We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sherard Robbins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sherard thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Please tell us about starting your own firm and if you’d do anything different knowing what you know now.
I founded the firm in 2018 because I saw an opportunity for me to make a real and honest impact on the work of diversity, equity, & inclusion in ways that I had not been able to up to that point. The early stages are always the toughest when it comes to anything that we do; be it forming a business or forming a habit. From establishing the LLC, to settling on a name, to the dreaded moment where you land your first client and have to name your price, all of it was an experience that helped shape me into the type of leader and business owner I am today.
Looking back, though, I am not sure I would have done anything differently. I will say – as advice for anyone looking to begin their journey of starting their own business (of any type) – make sure you find mentorship and do it early! I was fortunate enough to have some incredible mentors along the way who took the time out of their busy schedules to connect with me and school me on how to be successful. Just 30 minutes every so often of engaging me over lunch or on Zoom or even as an email reply was really more than enough to help me get started on the right track. There is an international workshop I do titled “Mentorship: The Key to Success” and it is, in my opinion, one of the most important workshops that we offer at Visceral Change. I truly believe that none of us have ever gotten to where we are today without someone else in some capacity, yet, unfortunately, mentorship remains the element of success that often goes without a credit when our stories are done. So do yourself a favor and find yourself a mentor!
Sherard, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have been an independent consultant for over 5 years now, but I have been involved with the work for over 10. My professional journey, in this way, began on the student affairs side of higher education when I was a graduate assistant and engaging the works of equity and inclusion from a student-centered perspective. As my journey evolved, I began to gain an interest in Antiblackness, racial justice, radical change, and organizational systems and the impact they had on people’s behaviors. My 8 years as a student affairs practitioner showed me, both, the beautiful side of human connection and the ugly side. It certainly prepared me for when I decided to make my own leap into independence.
To that end, Visceral Change, not unlike many things in life, is the product of timing and opportunity. I had the misfortune of experiencing some heavy racism and discrimination during my time working at a university in Tucson, AZ. Almost simultaneously, ironically, I had the good fortune of attending a conference that I thought was catered to higher education but was really dominated by independent and private LLCs. It was the confluence of these moments in time that gave me the foresight and the drive to consider going solo and launching my own consultancy. I was driven by the red tape and the gatekeeping that holds back so much of higher education and organizations in general (and this is before any state legislators ever considered banning DEI related programs) from achieving their full potential as inclusive organizations. As a way to interrupt this, I launched my own consultancy firm in order to serve as, both, a voice and a strategy for people and organizations who, themselves, felt unable or unwilling to have “the conversations.” This includes but is not limited to, inclusive diversity training workshops, organizational assessment, evaluation, and implementation processes, coaching, and even serving in an ad hoc capacity on hiring committees.
Of all of my accomplishments, three of them rise to the top as accomplishments that I am most proud of. The first is the overall funding and formation of Visceral Change. As a private LLC, we were never given any financial assistance, so every ounce of money that flows in and out of our firm is home grown. We, my team and I, have worked extremely hard to get to where we are today and there is a sense of pride I, as the Founder have in knowing that I can say that we did it on our own This is also true for our material . All of our work, from workshops to our Sociosystemic Organizational Development process is original work from my very introverted brain! When clients continue to choose Viscera Change and cite us in their work, I feel very much like a musician who hears the people singing the lyrics they wrote. It’s an incredible feeling. The second accomplishment is being named one of Southern Arizona’s 40 Under 40 all the way back in 2019. This award came just at the end a very turbulent time in my life and it, in many ways, engendered a rebirth of sorts of not only Visceral Change, but of me, the man, holistically. To know that, by this point, Visceral Change had only been around for barely 12 months and had made such a large impact to warrant such an award is something that will always remain with me. Finally, the accomplishment I might be most proud of is being asked to serve as the chief diversity consultant for NASA in the summer of 2021. The government organization was undergoing a reframing of their Hubble Fellowship Program and were interested in revisiting two core concepts – student engagement and diversity equity, and inclusion. I’ll never forget when the woman who contacted me, Rita, told me that she couldn’t think of any other leader in the work of DEI who would be more fitting for such a job.
Each of these wonderful moments in my career speak to how committed I and my team at Visceral Change are to creating an inclusive environment. We strive to make sure that all organizations, no matter how large or small, have the opportunity to maximize their organizational health, success, and longevity by moving equity and inclusion from an individual resource to an organizational value.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
This is an interesting question because I don’t think that the answer is mine to name, necessarily, but rather something given to me by the people who attend and have attended my sessions. The educative work and overall world of DEI is a sensitive one. It’s a field that requires high a level of competency and a lot of grace – the secret sauce of which many people forget. I have been fortunate to have great mentors and to have taken enough bumps early on to learn from my mistakes and gain the trust of so many people. When I think about your question, I think about the many times where I have had people tell me that they left my session feeling seen, grounded, challenged, and most importantly, safe – on either side of the aisle. I try my best to create an environment where vulnerability and transparency are at the root of everyone’s learning; where we can embrace the realty of “you know what you know, and you don’t know what you don’t know.”
A particular moment comes to mind for me when thinking about this question, specifically. I remember being home one day when a friend of mine contacted me and asked if I’d be willing to lead a Town Hall in Hawai’i at an upcoming conference held in Honolulu that coming January. She told me that a few agencies were interested in building a telescope on Mauna Kea over in Hilo on the Big Island and that the Indigenous populations there took umbrage with this – as they should. After receiving the information, I asked the natural question: “Why me?” To which my friend said, “Because I cannot think of anyone else, who I know personally, have seen in person, or have heard from afar, who has the skillset and the character to mediate such a potentially tempestuous situation.” I truly believe that it’s these moments that, I think, not only helped build my reputation within the field, but helps separate me from my esteemed colleagues and peers. Now a days, I find that the true gauge of a successful session is not merely the Likert-scaled feedback on a survey, but the personal comments from an attendee who says that they felt seen, grounded, challenged, and most importantly, safe – on either side of the aisle.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In the past few years, the power structure governing the institutional climate in the United States of America has become increasingly clear regarding its position on diversity, equity, & inclusion. As of January 31st 2024, “proposals aimed at dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs on college campuses have been introduced in 21 states since 2021 — and nine of the states have approved such laws” (axios.com). This means that university employees who are part of DEI Offices, teach DEI-centric curriculum or materials in classes, or who are Chief Diversity Officers (or something similar) themselves are all operating illegally as it pertains to the laws of those particular states. As a result, I have begun to make a slight pivot in my own work of DEI; not to appease the right wing’s (oftentimes, far right wing) desire to rid the nation of inclusive practices, but to figure out how I could present the information from a different lens. As such, I decided to lean on my law degree and utilize my position as a Constitutional Scholar in order to educate people from a legal perspective about how DEI, (anti-Black) racism, and other justice related matters are actually argued, interpreted, and heard in the court room. I have found it to be of profound satisfaction not only to me, but to those with whom I share space, to learn about the causes and effects of legislative actions as they pertain to the societal inequities we see today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.visceralchange,org
- Instagram: @TheConsultantProfessor
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-sherard-a-robbins-823b02176
- Twitter: @VisceralChange