Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jacquie Abram. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jacquie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

After my six-figure career in higher education was derailed by racist and toxic leaders, and I found myself so psychologically damaged that I wanted to commit homicide and suicide, I pulled myself out of corporate America to save my sanity and self-published HUSH MONEY: HOW ONE WOMAN PROVED SYSTEMIC RACISM IN HER WORKPLACE & KEPT HER JOB with my daughters, Deborah and Delilah Harris. Because we weren’t professional writers or marketers and had no clue what to do with the book after it was published, I piled the books into the trunk of my car and sold them at parks and pop-up shops to anyone in Colorado Springs who was willing to listen to me. Seven months after the official launch of Hush Money, it became an international best-selling and award-winning book that was being read in countries around the world.

Hush Money is not just another book about systemic racism. For Black employees, Hush Money is a survival guide for fighting back against racism in the workplace and not walking away empty handed. For employer’s, it’s a compass for identifying covert racism to help them find what they can’t see.

Hush Money is also:

✔️an International Best-Selling & Award-Winning book Featured in Forbes
✔️#1 Best Seller in Black & African American Christian Fiction (Amazon)
✔️ 5-STAR rating with over 446 reviews (Amazon)
✔️#1 in Best Eye-Opening African American Women’s Fiction (Goodreads Listopia)
✔️#1 in Books to Build Up Your Social Justice Literacy: Racism (Goodreads Listopia)
✔️#1 in Black Female Protagonists (Goodreads Listopia)
✔️#1 in Contemporary Women’s Fiction (Goodreads Listopia)
✔️#1 in Mixed Race Representation (Goodreads Listopia)
✔️#1 in Strong & Inspiring Heroines/Female Protagonists (Goodreads Listopia)
✔️#1 Fresh Speakers (Goodreads Listopia)
✔️Gold Medal Recipient for Social Issues Novels (Readers’ Favorite)

Since writing Hush Money, I’ve successfully turned my pain into power for others by teaching a masterclass called HOW TO FIGHT DISCRIMINATION IN A TOXIC WORKPLACE. Through my masterclass, employees and employers alike develop a deep understanding of the sinister elements of modern-day racism/discrimination because what’s happening to employees in toxic workplaces is not unconscious it’s unconscionable.

Jacquie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in poverty by the most amazing single mom a girl could ask for and she had this amazing ability of turning nothing into something. One of my favorite memories with mom was doing something she called trash surfing. We lived in a house that was infested with roaches and had no carpeting, only a cement floor. So, every day after mom got off work, we went surfing in the trash bins behind carpet stores to find scraps of carpet, didn’t matter what color, shape, or size. Whatever scraps we found we took home and sewed them together. Eventually, we had sewn enough carpet scraps together to cover the entire living room floor and we were so proud of our accomplishment! Dolly Parton said she had a coat of many colors, and we had a carpet of many colors, too.

And even though we lived in a house infested with roaches, I ate dog biscuits from the neighbor when we were short on food, and I wore shoes that were two sizes to small, as a child I always believed in the American Dream, the concept that if you worked hard enough, you could be successfully no matter who you were or how poor you were. I believed in the American Dream so much that I wore the only red, white, and blue outfit that I had well past the point that it was tattered and torn as a reminder that I had the power to pull my family out of poverty if I worked hard enough. And it was this belief that fueled my passion to work extra hard.

When I became an adult, my hard work paid off and I earned my way into a lucrative career in higher education and was certain that I had achieved the American Dream. I had a house with carpet that was all the same color, shoes that fit, clothes that weren’t torn, and best of all I had cookies. Real cookies! No more dog biscuits for this girl.

I learned about the American Dream throughout my secondary school years, but as an adult I discovered that there was a part of the American Dream that no one ever told me about. You see, as I was climbing that ladder of success based on my skills and my abilities, someone in the organization noticed me. And the person who noticed me wasn’t there when I was hired, but they were there now due to a change in leadership and not only was this person in a higher position than mine, but he was also a racist. Before I knew it, that rug was pulled from under me and me and that ladder of success that I was climbing up on, we came crashing down.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Self-publishing HUSH MONEY: HOW ONE WOMAN PROVED SYSTEMIC RACISM IN HER WORKPLACE & KEPT HER JOB and the sequel HUSH MONEY: THE COST OF BEING BLACK IN CORPORATE AMERICA was extremely inexpensive. The total financial investment made to self-publish each book was twenty-two dollars.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn was that you don’t have to work in corporate America to be successful. Growing up in poverty, many of the people around me who had good jobs were afraid to make waves or stand up for themselves in the workplace when experiencing racism or discrimination out of fear of losing their good paying jobs.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacquie.abram
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquie-abram-30507858/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvHpB09mXS1A66cKbr2Ag3Q