Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel Vicente. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Rachel, thank you so much for agreeing to open up about a sensitive and personal topic like being fired or laid-off. Unfortunately, there has been a rise in layoffs recently and so your insight and experience with overcoming being let go is relevant to so many in the community.
In my career, I have been laid off twice – once in 2017 and the other time in 2020. Being laid off two times within a 4 year period can come with many emotions – confusion, sadness, anger, relief and hope. For me, I took this as a sign of needing to pause and become intentional and really get in tune with my values and my faith. Truly, I asked myself what was God or the Universe trying to tell me at that moment – especially as I was getting laid off at the start of the pandemic. I took an entire month to be present and allow myself to sit within the cycle of grief. I find that people often don’t consider a job loss as loss – and therefore don’t properly grief.
In that clarity and stillness, I made a personal and professional choice grounded in my values and decided on becoming entrepreneur and I worked to launch Rachel Vicente Consulting on July 5th – my country Cabo Verde’s Independence Day. In overcoming that layoff and starting my business, I was able to do something I had not yet been able to do in a job setting – exist authentically. I was able to choose who I wanted to work with, how many hours I could work, and was able to leverage my diverse skill sets into promoting the growth of individuals and institutions. Had I not taken a moment to grieve and reflect on my vision for my long-term life, I would have ended up making a misaligned values choice for my career. I would not have been able to overcome the layoff as effectively and used it to propel me into my next best opportunity – my own business.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Rachel Vicente and I am a proud Black, first generation Cabo Verdean woman and entrepreneur. I am the Founder of Rachel Vicente Consulting and Co-Founder of the Authentically Me Fellowship for Women of Color that I facilitate alongside my colleague and great friend, Vanity Jenkins. For starters, my journey that has led to becoming an entrepreneur has always been grounded in my passion for equity and my love for people. In my sessions and workshops, I always start by telling people “I’m not new to this. I’m true to this.”
For as long as I can remember, I have always tried to build spaces where people can be able to express their authentic selves. These values in my story begin as early as middle school where I was asked to facilitate conversations with elementary school students on racism and antisemitism. It continued where I served as a peer mediator for six years supporting my peers in navigating interpersonal conflict, much of what I use in my executive coaching work. They later flourished in my eight years in education as I worked to support people in their vision and goals as a science teacher and instructional coach.
In 2020, I launched Rachel Vicente Consulting to bring my passion for equity, community and authenticity to a broader audience. I partner with leaders and teams to uncover the gap towards their vision and values and use an equity lens to help them align their policies, practices and processes to their aspirations in order to show up as their most authentic selves. Simply, I want to create a world where anyone, in any space they occupy, can express their full humanity and show up as their most authentic selves–no questions or doubts. Clients who are interested can engage with me through executive coaching, strategic advising, training and speaking engagements.
Alongside Vanity Jenkins, we launched the Authentically Me Fellowship for Women of Color (AMF), a six-week professional development fellowship for women of color. Studies have shown that women of color do not receive professional development provided internally or externally and experience less psychological safety in their jobs. AMF was founded as a direct response to this reality. We strive to provide this professional development so that women of color walk away with increased emotional and psychological safety, a sense of confidence in their skill sets, and a larger community of other women of color. We now have over 60+ women of color in our AMF community and are excited to announce that Cohort 8 will be launching in 2025. In addition to our flagship program, we are also looking to offer a team-based option. We want to offer organizations the opportunity to have 10-14 women of color participate in the fellowship together.
I hope to continue to innovate and provide learning opportunities for all of us to show up as our best selves.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
My best piece of advice for folks early in their journey is to take space for yourself to define your values. In doing so, we can move forward in our personal and professional lives feeling more aligned in our humanity and more engaged and whole in the process. I consistently say that when we are values aligned, we are often most fulfilled in our work as we are being true to ourselves – living authentically. In the inverse, when we are experiencing tension – the first thing to do is see how your values may be in tension with the situation. In my coaching work, I work alongside my clients to clarify their top 3 values and understand how they emerged and how it impacts their lives currently.
When I think of one of my values that have been impactful in my journey, I start with honesty or truth telling. Early in my career, I was silenced when I chose to challenge power with truth. However, I have found that using honesty and bringing in truth has allowed myself and others to feel fully authentic. It has also built my own self-trust as I am leading with integrity.
Another area that has been impactful in my journey is community. This is one of my values and it is no surprise given that I am the youngest of five children that was raised with my first cousins. My entire formative years were built around the Cabo Verde culture of collectivism. I am a “lover of people” and that means that being with others and watching them succeed brings me fulfillment. I have been successful in my career by leaning away from individualism and leaning into the skills, talents, joy, and knowledge of my own community. They have provided me the most growth and supported me at every step of my career, but especially when I was launching my business. Leveraging your network and people in a non-transactional way is key to long-term success.
My piece of advice would be to center joy in your life. Capitalism has made it so we don’t nurture ourselves outside of our professional lives which translates to us assigning our self worth to our jobs. In this current economy of consistent layoffs, that just doesn’t work anymore. We really have to be mindful in carving out time for things we love to do. Outside of work, I have joined a local Miami field hockey team, connecting back to the sport and community I had when I was younger. I make sure to take long walks, go to the movies a couple times a week, and stay out at least once a week till 5am. No matter what part of the journey you are in, start developing your practices for centering joy now.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I did an exercise with my business coach and it helped me to identify three qualities of former clients that I really enjoyed working with. It didn’t matter what industry they were in or how big the team was. What matters is that the point of contact has these three qualities. 1.) that they are really reflective in thinking on how the impact of their actions affects theirselves or other people, 2.) they are openly curious and open to growth, 3.) they are strong communicators and understand how to effectively share our work together with key stakeholders.
For me, I am able to be a coach, advisor, and trainer as long as I am able to support clients towards their vision and goals. It is important to understand if we are good fits with each other – is my personality and style of work what you are looking for and will I thrive in this partnership. If you are hoping to be more aligned to your vision and values or build your own confidence, let’s chat.
If this sounds like you and you are interested in collaborating with me, you can shoot me an email rachel@rachelvicente.com and share you learned about my work through Bold Journey!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rachelvicente.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-vicente-cpc-b8387a13b/
- Other: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsFoe0TxYgmtilytcwsxE1IQis6VRuUy2yQXMXef0GdBp2pQ/viewform?usp=sf_link – Waitlist for Authentically Me
Rachel@rachelvicente.com – email
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
