Stop Blaming Avocados

Humans want to fit in. We want to be included. Perhaps it is human nature, the need to be a part of the group. And when it comes to success, assimilating yourself has often been a part of survival. However, navigating the world looks different for marginalized groups.  Homogenous groups are continuously trying to show why they are different, to stand out from the group... while marginalized groups are trying to find ways that they can fit in.

Though, we are also told to bring our authentic selves to work, to "just be you". But for those w...

Have you ever experienced something in life so incredibly substantial and life-changing that it led you to reevaluate your why?

Many have, many will, and many currently are. We lived through a world pandemic. We're fighting for equal human rights. We're going through market shifts. These events, plus so many others, are influential in history but more specifically, impact us personally.

Domenique Rice is an activist, a laid back California transplant savvy, Brooklyn Girl, wine and liquor sales guru, DEIB advocate, incredible mother of five, and she is an unapologetic truth teller.
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Lori Mazor is the CEO and Founder of Synthetivity, an innovative company at the leading edge of executive education, specializing in training professionals on the transformative applications and implications of Generative AI (artificial intelligence) in various industry sectors.

Synthetivity is a part of her fourth complete career transformation and is paving her path in Artificial Intelligence as an advocate for inclusive and responsible AI and as an educator, guiding organizations towards a future of creativity, collaboration, and growth with Generative AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is and can be an extraordinary technology, allowing us to be...

Katharine Smith, MA, CPCC, ACC is an Organizational Psychologist and Executive Coach. She has a unique approach to helping her clients prioritize their higher purpose, avoid burnout, redesign their relationship with work, and phase out fear-based cultures. 

Katharine and Chava dive into the conversation that really blossomed from a catch up where they were discussing "well what the heck is success?" In this episode, you'll learn about:

how our unique conditioning throughout our lives requires well, unique solutions. how to start "editing" your career and making decisions of what to carry with you and what to le...

Sara Chandran is the Founder of Fresh and Fearless, a consultancy that helps organizations build brave initiatives to create a workplace that is inclusive for all.

Sara is an empathetic, people-first leader and change-maker. Throughout our episode, Sara gets real about the founder journey - the joys and the difficulties. She'll share how her personal experiences, including loss, grief, and redundancy, have helped inform the type of organization that she is building - one that supports its people (its employees) both personally and professionally, and one that champions vulnerability and celebrates diversity.

We discuss the...

Did you know that stillbirth is still very prevalent today, that it is often preventable, and that the U.S. falls well behind other first-world countries in stillbirth prevention and research? For most, the answer is no. We continue to fail pregnant people and families.

Elizabeth O'Donnell, the Founder of Aaliyah in Action and Co-Director of Awareness for PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy is trying to change that. Through her work she is support pregnant people and families at all stages. Through PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, she and her colleagues are working tirelessly to end preventable stillbirth. And...

May is AAPI+ Month (Asian American and Pacific Islander + Month). During this month, we celebrate, commemorate, and honor the accomplishments and contributions of Asian Americans throughout history. This is also a time that we can discuss and bring more awareness to the continuous work that still needs to be done to create more equity in our world.

In this week’s episode, I am joined by Kim “Kimfer” Flanders-Rye, Founder of Inclusion Equals for a discussion on busting the “model minority myth”. Key takeaways from our discussion include: 

Defining what is the model minority myth and where/when...

Over and over we are seeing articles talking about mental health in the workplace. Finally, it's starting to take center stage! The importance of caring for one's mental health and the immense influence that work has on our mental health.

Still, we continue to see burnout, unhealthy work environments, and teams unequipped to manage the stress that we endure.

So whose responsibility is it anyway? Who should support employees mental health and wellbeing?

In this episode, Chris Henrichs, Cofounder and Head of Partnerships at Boon Health, joins me to discuss the role of...

Acey Holmes is a play advocate and enabler and the founder of BoredLess. She wants adults to engage in more play and thinks that they deserve more play. But why and what does that mean? As a former speech and language pathologist, Acey has decades of experience studying the effects of play and flow on the brain and behavior. Her passion for empowering adults to rediscover the joy of play has led to transformative success for both individuals and organizations.

In this episode, Acey joins me to discuss what is play, what it isn't (hint...

Lech calls himself a "cultural square peg". What is that? I mean literally, it's that he doesn't fit into the typical "mold" in traditional organizational practices that pigeon-hole people. Lech is a generalist. Guess what? So is your host, Chava. This fun conversation will go in a few different directions, but if you can stay with us, we hope you'll walk away with at least one or two key take aways.

The term "generalist" hasn't yet been fully embraced. But it isn't a dirty word and it isn't a bad thing either. In fact, in this episode...

Throughout her career, Shandia Drummond-Butt has remained rooted in her values and the concept that “if this is the place for me, then it will be for me. If it’s not, then I’m going to find the right place.” Shandi is the Director of People and Culture at IMPACT and she’s found that by leaning into her courageous voice, she’s been able to build a career that she is passionate about while creating supportive environments that not only she can thrive in, but that her colleagues can thrive in. 

Our conversation is both inspiring and...

Carrie Allen (founder of The Human Array) joins Chava Vietze to discuss truly how powerful "power skills" (formerly known as soft skills) are. We discuss:

How to embrace your power skills and how to lean into them while acknowledging your areas of improvementHow to embrace other people's power skills to do amazing work together Why language is so important and how we use it to talk to ourselves and our colleaguesHow leaders can better help to better empower people and Carrie's take on one of the top things holding leaders back from progress

Carrie Allen is the f...

We all want to feel good and that takes continuous work overtime. Life will ebb and flow and external factors can be intruding.  But you are worth investing in. Your wellbeing is worth investing in.

Teresa Clark joins Chava Vietze to understand how we can meet ourselves exactly where we are right now and how we can find our flow with our own wellbeing. These skills will evolve overtime as we evolve. Listen to hear anecdotes from Teresa and Chava about how they each have worked to find their flow, how we can develop habits to help u...

People Leader? Candidate? Manager? IC? Wherever you fall, you'll likely find at least one takeaway from my conversation with Lia James, founder and CEO of & Human. Lia is a executive coach, facilitator, career designer, and part-time woodworking (you'll learn about that toward the end of our episode.) 

In this episode, we discuss... 

Generational differences and similarities between Gen-Xers, Millennials, and Gen-Zers. How you can combine your passions and interests into your work (but hint, that doesn't mean if you love flowers you need to go become a florist). How work is evolving to meet the needs and...

Anu Menon is the Executive Director of Oasis for Girls, a non-profit based in San Francisco focused on empowering girls and supporting them with resources to enact equitable, inclusive change. Anu's career has been rooted in a passion and desire to help heal the world's problems.

In this week's episode, Anu and Chava discuss wage justice with a focus on the non-profit sector where there's a stigma that to do non-profit work, folks have to accept that they will earn below market-rate wages while they're doing pivotal, life-changing work for their communities. Anu shares success she's had...

Kristen Bakalar is a workplace innovator and diversity advocate and she’s tired of performative diversity, equity, inclusive “initiatives”. Our conversation gets real about the work that needs to be done still and touches on what is going well across industries. You’ll learn a ton and I’m hoping you’ll walk away as inspired as I was to help continue to improve our workplaces. 

Follow us at @stopblamingavocados on Instagram.

Catharine Montgomery is the founder of Better Together, a VC-funded, purpose-driven, Black and woman-founded, Public Relations and Communications agency. In this episode, Catharine shares her founder journey, which was the result of a culmination of her impressive career, taking a chance on a Slack message, and a ton of hard work. She celebrates her highs and highlights her support system helping to get her through the lows. Listen to learn more about how Better Together plans to influence and support social change, an inside look at Catharine's journey as a founder, along with learning about purpose-driven work and a...

Layoffs suck. And most of us will go through at least one layoff in our lifetime. But why is it that nearly every time layoffs are done they're done so with an archaic playbook?

Kelly Ceynowa joins Chava to throw away the 40-year-old playbook and discuss what it means to look at layoffs through a new lens.

Will it take creativity? Absolutely. Listen to learn where you can start, how these recommendations can work for both private and public companies, how to flip the table on how layoffs are done, and so much more. 

On this episode, Chava is joined by Cindy Tsai, MD, the award winning, board certified internal medicine physician, TEDx speaker, and best-selling author to discuss: Breaking the cycle of chronic stress and approaching our health with integrative wellness.  After experiencing the health implications that chronic stress can have on the body, Cindy set out to change how we approach our own health. Listen to learn practical approaches to transforming stress into strength.

Cindy's book mentioned in the episode can be purchased here. 

Follow us at @stopblamingavocados on Instagram.

Welcome to Stop Blaming Avocados, hosted by Chava Vietze. Throughout episodes, Chava speaks with guests from many walks of life hoping to elevate their voices and their stories. Stop Blaming Avocados was created to break from "tradition", have thoughtful conversation about human-first work and inspire a more human-first approach to life, community, and organization.

Don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss out on upcoming episodes!

About the host: Chava is a people-first advocate, problem solver, dot connector, and creative strategist. She's worked in startups, people experience, and the tech industry for...