Empowering Leaders: Women of Color as Chaos Coordinators with Shay Phillips

Deneen L. Garrett: 00:02 00:13 This week's guest is Shay Phillips, CEO and founder of Phillips Advisory Services, LLC. Shay Phillips, tell us more about you.
Shay Phillips: 00:13 02:33 First and foremost, thank you so much for having me. We go way back. And so it's been really excited to see the work that you're doing and that you're living your dream. And so I'm just trying to be like you when I grow up, which we'll talk more about that. So my background is I am a Chicago and now living in Dallas, Texas. I was a corporate executive for a couple of decades at a fortune 10 company. So if you're using your cell phone, you might know where I used to work. And my experiences from a professional standpoint range anywhere from helping transform large scale operations to go to market for new and emerging technologies, as well as like working in the strategy and strategic space of the company. So I held about 16 different roles over my career. But what I would say is if I had to boil all those down to three key areas, it was really around how can we create the best employee experience customer experience, and how can we have the best, most efficient operations so that we can get work done in a really profitable way. So that's professionally my background. And then personally, I am a dog mom to a very privileged golden doodle. She's very expensive, and she has an attitude most days. I love to travel the world. That is, you know, my love and my passion around that. And I also have a passion for working in the community, specifically focused on how do we get more women of color, girls of color focused on STEM and get into the STEM space. And so I've done that with my work with the Girl Scouts here in Texas, as well as I currently sit on the board of Family Gateway, which is a homeless shelter that focuses on children. And then from a technology standpoint, I sit on the board of a Silicon Valley startup called Position Square, and they're focused on digital marketing. So I'm the busiest person amongst my friends and are always amazed at how much I have to do. And then, by the way, I recently retired from that Fortune 10 company. And then started my own firm called Phillips Advisory Services, which is a consulting firm to help other companies figure out how do they scale and transform their operations by leveraging my decades of experience.

Deneen L. Garrett: 02:33 03:05 Yeah, thank you for that. And I actually get to know you a little bit more. As you said, we do go back. But still, there's more to learn about people as you get to talk with them. And so you mentioned recently retiring. So we actually retired from the same company. Yes. Is where you were a top executive where your strong capabilities in operational transformation and revenue generation earned you the nickname chaos. coordinator. Yes. What about being a chaos coordinator? What is that?

Shay Phillips: 03:05 04:23 Yes. And it's funny because actually I wish I could take credit for coming up with the term chaos coordinator, but I cannot. And if you go and Google it, but most importantly, it is a person who solves problems that most don't even realize they have and do it in a way that's extraordinary and mind blowing. And so the reason that that I got that name chaos coordinator is because I have always been the ultimate problem solver in any role that I've gone into and was frequently why I was asked to take on roles within the organization. That's why I have 16 different jobs, because when there was a problem that needed to be solved, I was the person who was called to tackle the company's most strategic and challenging initiatives. And oftentimes, It's a situation where someone who's a chaos coordinator comes in and people aren't quite sure what the problem is. They just know that they need help. And so they want to bring in someone who can come in, assess the situation and figure out how do we make this better? How do we solve the problem and how do we get the business to the next level? So that is why I have the nickname chaos coordinator. And I'm sure there's lots of people in your audience who do the same thing.

Deneen L. Garrett: 04:23 04:30 Yeah, absolutely. What problems is Philips Advisory Services LLC solving?

Shay Phillips: 04:30 06:52 Sure. Really what I am doing within my firm is focusing on three key areas of my expertise that I've done over the years. The first is around digital transformation. And that's really how do you transform operations within companies by leveraging technology in order to improve the customer experience, the employee experience, and also to drive that operational efficiency that you heard me talk about before. And I would tell you that my experience in this space is both on the strategic side. I've sat in strategy roles where I've come up with the plans and then worked with the business so that they could implement it. But also, I've also had to do that within my own organizations in which I've run global operations teams and figure out how do we digitally transform so that we can get those same benefits that I talked about. So that's the first area. The second is what I call startup to scale up. And so it's interesting because when you work for a big company, people don't think about startups within a huge corporation environment. But the company we worked for was always going into new business ventures, whether that means through acquisition or M&A activity or just starting up new lines of business. And so the big thing there is, how do you get from the idea to scale? So how do you go from just a little bit of revenue to hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue? And so how do you help companies really create that what I would call operational and strategic discipline that's needed to go from that startup environment where you're small and everybody's doing everything where you really have to scale. And at that point, you need to probably integrate more technology, automation, and really think about how you go to market in your customer experience in a very different way. And then the last is go-to-market strategies. I've launched lots of products over the years, some of our most strategic products, whether it be 5G and the Internet of Things space, whether it be video back when we first launched video. I won't age myself. I actually launched long distance back when people cared about long distance when it was a thing. So tons of experience launching new products and so that go-to-market strategy, helping firms figure out how do they do that in a really successful way.

Deneen L. Garrett: 06:53 07:09 Thank you for sharing that so women of color and intimate conversation is about empowering women of color and elevating their voices. Women of color become chaos coordinators is that something that a person can become is it something just innate is it a combination.

Shay Phillips: 07:09 08:12 I think it's a combination so first of all. Most women I know are already chaos coordinators because we're juggling so many things. We're juggling profession and home and community. And so really, it's about how do you step back from that and look at the transferable skills that you have. So the things that you do at home in terms of multitasking and organizing and communicating Problem solving, those are all things or skills and qualities that go into being a chaos coordinator. So I would say that most people probably have the skill sets to be a chaos coordinator. It is a matter of how do you hone that and apply it towards your passion and your purpose. So if that is in your career, or if you want to go out and have leadership within a community, how are you leveraging those skills, those transferable skills in a way that allows you to coordinate chaos in all the different facets of your life.

Deneen L. Garrett: 08:12 08:22 Yeah. And so thinking about that, thinking about your journey, um, what three actions can women of color take to tap into their power and voice?

Shay Phillips: 08:22 12:49 Yeah. So I'm actually going to, if you don't mind, give them four, because there's a framework that I use that I, that I love to share with others and I think is really helpful. And it's called, which is confidence, ask, raise and storytelling. So I'll hit each one quickly. The first is around be confident. And I think this is something that a lot of women and especially women of color struggle with in terms of really stepping into our power and confidence and knowing what we bring to the table and being proud of that. And so sometimes that shows up in like apologizing too much, right? Always when I mentor people, I tell them, stop apologizing. You don't have to apologize. There's ways to communicate in a way to show empathy or to show that you recognize something that maybe you could have done better without apologizing. If you watch your peers of other races and gender, you'll notice a difference in how they handle those situations. So first and foremost is to be confident, kick the negative self talk to the curb, that imposter syndrome, get that out of here and really know your power and show that to others. The second is around asking for what you want. Sometimes we just don't ask and we assume that people know and I'm here to tell you that they don't. So if there's something that you want, whether it be help or there's a role that you're excited about from a professional standpoint, let people know. Let it be known. Ask for what you want, because don't assume that they'll know. And more importantly, don't assume that they're going to take care of you. So it is so important that you be your own biggest advocate in that space. And the third is called raise. And it's raise your head, raise your hand, and raise your voice. And this is really about awareness of what's going on around you. So the raise your head part. If you work in a company, keep up with what's going on in the company. So as an example, the company we work for, I always listen to earnings. Because what we told to the street is what is part of the strategy that we have for the corporation. That is where investment was going to happen. That is where job opportunities were. So it's really important to be aware of your surroundings. If you're in a community, are you paying attention to what's happening in local politics? That shows up in a lot of different ways. The second piece of RAISE is raise your hand. And that is, for me, about How can I get in on something I'm excited about? I volunteer to do things. Sometimes I over-volunteer, so you have to be careful about that. But raise your hand when an opportunity arises and let people know that you're interested. Because when they then connect your name with that thing, when opportunities come up, they're like, oh, yeah, this person was interested in that. We should call them. I can't tell you the number of times I've actually hired someone because they randomly told me they were interested in something and then a job opportunity came up and I helped make the connection, right? So raise your hand as the last and raise your voice. And this is about speaking up, not just for yourself, but those who can't speak up for themselves. And so rather it be how you talk about the work that you do, which actually this goes into the last part of CARS, which is also storytelling. So how are you out telling your story? How are you out advocating for yourself? And how are you out advocating for others? It's so important that you be able to do that. And for me, controlling the narrative is so important. So what is it that I want to be synonymous with my brand? I have to put that out there. And even when I ask others to go and advocate for me, I give them the words to say. I don't assume that they know what to say. But more importantly, again, in controlling the narrative, I want the words that they say to be consistent with how I want to show up and how I want to be known. So that's called the CARS framework. is something that I use all the time. And so instead of giving them three things, I wanted to give them four. I hope that's OK.

Deneen L. Garrett: 12:49 14:37 Oh, it's absolutely OK. And I love this. The confidence piece, what I like about that is that you add it to be proud, right? So be confident in your accomplishments and be proud about them, right? Some of us, we can't get to the point to where we are confident. I don't know if we're thinking about being proud about it, right, and speaking on that. And then the piece about asking, when you were talking and it made me think, and you mentioned STEM, but it made me think about being at Women of Color STEM, listening to a session, and there was a woman from IBM, I believe, and she said that, she made a reference that she was interested in a promotion or doing more things, and having a conversation with her leadership you know, she made the comment that they're not waking up thinking about her, right? And so basically it goes back to, and everything that you're saying in CARS is it starts with you. You have to, you have to do these things. You have to be these things. You have to communicate these things. And again, it goes back to you and speaking up. And then, especially with the storytelling, like LinkedIn is that platform where you get, that's what it's for. I mean, it is, definitely for that. Like it started off being about, oh, you want to get a job. This is where you come. Now they are tapping into creatives and they really want you to tell your stories. And that's what people want to hear today. So use LinkedIn to tell your story. Also, what I would say to people is, you know, when you're in a workspace, make sure you're documenting everything that you're doing, your accomplishments, right. And that you're sharing that with people that you want to know about that. And that taps into what you said as far as telling them what to say about you. And then also being about that, right? Making sure everything aligns.

Shay Phillips: 14:37 15:57 Yeah. It's interesting. Over the years, I've had executives either advocate for me for roles or nominate me for recognition. We've been to some of those things together. And every time, I honestly, I ghost write it. I write it for them. Because here's the other thing, especially when you're asking busy people to do something for you, you need to be easy to advocate for. So if it requires a lot of work from them, then a lot of times it just won't get done because they're busy. So I'm all about how do I make it easy for them to advocate for me How do I control the narrative to make sure the things they say are consistent with my brand? So I literally, I do it every single time and I always, Hey, here's something to make it easy for you. Feel free to change it so that you're comfortable. Right. Cause I don't want anybody to put, and then 99% of the time they don't change anything. They just copy and paste it and send it. And so it's worth the work to do it for me because I get what I need out of it. I've made it easy for them. And then they view me as someone who is thoughtful and strategic as I work with them on those kinds of things. So it's so important that storytelling piece.

Deneen L. Garrett: 15:57 16:15 Absolutely. And you know what, it was another problem, not that it was a problem, but it was another problem that you solve. Like, let me just, you don't even have to think about it. Right. Read it, change it if you want to, and please pass it on. And like you said, you set it up so well to whereas all they need to do is copy and paste.

Shay Phillips: 16:15 16:15 Yeah.

Deneen L. Garrett: 16:15 16:52 Yeah. So, um, often black women and other women of color do a lot or even too much, right. You kind of talked about it, how you're on a sabbatical. and you're retired and people are saying, oh, you know, you're the busiest retired person, right? So kind of like in that doing too much a little bit. And we don't always prioritize ourselves or self-care. And just like you took, you know, you're on a sabbatical, you've been on a sabbatical, you know, I took a pause in a way of a two month social media break. So talk to us about the importance of taking time for ourselves and the power in the pause.

Shay Phillips: 16:53 19:39 Yeah, first of all, I love the term power in the pause. For me, it puts a punctuation on something that I find very important. So I am a person who, when I'm in, I'm like 110% in. And so what I find in being that type of person is that I have to take what I call mental health breaks. And because that allows me to recharge, refocus, and really get myself in a place where I can continue to run the marathon. So first and foremost, I recognize that what I'm running is a marathon and not a sprint. And so what that requires is that I have a lot of energy that can take me a really long way, and I do the pit stops or power or pause in order to help me. One of the things that I do, there's probably two main things. So first and foremost, I take a vacation every quarter. So once a quarter, I take a vacation. And it doesn't have to be like a two-week thing. It may only be four days, like a long weekend. But I require a change of scenery, right? I need to get away from like, cause even when I'm at home, there's 8 million projects in my house. So like, I still don't even feel like I'm on vacation if I'm home, like staycations don't work for me. So I need a change of scenery. And then I would encourage people to figure out like, what is your happy place? What is that place that speaks to you? that really allows you to kind of have your woosah calm moment to let you reset. For me, it's water. I am a water baby. I'm a Pisces. And so anytime I can go someplace and see ocean, that just makes me so happy, and it makes me calm, and it allows me to clear my mind and to reset on the things that I want to focus on for the next quarter. So for me, that's power to pause. And then the second is like, getting together with friends. Like I am the person who gets everyone together. That just feeds my soul to be able to get people together and talk about what's going on with them. That's how I learn a lot of stuff. I learn what's going on. My friends are very diverse. I am very passionate about having a diverse network. And so create opportunities to be able to connect with those people, hear what's happening in their space, share what's happening in your space, Ask comes in a lot there. Storytelling comes in a lot there. All of those frameworks are happening in that environment. So those are my two things. I take vacation once a quarter, and I get people together from my diverse network so that we can have conversations and learn from each other.

Deneen L. Garrett: 19:39 20:48 Yeah, and you know what? In the way that you have your friendships, your sisterhood is also in alignment with what's recommended for mentors, that we should have diverse mentors, right? That ask piece that you talked about, that learning piece, it happens in those spaces. So what I want to make sure that our audience is getting from this conversation, CARS is brilliant. Confidence ask, raise, and raise your hand, your head, voice. Then the storytelling piece, right? I want that. And then I also want the part about taking that time and go into your happy place, wherever that is. And a way to know where that is, is to really get in touch with yourself and to get to know you. And that's where you get to know and decide, oh, where is my happy place? So I really wanted to make sure that before we pivot, that everybody really hones in on those two things. So honor my late sister, author and poet, Soul True, by asking about Dreams Deferred, which is the title of one of her books. Please share a Dreams Deferred moment.

Shay Phillips: 20:50 22:44 Oh, you know, honestly, retiring was a dreams deferred moment. Um, I worked for the same company for 28 years. Um, I started when I was five. And I, and I've always, I've always dreamed about what does retirement look like for me? And I honestly got really prescriptive about two years ago and When I tell you God just works in mysterious ways, I literally was like, This is the situation, like these are the circumstances that will exist and I know that it's time for me to retire. And it just lined up perfectly. So for me, and it was not, and I always knew that when I left there, I wouldn't be done, done working. And so that dream deferred was being able to retire, being able to take time off. And then being able to start my own business and take all of that experience and all those skills that I've gained over all this time and then go out into the world and be able to help more companies, not just one. That's what it's about. There was nothing wrong with the work that I was doing. There was nothing wrong for me to still be there. And if I wanted to still be there, I could. But it was about, hey, how do I take what I've learned here and make a larger impact? for others. And larger doesn't mean necessarily a bigger company, but it could mean that, hey, there's a bunch of startups who really need help figuring out how do they go from startup to scale up? How can I take my skills and help them with that? So for me, that's what Dreams Deferred is about, is getting that opportunity to retire and now go out in the world and share what I've learned and help as many people as I possibly can.

Deneen L. Garrett: 22:44 23:10 Love that. Love that. Absolutely. You know what? You did your thing. You made your mark. where you were and now it's time for you to spread that love, right? Yes, absolutely. Right, I hear you. So I empower women of color to live a dream lifestyle. And you kind of talked about the things that you love to do. You make sure you get a quarterly vacation and that there's water involved. What is a dream lifestyle for you and how are you living a dream life?

Shay Phillips: 23:10 24:21 Yeah, I'll kind of I'll go back to that. So first and foremost, part of my dream lifestyle is the freedom to do what I want and what I'm passionate about and step into my purpose. So lately, I've actually been speaking a lot about stepping into my purpose because I think it's so important. A lot of times people are kind of just stuck in this. I don't want to call it a hamster wheel, but you're used to doing what you're doing. But is that really what you should be doing? And so for me, being able to go and speak to people and share my story to help them is huge in terms of my dream lifestyle and then also being able to do the things that I love for others, whether it be in a professional space or my work in a community, that is all part of my dream lifestyle. And then, of course, being able to take those pauses. And that's why I do like I do one major international trip a year. And it is always major. So like this weekend, I actually leave for Dubai and Bali as this year's major trip. So there's always one every single year. And that's part of my dream lifestyle that I work really hard towards every year.

Deneen L. Garrett: 24:21 24:28 Love that. Love that. Love that. So now is it while you're over, where are you going first? Dubai?

Shay Phillips: 24:28 24:38 Dubai. So I'll go Dallas to Dubai. I'll be there for, I think, like six days. Then I'll leave Dubai and go to Bali and I'll be there for another, I think, six days and then come back.

Deneen L. Garrett: 24:39 25:10 Love it. Love. Yeah. It's beautiful. Yes. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. I actually have, um, I think I have a friend over now she's there with a group and then another friend, I think she's back, but she was just there. That was her birthday honeymoon. So nice and plenty of water, right? Like, so you're definitely going to get your water there and you, you, for sure, you're going to get it in Bali as well. So definitely enjoy, which I already know you are. So before we wrap, what would you like to leave the guests with?

Shay Phillips: 25:10 26:24 I think the biggest thing I want to leave your guests with is know that you are successful at whatever level you are. And I say that because sometimes we get hit with a lot of images and a lot of information that can sometimes make us question where we are and who we are and what we should be doing. And what I would encourage people to do is just kind of step back and self reflect and know that you are successful where you are today and the choices that you've made. And then ask yourself, how can you build on that to get to the next level? towards your purpose, whatever that is. And I'm a strong believer that your passion will lead you to your purpose. But take credit, sis, for where you are. You made it this far. You woke up this morning. You made it to work. Whatever it was that you've been doing, give yourself credit for that because you deserve that. And then use it to get to the next level of wherever you want to go. That's really what I'd like to leave for folks.

Deneen L. Garrett: 26:25 26:42 Love that. Absolutely. All the things, right? So Shea Phillips, thank you so much for lending your voice on Women of Color in Intimate Conversation. Enjoy the rest of your day and especially enjoy Dubai and Bali.

Shay Phillips: 26:42 26:46 Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. My pleasure.