Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the podcast. Today's episode is the fourth interview from the co-authored book series we published entitled We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight, Women of Faith in the Marketplace, now available on Amazon.com. Each week, I know I tell you how amazing each guest is, and today is no different.
I can't tell you how blown away I am after hearing all the personal and professional stories of each of these women that I'm interviewing. God is truly on the move, doing a new thing to release the voices of women around the world, and especially women of faith in the marketplace. I hope you're also downloading the Women Infused app and listening to the uncut extended interviews that we broadcast there. That's where we really dive in and have an honest, raw, and transparent conversation about all things women, business, and fascinating faith.
And remember, it's only on the Women Infused app. That's where you can find premium content, and by that I mean extended and bonus content for our subscribers only, for both the Women Infused podcast radio channel, but also for all the other channel broadcasters featured in our Women of Faith, Wellness, and Work Networks. You can download the app for both Apple and Android devices at womeninfusedapp.com. We are also giving away our free e-book companion devotional for this series, featuring inspiring quotes from our co-authors and space to journal your thoughts and prayers on a variety of topics.
It's free, but only available for download exclusively by subscribing to the Women Infused app. Today's guest on the show is Aisha Berry. Aisha Berry is a woman who loves God and loves people with all her heart. She is a proud native of Chicago's Southside, where she grew up one mile east of White Sox Park.
Educated in the Chicago public school system, Aisha went on to pursue further education in Mississippi and Minnesota. With a deep commitment to social justice and equality, Aisha began her professional career in 1999 in New York City, and today has worked in the pharmaceutical, financial services, insurance, nonprofit, and technology industries, advancing her passion for diversity and inclusion. As a diversity and inclusion leader, Aisha currently leads a globally distributed team of diversity and inclusion practitioners, who collectively are responsible for providing thought leadership and executing diversity and inclusion plans for worldwide sales, marketing, strategy, IT, and operations clients within the technology industry at Microsoft. Now, Aisha and her husband, on a personal note, have two children with one on the way.
And actually, by the time you hear this broadcast, I can report that Aisha has given birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl, a true blessing from heaven, as you will hear in our interview today. Aisha recently took a huge leap of faith by relocating her family to another state, only to find out that the job that looked so good on paper was not a good fit. Now, let's listen in and hear how Aisha has navigated obstacles in the workplace and is just starting to see how her faith life and professional life are merging together as she uses the gifts and tools that God has uniquely equipped her with. So, welcome today to Women Infused Radio, and I want to welcome our guest, Aisha Berry.
She is a leader in diversity and inclusion for a global company. But what I'm really excited about is as you get to know her, and as you read her chapter in the recently released book, We Walk by Faith and Not By Sight, you are going to find, I think, that her gift mix and her calling are just, God has her in her sweet spot right now. And I'm so excited to ask her more questions about it and how God designed her. But thank you so much, Aisha, for taking time out of your schedule, and welcome to our show.
Thank you so much, Tracy. Great to be here. You know, one of the things that I think women of faith in the marketplace especially need to talk about is it's so critical that we embrace and use the unique gifts that God has given us to impact our circle of influence. And I know you have a unique gift mix, but I also just wanted to ask you so you could tell our listeners, have you ever felt not enough, or have you ever felt like your gift was maybe too small to make an impact?
You know, it's so funny that you ask that, because early in my walk with Christ, and even as I went on into adulthood and working in the marketplace, I often ask myself, is what I have to offer enough? Is my skill set enough for this role that I'm in? Are you sure, Lord, that this is the role that you want me to be in? I'm not so sure that I have all the skills that I need.
Lord, are you sure this is the ministry where you want me to serve? I feel like my gift needs to be enough, because I allow what I visibly saw in both not only, what I would say, professional environments and church environments, and just broader environments, both internally in the workplace and also externally in the marketplace, to kind of dictate what I thought derives value or what's weighting. And I used to say, Lord, you know, I feel like my testimony isn't enough. I feel like my gifting of encouragement is not enough.
What else can you give me? What else can you give me? Not knowing that God had already placed in me the gifting that was ordained for me, and the gifting that would link ultimately to the vision and the plan that he had for me that only I could achieve. And so there were those times, Christy and all honesty, where I felt like, you know, this gift isn't enough.
It's not bold enough. It's not big enough. And then I had to take a step back and really say, are you kidding? Who do you think you are?
You are questioning the Lord who created you, who knew exactly what you needed, no matter the size, the strength, the visibility of it, the impact, what you perceive the impact would be. It didn't matter, because he ultimately knew the plan and the purpose for which he had called you to, and those gifts were connected to it. And so when I realized that, you know, it's nothing like falling on a rock and hitting your head spiritually and God kind of helping you to see, you know, I know, I know what I'm doing to you. Step back.
I don't need your help. What you have is more than enough. And so now that I've gotten to a place where I have truly embraced that, those comparisons that I've made, either in the marketplace or, you know, when I'm in church and serving other women out in the community, are not. They don't have the effect that they had early on when I was so influenced by that physical eye that I couldn't allow, and didn't allow, frankly, that spiritual eye to see deeper into what God was doing in and through me.
Oh, that is beautiful. And I just love how you mentioned, because I think a lot of women are afraid to say it aloud, but we do question the Lord. And we're like, Lord, are you sure? No way.
But we question our value and we question our worth. And I don't know if you have found that even with some women that you work with, but, you know, we also compare. And so it's not about, I think we think we have to be perfect as well before we step out with those gifts. Have you ever struggled with perfection?
Oh my goodness. I'm asking for one more perfectionist to another. You are truly on my street and reading another book in my life. So yes, absolutely.
I mean, you know, listen, the opportunity I wanted to be able to share with your listeners in this audience, the truth of who we are, you know, all the women that have contributed to this book. And more importantly, as you and I talk, I think it's important to be real and keep it 100, right? Keep it 100 as the young people would often say. And the reality is, yes, because I always felt like I needed to be more.
There was more that I needed to be. I held myself to this expectation of perfection that was just really not realistic. And, you know, while it's for some people, it's nothing wrong with wanting to be your best and do your best. I think where I went further in that it was being my best and doing my best was at all costs.
And sometimes it can stress me out, make me sick, create situations of what I would say, just complete lack of confidence in myself, because I kept trying to be this perfect, I each are the perfect daughter, the perfect worker, the perfect ministry partner, the perfect servant. And the reality is there is no perfection. And I have to keep reminding myself, and even daily, you know, as you grow in your walk and just grow as a human being, quite frankly, you go from all of these different experiences, and then experiences can push you back right when you think you've worked on that one aspect of an opportunity for you to develop better habits, better, your ability to better communicate, as an example, just, you know, some very tangible examples. And you make one mistake, you act as if you've got to start all the way back from ground zero, and that's me.
Oh my goodness. I'll say, oh, I made that mistake, let me start all the way from the beginning, and then try to work my way back to that point before I make the mistake, and then through and beyond that point. And how unfair is that to yourself as an individual, but also, how unfair is that to the people that are watching you? People need to see you.
They need to see and experience you and your life and be the truth of who you are, not who you're perfecting or pushing yourself to be because you're looking for some sense of perfection. I think what I have struggled with in this life is always wanting to be the complete, absolute best of Aisha at the risk, at the risk of not being able to give myself the latitude and the flexibility to make a mistake. And in making the mistake, realizing that it is a mistake, it is a moment in time, but that doesn't mean that time stop and restart. God doesn't work that way, right?
And so I have to keep remembering, he doesn't work that way, so it's just you fall seven times, but you get back up. And the key is, get back up. And that's what I had to realize is this plight to continue to be my best self, which is a great thing. We all should aspire to be our best selves, but we also have to give ourselves a wiggle room to know that we are not perfect.
We are human beings. We are, yes, the likeness and form and the light of Christ, but it's because of him that we're able to do and be what he has called us to be. And so it's a work in progress for me, quite frankly. You know, and you are being very honest and authentic, and I think most women, if we're really honest with ourselves, we fall in that same category.
And by the grace of God, you know, we keep picking ourselves up, but sometimes we do, like someone will look at you or they'll look at someone that you work with and they'll think she has it all together, she's perfect. She never stumbles. And then we set ourselves up for that failure, but we don't want to allow ourselves to fail. So I love that you're willing to be transparent and say, hey, I don't have it all together all the time, but I'm better because I keep learning through the lessons.
At least that's what I hear you saying. And I am enough and I do have value. You know, in a book, you mentioned that you consider your gifts tools of influence. So let me ask you this.
How then are you impacting the kingdom by using your unique gift mix in corporate culture? Yeah. So one of the things that I believe I'm leveraging and utilizing my gifts to impact the corporate, I'm sorry, corporate culture, I'm having a faux pas there, is to, one of the gifts that I do have and use quite a bit, not only as I'm working in ministry and working in the community, but also in corporate America is this gift of encouragement. But I also think it's so connected to empowerment.
And I think one of the things you said at the beginning of the podcast was the great blessing that God has given me to work in an area of corporate America that directly aligns to my passion and more importantly, my life calling. So that allows me to use that gift of encouragement that Barnabas, if you will, ministry, when I'm working with and partnering with team working with members of my immediate direct reporting line, but also my partners across the organization. I'll give you an example. It is a few weeks ago, I was attending a training course where we were working on T leadership competencies, pointing out leadership competencies and one of my partners in a fellow organization said, I would love for you to give me some feedback on how you think I came off in the opening of the session.
And I always see those opportunities to get feedback as an opportunity to not only of course be balanced in what I share as the feedback, but also an opportunity to empower and encourage. And so that gift of encouragement plays itself out in corporate America when I'm able to say to this leader, you came off as strong, learn it in your faith, but authentic, and also being transparent in the opportunities where you have. The gap, or if you will, to grow and develop your leadership portfolio. The thing that I would encourage you to continue to remember is that at the end of the day, no one can tell your story but you.
And so there's no need to be nervous about your story because we don't know what the full story is. We're getting to know you. And so we don't allow individual spaces. We have to try not to allow individual spaces, their disposition, their nonverbal to influence how we respond with telling our story.
At the end of the day, you are a leader. And so that's how I have tried to leverage my gift. And I put that in writing so that at any point, she needs to go back to that when she's working on her presentation skills and continuing to develop that gift of, if you will, storytelling to audiences. She can go back and know that one of her peers already sees her as a leader and that no one can tell her story but herself.
And then at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you've been put in position to give your story. Nobody else can tell it. And so that's an example of how I've let my gift play out in the marketplace. And that is the perfect example of empowerment.
And I love that you speak that so clearly and so loudly. And telling our stories is how we learn. It's how we, I think, learn to release that perfectionism that we might hold on to. Because when we hear each other's stories, if we're being truthful, we're telling the good, the bad, the ugly, and the great.
So we're kind of giving you that full circle story. And it helps other women not feel so alone, maybe. So I love that about you. And I love that about what I've been reading about you.
You know, I recently found an article that was quoting you about one of your favorite quotes. And it is by Robert Frost. Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.
So here's the question I want to ask you. You wrote in this chapter about being a first generation college graduate, a first generation to work in corporate America from your family. So you have literally had to take the road less traveled, in my opinion, and had to walk by faith and not by sight in so many areas. Can you tell us a little more about any challenges you might have faced by taking the road less traveled or how it relates to kind of being a forerunner in your family?
Yeah, I would say, you know, one of the challenges, but it was also, it was a challenge in that, to your point, when you have the first or you are the first, whatever that is, fill in the blank, first, you know, female to be an author in your family, first, fill in the blank. It comes with a level of weightiness that creates a huge amount of responsibility, one that I embrace, but one that I also could have benefited from having more individuals in those times of when I was taking on it and moving into different firsts, if you will, in my experience, where I could have a set of mentors that could help me understand, okay, this is the best way, as an example, to manage your money. This is the best way to manage individuals that you will come into contact with in corporate America who are not trusting or trustworthy. This is the best way to manage, you know, fill in the blank.
And so one of the challenges that came with that is trying to figure it out on some level and at some point on my own, but then also as I got to connect and grow more, if you will, in corporate America and in the professional world, I got to connect with other individuals that had similar stories and then those that didn't. And they became, unbeknownst to them, mentors and or examples that helped me to understand how you manage this responsibility, because it is a great responsibility, but it is also equally a blessing. So for me to be able to call out a first in my life, whatever that first is, as you, you know, gave the example, first to graduate, first-generation college graduate as an example, I know that with that came the responsibility that I needed to be a great example for my sisters and for my cousins and for my children, quite frankly, and my babies to come, that I've got the responsibility of telling the story of the great challenge and reward it is to be given the opportunity to be educated, to be given the opportunity to work in a field of study that is absolutely connected to your purposeful passion. And also the opportunity to be able to help your family financially when they have various things that they need assistance with.
God gave you access or access to access, not just for you, not just for you, Aisha, but to be able to help other people. And so while the challenge of being a first or having a first, I would say to women in the marketplace that... have their first because inevitably if we took a moment in time and thought it through we all have first that we can point to but i would encourage us to think of it not just as a challenge and we invite us to think of it as a great opportunistic blessing what will we do with that first and for me the opportunistic blessing in it was my ability to be able to be an example to others pave the way for others and begin to build a legacy for my children and my children's children so that they've been to want to be that as well so that's a blessing um and that that comes with weightiness that is um it comes with a great deal of responsibility that sometimes can be challenging but oh my goodness what opportunistic blessing to be able to say i'm a first in something oh absolutely i love what you said about getting access to excess and that's a kingdom principle and so as we walk by faith not by sight as women especially women in the marketplace i really believe that we all are responsible for leaving a legacy and you touched on that so beautiful that was one of my questions for later on let's address that now so for this generation and the next you are leaving a legacy and you kind of already hinted what you want that to look like uh and what you want to be remembered for but if you think about your position either in the marketplace or as a leader in your home you know what's that legacy or the thing you want to be remembered most for yeah i would say um what i would want to be remembered most for was that um i was a woman of excellence that through um the fire through the refining um grace and mercy of god uh was able to be blessed with those true desires and great desires of my heart the blessing of being a wife the blessing of being able to be loved by uh someone even though i got married later um in my chronological journey later than i had initially planned but it was the absolute right time that god had in store for me um to be known as a a wife and having that desire of that but then also um being able to be remembered for the uh nuggets of wisdom that i've been planted in others in my life and seeing the fruit of that being produced and being reproduced and then reproduced and reproduced such that it falls and is rooted on that that great soil that the bible speaks about in mark excuse me chapter 4 is making sure that god's word falls on that fertile ground and i'm hoping that what it is that i have done and the legacy that i will lead through those that i touch um in both the community and industry in the marketplace has fallen on fertile ground and that that fertile ground understand that they've been empowered to do the same thing and then it's replicated and then it's reproduced and then it's replicated again and reproduced so it's just a legacy uh for me good soil living life authentically living a life of service and most importantly living a life of servant leadership and reproducing that and replicating that in others hey friends it's christy again wasn't that a great interview i could have sat and talked with aisha all day make sure you listen to the raw uncut full interview only available on the women infused app there you'll hear aisha talking more about using the power in your voice to change influence encourage and impact your friends family and even the workplace she talks about shifting your sphere of influence to impact the world and more make sure you listen and women infused app.com download the app go to the podcast channel and there you'll find her interview i hope you've enjoyed this and i look forward to seeing you on the app this has been women infused radio connecting women around the globe with purpose and spirit and we want to connect with you get your free gift unveiled voices six things you need to do to define your value voice and vision for more information on the free gift and links to join the conversation on social media visit us at christylynnolson.com is you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you