My Best SHIFT

S5:E3: A Blueprint for Corporate Success (with Andrew Beamon)

• Hosted By: Chantée Christian • Season 5 • Episode 3

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What happens when community, corporate responsibility, and career strategy intersect? In this episode of My Best Shift, Chantée Christian sits down with Andrew Beamon, an organizational development consultant and DEI expert, to explore the power of networking, exposure, and integrity in building a successful career.

From navigating corporate spaces as a Black professional to leveraging volunteerism and social impact for career growth, Andrew shares how he strategically built his career and how others can do the same. They dive into the challenges of breaking into leadership roles, the importance of authenticity, and how community accelerates personal and professional success.

Listen now and discover how to level up your career while staying true to yourself!

Meet Andrew Beamon – Corporate Changemaker, Author & Consultant. Andrew Beamon is a dedicated organizational development consultant, specializing in racial equity, corporate social responsibility, and employee engagement. He is the author of From Promises to Progress and a contributing author in the upcoming book Awareness Put Me On.

With a background in DEI and social impact initiatives, Andrew has helped organizations bridge the gap between corporate goals and meaningful change. His work extends beyond policy—he’s committed to empowering individuals to navigate and thrive in professional spaces.

Connect with Andrew via his website.

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INSPIRED ACTIONS/THOUGHTS FOR THIS EPISODE
How are you leveraging community and collaboration for career success?
In what ways can exposure and volunteerism open new doors in your professional journey?
How does integrity and authenticity shape your personal and professional growth?
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Chantée Christian:

hey, andrew, how you doing feeling great, feeling great today good, good. Thank you for joining me on my podcast hey, it's a pleasure to be here. Good stuff, good stuff. So before we get too into our conversation, why don't you tell the people a little bit about yourself?

Andrew Beamon:

Yes, andrew Beamon, from Waterbury, connecticut. I'm an organizational development consultant, spend a lot of time working in specializing in racial equity, employee engagement, corporate social responsibility and social impact, and also an author author of a book from Promises to Progress that was published last year, and have a consulting firm, ab Consulting.

Chantée Christian:

Awesome, awesome.

Andrew Beamon:

So background.

Chantée Christian:

Yeah, I mean, mean you kept that real short so you failed to mention, because by the time this airs that you are also in another book called awareness. Put me on um, which is my own personal baby, which I don't think I've talked about yet on this season from a perspective of like what it is. But we'll do that a little bit later, and so I'm super excited that that'll be your second time publishing.

Andrew Beamon:

Yes, yeah, that's not not bad. Two years, two years in a row dropping books and, yeah, the first time around. Doing it by yourself is so difficult, especially the first time, and it just was such a pleasure working with you and the rest of the team and doing this together. You know kind of one I was able to learn from everyone learn how to do it the right way as far as the process goes, and just having that experience with other people.

Chantée Christian:

Yeah.

Andrew Beamon:

It's really cool.

Chantée Christian:

Doing things in community hits different right. And then also we have a tie to Georgetown, which came oddly enough. We have a tie to Georgetown, which came oddly enough. We have a tie to Georgetown which I think is really dope. I often throw shade at other DEI programs that are not Georgetown, and then when we came in the top 10 list of DEI programs, I was like exactly how could we not?

Andrew Beamon:

We should be number one.

Chantée Christian:

Well, you know, cornell got number one, even though I feel like our program was better than theirs, because they don't have an immersive program like we do. So, like how we had, um, the our ending program, like our ending project, where we actually get a client and we go through what it looks like to help them solve whatever problem they have. Cornell doesn't do that.

Andrew Beamon:

Okay, okay.

Chantée Christian:

Yeah, I mean, I know.

Andrew Beamon:

I have nothing but respect for Cornell's program because I know we came out of it in a way like some of the stuff was born from Cornell's program. Yeah, just in that regard you have to have some respect for it.

Chantée Christian:

So I always think, usually when I recommend programs to people, I say Cornell or Georgetown, like they are the biggest and the best, but good to know that we enhanced what they were already doing well and and that and right, we took a lot from NTL and we really implemented a lot of the principles of what it looks like to be around humans and in those dynamics and what it looks like to foster spaces with people, and what happens when you add a new person in, take a person out, and how to resolve conflicts right, and so that's where the immersive part comes in from right From the program. So Sukari shout out to her, but she, she came from NTL world and so that's one of their like founding things that they do. So it was really dope yeah.

Andrew Beamon:

You know, what's kind of interesting about that experience of joining that Georgetown DEI executive certification program is that at that time, when I was there in 2018, I was working for a nonprofit organization and we were going through our own DEI initiatives that we were creating and building, and when we were going through that process, I wasn't really included in a lot of the work that was being done. Like you know, the senior exec brought in an outside firm and they just went at it and you kind of just did their own thing. And as I'm watching it, I was thinking I should be a part of this because I'm passionate about this. These are the books that I'm reading. This is related to a lot of work I was already doing in organizational development, so it was something I wanted to be a part of.

Andrew Beamon:

And I remember talking to a friend of mine. I said, man, they left me out, they're doing all this DEI stuff. And they left me me out. And he said, well, did they know you were interested in doing it? And I just had to step back and say, actually, no, I never spoke to him about. They know you're passionate about this. No, they, they, they probably didn't. So, yeah, my next step was which?

Andrew Beamon:

Which I was challenged with is. A friend of mine said hey, you know, if this is something that you really want to do, if you really want to get into DEI, well, first you should probably read like 15 books on the topic and like just go in and just consume as much as possible articles, whatever, and then also look for that opportunity which I found with Georgetown in that program and I ran a program by him I said I don't know, I don't know if I'm ready to pay this amount to go, and he said you better pay it. And it was one of the best investments I ever made. I mean, I didn't go directly into DEI. I ended up working, going to another company and doing corporate social responsibility and social impact. But it's such a big overlap. A lot of the skills that I gained from that program, dei, were brought to the table with my work in corporate social responsibility.

Chantée Christian:

Yeah, I mean, and I think that I think that that's really important too, especially like in the climate that we're in is to remember that, like, everything is DEI right. So I have been doing DEI since we used to call it organizational change management, which I'm sure in the coming days, months, we will be going back to disguising it so that we can do it right. I mean, alabama just passed some crazy policy where the colleges can't teach DEI, right. And so I'm like well, what do we do now? But I think that is really important. Or, and I think it's really important to to state that social responsibility that has a DEI component to it. Right, like everything that we do has a DEI component to it. Right, like everything that we do has a DEI component to it. What do we call it? That's what's palatable for the people, right? But I think that is really dope that you didn't go straight into like I'm a DEI practitioner, and then that's what you hung your hat on. So I think that's really dope.

Chantée Christian:

Yeah, I think that was one of the things. So we came out of different cohorts, but I think that's one of the things that I struggled with the most in the cohort was like naming Because everybody's like I'm a DEI practitioner. And I was like nope, not putting it on my resume. And it was like what is wrong with you, why won't you do that? And I was like what is wrong with you, why won't you do that? And I was like because I'm more than that.

Chantée Christian:

I feel like that pigeonholes us. It's like I'm a change agent and in that there are things that require change, require some attention require some growth, you know.

Andrew Beamon:

So, no, I think that's really dope, really dope. Yeah, totally agree, I think, about my career since I graduated. So my master's degree was at University of Hartford and it was organizational psychology. This is back in 2009. And I feel as though everything that I've done since that date falls under organizational psychology, or you could call it organizational behavior. You know name it organizational change. That umbrella encompasses corporate social responsibility, social impact, employee engagement, di, racial equity. It all falls under that.

Chantée Christian:

It's just different ways of helping and improving a culture of an organization, and there's many different tools to use and just been using different ones in different capacities yeah, I mean because I think when I started my mba program, that was one of the things that I struggle with was like I understand that hr is for the company right, but who's for the people, right. And then the more and more and more I started getting into OD and organizational behavior, I was like, oh, this is where it lies, it's in here. And I feel like now I see a lot of companies with people and culture and and I'm like, okay, but now what are you doing to protect the company Like it's like you have to have a balance, you know so.

Chantée Christian:

No, I love that. So I'm curious since you have a background in organizational behavior, people, things, what's one of the things that you love most about what you do?

Andrew Beamon:

What I, what I love most. I think of it as what I'm able to do internally for organizations, so like, for example, with corporate social responsibility. A lot of the work I worked on was outside, helping employees get involved in the community through employee volunteerism, right Supporting and helping nonprofit organizations through sponsorships. So I love what we were able to do to impact the community, but I also love the impact that it actually has on employees. So like seeing programs and events where employees are working together.

Andrew Beamon:

A lot of times when you think about building employee morale, maybe you're having a program, maybe people are going out to happy hour or having those different events.

Andrew Beamon:

People are going out the hot happy hour or having those different events. But I like the um, the creativity, where you're able to bring people together in different ways outside of the regular work hours, to build that rapport, build those connections and communication across departments and then ultimately, like changing the lives of employees. Like seeing an employee have more pride in the organization to where they, where they see their values, the organization's values, in action and then, but not only that, be able to get promoted because people know them now. People know them now Like you know when you, when you talk about like different ways that people grow in companies usually people talk about the PI acronym like performance, influence and exposure. Like those are the ways that you could grow within a company and I like designing and facilitating those opportunities for people that already are performing well to get some exposure, meet and connect with other people that they normally wouldn't be able to do. So that's where I get excited when I see employees' lives change through the work that we're doing and changing within a company.

Chantée Christian:

I love that. I feel like it's a hot topic right now, right when people are thinking about what does it look like to be promoted and like how do I network and what does that really look like. I'm curious. How has it worked for you?

Andrew Beamon:

The exposure that I've been able to get through companies like my experience of growing within organizations yeah, definitely, raising my hand for many volunteer opportunities internally. What is interesting is when I first joined the management consultant firm, I went down to DC, I joined Gallup Management Consulting and, you know, just trying to find my way as a new consultant, and what I found was we had this community builders program. So, like everybody within that DC office, we were able to. We would donate a little bit of money out from our check and then the company would match it. Before you know it, we have this pool of money that we have to distribute across DC and they had a volunteer group that would help decide which nonprofits we would support and do some volunteering in the community.

Andrew Beamon:

So it's not just throwing money, volunteering in the community. So it's not just throwing money. We are actually putting money in with organizations that we connect with in some way and then creating volunteer programs, and this is all volunteer stuff. So I think being able to display my talents in ways that made other people say I want to work with him. We have this real project coming up. It's not a volunteer project, we have a real project coming up and I like his ability to execute, I like his, his ability to lead, and then that's when I started being building relationships and being brought on to more projects, yeah, so, um, yeah, raising my hand, raising my hand and volunteering to get that exposure is what helped me.

Chantée Christian:

So, if I'm hearing you correctly, exposure and being in spaces to be able to say, hey, I'm available or let me try this out has really been beneficial for you, yeah.

Andrew Beamon:

Yes, yes, and it builds confidence. You, you build your confidence as well. So they get to see what you do and you get in when you show it and you're executing, you're gaining greater confidence and it's a safe space to do it. You know, like, if it's on a, if it's on another project and you make some mistakes, it could be detrimental to the project. So you might be a little bit more unsure, a little bit nervous about, um, doing a stretch assignment, but in, in this capacity, it's a little bit safer. You know there you wouldn't get as much. Uh, you know backlash or you know messing up messing up a volunteer project. So, yeah, it's a good place to practice.

Chantée Christian:

I like that, a playground.

Andrew Beamon:

Playground.

Chantée Christian:

A playground that has value, though.

Andrew Beamon:

Yeah, absolutely yeah.

Chantée Christian:

So, as a Black man in this space from Connecticut because every time I think about that what have you found to be something that you would say is like an uphill battle, and once you got up the hill, you were so happy that you actually kept going first I want to share that it's a myth that there's not a lot of black people in connecticut.

Andrew Beamon:

We had from bridgeport new haven to waterbury. You know there's, in harford a lot of black people within the cities, all right, so once you caveat y'all the cities you said heard the caveat there but as soon as you step outside the cities, yeah, you're not gonna find.

Andrew Beamon:

You're not gonna find a lot of diversity outside the cities. It does have that. I mean. I think connecticut is like the perfect microcosm of america. There is there's really rich parts, like you go fearfield county, it's like really, really rich parts, and then you have a lot of other parts where people are truly struggling, just like america as a whole. So it's up. So in some ways it's a lot of segregation, like in communities across across connecticut. Uh, so so, with that being said, just want to shout out to all my people here in connecticut thank you for the clarification I have to rep connecticut.

Andrew Beamon:

I have to rep connecticut. I'm a rep.

Chantée Christian:

Put on for your city.

Andrew Beamon:

So actually can you repeat the question again?

Chantée Christian:

Oh, now that is always a trick. Ok, I think I remember, as a black man who has experienced a lot of things in something that you felt like was an uphill battle, and when you got to the top of the hill you were like I'm glad I didn't give up. What would that thing be?

Andrew Beamon:

Let's see More of the. I'm trying to think about the uphill battles is really in the experiences in corporate America. I think, coming out of a historical black college, you know you had a community of black people, like Black leaders in all positions, right, I mean, I did go to another college my first year before that it actually had the president and vice president were Black men. So you know, seeing that I think actually even starting that early, I think the experience of graduating high school and going off to college was the first experience where I thought I don't know if I could do this, because most people from my neighborhood weren't going off to college and I had a few friends that went off to play basketball. They had their basketball scholarships, but other than that I really didn't know a lot of people that were just going to college for academics. And I think when I got there and I saw them in those positions, I think that gave me more confidence first. And that was during the time where I had to because my grades weren't great. You know, I had, I mean, c's and D's. It was horrible report cards that I had as my senior maybe got a little better my senior year, but I remember going up to the school the day after I graduated. I walked across the stage and my father and my uncle were as I'm celebrating and they're looking at me and they're saying you know you're going off to college. Right, you know you're going off to college. I said, ok, that was the moment I decided yes, I'll try this college thing out.

Andrew Beamon:

The day I graduated high school and I walked across stage. So we're out to dinner and he says, well, we're going to drive up to Eastern Connecticut State tomorrow and we're going to go show your report card and whatever. We're just going to get you into the school. So I go there, I have my SAT scores with me, I have my report card and I remember when I got there they looked at it and he said, well, it looks like you're capable of doing the work. And he said, well, it looks like you're capable of doing the work. Like, the teachers are pretty good, the grades are pretty bad.

Andrew Beamon:

So I went through this boot camp. It was, uh, it was a boot camp, uh, six, six weeks during the summer to really teach you how to become a student and if you pass this you'll be admitted to the school. So I passed it and that was the I think that was the change where I became a lifelong learner, like just going to experience and being a student. A bunch of other like I don't know, maybe it was like 30 of us, mostly black students that were in this program, mostly Black students that were in this program and brilliant, too brilliant, and it was the moment I really was in a great learning environment and at North Carolina Central, absolutely Bunch of brilliant people in Durham North people.

Andrew Beamon:

That was the. I think that was the first moment or experience as a Black man going off to college. Was that experience where I thought I don't know if I could do this and then I did it? And after that I just continued to feel that way. I did it and after that I just continued to feel that way, like anytime I had to fill in, where I don't know if I belong here or I don't know if I could do it. I wouldn't just it wouldn't just be blind faith. That would. That would help me do it. I had an actual experience already that I could go back to and say, oh, I remember the time where I thought I couldn't do it or I thought I didn't belong, or I didn't think I was good enough, or I had this self-doubt and look what happened. So that's what I'll put that as the. That's the first experience which helped me when, when I graduated and went into corporate, I was able to think back about okay, I had this feeling before oh, my goodness, this is good.

Chantée Christian:

It's so many things Like. I don't think that I would have gotten into college if they took my SAT score. Oh, my dad was so mad with me. I don't know that I've ever told this story publicly, but you saying that reminded me. So I had taken the PSAT scores, like all of the prep classes and all those things I was doing. I did great. They thought I was a genius. I went to go take that sat. My dad was like do you know how many points they give you for signing your name? I was like. He was like you're just so busy partying and I was like I didn't even go to a party last night. Like what, what?

Chantée Christian:

do you mean, and it wasn't until probably like a year or two ago we actually had a conversation about it again. Because I did, I took it again and I got a lower score. But then I took the ACT and I missed two and I was like then it was like we had to find me a college that accepted, you know, acts versus SAT and so, but I was like he was like you take AP Latin, I do, but the way that these questions are written, my brain cannot comprehend. Like I don't care what you're trying to say, and one of the things that I learned, even like it's going to take certifications and all those different things. And even in my when I was working on my master's, if I don't fully understand the way the sentence is written, my brain won't find an answer. So I had to practice what does the, what does the question look like? And when they ask it, what do they really mean? And so I had this like. So with the pmp, one of the most painfulest examples of my life 2012.

Andrew Beamon:

I remember it's just one. One point. I remember when I sat down to take it. I remember I went through the first five questions and then I seriously was wondering if I was taking the wrong test. I look, maybe this isn't, this can't be the PMP. I passed the second time. I passed the second time.

Chantée Christian:

So like a full disclosure, right. I took the CAPM first, failed it and was horrified. I had taken a boot camp class. I had you know a couple of flash cards here. There I was like, all right, cool, I'm done, I'm not doing it.

Chantée Christian:

My boss at the time, whose actual house I'm recording from right now one of my really good friends was like no, we're going to put this in your plan, we're all going to do it before they change the exam. And I was like, are you high? Like I couldn't pass the baby? What made you think I could go pass the daddy? And then I realized it was the questions Right. It wasn't that I didn, it was the questions right. It wasn't that I didn't know the information, it was how they had structured the questions.

Chantée Christian:

And so I spent I was quite obsessive about it, but I spent a lot of time understanding that their questions had no structure because they have so many different people writing questions and they don't have a format. So someone from the UK could be writing a question that you have on your exam. They could be writing 10 of the 200 or however many questions, right, and so the way that they write in general is different, but for me it was like, ok, the more I take the practice ones, the more I get used to seeing the sentence structure like it was just one of those things. For me that was like I had to figure it out, because I didn't figure it out in college, like it was like undergrad. By the time I got to graduate school I had figured a little bit more out, but like I hadn't figured it out, right, yeah, and it was my money. It was a little, a little bit different and it's the topics you wanted to study.

Chantée Christian:

Well, honestly, yeah, and like I didn't know what to do when I got to college, like my parents had went to college later in life, so I didn't see, I didn't have an example of what it looked like to graduate high school and go to college. Like go straight to college, right. And so I saw you working from home, like you literally working, and then you're doing schoolwork, then you might go to a night class. Like I never really understood what was I supposed to do in college other than don't fuck up Like that was that was clear. Like do not fuck this, don't fuck up like that was that was clear. Like do not fuck this up. But outside of that, I was like all right, I'm here, what am I supposed to do? Yeah, I go to class, I'm passing, you know, don't no one asked me for my GPA, but I'm passing. And then what?

Andrew Beamon:

I had no idea my motivation was just living on my own. I said, oh, all I have to do is go to school and I'm on my own. That was enough motivation to make me do my work.

Chantée Christian:

That's interesting.

Chantée Christian:

Yeah, that wasn't enough motivation for me.

Chantée Christian:

I love that, though, because I think that, and I tell, I tell students now that one of the biggest things that you got to figure out what school is for you and it's not for everyone, you know, and the traditional way of going isn't, say we, because I don't know where you're at in this age bracket but for myself, if I had known that 22, 23, however, many years ago, that there was an option for me to be an entrepreneur and it didn't have to be someone who was in tech or a lawyer, I probably would have thought about it different, definitely, you know, and I'm like y'all have, like they blow up by sneezing on YouTube or on TikTok, right, and I'm like I barely had my space, like what is happening right now, you know, and so I think that technology has just changed the game, and when we are talking about that accessibility and inclusion, right, I think about how we also owe it to the youth to be able to offer them opportunities to understand what it looks like to start their own business or to do things that are not necessarily conventional and don't necessarily always make sense to us and our generation.

Andrew Beamon:

Agreed, agreed. And you make me think about, I guess, two points, probably like the pro and the con. Maybe I'll start with the con when it comes to the, the younger generation and blowing up on on youtube or tiktok or any of the platforms, and getting rich.

Andrew Beamon:

you know a lot of people are making money doing these things big money yeah, but I think of this is like the modern day gold rush, like back in the days people were running out to California to get rich, start mining for gold. Yes, people got rich, but many other people didn't. So now everybody's rushing to become this influencer or whatever. Whatever they're doing a comedy and and a lot of times this could be a trap, a trap for them chasing this dream of gold, this gold rush, and you know, they kind of get caught up in the trap. But the flip side of it is that social media has evened the playing field in many ways, just even the playing field.

Andrew Beamon:

You don't need um, but even with music, like you could be an independent artist and win now, yeah, the sign with def, jam or whoever else, and you don't need that middleman, and but so we watched that happen with entrepreneurs in that way, especially with music staying independent or owning their masters, and we root for people like Nipsey, like, oh, you own your masters. And like, yeah, that's the way you should do it. If I was in the music game, that's how I would do it. But as people in other professions like ours, we didn't see ourselves that way. We thought about like hey, I'm signing for the big major label, I'm going to work for the large bank or whoever else, and that's the way we're doing it.

Andrew Beamon:

We didn't think of ourselves as entrepreneurs too, and hold on, we don't need the middleman. We could actually do this work that we're doing for ourselves and not for a large company, and do it that way. And I think social media and the internet has allowed us that vehicle for not just for other industries but for our industry to do it ourselves. I think that's the most beautiful thing about it. It really even playing field for people, or you had to move to New York City to win. But now you can do it from anywhere. You can do it from Connecticut and still have a career. I don't have to be in DC to have a career anymore.

Andrew Beamon:

You can do it from any small town USA.

Chantée Christian:

Yeah, no, I think that is powerful and I think it's like like when you said that it's like a trap it made me think about like I think that I think that we do a disservice when we don't harness gifts right, and so I think that when we're in the search for the gold, we typically come up with a dud, versus when we're harnessing the passion that's behind it and allowing that to drive us right. So, like, if you like to dig, then you won't go. You gonna go find something go, do it, yeah, go do it right and so like.

Chantée Christian:

When I think about the people that are on social like, even the ones that have like blown up out of nowhere, I'm like you. The amount of effort that you have put into this thing, that you do is worth every dollar that you get. Now, whether if it's the thing that I think is a jam or not, it's neither here nor there, but I know personally, from my own resistance for social media, how challenging and how much effort it is to put out that content, much effort it is to put out that content. And so my thing is always though okay, well, when it's over, what's going to be your fallback plan? Have you saved enough? Do you have everything and what skill sets have you pulled from that?

Chantée Christian:

Right, even with like coaching, like, people still don't know what coaching is. I still have calls and I'm like so tell me what your idea of coaching is. And people are like oh well, you know, I just I think of sports and I was like yeah, me too. Let's keep talking about what that is right, and that's not a shot at them. It's the truth, even though we have so much exposure to what I like to call internet coaches. Right, everybody wants to be motivational and inspirational and all that other shit like stock gurus, everybody, everybody's right and then their accounts are in the negative.

Chantée Christian:

But like the point is, like, at this stage in the game, everyone and anyone could have a platform. It's what do you decide to harness and do with it? Yeah, and I think that's the part that's fun to me, or?

Andrew Beamon:

exciting even. You know, we were talking earlier, before we started recording, and you were saying how like excited you are about this book release Awareness. Put me on and you just excited, excited about this book release awareness. Put me on and you just excited, excited about this this moment. And it made me think about that.

Andrew Beamon:

When you're talking about people in this gold rush and like, hey, if you love to dig, it doesn't even matter. And I feel like that's what we did with the book. We love doing this, we love this process. It doesn't matter if we have gold at the end or not, we just love the process. So I think that that's so important to just kind of emphasize the point that you just made it's the passion for the process that matters most. You just made it's the passion for the process that matters most. And, yeah, if you're going through a process that you're not passionate about, yeah, then you better get the gold. If you don't, you're extremely disappointed. But if you love to dig, then yeah, have fun, have fun with it, enjoy it. Yeah, enjoy the journey.

Chantée Christian:

I think, I don't know. It's like like, I feel like there's such a difficult concept for people to grasp, right, that you can do what you love and what you're passionate about and get paid to do it. Like you don't have to do something that you hate to do just to pay your bills, you know, and so, like, when we talk about that passion and that digging, it's like those are the type of role models that I hope that my nieces and nephews see, right Is that you don't have to do something that you don't love. You can do things you love to do, yeah, and get paid for it. Yeah, you don't have to be living like a pauper, like you have options, you know.

Chantée Christian:

But I love that and I love the excitement, right, that comes along with doing what you love to do, like when we I like to call it the fake green room, because it's not really that green, but when we were in there, you shared with me this huge announcement, and part of that to me, right, had to do with the passion. You're excited that you still get to do all of the other things that you love to do, and that thing, right, that's the digging like it's. It's the digging now. I love this concept agreed, agreed.

Andrew Beamon:

I don't want to play, I don't want to be too controversial here or uh, but but I'm gonna play devil's advocate a little bit about the, the passion and people doing what they love and not getting. Or you don't have to be, you don't have to struggle and have your passion. I'm okay with people doing it temporarily if you have to do a job that you don't love, but don't stay stuck there. You know I I that that I didn't love, but I was able to save save my money in ways to position me to be able to go try things that I'm passionate about. So sometimes you might have to work for a period of time, but the the more you can shorten that period of time. You have to work in a way, work in a field or a job that you don't truly love. The quicker you can shorten that, the better. But don't be afraid to go do other things to allow you and pay for it. Sometimes you have to pay for that passion first and then go do it.

Chantée Christian:

Yes, absolutely, absolutely. I think. When I say that, I mean I would have never went to college, starting off as a business major, because that wasn't what I loved, true, true, get me a great paying job to be able to pay for this lifestyle that my parents set me up for, not realizing that they had two incomes and they was out here living their whole best life at whatever age it was that they had, you know, 18 year old off in college, right, yeah. And then there came a point where I realized one, I wasn't gonna pass econ, but two that.

Chantée Christian:

I didn't like it. I loved what I was doing at work, though, which was newsletters and editing those type of things and writing, creating graphics, and then I realized, oh, there's a major for that. And then I realized, oh, there's a major for that, right. But because I was still afraid and moving from a scarcity mindset I was only out of college for a few months before I went back for my MBA. The same thing that I didn't think that I could pass an undergrad. Right, because in my mind, that was security. Right. Right, because in my mind, that was security. Right, not realizing that, had I done some internships or some other things within the comm major that I was in, I could have gotten some security over there, too, right. And so, when I think of it from that perspective, right, I spent a lot of time doing other things that got me ready and prepared to be in this moment.

Chantée Christian:

But when I look at my nieces and my nephew, right, I'm like how can they learn it quicker? True, right to help them get into spaces where they can make a profit in doing something that they enjoy to do, versus the many a days and nights that I sat at my desk was like, why am I here? I hate it here. Oh, although, most of those places that I wasn't that fond of paid for a lot of the certifications that roll behind my name, right, everything has a catch-22. It's just how do we help them get there a little bit faster than we got there? Yeah, agree. No, I love that. So I feel like now is a perfect time to ask you a question. I feel like Mr Rogers.

Chantée Christian:

You know, when he starts to sit down and put on his shoes and put on his jacket what would you like to leave the people with, because we've talked about a lot okay, couple, couple things.

Andrew Beamon:

I would like to leave everybody with one point that greatness is seldom achieved alone. The more you're able to connect with partner, with others, you could grow faster. You don't have to do all this work in everything alone. You know you get things done on your own as an entrepreneur, but when you just, for example, like writing a book on my own Two year process, writing a book with a team, it's a three month process. Yes, it is greatness. Greatness is never achieved or seldom achieved alone is one. And then the other point, as we think about the book, awareness Put Me On a lot on authenticity as well, and I know other authors talk about the authenticity and the aha moments when they just really began trusting themselves.

Andrew Beamon:

But I think what makes authenticity so important is that when you're authentic, you can be more confident, and when you're confident in who you are, you'll have better integrity, and integrity is everything. So authenticity goes right into integrity. And last point is most of the people. You know there's people in the news today. There'll be people in the news a couple of months from now and it's going to continue. When you see people on top fall from grace, it's usually because of lack of integrity or A moral mistake is usually not just skills and talent that makes you fall from grace, not because you messed up on a project, it's not that it's. It's a moral mistake. That happens in times where you're not acting with integrity. So that's where authenticity is so powerful. It can kind of prevent or reduce the chances hopefully prevent you from making those major mistakes that cause you to fall from grace.

Chantée Christian:

I mean, well damn, now I feel like we need to record for another 20 minutes because I'm like wait a minute, wait a minute.

Chantée Christian:

I appreciate that and I think that one of the biggest things that I'll take away from this conversation at least doing it in this moment is how important community is Right, and not just, you know, being with people, but literally leaning on the community Right, and I think that has more of an impact than I had originally thought. It's specifically talking about awareness. Put me on in the project. So I thank you for joining the projects with an S.

Andrew Beamon:

Yes, more work to do, more work to do.

Chantée Christian:

Yes.

Andrew Beamon:

Shout out. Let me give a quick shout out. Shout out to Dr Barbara Skinner, who runs this master's series of distinguished leaders program, because the point that I made around morals and reasons people fall from grace, that came from her. Yeah, I learned that from her and it stuck with me.

Chantée Christian:

Yeah, that's dope. It's true, integrity is a, b and people will test your integrity often and you get to decide how much of your toe you want to dip into the lack of your personal integrity, right, yeah?

Andrew Beamon:

there's temptation out there. It's gonna test us all listen, I'm ready.

Chantée Christian:

No, I'm just joking that is awesome yes, thank you, thank you, thank you.