About Coaching Corporate Training Work With Kandia Podcast

Who’s That Girl?

 

I quit my job as a Corporate Learning and Communication Consultant,  explored my curiosity, and built a business around teaching people how to become recognized leaders in the workplace and influential voices within their industry.

I’m also obsessed with teaching women how to break through fear and self-doubt so they can build the confidence needed to speak up for themselves and communicate the value they bring to the table.

Through a series of workshops and coaching programs,  I’ve helped  C-Suite and entrepreneurial leaders position themselves as thought leaders, attract paid speaking engagements,  launch global conferences, get booked on TV shows,  and get featured in print and online publications like The NY Times, Business Insider, Black Enterprise and more. 

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Education

  • MS E.d. Secondary Adult Education Old Dominion University 
  • BA Mass Communications/Public Relations, Delaware State University

 

 

 

 

 

Experience

  • 15 years in Strategic Communications and Leadership Development
  • Published over 1,000 articles about entrepreneurship and leadership development for both print and online publications including Black Enterprise Magazine, The James Beard Foundation, Diversity Woman Magazine, Innov8Tiv Mag, and more.  

 

 

Media & Past Speaking Engagements

  • Featured in Forbes, Business Insider Kenya, XoNecole, Leading In Color Podcast, Black to Business Podcast, Avanti Podcast and more!
  • 2018: South by Southwest Conference
  • 2016 & 2017,  the African Women in Technology Conference, Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. Carve Your Own Path Master Class. 
  • 2014, WIE Conference, Lagos, Nigeria: PR, Branding & Communications panel. See more workshops and engagements here.

So, How Did This Entrepreneurial Journey Come About?

 

I was working as a Communication & Learning Consultant for one of the best management consulting firms in the country. But despite a six-figure salary and an abundance of reward points, traveling weekly to client locations across the US and Canada, left me feeling burned out, unhappy and unfulfilled. 

 

Sure, I was a rockstar at helping my clients like Johnson & Johnson and the U.S. Navy, increase awareness about their programs, services, and initiatives. I was good at helping managers and executives communicate their ideas clearly to audiences around the world. 

 

But the reality is, my ladder of success was placed in the wrong building. I spent the bulk of my life alone in hotels and airports and working 80 hour work weeks. 

 

In fact, for most of my life, I lived by someone else’s rules for success.“Go to school, get a good job with a pension plan, buy a house, work for 30 years and then retire.”~My loving parents

As a child, my mom and dad taught me the rules of success that their parents taught them: [College Degree + Good city/state job with pension plan + Mortgage + Marriage = HAPPINESS and SUCCESS.]

But what were the characteristics of a good job? Sixty-Five hour work weeks, two weeks vacation, and 5 days of sick time? Surely there had to be more to life? How did having a "good job" supposed to feel? Because cubicle life left me in tears and depressed–daily.  I tried several other “good” jobs and I was fed up and miserable with the “good” life that had been sold to me as the epitome of success. 

Never in a million years, did I believe I had the power to create my own rules for success. Not one person in my family was an entrepreneur, so I didn’t have a blueprint.

But here's the thing,  I was competing for a promotion just to impress my family with a CEO title, a six-figure salary, and the perks (e.g., luxury car, a house) that came with it. Ultimately, the cost to stay unhappy was more than the price to leave.

So in 2012,  I finally got tired of my BS. 

By the way, BS stands for your "Belief System", the lies and excuses you tell yourself for why something can’t happen. 

Anywho, I became a girl on the run from anything that resembled a cubicle farm and a 2-3 week vacation policy.

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Now, Allow Me to Re-introduce Myself…

 

After ten years of developing global training and communication campaigns for companies such as Deloitte Consulting, and The U.S. Navy, Kandia  Johnson transformed from unfulfilled to unapologetic about designing a life and career with purpose.

 

Finding her sweet spot for amplifying the voices of women leaders of color, she launched Kandid Conversations and She Deserves More, a leadership training, coaching, and mentoring program for business owners, managers, and executives.

 

Specializing in confidence, leadership communication, and storytelling, she's helped her clients pitch and position themselves for executive roles, launch global campaigns, and land speaking engagements and media coverage. She also started the Kandid Conversations Podcast to inspire mid-career women to speak up and show up anyway—despite dealing with self-doubt, fear, and anxiety.

 

Kandia has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs, executives and change-makers and published articles about business and life for publications such as Black Enterprise Magazine, Diversity Woman, AARP Sisters, and more.

 

Beyond being featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and more, Kandia has delivered presentations on stages throughout the United States and Africa. To date, influential brands such as The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference, Harvard University Business School, The James Beard Foundation, and African Women in Technology have invited her to speak at their events.

 

Kandia graduated from Delaware State University with a BA in Public Relations and earned an M.S.Ed.from Old Dominion University.

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