Unless you’ve been with me since 2020 (in which case, I’m honored!) this is going to be a huge shock to you:

I really used to struggle with feeling like I wasn’t “Black enough”.

I grew up being told I “talked white,” liked “white” things, and I had predominantly white friends.

(Even now, I felt the need to justify all of those things because I don’t want you to think less of me.)

I understand now that my parents were trying to help me succeed in a white supremacist world by forcing me to speak “correct English”. (I put this in quotations because African American Vernacular English is an unrecognized dialect which is also “correct” English.)

I get that the erasure of Black people’s contributions made me feel like liking rock music was liking “white” things, when my people literally created the genre.

I know that I had white friends because I felt isolated and judged by other Black children due to their limited ideas of what Blackness could look like. (This is internalized white supremacy, btw.)

As I finally owned my identity as a Black woman in 2020, I found out something interesting:

A lot of people, no matter their intersectional identities, felt just like me.

They didn’t feel like they were “enough” in their identities, and they had no idea how to shed the shackles of white supremacy so that they could  integrate those identities into their professional persona.

So since then, I’ve worked with leaders of color who want to feel more secure in their intersectional identities and how they present those authentically and safely within a white supremacist world.

That being said, there’s something really interesting that happened to my clients as they decolonized their relationship with their racial identity:

Other parts of their identity that had previously been hidden from them came out.

Many of them realized they were neurodivergent.

Others realized they were queer.

A few realized that their relationship with their gender was changing.

(This, by the way, happened to me too. Once I owned my Black identity, my identity as a bisexual became impossible to deny. These days I’m trying to figure out if I’m even truly biromantic or bisexual, because I am rarely attracted to men these days – except my husband lol.)

I talk a lot about being a leader who shows up authentically in their identity and refuses to let a white supremacist, sexist, and homophobic world keep them from expressing themselves.

But…how can you fully do that if there are layers of yourself that feel uncomfortable for you to fully own?

How can you show up authentically as a leader, when you don’t even know what it looks like to be authentic with yourself?

What if there are entire aspects of your identity that you haven’t seen yet, because you’re still holding yourself back from being who you truly are?

I’m writing this email because representation matters, and I have a feeling that a lot of you were raised like me.

You might have felt like you weren’t enough in your:

👉🏾racial identity

👉🏾sexual identity

👉🏾gender identity

👉🏾cultural identity

👉🏾American identity

That baggage likely still lives with you, and impacts the way you show up as a leader and individual every single day.

If you’re reading this and deeply relating, and want to do the work to decolonize and shift your relationship with your identities so that you can show up in your full, authentic identity as a leader and individual, I invite you to schedule a call with me to discuss 1:1 coaching.

During our initial, 60 minute call, you and I will:

🚀dive deep into what’s blocking you from owning your identities right now

🚀get clear on how this disconnect is impacting your goals

🚀make a plan as to how you and I will overcome your identity roadblocks

🚀discuss how we can integrate these identities into the way you work and lead

🚀determine if it’s truly a good fit for us to work together

This work will change your life, your ability to show up as a leader, and will also have massive ripple effects for the next generation of your community, whether it’s your children, nieces or nephews, or just children you interact with in your community.

It’s my absolute favorite work to do — and if you’ll allow me, I’d be honored to do it with you.

Curious about what it could look like to work together?

Click here to learn more about 1:1 coaching.

Talk soon,

Gieselle