Cyclical Work…Healing through Helping Others
Background: I conceived of the summer long-form interviews project in early 2024 as a way to join my world-building communications work with my enjoyment of interviewing people. "
Through these interviews, I’m amplifying the work of six creative entrepreneurs who I think are world building in beautiful ways. Please check out their websites, social media platforms and LinkedIn pages… follow them, share their work and engage with their content! Interviews are lightly edited for clarity.
The guiding values for this series include sharing the work, connecting with/building community, amplification of good world-building work done by creative entrepreneurs who are Queer, Trans, and/or Black, Indigenous, or people of color. These interviews are framed within queer & trans futurity & Black & Indigenous futurity.
This is a limited series- I’ll be publishing one interview a week for six weeks.
If you know of a creative entrepreneur whose work you feel should be amplified, please send me a note: MxPepper@LucindaPepper.com
“A big practice of vulnerability for me is allowing myself to be taken care of, period.”
My first interview guest…
is SJ Janjua (he/him), founder and CEO of Empowered for Equity, a DEI consulting company that works with K-12 educators, as well as organizations and groups seeking workshops and technical support.
SJ, thank you for joining me for my summer 2024 interviews project!
Creative entrepreneurs are often asked to story ourselves to other people.
We create our bios, resumes or CVs, descriptions of our work, elevator pitches, longer pitches, and much more, all trying to tell a cohesive and engaging story about our who, what, and why. Often, we update these stories multiple times, changing them to fit the needs of different audiences.
Tell me about yourself, and if possible, please tell me a story of yourself beyond the work you do.
“Hello! My name is SJ and my pronouns are they/them. These are some of the words I use to describe myself: transgender, non-binary, queer, mixed race, partner, business owner, creative, consultant, educator, sibling, lifelong learner and unlearner, community member, and dog parent.
I’ve always been an animal lover, and throughout my life I’ve had animals as pets. I’ve always felt that they can sense energy and the bond that you can have with animals is really divine and special.
When I was 18 and off to college, I dreamed about having a dog of my own. I always had family dogs growing up, but I knew I didn’t have the space or time to care for one the way I wanted to.
After graduating college I began my career as a teacher, and still didn’t have the space, time, or money to truly care for a dog the way I wanted to. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I was finally able to say I was in a financial position to afford a dog, and I had the time and space to care for one.
I followed a few local rescue organizations on social media, and one December right before Christmas, I saw a post from a local rescue about a dog named Maple. She was a mix, no one could be sure what breeds she was, but she looked to [be part] German Shepherd. In every photo she was smiling, despite being severely underweight and a recent mama. I was in love as soon as I saw her photo.
Even greater – her name – Maple. That was [the last name of] my great Aunt who I grew up very close to. She passed almost a decade ago, but I felt this was a sign from her.
I submitted an application immediately and waited to hear back. I was contacted by the rescue a few days later saying I was second in line. A family was doing a meet and greet with her at her foster’s house in a few days. If they didn’t choose her, I would be next in line to meet her.
I was devastated and heartbroken. How could anyone not pick her? Especially a family? I wasn’t going to be able to compete against a family. A few days passed and my sadness grew. I decided I didn’t want to look for another dog yet, I wasn’t ready for more potential rejection. My partner kept telling me to have an open mind and that maybe the family didn’t pick her. I couldn’t fathom how they wouldn’t have – she seemed like the perfect dog.
The next day, I got an email asking if I was still interested in meeting Maple. I was shocked – the family didn’t pick her! How could that be?
I scheduled a video call with her foster to ask some questions and then scheduled some time to meet her later that week. When I went to meet her, she was everything I expected and more! Very sweet, full of personality, and somehow trusting. She looked like she’d had a really rough start to life: the rescue said she was a year old, but she didn’t look like she could be more than 6 months. She was skin and bones, had patches of hair missing, and had cuts on her neck where there [had been] a rope tied around her neck. She also had clearly been a mama recently – much too young to have a litter of pups.
We bonded so quickly. The foster asked if we needed some time to think about if we wanted to take her home or not, and my partner and I both looked at each other and said, “Nope! We’ll take her!” No hesitation whatsoever. There was a intuition with her, somehow I just knew she needed to be in my life. Whether that was the spirit of my great Aunt or not, I will never know. I just know that Maple has supported me in ways I don’t feel humans could ever do. We truly don’t deserve animals!”
Another part of your story is what you do. I’ll bet you’re often asked that question so people can learn about the work you do through your business.
Please tell me about your work, including how long you’ve been doing it and where you offer it, and what the germinating seed of your idea was that caused you to start creating this work.
“I always joke and say I’ve been doing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work all of my life. As someone who belongs to many marginalized groups, I have always had to teach people how to interact with me and how to treat me.”
“I am the founder of Empowered for Equity Consulting where I use a blend of my lived experience and the knowledge I’ve gained throughout my life to help others lead diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work. I am extremely passionate about creating [a] better [world] for everyone, not just for the people that traditionally have the privilege or access to creating change.
I always joke and say I’ve been doing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work all of my life. As someone who belongs to many marginalized groups, I have always had to teach people how to interact with me and how to treat me. In a more formal way, I’ve been doing this work for around 10 years – first starting when I was a high school teacher. It wasn’t called DEIB work then, it was just part of being a supportive adult in the lives of your students who all have varying identities and ways of being. It has been a thread that has run through every role I’ve held since then.
I started my consulting business in 2023. I recently just passed my 1-year anniversary of starting my business. It was an idea I sat on for a few years before making any real moves. I wasn’t sure I knew enough about the business side of things to be successful. Imposter syndrome has also always been a struggle for me. I had a mentor who encouraged me to go for it, [who asked] me to put a date on my calendar that I will have my business started by. I listened to her and did just that, and that is how Empowered for Equity Consulting came about. I work with K-12 schools, organizations, and groups by providing workshops, trainings, and technical support.
The germinating seed of my idea was empowerment. People often ask me how I came up with the name Empowered for Equity, and it is because I had many DEIB leaders in my community and my life who showed me how powerful empowering each other can be. I became empowered through learning from them to lead this work on my own, and in turn I always hope that by leading this work I am empowering others to lead it as well.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging work is important, there’s no doubt about that. I pull a lot of my passion from my own experiences at work and in life, that is what fuels my work. I have had many jobs where it wasn’t safe for me to be who I am openly, I didn’t have access to certain spaces I needed, and I didn’t have resources or power to change things. I don’t want other people like me to have to experience that.”
It’s one thing to explain what you do, but a whole different thing for you to convey the why behind your work.
What are your values that keep driving you to create this work?
“A lot of my why is about my own experiences and how those experiences impacted my life. When I was teaching, I wasn’t able to be out as queer or transgender. That had a big, negative impact on my mental health, and I wasn’t able to be the teacher my students needed because of that. I had to live a double life essentially, which was unhealthy and unsustainable for me. Through providing [these] workshops and support, I can help ensure that other queer and trans teachers out there right now don’t have to endure that by teaching their schools how to be more inclusive. Much of my work is cyclical – helping others not experience what I experienced helps me heal.”
We are creative entrepreneurs in a hard, hard world. It takes dedication and commitment to care for ourselves, and a practice of vulnerability to allow others to care for us, all in the effort to find some kind of peace in our lives while we go on doing what we love.
What are your practices of vulnerability that allow you to be cared for by others? What are some examples of how you care for yourself, and how you receive care from other people?
“A big practice of vulnerability for me is allowing myself to be taken care of period. I have spent a lot of my life feeling like I was in this alone or that I had to fend for myself. That was never the case, I’ve always had people in my corner and community who would and have taken care of me regardless of asking.
Learning that I don’t have to shoulder this alone has opened me up to receiving care from others. Whether that be my partner offering to cook dinner at the end of the day or a friend reaching out when they haven’t heard from me in a while. I sometimes wish, in the consultant and client exchange, there was more care for one another. Beyond just business we are both humans surviving in this hard world. Care should be at the heart of our exchange, but most of the time it is just business, money, logistics.
The work I do can be extremely draining and emotionally exhausting – in a lot of ways it is emotional labor. I try to care for myself by allowing myself time and space away from this work when I know I need it. That is difficult when this is how you make a living, but boundaries are my best friend. It isn’t always easy, but having strong boundaries around work/life balance has been a hard lesson for me and a savior at the same time.”
“This gives me more space to really dive into those five tasks, and give all my energy to those things instead of trying to multi-task and do tasks halfway. It gives me more time back in my week...”
Another thing that we need to talk about are those fierce boundaries that we need to have in place in order to show up at our fullest and tap into our creativity.
What is an example of a boundary you’ve put in place, and how does that boundary allow you to create both work and hope in your life?
“I used to keep a long, long to do list! Scared that if I didn’t write something down I needed to do that I would forget to do it. It was kind of a never ending to do list because as soon as I crossed something off, there would always be three more things added. I stopped doing that because I realized how draining that was.
Now I give myself 5 tasks to focus on each week. I don’t do things outside of those tasks most of the time unless there is something that pops up that needs to be done that week. I write those tasks on the white board in my office, and I don’t add to the list throughout the week. This helps me really focus on what is right in front of me, and it helps me not create a never-ending list for myself.
This gives me more space to really dive into those five tasks, and give all my energy to those things instead of trying to multi-task and do tasks halfway. It gives me more time back in my week and I’m not up all night adding things to my list or trying to prioritize tasks on a never-ending to do list. It might seem small, but it has made a big difference for me. I can get lost in the sauce so easily otherwise.”
As a creative entrepreneur, I am working towards our collective future. I know that despite the immense number of challenges we are facing right now and in the coming years, we absolutely can join together to create a world where the earth, creatures, land, and people are resourced and thriving. I know my work fits into that future.
You’ve got a big vision for the world and that is part of why you do what you do, too.
Please tell me some stories about the world you envision and how your work relates to creating those changes.
“I believe that dreaming is something we don’t do enough as a society – so thank you for this question. We don’t make time or space to dream in our day to day lives, so that is something I would like to see more of in the future.
What could a more equitable society look like? What could a society look like where we center community care? What does a society look like where everyone feels safe, seen, valued, and heard? What if instead of trying to change everything all at once, we go slowly?
I envision that world. I think some people think that is so far out of our control, but it really isn’t. We just have to prioritize it and put our resources toward that goal. My work relates to creating that world because it strives to create the time and space for us to dream AND it asks people to ponder the big questions. It helps people build small commitments to new ideas that will help them move closer to that world. It helps people create their own worlds and reflect on how they might start to construct that.”
On a tough day, what do you turn to for encouragement?
“I turn to my transcestors and those who paved the way for me to be able to do this work for encouragement. I also turn to my community of other consultants and DEIB practitioners. It is very easy to get discouraged doing this work. I find comfort in knowing I am not the only one feeling what I am feeling. There have been many before me who have felt this way and there is a whole community of people around me who gets it and knows exactly what I’m feeling. It is helpful to be able to vent to people who understand and who have been there too.”
“I didn’t realize I know so much more than I thought I did, but also I had so much room to learn.”
A lot of creative entrepreneurs started out early on, some even as early as childhood.
When did you start creating and testing out various business ideas? Please tell me the story of an early business idea you conceived of or tried, even if it’s very different from what you’re doing now.
“I never thought of myself as a business minded until I started this business. I always thought I was just way too far out of my depth to have my own business. I didn’t know anything about finances or taxes or what it takes to run a business. Those thoughts are what kept me from starting Empowered for Equity years earlier when I first had the idea.
I didn’t realize I know so much more than I thought I did, but also I had so much room to learn. I’ve learned so much over the past year of owning and operating my own business.
When I first started Empowered for Equity, I thought the first thing I needed to do was to have an asynchronous course available. In addition to live workshops, I wanted people to have the opportunity to buy a product from me too. I threw together a presentation on gender identity, recorded it on zoom, and threw it up on a hosting platform. I had no email list, no client funnel, and no real marketing plan. I posted about it on social media, but otherwise no one knew about it. The only person who bought it was one of my friends.
The support was sweet, but I didn’t realize that I needed to have an entire launch plan for a mini course like that. For months I wondered why no one was buying it. Then I learned about product launches, building email lists, and funnels. I also spent a lot of money on social media marketing when I first started my business (Instagram ads, etc.) and it didn’t really drive any business or engagement for me. It only introduced my content to internet trolls who are transphobic and homophobic. Those were two ideas I had at the beginning that I thought were going to be super successful, but I was really just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick. I don’t blame myself, I was a novice. I learned a lot from those experiences and have a different approach now.
Thank You, SJ!
Find SJ Janjua at:
https://www.empoweredforequity.com/
https://www.instagram.com/empoweredforequity/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sj-janjua
