So if you have decided to click on the link and listen to this podcast (and now read this blog) you’re probably wondering what it's all about and who is this person. My name is Nikkia Reveillac and I am from the beautiful twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean and I’ve led teams for many many years in a very cooperate setting. First in the consumer packaged goods world, then in the tech world, but what people don’t know about me or at least many people don’t know, is that I used to be a professional dancer who grew up on a very small island and I come from a family of entrepreneurs, jewelers, sculptors and painters. Though they did not do these things professionally, it was very much part of their DNA. So I’ve always felt like somebody who’s a creative Caribbean butterfly even when I moved to the US. So by the time I entered the workforce I had this sense of being this creative energetic, Caribbean woman in the room and I was excited by that but it definitely made me feel unique. It did not prevent me from doing the work I needed to do in every team that I found myself on but it certainly colored the way that i viewed life as a working individual.
Whats interesting is that I did not know it at the time but there was something about the way that I showed up inside of these cooperate spaces that was working to my advantage even though I stood out. I did not know that I was standing out as much as I did. So over the last view years, I’d say a decade actually, I’ve been spending a lot of time paying it forward because I’ve been fortunate enough in my career to have people who saw in me what I did not see in myself; potential, the ability to lead, the ability to do big things and so I have answered almost every email that I’ve received. Especially when somebody reached out, and simply wanted to learn about what I did professionally?”, or to ask me the question, “how did you manage to do what you’re doing while being unabashedly yourself?”. So I want to pay it forward even more, outside of the workplaces I find myself in, I’ve found that there are so many people who are asking the same sets of questions and rather than be very closed off and share only with a select few, I thought why not, why not share these words of wisdom with more people. So this is what I’m trying to do with this podcast, with Culture Unfit. To extend the goodness of conversation, and wisdom and insight around the question of showing up inside of the workplace in ways that are respectful of that culture but still paying homage to the actual person you are, your personality, your identity and more importantly the quirks, those things that make you a beautiful misfit.
So what can you look forward to this season? In each episode we’re gonna hear from someone who is grappling with some question that has to do with fitting in and I want you all to know that if you have received feedback or felt like you’re too quiet or maybe too loud, too flamboyant, not flamboyant enough; any of these things that may have come at you and you have been struggling with trying to figure out, well how do I hide this or how do I buff these edges out, but really in your heart you don’t want to and you know that there must be a way to survive and thrive at work while not hiding any aspect of your personality. Well, this is the space for you. We welcome you.
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