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In this episode, I sat down with Jotaka Eaddy, founder of Full Circle Strategies and Win With Black Women, for a conversation about power, purpose and resilience. We talked about her childhood in Johnsonville, South Carolina, a town of under 1,400 people that taught her the value of community long before she ever set foot in Washington, DC or Silicon Valley.
Jotaka walked me through her path from student activist against the death penalty to senior advisor at the NAACP to becoming the first Black employee at a fintech startup in Silicon Valley. She opened up about the layoff that nearly broke her and the Oprah Winfrey clip that helped her reframe it as redirection rather than failure.
We also talked about how Win With Black Women was born from a single late night email in 2020 that turned into a Zoom call with 44,000 women, and how that same community continues to organize today. Jotaka got vulnerable about losing her mother during the 2024 election season and what that grief has taught her about faith, resilience and asking for help.
Main Takeaways
- Your community can be your first investors. The people of Jotaka’s hometown pooled money so she could attend a conference that changed the course of her life.
- A layoff is not always failure. It can be redirection toward something bigger than you could have planned for yourself.
- Movements are built in the quiet, consistent work that happens long before anyone is watching or celebrating.
- Black women hold real power at the ballot box and in daily acts of organizing, even while in survival mode.
Highlights Include
- 02:01 – Growing up in Johnsonville, South Carolina
- 05:04 – The conference that changed her life
- 11:46 – Learning to lead by carrying the bag
- 15:17 – Making the leap into Silicon Valley
- 19:08 – Getting laid off and finding strength in an Oprah Winfrey clip
- 29:02 – The spark behind Win With Black Women
- 35:40 – The night 44,000 women joined the call
- 44:53 – How to show up when you are in survival mode
- 48:05 – Opening up about losing her mother
Watch & Listen
Watch this episode on YouTube and listen on all podcast platforms:
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/side-hustle-pro/id1126021323
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/13qDj08lBR4ymzGhXIKy8t
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sidehustlepro
Announcements
Applications are now open for Shift, my 12-week coaching program designed to help experienced professionals package their expertise into a profitable offer, identify their first clients, and confidently launch their next chapter.
Learn more and apply at: https://sidehustlepro.co/shift
Social Media
Jotaka Eaddy: Instagram: @JotakaEaddy
Win With Black Women: Instagram: @WinWithBlackWomen
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