Her Career Ladder
Episode 16 : Meet Theola DeBose Founder and CEO of JSkills
February 9, 2022
Theola Debose is one of the speakers at the Women of Color STEM Virtual Summit2021 where the theme is The Power Of You. Theola DeBose is the founder and CEO of JSkills, the learning community and forthcoming tech platform for career changers that reframes their skills and matches them to new careers. Get to know her more in this podcast episode!
Michele:
Hello, everybody, thank you so much for joining me today. We have a special special guest with us. We have Theola Debose. She is going to be one of the speakers at the women of color insome virtual summit this year where the topic the theme is the power of you. Not me but you back. Exactly. Viola, can you let tell everybody a little bit about yourself?
Theola:
Yes, thank you, Michelle. Thank you to everyone. I'm so honored to be a guest this year and a speaker. I've spending the past few days really struggling with an air table spreadsheet. So I feel extra honored to be speaking to folks who are leaders in STEM. And hopefully I can get some tips from you all as well from your powerful cells. I am Theola and I spent a long time as a journalist and I made a career change working in education which where I actually fell in love with spreadsheets and data, and then eventually went on to work in the Obama administration, leading the National Endowment for the Humanities with their communications. The theme through all of that is the power of storytelling. Hello, Kathy. Hello Tawana. Thank you for joining us live here. Beautiful. And storytelling is something that is not just for writers or for authors, all of us are storytellers, all of us every single interaction that you have either adds to your story or subtracts to your story. So what I do now as the founder of J skills is that I use technology and storytelling to help career changers leverage up and then change their careers and so much about your career involves storytelling. So I'm super excited to dig into this topic with all of you today.
Michele:
Okay, you just made me feel very like, I'm an engineer, I tell stories. How do I know I do. You know, at least when I was in corporate, I dealt with numbers that it looks like there's always a story numbers like either you're late. You're on time, you're early, or you're over budget, on budget, or above. And I guess there is a story behind that. So can so so let's back up a little bit. Now, earlier in your career. You learned storytelling. So what was that like early in your career? Learning that aspect?
Theola:
Yeah. I learned it first, as someone who did a lot of very intentional listening, the job as a journalist, there are lots of different kinds of writers. But as a journalist, you you depend on other people to give you your information for you to write about, I can't make it up. So I had to listen to people. And I would be listening. And I would say, even you would say, Hi, I am Michele Heyward. And I would say, Michelle, is that one L or two? Right? Because I'm listening to you. And then I'm thinking about a question. And so the first way that I learned to tell stories was to listen. And the way that you can apply that to yourself is that a lot of times people will say, Well, I don't have a story, or I don't tell stories. And that's because you haven't even listened to yourself. Right? You haven't actually step back to say, who am I? What do I believe in more than anything? Right? What is it that gets me up in the morning? There's a reason why you chose the kind of work that you do. And where I see a lot of people struggle is they'll say, Well, I am in sales, and I want to break into tech. And I say, Okay, that sounds great. Why do you want to do that? Right? Oh, well, I just like technology. Why do you like it, then it turns out that they've always, you know, maybe somebody in their family was able to, you know, use a computer and that was instrumental in their education. And so they got curious about the computer and that is never followed up on that. So that's why they love technology. So that's why they want to break it. And that doesn't mean that you have to tell the whole story all the time, but you have to know that Story to then be able to actually pick and choose. How does this motivate me? How does this play into my career
Michele:
that will say too often we do not listen? We're thinking about what we're going to say next. And I've gotten better at listening. I don't know if it's because I'm in business now, as opposed to, I know what the next question is going to be. I know, I didn't say that, right? I'm actually listening to what the person saying, because I'm trying to see what their problem is, for me, still an Engineer mode. And if I'm the person to help them solve it, or if I can connect them with somebody who can. So I can say, I've gotten better at listening and like you said, is it Michelle, or one or two L? And those people that those rare people that asked me that? I like, how Where did that come from, like, oh, I have a sister or cousin. Or My name is Michael and I get confused to when people write my name down. And so I learned to listen like it I, I got to the point where I understood that people weren't going to listen. So I don't even tell people my name, I just spell it for, because they will automatically spell it Michelle with two L's, and they're going to spell my name wrong. So it and that's how I started, like, people don't know this. And it's like, well, you don't either.
Theola:
So yeah, it's powerful. It's such a powerful thing. I don't mean to speak over you. Um, so I was the person interviewing other people. I was interviewed a couple of times. And one time, there was a story written about me. And it was crazy, because the journalist, just listened to me talk for about, like, three hours, right? And after that was done, I said, Man, I was about to tell him everything, right? Because listening is so powerful. Like, I came home, and it was like, pick up these clothes. And my kids were like, whatever. I'm like, see, nobody listens. Right? Like, it's so powerful. And if that's something that you can take away, for your career, is just listening. So someone's talking, and you listen, and then pause, and then ask them a question based on what they said, Oh, my gosh, I mean, I have had full conversations where I've said nothing, except ask the person questions. And then they say, Oh, it's so great talking to you. Okay, sure. Right, because I was listening. And that is a really powerful place to start a story because you have to hear, what are the facts? What are the details? What are the emotions, either from someone else or from me? And then how do I put this together?
Michele:
Now, you're no, you're still you utilizing your skill set from being a journalist, over to your startup J skills. Tell us more about J skills.
Theola:
So I am obsessed with career change. And the reason why is because in the whole universe of career, which to me is very, I think a lot of it is boring. A lot of it is you have to do XYZ, you should should should, you need to write a cover letter, don't forget to reach out to your five LinkedIn contacts. And you need to do it this way. It's just like, it's just too much noise and blah. And like, you know, I mean, no offense to dentists, but who wants to go to the dentist, right? Nobody, but you go so that your teeth don't fall out. Right. Thank you, Danielle. Yes, a very real human need to be heard, especially through a process where everybody is so unique and special. And everybody knows what it's like to apply for a job. And it's like, what makes you special just completely goes away? Right? Until you get that like 10 minute interview. And suddenly, you have to turn special on, right. And then you throw a career transition on top of that, and all of the problems are magnified. I felt that struggle. When I was a journalist, and I had been at a top company, the Washington Post for more than a decade, I did all these things that were fantastic. Travel the world. And then when I said oh, I want to do something new. I had no clue how to do that. I didn't know what skills I had. I didn't know what else I was qualified to do. I didn't know who to talk to, you know, the technology right now just sends you information based on what you've already done. If I go into zip recruiter and say I want to change careers, zip recruiter sends me writing jobs, okay? Because that's what I know how to do. If I say hey, I'm a little tired. I want to something new. They're like, No, sorry, our algorithm can't To help you. So I am figuring out right now, what can we build that actually brings more of that humanity and more of that utility? Because so many jobs, so many titles, it's all transferable, right? Every job no matter what job you have, you manage something, you manage yourself, you manage your time you manage some resources, right? You lead, maybe you lead in your ideas, you lead a team. And there's so many concepts that are core that can really transfer out into different industries. So that's what I'm studying right now. We run workshops where we walk people through identifying their transferable skills, this is all very analog right now. And then eventually, we will bring technology to that process.
Michele:
I love it. I absolutely agree. It is truly a struggle. A few years ago, somebody is like, Michelle, you have transferable skills. It's like, but I'm an engineer. What transferable skills, I don't understand what doesn't compute, yes,
and engineer another high functioning role, right? You're educated, you're high functioning, and you're like, what transferrable skills you have no idea where to start? Not.
Exactly, exactly. So, think about this. So what is your topic for the virtual Summit? What are you talking about? Because I want to tie this back in so they'll know exactly why they do not want to miss your session.
Theola:
Yes, yes. So there was a term, I think it's still in use some places. So this idea of Stranger danger, right? Something that is strange, and that we don't know, someone, if they're a stranger, there's something dangerous there, right. And I will be talking about this concept that in the workplace, you know, you have colleagues, maybe you have some friends. Everybody really is a stranger in the workplace, right. But for, for women of color, we are perceived as strangers for reasons that are outside of ourselves, right, because of history because of society because of inequity. So the first step is to acknowledge that right is and just say, hey, somebody like me, is going to be seen as a stranger, in a different way, compared to somebody who maybe doesn't look like me. And then what does that mean, for how I interact, because everybody is a stranger in the workplace needing to be heard, needing to tell their stories, so that they get better assignments, that they get resources that they get to hire somebody on their team. But there are techniques to telling your story and techniques to picking pieces of yourself without feeling like you have to divulge something or give something up. But it's just really important to be able to know how to leverage your story and the power of you, so that you can take away that stranger danger. And then be someone who was known and known in a way that is comfortable to you. Because for too long, people of color. Women of Color, we have shame about our stories, right? And we and we feel like the achievements are supposed to oh, just, you know, focus on my degree focus on my title, you don't have to know about my brother who's in prison, right? And maybe that person doesn't have to know maybe you have to tell them, but the fact that you know, drives you, right, the fact that, you know, maybe over Christmas, you're going to visit him and someone says, How was your holiday? And you say, Oh, it was fine. And then you move on? Because you don't want to bring that up. But then your colleague is saying, Oh, they're so unfriendly. They're a stranger, right? I was just trying to figure out if they if they had a nice holiday, right? So all of us have had trauma have trauma in different ways. And there's still a way to tap into the power of telling your story so that you can take that stranger danger, and then use it to your advantage.
Michele:
Absolutely, absolutely agree. So, Violette is going to be on live talking about all of this on your on Monday, right. Did I get that? Right? I think it's Tuesday. It is Tuesday. Okay. Let me switch with our other one. We just approved me right. Well, here we go. It is a Tuesday, February 23. Definitely, definitely come and join her session. And it is really important that we talk about that talk about this as soon as I figure out how to take this down, because it's really important to understand what you're doing He is, and through the narrative, and I know we have a question about trauma. If you had aren't in a place you haven't healed yet, you haven't had help dealing with that trauma, you're not going to be able to tell that story without potentially traumatizing other people in adding more trauma to yourself
to yourself.
Theola:
Yeah. And let me just talk about that for a second. Because I do know that my perspective, as a journalist, you know, I have conducted more than 35,000 interviews of people through my entire career, you know, I would talk to 1215 people a day, times, five days a week, you know, and so, I have talked to lots of different people. And I've listened to so many stories, and I have asked people questions, you know, after their child was killed, right, I once interviewed a sexual assault nurse, basically, the woman who you see on SVU, who does the rape kits, right? Very, very sensitive stories. So from that experience, I know that there is a way to hold the dignity of you, while still discussing topics that may be perceived as difficult. Michelle, you are absolutely right. There has to be some kind of, I will say settling, if not healing, but settling for you. Just to be able to say, oh, yeah, I have a brother. Um, he lives in Texas. I don't see him very often. How was your holiday? Right? Because I don't have to say, Oh, he's in prison doing five to 10 for attempted murder, right. I, I know the details, details, but I am okay with saying, Oh, yeah. Here's this, what about you? And so it's about giving yourself, I call it the flexibility and the power back? Because every single person, if not to their person, if not in their family, certainly in their family history. We all have trauma. I mean, frankly, the trauma of racism, you know, is a trauma that all of us have black, white, everybody, right? And so it's just about finding, finding the place where you can actually say something about it without saying something about it.
Michele:
Absolutely, plus one on that. So everybody, now you see why I'm so happy to have the OLA on as a speaker for the women of color in STEM virtual summit comm join her session on Tuesday, February 23, which is literally a week from today, right?
Theola:
So from behind me, I'm still I'm still putting together those wonderful, wonderful everything for you guys. It'll be great.
Michele:
It will be and I can tell you from the from other speaker, other attendees, what they love the most about the sessions are the ability to have have the speakers answer questions like we just did right here. trauma. And so you want to be there live? If you can, there's a replay. So send me questions, you can message me here, you can and really just let me know if you have questions about how to create your story. There are replay so you can catch the replay for 24 hours or you can purchase the entire summit. So you get everything for 12 months. So definitely definitely come and take this opportunity to learn and grow and understand how to create your story, your narrative. And so you know what you're comfortable putting in and you're you're you can leave out because they don't need all the team. They might just the tea bag,
Theola:
right? Like, you know, dip it in or let it steep right. You can just dip it in,
pull it out. Right.
Michele:
Exactly. Thank you so much for joining me tonight.
Thank you, Michelle, thank you to everybody on the live. It's really nice to see you here and I can't wait to see you next week. Thank you.
Bye, everybody. Bye