Branding Room Only Interview with Laurie Robinson Haden: Shining Brightly – Part 2

Paula Edgar: Hi everyone, it’s Paula Edgar, host of Branding Room Only. I am so excited because we’re going to be talking today with Laurie Robinson Haden, who is the founder and CEO of Corporate Counsel Women of Color and the author of a new book called It’s Time To Shine: A Guide For Professionals of Color on How to Advance Their Career and She’s also an award winning lawyer.

She’s also a co founder of Parents Supporting Educational Excellence. She is all the things and I’m happy to have her here with me today.

Laurie, tell me, what are some of the ways that your personal brand has evolved or changed over the course of your career?

Laurie Robinson Haden: Well, you know, I’ve worn many hats and I think about, you know, the brand of when I was just starting out as a young lawyer at age 25 and didn’t know anything from anything, to evolving into the lawyer that I was at CBS in house to the leader that I am running Corporate Counsel Women of Color, to now the philanthropy that my husband and I are involved with here in Prince George’s County with some of the private and public schools.

So, you know, my brand has evolved, you know, and like I said, I like to look at leadership styles because you will use different leadership styles in different seasons. So I have evolved from, I guess, my brand going back to your question, the brand of inspiring people, the brand of paying it forward, trying to figure out ways to help those that are behind me, the young generation, the people who’ve never thought about law, and they need to see a lawyer other than Judge Judy on TV.

And I talk about this in the book too, I worked for Hillary Rodham Clinton. When she was the first lady, and she was just a great example of how you can brand and wear different hats. She went from being a lawyer, being a first lady, being a senator, and then running for president. So you have to be able to pivot in different seasons. Pivot in different assignments.

And when you’re pivoting and taking on different assignments, your brand will adjust and change to what those seasons are, but I will go back to what I said in the prior segment with you, those brands have to include the consistency of excellence and execution.

Paula Edgar: I love that. Okay. So you wrote this book and we have it up here.

It’s Time to Shine. Why? Why’d you write it?

Laurie Robinson Haden: Well, I’ve been working on this book for three years. And now, my mom kept saying, You better finish this book by the end of 2023! I want this book! So my mom basically was like, You’re going to finish this book. And it’s coming out in 2023. But I wrote the book really to provide a guide and a playbook, if you will to people who are professionals. It does say for professionals of color, but I think it is definitely applicable to everyone. I also think it’s applicable to men as well, and I wanna reach the younger generation. So I will be donating my book to Historically Black Colleges and Universities because many of the students don’t have money to buy a book, but this is the book that will help them through their career and I focus on those important things, how to get a mentor how to get a sponsor, have a mentor or a sponsor, getting an executive coach. I was talking to my husband about this the other day.

And I said, you know what? If I had to do it all over again as a young lawyer coming out, the first thing I would have done is hired an executive coach. But I didn’t know anything about an executive coach or that concept of paying someone to help me. But I think that that would have definitely helped me a lot in the process to achieve my results faster and to be more focused. You know, with a mentor, it’s a relationship. You’re building it, it takes time. With a sponsor, you really have to be attractive enough for a sponsor to pick you. You don’t pick the sponsor, the sponsor picks you, but with the executive coach, you pick them, you’re paying them so they pick you and it’s none of this fluffy stuff.

It’s, let’s get right to it. You have a problem. Let’s fix it. This is how you fix it. This is how you do it. And I’m going to meet with you next week to hold you accountable, to make sure you have met those goals. And it would have saved me a lot of time. So the book gives nuggets of information, they’re practical, you can achieve it, we have a workbook in there and it really just helps you to, how do you set your clear goals, how do you develop your personal brand, be it at home, in your community, at work, and how do you network and build long lasting relationships, that’s what the book does, it tells you not only how I did it, but it gives you a roadmap on how you too can do it.

Paula Edgar: I love that. I love the playbook analogy. I think that is absolutely right because there are, you know, chapters and then there are actionable steps and reflection questions and fill in the blanks for each of these things. And what I’ll say is as someone who is an executive coach, but I also have an executive coach, it is powerful and transformative to have somebody who is consistently accountable.

There are people who have been like, Oh, well, you know, you’ve got her husband. You’ve got a lot of good friends. I’m like, yeah, but they are all invested. A coach is only invested in me and – and I think that is, it is a strong place – on my website I have a list of executive coaches of color just open for anyone.

It’s under paulaedgar.com under resources, because people ask me all the time, because I don’t coach individuals anymore, unless it’s part of a bigger engagement, about coaching. And as we get into the end of the year and towards the beginning, they’ll ask more and more, but it is a powerful thing. And I am also as a parent of somebody who’s currently at a HBCU, Spelman College.

I am so excited that you are going to be giving this out to students because I can tell you. The thing about this new wave of students is that they’re so invested, but they know so much, I think that they don’t realize what they don’t know. Right. And so to have an understanding of here’s what I wish I would have done differently is a fast track to something else, right?

To say like, it’s basically you’re saying what you wish you would have had. And so I’m glad that my daughter, well, she was going to get it anyway, but she’ll give it to somebody else on her behalf. But this, it is, It’s powerful for folks to be able to get this early and often. So good.

Laurie Robinson Haden: Thank you. Well, we’re going to Spelman in January.

We’re going to get the students a free book and we’re going to provide them with lunch. So I’ll get your daughter’s name so she can definitely come over. We’ll meet her. We’ll give her encouragement. But you know, you’re right. The new generation. Our generation and the older generation, at the end of the day, you don’t know what you don’t know.

And that’s why you have to surround yourself with people who, who can just expose you. If you, if you don’t even. If you don’t even know the people, the great thing about technology now, you can go online, you can watch different seminars, you can go learn. You know, that’s one of the things that I did when I lived in New York.

I said, you know what, I’m going to sign up and take a class at NYU. And I ended up taking this, class called, it was an evening class called Media Marketing. And the guy who taught the class used to be the marketing guy for that rock band, KISS. And he walked us through how he marketed KISS and got them involved with that movie that came on, I think it was NBC and how he marketed the music.

And after I took that class, it just opened my mind and I was curious. And then I took another class and anyway, I ended up getting a certificate. I took like 20 classes because one door just opened another door and opened another door, but we should always be curious and learning. I don’t care if you’re 80 years old, 100 years old, or 20 watching this podcast. You always have something new that you can learn. And you have to be open to that, and you have to put yourself in the flow to get that information.

Paula Edgar: So, so true. So, so true. I, one of the reasons why I wanted to have a podcast is like, you know, I have such great people in my network and I’m like, it’s great for me to have it.

But it’s that sort of, that give back too to say yes. Hey, y’all can, and what is wonderful is that the folks who listen will reach out and say, I learned this from this person. Thank you for sharing this thing. So it’s almost like we, it’s like a, it’s like a catalyst, right? It’s, it’s making sure that folks, we are giving back as much as we can, and not stopping with just us.

So you just mentioned about taking a class and there was something that I highlighted in the book that I want to just find really quick. Ah, the invest yourself portion. I started laugh. Invest in yourself portion. I, I started laughing when I read this because, I had a conversation with one of my mentees, about, going to a conference and, it wasn’t gonna be paid for at work.

And so, and she wasn’t gonna go. And I was like, wait, is the conference going to be helpful to you and your professional development? She’s like, yes. It’s like pivotal. I need to go there. And I’m like, she’s like, but they won’t pay. And I said, so you should pay. And I remember she sort of looked at me and, and she kind of got stuck in it.

It was like, I don’t want to pay. They should be paying for me. And I go, yes, they should be paying for you. I agree with you, but you want to go and it’s going to be beneficial to you. So you need to pay for yourself. If you do not invest in yourself, who’s going to invest in you? Oh, and she took that. There was a little pushback.

She took it though. She went to the conference. She wrote up a note saying how much she learned at the conference. You could just see how the world changes when you think about the fact that you don’t have to wait for anybody to give you anything. You can go get it yourself. Yeah. So I was so happy. That was it.

That was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And multiple yeses. You have to invest in yourself. Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. So there’s another piece in here. That talks about, motivational tips for women of color to shine.

Paula Edgar: And there’s one that says put an action plan in place and select the best possible people to help implement it.

Write down a few action steps to achieve your next goal. So I love this because you are consistently talking about, the power of convening of people, right? And this is essentially the concept of having a personal board of directors, like somebody who is going, some people who are going to be your squad.

Tell me why that’s important as an action step for, professionals of color.

Laurie Robinson Haden: Yeah, you definitely have to have your own board of directors. And again, remember, different times, different seasons, different assignments. We have to remember that we don’t have to be stuck in doing one thing for 20 years, you know, I went to a seminar and the speaker, you know, talked about, you know, remember when you were in high school, there were assignments you had there, you might have been on the student government.

When you were in college, you had the same type of assignment. And it’s the same way in life. Don’t feel like you have to stay on that job for 90 years. Your assignment at that job may only be two to three years and then it’s time to pivot and it’s time to move on. The same with your board of directors, you need a board who can help you execute your vision, tell you where to go to do it, tell you how to do it, tell you if what you’re doing makes sense. And then as you are changing and moving through the seasons, you may have to retool your board of directors. And you may need someone who, you know, Hey, you’ve always wanted to get into social media.

You don’t have a LinkedIn page. You don’t know what, you know, what the latest trends are on TikTok. If you’re on TikTok, but you know what? Maybe somebody in your board might need to be someone who works at Meta if you met them at the conference or someone who works at Amazon. So you’re getting some type of perspective about technology.

You need to refresh your board of directors. You need to have a board of directors. Start with three people. But it’s three people, trusted advisors. Now, they’re down and out trying to make it like you. I don’t know if that’s the person you need on your board. You need somebody who has a demonstrated track record of success.

That’s the person you want to help you. You know, like we laughed when we were single. Single women can’t help single women get married. Right. You can have some single women on the board, but you also need some married friends on the board who can tell you what to expect and what to do when you transition into that season. And it’s the same way with your board.

Paula Edgar: I love that. When I teach about relationship building, I always say, like every other board of directors, there should be terms. Right. There are some people who will move to advisory status, right? So they’re always going to be, you don’t, you don’t have to get rid of folks, but they cannot be your go to in the same way as you, for example, move from thing to thing. You want to look at who is supporting you and how they can support, and that means transitioning some folks off, or giving people a different term, right? Like it’s, it just, but it’s thinking about it as opposed to, just being like, this is my people and that’s it. ‘Cause you’re not static and neither are they.

Laurie Robinson Haden: No.

Paula Edgar: So…

Laurie Robinson Haden: And if you are static, they’re static, you should just pack up your tent and leave.

You know, we have a saying in the law – statute of limitations. Again, why is this going on? Why are you still at the same company for 40 years? You know, that’s what I like about the new generation. You know what? They will move.

They move two, three years. I think moving around in jobs, you know, I think that only helps your salary because you’re not stuck in this 2 percent merit increase every year. You know, you may have to leave that company, get the skills you need, and then come back. I’m sure you’re coaching on that too. But no, you know, I always, you know, when we started CCWC and they were like, 10 people.

Sometimes I have people. Oh, I miss the day when CCWC was only 30 people. Oh, it’s so big. I wish we could go back to and I don’t want to go back to the day when CCWC, it was 30 people. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. And when I worked at CBS with those executives, they had a growth mindset. You know, if the number for this year wasn’t higher than last year, it was all about growth for them.

You know, even when I talked to my boss, then Lou Briskman, He always wanted to know what were your numbers last year at the conference? What are your numbers this year? He wanted to see growth. Yes. So we have to also have growth mindset as a part of our brand. You should always be growing and always evolving. I hope I answered your question.

Paula Edgar: You 100 percent did. And I’m glad you did because so my business tagline is Engage Your Hustle. And I, I think of it not in like, you know, grind yourself until you can’t move anymore. It’s more about being strategic and thinking about what always is the next thing. How do you engage the next thing?

And sometimes I think sometimes engage your hustle is taking a nap so that you can refresh and then jump back in. But it’s not thinking I’m going to stay here. Every year I do a goal setting session for free for anybody who wants to take it. Anybody. So last year we had 500 people on this and it’s a webinar.

It’s just me talking here and walking people through a goal setting exercise. And what is powerful is like. Just thinking, if I set my intention, what might the world bring, right, what might happen, and we choose the word of the year, et cetera, to just give us a, you know, a focus, something to, to work towards, and there’s been some powerful, powerful, there’s a lot of CCWCers who, who are on it.

People, babies have been born, relationships, jobs. People have quit. People have to board like there’s just a power in saying, I’m gonna do this because it’s important. I want to think about it and not just let it happen. And so, I’m glad you’re talking about strategy in here and utilizing your people to get you to that strategy and have a good sounding board. That is important. So. Tell me, are there, give me two, maybe two or three other things that resonate for you in terms of what, you wanted to relate to folks, from the book.

Laurie Robinson Haden: Yeah, well, I, I definitely want to relate to people that, you know, also. There are great things that have happened for me in my career.

You know, there are also great things that didn’t happen for me in the career. I didn’t get the promotion. I didn’t get the pay raise. I didn’t get that job I applied for. Whatever it may be, there was a loss. You know, and like I said, even if you’re in the winter season, what I wanted to convey is just what it says, no matter what.

You’re going to shine. You are resilient. You will persevere. And even if you’re knocked down, guess what? You’re resilient. You’re going to get back up. You’re going to rise and you’re going to step forth. And, you know, I’m hoping that this book will inspire people to not only know, you know, here are the tools to get to where you need to go, be it in your career in trying to achieve work life balance and trying to manage all of these pieces all at once.

I like what you said. Sometimes you do need to take a break. And that may be, hey. I’m unplugging. You know, we had Tina Knowles at the conference and one of the questions we asked, you know, how do you power up?

You know, you’re going to Beyonce’s concerts, you’re dealing with everything in your world. How do you power up? And she said, look, some days I have to turn the phone off and I let everyone know, don’t call because I will not be answering. I’m taking a day for me. Unless it’s an emergency, do not call me.

And you have to do that, especially as women of color. I think we have been told you have to work 20 times harder, you have to be 30 times, you can’t take a break. If you take a break, they’re going to replace you. No, you can’t take a vacation. You’re just, I mean, Anyway, it just results in our just working and working and working ourselves to the bone.

We have to take care of ourselves. We have to make sure that we’re getting our annual exams. And I remember when I was in the corporate world, it was time for my mammogram and I wouldn’t go. I had the best health care, but I wouldn’t go because I was afraid, well, what if they find something? I don’t have time to deal with this, so I just won’t go.

So I finally did go. I started getting my mammograms three years ago. And it wasn’t as bad as I thought. But I mean, we, we’re just working, working, working. We’re not taking care of ourselves. We have the best health care. So I talk about that too. Yeah. You can achieve all these things, but if you’re not taking care of your blood pressure, if you’ve got diabetes, if you, you, you got to have a glass of wine to get up, you have to have a glass of wine to go to bed.

Like this is a problem. We’ve got to address our health.

Paula Edgar: Yes.

Laurie Robinson Haden: Then we can be the best that we can be.

Paula Edgar: It’s, it is powerful. And I love that you always have now a health component as a part of CCWC because for those folks who are in a fair state or in a too busy state or whatever the thing is that is preventing them from doing that, it is a reminder to say that this is important so much so that we are incorporating it into this conference and that folks are paying attention to it.

I think that is, super powerful. Every summer I take a summer sabbatical. So I take, if I haven’t booked it before the summer, I say, I’m going to do only things I want to do in the summertime. And that for me is, I do go to conferences, but I love conferences. So for me, that’s not like, right. But you can’t hire me in the summertime, if we haven’t talked about it before then until we get to September, because that’s how I take care of myself.

And I chose to do that. And, and what I love is that it has been a catalyst for other people to say, I can’t do the whole summer, but I can do Fridays and Mondays and do 40 a week for the whole summer or something like that, where people are really thinking, about taking a break because we do, we overwork ourselves and our bodies tell us, Hey, this is not going to, it’s not sustainable.

And so does our mind, right. You know, I have been on a quest to make sure that people get therapists.

Laurie Robinson Haden: you know, there are several women of color from CCWC who’ve passed away at the age of 50. Yes. And you know, that, that was the thought that, okay, well, if you’re not doing your annual exams during the year, if we offer the mammogram and blood glucose testing at the conference and you come every year, you have had your annual exam.

Paula Edgar: Yes. Yes. Yeah. And I really do think it helps people to remember and prioritize. And that is so, so key. And yeah, what I was just saying was about wanting to incorporate that mental health piece. I’ve been on a goal to say that if you don’t have it, you need a therapist, you need somebody to talk to. And I think it was, it was either, Miss Knowles, or it was, oh gosh, Kim Coles, who, who’s talked about, that it’s not outside of religion. It is that you can say, religion essentially says, you have to get resources that have been given to you by the Lord. Right. And so go ahead. And this can be another one of those resources. And I was really glad you could hear the hums in the crowd with like, Oh, okay. I’m thinking about this differently.

So, you know, you are, you are, you are changing people’s lives and for the good, because to your point about people who have, gotten sick and passed away, it is devastating to not have folks who, you know, if there might’ve been an earlier check or something like that, that maybe have been different.

And so, I just hope that each one teaches one, like everybody who does it talks about having done it so that it becomes much more a part of who we are, as opposed to this off or not spoken about thing. And, but we can talk a little bit more about what my thoughts about this later. Okay. So as we close, I have some questions that I want to ask you.

One is this. What about the fun stuff, Laurie? What do you do for fun?

Laurie Robinson Haden: Yeah, I’m like you. I need to incorporate this, what do you say, this whole summer.

Paula Edgar: Summer sabbatical.

Laurie Robinson Haden: June to August. July to september. I need to try that. Yeah, I’m going to start doing these sabbaticals. But no, some of the things I like to do, I love to go to Florida.

I love to go swimming. I love spending time with my husband and my son. I love going to the movies. I love listening to music. But I would say, you know, traveling. I’m not a big fan of traveling right now because of everything that’s going on with the airlines. But, you know, I do appreciate being able to go to an Airbnb, spreading out.

My son, he can run around and stomp and scream. He can’t do that at a hotel. But, you know, I need to do more of it too, because especially.

And you know this too, Paula, as an entrepreneur, you know, you’re always working and being an entrepreneur is totally different than being at a law firm or being in corporate.

You know, if the light bulb here goes out, you know, I can’t call the janitor. If the computer breaks, there is no IT department, right? So you end up spending a lot of time. I’ve now got to fix the computer. I now have to go get the light bulb. I have to go. So there there’s more work as an entrepreneur that you do that you don’t have to take on in corporate and as an entrepreneur you have to make sure you’re taking that time as well because I think being an entrepreneur there’s double the load.

Paula Edgar: I agree.

Laurie Robinson Haden: You’re working 24 hours a day where in corporate you’re working seven to seven.

Paula Edgar: Yeah. Yes. No. Yeah. I, I have to consciously say, okay, walk away from the computer. Okay. Put your phone down because all of my gadgets are not just fun gadgets. They are gadgets that also what I work on. So I oftentimes will pivot from work to fun things.

And I wanted to say, now I’m stopping work. Right. And to have that, that sort of boundary, but it is hard, but it also is, I can also say today, I’m not going to work. Right. So there’s a, there’s also a power in entrepreneurship where I can be like, Hey, I’m going to take a nap and, and actually go and do so, which I actually love doing. So, okay.

So there’s two parts of my, podcast that I have everybody answer, which is one is stand by your brand. So it’s essentially, what is the authentic aspect of your personal brand that you will never compromise on?

Laurie Robinson Haden: Great question. because you know, I think we live in a society where they.

People always want you to compromise once you do what they want you to do and I just think like if I just think about, for example, the the core value that I have. Okay, I’m not perfect. I’m a sinner. I do sin. but but I try to Stay true to my word. If I tell you I’m going to, and this is a brand, do you stay with your commitment?

Do you say that? Hey, I’m going to meet you at one o’clock. You’re going to be there at one o’clock. We’re going to meet every week. We’re going to meet every week. But I try to, to the extent. If I say I’m going to do something, I try to stay true to that. And I try to deliver on that. When I think about the brand of CCWC and the organization’s mission, you know, 20 years, you, I like to say, you know, everybody who’s in the diversity space, they’re not about diversity.

They are about using diversity to advance themselves and their careers. But when you really dig deep and you ask them, okay, now what are you doing with diversity? Who are you helping? Who are you giving interns to? Are you giving work to diverse outside counsel? Many of them would say no. So you’re using diversity as a vehicle to advance yourself, but you’re really not about diversity.

So even with CCWC, there are people who come in with their own agenda, and, you know, if we’re focusing on making mac and cheese, they want to try to turn us into making chicken noodle soup. And that’s not our mission. Our mission is macaroni and cheese. But you got to focus, and you have to know who you are.

You got to know what your mission is, and you can’t be so easily swayed. And that is our society. Our society Will easily sway you move to the left or the right. You have to stay right in the middle and you have to be willing to say the important word. No.

Paula Edgar: Yes. My favorite form of no is that doesn’t serve me at this time.

And it’s just to wherever it is. That doesn’t serve me at this time. You don’t like, no, here’s what I’ll say instead. It doesn’t serve me. All right. That was awesome. Okay. So, and the second question is the term branding room is a play on standing room, like standing room only in an event. And so tell me about your magic.

What is your unique skill special gift that would have a room full of people standing room only. To see you do, say, or, share.

Laurie Robinson Haden: Well, my, I, I gave you some in the earlier segment, but I would, I would really say like my magic, my superpower it’s execution. and, you know, even today I have like 20 things I have to do.

And I, I said to myself, okay, you have to execute. It’s all about execution, execution, execution. And that is one of the things that I have the ability to do. I have the ability to execute. I never planned to do CCWC. I never went to law school to do CCWC, never thought about an organization. If you told me in law school, you’re going to be running, a global nonprofit, I would not believe it.

Cause I didn’t go to school for that, but by embracing an opportunity that presented itself to me, it helped me to build different skill sets. and it helped me to, leverage and parlas. So right now, if you were to ask me something, um, on chocolates – you know, because I have built the skillset of an organization, I know how to problem solve.

I know how to make decisions. I know how to work IT. I know how to contact the people who can help me if I don’t know the answer and I know that. And I would say that with respect to that brand of execution, I’m able to use all of my skill sets to bring about a quick result.

Paula Edgar: I love that. I love that. And I think that is a key leadership quality. And you’re right, that execution piece, because when you, when we watch you at the conference, I can, it’s almost like you have a bubble over your head and there’s like all these wheels turning. I’m like, what’s next? What just happened? What do I do?

How do I pivot this? What’s going on? What’s the timing? And, and I love that because I think that we have that in common where I’m like, I want to know what’s next. How’s it going to happen? Who’s going to do it? What do I need? And how do I need to outsource this? So I don’t have to do it at all.

Laurie Robinson Haden: At the conference, there are all types of things going wrong behind the scenes, all types of curve balls happening that people don’t know.

So like, we’re usually dealing with like three or four, emergencies that are happening while we’re trying to keep the conference on track. So you’re right. There’s a bubble going on and I’m like, we’re behind. You know, I laugh because my mom likes to send me messages during the conference. I’m like, don’t send me these messages.

But she’s like, you guys are running 15 minutes behind. You’ve got to catch back up. I’m like, don’t text me these notes.

Paula Edgar: Moms are going to mom, no matter what. Well, you know, Laurie, this has been a fantastic conversation, conversations because we’re definitely splitting this in two. and I want to thank you for joining me on the show today.

Tell me, where do you want people to come and find out more about you and to find out about the book and about CCWC? Where should they go and find you?

Laurie Robinson Haden: Yes, you can find out about me in the book. I have a new website, laurierobinsonhaden.com and you can learn about Corporate Counsel Women of Color.

Hopefully you’ve booked your trip to Las Vegas for next year as we celebrate 20 years. You hear that? 20 years of doing it. And I think I’ve done this 20 years. Every single day, except when I took two days off to give birth to my son. I’m just glad like 20 years. I’m glad I started on this young. I’m glad I’m still young and full of vigor, but you can learn more about Corporate Counsel Women of Color go on our website, ccwomenofcolor.org.

Paula Edgar: Fantastic. And all of those will be on the show notes as well. Laurie, congratulations on 20 years and wishing you so many, many, many more of bringing magic to all the people who need it and catalyzing change. And everybody, if you haven’t gotten the book yet, Go out and get it, give it to your mentees, give it to your coworkers, give it to somebody on the street who just needs it because, there’s not a lot of books that are just like information.

This is information and it’s action. And so take that, and help somebody else. Bye everyone.

Thanks for listening to the Branding Room Only podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to hit subscribe to get future episodes.