Deliberate Disruption: Unraveling the Anti-DEI Ideology & Getting Back to Why DEI Works

Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you'd like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today's guest is Shirley Inglemeyer, and she's founder and CEO over at Inclusion Inc. Shirley, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks. Great to be here. Thank you so much. Alright, so Shirley, we got, we got a lot to talk about today, so we're gonna get into deliberate disruption, unraveling the anti DEI ideology and getting back to why DEI works so excited to get into this. And also, of course, your work at Inclusion Inc. And I guess, and to get us started though, we'll start this episode the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute. So Shirley at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That's what we do. Shirley, what mission matters to you? You know, for nearly 25 years, Inclusion Inc has been helping businesses leverage inclusion as a business strategy. We do that by really helping leaders get it in a practical, Business centric approach, and I think most importantly these days as we help coach them on being able to articulate the business rationale for why they're focusing on inclusion, diversity and equity. So, so great to have you on and I mean, great topic. And one of the things that strikes me about your background, you know, you've been doing this for a couple of decades. So some of these conversations that are newer are just kind of like, you know, just happen. Like you've been here for a while. Like this is, I would argue it's been a while in terms of being a part of that narrative and that discussion. First off, how did you get into that space? Like how'd you get drawn? You know, it's a very interesting story in that I have no background to do this. Okay. Like many of us, you know, we get opportunities in life because I was in consumer products right before this. I grew up in a time in consumer products that they took. Anybody to train him, including a music major like myself. And when I realized that I got out of that was really a great set of, of analytics, you know, what's the business rationale in the last employer I was at was Frito Lay super psyched to be there. I didn't realize that that position as the only woman out of 26 division sales managers would prepare me for this work. I'd ask why, because when I had the sixth best sales record and they had to collapse divisions, the guy who had the worst sales record, number 26, Got the job and I lost and so then I realized what it felt like to be the other how my difference may have impacted what happened to my career. My life, a couple of years passed and ultimately. I believe this work chose me. I'm not, you know, in the beginning, I kind of thought you have no clue what you're doing, Shirley, except I could say, what are you trying to accomplish? And the very first huge project that I landed was as a white woman from, as I say, Minnesota, I landed, I couldn't tell by that accent, could not tell. I'm positive. I landed the Denny's race relation consent decree and that that's kind of the launch of the whole thing. Wow. And so, like, looking back in your in your career, like, when did, you know, you were That this was going to be something that you'd be sticking with long term. Like, how did you know that this wasn't just another thing or just to like, how did you know this was going to really turn into a life mission or did you know, like, like how, how'd that come about for you? You know, I don't know how you make life decisions, but I. Rely on these kind of nudges around me. Oh, yeah. Right. So get, give me a sign. Signs, like things fall into place. Like God, the universe, however we want to word that. Like I look down to all the time, all the time. I'm like, I'm supposed to be, I have this weird feeling always. Like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Go ahead. Yeah, and so I used to put it out to the universe give me a sign as big as a 40 foot billboard in my front Yard. Oh, I like that I'm gonna adopt that. I'm like, I'm always I want I never thought to ask the universe for bigger signs Go ahead. Literally go ahead That's because I thought you know, I'm really supposed to do this and I started doing this when I was a single parent And you know didn't the universe know I needed a fixed salary and You And each time I do that, even in the current times we're in, I get reassurance. You're where you're supposed to be now. I don't like that answer, but I came to the point that that's really my personal mission in this is to help organizations understand the business relevance of creating a culture of inclusion. Hmm. Is that resonates with me and my family and friends and, you know, kind of how I roll in life. Yeah. And so sticking in the early days a little bit longer, what was it like trying to even just, cause

Mission Matters Business Podcast with Adam Torres