Inside the Office with Suezette Y. Robotham

Inside the Office with

Suezette Y. Robotham WWW.CSUITECHICKS.COM

INTERVIEW WITH SUEZETTE Y. ROBOTHAM 2

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What’s your day job?

I am a speaker, connector, coach, and leading “Black Girl in Tech.” I have more than a decade of leadership experience, with expertise in talent acquisition, diversity & inclusion initiatives, leadership development, strategic planning and relationship building across various industry sectors.

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Who are your heroes or mentors?

14 years old, and around 50 was the first time that she wasn’t really responsible for the day-

Heroes, it’s probably cliché, but my first hero is my mother. She is probably one of the strongest, most phenomenal, yet humble women I know. She’s modeled all of those things for me. And I think the first lesson that she ever modeled for me was bravery. I don’t think she sees herself as brave, but I see her as the bravest person I know.

to-day care of anyone.

I think her journey to self, and being able to watch that as I’ve become an adult has shown me a completely different side and picture of who she is. She has also modeled giving and so many other things for me. So, it’s funny because my mom told me on her 60th birthday when we were in the Dominican Republic that I was

Can you tell me more about how she

brave before I was born. And I don’t think that

showed you bravery?

she realizes just how much of that bravery comes from the things that she’s done, because

My mom was the first person in my entire family to come to the United States, at the age of 21, in 1975. She’s been in the country for 44

she just sees them as things that she was supposed to do.

What’s your best childhood memory?

years. It’s funny because while most Jamaicans come to America and go to places like New York, my mama picked the most nondescript towns to live in. Most folks come to New York.

She went to Norristown, Pennsylvania.

I’m a first generation immigrant child, and I grew up in a house where all of our relatives would stay with us, especially my dad’s family.

And so, I grew up in a house where family and

We also lived in Roanoke, Virginia. She decided,

supporting family was central. My parents also

after she got divorced, that she wanted to

owned a store in Virginia when I was growing

move to Florida and instead of picking Fort

up, and they modeled for me the significance

Lauderdale, where most Jamaicans go, she

of community, of customer service. I’ll say both

decided that we were going to Tampa. So,she

of them are extroverts. I’m actually more of an

was kind of a foremother in terms of where our

ambivert and I’ve taken on, their personalities,

family landed.

because I’ve watched them, in terms of how they engage with people.

She showed her bravery in the decisions and sacrifices she made as a single mother. I think

I loved spending Saturdays and Sundays in the

that once she became an empty nester, that

store with my parents, because I knew that we

created a different types of bravery for her. My

were going to see our neighbors and people

mother has been raising people since she was

that we knew. Childhood was filled with music

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and reggae, and my father would be doing community radio. We would listen music in the basement, and the essence of family sharing special moments, I would say, is my favorite childhood memory.

What traits did you possess as a child that resemble traits of a leader, and do you have a funny story?

There are two funny stories. My mother was convinced I was going to kill myself before I turned five, because I was an explorer. I don’t remember this, but my mom was like, “I don’t know what got into you, but you hated sucking on a bottle,” and she was like, “I think your teeth were coming in, and you were just upset and it was hurting you.”

She said, “You crawled to the top of the stairs, and you were sitting there with the bottle sucking it, and it started hurting and you threw that.” She was like, “You threw the bottle all the way down the stairs and never drank out of one again.” And I was only one.

My mom’s older sister was like, “She’s doing these things because, as she’s discovering her world, that’s how she’s going to learn. She has to do these things to learn,” and my mom’s like, “I know but she’s going to kill herself.” So, my mother said, I was probably two. All she saw was me flying across the room. She saw a spark of fire, and I flew across the room. And essentially I was trying to figure out how the plugs worked. And, I think, it speaks to who I am; an adventurer, a risk taker and I believe in trying everything once. So, I never stuck anything else into the electrical socket as a child, but I’ve just C - SUITE CHICKS MAGAZINE - INSIDE THE OFFICE

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always had a sense of discovery and apparently

“Well, maybe I’m gonna do education policy.”

conquering.

As fate would have it, I ended up going to work

Dropping bottles and electrocuting myself, Mom was like, “I was always really concerned

for Teach for America and being Director of District Strategy in Atlanta.

about what were you going to do daily that

My journey has been this interesting course of

could end your life.”

me ending up in education in a way that I would

When did you decide you would be

have never imagined, and then has evolved into this place of me doing work in talent. I

an educator? That’s really what your

don’t know, and I’m not really sure where I’ll

trainer, equity ... What would you call

go next, because I think my passions within the

yourself?

coaching realm have changed. So, I’m much more interested in working with groups than

It’s interesting, because for a long time and even growing up, I wanted to teach. I applied to Teach for America, got in, didn’t do the Corps because I got into grad school, and mom was like, “You’re going to grad school!” I’ve always had a passion for imparting or giving knowledge and supporting people to find and access their highest potential in whatever it was.

And I think now, if I was to definitively call myself a name, it would be more of a coach. I want to influence people, whether for leadership development or identifying opportunities. I always wanted to connect people to something that will help them find the impact that they want. And I don’t think I ever knew that that was going to be my calling officially.

individuals, for several reasons.

And the thing that I will say to anybody is just, if you buy $20 shoes, they will last you for as long as a $20 pair of shoes will last you, but an expensive pair of shoes is going to last you a lifetime. So, do you want to make and have investment pieces, or do you want what’s going to be a short-term win? You are your OWN best investment.

But my biggest lesson as an entrepreneur, as a coach and as a black woman is, I have to hold myself to a standard, and I have to evaluate my goods appropriately. And in the same way we should support other businesses. For example, if you’re looking to land a $100,000 a year job, a $500 investment in a résumé that’s going to get you that job is priceless.

I ended up in policy school and thought, “I want to be a public policy practitioner,” and I ended up working in the office of the Chief of Staff in Atlanta Public Schools; then I thought, 6

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If you weren’t doing this work, what

way it’s supposed to. I’ve never gotten the

would life look like?

initial job I applied for, and now I’ve ended up at Google. And even in my journey to working

At some point in my life, I want to be an author,

at Google, I was asked to apply for one thing,

and I want to have a TV show. And, those things

interviewed for another thing, and was hired

are going to happen. I’m manifesting it, but I

into a different role, but ended up having a

would be much more arts-focused.

phenomenal first manager Kanika Rainey, who become my big sister.

I really enjoy writing about the young, black female’s experience from the single

And so, even in that, I was like, “Well you

perspective, and soa couple years ago, I created

thought you were going to do this and ended

a non-fiction, a fact-based fiction blog. Some of

up meeting an amazing black woman that has

it was based on facts, but most of it was fiction.

invested in your experience.” I always try to

I developed the storyline from having one main

look for the lesson. Now, there are some men I

character to sharing it across two.

wouldn’t date again, but even that was a lesson right?

Life kind of happened. I want to get back to a place where I’m creating a very unique

Something that’s always stuck with me

narrative around black women’s experience.

is, you don’t have to make the mistake to

One of the women that I blog about worked

learn from it. What’s the toughest lesson

at a non-profit. Her best friend was a black,

you have learned that you hope another

female music producer and was at the top of

woman can learn from you?

her game I like taking a unique context and writing something yummy around it.

Oh man, just one? Money is never enough,

I want to send it to Queen Latifah. What I also

and some would say that that is not a wealth

appreciate is there are all these black folks now

mindset. But in 2008, I got a great job

getting deals with Netflix original content, and

opportunity and moved to Nashville. I ended up

I’m like, “I need to focus and get someone really

having the worst personal experience, because

invested in it,” because I do believe in the brand

I sacrificed my personal life in the name of

around my story too.

growing in my career.

I f you had it all to do over again, would you do anything different?

No. Every single thing in my life has happened the 8

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That was probably my first experience with depression, and I couldn’t name it at the time because I wasn’t in therapy. I realized that money was never enough. Because, also, the other piece of it is, I was not smart enough to understand negotiating my salary, and so have REFLECT. CONNECT. INSPIRE.

now been trying for my entire career to catch up to what I should have been making then.

And so, I would say, one, know your rate, and learn how to negotiate your salary, but don’t let money be the definitive reason for any major life decision, because you’re always going to need more regardless of whether or not you can spend it.

Reflect on your first major challenge in a leadership role. What resources did you have, or need and not have, to overcome it?

One of my first major challenges, very honestly, was having a manager that was not an expert in what it was that he was asked to do. But more importantly, working for a manager that did not have a vision for what my work was supposed to be, and bumping into each other as I began to try to define it.

And I think the first major lesson I learned in that space was the art of managing up, because I think you’re told very young, when you’re going to work, the boss is going to tell you what to do. Sort of like my first jobs were, I worked at Rainbow, I worked at Busch Gardens, I had all these summer jobs, and it was always very directive.

And so, to come into a space where you’re asked to be the strategic leader, or you’re asked to be a strategist, and having to figure out, actually, that somebody’s not going to tell you what to do. You’re going to actually have to show them what we need to be doing.

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And I’ll be very honest, within that space; it

superintendent’s going to change, but your

was disappointing, because it was my first

admins are always going to be there.”

experience reporting to a black man.

He was like, “Well, we have to have these

And before that happened, phenomenal

higher-level relationships.” And I sat back

experiences, my first mentor was a phenomenal

from the meeting, I crossed my arms, and I

woman named Dr. Janice Monk-Reardon,

said, “I am the best relationship builder in

a white woman that just committed to my

this organization. No one builds relationships

growth and development. And then to be in a

better than I do, and that’s just it.” So what

space where I was working for a black, male

happened was, I left Teach for America, went

leader, I was expecting that thing pouring

back few later., I was up for a promotion, and

into, and to not have it, and to have to manage

my EVP went back to my first manager and she

up was just jarring, but it was also my first

was like, “You know I just wanted some context

experience with, if you’re not getting what you

on Suezette,” and he was like, “She is the best

need professionally, then it is okay to leave.

relationship builder I know, and no one builds

So you managed up until you managed out?

better relationships than her.”

It was something that I had given him four years ago, and not in the best space, but it came

Yep. And unfortunately, I think as a black

back to be a part of my brand. There is also the

woman, that’s a lesson that we learn, in terms

significance of owning your narrative, and what

of how we’re navigating space. It was manage

you’re communicating to people, and how that

up to manage out, but it gave me my directness,

then shows up later, as well.

and it also taught me the importance and significance of the brand that you build professionally.

There’s a lot of research demonstrating the value of diversity in leadership. Tell me about your experience as a female

So we had this conversation, and it wasn’t

leader in your industry. What has

adversarial, but I was becoming much more

diversity looked like in your work?

direct in my feedback to him. I have a very clear understanding of the significance of

For most of my career, I have been responsible

relationship building, especially with school

for teaching about either the programs that

districts, and what that means for your ability

will impact communities of color, and/or set

to influence change and a broader kind of

the stage for how an organization diversifies.

work. So I told him, especially because I had

I would say one of my proudest moments was

come from this school district, “You have

when I was at Teach for America.

to do grassroots relationship building. A I helped co-found our School Leaders 10

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of Color and Professional Learning Community. It was developed in the space of one. I realized that we had such a small population of leaders of color, black, brown, or Latin infusion and we weren’t doing enough to connect them. For school leaders in particular, as a principal, you can’t talk about your English teacher to your math teacher, right?

It’s super-isolating in terms of the role, but also then, if you add another faculty, such as, being the only black principal in Connecticut, you just naturally, don’t have a community. So, I saw very clear gaps in terms of training and development. I really leaned in with my co-founder Melinda Wright, to say, “What is it that we can do to create community with most of these folks?”

We started that program with 30 leaders in DC. It’s now six years old and they had 600 people in 2018 in Denver. The community has exponentially, creating those spaces for our leaders.

I’ve also spent my most recent professional experiences helping organizations hold themselves accountable for building their muscle around, “How do you actually recruit diverse talent?” I think is interesting especially within the tech industry. We have this very interesting narrative around, “Oh, we have to build the brand”.

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know who our brand is”. And my response to

been able to articulate to anyone what I do,

that is, “We don’t have a brand issue. You have

because I always have these weird titles in

a relationship issue in whether or not people

organizations. Even when I was getting my

see themselves represented there, and feel like

master’s degree, and it was during my second

they can grow and thrive there”.

masters, she’d be like, “My baby is working on

So, really changing that narrative, I think I

something.”

learned most of that within the educational

She’s the board chair because she’s just the

reform space because it was, to some regard,

board chair. I would say my good friend Lynette

brand-building but then also, relationship

Buzzdale; we worked together at Teach for

building. You can’t be an education nonprofit

America, and now together at Google. We

that says that you are serving communities of

don’t know how we met, but David Johns, in

color, but when I look at your leadership bench,

terms of being a phenomenal friend, is on my

and throughout the organization, there’s no

board of directors.

one that looks like me.

Wait, I think what’s interesting about a board

We had an opportunity to really lead the work

of directors, and what corporations could

and set very clear goals and targets around

take from it, is a lot of times, it shifts. It should

how we do this, but then are we holding up a

actually shift based on what your need is. And

mirror and holding ourselves accountable for

it should always be a body that has some level

doing it?

of subject matter expertise in that space. I

So, my life’s work, and what I will forever have as a part of my narrative, is working to create

think a board of directors is different than your kitchen cabinet.

access and opportunities for communities of

It is not just about your friends you think

color, in whatever capacity it is that I’m doing

you click with, but you need people that can

it.

actually help you drive what excellence looks

Top businesses have a board of directors

like. And I’ve found, especially working in tech that my board of directors has shifted to be

to help govern their business effectively.

people that are in this space. I also think it’s

Who’s on your personal board of

hard to articulate, sometimes, the challenges

directors?

in tech to people that are not in it, because it is one of those things that you have to

My mom is the board chair, even if she doesn’t want the role and even if she doesn’t always understand the role. My mother has never

experience to understand.

I also think some of the things even in

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instances where there might be a more passive-aggressive culture, there’s passiveaggressive culture in education reform, for instance, but it looks completely different. And so, I feel like my board of directors, honestly, has become much more formed around people that can understand and empathize with my experience My board of directors now, as I reflect on it, it’s still David and Lynette, but Chanelle Hardy, Wilson, White, Tiffany Snowden, Carla McIntosh, and Lawrence Cole are also included. I now have a strategic communication strategist on my board of directors that’s helping me think about a broader brand and outreach instruction, so Courtney Culmer.

This is due to really wanting to make sure that my board of directors reflects what I’ve been through, can help me vet my next steps, understand my view, and have a broad enough focus and subject matter expertise in what I’m passionate about to really help me drive my decision making.

What keeps you up at night?

I’m a closet Type A personality and so I’m now trying to work on growing and developing my podcast and I get in my own way and it bugs me, because like, Courtney, who is my strategic communications person will say, “Suezette, just record”. And I’ll start recording and I’m like, “But I don’t like it”. And so, I think that what keeps me up at night is I know that I’m standing in my own way and I wonder, “How do I move 14

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myself?”

It is also funny because somebody spoke this into my life a couple of weeks ago. She was like, “You’ll be who you want to be”. But sometimes, you are thinking “Are you doing enough? Are you enough? Is this what you’re supposed to be doing?” And even though I know that I’m very much on a walk and I trust, it’s always like

And so, it’s like, “How do you give, be in the spotlight and do all of these other things?” So, it’s also finding the right energetic balances, which means that I’ve also changed, to your point, about board of directors my supports in my my kitchen cabinet. I need to be surrounded around people with good energy and that understand my energy.

that even though some would be like, “You’ve

What do you do for you that brings you

achieved so much,” it never feels like enough,

absolute joy and peace?

which then also leads to me being in my own way about stuff and so it’s like, “How do I let

Oh, man. Solo vacations. My most recent

go of the ‘it’s not enough’ and be content with

solo vacation was to Mauritius in 2018, I love

‘you’ve done a lot’?”

seeing the world by myself. I think that there

Not content, but perhas at peace?

Exactly, because, I think sometimes, we don’t allow ourselves to appreciate what we’ve accomplished. It’s always like, “Okay, that was good, but you need to go accomplish something

is nothing that shows you who you are, where you are going than going somewhere where you may not speak the language, or you may not know anyone and having the time of your life and creating memories with people that you would have never met otherwise.

else”. You’ve just really achieved and attained

I am a free spirit so I also like to have the

that that was great. You’re to obtain other

freedom of not being responsible for anyone

things”. I think that, in general, black women

but myself. I also feel like when I do solo

have that interest and attention of our humility

vacations I actually take the time to get to

versus self-promotion and I think we need to

know people that I wouldn’t otherwise get to

lean much more toward self-promotion, but

know. So, when I go to (Durban) South Africa, I

I’m pushing through this. People see me and

stay at the Hotel Prince Edward on the beach

think,”Oh, Suezette is such an extrovert”. And

and I go and I know the staff and I’m like, “Hey,

I’m more of an ambivert. I’m also somebody

Charlene. Is Charlene in here?”

that likes to be behind the scenes, pushing other people forward, and so it’s not like pushing myself forward and coming out from behind, which has been very interesting, and I’m a giver and so that takes a lot of energy too.

When I went back with Jenn (Roberts, Versed Education Group), Charlene accidentally sent my champagne to herroom, because we had a whole conversation where she revealed

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she was Indian and she was explaining to

is usually from the perspective of the person

me what second class citizenry looked like

doing it, so I love The Four Agreements.

in South Africa for them and Durban is the second largest settlement for Indians. Had I gone with people to Durban the first time, I wouldn’t have had that conversation. And so, having the opportunity to build friendships and relationships around the world by myself has been cool, but also, there is something about being on vacation somewhere where there’s water, because there’s just a freedom where sky meets the sand and the land and the sea.

I just feel myself most in those moments. I do feel the energetic difference in me having not

For what I’m reading now, I’m reading 10 books at once. I decided when I had surgery last year that I was re-reading anything by Bell Hooks.

So I started Sisters of the Yam again. From a fiction perspective, I just may recommend it now that I’ve read The Warmth of Other Suns.

Even the poetry in it so far, I’m enjoying that. I actually read Homegoing in 2016 when I went to Africa, and I should read Homegoing again.

Have you read it?

No, but will add it to my list!

done that in a while and doing one this year.

What’s your favorite book and genre and what are you reading right now?

My favorite book on any genre, yeah. I have two favorite books. I actually read What I know For Sure by Oprah when I went to Australia for my 34th birthday. And I was like, “How have I not read this before?” There are women like, “Oprah, I don’t have a house in Maui,” but there are some salient points in that book. I read it once a quarter. I have it highlighted; and have it electronically, so I always have it with me.

I also love The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. In a professional sense as a manager, I have had to impart the four agreements to younger people, especially the “don’t take it personal” advice. I think our tendency is naturally, everything’s about us, and it’s just a really great reminder that decision making

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It’s about two sisters that didn’t know they were sisters and what the experience of slavery did for the generations of their families. It was just profound because it was the first story I read in adulthood where it wasn’t a happy ending and it also taught me about my mindset around we all are seeking and striving for

like, “I’m out here making goat”.

Okay. I want to be able to make those things that are distinctly ours and some of them I can do, but I want to be more intentional around it, because I want my children to grow up and be like, “I am Jamaican.”.

perfection, but the reality is everything doesn’t

My mother is known for her Jamaican black

necessarily end with a bow tie. It’s a fairy tale,

cake and I was raised standing in the kitchen

but also, deeply reminds me about all that’s

and watching her. But two parts this and three

been stolen from us. I do have the fortune in

parts that don’t mean anything, right? It’s kind

terms of my family being Jamaican, knowing

of like she can look at it and know her precise

where in England my father’s family is from, but

measurement of, to your point, if I had someone

also knowing, that my maternal grandmother

to record her doing that, I could recreate all of

does not have access to the same knowledge of

those things.

her history, although we have an idea of where, but it’s kind of weird. I’m loving these books where it’s a reclamation of history, but also not sugar-coating it. If you haven’t read it, go read.

It’s amazing.

And so, also, another thing that I want to do and I am committed to doing is, I have one living grandparent, she’s 91, I want my grandmother to tell me more of her story.

We’ve been doing the talking, so now I know

It gets deeply personal and emotional, because

she went to private school and she was the only

you find yourself reading it and being in the

one of her siblings that went to private school.

story with her, yeah

My grandmother speaks Creole, and I want

What is a skill you want to learn and why?

to get a better understanding of it, but we’re assuming its Maroon and I’m like, “Well, are we descendants of Nanny?” So, trying to figure out all those pieces while she’s still alive,, I want to

That’s very interesting, because I had this

be a better historian.

conversation last night. So, I can cook, but I want to learn to create more of the traditional

When do you feel the most confident?

Jamaican dishes, because I think where I have a huge concern is: I grew up with a distinctly

It’s funny…on stage! I love doing speeches and

Jamaican upbringing and experience and I want

talking. I love getting up in front of a crowd and

to provide that to my children. long as my mom

just talking. I feel most confident then. Well,

is around, I know she will help raise them, but I

also, it’s nerve-wracking, so even after I did

want to be able to do those things. I want to be

my first TED Talk, as soon as I was done, I’m

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like, “Ahhhh”. I had this burst of emotion. I was

and my friends. I just believe that we’re magical

bawling. I had to fix my face quickly, because

and I know that’s become cliché, but I cannot

we had pictures afterwards, but I love being on

imagine this life not having the bonds and just

stage.

the strength that comes from those dynamic

If you had to describe yourself in five words, what would they be?

women in my life.

How can readers connect with you?

Authentic, compassionate, empathetic,

My name is Suezette, so if you can never find

dynamic, leader.

me, it’s because you forgot an extra “e” and so that’s Instagram.

What would you like your epitaph to be?

Instagram @Suezette. Twitter is @11zett17.

I would probably have something from…I don’t

LinkedIn is Suezette. Iced Coffee Confessions

know…that’s hard. You know what? No, I know

on Itunes, spotify and SoundCloud. On

what I’m going to put. My mom was like, “Live

Instagram it’s @therealicedcoffeconfessions.

your dreams” and I want it to read “She lived her dreams.”

If your life were a movie, what would be your theme song?

“Satisfy My Soul” by Bob Marley is my favorite song.

20. Is there anything else you wish I had asked you?

About a whole bunch of other things. I think if I was going to say anything that we didn’t talk about it would just be that I strongly and fully believe in the potential, the ability, the beauty and the strength of black women. And so, I think that’s why I’m so strongly connected to my mother, but also my nieces and my cousins

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