On Staying Accountable To Your Goals And Your Community: Jennifer Sarduy
Leading up to our Winter ‘20 iteration of WORK, we'll feature select interviews with some of our conference's speakers and thought leaders. In this interview, Re+Birth Equity co-founder and community leader Jen Sarduy discusses community as a mutual accountability tool. Click here for a look at Winter 2020’s conference schedule.
who:
Jen Sarduy was voted "most likely to enjoy 6 AM team activities" in high school, and that remains true to this day. In 2018, Jen co-founded Re+Birth Equity Alliance, believing that organizing is intersectional and nuanced, she works to center the most marginalized and vulnerable. Passionate about people and driven by change, she works to build both bridges and power within her community. In 2020 she hopes to keep more of her plants alive. Jen lives in Fort Worth, Texas.
What are you currently working on? What does your work life look like?
I've been working on ensuring that every thing I organize is intersectional. I want to make every room I am in look like the community around it. Our communities are so rarely made up of cisgender, white able-bodied folks and our decision-making bodies shouldn't look that way, either!
What goals are you working toward and how do you intend to reach them?
I want to really grow capacity with Black leaders in my city this year. Black womxn have been out here leading the charge and doing work forever and it's time for that to be the focus of our at large organizing. We're in an election year and we know that the Black womxn vote will make or break this shit, so I'm putting all of my money on Black womxn this year, for sure.
How do you hold yourself accountable to long-term and short-term goals?
I am not a monolith, and I don't work in a silo. My community is my responsibility and I am theirs. As long as I know that I'm accountable to my community, I'll keep working toward social change. When we start to feel like we're in this kind of solo pressure situation, when anything we do can make us a failure, then hell yes we'll fail. But when we look at it as "I can't fail because we are caught in a web of mutuality and my community as a whole has my back just as I have theirs," then everything looks a lot different.
How do you train your intuition?
Heartbreak is an effective, if unfortunate, honing tool for intuition, but an equally powerful tool is looking at the fact that I'm here today, and I have gotten through 100% of my shitty situations and decisions so far. So based on that track record, I'm able to trust myself more and more every day.
How do you choose between negative and constructive feedback?
I have been making more space to just sit with feedback of all kinds. Once you take reaction off of the table as an option, it makes feedback just another part of life. It will shape and change you if it needs to, and wash past you if it doesn't.
What's something you've unlearned lately that you're grateful for?
I've unlearned the need to have urgency as a part of my daily life. The 24-hour news cycle is just not where it's at.
Do you have any daily habits that are crucial to your workflow or stress management?
I re-analyze my calendar every day. Just because a meeting has been planned for a long time doesn't mean it's still necessary. Just because you want to get out with a friend, doesn't mean it's the best way to spend time that day. Everything is changing all the time, and making the space to just re-verify that I'm spending my day in a way that both feels good and is the best use of time is valuable for me.
About WORK: WORK is a biannual conference, exploring ideas and approaches to creative, collaborative and entrepreneurial work. Hosting 300 guests every summer and winter, this biannual, one-day event's panels, workshops and speaker sessions touch on personal and professional development, marketing, wellness, business management and entrepreneurship. Our next conference pops up on January 11, 2020 at Rowling Hall in Austin, Texas. ✨Click here for more information.
