SNS 184: Saturday Night Special - Interview with Lola Adeyemo about Equity and Inclusion

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Welcome to tonight's Saturday Night special episode 184.

[00:00:05] Lola Adeyemo: I am Lola amo. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to understand yourself and others is key, and one way to continue to be inspired to do that is to listen to these The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friends Scott.

[00:00:41] Serving, I'm supporting somebody who is doing the work or who is doing the, and I do a lot of volunteer work and I think of it in that aspect. But in the last few years, as I begin to get into writing into speaking, one of the things I realized the stewardship is has do with leveraging my. [00:01:00]

[00:01:01] Scott Maderer: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:06] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:33] And tonight's Saturday night special I interview Lola amo. Lola shares with you how her journey led her to the work she does on inclusion. Lola also shares how her faith journey led to the message she shares in her book. And I also ask Loda to share with you what an EQ I mindset is and why it matters.

[00:01:53] One area that a lot of folks need some help with is around the area of [00:02:00] productivity. Getting not just more things done, but actually getting the right things done can be really tough. I've got a course called Productivity for Your Passion that's designed to help you do this and then to hold you accountable and walk with you so that you can tailor productivity, not just to be getting more done, but actually getting the right things done.

[00:02:27] What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and tailor the productivity system to your person. Because the truth is, a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type. But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work.

[00:02:50] But there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone, and we help you do that and productivity for your passion. Check it out [00:03:00] over@inspiredstewardship.com slash launch. Lola AMO is the founder and c e O of Eqi mindset as a certified diversity, equity, and inclusion professional.

[00:03:13] She leverages her experiences as an immigrant, a career mom, and a scientist, and within different global corporations to inspire and motivate. Underrepresented individuals. Her goal is to expand the conversation on identity, dimension and intersectionality to help underrepresented and unheard voices be the best versions of themselves, regardless of the systems they operate within.

[00:03:36] Corporate, nonprofit or schools. Lola is currently working towards her business doctorate with a focus on strategic leadership. Her new book, thriving in Intersectionality, immigrants Belonging in Corporate America, is available on Amazon and has led her to launch a new nonprofit, immigrants in Corporate in Incorporated.

[00:03:57] Welcome to the show, Lola.

[00:03:59] Lola Adeyemo: Hi Scott. [00:04:00] Thanks for having.

[00:04:01] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So I talked a little bit in the intro and you've described yourself as someone. A career transitioner, which by the way, I'm gonna steal that cuz I think that's a good description for my life too. So just warning, , I'm gonna steal that.

[00:04:17] But how has your journey through all of these different things that you've done, led you to where you are today and this focus on identity, career purpose, inclusion these kinds of idea. .

[00:04:33] Lola Adeyemo: Yeah, I think naturally since I was young, I've just always been very curious about things and so if I'm curious about it, I just explore.

[00:04:43] and I didn't know it then, but I used to think when I was younger I'm not very focused or I don't know I'm not like the people that knew I want to be this and I want to be that, and they just go for it. I didn't know what I wanted to be. But I got into the workforce and even before getting into workforce this [00:05:00] is from choosing the course to the program to study and what to do and where to go. When I moved to the US I initially wanted to go to the uk and then I ended up in the. But I think the curiosity at the time now I'm seeing it when every other thing when you look back is I had to build myself up to be where I am today because now I'm serving the corporate workplace, but have been in there, I've experienced.

[00:05:29] Across functional work experiences. I've experienced global workforces, worked on projects from projects management, where I got to interact with different functions. I've worked in procurement. I got to really explore the the operations and the supply chain. and for me, I was learning the inner workings of the system in different, from different perspective, and I think that's part of why I do the work I do, is because I see some gaps and I'm hoping [00:06:00] I can connect with people more because I've been in there than somebody who's never been in there that was talking to you about.

[00:06:07] About gaps that I exist in. So yeah, I think I've transitioned in a very interesting way. But I'm grateful for it. The experiences I have made me who I am. .

[00:06:21] Scott Maderer: So you've also written this book, thriving in intersectionality. The, and that focus, or the subtitle to it is the immigrants belonging in Corporate America.

[00:06:32] And you mentioned coming to America and wanting to go to the uk. How do you think that experience of being an immigrant to America affected your career transition and your focus as you went through this?

[00:06:44] Lola Adeyemo: The experience. Growing up as I did in Nigeria was really an homogeneous community, you could say.

[00:06:55] So I think it made me very confident. Because I have [00:07:00] my community, I have support, I have, I grew up in a space where if you do something wrong, someone somewhere is gonna know your dad, . They're gonna go back and tell him. I grew up

[00:07:10] Scott Maderer: in a town with 6,000 people in it, and my, my, my mom was the principal of the elementary school, so Exactly.

[00:07:17] So if I screwed up at school, she knew about it before I got on the bus it was like, oh yes,

[00:07:22] Lola Adeyemo: yes, exactly. So you know what I'm talking about. So I think and then my dad was, first mentor is the word I is the phrase I always use for him. So he was more of in a country where you have to understand the context, right?

[00:07:35] In a country like Nigeria where it was gender inequities were really higher my dad made me think I could do whatever I want to do, right? So being able to say, oh I wanna be a doctor. Maybe I like biology. I don't know. I don't really wanna be a doctor, or I wanna do this. So I think learning to thrive in a space like Nigeria growing up in an homogenous community gave me that confidence where I did struggle a [00:08:00] little bit when I came in here and you find out you don't have that support system, you don't have that community.

[00:08:06] Now. You have to learn to use your I guess my strengths, my inner strengths in a different way, right? Instead of leaning. Being relaxed in the fact that my community people like me, people like my dad, and so I know people, I can always get what I want. Now, I had to be intentional about building communities, but because my confidence had been built up from my childhood, it made it easy for me to step into a country where I didn't know anybody.

[00:08:32] To go into companies, to go into conferences, to go into organizations and just be focused and build communities that. .

[00:08:40] Scott Maderer: So it, it helped you even though you had it built in when you were growing up, it helped you when you came over to be able to say, okay, this is something I need to, I still need it, but it's not here.

[00:08:50] So now how do I build it? Although I be Exactly. Yeah. And do you think that's something important for beyond just the immigrant experience? I think about the corporate [00:09:00] experience I've been in the corporate world too, and I think that happens in a corporate environment too, where a lot of times you get antagonistic relationships in a corporate environment.

[00:09:10] The business unit is against the shipping unit, which is against the the silos that happen and the way those communities form. Do you think that awareness of community has helped you with the work you do at corporate America as well?

[00:09:23] Lola Adeyemo: I think so. I think so because earlier in my career in corporate America, I had somebody make a comment this person was a scientist and a researcher, and made a comment about the marketing team and said we had, we already had beat of the company.

[00:09:39] Nothing can happen in this company if we don't exist. And that comment stuck with me because I ended up writing something about it. There's this feeling that, you know, and then against them. Incorporate America because everybody has goals and quarters and all of these things, but really all of the pieces cannot exist alone to make a [00:10:00] company.

[00:10:00] And people need to think like that. And that's, that guided me because if whatever role I was, I always made every effort to like, where does my piece fit in this? . So I would reach out, I would do like job shadowing and just talk to people about what they do so I could see my function in the flow.

[00:10:19] And so I got to connect with different people and have conversations and that's how I got into like employee resource group. And building that community of people that don't necessarily work together wouldn't have crossed path on a good day. But now they're all coming together and seeing the value in building the relat.

[00:10:38] Scott Maderer: So one of the things that I like to talk about with folks that come on the show is also that intersection of faith and their journey as well. So how do you think your faith experiences good, bad, indifferent the journey that you've gone on in faith has intersected and affected what you do as well?

[00:10:59] Lola Adeyemo: My [00:11:00] faith has been everything because I, I was raised a Christian, but. Christianity growing up in Nigeria was like, the norm was like a cultural thing. Like everybody goes to church on Sundays. Like the roads are clear. Everybody has some church that they belong to. In the part of the country where I grew up it's like the way, oh, where do you work?

[00:11:20] No, it's not where you work. Where do you go to church? Everybody knows somebody that goes to church. So I think my faith really got tested coming into the us because. You don't have to your parents are not here. I'm by myself. I really don't need to go to church. But that was one of the first communities that I formed in the US was the church community.

[00:11:41] And I had to learn to really be grounded in my faith. Not because I have to, but because I needed that inner support and strength as I navigated this new environment by myself for the first time. So there was. relief in being able to pray, in being [00:12:00] to, to read my Bible and know that it's still the same Bible, it's still the same God even though I'm far away from home, it's all the

[00:12:07] Scott Maderer: same. So what do you, you mentioned or we talked a little bit about now you've left corporate and you're doing e eqi mindset. What caused you to form that and what is that? What do you actually do now? That's for

[00:12:25] Lola Adeyemo: companies and I'm not, and I'm not chatting with

[00:12:27] Scott Maderer: you,

[00:12:27] Yeah. When you're not, when you're not, when you're not chit-chatting with me. What is it that you do? ? So what caused me to again, I think fate plays a huge part cuz I quit in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. And I didn't know I was going to quit months, a month ahead because, I've always been in the corporate world, right?

[00:12:49] Lola Adeyemo: Even before I came to the US I've always worked in global corporations, like huge compression. If I mentioned the names of the companies that I've worked, you probably know them, right? So that has always been my [00:13:00] space and that's why I envisioned myself like rising up to whatever level. But in 2020 everything came to end cuz I had I had my third baby in 20.

[00:13:11] With two kids homeschooling, my husband is working full-time. He never worked from home. He was in a, he is in an essential role, so he wasn't, he didn't work from home. And I realized the things I was spending my, the most time on in my job. Was really not fulfilling me and I was exhausted. But uh, so it was scary.

[00:13:30] I quit and I joined my husband in a supportive role in his company. He has an IT company. And so I really stepped up to support him there, but I took a lot of, a couple of months, weeks to just. Reconnect with myself. What do I want to do? I felt am I living my dream? I still felt that connection to corporate America, but I didn't really think I was making the impact I wanted to make.

[00:13:54] So when I quit, I actually felt nervous. I was like, there's something about corporate America. I might walking away from [00:14:00] my dream. But then that's our e q i mindset got created because I realized I can do a lot from the outside and still focus on this system. I wasn't as effective inside anymore. I think my time inside was done, but I wasn't done with the system.

[00:14:16] So e q i mindset, I came up with it. It's, it may, it's from equity and inclusion mindsets. And what I wanted to focus on was the fact that equity and inclusion is a mindset that needs to happen across the company. It's not just the leadership or the manager or the individual employee, it's everybody.

[00:14:33] There's just pockets of work that needs to be done. And I didn't want you used to phrase. Diversity practitioner or whatever. I wanted those two words in their equity and in in the middle inclusion because that was important to me. What e q I Mindset does is partners with companies to build internal communities.

[00:14:55] Okay. And that's I call it employee resource group, but a lot of companies [00:15:00] call it something different. Some call it affinity groups or if, maybe even diversity councils or business resource groups. But the idea that we, there's a different community that we need. Because what's working, what's not working is the functional divisions, functional groups that we had, as we mentioned.

[00:15:20] So if your mindset at every level of the life cycle, so I help, I work with companies that wanna build. These communities for the first time saying, based on our data, what do we need? What communities should we be trying to create? And then I support the communities. I have workshops that I offer where I work with complaints for about six, seven months.

[00:15:38] Just to optimize their groups if they already have some. And they're stunted. in the group, what direction do we wanna go? And then I have an external community where I bring employee resource groups together. So I support companies building those communities across the company in a different way to make the organization more inclusive.

[00:15:59] Workshops, [00:16:00] speaking and facilitation.

[00:16:03] Scott Maderer: So why do you think equity inclusion why is that an important concept for c.

[00:16:09] Lola Adeyemo: Because of diversity. Because diversity is the norm, is the fact. But we keep focusing on that and I'm like diversity is everywhere. We focus on you race and ethnicity, but that's not the only thing.

[00:16:24] When it comes to diversity, the way I feel inclusion is very different. But if you don't create a space to get to know me, if you're only focused on results, at some point people are going to crash and born because they are working on autopilot and the world is changing. So we have to stop focused on, we wanna build our diversity to how are we optimizing what we.

[00:16:46] regardless of what you have, right? We can always be more diverse, whatever that means for your company. But it's not about being diverse, it's about being inclusive because there are people that showed up. There are people that are [00:17:00] there. How are you engaging them appropriately? So how would you define

[00:17:04] inclusion?

[00:17:08] I use the word belonging a lot where it happens. Where everybody feels belonging differently, depending on what's important to them. It's not something my leader tells me. It's something that comes from my identity. So when it comes to inclusion is making space for everyone to be carried along in the way that they want to.

[00:17:30] So it's not. Setting rigid rules and saying everybody has to fall in because how many of those rules are you gonna set? You can't really accommodate for every single diversity mix. Inclusion is you focused on building the space and the systems in a way where we are continuously improving and listening and using that feedback to make changes.

[00:17:52] How

[00:17:52] Scott Maderer: about the equity word? How do you define. That one is still acknowledging the fact that [00:18:00] not everybody had the same starting points. Not everybody has the same needs, but how do we make sure that we're giving people what they need to do their work? Not giving everybody, not equality, not giving everybody the same exact thing, but accounting for difference in starting points, difference in needs and so supporting people in the way the need is largest.

[00:18:21] So I was I was in education for years and that difference between equity and fairness I think is an important one because fairness simply means treat everyone the same. Or equity means acknowledge the fact that some people maybe do need to be treated differently.

[00:18:39] To even get to the same place that everyone else is starting from, and that could be because of socioeconomic things. That could be because of learning ability, that could be because of physical change. Somebody's in a wheelchair whatever that it could be all sorts of things that create those differences.

[00:18:57] I, I think sometimes we focus on just a few of 'em, when in [00:19:00] reality it's, No, there's a lot of things that make people have a different starting point, right?

[00:19:03] Lola Adeyemo: And I think it's just important to the way this is communicated, the. You bring people along because there's a lot of, there could be a lot of resistance to that when people don't understand to say that's not fair.

[00:19:17] Why do they get that? It's like trying to accommodate working parents or working mom and single employees making a complaint. We don't get that, is it because we don't it's no, you set it up in a way. Caregivers using the term caregivers instead of walking moms.

[00:19:36] To say you are caring for something, there's an accommodation to make sure that you can still do your work because you do a great job, but you might need a little more flexibility. Now, if somebody else needs a little more flexibility, who is not a parent who is doing something else too, account for that.

[00:19:50] Because what we need will be very. .

[00:19:52] Scott Maderer: And I think that's you're beginning to see, at least in some cases, I don't think enough yet, where companies are beginning to [00:20:00] focus on results as opposed to quote rules and that the idea of you have to be in the cube sitting there in front of the computer from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM.

[00:20:17] But if you could do that work from somewhere else or in less time or in another way and still do everything that you're supposed to be doing, why do we dictate you have to be there from eight to five as an example. Yeah,

[00:20:30] Lola Adeyemo: yeah. And I remember I used to have a job where it was eight to four and we had a meeting at eight 15, and if you come to the office at 4 0 5, everybody's.

[00:20:43] and I was like it just felt so, yeah. It's not people were delivering, but they were doing what they needed to do and getting out. And oftentimes too that there's, again, I was in [00:21:00] management and leadership. Pr my bet is if I walked around the office at three 20, most people were actually already shutting in shutting down mode.

[00:21:09] Yeah. You talk, like, when can we leave and

[00:21:13] Scott Maderer: then when closing? And they may even have been getting all of their work done. And I'm not even saying that was a negative. They may have literally been done at three and just sitting around going I've gotta sit here for an hour and twiddle my thumbs.

[00:21:23] Lola Adeyemo: Exactly. I'm like, how does that help anybody? Yeah. Instead of just going by This is, these are the things we need to get done. Then if I need to step away earlier, that's fine because tomorrow I can decide on my own that hey, I'm gonna show up a little earlier. so I can get this done and step away or

[00:21:42] Scott Maderer: stay a little later on a different day so that whatever.

[00:21:44] Yeah. You can

[00:21:45] Lola Adeyemo: make some trust people enough to make their own schedule. Now are people going to misuse it? Absolutely. Then we can call that we can call that to action, but we. Make this is not really by the rules. Yeah. Yeah. One of, one of the things, like when I was in [00:22:00] corporate, they had done a thing where you could work from home like three days a week and then in the office two and then the next week you would work in the office three and at home two, and they'd implemented that and I took advantage of it cuz I had a really long commute.

[00:22:14] Scott Maderer: And so to me that was really beneficial to just shorten. There were literally, that was six hours a day six hours a week that I was gaining back to my life. And they eventually did away with it. And when I asked why, they said some people are abusing it. And I'm like, so we have to do away for everyone because a few people are, why don't you just follow up with the people that are doing it?

[00:22:39] fine. It's take it away from them, but why take it away from me if I'm doing it the right way? And yet that was how they did it, is they took it away from everybody,

[00:22:49] Lola Adeyemo: Yeah. No, and I, and I. Yeah, I think some people still don't get it. If a company still wants to be controlling at that level, they can still do it remotely.

[00:22:59] A friend [00:23:00] recently was telling me she interviewed for a job and she works from home and she's a single parent and her daughter goes to school like 10 minutes from the house. And during the interview she told them straight up oh I usually have to, I have to take a break at this time cuz I need to go get my daughter from school.

[00:23:17] And they said you everybody takes their break at this. And it's no, but I'm saying I just need to I need to clock out at this time every day because I just need to drive to the school and get my daughter home and then I'll be back. And they decline now because of that. They said we all take our break at this time.

[00:23:37] This is a remote job. Okay. I didn't have to be honest with you I could just done something . But I was honest with you and I got penalized because everybody has to take their break at a certain time. Block of time.

[00:23:48] Scott Maderer: And unless there's an actual reason for that, why, yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:52] Again, I can understand it if there. Practical reason why everyone had to take a break at that time. But that's [00:24:00] not usually what we're talking about, . So one of the questions I like to ask all of my guests is my brand has inspired stewardship and I run things through this lens of stewardship, and yet I've discovered over the years that's a word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

[00:24:16] So I'm a firm believer. Let's define our terms so that we make sure we're talking about the same thing. So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you and how has it impacted your life?

[00:24:30] Lola Adeyemo: Oh my gosh. That word, when I saw that word, I thought it's more, even more meaningful to me in this season of my life because, , I think until two, three years ago, I, I used to say I can't be a C E O.

[00:24:45] I can be a vp. I can assist. My calling is to serve. Even in my communities, I'm always thinking in terms of I'm serving, I'm supporting somebody who is doing the work or who is doing the, and I do a lot of [00:25:00] volunteer work and I think of it in that aspect. But in the last few years, as I begin to get into writing into speaking, one of the things I realized the stewardship is has to do with leveraging my skills to make an.

[00:25:15] For a population. So instead of saying I don't really have any skill, all I have to do I remembered writing down a few years ago. I wish I was like smarter. All I like to do is to talk and to write, like that's nothing. That's not a skill. Like I'm thinking doctors and engineers and I'm like, I don't have a skill, but I had to get to a place where it started being revealing to me these are things that I do.

[00:25:41] Problems, right? Like I could have a conversation with a complete stranger today. I could go for a conference with people I don't know and network with people, right? For me is being able to communicate, to convince, to influence somebody. Have a gun conversation. The speaking part [00:26:00] comes easy for me.

[00:26:01] The writing. Writing comes easy, hard than pe other people, right? So how am I stewarding those skills, those gifts that I've been given to serve people? And for me that two years ago when I quit, was who do I want to serve with my skills? And that's how I corporate America, immigrants in the workplace, employee resource groups were the two things that came up with me.

[00:26:29] So I have the skills, I have this experience, I have these network. How can I use my skills to serve a group that needs it? By the way, everyone who hates public speak would argue with you about the speaking is not something that is a skill because I still hate public speaking, but I'm thinking about talking in terms of Oh, I can chat you

[00:26:53] Scott Maderer: up.

[00:26:53] Yeah. Oh yeah. But but there are people out there that are like, no, I don't do that. That, that's not what I had to learn how to do it. [00:27:00] I like networking to me was something I had to learn to do. Cause it doesn't come naturally to me. Yeah.

[00:27:05] Lola Adeyemo: That's so funny. Yeah. Cause I felt like it was like I'm not like a excessively extroverted person.

[00:27:10] Okay. I need a break. I need my downtime, my favorite me time is my husband taking the kids out of the house and leaving me, or me going to the beach in the middle of the week where nobody is there and just. Chill and Right. Like I get exhausted if I do too many networking events. Sure. But I enjoy it.

[00:27:30] Scott Maderer: So this is my favorite question. Let's say I invented this magic machine and I could pluck you out of the chair where you sit today and transport you into the future, maybe 150, maybe 200 years in the future. And through the power of this machine, you were able to look back on your entire life and see all of the impacts, all of the ripples, all of the things that you've left behind in the world.

[00:27:57] What impact do you hope you've left on the.[00:28:00]

[00:28:05] Lola Adeyemo: I think that's a question I'm still struggling with as a new entrepreneur. Somebody recently at an event told me, congratulations on your success. Oh she she's congratulations on all your success. And I literally was looking at her like, what? What do you mean? And I, that thing stuck with me because I kept thinking about it.

[00:28:25] What's the definition of success? Because for me what you just talked about, I'm thinking I wanna make an impact for people. I want to, if I could I recently gave a TED Talk and one of the things that kept me going was I said, if I could help somebody, one person in the audience to see things a little differently and affect the way they treat people, if I could.

[00:28:51] One person who is working in corporate America to step into their own power and know who they are and go for the [00:29:00] professional and career professional and personal development opportunities that they're interested in. If I could help one leader understand how it could be more inclusive, right? That.

[00:29:12] I think that's where the success for me begins to get defined. Like you write a book, you give a Ted talk, people are congratulating me and I feel like I don't want to be, the congratulation comes from they did impact anybody. The fact that I stood there and did it, or the fact that I wrote it is not the issue.

[00:29:29] The issue is did somebody pick the book and do something differently because they read the book? So when I think, yeah, when I think. in the future. That's I'm hoping I help somebody. Step into what they were meant to be called to be.

[00:29:44] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next for you as you continue on this journey?

[00:29:48] What's

[00:29:48] Lola Adeyemo: on the roadmap? So the book Journey started a year ago. So while I have my company that works with ERGs, but the book journey was a research process. I [00:30:00] interviewed over 40 women and it's launched a nonprofit for me. So I just registered a new nonprofit and I think it's a passion project for me.

[00:30:11] It's like, how can I serve how can I help center immigrant? I. In corporate America because immigration and corporate America, there's a huge clash there, and there's not, it's not a conversation we usually have in the same break. So I, I established the nonprofit this year and next year on, next on the Horizon, I'm trying to figure out how do I take this?

[00:30:35] To serve the right population. How do I find the right partnership? So Immigrants in Corporate Inc. Is next on my agenda of what do I do with this platform? Is that the name of the nonprofit? Yeah, it's called Immigrant in Corporate Inc.

[00:30:54] Scott Maderer: Make sure we, I'll make sure we put that out there as well too, because that, that's definitely something that [00:31:00] some of the listeners may be interested in checking out as well. I actually have a lot of listers outside of the US that okay. Some of which I'm sure are traveling to the US or are, or could be traveling to the US or immigrating to the US as well.

[00:31:15] Lola Adeyemo: Oh. And it's not actually even in the US alone. So book was focused on immigrant women in corporate America, because that's my story. That's where I started from and I started this book idea from a doctoral research perspective. I am in a doctorate program and I was trying to do a research around it.

[00:31:32] So I was like, okay, this same population, is it just me or is there something going on? I wanna talk to people who are from different countries, who are female and who are working in corporate America. But beyond that, then I began to realize this conversation is not a corporate America alone.

[00:31:48] Corporate is global now. Most of these companies that I'm working with have employees all over the world, so we're talking. , somebody who is in Canada, who was born in somewhere in [00:32:00] Europe, who moved to Canada and is working in the corporate. How is our birth culture and the culture of the company and then the culture of the city or country where we are, how is this shaping how we get our job done?

[00:32:13] Scott Maderer: Yeah. One of my past guests actually grew up in communist Poland and then immigrated to. I worked in corporate America or no worked in the corporate culture. Actually it was an American company, but she worked in Canada Exactly. In their Canadian branch cuz

[00:32:27] Lola Adeyemo: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah and I had to, yeah, I had to separate that culture of the company and the location because even within the US right, if you're working on the West coast and you're working on the East coast, The same company, there might be a different culture.

[00:32:39] Scott Maderer: Yeah. I used to work at a company that was braced in Princeton but we, I worked in San Antonio, Texas and the San Antonio office and the culture there was really different than the Princeton office and the culture there. Even though, yeah, we were the same company, but we still had different different culture because we're embedded in a different culture.

[00:32:58] Because San Antonio [00:33:00] and Princeton. not at all the same , yeah, breakfast tacos. Anyway we think in terms of food and tacos and that kind of thing, that literally like the people from Princeton came down. It was like, why is every meeting about food we're like

[00:33:18] Lola Adeyemo: that.

[00:33:19] That reminds me of being in a conversation with leading a meeting when I was in corporate America. I still do that. Join the meeting and hey, welcome everybody. How is everybody? Where's everybody calling from? How is everybody doing? And this lady was just so rude. Because, apparently I found that out later cuz like, when are we gonna get a meeting started

[00:33:43] And I'm like, it's one minute to million time. What are

[00:33:46] Scott Maderer: you talking about?

[00:33:47] Lola Adeyemo: We are started already this is part of the meeting. We say hi to people. I don't just expect the clock to strike the hour. And then I say first thing on the agenda is we're going to do this to me. That's not why I do things.

[00:33:59] But [00:34:00] then she was on the east coast and to her, I think she was in Boston. I'm in California and I, it's if you said the meeting is starting at 10, I'm gonna be there five minutes before 10. I expect you to start at 10. That was so foreign to me. , , .

[00:34:13] Scott Maderer: Yeah. Yeah. And you're right, there's different different even the, that kind of thing of how you run the meeting and what do you do and how, what's the pace of conversation and meeting.

[00:34:25] Yeah it's interesting. And then when you add global to. It really gets complicated . Yeah, so you can follow Lola on her website over@lolaspeaker.com. Of course, I'll have a link to that over on my website in the show notes as well. Lola, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:34:48] Lola Adeyemo: I'd just like to end with the word in your descriptions, stewardship.

[00:34:51] I think each one of us is, as a role, is stewarded with something and it's just important to find it. What do [00:35:00] I have? Who can I serve? Whatever circles you are in, there's always an opportunity to do that. So thank you for centering that conversation.

[00:35:09] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. Thank you for being.

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