Ep 137- Leaving Corporate America With Genesis Amaris Kemp

Transcript

hey welcome to today's episode we're

here with genesis um i'm excited to have

this episode we did i was on her podcast

last week and we're having her on our

podcast this week so uh can you tell us

a little bit about yourself um

what what what um how'd you get how'd

you end up here because i know you're

from the corporate world so we're going

to talk about that but let's uh let's

talk about how you end up became an

entrepreneurship and i became a

podcaster all that good stuff

okay hey hey everyone my name is genesis

amaris kemp i am a visionary life coach

motivational speaker also the podcast

founder and host of my own show jem's

podcast and then i'm an author too so i

have two books on the market and three

book collaborations and another one

about to drop in second quarter how i

got to where i was was definitely um via

a layoff being forced out of my comfort

zone because i got so complacent my

background is oil and gas and energy i

spent 12 years in the industry

15 years in corporate america as a whole

and i was just comfortable i enjoyed you

know the bells and the whistles until i

did it

meaning when i found out that i was the

only person of color and my pay was

significantly lower than my peers

it started ruffling feathers and it

didn't sit right with me

mentally or physically i started to

let my mental factors become outward

factors

and i just wasn't happy overall but um

you know sometimes it's like things

happen to you in your life but they also

happen for you for you to grow so if i

would have never you know

been laid off from this fortune 500 oil

and gas company i probably wouldn't be

here talking to you today or it probably

wouldn't have would have taken me a lot

longer to get here on this journey

no i i think um sometimes bad situations

are good circumstances that make you

like rethink and readjust um and i think

i feel like that's what happened with

you i really want to talk about um a lot

of uh the corporate corporate world so a

lot of people think a lot of people get

complacent in the corporate world where

they don't want to leave because they

get comfortable

what what was like the struggle of like

switching over from

i'm a corporate world to becoming an

entrepreneur and doing all these great

things with your books i think it's

amazing

so one i had a corporate credit card

which was nice because i could um take

my clients to lunch or dinner and then

you know i get a dinner out of that

because i'm entertaining there was

different perks that i had because my

company was well known so branded by

association so you get different gifts

and knickknacks sometimes they'll give

you rodeo tickets or concert tickets or

whatnot i also um had the ability to

have different partnerships where you

get a discount on your cell phone bill

and other things like that it was nice

then

one of the sweet things as i climbed the

corporate ladder i had a limo that would

come to my house a limo service i would

pick me up take me to the airport so i

could fly out for business meetings got

to stay in really nice hotels and have

really fancy dinners and that was really

cool but whenever you go into

entrepreneurship

it's your money and you have to be a

good steward of your finances

so you don't go broke and you really

know the amount of money that you're

making you have to set aside money for

taxes if you need to pay taxes

what is your profit loss and your gains

and all of that stuff and you know

people don't always tell you about that

in entrepreneurship because they're like

oh i'm my own boss but then there's also

people who support your business that

you have to answer to even though you're

your own boss because you want to make

sure you have those um repetitive

clients coming coming to you and

whenever you are the face of the company

you have to be very meticulous on what

you put out on the in the media what is

your online presence and is that tied to

your core values and your mission

yeah that's

when you when you're not sure

everything's all on you there's no

there's no uh

hey i need help i mean you can always

ask for help but it's a a lot of the

pressure's on you and you kind of you

gotta kind of face it head on

and realize that you might not have

insurance

you gotta pay the gas and electric bill

you still gotta pay the

car note

and all that stuff is all on you it's no

longer

i i honestly like i've never had that

that cool of a job where i've got all

those corporate benefits but i would

probably be hard for me to leave too

i understand i understand

it gets uh

they uh

the corporate world they make the

like the proverbial carrot as far as to

keep you going a lot nicer and they give

you a lot more benefits and it's just

uh i still gotta go and do this for my

own so we've had a lot of uh

entrepreneurs recently quit their job

that were using our

my so my clients and it's kind of cool

seeing them like transition because they

had really good paying jobs too and it's

kind of like yeah i could do more for

myself if i just

take that leap of faith you know so it's

kind of it's kind of cool seeing a lot

of people do that and

it's harder for some it's harder for

some people and most people can't even

grasp that they can do better for

themselves

by themselves you know

yeah very true and i guess knowing your

worth is very key whenever you're an

entrepreneur don't um settle for less or

lessen yourself and the products and

services that you offer because someone

can't afford you right then and there um

if they can't afford you set up a

payment plan but don't you know

lessen the value of what you have to

offer because if you keep devaluing

yourself who is going to value you

yeah that's it who's gonna value you so

let's talk about um

the i i didn't we first spoke i know we

kind of brushed along it but i really

want to hit on it now

you said you said in the beginning that

you were under you're underpaid more

than your peers

that

it hurt or hurts me whenever i hear that

because i i know a lot of people

struggle with

a lot of corporations they underpaid

minorities underpaid uh

uh females and women and i'm just like

oh why do you do this to yourself like

you're just you're asking for a problem

and an issue and you're not really

valuing

the

the people that you actually bring and

bringing in an employee and it always

bites back in in the future

how

how long did you work there before you

realized that was an issue in your

company

so i worked for that company for a total

of seven and a half years up until the

layoff and i realized that was an issue

year three and i was constantly trying

to advocate for myself to get the

correction on my pay and then every time

i got you know up to a good point that

manager would leave so then a new

manager would come so i would have to

start all the way over but the tip of

the iceberg was during the whole black

lives matter movement whenever

the vice president of supply chain i was

working in a global supply chain

organization at the time

called a meeting with those of us who

identified as blacks or

african-americans or minorities and when

i saw the number that was in the room it

was shocking especially working for a

global organization

and then he started to ask people to

share their stories with either personal

or professional racism

and i was like oh this could go one or

two ways you could either put yourself

out there and hang yourself to dry

or you could kind of sit back and let

somebody else go because you'd never

want to back yourself in a corner

especially

um when you're working for certain types

of companies

so different people started you know

volunteering to speak and then he called

on me and by that point i was like no

ham no cheese no turkey i had had it so

i literally told him i said okay

i have a problem i started with this

company

in 2013 as an administrative assistant i

quickly grew my career

from an administrative assistant to a

raw material coordinator to trade

regulations and compliance coordination

to working my way up into those

professional roles yet you still have me

ranked with the other administrative

assistants even though i'm not doing

that work

and then

another thing i have a problem with

is whenever people expect you to be the

spokesperson

for your entire race even though i am

african-american melanated

i am first generation american my dad

was south american and my mom is

caribbean

um i can't be the spokesperson for every

black person because i don't know what

they're going through but i can tell you

what i'm going through

then on a personal side i do have a

problem whenever i go to the grocery

stores and if i have my sister's kids

who are biracial they're half white half

black

people have came up to me and asked me

whose kids are those why would i just

steal some kids first of all

if i have my brother's kids his kids are

half black half indian

and people just look at you people

follow you around they want to take

pictures because i live in an area that

is predominantly caucasians and there's

a handful of hispanics there's a handful

of blacks but the it's predominantly

caucasians and i feel like

it's a problem whenever people can't

realize that the world is shifting and

changing and there's different races

that are intersect accepting and you

can't help who you fall in love with but

ignorance is bliss if you are looking at

me and judging me without even getting

to know me then that's on you and i

can't help

fixing you problem but what i can do is

tell you my story and we can work

together to create a solution and the

big

bomb dropper was

whenever my supervisor's boss put up on

the screen the different salary levels

and when i saw that my salary level was

not on the screen that's when i was like

red alert a huge red flag because i saw

that the position started at a cl level

22 and higher and cl means

classification level and at that time i

was a classification level 15.

so i quickly screenshot the hell out of

that sucker and i had it for evidence

and i went in there and i said where do

i fit into this schematic here i am

doing this work traveling for the

company representing the company

in front of c-suite executives and other

buy-in leaders but yet i don't even have

the respect that i deserve or respect on

my check i kid you not when i laid it

all out on the table in the vice

president's meeting one week later i get

a phone call from my boss telling me oh

well you know what we're we're going to

bump your cl level from a 15 to a 22

and effective this date you're going to

get a 20 000 salary increase now let

that marinate

that's crazy that's crazy wow so they've

been they're underpinning for a very

long time very long time

that's crazy so you you uh you're

advocating for people like this as well

right now is this kind of what your your

books are about that you're advocating

for people that are underpaid and

unappreciated in their corporations

yeah so the title of my book is called

chocolate drop in corporate america and

i wrote the book to really talk about

how you could take ownership of your

career so navigating your career

in a industry where it's not conducive

knowing the power of your voice

breaking down those limitations and

rising above the barriers and really

standing your ground but also while

you're standing your ground make sure

you have the facts make sure you have

black and white concrete data and make

sure that you really do your research so

whenever you do go up and engage in

those difficult or courageous

conversations you have a leg to stand on

and you're not going in there blindsided

and then you have a sponsor that will

vouch for you so that's like a

manager they could be an executive they

could be a senior or mid-level do they

know about your work history and your

work ethics do you have a sponsor and

how can that person

stand up for you when you may not be

fortunate to go into rooms like that

yeah that's that's amazing i i i feel a

lot it's it's a very lonely space to

stand up to the boss

you know

and i commend you for doing it for

yourself and i commend you for doing it

for others as well through your books

and inspiring people to just to take a

stand and not take it because it's not

healthy

it's not healthy for your mentors from

your mental health and for your uh just

your well-being as a whole because

corporations there i'm not i'm not a big

i understand why corporations are the

way they are but it's just nothing can

excuse their behavior in certain

instances and why they do the things

they do you know it's crazy to me

absolutely and one thing that i could

say since the book has came out it has

encouraged other people to come forward

and share their stories like

one guy that i met he talked about how

he faced something similar with the us

government and it was so bad that he

challenged the board of education and he

also went up against you know his

government contracting agency that he

was working for and he he was a single

father at the time with his daughter and

former president obama got involved in

their story

um they shut down some of the boards of

education like the people had to give

them an apology him and his daughter had

to like move states and change schools

and etc and he's like if i would have

never read your book chocolate dropping

corporate america from the pit to the

palace it wouldn't have given me the

courage to write my book so his book is

called the unexpected journey fire and

goal by dietrich l moon and then there

has have been a white males as well as

white females who have read my book and

they talked about you know certain

discrepancies and forms of

microaggressions that they face as a

non-colored person and i was like wow so

you get to see how this book is opening

up the conversation between different

races and between different industries

that's

that's amazing it's amazing what what

you can do just by telling your story

and the power of your story and how it

resonates with different audiences

and you never really know

how your story is going to resonate

unless you do it so i commend you for

even man just just putting it out there

a lot of people struggle with doing and

you're actually making a change and

making a difference in people's lives

today and even now in the future so you

don't even know the aspect of change

you're actually

you're you're

imparting upon people

nowadays you know and into the future

you know that's that's a big it's a big

step

so two books out are you writing are you

working on any other uh current or

upcoming books right now besides the the

publication where you're putting the

group the group publication up

um just the book collaboration that i'm

working on with another author by the

name of chad smith i'm kind of focusing

on podcasting and some of the

media speaking engagements and etc and

then once i decide on what i want to do

next um book wise i will let you all

know i think i have an idea where i want

to talk about um

the power of being a patient advocate

and dealing with medical negligence

since i lost my dad in 2020 due to that

so i'm just really trying to pray about

it there and see what um what to do next

okay that's awesome um let's talk about

your podcast so your podcast i hopped in

your podcast last week um one thing i i

respected about you is that you've

haven't taken it lightly

so uh what's your podcast called where

people find it um what type of guest do

you have on your podcast and kind of a

little little promo for your podcast

here

so my podcast is called gems podcast

with genesis and mars camp the reason

why i named it gems is because i believe

that each one of us has an incredible

gem to share

whether it is from our personal stories

that we endure or maybe it's life

lessons that have came out of ugly

places whether we were tested but that

test produced the testimony or we went

through a hell of a mess but that mess

is now the message that we bring forward

to the world

the core pillars are to educate inspire

and motivate

while bridging and connecting the dots

between diversity equity inclusion and

belonging and the reason why that is so

important is because it takes all of us

linking arms to make this world a better

place

the guests that i have on are male and

female from various walks of life as

long as they meet the

core pillars

which is they're either educating the

audience they're sharing something

inspirational or something motivational

and there's good chemistry there then i

welcome them to be on the guest because

i don't know everything and i want to be

in the hot seat and learn from some

incredible trailblazers that are out

there

i started the podcast in november of

2020 the same month that my father

passed

because it was the way that i was able

to deal with grief to be honest because

i got so tired of trying to express

myself to people and they're like oh

i'm sorry for your loss your dad is in a

better place the lord give it and the

lord take it away or some of the cliche

sayings and i'm like you don't really

know how i feel because both of your

parents are living so talk to me when

you lose a parent but then my mother

said that was rude so i was like you

know what i'm just going to do solo

episodes where i talk into the mind and

i did that and that led

other people reaching out because they

appreciate the rawness and the

vulnerability and they're like hey i

would love to collaborate and be a guest

on your podcast and that's when the

doors opened up for me to start

interviewing people but prior to that

people didn't know that i was guest

appearing on other people's podcast and

then i was also a

podcast host for three different ceos

and the podcast can be found on 20 plus

different platforms such as apple

spotify google samsung deezer i heart

radio pandora

dot dot

the list gets ever ever ever ever long

you know once you get out there but i i

appreciate um i appreciate your story i

appreciate what you're doing for the

community and what you're doing for the

world um it's not to be taken lightly

and

um your story as a whole is just i hope

it inspires people and hope inspires

other entrepreneurs so um let's kind of

jump into i know we gotta we have

minutes we have to go but it's kind of

talking to your entrepreneurship journey

um you've been

you've been out of corporate america for

like two years now and now you're doing

uh solar you're doing uh what other

things are you doing right now i know

you're doing solar

your new endeavor right now yeah so i've

been out for a year um february this

year marked one year i am doing solar

because i believe that sustainability is

the path forward plan it took me a while

to get there y'all because like i said i

came from oil and gas and energy we're

not trying to talk about solar we want

to keep the money in-house and i'm also

doing health and wellness because i

truly believe in order to really enjoy

your wealth you need to be healthy and

what good is it going to do if you're

lying up in a hospital bed and you have

millions of dollars but you can't enjoy

it because you're sick and you didn't

take time to nurture your body mind body

and soul so i partner with a brand paul

keaney um i really believe in

having that physical activity and making

sure we are eating nutrient whole foods

because we only have one body our body

is our temple if you put in junk don't

expect to get an optimal result out if

you put in healthy and nutritious food

then you're gonna have that energy

you're not gonna feel sluggish you're

not gonna feel like you need to take a

nap or have those brain fogs or

other ailments that are going on just be

mindful that we only have one life to

live we only have one body so why not

treat your body as good as you treat

your car you take your car for details

you take your car for

um 32 point inspections and all of this

stuff why can't you take that inventory

of your life in your body

yeah it's uh i've uh

i've recently taken my health a little

more seriously so i've been exercising a

lot more

and

i've

i it's been new for me because like i

haven't i haven't done that a long time

but i turned 30 this year so i'm like

okay i need to something some things

need to change and i need to take better

care of myself so i am taking it

personally so i appreciate that as well

but um i think a lot of people they

underestimate

the

the power of life and living you know

and living

living comfortably as far as time-wise

and living comfortably as far as

health-wise too you know there's a lot

of benefits that come to that that you

don't really see but you feel it

absolutely and i guess one of the

tips that i would share because some

people hate working out and if you are

one of those people who hate going to

the gym then find out what activities

you actually love if you like to

rollerblade use rollerblade for your

physical activity you like to skateboard

do that you like to walk run or jog

build that into your daily routine if

you have kids try to find that outdoor

activity that your kids love to do and

do it with your kids because they're

getting out and moving and you're moving

with them so you could really

co-collaborate and enjoy that special

time bonding with your children while

you're getting in physical activity and

that makes it a lot easier and then if

you are or have a busy schedule one

thing that worked for me when i was

working in corporate is meal prepping

you could prep one meal for three days a

row and then

you know in the middle of a week

wednesday prep something else so you

could have for the remainder of the week

so you don't get bored eating the same

thing or i recently had a guest on that

talked about batch cooking he says he

cooks like

um a whole barbecue pit of chicken i

think they were chicken thighs or

chicken breasts i can't remember right

now and then he makes different recipes

so one night he'll do tacos one night

he'll do tiki masala and another night

he'll do something else and it'll take

about 10 minutes to prepare the next

meal because he already spent the work

batch cooking that chicken so

find out different um strategies that

work for your lifestyle but don't alter

your lifestyle

because you feel like oh it's a chore i

have to do that because then you're not

gonna enjoy it and over time you're

gonna hit burnout and then you're not

just gonna fall off the bandwagon and

not do it

yeah i

no one told me this but i kind of did

that so like i i hate doing exercise so

i'm like i enjoy swimming so that's what

i'm doing i swim so it's one of those

things where like i can i can work it in

because i already enjoy swimming so i'm

like okay i guess i'll swim

just to start just to start getting it

going so i a lot of people like some

people like i was with one of my clients

yesterday he's like i'm gonna go run a

mile i'm like okay go run them i'm gonna

go swimming here

you know

and it's different uh as long as you get

the exercise in it all helps no matter

what you're doing

and do it consistently you know

yes consistency is key and i love that

you're doing swimming because it is

actually a full body workout but for

some women who are pregnant like they

encourage you not to do certain things

so biking unless you're doing a

stationary bike

swimming because different positions so

just be mindful and if you're having

some health concerns talk to your

provider about it but when you talk to

your provider it should be done in

partnerships because it's not an end-all

be-all it's like here's something that i

want to try what do you think or what do

you suggest and you decide it together

because sometimes people go into their

physicians and they think oh my

physician said this but and that's the

only thing no it's not the only thing

have a conversation learn

and voice your opinion just as much as

they're voicing their opinion

yeah it's a two-way relationship and

definitely uh seek more than one

counselor you know get advice from any

counselors if you have the ability to

because

um not all council is good

but you might want to hear different

opinions based on different facts and

definitely definitely definitely seek

counsel

um i like we we do that for we do that

for our current businesses that we seek

advice from any counselors because

they they usually experience stuff

differently than we ever have and

they'll protect us from stuff that we

might not see in the future so

we see we have business counselors we

have health counselors we have

mindset counselors so make sure you seek

advice from any counselors that we are

well-rounded human being you know and

all in all facets

so uh where can people find you online i

know we covered the podcast we're

confusing money online if they want to

hop on the podcast how can we do that um

i appreciate you coming on

you can um find me by going to my

website which is beacons b e a

c o n s dot a i

backslash my name so it's genesis g e n

s s-i-s

middle name amaris a-m-a-r-i-s

kemp k-e-m-p i'm also on instagram and

facebook as genesis amar's camp and

twitter at genesis a camp but um if you

want all your information in one stop

one spot go to my website and everything

will be there book info i'm giving away

um the first chapter of my book for free

and i'm also giving away two

two health and wellness products for

free one is a health assessment and then

one is a superfood

pack that you could take on the go it'll

boost your energy better than that five

hour energy crap or something that will

get you high but make you crash

there you go there you go please check

that out uh we appreciate you coming on

uh genesis uh i got one more question i

like asking this question question uh

what is a quote that you resonate with

whether it's yours or somebody else's

whoo

so one quote that sticks to me right now

is a quote by babe ruth that says never

let the fear of striking out keep you

from playing the game fear is a mindset

y'all but don't let fear condition you

from really taking that leap of faith

and rising up to the level that you

desire so be who you want to be not what

the world wants you to be because if you

don't know who you are then you're going

to fall victim to what other people tell

you you are

and with that london right here we

appreciate your time thank you uh thank

you have a great day