Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Sending love to all the Black women in corporate today. You show up, in excellence, innovating, managing your job like a pro, and also managing the people around you, and their emotions. The ways you have to OVERPROVE your genius and your leadership, while working with folks who will gaslight you and throw microaggressions your way.

The JOB itself is easy, but the hard part is how much you have to bend to make others comfortable. Because your Blackness + your womanhood has people projecting their own insecurities and incompetence to you. The fact that you have to re-read EVERY email you send and add extra emojis so people don't think you're being “aggressive.“

All this while being underpaid, underpromoted and overpunished.

I see you today, and every other day. I see you smiling on the Zoom, in spite of the fact that your work is questioned constantly. I see you pressing “End meeting“ and taking a deep breath and sitting in quiet because you're tired of all of it.

I see you, sis. 🖤🤎

I think Impostor Syndrome needs to go to hell. 🗣️🗣️🗣️

I've written 4 NYT bestselling books. I've been in rooms where I'm often the only ___________. Why would I question my presence there?

Shoutout to The Shop Live and Google for having me join Daryl Butler, Jon Batiste and Jack Flaherty onstage at ADCOLOR Conference and Awards.

Link to watch the whole thing in comments.

Why do people have a problem with confident women (especially confident Black women)?

A conversation I’ve been having with friends, who are dynamos and leaders in their own right, is how often they have been in conflict with people who simply didn’t know how to deal with their assuredness. 🧐 You ever said something with full confidence and someone felt attacked simply because you were direct? Yeah. That. And have you ever seen someone start acting weird towards you after you shared an accomplishment? Also, that.

It’s this weird thing that happens way too often to Black women. People want to humble us. When we walk in rooms, heads held high, on Team Take No Sh*t, folks are rooting for us to fail. Folks be ready to be on the “Told you so” bandwagon soooo bad. And the hardest part is, we KNOW this. 😒

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My Matron Saint of Words, Toni Morrison said “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.“

And Black women have always been the guides, the compasses. So I offer up these 7 books that remind us to feel, honor ourselves (and God), be in community, fight and rest. REST.

📔 After the Rain by Alex Elle

📕 Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Tawwab

📘 Rest is Resistance by The Nap Ministry's Tricia Hersey

📗 Sisterhood Heals by Joy Harden Bradford, Ph.D.

📓 Black Women Taught Us by Jenn M. Jackson, PhD

📕 Professional Troublemaker by me 😏

📔 Power Moves by Sarah Jakes Roberts

Spend time with these offerings, love letters, rebukes and manifestos.

Let me know if you've read any of em.

#BookLuvv

All the WELPS that ever WELPED in WELPchester.

And the thoughts and prayers are tired. We're in a dystopia. 😨😡

I’m smelling like trust funds and rich aunties at brunch. Just because. 😁😁😁

Life is short. Wear the perfume. Light the candle. Use the good China. Life is too short to keep saving the stuff we love for special occasions. Do it now.

Is there anything you've been saving for the right time? 👀 Can you use it soon? 🧐

This is to my fellow visionaries and creatives (and also to myself). We're awake with the ideas and the divine downloads. We're ready to make it all happen. 🏃🏾‍♀️🏃🏾‍♀️🏃🏾‍♀️

Pause. B/c some of these ideas you're getting are seeds planted. Not all of it is for RIGHT NOW. Or next month. Some are for you to file away and revisit. And some ARE for right now. And some weren't meant to see the light of day. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Know the difference. It will save you time, energy and money. Cuz Lord knows I've spent tens of thousands of dollars doing “later“ ideas at a time that wasn't right.

Write those ideas down. Know which is for now.

The world is far from a meritocracy, and the smartest, most hard working people are people whose names we will never know. And the United States of America is a country built on the hubris of this meritocracy, while it's also built by people who could not even build a bird house if not for the help of Black and Brown people. 😐😐😐

Affirmative Action policies, though the people who benefit most from them are white women, existed to do a tiny part in righting the wrong. Tiny part. And even that just got snatched away. It's devastating.

Colleges now. Corporations next. Hate to see it. The fights of and for our lives continue. ✊🏾

When the world listens to women, it listens to white women. For far too long, Black women’s voices have gone unheard, even though they’ve been using their voices loudly for centuries to enact change. Today, more than ever, it is NECESSARY that we create a unifying action to center Black women’s lives, stories, and calls to action. We need to listen to Black women.\n\nThis is why we created #SharetheMicNow.\n\nTOMORROW, Black women will speak from the Instagram accounts of white women. \n\nThe intention of this campaign is to magnify Black women and the important work that they’re doing in order to catalyze the change that will only come when we truly hear each other’s voices.

Kanye’s team at CAA dropped him yesterday. Rightfully so. His closest allies in the industry are speaking up against him. Cuz his anti-semitism is NOT OK. We should call it out swiftly and loudly. The hate he is spewing should have no home. He deserves this de-platforming.

I do want us all assess and interrogate who we speak up for and who we leave to fight their own battles.

None of us are free until we are all free. Let’s continue to speak up loudly for all of us on margins.

Black Enterprise Magazine Women of Power Summit. Honored to be honored alongside the homie, Issa. 🙏🏾

Yesterday, I took the stage at the Forbes Power Women Summit for a spotlight talk on what our responsibility is in the rooms we find ourselves in.

My charge for anyone who heard me yesterday: don’t wait for the big moments to make impact. Use your power in the EVERY DAY moments in front of those you have access to. THAT is impact.

Thanks for having me, ForbesWomen.

And I rocked 3 women-owned brands on that stage.

🧥👖Veronica Beard
👟 Office of Angela Scott
💄 The Lip Bar in Bawse Lady

I won. 😭🙌🏾

Not just one The Webby Awards but TWO: the judges chose my Professional Troublemaker podcast season 5 as “Best Limited Edition series in BUSINESS“ and Y'ALL voted for it too.

My goodness, the TURNAROUND is real! If you listened to this season, you KNOW I talk about the VALLEY I was in professionally and how it was also a personal crumbling. And talking about how I dug my way out, was therapy for me too. I went from almost going bankrupt to building back our 7-figure revenue in 1 year. And I talk about the entire journey.

So for the show to win this?!? The only award we put it up for? A divine affirmation.

Thank you. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

🎙I'm dropping one more ep. It will be called “FINISH STRONG.“ Soon.