Season 2, Episode 9 | Finding Clarity: Connecting The Dots Between Your Personal & Professional Life

Episode 9 | Finding Clarity: Connecting The Dots Between Your Personal & Professional Life

Welcome back!

I’m so excited to share this newest episode with you. My guest for Episode 9, Yuri Brown-Cruzat, is not only an inspirational and steadfast leader, but a long-time friend of mine. 

This episode was a fun one to record, for both of us. Listen in as Yuri and I talk through how to go about truly living an authentic life, connecting the dots between both the personal, and the professional – and juggling family in the midst of it all.

It’s a topic that is near and dear to me, and I have no doubt that you’ll enjoy our tidbits and advice. Finding clarity across all aspects of life can be challenging, and my hope is that this episode leaves you with some takeaways and food for thought. 

  • 4:00: Some of Yuri’s biggest takeaways from the past year
  • 7:20: On the challenge of getting clarity, and what that looks like for Yuri
  • 11:00: On building trust across your professional life 
  • 13:30: Having the hard conversations within your family
  • 16:55: Lessons learned that have been most impactful to Yuri as a leader
  • 20:00: How to help women have deeper conversations and relationships
  • 23:30: A few things that Yuri does to help reflect and reset
  • 29:00: The power of practicing resetting 
  • 31:00: Yuri’s secret sauce for her personal brand of leadership
yuri brown cruzat

Yuri is a Human Capital, Diversity & Inclusion Business Executive with a 25-year track record of designing Six Sigma based, D&I performance metrics, strategies, processes, and systems for Fortune 50, 100 and 500 global corporations. Her most recent role was with Workhuman, as the Vice President of Workplace Rights where she helped global organizations define their commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. 

She has served as an internal Chief Diversity Officer for Fannie Mae and The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and as an external Principle consultant for her own firm, EPIC Inclusion Solutions for over 15 years. Her expertise ranges from research driven analysis, workforce enterprise strategies and leadership/BOD coaching to baselining inclusion and implementing sustainable culture change for individuals, teams, leaders, and organizations.  

Yuri is a thought leader on improving employee engagement, identifying bias within performance management and succession planning processes, building a leadership competency for inclusion, and creating a high performing work environment through inclusion.  Her presence on several non-profit boards allows her to leverage her human capital and business networks to build capacity and improve outreach efforts for various non-profits. She is on the board of Black Tech Mecca, a Google inspired initiative to make Chicago a tech hub for African American tech professionals; an advisory board member for National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) and recently departed after 7 years of service, Ambassador Council Board Member for YWCA Metro Chicago servicing over 200,000 women and girls.  

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Melissa Dawn Simkins Coined “The First Lady of Personal Branding”, Melissa is the CEO of Velvet Suite, a trusted advisor to Fortune 100s, C-Suite executives and influencers, highly-sought after keynote speaker on leadership innovation, a contributor to Inc.com and a frequent guest on news and business media, including CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Essence, Black Enterprise and more.

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