243 | Building an Antiracist Business with Trudi Lebrón
Have you put in the work to build an antiracist business? In today’s episode, Trudi Lebrón joins us to discuss how valuable DEI and antiracism work is in small businesses, along with what you can do to create an inclusive community for your business. Listen in as Trudi shares about what led her into DEI work, how business should be personal, and how building an antiracist business begins with self-reflection.
Being Hyper Aware of Who You Are
Growing up as the child of a biracial couple in the inner city of central Connecticut during the 80’s left Trudi in a space where she never quite felt like she fit in. Without that community, Trudi felt the hyperawareness and question of “who am I?” A question she was commonly asked because of her race.
The presence of these questions and the awareness of feeling misplaced has always been part of her life. Combine that with a mother who worked in social services and a father in the military, it ultimately led Trudi into the DEI work that she does now.
As a teenager, Trudi became a teen mom, dropped out of school, and began raising her children. This opened a new level of scrutiny, exclusion, and narrative for her life in regards to what society claimed she would be.
She grew up surrounded by conversations about justice, right and wrong, the treatment of others, and so many other thoughtful topics that shaped Trudi into who she is today. She’s been aware of how various identities shape our experiences and how others interact with us—in schools, social environments, work, institutions, and more. Now Trudi’s primary focus is in working within the working environment to remove these narratives and help build antiracist businesses.
Antiracism Isn’t Just for Big Businesses
There is a huge misconception out there that antiracism work is just for big businesses, when in reality, it’s for all businesses. Most people work in small businesses that are local to their communities, so if we reserve this DEI work to corporations, tech, and educational institutions, we are missing out on the opportunity to educate and impact a huge portion of the population.
This is work that everybody needs to be doing.
Small businesses are poised to make this change because they’re more agile than many big businesses. The work is easier to facilitate and make an impact in small businesses, because they’re not worried about different levels of leadership or politics to get on board.
Trudi has expanded her resources for small businesses inside her book, The Antiracist Business Book. This book offers business owners real-life lessons on how to build, reshape, and re-envision their work to support and repair the wealth of all people.
Justice Capitalism & Just Commerce
Within Trudi’s book, she introduces justice capitalism, which helps citizens find a balance in the economic system we have in the US, because there is a difference between how we talk about capitalism and how it functions in society. Many business owners and professionals who come from a justice oriented or equality oriented world view struggle in business because they want to reject capitalism. They want to say it’s not about the money, so they create an unhealthy narrative around capitalism, but capitalism isn’t just one thing.
Capitalism is so many things—the toxic version that doesn’t show fairness and the economic system that allows us to simply have a business, borrow money, etc.
It’s important to recognize that there are things that we’re able to do because we have this economic system. While it’s not perfect, we don’t have to throw the whole thing out. Additionally, Trudi isn’t convinced that there is a better option that also addresses racial inequity.
“The call for an antiracist business is a call for investment in the collective wellbeing of workers, consumers, entrepreneurs, and the community at large.” - Trudi, The Antiracist Business Book
For many, the idea that we need to create equitable systems is to appease one community and that someone else has to lose something—but that’s simply not the case. Consider this, if you go into a modern commercial building with more than one floor, you’ll find an elevator due to laws about accessibility. The elevator makes the experience for everybody better, not just the people who cannot walk up and down the stairs. Having the elevator there doesn’t take away from anyone.
If we think about antiracist business, just commerce, and all of these concepts as a way of creating equity, the experience for everyone gets better.
It’s Not Personal, It’s Business—That’s BS
When businesses or professionals have to make decisions that they know will impact someone with less power negatively, they use the phrase, “It’s not personal, it’s business,” to justify their decision. Business is extremely personal—relationships, the why, etc. There is an entire legal structure that gives businesses and autonomy as an individual separate from an owner/entrepreneur—giving them rights. We need to make business more personal, as it’ll force us to treat people differently (and better).
Hard decisions always have to be made, but claiming it’s not personal, it’s business, essentially forces you to ignore the ramifications that the decision has on the individuals it’s impacting. While removing this phrase from our vocabulary isn’t going to change the decision that has to be made, it can change the way we deliver the message.
Let’s move away from this phrase and make business more personal.
Getting Your Small Business Started with Antiracism
While there are so many steps you can take to make your business antiracist, the very first one is to do a personal assessment of your understanding of equity and antiracism. From the leadership to the employees, does everyone understand what these concepts actually mean?
How are you feeling about these concepts? Where do you stand? Are you building a diverse community? Why or why not? What messages have you internalized from your childhood?
This assessment isn’t to put a judgment on you, it’s a starting point to know where you are in your own journey. Once you’ve completed this internal audit, you may find that your life isn’t as aligned with what you believe and you need to start making changes.
Company Values
If you’re a solo business with a small team, there shouldn’t be any difference between your business values and personal values. You can spend a few minutes building a list of values, then cross things out until you get to five values to focus on. Coming up with your company values will essentially help you understand, at the end of the day, what do you stand for?
Those values become the compass for your business to make all decisions with your business. If you’re clear on your values, and you’re acting in line with those values, you know that you’re acting with integrity in your business.
Creating an Inclusive Community
With many product based businesses, you’re building a community of customers and employees that help keep your business moving. When you start with that inner work and assessment, you’re taking the first step to building an inclusive community.
How you show up as a leader of your community is going to influence how other people show up in your community. To really hone in on setting and implementing those values for an inclusive community, you can start with the following:
Make sure that you’ve set community guidelines
Create a culture that follows those guidelines
Build an onboarding system that encultures new members with those guidelines
If you’re ready to build an antiracist business and community, make sure you grab Trudi’s book, The Antiracist Business Book. You can also connect with Trudi and learn more about her work at trudilebron.com.
Today’s episode is brought to you by our free resources library, where you can find the tools to start, streamline, and scale your product business. From determining if wholesale is right for you, to designing a tradeshow booth that won’t break the back, to deciding what to delegate in three simple steps, we have the resources for you!
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MEET TRUDI:
Trudi Lebrón is the CEO of ScriptFlip! LLC and creator of the Institute for Equity Centered Coaching. By the time Trudi was 16, she had two children and had dropped out of high school—all the odds were against her. Today, Trudi runs a million-dollar coaching and consulting firm, helping entrepreneurs and coaches build antiracist businesses and become equity-centered coaches and leaders through ScriptFlip! certification programs, consulting packages, and executive coaching. Trudi holds a BA in Theatre, a Master of Science in Psychology, and is currently ABD in a PhD program in Social Psychology.
Connect with Katie Hunt
Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.
Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct
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