TLDR; We're taking a break to do some cool stuff! We'll be back with a shiny new Season 2 later in 2025.

It's been an incredible year building Offline & Unfiltered, and we feel so so lucky to have such great fanbase and platform to have thought-provoking conversations and a lot of laughs.

That said, we need to walk our own talk. We have learned a ton this past year, and we're going to apply some of those lessons to change the podcast for the better. Some things you can expect:

• Shorter episodes! We'll be experimenting with ~45 interview driven episodes and ~20 minute advice driven episodes. We want to make our episodes easier to slot into your day.

• Season Format! We'll now do seasons rather than biweekly episodes year round. We feel this is the best way to deliver you the best quality content while also staying on top of our jobs and lives.

• Patreon! We are completely independent and want to remain ad free. We plan to set up a Patreon to help us pay for all the tools we use and support we receive, as well as working towards a bigger goal of renting recording studio space. Your support would mean the world to us.

We're also exploring marketing help, because Lakisha and Megan hate social media.

All that said, we're taking a break! We'll be back later in 2025 with our new format and more Offline & Unfiltered conversations.

Have a topic you'd love to hear us cover? Know someone who would be an interesting guest? Want to chat with us about marketing support? Want to send us positive vibes? Email us! info@offlineandunfiltered.com

Thank you for an incredible year,

Lakisha & Megan

In today's episode, we give listeners a look behind the curtain on how HR professionals really feel about compensation. Spoiler alert: Not positively.

HR veteran Sonja Smith joins us for an unfiltered conversation about one of the most complex and often frustrating aspects of work. With over 20 years of experience in HR and talent acquisition, Sonja breaks down why companies struggle with fair pay, the truth about salary ranges, and why being loyal to your employer might actually be costing you money.

We dive deep into how compensation really works behind the scenes, from the challenges of pay transparency laws to the uncomfortable reality of salary negotiations. Sonja shares invaluable insights about when (and if) you should ask for a raise, why companies often fail to adjust internal salaries to match market rates, and how both employees and employers can better navigate compensation conversations.

This episode offers practical takeaways for anyone looking to understand their worth in the workplace, advocate for themselves effectively, or better understand how compensation decisions are really made. Whether you're an employee wondering about your next salary negotiation or a manager trying to have better compensation conversations with your team, this discussion provides honest, actionable insights from someone who's seen it all.

Key topics include:

• Why compensation philosophies matter
• The impact of pay transparency laws
• How companies determine salary ranges
• The "loyalty penalty" and its effects
• Tips for discussing compensation with your manager
• Common compensation myths and misconceptions

Connect With Our Guest

Sonja Smith on LinkedIn

Atera HR

Sonja's Substack

Resources:

Comprehensive.io

Pay Transparency Laws: A State by State Guide

"If you cannot be who you are where you are, you change where you are, not who you are.” — Caroline Wanga

We're excited to welcome Kenyetta Hall back for one of our deepest conversations to date, the complexities of navigating corporate America as a black woman. Lakisha has wanted to have this conversation for sometime now, and we knew Kenyetta would be a great counterpart to this important conversation.

As a reminder for our listeners, Kenyetta is an entrepreneur and strategic consultant who specializes in helping businesses bridge the gap between vision and execution. With her company, The Katalyst HQ, she focuses on business strategy, digital product development, and leadership development, offering services like strategic planning, software development, and product management.

We covered a broad range of topics, from dealing with poor leaders to code switching, and got into spaces that may make some uncomfortable. We also laughed a ton and had a great time. Our biggest takeaway is the reminder that not every company or job may be for you, and that's ok. Go find the place that is.

As always, we have these conversations to give our listeners a new perspective and humanize the workplace. We hope folks from all background take away from valuable nuggets from this conversation.

Connect with our Guest:

Kenyetta Hall LinkedIn

The Katalyst HQ

Resources For Listeners:

The Diversity Gap: Where Good Intentions Meet True Cultural Change - Bethaney Wilkinson

DEI Deconstructed - Lily Zhang

The Inclusive Organization - Netta Jenkins

How to Be an Ally: Actions You Can Take for a Stronger, Happier Workplace - Melinda Briana Epler

Can you truly be authentic in the workplace? How does one balance their own values and beliefs in environments that make that so hard? And... if you do need to GTFO, how do you build something that is true to your own vision?

We dig into this questions and many more with our hilarious, honest, and impressive guest, Jazmyn Lopez. Jazmyn is the founder and thought leader behind Anthelo, a consulting studio concept that delivers her mission is to help intentional entrepreneurs cut through the noise to build sustainable business growth. Her unique corporate experience blends with a no-nonsense personality and earned authority to guide ambitious leaders through the journey of expansion.

Our conversation with Jazmyn reemphasized the importance of changing your environment to meet your needs, and not the other way around. We laughed, we swore a lot, and we also discussed the challenges that we have all faced in one way or another.

Connect with Our Guest:

Anthelo Consulting Studio

Connect with Jazmyn on LinkedIn

A Note From our Hosts: We're shaking up some things and getting ready to roll into another year of O&U! In this reflection stage, we are dropping our episodes down to one per month through the end of the year. We're excited to bring you format changes and even more unfiltered content in 2025

It's been a challenging time for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and for the professionals working in this space.

In the US, backlash and polarization has resulted in several well know organizations reducing or eliminating their DEI teams and programs. The Society of Human Resources Management recently made the decision to "rebrand" DEI despite the loud outcry from their members. Those who feel the most passionate about this work are now exploring avenues like consulting and public speaking after years of working in resource deprived corporate environments.

Regardless of how you feel about DEI, it's clear that something isn't working. However that doesn't change the fact that we all have bias, our biases can negatively impact our place of work (culturally, legally, financially, etc.), and the only way to address that is to talk about it.

This is a delicate and often controversial subject, one we wanted to look at from outside the American lens, which has resulted in what might be one of our most 'unfiltered' conversations to date.

Our guest this week is Heeral Gudka, an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion consultant in the UK who's been working with organizations since 2014.

Her 10 years of experience in EDI spans across private, public and third-sector organizations, delivering consultancy to People Teams and Executive Boards, stand-alone workshops and also curating 6 to 12 month employee learning journeys. The support she provides to senior leadership teams is an essential part of the success they have created internally in building inclusive cultures – everyone needs a safe space to talk about difficult subjects, but they also need to understand where risks lie when it comes to workforces that don't understand minimum expectations.

Heeral is a former actuary and risk professional, she is trained to coach from a trauma-informed perspective, has a diploma in counselling skills and a deep interest in philosophy and consistent thinking – the ideal blend of skills for providing this support to senior leaders.

She also wishes she could see more of the night sky, but London is her home and that just doesn't happen there!

Obvious trigger warning as we dig into some sticky conversations around trauma and identity that may be upsetting to some listeners. However, we hope our listeners will walk away with a new perspective and inspiration to be the change they want to see in their workplace.

Is DEI 'business critical'? We'll let you decide.

Resources from this episode:

To get in touch with Heeral about EDI or dark sky recommendations you can find her on LinkedIn.

Changes Coming Soon to Offline & Unfiltered!

Dear listeners, we have had so much fun bringing you unfiltered conversations and finding our home in the podcast ecosystem. We have learned so much and are committed to bringing you the best quality content. In 2025, you'll see some refinement to our format, sustained activity on the socials, and much more. To achieve these goals, we're slowing down a bit. Through the end of 2024 O&L will release one episode a month, rather than two. Don't worry, we'll be back to two episodes per month in 2025.

Thank you for your continued support. Please don't forget to like, subscribe, give us 5 stars, tell all your friends, and all that good stuff.

More to come.

How should we be treating each other on the internet?

Who is responsible for deciding what is or isn't allowed on any given platform? What happens when you hit that little "report" button? Moreover, what is it like to be the professional that might see the worst of the worst on the internet?

In today's episode, we give our listeners a view into the world of platform Trust & Safety with our guest, Alice Hunsberger. Alice is Vice President of Trust & Safety and Content Moderation at PartnerHero, with wide experience across the Trust and Safety ecosystem. She's the founder of the Trust in Tech podcast, which addresses Trust & Safety issues in tech, and writes the Trust & Safety Insider Newsletter with Everything in Moderation. Previously, Alice was VP of CX and T&S at Grindr for 3 years, and also led the CX / T&S team at OkCupid/ Match Group for 10 years. She is passionate about ethical tech policy, believing that dating apps, and indeed the whole internet, should be welcoming, equitable, and inclusive for everyone.

In our conversation, we discuss Alice's unique career journey and how she found herself battling internet bad actors for the greater good. Alice also outlines ways T&S professionals (or any professional) can safeguard their mental health, how the T&S industry is evolving, and how we can all be better stewards of the internet.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Learn More about Alice and access her T&S resources here.

Read Alice's Newsletter - Everything In Moderation

Listen to Alice on the Trust In Tech Podcast

Attend TrustCon or Marketplace Risk

Learn more about Alice's current company - PartnerHero

"No brilliant jerks"

Netflix thrusted this phrase into the corporate vernacular in 2009, proudly asserting that they would not retain employees who were high performers but difficult to work with. Other companies followed suit, and the "no brilliant jerks" moniker remains a steadfast value many companies claim to adhere to in their hiring and cultural practices.

Seems like a noble but simple concept to adhere to, right?

But...

What happens when you 'brilliant jerk" is locked into a high profile, multi-million dollar contract?

What happens when your "brilliant jerk" accounts for almost 8% of your company revenue?

What happens when your "brilliant jerk" is a global superstar teetering on the edge of an epic PR implosion?

In 2022 the Rolling Stone published Inside Kanye West's Yeezy: Abrupt Firings, Alleged Nazi Inspiration, and 'Pure Chaos' The article painted a bleak and scathing portrait of what life was like for the many current and former employees working for the Yeezy brand, and how leadership seemly turned a blind eye. Similar stories would follow, and both internal and external pressure would result in Adidas dissolving their partnership with the controversial artist.

Our hosts were so captivated by this story as it unfolded, so much so that it was the inspiration for this podcast. In this episode, our hosts dive into this complicated story to ask what really happened at Adidas? How bad was it to work for the Yeezy brand? What should have been done for Adidas employees? Did Adidas choose to put profits over people?

This is a spicy conversation that had our hosts contemplating the ethics of brilliance, corporate accountability, and idol worship.

Disclaimer: Our views expressed on this episode are based on our personal opinions, experiences, and the various articles that are available publicly. We do our best to reflect events accurately, but also acknowledge that there are many sides to this complex story.

Articles Mentioned In This Episode:

Inside Kanye West’s Yeezy: Abrupt Firings, Alleged Nazi Inspiration and ‘Pure Chaos' - Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone

Kanye and Adidas: Money, Misconduct and the Price of Appeasement - Megan Twohey, New York Times

Welcome to today's episode for a unique conversation. Megan, a borderline Reddit obsessive reads Lakisha, a reddit novice, a collection of tales from one of the most popular subreddits, r/antiwork. After each story we ask ourselves;

• Do we think the story is real?
• What went wrong here?
• What advice would you give the poster?
• What could someone do in a similar circumstance?
• Should they just quit their job?

The antiwork subreddit is an online community on Reddit where users discuss issues related to work, labor, and employment. Topics often include critiques of capitalism, sharing of personal stories related to workplace struggles, advice on quitting jobs and/or finding better work-life balance. The community has gained significant attention, especially during movements like the Great Resignation, where many people started questioning the value and impact of their jobs.

Embrace internet anonymity and ponder the other side of the story in today's lighthearted episode.