The Power of Storytelling with Kandia Johnson (Leading in Color S1,Ep4

Apr 2, 2019

Kandia Johnson is the guest for this Leading in Color episode. 

Kandia Johnson transformed her life from working as a corporate communications and learning consultant for a Fortune 500 company to founder of Kandid Conversations LLC, a communications consulting and training company.

Leveraging her 15 years of experience working with senior leaders and employees from companies such as Deloitte Consulting, Johnson & Johnson, and The U.S. Navy, Kandia started her own company to teach executives and entrepreneurs how to stand out, get noticed and become influential leaders in their fields. Through a series of leadership development workshops and one-to-one coaching, she’s helped her clients land executive positions, launch global awareness campaigns, land TV segments, and speaking engagements.

Beyond being featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Black Enterprise, and more, Kandia has delivered presentations on stages throughout the United States and Africa. To date, she’s been invited to speak at conferences and events for influential brands such as The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference, Harvard University Business School, Williams Sonoma, The James Beard Foundation, The WIE Symposium and African Women in Technology.

Tapping into her sweet spot for amplifying the voices of female hidden figures—women who are under-served, underestimated and underrepresented, Kandia launched 'The She Deserves More Project', a mentorship program to help women gain confidence, make connections and break barriers in life and business.

The 3 take-aways from this episode are: 

1. We hold ourselves back when we don’t know how to tell our career story. We fail to personalize our successes, we fail to use words that convey action, and we fail to quantify our impact. This matters when you’re leading in color because you cannot get approval for programming without being able to make the business case and convey you are the best person to lead the efforts. 
2. We have to get clear on what management defines as success. If our managers don’t set expectations with us, we have to ask. This matters when you’re leading in colors because not every environment is going to be ready or willing to cultivate positive experiences using diversity, inclusion and social consciousness as the lens. If this is important to you, you cannot stay in an environment who will not commit to it and who will not support your growth.
3. We have practice and prepare. At every stage of our career and for every moment we need to show up and be fully present for, we have practice and prepare. Kandia suggests writing things out then editing yourself to make sure your message if confident and clear. This matters when you’re leading in color because cultivating positive workplaces is an intentional activity. And anything successful we do with intention has to be something we practice and prepare for.

Kandia is offering her Confidence Guide FREE to the Leading In Color podcast listeners. Go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts, subscribe to Leading In Color then take a screenshot of your subscribed status and email it to [e-mail] and I will send you the link to download the Confidence Guide.

Also, here's LINK to the Level Up Your Career webinar that Kandia and I did with The Memo: 

Thank you for listening to Episode 4 of the Leading in Color podcast. Be sure to take advantage of this freebie AND connect with Kandia on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn at @kandiajohnson and on Instagram @kandij

Connect with Leading in Color at @leadingincolorpodcast on FB and Instagram and @leadingincolor on Twitter. I’d love your feedback and questions at my email [e-mail] and of course I want you to subscribe, rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.