Diana Patton: Inclusion, Diversity, And Equity Start From Within, And This High-Achiever Wants To Give You The Tools To Advocate For Yourself

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is Stacy Lauren. A mutual friend introduced me to today's guest. She assured me I would find this guest insightful, motivational, and extremely empowering. And oh my gosh, she was so right. This guest has a very moving story filled with lots of trauma and plenty of personal triumphs as well. As a teenager, she had to learn how to advocate for herself. Traumatic life experiences at a young age opened her eyes to the world around her. But unlike so many who give up or just try to survive, she decided to heal herself and learn to live as an adult. She went to law school and became a civil rights attorney at a fair housing organization. And while she was able to advocate for others in this role, she wanted a way to help so many more. In 2016, she opened a business to empower and create women leaders. It's her goal to give women the tools needed to overcome professional challenges and develop a powerful voice. As the founder of Rise Advocates, she works to build awareness around diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our guest is also an accomplished writer. Her books, Inspiration In My Shoes and this Yogi's Journey are must reads. She's also the recipient of several leadership awards. I am so excited to introduce Diana Patton to the show. Hey, Diana.

Hey, Stacy.

How are you?

I'm excellent. Today is a good, you know, it's always a good day to have a good day.

Oh, that is so good. I love it. Well, I am so excited to get the opportunity to talk to you. We were introduced through. Through a shared connection and it's always fun when I haven't really had a huge opportunity to talk to the person before I get to interview them and I just see all the amazing stuff they're doing and then get to get an opportunity to dive in.

Yeah, Love it. Yeah, I'm excited. I know there are so many things people are interested in. It sounds like you have a very good following on people who just love to live life and live it abundantly. So excited to Be here.

Oh, good. Well, let's start with you just sharing about your background and your story.

Yeah. First of all, I'll just share who I am. And I am a woman leader who, you know, had had a lot of experience with failing forward, I like to say, and I really have spent the last, I don't know, 25 years just spending time learning about who Diana is and unlearning a lot of things. I help women leaders overcome challenges, adversities and trauma to learn how to activate their voice and become confident in themselves and to show up first for themselves and then for diversity, equity, inclusion in their organizations. I also help professional organizations with diversity, equity, inclusion and leadership development. Now I will say, Stacey, I've been an advocate kid my entire life. I feel like that song by Beyonce, I woke up like this. I feel like I woke up like this. Right. I woke up in a world, meaning I came out of my mama into a very tumultuous world. I had a white dad and a black mom and I was born in 1968 and my parents were really badass people because it was illegal for white people and black people to marry until a law was passed in 1967. So now imagine me being the sixth daughter of five older girls and having my father who was abusive. I remember clearly that I was an advocate. When my father tried to sexually molest me, I pushed him away. Now, Stacy, there aren't a lot of 14 year old girls pushing their father away when they try to do something inappropriate like that. But of course I didn't know I was considered an advocate at 14. But clearly as time went on and I began to learn myself, that's what, that's who I was. I was the person who was always speaking up. I was always the person challenging things. I was that sixth child of seven because I had a younger brother that was. Is always considered to be. She's always trying to say something, she's always doing that. She's always doing this. Right? So I found my refuge or my time of knowing who I am through sports. So as a basketball player, I ran track and it was because of that. And then of course, my mom, who eventually started to notice me, because when you grow up in a large family and you are the sixth child of seven, you tend to get forgotten a lot. And then I learned how to speak up a lot, Stacy, because if you didn't speak up, you did not get heard. And so I learned a long time ago that about speaking up about adversity, about all of those things. And My mom started to notice me and start putting little notes in my track shoes when I was probably around 16 years old. And she. That was what really encouraged me. I used to take those little notes and I'd run with them in my shoes. And I didn't know the value of that until much later being in law school. And, you know, my brother unfortunately tried to kill my mom because he was just frustrated and dealing with his own trauma. And as a result of that, we, my boyfriend at the time and I took my brother in after getting him out of jail and we started to rehabilitate him. What I didn't know Stacy then was that I was doing exactly what I do now for my brother way back in 1994, helping him overcome challenges, helping him understand. And unfortunately, my work was too late for him because he eventually jumped off a bridge and took his own life nine months after getting out of jail. So to say that that was a life changing experience. When my brother took his life, it was everything. I think every single one of us can identify a time in our lives when it just was a shift. And that was mine. And like I said and when I first started this conversation, that the last 25 years I have been trying to learn who I am, and that is what brings me here to today.

Yeah, there's so much in that that I would love to know more. I mean, the first thing that's just unbelievable to me is how you're so young, you know, and you had already known. You already knew your worth.

Yeah, well, I think you mean when I was 14.

Yeah, yeah, like you were, you were.

I don't know that I knew my worth. I think that I don't really honestly don't believe I knew my worth until probably about 10 years ago. But what I believe I knew then was how to survive trauma. That's what I knew how to do. Right. And that's what a lot of people know how to do. And this is the reason why I believe people who have had significant trauma and they decide to wake up and live. You are a badass. I just want people to hear that you learned how to survive trauma. Now when I say the last 25 years, I have learned how to not just survive, but thrive and unlearn some of the tools I needed to survive. Right. So I think then I started to value my worth because I didn't know my worth when I was 14. I just knew how to kick some ass, you know, And I just want to tell people, like, hey, if you out here kicking ass, that's cool, but that gets very tiring. You're going to wear yourself out. You got to learn how to know how to be on the offensive, not the defensive. Right. A lot of people are on the defensive, shadow boxing their past. And so that's what I love to do is take these badass women who've learned to survive trauma and learn how to thrive as opposed to surviving.

Yeah. What has been just kind of like the first step that you did for yourself and that you're doing for others.

Yeah. So first things first. I like to sing. I'm a realist. Right. I like this song. I like to always think about songs when I'm talking. Okay. So you'll have to excuse me. Like, I get like those squirrel, you know, and then I start singing song and then I come back. Okay. So for real. For real, Stacy, singing songs is so welcome here.

Right.

I think it's so important. Okay. First of all, you have to realize I need help. I think folks don't realize that this lifestyle is not going to work for me. And there is not. Why am I always upset? Why am I angry? Why am I frustrated? Why do I feel I can't catch a break? Why do I feel like I'm out of breath? All of these questions need to populate your mind because the why will then turn you to the root cause of why you. You do what you do. But if you don't think that's a problem, I mean, you really need to say, okay. Are other people asking me these things? Like, for example, my husband would tell me, you are like the stress queen is what he would say. Things like that you're like a stress queen. Why are you always seeming so stressed? I go, what are you talking about? He goes, and why do. He goes, why do I always feel like I'm on trial? And I go, well, that's your problem, you know? And I would always have a quick comeback to what he would say. And he goes, and you don't seem. You seem like you're mad, like you're looking for a fight. I go, you think that about me? I'm like, and you want to be with me. But I just started realizing that is not good. So the first things first, you got to know when you need help. And to be honest with you, Stacy, when you think about this and people are listening, if you are familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous, you'll start to realize the steps, the 12 steps are so similar to what I didn't even realize those 12 steps until I realized, oh, my gosh they apply so completely to people like myself and other, I will call them badass women out here who are really, really just drowning. First, you need help. Second, you need to seek out personal development tools. I graduated from law school, passed the bar exam, and then I started to really learn about myself. It was like I said, I'm going to go to law school on Diana. I need to spend as much time as I gave to all of these schools and colleges to get a title behind my name, to really know my name. I really need to know Diana. So I literally started signing up for these personal development classes. And who did I start with? None other than Tony Robbins. I mean, I graduated from law school and I went to my first Tony Robbins session when I was 20, I think I was 26 at the time, or no, 27. And the first session I went to, I go, oh my God, where's this person been all my life? You know, like it was right then I started realizing, oh my gosh, I don't even know what I even value. I don't even know what I like about me. No one ever asked me, no one asked me, what do you like about you? No one ever asked me what I do to fill myself up. And it was there that I began to learn. I have a lot of work to learn about myself. So I think first is knowing you need help. And then two is really start to commit to your own personal development and really protect that time. And then I think the third thing is you've got to begin to change your environment. A lot of people don't realize that you can't grow staying the same. And it sounds like I'm talking about personal development here, but when I say changing your environment, meaning like you might have to look at the people you hang around, the job you're in, the house you're in, and you might need to start thinking about making some shifts. That's a huge thing that people don't realize that when you've been living a life of survival, everything around you is about survival. And until you start to wake up and you realize, I don't have to live this way, you're going to start to realize in order for you to grow, you have got to look at your soil. And you know, we all know this because it's summertime, we all take time to like look at the soil that we're planting flowers. You can't plant no nice flowers on nasty ass soil. You can't do that. So you're going to have to do the work of changing your soil, which is going into changing your environment. Those are the first three things I would say. And I've got six, several books because I am a book reader, love to read books because that to me is like my education. And so one book I would begin to start to look at is. Which I love besides my own book called Inspiration in my Shoes which talks about my life. But the book that I would recommend is the Miracle Morning. I don't know if you ever heard of it by Hal Elrod.

Oh yeah, I love that book.

Yeah, I think it's so good. So that's the first three things I would start to do.

Yeah. This is amazing. I'm like, I'm getting to know, I'm getting to know your formula for doing the thing too. It's almost like this survival, the thing that you've done to survive is also good. You probably have also applied it to be able to do all the things you've done. Yeah, yeah. And through the interviews, it's funny, from the first five minutes I was able to figure out one of your pieces, the formula which is I had it down as making things fun for a while and then I just switched it, I upgraded it to controlling your attitude because making things fun, you know, sort of falls under that category. So I'm still playing with that piece. But that's where you convert things to song and you're singing and you're.

Oh for sure.

Yeah, yeah.

Because I'm at the end of the day, I will tell you. Not at the end of the day. Like if you hang around me long enough, you know, I'm a comedian. Like I like to laugh, I like to have fun. And if you follow me on social media, because I think that that's a key element. Right. Is not that you are self deprecating. I don't talk about myself as in a negative way. I just really love to attach myself to high energy loving, fun, life giving songs, people and environment. Right. So songs, singing, you know, laughing, joking, you know, feeling beautiful. It's a whole, it's a whole formula.

Yeah, yeah. And I like it because it sort of. It helps you get into your, your flow too. Imagine. Absolutely.

Yeah. Peak state is what Tony Robbins calls it. Right?

Oh right, that's right. That's right.

Peak state. We need to feel peak state and we need to revive ourselves. I believe that rest is important. Absolutely. I think thinking of the seven habits of highly effective people. It's the oldie but goodie. A great book by Stephen Covey. If you look at those seven habits, you'll begin to see a great formula. Stephen Covey wrote the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, but Franklin Covey talked about time management.

Right.

So where we spend our time, where we invest in ourselves and coupled with good wholesome habits, gets you out of survival mode and into a level of peak state flow. You know, I'll quote another book, which is. Yeah. It's called the Perform the Performance Flywheel. And it's. I can't think of the book, but I think what we were all looking for is a formula for energy. We're looking for a formula for energy and a feeling of peace and a feeling of vibrancy. Like, we want to feel that all the time. That's why people drink alcohol. That's why people run. We're looking for all of that. And I think it starts with knowing. I think it's how much are you willing to invest in yourself? I think that's the willingness that we all have to do because a lot of people are just so comfortable spending the majority of their time watching television, on social media, watching the news. And. And we don't. We have the wrong formula. You know, we don't have good time management. Uh, and so. But that falls back into. What are you prioritizing? Because if you're not prioritizing yourself, you're never going to get there.

Yeah. Putting yourself first. I actually just had this. I'll share my. My psychologist moment. Yeah. I'll tell my advisor the other day that, you know, like, you're not.

If you.

If you keep putting yourself last, then everyone else is going to put you last. Once you start putting yourself first, then that's when you'll start being put first. You're putting that out there pretty much. I just thought that was really interesting.

You know, that's a really good one, Stacy. I feel for myself. My mom used to tell me, because, again, one of my top values is my faith. And I wouldn't say I'm very religious, but I'm deeply, highly, unapologetically spiritual. And the spirituality I love is. I call myself a Jesus follower. And one of the things she used to tell me was, if you put God first, you'll always be first, but if you put God second, you'll always be last. In that made me realize the first thing I need to do is give gratitude to this. This idea that I am a human being having a. I am a spiritual being having a human experience. I am a spiritual being having a human experience. So my devotion and first fruits, my first Everything goes to God, and then from there, everything else falls in place.

Oh, I love that. Oh. So this is. What this is making me think of is I was talking to our mutual friend Sandy, the one that connected us. She's the one that's helping me. She's my book strategist for the book.

And I love it.

And I have. I think I have, like, 30 interviews so far. And the podcast was created to help support the concepts of the book. And. And she was like, oh, I think we have enough now, you know, for.

For.

For you to finish. She's like, cut off the. Any other pod. Any other interviews you do, you know, will be for. For future or just for the podcast, you know? And then I told her I was interviewing you this week, and she's like, oh, no, no, definitely keep. Keep going, because I need it. We need to have Diana's stuff in there.

Oh, that's fantastic. I love that. Thank.

Yeah. But I can tell just from talking to you that why. You know, why she said that. So.

Yeah. Well, that's awesome. I want to share, Stacy, for your listeners, the book that I couldn't remember, it's called Good to Great.

Oh, okay.

By Jim Collins. And in it, he references often what's called a performance flywheel. And it is a. It's actually a tribute to the way an organization can be efficient and really take care of its people to have high performance.

Yeah, that's great. It's funny, I thought I remembered reading that book, but I don't remember the performance Bible, so I must have heard a lot about it, but haven't read it yet. I'm excited to check that out.

Yeah, that's an old book. Yeah. Good stuff. Yeah.

So. Yeah. So. Oh, I'm also curious, before we move forward, is the notes in your track shoes? What kinds of things did your mom say?

So my mom would say, nothing beats a failure but a try. So in other words, as a basketball player, you miss every shot that you don't take. Right. So I believe. Why not try it? Because. And my mom used to tell me that often. And my mom would also say things like, you can jump 17ft. Now, at the time, I was only jumping 15ft. And I go, Mom, I've never jumped 17ft. She goes, well, whatever you think about, you will be. So if you think you can't jump 17ft, you can't. So she would say things like that. And she often quoted scripture, which was very, you know, for me, I would always quote, and it sounds like a very dismal Scripture. But she would. I would always say, you know, I walk through the valley, even though I walk through valleys of darkness and death, I will fear no, no one. I don't have to. I don't fear anything, right? So for someone who has lived the majority of their childhood, which are all your formative years, years in darkness, in what seems dismal, if you know that you can walk through that, shoulders back, head high, you don't have to fear anything because you've been through that shit. Right? I've been through all of that. Excuse me for shit and saying that, but I have been through all of that. And guess what? I can get through anything because God leads me and guides me through every single darkness. You know what it is like? Picture this, Stacy. Close your eyes and think about yourself driving down a road and it is really dark outside, like pitch black. And all you have are your headlights in front of you. Well, when. To me, when I think of that scripture that my mom used to put in my track shoes all the time, it was like I could click, just click with God and my. And all of a sudden my high beam lights come on and I am getting through what I need to get through. And that to me, has been an anchor for me my entire life. And so I just like, I can. I can really do anything. Everything is possible. Yes, it is. But I have to believe it and I have to think it and I have to be willing to invest myself and everything into it. Oh, my gosh. It will birth something amazing.

Oh, my gosh, that's beautiful. And it's almost like that's your. So that's your first step when you're going through something hard. Is that imagining that and falling into it and then surrendering to it?

You know, it's. So it's called faith, right? And in fact, I was just reading last night because I read this book often. It's called Understanding how to really Think About. And I get what's up with me in titles today. I'm having a hard time coming up with titles and they usually come, but I have to think about them. But it's just thinking your wealth. I can't think of the book, but it is an old book and it talks about faith and how when you have a belief and it's tied to your faith, it's eventually going to produce a physical result. And you have to consistently repeating, repeating and repeating, and you will eventually get there. People give up too soon, right? We know that, Stacy. People give up too soon because they don't See, see a resemblance of what it is that they're thinking. But you just have to continuously press forward.

Yeah. And is that how you keep from not giving up too soon?

Yeah, for sure. Because what's. You see but you, when you, when you're committed to self examination, when you're committed to, you're going to start seeing patterns. Right. And I feel most everything is a pattern. The seasons is a pattern. Fall, winter, spring. Right. We know, oh my gosh, I got two more weeks. And then, I mean, I live in the Midwest, so we know that two more weeks we're going to have no more snow, we're going to have spring. Right. Your life is the same way. You will start to see patterns in your life. That's how you're going to begin to know, number one. Oh my gosh, I've actually done this before. I have, I felt this before, you know, I know I can get through this. And you begin to realize everything's a pattern. Everything will have a. I'll call it a season. And you will get through it. But until you're committed to recognizing these patterns, one, will you be able to change them? And then two, realize that you can freaking get through anything. You can get through anything and you can start to visualize new things, come up with new beliefs and shift the narrative in your brain to having a new cognitive experience. That's just plain old neuroscience there. Dr. Joe Dispenza wrote a book called how to Lose your Brain and Gain a New One, how to Lose youe Mind and Gain a New One. And I love that book because it talks about how to lose and unlearn certain things you've learned in order to learn new things. So again, I think I've quoted so far seven books. But the thing is, people need to know that once you start commit yourself to reading, your mind is like a computer, right. It's like whatever you put in it, you'll be able to store new programs. But most of us are just repeating old programs, right? We're repeating what it is that we learned in our first 17 years of life. Hence, that's a lawyer term. We don't grow. Right. We never grow.

So I love that you framed reading books and nourishing your mind in that way because. Yeah, because I do. We do have another piece of the formula is, you know, like reading books like most people that I've had on that are doing the thing and just really badass in their, you know, in their either community or business or whatever they're doing. That's A common thing that they've done since they were young is, you know, reading, listening and all that stuff. And. But I haven't had anyone explain it yet in the way that you just did and how, why it's so effective. So I love, I love that you went into that.

Yeah, it truly is a game changer.

Yeah. When you mentioned Tony Robbins when you were young, it's funny, I had just gone through a whole box of stuff I had from my college days and so I found like these, like this whole thing of cassette tapes, you know, of Zig Ziglar and just different and Tony Robbins book. And I think it was probably when it first came out or something. But anyway, yeah, it was like all of a sudden a huge thing where I realized just how long I've been at this. So, yeah, thank you for sharing it in that way. That was beautiful.

You know, it's so funny because he was. Everyone considered him to be weird, awkward, you know, a freak. His narrative has never changed. I follow him now. He's been saying the same thing since I learned about him way back in the 90s. And so what I know is it works. It's proven over and over and over again to work, but it takes time and it takes patience and commitment.

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, let's talk now. I love everything that we. I'm so glad that we were able to get into everything. And I wanted to talk more about what you're doing now because that just seems, I mean, it's like the ripples of what you're doing now is almost, you know, gives that meaning behind everything that you've gone through. Right. Because if you're able to not only help these organizations and help these women, help these organizations, that ripples down to everyone they're leading. I mean, it just literally gives me chills thinking about what effect that has on everyone. Yeah.

My vision is to empower 10,000 women to really go through my academy. It's an eight week academy to become what's called a certified rise advocate. And we have of course, mantras, sayings, beliefs, ideals that are reflective of a certified rise advocate. And you know, a lot of people, and I'll just say this, we're really good as women saying, you go girl. Empower yourself. I see you, I value you. Rise up. Woo hoo. And we can read these books, we can listen to these podcasts and we can do all these things, but at the end of the day, sister, you stand in the mirror and you are waiting for someone to come in there and speak up for you in your salary because, you know, you're not getting paid what you're supposed to be worth. You know that you are sitting there looking at that resume going. I mean, at that job application going, ah, I don't fit these three things. I won't apply, or I can't do that because, you know, I don't want people to think I'm fill in the blank. And so we have to recognize that we're the ones who have to do the daggone thing. Isn't that what you talk about, Stacey? Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So what is going to help us do that is knowing, number one, everything I'm talking about. Right? It's a training. It's like boot camp. I mean, some of us are so externally focused. You know, we got our nails done, we got our hair done, we got our dress on, we got all this stuff. But we are like an eggshell. Someone come over there and say something to us, crack us, and we bleed out because we're not strong on the inside. So most people spend so much time on their outward appearance. Go for that girl. Do your thing. But at the end of the day, what are you working on on the inside to make certain that you are flexible, that you are strong, that you know how to not allow people's words to break you down. Why are you paying so much attention what other people say about you? Why are you allowing a Facebook post to tear you down? Why are you allowing someone saying something about you destroy three days of your life and have it consistently apologizing to everybody you meet? The thing is, we need to take time to get ourselves healed. H E A L E D We need to heal ourselves, and then we can go out there and we can be, quote, unquote, the badass women that we believe. Now, I'm just going to tell you from my research, there's a few things I want to share about my research. One is I experienced a significant depression after George Floyd. As a black woman, as a woman who has been in the corporate world the majority of my life, growing up the way that I did with an abusive father, having all of these traumatic experiences, and knowing that I went to law school to go kick everybody's butt who wasn't treating people fairly, I knew when the pandemic hit and George Floyd happened and I had to sit my little butt down, I had a lot more layers to overcome. And what I realized is a lot of us don't realize when we say we need help, we actually might need Therapy. So I'm a big advocate of therapy, getting a psychologist, a counselor, a coach. And after that experience, what I realized I had more to learn about myself and to really even forgive myself. Even more of things that happened to me in my life that I was carrying. And so my research shows I had an event in January called Black and Brown Women Rising. And in my data results, it said 62 women said I experienced depression and anxiety. Guess how many women said they feel comfortable talking about it? Six out of 62 women. So my research shows to me that one, and I'll just speak on behalf of black and brown women, we have traditionally been assimilating to this world of, I'll call it whiteness. And we've not really owned our culture and who we are. So that's number one. We got a really. I spent a lot of time in that area. I don't wholly and 100% just work with black and brown women, but fundamentally speaking, that's who I am. And I'm of mixed race. And so I really identify with that core group of women. I also spent a significant amount of time on making certain that women own the fact that we are responsible for the equity gap. We. We. You know, I'm a lawyer. I know you can pass laws, but how many people know the Lilly. But Lilly Ledbetter law? Do you know the Lilly Ledbetter Law? It was a law that was passed under the Obama administration that allowed you to be able to talk about what you make your salary at your job. Do you know that most organizations used to have guidelines and certain rules that you weren't allowed to talk about your salary at work? Well, we obliterated that in 2009 with the law. But most people don't know about that. But most people aren't going to speak up because they're afraid. They're afraid of being dismissed, quietly dismissed, overlooked, not being feeling like we're too emotional or we're angry, you know, all the narratives that flow into a woman. And so what I am doing with my vision is I'm making certain that women know, one, you're supported. Number two, you need a lawyer. Come talk to me. Because right now, like Stacey, if you needed lawyer legal help because you felt, would you have to go call a lawyer? How much is that going to cost you? And where do you get that lawyer? You know, and so I want to be able to be a resource, one, a lawyer two, mental health. Like, I want to be able to have, like, a resource bank for women who need a therapist. You Know how hard it is to find a good therapist. You know how much time it takes to find a therapist. It's a lot of work. So I want to be able to be a resource for these women, but then also be able to be there to give them tools, ideas, strategies. And all of the many years that I have taken to learn about myself and the amount of money I have invested in myself, I create these programs to make it feasible and efficient for you. So I have my Rise Advocates Academy. I have. You could become a member of my Rise Advocates and you could become a tier one member. People that are interested in connecting with me, you can go to riseadvocates.com and that is just a page that describes my academy. But you can sign up to learn about, you know, my newsletters and what I do. You know, one big effective thing I do often is I really just try to be a resource on social media. So Instagram especially so, because I just like posting little 35 seconds videos to give you a little bit of inspiration and a confidence boost. Which is reason why Stacy, I call myself the confidence expert, right? Because at the end of the day, folks are looking for confidence. They're looking for energy, passion, but they just want to be bold and confident to do anything they set their mind to do.

So for someone listening that is like, oh my gosh, Diana is amazing, but I don't think I am good enough or whatever story they have in their head to sign up for that program. What would you tell them?

Well then come on, girl, just watch me. Boom. Watch me, watch me, watch me on social media like you gotta make. See, here's the other thing too. Look, I am not all things for all people, right? Because my vibe and what I am about is high energy, high impact and freaking doing the daggone thing, right? If that's not what you want, then we can't be friends. Then I think you need to find something for you. But if that's what you are digging and you like my vibe, then come be a part of my tribe. And you can do that simply by going to Instagram and just quietly following me. You know, I just really believe that is the best way to see if. If what I'm putting out there is what you, you know, are picking up. And if that's the case, then just freaking direct message me because guess what? I respond. I don't have, you know, a tribe of people just answering all my stuff. Not yet. Yeah, but I'm just saying that that's something that I do because that's what I did with Tony Robbins before social media. That's true. Listen, I. The thing is, you're not really wanting this, if you. You know what I mean, like, people like. Well, I just don't know. Well, you don't want it bad enough. And see, from a person like myself who survived trauma. Listen, I'm hungry, okay? And I don't have a fallback. I don't have a plan, a backup plan. My backup plan is get the hell up and let's go. You see what I'm saying? So I think sometimes some of us are just too comfortable. Some of us have little cozy houses and we got money. I don't know, like. So I'm talking about people out there. Like, if you're hungry, you are so thirsty to want to live and to make this happen. Oh, you gonna. Come on now. I'm not gonna sit up here and say, diana, she's scary. Of course I like to scare myself every day. You know why? Because if I'm not scaring myself every day, I'm not really living. I am just. Just, you know, kind of like coasting through life. So I like to do scary things, you know, like I always say, I like to do scary things. Yeah. Like, wake up. Wake up. You know, because a lot of people just choose to just stay asleep. And when I was going through my depression, I was like, oh, my gosh, I can't get up out of this. That's when I knew either I'm want to die like my brother. And unfortunately, Stacy, my oldest sister, also took her life. So I have in my DNA this depressive type of nurturing. So I cannot. I don't. I don't have this. I either. It's either death or life. And for me, life means I wake up, I'm going to work out, I'm going to fill my mind up. I'm going to personal development on steroids. You know, it's go time. So if this is where you're at and you're like, I just don't know, then just put your toe in and follow me on Instagram or just follow me on Facebook or LinkedIn. I don't do Snapchats a lot. And I'm. Everybody says you should have a TikTok. And I. You're probably right. Well, man, I got. I got to preserve my energy, you know, So I. I'm also doing a lot on YouTube. I'm just taking my videos and putting them on. So I do a lot of free content. So I. But the paid Stuff is for people who are ready to be serious because what you invest into is what you get. So if you're not willing to take your time, your money and investing yourself, then you're not really serious. Yeah.

And I was wondering also, I'm loving this by the way. Your words are so powerful. It's like, yeah, I'm actually so excited to re listen to this episode, you know. Oh, I love it. It's great. I'll probably make it a morning, a morning routine.

Let's go, let's go.

But yeah, so I was wondering also. So once you built them up, you've gotten rid, you've got help them work through trauma. They're now like, I'm ready, let's do it. And then they're like, now you're getting them into being able to implement DEI into their is it to their workplace. And then they're the leader in there. Right that way. What is that? What does that look like?

Well, here's the thing, Stacey. Diversity, equity, inclusion started to become the flavor right after George Floyd. Everybody's doing DNI and everybody's being hired at the end of the day. I really believe. And I was doing diversity equity inclusion work early 2000s, so way before George Floyd. And as a civil rights attorney doing my advocacy work, I know that diversity equity inclusion definitely needs to be a department. It needs to have a leader, it needs to have focus. But everybody owns diversity equity and inclusion. As an employee, I have agency in your organization, meaning that I am worthy of more than what my job title says. And I don't care if you are the secretary or the janitor, it don't matter. You have agency in that organization. You have value that, that CEO and board members need to listen to you. But if you don't believe you have value, what makes you valuable is your story. It's who you are. It's everything about who you are. And if you're just showing up with your job title, you are not doing the best work that you can do at your organization. I believe the secretary, the janitor, the administrative staff, customer service, all of these people know what the hell is going on at your organization. And you as the CEO, board members and the executive staff, if you're not paying attention to those individuals who are doing, who are living your brand, you are losing out. So it's a two way street. It's the executive team understanding that diversity, equity, inclusion is not outward, it's inward. You need to look at the people in your organization. And so many people are like, I Just don't know how to get diverse people in my. They're just not out there. That's because what you focus on is what you expand. If you grew up in a zip code that was not reflective of, of the United States, like for example, Bronx, the Bronx in New York City is a melting pot. But if you didn't grow up like that, all you see is what you grew up with. So you have got to recognize that, number one, you run an organization. You need to have and bring other people on your team who don't look like you, act like you, or think like you. But that requires a little bit of healing, doesn't it? Because all of us love to talk about ourselves and all of us think that we are the best. But until you're willing to get out of that mindset into the personal development mindset, then you can start to procure and bring people on your team who are different. Right. And then the people that are in the organization, you need to speak up and say, I know people who I could bring here. Or I have an idea, let's talk about this. Or I don't like the way this is going. So you see why it's a two way street. Diversity, equity, inclusion is very holistic. It's not singular. It's not just this statement. It is a way of living. It's an embodiment of, of the values and the understanding that I am a spiritual being, having a human experience and everything that my human self has experienced is of value at this organization.

I love it. Yeah, it's so important for people to speak up because there's people. I don't know if you watch that Bennet Brown, and I'm sure you're familiar with. All people are so uncomfortable, you know, having conversations. And the more that you can show them how you want to have the conversation, the more it's going to open things up for everyone. Yes.

You know, Brene even recently wrote a book. I don't know if you saw her latest book. Her, her latest book is with Tarana Burke and she wrote, it's called you are your best thing and its purpose. It came out right after the pandemic, but its purpose was to say, oh my gosh, even my narrative. Brene says I need to learn more about the black experience. Right. And so it was more stories. Right. Because Brene does such a great job of letting us know that if we're not owning our story, then we're hustling for our worth. I love how she says that. So I think we all need to know. I think everyone should learn more about Brene Brown's research. And certainly she offers all of us the opportunity to, as she says, you know, I think it was Theodore Roosevelt was talking about, you know, getting in the ring, right? And to really be that person who shows up bloodied, mired, and really being all of who you are. That's how you be all of who you are. But it's a scary thing. It's not something to be taken lightly. That's why, Stacy, I have the Rise Advocates Academy so that you can learn how to do that. That doesn't come easy. And it takes focus, it takes effort, it takes consistency, it takes commitment, and it takes a desire, a passion to be the person that you've been called to be. And to do the daggone thing. Right?

Do the daggone thing. I love the way you say it. It's so great. Okay, so you've given such great advice, but I have to ask you, what do you think is your best piece of advice for doing the thing?

I think the best piece of advice is to do it afraid. I think all of us need to understand it ain't gonna be like, woo, the lights are coming down and I am levitating now. Now you won't have to get up and go, do the daggone thing and do it af Fail, freaking forward. Denzel Washington spoke at Stanford and he in his graduation speech said, I don't want to have anything I fall back on. I want to fail forward. So that requires you to understand fear is not going anywhere. You have to learn how to manage it. You have to say, okay, fear. I see you. Jen Gottlieb from Super Connected Media, she's so good with this. She said, you got to put fear and say, okay, I see you, fear, but I'm a go tell you to move your ass over here, get into the passenger seat, and I'm going to get in the driver's seat and I'm going to do this. And you know what I always say, done is better than perfect. Why does it have to be perfect? What are you waiting for? Perfection that does not come and that is a recipe for disaster. So do it afraid.

Oh, my gosh, I love that so much. That's so good. And then is there anything that I didn't ask you that you wish I asked you?

No, I just. Thank you so much, Stacey, for doing your work. And again, people can connect with me. Go to Rise Advocates.com and follow Diana Patton on all social media channels and currently right now. I mean, this is a timestamp of 2022 in June. I'm doing a confident series that you can hop on right now and you can start to dive in and pick up your pen, pick up your journal and you can start to dive into your life right now.

Oh, good. That's so amazing. I'll put that in the show notes too, so you guys can have access to it. Well, it's been amazing having you on.

Thank you so much and so great. I love meeting you and thank you for all that you're doing.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on Doing the Thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the Thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at dothothing callcast. Co or email us at hello at dothingpodcast. Com.