Michelle Starr Of Be Brown Brave On How We Can Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and Management
An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
Decision-Making Quality by measuring annually the number of women in lead authoritative positions in every department to prevent the “group-think” or “yes men” mentality. I recall on many occasions being the only woman and person of color on all white teams where my opinions were not valued so various procedures were agreed on yet had to be revised several times to fit the needs of the business whereas time could have been saved if my comments were welcomed.
Despite strides towards equality, women remain underrepresented in leadership and management roles across various sectors. In this series, we would like to discuss the barriers to female advancement in these areas and explore actionable strategies for change. We are talking with accomplished women leaders, executives, and pioneers who have navigated these challenges successfully, to hear their experiences, tactics, and advice to inspire and guide the next generation of women toward achieving their full potential in leadership and management roles. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Starr.
Michelle is a speaker, author, and transformational coach who helps Chief Functional Officers and their teams build cohesive work environments and increase productivity by fostering inclusivity for women of all colors in their companies.
She has been a guest speaker at TEDxCherryCreek and TEDxPrincetonCitySchools, where she discussed inclusion and how managing biases can restore energy. Michelle has collaborated with some of the brightest minds in the consumer goods and aerospace industries.
She has also helped many women advocate for themselves in the workplace, and she now focuses her work primarily on inclusion.
Her book, Be Brown Brave: A Guide to Supporting Women of ALL Colors in the Workplace, emphasizes the importance of diversity and inclusion for businesses. It demonstrates how senior leaders can overcome unconscious bias and work with female employees of color to create a more stable and diverse workforce, elevate their company’s performance, and build stronger communities.
She would like to see the statistics on senior-level positions held in America to report Women of Color hold 20% of them by 2033. She is committed to speaking on this daily to as many as possible. Her mission will impact Women of All Colors, their coworkers, and business leaders to where they no longer must monitor and measure their actions to purposely manage this. We all will become conscious enough to become unconsciously unbiased. When we achieve this at work, we can transfer this learning into our personal lives.
She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband of twenty-five years and a young adult son. She became an elected official in her community because she campaigned for more inclusive efforts for the residents. She loves spending time with family and reading genres on well-being, mystery, romance, and classics.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I began my corporate career experienced a lot of success with a global leader where I was part of multicultural, gender-equal, and bias awareness teams. I traveled extensively and received strong support to advance to mid-level management. After many years, I started a family, which made me no longer want to travel, so I sought local work. As a woman — particularly a woman of color — I faced many challenges that led me to move from job to job for years. That experience pushed me to reflect on why the support for women worked where I started. Observing their practices inspired me to step away from corporate life and advocate for women in the workplace, using their organization and others like them as role models.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
While sharing my message with friends, former coworkers, and new colleagues, I was surprised to notice a trend: a few upper-level women echoed my sentiments about the lack of support in the workplace. Additionally, although my message was intended for many white male leaders, I observed that women of color were more interested in my content because no one is trying to heighten a level of awareness as broad as I am.
Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that significantly influenced your path to leadership?
A pivotal moment came when I realized that, over time, I had developed many forms of communication to spread my message about support for women at work. This ranged from writing a book that is sold at a national retailer to delivering a talk on a well-known platform, to hosting a podcast broadcast on a popular music platform, to creating online tutorials, to sharing on social media, and eventually being invited to teach a course to adult learners. I was even invited to present my message through art in a city-wide parade. Finally, landing a seat on council in my community as well as being invited to meet the Vie-President running mate for 2025.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My husband championed, cheered, and supported me both financially and spiritually as I forged ahead. While he wasn’t always vocal about which direction to take, he helped with many physical tasks and assisted with my commute to various places.
I’m also grateful to my son, who challenged me to think bigger and broader — and act on it. He was much more vocal, adding different perspectives to my message, and he continues to coach me on digital communication for reaching wider audiences. I am deeply grateful to both of them.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Yes, my book Be Brown Brave: A Guide to Supporting Women of All Color in the Workplace had a significant impact on me. It addresses the brave and not-so-brave employees who either support or fail to support women, especially women of color, in the workplace. I also encourage women of color to continue being brave, as we have done for many years. I discuss how all employees can become more ‘Brown Brave’ by making small behavioral changes in the workplace.
I remember a time when I stayed quiet for many years, experiencing and witnessing blatant challenges faced by women in the workplace. What baffled me most was the lack of conversation about these issues on a higher, broader scale. My silence stemmed from confusion and frustration, which drained my energy. Eventually, I became so uncomfortable with the situation that it motivated me to speak out. Once I did, others noticed and supported my efforts. That support taught me to never stay quiet again about the lack of support, as it not only affects women but those around them as well.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
A quote from my dad, ‘Take care of your body so your body can take care of you,’ has guided me throughout my life. It’s helped me move forward at my own pace. Many days, we feel and move slower than usual but continue as if nothing is wrong. That’s not good — it’s our mind and body asking for attention. When this happens, I put my mission for others on hold and take care of myself. I often share this quote with others, especially those in the workforce, reminding them to care for themselves when dealing with stresses like a lack of support.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
After creating content and spreading inspiration for inclusion in the workplace for women of color, I expanded my Be Brown Brave philosophy to help other marginalized groups. I then began creating content focused on managing biases in the workplace, with the hope that this practice would extend to managing biases in the world. I talk about how bias can easily turn into hate, which drains our energy. Once we learn to better manage our biases toward others, we can use that restored energy to enjoy life with those we love and care for. After all, no matter how we live our lives, none of us are getting out of here alive.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this report, only about 31.7% of top executive positions across industries are held by women. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from leadership and management?
Barriers and biases in the workplace are holding women back from leadership and management positions. Barriers include the lack of mentorship and sponsorship programs, limited creative pathways to success, and insufficient representation and support. Additionally, biases play a significant role, particularly in the recruiting, hiring, and promotion processes.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become leaders and managers?
Women, especially women of color:
- Think differently than men — not better, just differently — due to their cultural upbringing of navigating challenges daily, this skillset can offer fresh perspectives on scaling products and services.
- Have historically managed household finances for their property, children, parents, spouses/ loved ones, and demonstrating strong management capabilities.
- Have led movements for equality, including the right to vote, work, and control their bodies, showcasing their willingness and ability to lead.
Can you please share “5 Things We Need To Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and Management?”
In order to increase women’s engagement in leadership and management, we must tie data to as many inclusion efforts as possible in organizations. Monitor, track, measure, record, and report on:
1 . Financial Performance by measuring the percentage of male Vice Presidents & above that have DEI for women embedded into their pay, evaluations, and promotions. I recall many senior leaders stressing about meeting their bottom line goals but overlooked ideas and suggestions made by women on their teams causing them to miss opportunities thus miss meeting their financial objectives. Yet, if they had inclusion efforts connected to their annual performance reviews, the outcomes will have been better.
2 . Innovation and Market Share by measuring the number of successful diversity and inclusion initiatives implemented and how diverse are their stakeholders. I recall many new ideas communicated by women but were not echoed or built on until a male suggested it then sadly received credit for her successful idea. On another occasion, I recall a company losing its competitive edge because they did not employ diverse people causing them to operate on that group-think mentality yet if they had women on their teams, they may have received opportunities to resolve issues differently.
3 . Talent Retention and Employee Satisfaction by measuring how many women and women of color are hired and leaving, as well as how many are mentored, and the average amount of years it takes to promote women into lead positions. I recall a company having one to two women of color in a lead position among a group of approximately 150 employees. Seeing this diminished the morale to succeed for other women of color in lower positions. As Sandra Oh quoted, “You can’t be what you can’t see.”
4 . Decision-Making Quality by measuring annually the number of women in lead authoritative positions in every department to prevent the “group-think” or “yes men” mentality. I recall on many occasions being the only woman and person of color on all white teams where my opinions were not valued so various procedures were agreed on yet had to be revised several times to fit the needs of the business whereas time could have been saved if my comments were welcomed.
5 . Brand, Pay, and Social Equity by measuring the amount of women-owned vendors & suppliers used to support your brands; being transparent by auditing and reporting on pay gaps & disparities with women; and measure the amount of money loss due to women related litigations. I recall a company that valued women in several positions with equal pay causing that support to be transferred across the organization to other groups resulting in higher sales and a sustainable workforce.
In your opinion, what systemic changes are needed to facilitate more equitable access for women to leadership roles?
Many policies and procedures in organizations were written in the past not with women in mind causing challenges for her and her teammates to navigate through in today’s environment. So, many companies can provide better equitable access to lead roles by updating their policies and procedures on topics of flexible work options, child & parent care support, and implementing overall well-being programs.
What strategies have you found most effective in mentoring and supporting other women to pursue leadership positions?
First and foremost, inspiring women to be brown brave by stepping out of their comfort zones and ask to be considered for those positions. It starts with a simple request to their leadership on what they want then to provide suggestive solutions to get there. Secondly, be persistent in helping their male leads become aware of the benefits of capitalizing on hidden values of women. Many of today’s leaders want to help, they just are not aware how to do it. Also, remain steadfast as many organizations have begun to see value from inclusion of women and their perspective yet not brave enough to come aboard.
How would you advise a woman leader about how to navigate the challenges of being a woman in a leadership role within a male-dominated industry?
Again, it’s all in awareness. Men have done great things in the world and many times they operate on auto-pilot until someone shows them the benefits from a different path. So, I advise women to request from their leads or human resource groups to incorporate unique D&I education and training about how to better support women in the workplace. Many of us women are timid from so many years of society’s lack of inclusion, so I advise them if comfortable to anonymously leave a copy of my book with their leads (smile) to help them learn the value that we bring to their spaces. Also, to speak up and often to the men on their teams by sharing tips on how to better communicate with and support women in their presence.
How do you balance the demand for authoritative leadership with the stereotypical expectations of female behavior in professional settings?
I educate, inspire, and be my authentic self along the way to balance the demand for authoritative leadership. Many employees want to go to work and back home with a peace of mind. To achieve and maintain this, we must foster an inclusive environment for all. Women are natural nurturers and skilled at managing our homes & communities which makes it easier to lead the masses with empathy, compassion, and resilience.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would inspire all to Be Brown Brave. Being brown brave would have senior leaders in every industry commit to interweaving inclusion throughout their entire organizations, at every level, in every department and with every action. Being brown brave will have all of us step out of our comfort zones to help scale the bravery of today’s leaders so they can include others that are different from the norm. Being brown brave will have all of us learn to manage our bias of one another so we can thrive, succeed, and enjoy life. Ultimately, our time on earth enjoying our loved ones is far too short, so I would love to see more people having constructive, peaceful and productive disagreements so we can get on with the important stuff in life, like FUN.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is a mom, entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion allowed her to be one of the most acclaimed Latina CEO’s in the last 30 years. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Broadcom to bring innovative solutions to travelers and hotels around the world. Vanessa is the lead inventor on 120+ U.S. Patents. Accolades include: FAST 100, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies, Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year among others. Vanessa now spends her time sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles, speaking engagements and music. In her spare time she writes and plays music in the Amazon best selling new band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, trains dogs, and cheers on her children.
Please connect with Vanessa here on linkedin and subscribe to her newsletter Unplugged as well as follow her on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and X and of course on her website VanessaOgle.
Michelle Starr Of Be Brown Brave On How We Can Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.