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Inclusion is for All – Why Public Shaming White Gay Men is Not Working
I was playing around on Instagram and I came across this meme on a meme account that I follow. The intent was to be funny. It’s also an attempt to shame a demographic in the gay community, cisgender white gay men, for claiming to support inclusion but not actually being inclusive. My background is in…
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Albanian and Gay – Robbed of the Parent Experience
In 2012 I wrote a blog post about my experience of being gay and Albanian. I was 30 at the time and needed to express myself how I felt. I was angry at how the Albanian community viewed me and treated me for being gay when I came out. Since then, I have been on…
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My 10 Year Anniversary at Rocket Companies
It has been theorized that it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours to master something. Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, and two other colleagues published this information in a 1993 paper after researching the role of practice in violin students. On June 3, 2013, I started a new job at…
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The First Pride Was a Riot
It’s a warm Saturday night in June. There is a slight breeze blowing through the city streets, but you can barely hear it due to the noise of nightlife sounds. Music is blaring. People are everywhere, conversing. Taxis are honking their horns. You and your friends duck into the local bar. You are having a…
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Mental Health Awareness – 5 Things You Need to Know
Today I has the opportunity to moderate the “You Are Not Alone” panel for our Mental Health Summit at work. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This month of awareness is to help break the stigma of mental health and mental illness. It is to normalize that mental health is a part of the human…
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Development is Empowerment
Development is a key tool for empowerment.
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Friend Group Norms
What is the difference between your team at work and your group of friends? Not much, it turns out.
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Why Friendship is Important
Friendship is a unique relationship that can profoundly impact our lives. We need friendships for overall well-being. #friendship #friendshipisimportant
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Making Conflict Less Scary and More Productive
Conflict. Just reading that word probably made you feel a certain way. That tends to happen when we think about conflict. I teach a class on conflict resolution and work with leaders and teams on this topic regularly. I have seen with consistency just how people feel about conflict. Hint: they don’t love it. I…
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Imposter Syndrome – What it is and how to overcome it
Imposter Syndrome. It’s a phrase that a lot of us have probably heard before. It may also be new to others. To make sure we are all aligned, imposter syndrome is defined as: “A psychological pattern in which one doubts one’s accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. According…
Life Coach, Leadership Coach, and Facilitator