We recently connected with Julia Silva and have shared our conversation below.
Julia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have any thoughts about how to create a more inclusive workplace?
Creating an inclusive workplace is essential now more than ever, especially with the shifts we’ve been seeing in the workplace culture over the last few years. With the remote and hybrid workforce, it is a business imperative to ensure that all of your employees are feeling seen, heard, valued, respected and a sense of belonging, even if they’re not all in the same room. I’ve been a passionate inclusion advocate for years and currently advise companies on how they can develop an inclusivity strategy for their culture that will have lasting impact and influence their employees sense of workplace satisfaction and overall happiness. I believe we should all be able to find joy in what we do, in the workplace, and with the people we spend the majority of our waking hours with.
Studies show that a company’s DE&I strategy will have direct impact on overall employee satisfaction and well-being, so employers need to understand the motivating factors that keep people in jobs – as well as the demotivators that drive workers away. In the 2022 McKinsey “The Great Renegotiation” report, it listed out some of the top reasons for quitting previous job: 41% stated lack of career development and advancement, 14% stated a “non-inclusive and unwelcoming community”, and 13% stated an “unsafe workplace environment”.
Basically, employees left companies due to not feeling a sense of belonging, psychological safety, trust in the company, or that they can thrive in their workplace environment.
Companies need to remember the importance of meeting their employees where they’re at and proactively develop a cohesive strategy and internal initiatives that drive inclusion as a business priority, and not an afterthought or “nice-to-have.”
Investing time, appropriate budget, resources, proper leadership and managerial training, and implementing systemic changes are essential to foster a culture of inclusion and belonging. These efforts can, in turn, help companies tap into and address the needs of their different communities, increase profitability and productivity, and reduce attrition and resignation rates. When companies embrace and emphasize DE&I, employees not only feel a sense of belonging and empowerment, but can share diverse ideas to solve problems more efficiently and quickly. Business executives and leaders need to understand that creating a more inclusive workplace is essential for their business to thrive and stay competitive, and need to be held accountable to actually follow through on these DE&I related efforts.So where to start? As a first step, I recommend investing in a dedicated DE&I team or steering committee that can work with ERG groups, inclusion councils, diversity working groups, managers, and executive leaders to determine where the actual needs are to then be able to put an effective and long-term strategy in place. If you don’t have the ability to hire a dedicated full-time DE&I team internally, then look to outsource and hire experts and consultants (like me) that can help.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Julia Oliveira Silva and I am the Founder of Joia Way, a small business and consultancy that offers corporate advising services to companies in need of expert guidance on how to solve their greatest Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DE&I) challenges, as well as offering workshops, leadership trainings, strategy development, and bespoke programming for women including community gatherings, events, and boutique experiences.
I am also a Growth Mindset Mentor to first generation, Latina, and multicultural women who are eager to intentionally design their maximized life filled with fulfillment and purpose, helping them unlock their untapped potential through personal transformation. I aim to guide them to become courageous leaders and creative innovators. I used my background and expertise in Communications, Learning & Development, Program Development, and DE&I work to develop a unique 90 day Life Design Program designed to teach the principles of mindfulness, the power of presence, conscious leadership, delegation, time investing, Nonviolent Communication techniques, and more. The goal of this program is to provide participants the tools, frameworks, and proven methodologies they can apply to actively create a more mindful and present life filled with joy and fulfillment for themselves that in turn allows them to thrive as leaders, both professionally and personally, as well as give them access to an authentic community and network of badass, inspiring women across multiple industries.
I feel I also have to share why the name “Joia Way” has a very special meaning because I love intentionality in everything I do!
The word “joia” in Portuguese literally means “jewel”, but is also a way of describing how you are feeling or how you’re doing when someone asks you. In Brazil, when someone asks you “Oi, tudo bem?” (“how are you?”), one way you can respond is by saying “Tudo joia!”, which means “everything is great!”. In my culture, we basically use this saying as a way to express that we are feeling good and that life is great! My father says “tudo joia!” all the time and it always brings a huge smile to my face when I hear it. I also intentionally wanted to use a Portuguese word to pay homage to my heritage, cultural background and first language. Then “Way” is essentially the path, the approach. The result? Joia Way!
This is the goal I have with Joia Way: I want to provide companies and individuals access to the personal and professional development tools they can use to transform their way of being, their relationships with themselves and others, as well as transform their mindset to unlock their greatest potential. I want to help them find their “joia way” and begin their journey to greatness.
It took years for me to get to this point of finally becoming an entrepreneur. I previously worked at Google for 6 years, starting in Sales on the Google Cloud team, then transitioning over to the DE&I space in the People Ops organization after witnessing a lack of women in leadership positions and wanting to be a part of the conversation to elicit change. I started to get involved in various ERGs, Culture Clubs, Diversity Councils and internal DE&I-focused trainings.
Through these efforts, I became a motivational speaker, storyteller, and experienced corporate trainer and facilitator, facilitating workshops for partners like TED, Deloitte, YouTube, Lean In, and Anitab.org. I became a passionate advocate for developing and driving impactful initiatives to uplift historically marginalized communities. My last role prior to leaving the company was at YouTube, working as a Program Manager developing the product and platform educational curriculum and learning journey for grantees of the #YouTubeBlack Voices Creator Fund, a $100M+ initiative “intended to present fresh narratives that emphasize the intellectual power, authenticity, dignity, and joy of Black voices, as well as to educate audiences about racial justice.”
After over 10 years of working in the corporate lifestyle, I made the decision in February 2022 that it was time for a life reset and new adventure. It was time for me to get back into alignment with my soul’s purpose. I decided to pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur, something my father always told me to strive for. “Be your own boss” he would tell me as early as the age of 7. Those words always stuck with me. To now have the opportunity to spend my time and energy on creating my vision, on offering my gifts to the world in a way that can positively impact others, that feels like my purpose. That is what I am here to do.
I am now currently based in Miami and call myself a multicultural, multi-lingual, first generation “mashup”, also known as a “third culture kid”. I have quite a unique lived experience and identity that sets me apart: my mother is Portuguese and my father is Brazilian, and I was the first person in my family born in the US. Due to my multicultural “mashup” identity, I always felt like I was the “other”, that I was never fully a part of one community or fully accepted by any. In my past, this was a difficult experience to navigate. But now I see my “mashup” identity as my super power. It forged the path for my empathy and compassion for others, fueled my curiosity, has given me the skills to be able to connect with others in authentic ways, and is now a source of multicultural community connection.
I speak Portuguese and Spanish fluently and am a passionate advocate for the first generation experience, helping others who have experienced feelings of “othering” find their voice, their power, their authentic community, their joy. There’s power in sharing our stories and uplifting one another.
I have many hobbies and interests that demonstrate the range of my personality. I love unique and boutique travel experiences and made a goal for myself to travel to one new country a year with my husband. I love playing spikeball and tennis, practice ecstatic dancing and embodied movement, and love capturing beautiful moments through photography. I also get lit up by hosting community gatherings, women’s events, women’s circles, and intentional experiences designed to inspire meaningful and authentic connections with others in community.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My recent personal development and entrepreneurial journey can really be marked by one specific life event that completely changed me and showed me the power of resilience.
In January of 2020, one of my best friends Anisha died in a surfing accident while traveling solo in Bali. Anisha and I met our freshman year of university and we grew a soul connection unlike any other over 12 years. She was an incredibly brilliant, joyous, warm, loving, divine being. She had this gift of making everyone feel so seen and loved, while also being a total powerhouse leader in everything she set her mind to. There are no words that can adequately describe all that she was and all that she continues to be in the lives of everyone who knew her. As anyone in her community can attest, losing her was a great loss for humanity.
I’ll never forget the moment I found out that she had died. I know exactly where I was standing, the sound of her father’s voice as he broke the news to me, the sensation of the wind being knocked out of me, my heart collapsing, my body unable to move. There was this brief moment of complete stillness and silence as my soul realized what was happening. It was just gut-wrenching devastation.
This was the most shocking, unexpected, and earth-shattering experience of my life. It was the first time I lost someone so close to me and it completely shifted my perception of life. I had just seen her a few weeks prior while we were traveling in India for a friend’s wedding. We were roomies on that trip and I would later come to realize that I was one of the last, and fortunate, few people who got to be with her right before she left this life. We were unknowingly witnessing the sheer magnificence of her being in her last moments.
Anisha was unlike anyone I have ever and will ever meet and losing her completely transformed my life.
Three months later, the pandemic hit. Needless to say this was a time like nothing we as a modern society had ever experienced. I was personally struggling with depression and my anxiety was at an all time high. I remember the summer of 2020 was one of the most taxing seasons on my mental and physical health.
It was during this time that I had an awakening. I started to think about the concept of time and how valuable it is. How I needed to start investing the limited time that I have in this life on actually living it, the way Anisha had. So I started repeating this daily mantra of “What would Anisha do?” It became a personal spiritual practice, a way that I was able to transform her loss into my guiding light.
This realization is what led me down the path of really investing in my own healing, on my mental health, on my physical health, on learning how to create a more fulfilling and joyful life after having suffered so deeply. I was able to find the strength and courage in myself, and the resilience I needed to heal through this tragedy.
It was during this personal healing journey that I started to feel a deep urge and desire to help others in their healing as well. That is how Joia Way came to be. My goal is to act as an authentic connector, a courageous leader, community organizer, and a mentor for those seeking guidance and safe space to transform their own lives and find more joy in the every day. My goal is to uplift the most marginalized communities and provide them resources and tools to thrive, not just survive.
I was able to find my joia way. I want to help others find theirs too.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn was this notion that I needed to be constantly producing, constantly on, constantly striving for the next promotion, the next role, the next performance review, the next big thing.
What I realized was this hyper-productive, output driven mindset was seriously impacting my overall health and mental wellness.
After studying and working in tremendously high-achieving and ambitious environments like University of Pennsylvania and Google, I started to notice that my life was extremely out of balance. I was exhausted. I wasn’t giving enough time, energy or effort into filling my own cup and was constantly pouring and giving to others, to the point of empty. I reached the state of burnout and had nothing left to give to anyone and least of all, to myself.
It was at this moment that I was challenged to go inward. I knew I needed a serious life reset and a major adjustment to my mindset, so I made the decision to remove myself from that environment and prioritize reevaluating my life design. Rest is essential and we need to be able to give ourselves permission to rest, which as a first gen, multicultural, Latina, is easier said than done due to the cultural conditioning I’ve experienced my entire life.
I came to the realization that if I wanted to design a life of joy, where I felt empowered, fulfilled and living in alignment with my soul’s purpose, then that would require shifting my lifestyle and habits, without shame or guilt. But first, I had to remember what it was like to just be. I started to dive into meditative practices, finding ways to calm my nervous system, and really invest my time into learning the mindfulness and wellness techniques I could apply to navigate all of the complexities of life.
I know I am not alone in this experience. Stress, anxiety, fatigue, and burnout are on the rise and a lot of folks are running on empty. This is why I developed my Growth Mindset Mentorship practice, as well as my Life Design Program, a program intended to provide the tools, frameworks, and methodologies to help women like me lead a more mindful approach to life and to live their “joia way”.
Contact Info:
- Website: joiaway.com
- Instagram: @julia.oli.silva
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-silva/
Image Credits
La Dichosa Erik Tchinnosian