Welcome back to another great episode of the Dear BLK CEO Podcast.
Creating the life that you love and building something you believe in with people you enjoy; does this resonate with you? Then today’s episode with Daniel Oppong is exactly what you need to be tuning into. Daniel is the Founder, voice and heart of the Courage Collective, an initiative that solves the problem of diversity and economic inclusion in organizations by aligning with leaders who are actively trying to transform their workplace. Daniel believes that it’s only through courage that we will be able to embrace our humanity and the humanity in others to create a beautiful world.
Jump into this episode and learn more about leaning into your courage to create the change and life you want to see.
Leaning into Courage to Create the Life You Want:
[00:01 – 06:20] Opening Segment
- I welcome Daniel Oppong to the show
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- Bio
- Daniel gives some background to his story
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- Impacted by the events of 2020
- What is justice?
- A need to create culture and conversation
[06:21 – 24:10] Leaning into Courage to Create the Life You Want
- Daniel’s thoughts on acting on justice
- Symbolic vs. systemic
- Justice is about addressing the systemic
- Symbolic gestures lose energy after time
- Should we be educating our counterparts?
- While we have access to information, story has power
- “We all come from somewhere”
- Daniel’s upbringing and family influence
- Breaking away from a traditional path
- Daniel talks about his exit from the corporate world
- What risk looks like to you is important
- Daniel’s journey of navigating his identity
- A growing desire to create impact
- Betting on creating a life that you love
- How you have to lean into courage to overcome adversity
- If the vision is still the same the strategy can change
- Letting go of the image to create the thing you want
- The role faith and spirituality played in Daniel’s path
- Book your free consultation at: The Kas Company
[24:11 – 48:02] Your Ideas Need to Solve a Problem
- Daniel shares about the purpose behind the Courage Collective
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- Diversity and economic inclusion
- Tailoring the human experience in the workplace
- What leaders need to learn and how we need to partner with them
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- There is a disconnect between them and the actual minority experience
- They need to be willing to take risk and have courage themselves
- Change is going to take intentional action
- Find people who align to your values
- The lesson Daniel learned going into entrepreneurship
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- A good idea is not a good idea unless it solves a problem
- You know your solving a problem if people are willing to pay for it
- Don’t be afraid of the minimum viable product
- Just start – get feedback – iterate
- Be a steward of energy
- Leveraging contractors
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- People invest in what they care about
- What are you co-creating?
- What the Courage Collective offers
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- Liberation Conversations
- Courage and Community – launching 2022
- Links below
- Daniel’s nomination for an interview on the show
[48:03 – 51:37] Random Round
- Favorite mistake when starting out in entrepreneurship?
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- Giving away too much of yourself
- Stereotype that needs to be done away with?
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- That we are monolithic – one representative of the whole
- Final words
Tweetable Quotes:
“If I’m waiting for the people who don’t share my experience to lead me in this work, I’ll be waiting a long time… I need to be the one to create the conversation I want to have.” – Daniel Oppong
“Am I willing to invest in the unknown path even if it means I’m absorbing all the risk, all the cost, all the things that go into it and figure it out? For me the answer was yes!” – Daniel Oppong
Resources Mentioned:
Be sure to connect with Daniel on LinkedIn or by emailing daniel@thecouragecollective.co. Check out https://thecouragecollective.co/ and start leaning into YOUR courage.
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Let’s connect! Find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or check out my website http://karlsona.com/. And The Kas Company to find out more about my coaching program.
You don’t have to be anyone other than who you are to be a world-class CEO!