Hustle Grind Shine & Reignite with Jessica Hartley
Hustle Grind Shine & Reignite with Jessica Hartley
Hustle Grind Shine & Reignite: Episode 2 with Tanarra Schneider
As a culture strategist at her core, Tanarra Schneider has always been on a personal quest to marry her passion and purpose of centering humans in everything that she touches. In this episode, we start at the roots of Schneider’s life growing up as a biracial kid in Chicago, up through her current role as a Managing Director of Leadership and Culture at Accenture.
We explore:
- The importance of supporting your mental health and recognizing when you need support
- How the privilege of taking a break can provide centering and an opportunity to recast your future
- Delegation of responsibilities as a form of power for you and empowerment for the people who work with you
About Tanarra Schneider
Based in Chicago, Schneider is a skilled user experience strategist, with a passion for solving key business and social problems by putting the user first. She believes strongly in working with teams and that titles and labels are meaningless – it's the work you do that counts. Her fascinating professional background includes dancing, cooking, event planning, designing and more, and this has provided a holistic approach to her teams and her work.
Among the solutions, she has influenced or created are high fashion websites, customer support tools, intranets, extranets, learning management systems, social health programs, and learning applications. She loves to synthesize concepts visually – and believes a picture IS worth 1000 words. In the near future, Schneider is leaning into her own personal passion projects, including launching a personal coaching consultancy and a project marrying two of her favorite loves, food and storytelling.
Welcome to the hustle grind shine and reignite podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Hartley. Join me on another journey with amazing and talented professionals of color. We laugh and cry and take notes. But most of all be inspired all of this and more on our next episode of hustle, grind, shine. And let's go Hello, and welcome to another episode of hustle, grind, shine and reignite. I am your host, Jessica Hartley, and I am so so pleased to introduce you to my guest today. My guest is tonight, Schneider, and she is a cultural strategist and a managing director at Accenture. She is also a certified badass, and I am so excited to have her with me today. Welcome tomorrow to
Tanarra Schneider:the show. Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here. Seriously.
Jessica Hartley:I'm so excited. Well, we're gonna get into all the juicy bits and all the good things. But I'm going to take us back to the beginning. We love to start with childhood. And so people's childhoods are amazing, some are challenging, but we'd love to hear about growing up what was home life, like? What was growing up like and what did you want to be, we always love to kind of start with kind of where we were and what we thought we wanted to be. And as many of us, as you know, in our careers, especially as women and women of color, usually where we start is not where we are today. I mean, it's a nice little journey along the way, and sometimes a roller coaster ride. And so we'll get into that. But take us back to the beginning. Where did you grow up and talk a little bit about little tonnara for us?
Tanarra Schneider:Oh, little tonnara Wow. Yeah, so I am sitting now and did grow up in Chicago. I'm a born and bred Chicago. And it's interesting though, thinking about this. I really am like a product of this city that was born on the south side. I grew up on the north side, my parents moved back to the south side. So I did too, and then moved to the west side, like a little bit of everywhere. So really, genuinely like a true product of Chicago. I left for a while and swore I was never coming back here and clearly never say never because it'll get you every time.
Jessica Hartley:I sure well. I mean, I said that about Georgia. I just knew I was like moved back to Georgia. And yeah, here. I mean, New York, all over. And here I am back. So it's amazing how we wind up back where we started
Tanarra Schneider:different. But it is it's different. But yeah, I am. I'm biracial, my mom's white, my dad's black. And I grew up in Chicago in a time when I think Chicago was really in transition. So I think I probably felt pretty at home here. Always being a little bit between lots of worlds. Yeah, we've you know, just like real quick on the like the families, because you're right, not everybody's childhoods are easy. And frankly, mine was fairly easy. I was really privileged to have a mom who worked her butt off. So I went to a wonderful private school. That was not always easy. I tried it a lot of my success. I think in later years to the education I have, I also credit my therapy bills to the school I went to. So yes, there was a lot of that. Yes. Yeah. So you know, I grew up a kid of the city, very much ambitious and silly and wonderful. And I was born in the 70s, you know, born in 75. So I got the benefit of the wonderful silliness of the 80s. And some of the craziness of that. And, you know, watching America also grapple with itself in the wake of like, the end of the Cold War and all sorts of other stuff, right? And I lived really close to Boys Town. So I grew up with this sort of really adventurous sense of who you could be. Yeah. But also in a household that was very clear that I was going to go to college and have a job that to earn money and did all of those things, right? Like I was, I was gonna be all those things. I wanted to be a dancer. I wanted to be a dancer.
Jessica Hartley:And did you dance and did you dance school in high school? I
Tanarra Schneider:started when I was four. And I danced my entire life until I could not dance anymore, which was in my 20s I started out in
Jessica Hartley:ballet started out in ballet, as many of us do. I did ballet as well. Yeah, yeah.
Tanarra Schneider:And then you know what, at the time would have been like lyrical and jazz? What I think we now think of as contemporary when we sort of meld all those styles together. But yeah, so really like deep ballet roots and then some lyrical and some jazz and performed in you know, musicals and stuff like that in school and you know, couldn't sing to say my life but it was always like, you know, waving a rose in the back. Of course, I could dance
Jessica Hartley:According to the Yeah, me in the same day, I can do a little duty Bob here and there on the shower. But other than that,
Tanarra Schneider:that's like, I'll sing karaoke because it's supposed to be bad. But that's about as far as we take that.
Jessica Hartley:So now talk to me about that, that delta, I feel like us of this generation, especially the parents, and the generations before there was like, if you could afford to send your kid to college, you know, they couldn't go you went, my parents were both college educated as well, very blessed in that respect. But though that comes with expectations, and I, you know, I've been telling folks recently, I'm like, Hey, I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to be a star, and I love acting and being on stage and did plays and all of that. But there was always this unrelenting. That's cool, that's a hobby, you need a degree and a real job and all those things. So how did you square that? When you went to college? And you know, what did you major in? And how did that then get you into, I guess, the start of your professional career? Well, yeah,
Tanarra Schneider:I'm not sure I ever fully squared it. I think a couple things happened along the way. That probably made it easier. So when I say I, you know, I attribute my therapy bills to the school I went to I was not kidding. It was not an easy place to go to school. It afforded me a lot of opportunities. There were we had amazing arts programs, and I was able to dance at that school. Like I was dancing at a company, like we had amazing teachers and things like that. And that was incredible. But a couple things didn't happen. One, myself confidence was absolute garbage. And so I ate my way through middle school. And I played a lot of sports and I dance, so it kept me You know, I think healthy, but certainly not petite in any way. And I'm already almost five, nine.
Jessica Hartley:So I'm gonna say you're tall, taller girls. Yeah,
Tanarra Schneider:probably wasn't going to be a ballerina. And, frankly, you know, by the time I got to high school, so I had diverse interests, I played basketball along the way. I had played volleyball and softball as well. So I was really into sports. At the same time. I was also never going to be a professional dancer, I got hurt really badly when I was 17. I tore my labrum in my right hip. Yeah, oh, my
Jessica Hartley:goodness dancer, and what, uh, oh, man. I mean, those are things that as an adult are hard to navigate. But even I mean, even with the healing powers of being young and being 17, what very traumatic,
Tanarra Schneider:it was. And I think the pain was such that it was, how do I just get through this so I can keep doing what I love to do. And you know, at the time, that was all about cortisone therapy, right, so I was getting cortisone shots so that I could keep dancing, and that did more damage in the long run than anything else. But by the time I got to college, you know, I graduated, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to go into physical therapy. There were probably some reasons for that, right? I spent quite a bit of time dealing with my own physiology and everything else. And I was like the trainer for the boys cross country team. And so I thought I wanted to get into physical therapy, it was at least an avenue to something that seemed interesting. And I went to University of Illinois, and my first year, my freshman year, biology 120. So I was gonna be a biology major, pre PT, the class was 750 people in the dark at one o'clock in the afternoon. How many specific I stayed away for
Jessica Hartley:those classes? Oh, man, they were
Tanarra Schneider:always so hard. They call them weed out classes for a reason. Right? So yeah, I was good at biology, I was good at chemistry. But the structure of it just didn't work. For me, it's I eventually found my way into two things, I found my way into an English Lit program, which I was always super intrigued by stories, whether it was you know, writing them, reading them, acting them, whatever it was. And I was really intrigued by the fact that I had studied so many dead white men in high school, that are in African American studies. So I need to go I needed to go study people who look like me read people who look like me dig into that part of my life a whole lot more. So that got me through college, and technically three and a half years, the biggest accomplishment for me and I think the thing that maybe was one of the things that pushed me was I spent a lot of time around people who were really smart trying to figure out what they wanted to do. And a lot of my friends have ended up being teachers in one way or another. And so it's like maybe education, right, maybe education. And I did actually both participate in and lead the dance company at the African American Cultural Center in college. And wow, it was great. And I loved teaching dance like I have always loved that part. I love choreography. I think I like everything more than I like dancing. And so that has led me to this space of like creating for others. Yeah, I choreographed West Side Story is the spring musical or college and
Jessica Hartley:everybody's talking about it now with that movie. Come Yeah.
Tanarra Schneider:I'm so excited. It's gonna be good. But all of that led me to be like I still don't entirely know. So I think I'll go to graduate school. started to grad school at UCLA to get a dual master's in education and African American Studies. It was the worst decision of my life and the best decision for so many reasons.
Jessica Hartley:So tell me about that. Why was it the worst? Well, let's start with the worst and then go on with it the best. So sometimes I like to tell people I said, sometimes you do something to know that you don't want to do it. Right. So very curious. So
Tanarra Schneider:I have a deep, both love and loathing for academia at this point in my life, it is actually kept me from going back to school again, except for one instance, which is a very specialized moment in my life. But I went to UCLA and a fellowship to UCLA, which there were only two of us that year, who were Fellows is a huge honor. And the dean of the program was batshit, crazy, which was heartbreaking because she was a black woman from Chicago. And I thought it was going to be amazing. And she took me under her wing, and I thought this was going to be fantastic. And I had to have an on campus job. And so I worked for her. And I, it turned out that she was disorganized, unethical, all sorts of stuff that just really was just It destroyed me in so many ways. It was also during proposition 209. In California, when they were trying to rescind all of the ethnic studies programs, because they were trying to do away with firmed of action. Remember that. And our program was a program and not a department on the frm side. So we lost all of our professors back to their home department. So then I tried to rely on education to get me through that first year thinking that I would spend time my education classes. And the reason that I went there was because there was a professor there who I thought was a God, he had written so many amazing books around progressive education. And I was so excited. And we had a class together on mathematics. And he basically made a pass at me in like the worst possible way. And it was like, my eyes were just so open to like the worst of humans in these spaces of privilege, where they feel like they can wield power in any way they want to. And because you are stuck there in their minds, and there's nowhere you can go. They just use you in any way they see fit. And so I was really, really, really, like just a mess. I got a job interning at the Museum of Tolerance that summer while I was deciding whether I was going to stay or go. And yeah, that was the turning point for me. And I only know that in hindsight that it did not occur to me then. But it was it didn't
Jessica Hartley:it didn't even feel like amazing. It was amazing. Yeah, talk to me about that. How did you even find out about the opportunity there? And what did you do?
Tanarra Schneider:I was looking for a place where I could leverage the technology knowledge I was starting to build because part of the work I was doing under this professor was building the first web site for Studies in the African diaspora. And so I had really started to understand technology. And I was building my own computers. And I was doing all these things. And they were looking for I was just looking literally looking through job listings, and had at least access to like grad level job listings, because of my position with this professor. So I happened to come across a few postings and they were looking for folks who were really interested in the kind of the intersection of stories and culture and could talk about and think about technology. And so I went I just I applied and right this is the day where you send a resume in like there's no LinkedIn about applying for resume had to be submitted.
Jessica Hartley:Know how good they don't know how good I mean, I get the automated systems now are awful. But I'm like y'all don't remember where you have to go get this special paper from Staples or Office Depot
Tanarra Schneider:with the resume paper.
Jessica Hartley:If you know and you get the folder if you could afford it, because that stuff was expensive at 2030 $40 for the paper, the two types of paper and then the matching on the lope and writing nicely and all of that and then handwriting thank you notes if you did that as well that people would have known.
Tanarra Schneider:And it was it was so great. I was invited in for the interview and I show up and I mean they have to show is this beautiful Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles. I'm a black woman. But my last name is Schneider. So you there's no pictures on the internet y'all. I just want to emphasize this. So you can
Jessica Hartley:be surprised.
Tanarra Schneider:They're like to nourish nighter and I was like yeah, that's me. Hi, how you doing? It was just sort of this hilarious moment, but it was so beautiful for me because my family and my mom is Jewish by heritage. I grew up in synagogues with my best friends. As a kid. We didn't practice but I know so much about it and I've spent so much time around it. It was just such a wonderful like homecoming in some ways because I got to Explore so much of who I am in a very different way that I never thought I would be able to, and learn so much more about myself and about justice and about the way we treat people and about the true genuine source of evil and fear and how you overcome that. And there were Holocaust survivors that were there every week telling their stories. And they had an exhibit on Rwanda at the time. So I got to learn about that. And I was a docent in the Holocaust exhibit. And then I got to work on programs for kids. Because education was one of the things I was focused on, I got to write, you know, exhibit work and tour work for kids who are too young to be on the museum floor. It's pretty rough. Yeah, it's very. And so it just taught me a lot about how do you take the skills you have, and make them relevant in a space that seems entirely foreign? And I think that's probably one of the hallmarks of my career.
Jessica Hartley:So would you say that was the point really, for you where you saw? Well, I guess, first, did you go back? Did you go back and finish? Or did you was that like the catalyst that said, I found the purpose and calling that is not in this place? No, the catalyst
Tanarra Schneider:is my parents, my parents called me and said, You're coming home. Actually, moreover, my dad called me, he never called me to tell me anything. My dad called me and said, I'm coming to get you, you have a week back your stuff. Wow. Because they were so worried about my mental health, you're so worried about me that I tend to be fairly rebellious. So I don't always listen, I also know when to listen. And I knew when to listen, I knew I had to listen, I didn't, there was no magic moment, there was no light bulb that went off, I was fully immersed in that experience. And it was wonderful. I still didn't entirely know what to do with it. But I also did know that UCLA was not going to be a place that I could exist and be healthy.
Jessica Hartley:Yeah, we could do episodes for days on the challenges of what of academia and then also how people of color experience academia, health as students and graduate students, but also as professors having to navigate you know, not unlike how we have to navigate the troubled waters of corporate America, right every day. So you moved into, I mean, ultimately, you moved into this amazing frontier. And I call it a frontier because you know, everyday things are changing and growing and moving and shifting as we think about the intersection of design, and technology, and user experience kind of all coming together and what that means, not just in connecting right from a capitalist perspective of connecting brands and consumers together, but I mean, it is also about creating better experiences for patients in healthcare, right, and things like that. Talk a little bit about your career arc. So you went back home. Yeah, dad is like, I'm coming to get my girl, we gotta go. We love you. We care about you. God bless those parentals and guardians, and just angels that look out for us that know better for us if we don't, God bless us that have those in our lives. So talk a little bit about that sort of career arc that got you sort of leaving, going leaving UCLA, going back to Chicago, and then kind of forging a new path from there. Yeah,
Tanarra Schneider:it's a giant, loopy roller coaster. I mean, it'd be great if it was an arc, but it's a weird, loopy roller coaster. So back to Chicago and couldn't find a job. Remember, all those resumes were talking about sent out like 40 of those things, could not find a job. So I started temping, because I needed to make money. I was only gonna stay at home for so long. I got a job working for a small finance and insurance brokerage firm called mesurer. Financial, and they needed somebody for eight weeks, somebody was going out the executive system was going out on that leave. So I was an EA for eight weeks. But what happened there was that I was an EA in a technology department. And inside of the technology department, there was a woman who ran all of their internal training. And so again, right, that pivot of taking skills and things you do that are relevant in different contexts. I took everything I knew about teaching from teaching dance, and all sorts of other stuff. Everything I knew about writing because the materials they were using to teach were terrible. And I started teaching classes because they were moving. You had support staff that was moving from like window or typewriters and brain screen terminals to Windows and Office. And that is a leap. And I think that's the beginning of you know what you said like this idea of creating experiences for people that where they can thrive but frankly, start with that just don't suck. Things that don't terrify people, and I watched women who were in their 50s Close enough to retirement come into my classroom, afraid they were going to lose their jobs if they couldn't learn how to use this new software and learn how to use a computer. One of them brought a box tissue every day, and she cried every day, right? But I started to realize that there was actually something that was relevant for me that I could do bringing all bits of me my creativity, my ability to write my ability to see people to take my time and to teach in a way that was probably much less like corporate version, read the manual and a lot more. Okay, let's do step one. Now let's do step one and step two. Now let's do step one, step two, and step three, which really goes back to choreography? For me, it's like, how do you build something? Right? Yeah. So yes. And so that's I mean, that's where like that is the through line for my career is legitimately creating experiences and systems where people can thrive. But let's start with ones that don't suck. Like we just, we have to start somewhere. And so it's taken me a bunch of different places, I went from there, and I got a full time job there, stay there for a while and went to like my first sort of outside consulting company from there building software to teach people in that same way, I found a company that was really cool at the time that was doing some unique stuff with being able to capture Live software, and then turn it into a training mechanism where you can make it a safe to fail environment, so that you can learn and you could start over again, and it didn't mess anything up. I went and did that. And then I did big systems implementations, like I went from there to doing big tech and like SAP and PeopleSoft for Tribune Company. And, you know, there's just nothing like trying to blueprint, a system from the ground up to try to make sure it doesn't suck a lot. And a lot of it did. Yeah, it's
Jessica Hartley:hard. But I
Tanarra Schneider:learned a lot. And I'm not a technologist, right? I'm a storyteller. And I am truly, you know, I am a strategist in so many ways. And I became a designer over time, right? I didn't go to Design School. And we didn't really know what UX I didn't know what UX and service design all those things were then. But as my career grew, and as I started to do other things like that time at Tribune really starting to understand the intent and the outcome. And that's what design is, right? It's making the intended outcome match one another. And I would just add through a process that is uniquely human and human centered, right. So really trying to understand and map how people work and what they need from a system and what the business needs. I've been able to carve this really interesting space where I've done everything from do that work that I talked about to move to New York to stand up Jeff Lou's elearning platform and program from the ground up, then I went agency side because I was like, this is kind of cool. What does it look like on the other side, when I did it for clients, like cardio, and Chanel and Citibank? And, you know, I think one of my proudest moments is I designed what would become the cooking school for America's Test Kitchen and cooks illustrated. That's amazing. That was so much fun. And it ties very directly to the one educational experience that I did manage to go back and have, which is I went to culinary school midway through because I needed a break. So after I left Tribune, I took a break for about a year and a half. And once culinary school, and then I cooked for a while. And even that still about creating amazing experiences for people because I was really interested in catering not necessarily working in big kitchens, but in creating bespoke events, creativity, problem solving, right? Yeah, well, there, yeah, I'll leave someone going, you know, and I went did my way through a bunch of agencies, and ended up where I am now, which was, you know, seven years of leading design practice inside of Accenture in various ways. And now as the North America lead for leadership and culture, because it's still about now making systems truly organizational systems and companies suck less, and spaces where people can thrive. Same thing, it's the same exact thing, I just no longer want to talk to you about your technology, which I know is like heresy at the company that I work at, there's so many brilliant technologists, I need to be a humanist and I was a technologist and designer for seven years and now it's time to be a humanist again,
Jessica Hartley:I love that time to be a human, less human, they suck less, and help people thrive. I love that. Talk to me about thank you for sharing that you took a break. Because I feel like we don't give ourselves the ability to take a break. And it's hard and to take a break is also you know, we'll recognize that there's a privilege in what what it means to take a break and taking a break to mean different things for different people. Sometimes that's a sabbatical sometimes it's a career pivot or shift. And I guess how have you and for many of us, I think it's a journey. You talked about how hard your mom worked in your mom bit working on parents working hard, and I think we often come from roots of hard working guardians and parents and so we see that hustle and grind. What we didn't see a lot of in a lot of cases sometimes it's care for themselves. And we're always you know, when women are often the caregivers and I also know that you're like me a mother as well. How's your journey been of learning to take care of yourself and What that means for self care, self love, time and rest. How's that been for you?
Tanarra Schneider:I'm terrible. I'm getting better at it. So part of what started me to take a break, I was 27. So not particularly old, had not been working that long, but I have been working really hard. So when I was doing all the systems work attributes, I was flying back and forth every week, very much like a consulting gig, right, I was at home for maybe three days every week, didn't see friends didn't see family gained a whole bunch of weight, treated myself terribly, did not work out was not disciplined about that stuff. And the night before my 26th birthday, I was in a hotel room in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and I had panic attack, supposed to meet my team for dinner, and I couldn't leave the hotel room could not get off the floor. And I knew I could not spend many more days like that, if I was going to make it. And I don't mean like, I meet you live and I was going to live, I needed to do something else. And I'm pretty sure I told my mother right around that time that I was when this particular project was done, I was going to leave and go to culinary school. And I was making six figures at 26. So when you say that to somebody who has sprint and worked their butts off and worked overtime, and comes from very meager resources, and has made a life for herself working very, very hard, that is like stabbing somebody in the face. And I think she thought I was nuts. But I also knew I had to do it. And I did and it was absolutely the right thing for me to do. Over time, I've gotten a little bit better at it. And I've gotten a little bit worse at it. And a lot of our environments don't create spaces for us to do that. Right? We don't whether you have the privilege or not, and I was privileged enough at the time to have made enough money that I could take that break and go to school, I did some consulting and contracting on the side just because I couldn't help myself. But it is hard, especially when you have kids to feel like you can take that break. And I am a single mom, her dad and I share custody. So I am well aware that like I have to be able to take care of her have to be able to take care of us. And so now I'm trying to get better at boundary setting. I was terrible about it during the pandemic, which I think a lot of people were I was pretty bad at it prior to that if I'm honest.
Jessica Hartley:Video, I think we a lot of
Tanarra Schneider:us were Yeah. And so I'm learning I'm learning. I've just taken myself down to a four day a week workweek, it does mean those Monday through Thursday is real busy. Right? It's really busy. It also really helped me prioritize my time, it's given me an opportunity to be generous, and it sounds crazy. But delegating actually is one of the most generous things we can do as leaders, because when we hold on to everything, our people don't get a chance to learn. They don't get a chance to grow. So I don't tie my daughter shoes every day, because she's learned how to tie her shoes. Why would I do all of the work on my team, my team's not gonna learn to tie their shoes. So I am trying desperately to remember that my team is brilliant. The people I work with are entirely capable. And it's actually beneficial for everybody. If I step away for a day, as long as I get my work done, I'm not a bottleneck for anybody else. I should be able to step away for a day and think and clear my head and be the kind of mother human being boss, daughter, friend, all those things. I need to be some learning. Yeah.
Jessica Hartley:I love that. Thank you for sharing so much. I think, you know, it's so important that we talk about not only the successes and the wins, but the challenges and the very human challenges. Same for me, I have never been it's usually just like, go go go and then crash. You know, you had your crash at 2726. Myself. Mine was and you know, you don't realize it again until much later. But I was like crazy busy. That middle school, high school college, I was on the Red Cross Youth board and traveling, I was doing all the things that people do in their 20s when they have a full time job. Internships, I mean, I was going hard. I graduated school in three and a half years because I got to finish early and all these things. And so I tell people, people will you know, you move to New York, what did you do that first year like the first six months, in six to nine months right before actually 911 happened? I did not do it. I stayed home I worked at an internet company. I stayed home. I did my job every day. But I went to the library and I ordered takeout and I watched eight at the time it was on demand. We didn't have all the things that we have now. We didn't have Netflix and watch on I didn't do anything. Do you want to go out? No, I didn't go anywhere for like six months. It was like literally my version of a crash because I had burned myself out between high school and college. So still learning what it means to take care of myself and to pause and being mindful Also what I'm doing in what I'm showing my children. Because I watched my mom Mom is amazing. But she never rested. She always worked. She went back to school, she did all these things. Suddenly now you know that she's retired and a grandmother that I see the rest. And I want to try to show my kids now what it means to to show my daughter who's five, what it means to take care of yourself now with self care means down, you know?
Tanarra Schneider:Yep, absolutely. Yeah.
Jessica Hartley:Talk to me about what reignite you. So when we're talking about, you know, self care, and what brings you excitement, what gets you, you know, as you're thinking about even just the future, and like, what you're excited about what is coming on the horizon? I know all of us are like, how can we at least movie on the madness of this pandemic right now. So we can start hoping and wishing for future? What does that feel like for you, when you think about the word reignite and just sort of fueling yourself what gets you excited?
Tanarra Schneider:I think there's a couple of things that really get me excited. So one is, like so many people, I have decided to redesign my space during this time and actually find that that is huge. So my house is under construction will be done in a couple of weeks. So exciting. But actually found that that is something that really fuels me, I love hands on design. And I've gotten so far away as in my leadership roles from making things, right. So I am a creative, I did go to culinary school, I like to cook I like to sew. So honestly, like one of the things that fuels me is art projects with my daughter and thinking about what's the right fiber kind of curtains for this room, like all of those details, just really do energize me. And they've given me an idea of like, where some spaces I want to spend time going forward, as I think about five or so years down the road, what I want to be doing, and I'm not somebody who likes a five year plan, like I've got some next steps, real comfortable with ambiguity. So got a couple things that are on the horizon. And the other one is really getting back into food and storytelling into material. So that little project that I'm working on right now that maybe you'll join me for one of these days,
Jessica Hartley:in call me to food storytelling or to
Tanarra Schneider:Yes, to explore the origins of food, and I wanted to explore the origins of people all at the same time. So um, there's a little, there's been content creation happening in the background that I'm really, really excited about. That should show up in the form of like a video series and podcast at some point next year. So really looking forward to like making things again, I think that's the stuff that feels me, I think a lot during the day. And I spend a lot of time kind of in thought leadership spaces, and coaching others, which is something I absolutely adore doing. And I'm doing more and more of these days, but really want to make some stuff.
Jessica Hartley:Oh, I love it. I love it. The making is so important. And something that even me doing this, this podcast of this show was something for me to say, you know, we do a lot of to your point, the brain work, and a lot of the emotional work in our leadership spaces. I have people call me like, oh, come do this role. And I'm like, I don't think you understand I don't build websites anymore. I coached the other eye coach Oh, that you know, I'm thinking about other things and other challenges and problems and coaching others to your point, I love that the note about the delegation, like the biggest thing we can do is give responsibility and support to others. So but I love this idea of getting back to making this these are forms of making and creation as we close down. And I just want to say thank you so much for sharing so much about your journey, and your life in your story and the roller coaster, and all the beauty that has made Sinara you're just such a light. For many of us. It's an honor and I in the prep session, were just sort of chatting. And I was like I've spent so much time around tomorrow, but we've never actually had the opportunity to work together. But you know the impact that people can have when they cast a halo and you've never actually worked with them? What advice would you give or as you think about all the things that you've learned and that you've experienced as we think about young people. I have so much empathy for the young generation right now that is, you know, high school college, thinking about career battling this idea of passion and purpose and profit and in what it means to fulfill them and sustain them. What advice if you had to give one or two pieces of advice to a young man of color a young woman of color, who's navigate some of those challenges and all of the midst of in a pandemic, and technology shifts in the metaverse and just just so much things that I think are overwhelming our senses in keeping us from just being sort of grounded and rooted. What advice would you have for a young person these days?
Tanarra Schneider:I think there's two things. One, it is entirely okay to feel the way that you feel, don't let anybody tell you, you shouldn't feel those things. A lot of people are going to tell you how you should feel about something, whether it's something that happened at work, something that's happening in the world, a lot of people are gonna tell you how to feel. Don't let them do that. Feel the way you feel. In doing that, though, you alone are not the answer to any one of these things that we are facing. Whether it is inequities in business, lack of diversity in the place you work at systemic social inequality, you alone are not the answer. So take a breath, and focus your impact. If you try to solve everything, you are going to burn yourself out, and you will solve nothing. So take a breath, focus your impact and find others to work with not just people who think like you and talk like you and look like you build a coalition of people you can work with. So you have different perspectives. And you can challenge one another, on your thinking echo chambers are very easy to find, especially now and regardless of what side of an issue you fall on. So take a breath, find a coalition make an impact.
Jessica Hartley:I love that focus, focus. I think that is something that I am continuing to work on. already working on. You know, because we're, we want to help everybody we want to say you know, save the world. And sometimes you have to save yourself before you can save the world. Thank you tomorrow, you have been so just delightful and insightful. And I know your story in your journey is going to just really help to ignite in be a catalyst to others. So I appreciate all the honesty and transparency that you have shared with me and with our audience and listeners today. And I am so excited about some of these projects that you have coming up and look forward to hopefully having you back to share more about the new projects that you got on the table. Appreciate you so much. Thanks.
Tanarra Schneider:Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Jessica Hartley:Thank you for listening to another episode of hustle, grind, shine and reignite. If you'd like this episode, like subscribe and share on all your favorite podcasts. I hope you'll tune in to the next episode featuring another amazing and talented professional. In the meantime, shine bright
