if you have an answer, I'd love to hear it as any self-respecting millennial can tell you, we really care about the culture where we work as much as if not more than the money with so much going on in the world.

We want to feel like we're valued, which allows us to contribute to a positive workplace. This is even more so for anyone from a marginalized or underrepresented group to start off. I'd like to share a bit about my background. I think it's important to give context as to why I'm in DN I recruiting and the lessons I've learned on both sides. I had lofty nerd goals in my uh younger days and got my bachelor's degree in music business and a concentration of piano. I had grand visions of opening a music store, a, a high fidelity, only more updated, had a recording studio, practice space. The whole thing after graduated, I work a lot of different jobs including full time cook, temp, hire, cleaner, administrative assistant list goes on in the 10 years since landing my first salaried position. I've worked really hard to get a few rolls under my belt, working as Jordan summers.edu Jordan summers.org and now Jordan Summers, a tech start up called Vendor Quick Plug. We are hiring something my parents instilled in me and I think in large part because there were many first uh that they made in their family is that the best thing you can do is help others uh to them then and now to me that drive to help has really turned into a passion for creating access to education and employment.

The added bonus and the added challenge is that as someone who comes from a minority black queer female, choose your pick, I have to, I have to pay my own way to help create paths for others. So I've got a few prompts. Um play along if you'd like. What was your first job? The first one that you got a paycheck and you realized what taxes were the first job for me, uh that connected my passions and education and getting taxes taken out was working with teens in the greater Boston area. Prepping them for a career in music. As they pursued getting a college degree, they all came to the program I ran because while they had the talent, they lacked the resources, whether socially or financially to grow and nurture their passions. There's one student I won't forget.

I met her when she was 15. And in only seven short years, she went to graduate from Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship. We still talk now and then sometimes about music, sometimes about other things. And I'd like to think that part of our bond and her success came from a shared experience of being an other and knowing that someone else was in her corner. Here's another prompt who was a manager that has stood out for you. Good or bad. I've had good and bad managers. Some who I shared many identities with and some who I shared none with one manager who was my complete opposite, distinctly stands out for something he said did time and time again, he was a cisgender white gay man. And whenever he spoke to a large group of people, he started by introducing himself that way, he would acknowledge his uh privileges and stated his personal responsibility to bring other people up. And along with him, especially those who did not have the same privileges that he did within my first few months of working with him, whatever room he went into whether that was with the board, the donors or even the special celebrity guest I was invited, he was in my corner and that felt really good.

Here's another question, are you more comfortable connecting virtually in person a mix? Neither. Um Curious to hear. I've always strived to find my people wherever I am. Sometimes those people only have one shared experience with me. Sometimes there's a lot. But the camaraderie and understanding that comes from knowing what it feels like to be the minority of a group is something that can't really be put into words. I've made lifelong connections uh with people I never would have met otherwise because I sought out people with identities like mine, even if it didn't result in a job, even if it was only a one time conversation or just a linkedin connect, you don't have to engage every part of your company, every part of your network all the time.

Having that one instance where you connected can be revisited, nurtured and grown on the opposite, opposite side of that. I've also made the connection with people who were the complete opposite of me. In some cases, I've had to be my own supporter or corner champion. Um Honestly, it hasn't always been easy, but it has always made a difference even if only for me, it's shown me that sometimes no one fights for you. Um which sucks. But if you can uphold your stance, then you can be proud of who you are and what you bring. Now that my background is out of the way. I have a few anecdotes from my career um that speak to the duality of looking for and creating diversity. So um when you're considering a new job or starting a new job, what types of questions do you want to ask your potential or future employees about diversity? It's not just how I think about it, but it's about how they measure it. If you want to know if the company has a diverse workforce, ask it. I think by now everyone can roll a standard statement about what the diversity means to their company. But asking the harder hitting questions is where you want to aim right now. The two biggest markers are gender and race for diversity. But there's so many other categories like citizenship, first language. Social class, disability, whether mental, mental or physical neuro divergence, age generation, et cetera for gender balance. Beyond the percentages of what's reported, how are they categorizing?

Gender flew in on if they refer to a binary balance such as men and women or something more expansive that identifies non-binary, cisgender, transgender folks in terms of race and race and ethnicity. Oh, I practiced that and I said race, um who makes up the racial majority? And is this by a large number? Are people of color one big category or is this further broken down? I suggest researching what other companies or competitors in your industry have published about their own breakdown to have a basis for comparison. Also ask, do you have any support or accommodation services for people with disabilities? And have they been used? You don't necessarily need to go into specifics unless you're curious about those, but it's just good to know at least if they're there and can be utilized. And then are there any current employee resource affinity groups? Are members of leadership involved as a quick aside. Um There may be interest groups, hashtag pets channel, hashtag music share um or something more resource based such as the queer group, the people of color group, the English as a second language group. You want to check for the second group, um the resource based ones because they may have more of a budget to allocate. Well. Ok, so you're saying Jordan is a great but I've been burned before.

Um How can I feel empowered in my identity when I've had experiences that directly negate that? So this I am still working out on, still working on. But um I totally get you. Um I've had my share of days and past jobs where I thought to myself. Ok, this, this felt wrong. But what part is most hurt? Is it my race, my gender, my sexuality. Can I even separate it? But with the knowledge of the past, you can plan for the future practice saying what I started with in this hopefully helpful form formula. Hello, my name is XYZ plus pronouns and I am insert ABC identity. Now, this may develop and shift as you decide which parts of yourself you want to lead with. But they should always be things that you are proud of and want people to know about you. Something that makes you interesting or brings um brings a different perspective. I will caution that you may not always receive the warmest or most welcoming response, but there's also the chance that you will that by you saying who you are, it allows someone else to do so you can search and cultivate diversity at the same time. All right. Well, that's, that's the end of my little lightning talk. I really appreciate you um attending. I hope maybe some part of it resonated with you. Um Please come find me on linkedin. I'd be more than happy to talk about your career, your passions, whatever is next for you.

Um But I hope that it includes a lot of learning about yourself and about others. Um Thanks. I'll hang around for another minute or two if anyone has any comments or questions. But yeah, sprue you being here. Have a great Thursday.