BROADCASTS.com

b'The Nitty-Gritty:\\n\\n\\n\\n* The frustrating situation that led Erica Courdae to go on her own and create Silver Immersion, an inclusive hair and beauty company* How Erica has developed her voice and ability to stand up for what she believes in* Why modeling is a key way she leads her team\\u2014and her clients* How she made the transition into coaching and decided to specialize in diversity, equity, and inclusion for business owners* Why Erica takes a stand for imperfect allyship and how that plays out in her business\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nValues.\\n\\n\\n\\nWe talk a good game about having values, living our values, and even running a business with our values.\\n\\n\\n\\nBut, like, what does that really mean?\\n\\n\\n\\nIt\\u2019s not enough to have them written down somewhere. It\\u2019s not enough to put them on your website. It\\u2019s not enough to talk through them with a new hire.\\n\\n\\n\\nNo, values can be, should be, the filter for how we do everything in our businesses.\\n\\n\\n\\nPart of our job as business owners\\u2014as leaders\\u2014is to ensure that the values we hold dear are operationalized in our work. It\\u2019s our job to make sure values turn into systems, product features, or boundaries with clients.\\n\\n\\n\\nStrong leaders turn values into action.\\n\\n\\n\\nThis month on What Works, we\\u2019re talking about leadership\\u2014and specifically, we\\u2019re talking about how leaders operationalize their values, how they turn values into action, structure, and systems.\\n\\n\\n\\nI\\u2019m fascinated by the creative ways that entrepreneurs operationalize their values. I\\u2019m fascinated by how values make decisions easier, policies clearer, and plans stronger. I\\u2019m fascinated by how brands display immense leadership by doing things differently than the norm\\u2014all inspired by their values.\\n\\n\\n\\nAnd I\\u2019m fascinated, of course, by the results that businesses see because of how they operationalize their values: stronger communities, bigger movements, more brand recognition, and, yes, often more profit, too.\\n\\n\\n\\nDisplaying strong leadership and operationalizing our values isn\\u2019t squishy and it\\u2019s certainly not just a nice-to-have.\\n\\n\\n\\nIt\\u2019s become the bar we have to rise above if we want the work we do to be relevant and meaningful.\\n\\n\\n\\nOver the course of this month, we\\u2019re going to hear from leaders who have operationalized their values in a variety of ways.\\n\\n\\n\\nYou\\u2019ll hear from Shannon Siriano Greenwood, who has built an incredible, values-driven community with Rebelle. Shannon is now expanding outside of the Richmond area and I wanted to hear how she\\u2019s taking her values into new territory.\\n\\n\\n\\nYou\\u2019ll hear from Rob Walling, a serial entrepreneur, podcaster, and the founder of MicroConf. Rob has intentionally an event experience that\\u2019s different than others in the same field by focusing on his values.\\n\\n\\n\\nYou\\u2019ll hear from Melissa Urban and Carrie Kholi-Murchison from Whole30 on why they\\u2019re investing in making the Whole30 community a more diverse and inclusive community\\u2014and what steps they\\u2019re taking to do it.\\n\\n\\n\\nBut today, my guest is Erica Courdae, the founder of Silver Immersion, a Baltimore-area hair and makeup business, as well as a diversity, equity,'