Meet Carlos Kareem Windham

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carlos Kareem Windham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carlos Kareem, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

I wasn’t able to get beyond feeling like an imposter in my own skin until I really grappled with self-acceptance. For me to accept myself, I really had to go through a lot of very deep self-reflection and then taking action. By that, I mean, that with experience and age, I have developed the wisdom to understand and embrace that life will occasionally blow-up in my face. Also understanding that the same is true for everybody, and when that does happen, sometimes the best that we can do is to be there. To be there through this discomfort and pain, and eventual evolution and metamorphosis.

After the personal rebirthing process, I learned to observe and accept myself. It look long to appreciate myself. Only after creating healthy boundaries was I really able to cultivate the practice of allowing myself to be myself. I would try on an outfit the felt right, and spend what felt like hours – pacing and circling around my flat, asking myself if I was really going out like that. Roasting myself, in some hyper-defensive preparation for moments that I lived through in childhood, but never entered into my adult life. The more I embraced myself, the more easily I was able to find my truth, my community, and my audience.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I escaped traditional employment about 7 years ago. I had been working as the Director of Equity and Innovation for a mediation center, and after half a decade of building up their agency, my absence at the agency was requested. I left with a sizable severance and several strong women in my corner who believed in me. I began El Porvenir Services, LLC and was quickly back to work as a consultant. Since then, I combined efforts my business partner, Theresa Logan, who has her own consultancy. Together, we founded Strategy & Solidarity. It’s an on-line global community that you can find a strategyandsolidarity.org, where we offer public trainings, workshops, and conferences. Additionally, we offer services helping forward-facing public agencies with organizational and leadership development with a focus of serving the most impacted communities.

In the evenings, or as called upon, I’m also a stand-up comedian. I work locally in Portland at Covert Cafe where I host a showcase every second Saturday called Fucks of Life. along with Amanda Lynn Deal, Angelique Harrington, and Dahlia Belle. I’m also on the road quite a bit. This year I had the opportunity to headline in Limassol, Cypress for the first time. It was at the 3rd Annual International Comedy Festival, produced by Stantar KKomety. Absolutely incredible time. I would really love to continue to break through to a national audience. I really think I’m doing something new, and honest. Even when a bit cuts to the bone, I like to offer a bit of salve in the laughter. The only way that you know the salve is healing is when it comes from a place of love. In my experience, audiences can tell the difference.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Fucking up, apologizing, and being humble enough to make amends. That last one can be rough, because the apology – if authentic – isn’t for them. It’s for you. You can’t really account for the mistakes that you refuse to recognize. If in your life, there’s a history of people feeling like you’re pushy, or overly demanding, or dismissive, and you start feeling like everybody is against you, or everybody is misunderstanding you, you might be the one misunderstanding you. You intentions may be to achieve a particular outcome, but whatever the success, people will remember how you made them feel far more that the goals you were able to accomplish.

And Kendrick wasn’t lying. You have to remember that everybody not gon’ like you. So what? Do you like everybody? On the things that matter to your soul, work with the people who serve love. If the appreciation or praise is merely transactional, that’s not love. Now we all have to earn a living, but where you can find places of community, respite, and reciprocity… maybe explore how you can contribute to the larger agenda, rather than performing an assigned role that requires false humility or unhinged braggadocio. No place is perfect, but some have clearer alignment. Until they don’t. Then be willing to move on without blame and rancor. The humility required to make amends means that forgiveness is a thing that you will have to offer yourself, before you can offer reconciliation can be made. And where there are other folks involved, it’s worth asking yourself whether there was an authentic relationship to reconcile.

It’s no one’s job to accept our apologies, nor boundaries. It’s is our obligation to ourselves to uphold our own integrity and that requires great humility.

How would you describe your ideal client?

Our work-place engagements are most impactful for clients when they are willing to be vulnerable and to make the investment of time and energy that cultural change or development really requires. Strategy & Solidarity is really moving beyond the short-term training model for agencies and organizations. Culture shift requires investment at the level of leadership, and a willingness to work responsively with the workforce. When leadership provides real opportunity for development, folks can really flourish at work. If leadership tries to hold a vice-grip, or dismisses the contributions of their staff, they can easily create a toxic work place. When the ecosystem is ready to invest time, energy, and has the necessary budget, I have witnessed dynamic growth and positive progress toward deepening client and community relationships.

Community offerings at Strategy & Solidarity are most impactful for those who are facing a moment of personal or professional transformation. For those who are more established in their practice, or are looking to grow their audiences, we offer the opportunity to participate live in our annual Global Forum. We will then host your presentation in the app, where you can feel free to share, post, and send clients. Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Confidence
Breaking Barriers: Succeeding Even When Representation is Lacking

What do you do when no one else in the company or the meeting looks

Leadership Development
Finding Your Why

Not knowing why you are going wherever it is that you are going sounds silly,

Relationships
Surviving Divorce: Stories and Lessons

For many, marriage is foundational and so when a marriage falls apart it can feel