Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Taylor.
Hi Danielle, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in small-town Louisiana. Despite it being the place I called home my entire life, I never quite felt welcomed there. I felt uneasy in my blackness and my womanhood thanks to regular confrontations with racism and sexism at school, at work, and in social settings. But college changed things for me. I left the country for the first time and landed in Senegal, the westernmost point of the African mainland. As soon as I started making my way through the capital city of Dakar, I knew I was home. I was more at home than I had ever been in my 18 years in the US. Everyone looked like me. Everyone seemed to understand the way in which I was perceiving the world. I was embraced as a long-lost cousin. “Welcome home!” was the usual greeting I received. Upon finding out that this was my first visit to the continent, joy spread across each face and I was told that there were centuries of news to catch me up on. I felt a peace and calm and joy that I didn’t know existed.
It wasn’t all fun and warm feelings though. Just like at home, I witnessed the ways in which women suffered from exclusion and marginalization. I saw the ways in which some women struggled to support their children, get access to educational opportunities, and find resources to build their small businesses. I saw so much of myself and my own experiences reflected in them. I wanted to journey with them and create a space for us to learn from one another. For this reason, I launched my career in international development with a concentration in women’s rights in Sub-Saharan Africa.
After nearly ten years in the industry, I started to get disillusioned. I worked with some of the biggest organizations fighting for human rights around the world and what I saw made me want to give up. While there were some people who genuinely cared about the communities where we worked, I encountered many who were more interested in building a professional name for themselves, traveling to “exotic” locations, and living luxurious lifestyles incompatible with the communities they entered and supposedly served. What was most distressing was that these organizations promoted a very particular type of development; one that idealized Western standards of governance, economics, and social norms that didn’t speak to the histories, values, and realities of local communities.
In 2017, I started my entrepreneurial journey with the launching of a non-profit, Oman Baako. The mission of this organization was to build stronger, more equitable communities in Africa and the African diaspora. However, I quickly learned that a nonprofit was not the best business model for achieving that mission. In 2023, I launched Strategic Disruption Consulting, a business management agency that helps organizations improve leadership and operations to maximize social impact. My company specializes in growing and connecting Black businesses around the globe.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Every step of this journey to becoming a social entrepreneur has been challenging – but I wouldn’t change a thing because I have learned so many valuable lessons. My struggles started with being a young black woman in an industry that was led by much older white men. Ageism, racism, and sexism regularly colored my early experiences and made me question if I had what it took to succeed. I had to learn these systems of oppression and develop creative ways of surviving them without giving up on my core values. I also struggled to find my voice and use it to effectively advocate for myself and other women. It can be intimidating to step into one’s truth and stand in it regardless of the consequences.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The strategies, tools, and ideas that got your company or team to where it is today are not the same strategies, tools, and ideas that will take your company or team to where it is trying to get. Too often, leaders get stuck in their thinking and fail to see the creative alternatives to practices that no longer serve business objectives. Strategic Disruption is a business management consulting firm that disrupts conventional ideas and inspires leaders to consider new approaches to institutional change, social justice, and management in moments of uncertainty. We help organizations operationalize their vision, strengthen leadership, and empower their employees to increase their effectiveness.
We are excited to offer a host of business management services for small to medium-sized enterprises, including executive coaching, fundraising strategy development, business needs assessment, change management, and event facilitation.
We are most excited about our Black Women’s Business Retreat in Ghana in 2024. This unique opportunity has been designed to restore and strengthen Black businesswomen — corporate professionals, side hustlers, entrepreneurs, you name it! If you are looking to take the next step in your career or take your business to new heights, join this dynamic group of Black women as we journey to the land of our ancestors. Visit https://www.strategicdisruption.com/bwretreat to learn more!
Pricing:
- Black Women’s Business Retreat in Ghana – $3500 if registered by August 31, 2023
Contact Info:
- Website: strategicdisruption.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/strategic_disruption
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/strategicdisruption/
