We were lucky to catch up with Stefania Pomponi recently and have shared our conversation below.
Stefania, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
One of my favorite things to do is to spend time teaching and mentoring young adults, especially those in college. I am always interested in hearing what they plan to do with their “precious lives,” and I listen with interest, and, I admit, a little amusement, as they lay out exactly what they think their life will look like. There is so much pressure not only on in-coming college students to know what they want to do, but also on college graduates and young adults in general to have figured out the exact, right path their life will take. As a counterpoint, I like to share my story in the hopes that young adults will live lives filled with doing things that take them off their perceived path. Things that scare them a little. Things that may not seem like the right fit at first. All of these things take risk, but they build resilient humans who know exactly who they are.
I didn’t start my first company until I was 40. I started my second company at 52. To some, especially those in Silicon Valley where I live, it might seem I got a late start. I say. the opportunity to start what ended up being an industry defining company came along at just the right time.
This is the lesson I want to leave with everyone I meet, especially young people. There is no one way to live your life. There is no single definition of success. Follow your nose and try everything that interests you! You’ll succeed at some things, and fail at others, but it’s true what they say: no risk, no reward. For me, there is nothing more rewarding than knowing everything I’ve done to this point in my life informs what I’m doing now, and what I am doing now will inform the next thing. I can’t wait to see what that will be!
Stefania, 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?
My company, Hella Social Impact, exists to Notice, Name, and Dismantle™ systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression that marginalize, exclude, exploit, and harm Black and Non-Black People of Color (NBPOC).
In all of our policies, practices, programs, and partnerships, we work to co-create a world where Black and NBPOC can show up as their authentic selves, tell their stories, and be heard.
But what happens when you and/or your organization wants to show up for racial justice but doesn’t know where to begin or is afraid to fail?
We know exactly what that feels like.
My partners and I are seasoned corporate leaders and serial entrepreneurs.
We worked together in a mostly white-owned/white-led company.
The work was meaningful.
We worked with good people.
We reaped the rewards of white supremacy culture–titles and power, a Bay Area living wage, a proverbial seat at the table
Then George Floyd was murdered.
As Black women and non-Black women of color we felt the pain deeply. We could hardly focus on work. Getting on with “business as usual” felt hollow. Harmful. Something had to be done.
We called out systems of white supremacy and oppression in our company. With our clients. In our industry.
We began the work of putting social impact and racial justice at the heart of the company.
We learned in hard and painful ways how much fear this brings up in organizations, and how much courage and imagination it takes to do the real work.
We realized the work we were doing at that company is the work every company must do.
We were called to do more.
We founded Hella Social Impact because we believe:
-Showing up authentically and impactfully for racial justice is good for business
-More accountability leads to more innovation
-Focusing on the most historically marginalized folks in your company means that everyone wins
-Change happens at scale when organizations get comfortable with the discomfort of making mistakes, and dare to do what’s right
-Effectively communicating your growth and progress along the way builds trust with your employees, customers, and communities, and inspires even greater impact
If you’re interested in learning more about what we offer and how to work with us, you can visit https://www.hellasocialimpact.
This moment is meeting all of us, so as we like to say: Let’s make Hella Social Impact.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ve never felt I worked inside of typical corporate culture norms, but I could never understand why. Over the course of my career I’ve been told I “work differently than other people” (that wasn’t a compliment), or that I was “difficult to work with.” That kind of feedback can be hurtful in any circumstance, but it’s especially cutting when you identify as a third culture, biracial, woman of color who has dealt with imposter syndrome her entire career. It wasn’t until I met my current business partners and started learning about white supremacy culture characteristics that I began to understand that, in most cases, the problem wasn’t me, it was the corporate world.
American corporate culture, business practices, and what is typically defined as “professionalism” are ideas steeped in white supremacy culture. Valuing the written word, creating artificial urgency for urgency’s sake, perfectionism, and believing there is only one right way to do things, are some examples of white supremacy culture characteristics. They are characteristics that uphold privilege, dominant culture, and whiteness while devaluing the unique perspectives and strengths that Black, Indigenous, and non-Black people of color bring to the table. They showed in my career as negative feedback and caused the lack of understanding about my own work style and imposter syndrome so debilitating it sent me to therapy. I had to unlearn that the only key to success was to work in a manner that was anathema to my personal values. And, I had to learn that for my entire career what I was doing was trying to actively dismantle white supremacist business culture in organizations that were doing their damndest to uphold them.
Tema Okun, an antiracist leader who has identified dozens of white supremacy culture characteristics present in every organization, says these characteristics are “damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being proactively named or chosen by the group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacy thinking. Because we all live in a white supremacy culture, these characteristics show up in the attitudes and behaviors of all of us—people of color and white people. Therefore, these attitudes and behaviors can show up in any group or organization, whether it is white-led or predominantly white or people of color-led or predominantly people of color.” In other words, we are all played by white supremacy culture, and if we don’t name it and work towards actively dismantling, it has the potential to damage individuals (especially Black, Indigenous, and non-Black people of color), and the organizations. For more on this I recommend reading Tema Okun’s work here: https://www.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My current cofounders–Lynn Johnson, Edita Rodriguez, and Ashley Keeler–all worked together at a previous company. We were the four women of color on the leadership team. After George Floyd was murdered, like so many people across the world, we felt the pain deeply. It became increasingly difficult to focus on work. Getting on with “business as usual” felt hollow and harmful. We knew we needed to make changes and so, we decided to start within our organization. We called out systems of white supremacy and oppression not only in our company, but with our clients and across our industry.
We began the work of putting social impact and racial justice at the heart of the company. We learned in hard and painful ways how much fear this brings up in organizations, and how much courage and imagination it takes to do the real work. We realized the work we were doing at that company is the work every company must do, and that we were all called to do more.
That’s how our company was born.
We started Hella Social Impact to continue the work we started at our previous company. The four of us are not only committed to our mission of dismantling white supremacy, but we are also aligned in our values and culture. There is a tremendous benefit in knowing that we are in agreement with how we work and how we conduct business. To learn more about our “culture code,” which we call our Hella Mixtape, go here: https://www.hellasocialimpact.com/culture-code
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hellasocialimpact.com
- Instagram: @hellasocialimpact
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/hella-social-impact/
- Twitter: F*ck Elon Musk!
- Other: TikTok @hellasocialimpact
Image Credits
@altstd.co for the photo of all of us against the graffiti wall @joysco for the photo with silver jacket