What Black Women Know

Jamilia Grier
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Black women are leading, building, healing, and creating at the highest levels — all over the world. And every Black woman deserves access to what they know. What Black Women Know is the podcast where that access happens. Hosted from Dubai by international lawyer and She Leads Here founder Jamilia Grier, the show convenes the successful Black women who rarely sit at the same table: celebrities, executives, founders, experts, and coaches. From New York to Lagos, London to Atlanta, Dubai to Johannesburg — each week, a new conversation with a woman sharing her lived experience: the work, the life

Episodes

  1. Jul 14

    EP 08 | Is It Perimenopause, or Am I Losing My Mind? | Dr. Aleesha Grier-Rogers

    We were told to expect hot flashes and nothing else. But menopause comes for Black women earlier, hits harder, and lasts longer — and most of us were never told any of it. Not by our doctors, and not by the women who went before us, because nobody told them either. About this episode: Menopause and perimenopause rarely get the honest conversation they deserve, and for Black women the silence is compounded by providers who don't listen. Jamilia sits down with her sister, clinical psychologist Dr. Aleesha Grier-Rogers, to map what actually happens — the symptoms nobody warns you about, and the major life decisions women weigh in the middle of it. They get into how to tell a hormonal shift from a feeling that's genuinely worth trusting, why so many women start to gaslight themselves, and how to walk into a doctor's office and be taken seriously. It's the conversation most of us needed a decade before we got it. About Dr. Aleesha Grier-Rogers: Dr. Aleesha Grier-Rogers is a clinical psychologist who has spent more than a decade guiding women through the health transitions few of us are prepared for — fertility, pregnancy loss, and menopause. She runs Road to Wellness (https://rtwnow.org), is licensed in New York, Connecticut, and Maine with telehealth practice across 42 states, and coaches women through IVF, with menopause joining the roster soon. She is also a She Leads Here coach. In this conversation: Why menopause tends to arrive earlier and last longer for Black women — and how healthcare dismissal makes it worseHow to tell a hormonal shift from a feeling that's genuinely worth trusting, before you make a decision you can't take backThe symptom list nobody hands you: brain fog, panic that isn't panic, the deodorant that suddenly stops workingThe grief of an identity ending — and the new one arriving in its placeHow to advocate with your provider, and what to actually say to your partnerJoin the community: What Black Women Know is brought to you by She Leads Here — the global membership community for Black women who are building something, at every stage. Coaching, community, and real connections across the US, UK, Africa, Europe, and the Gulf. Join us at https://www.sheleadshere.org

  2. Jul 7

    EP 07 | Style Is Strategy, Not Shopping | Mandy Tucker

    Your wardrobe can be full of clothes you love and still feel impossible every single morning. Mandy Tucker's argument: that's rarely about the clothes. The pieces you reach for on the hard days are telling you exactly what you're covering up — and what you're ready to stop hiding from. About this episode: This one is about what your closet knows before you do. Mandy and Jamilia get into why "I have nothing to wear" is almost never a clothing problem, how style becomes a strategy that either moves you toward your next chapter or keeps you stuck where you are, and the guilt that stops so many women — mothers, caregivers, high performers — from pouring anything back into themselves. You'll walk away with Mandy's trifecta for building a wardrobe that actually works (identity, body, lifestyle), a clear first step you can take this week, and a sharper eye for why the influencer economy is quietly costing you money and confidence. It lands as identity work that happens to run through your closet. About Mandy: Mandy Tucker is a London- and Surrey-based personal stylist, mindset coach, and speaker, and the founder of Mandy Tucker Style. After a career in senior leadership, she qualified as a personal stylist and now runs The Visible Woman, an eight-week program for midlife professional women who feel overlooked and are ready to be seen for their ambition. Her work isn't about buying more — it's about teaching women to become their own stylist. In this conversation: Why the pieces you wear most often reveal what you're hiding fromStyle as strategy: dressing for the role and the next chapter, not just the dayThe guilt that keeps women from investing in themselves — and how to put it downMandy's trifecta — identity, body shape, lifestyle — and why the order mattersHow the influencer economy sets women up to fail, and the first step to shopping with intentionFind Mandy: Learn more about Mandy's work and The Visible Woman at mandytuckerpersonalstylist.com. Join the community: What Black Women Know is brought to you by She Leads Here — the global membership community for Black women who are building something, at every stage. Coaching, community, and real connections across the US, UK, Africa, Europe, and the Gulf. Join us at sheleadshere.org

  3. Jun 29

    EP 06 | Why Smart Women Stay Stuck | Ouriana Walker

    You know exactly what you should be doing. You have the credentials, the clarity, the ambition. So why aren't you doing it? This is the conversation about the gap between knowing and doing — and what's actually sitting in the undercurrent, keeping capable women stuck. About this episode: Ouriana Walker has spent years watching smart, accomplished women — executives, founders, students at the top of their classes — hesitate at the exact moment they should move. What she found underneath the overthinking and the procrastination wasn't a lack of skill or information. It was emotional intelligence: the self-awareness to see your own patterns, and the self-management to act anyway. In this conversation, Jamilia and Ouriana get into why "I know what to do but I'm not doing it" is rarely about the surface excuse, how the meaning you assign to being visible decides whether you ever show up, and why the version of you who already has what you want is simply doing different things — starting with how she spends her money and where she asks for help. If this one feels like it's reading you, that's the point. About Ouriana: Ouriana Walker is a leadership development coach, strategic advisor, and certified social-emotional learning facilitator, and the founder of Dream Big Create, which turns five this year. She works at the intersection of mindset and strategy — coaching high-potential women to close the gap between who they are and the version of themselves doing the thing they say they want. Connect with Ouriana: www.dreambigcreate.com | Ouriana Walker on LinkedIn In this conversation: Why "I know what to do but I'm not doing it" is an emotional intelligence problem, not a knowledge oneHow the meaning you assign to being visible decides whether you act — judgment, or the person who needs your help"You do who you are" — getting into alignment with the identity that already has what you wantWhy confidence comes after the action, not before itHow the way you spend, invest, and ask for help reveals what you actually believe about yourselfJoin the community: What Black Women Know is brought to you by She Leads Here — the global membership community for Black women who are building something, at every stage. Coaching, community, and real connections across the US, UK, Africa, Europe, and the Gulf. Join us at www.sheleadshere.org

  4. Jun 23

    Ep 05 | The Identity You Leave Behind When You Escape Corporate | Chenise Upshur

    Everybody talks about the leap — the day you hand in your notice and walk out of corporate for good. Almost nobody talks about what you have to leave behind to actually build the thing on the other side. Not the title. You. The version of you that corporate built. About this episode: Chenise Upshur spent fifteen years in corporate before she walked away — and what she learned coaching women through the same exit is that the logistics were never the hard part. The hard part is the identity work: the belief that you're "not enough," the self-sabotage that quietly dismantles your consistency, and the version of yourself you spent a decade building that no longer fits where you're going. In this conversation, Jamilia and Chenise go deep on why the roadblock to leaving corporate is almost always internal — and what it actually takes to do the work, shed the old self, and stay gone. If you've ever imagined leaving your job to build something of your own, this is the conversation about the part no one warns you about. About Chenise: Chenise Upshur is the founder of Corporate Escapee, where she coaches professionals through the transition from corporate employee to business owner using her six-step ESCAPE framework. Before building it, she spent fifteen years in corporate and earned her coaching license while still on the inside — turning the question four people asked her in a single day ("how did you get the courage to leave?") into the business she runs full-time today. In this conversation: Why "I'm not enough" is the most common belief holding women back — and where it actually comes fromThe identity you build in corporate, and why it follows you into your business if you don't shed itHow your own brain invents reasons to break your consistency — and why a new calendar won't fix itThe ESCAPE framework, and why the real work happens between the steps, not in themShowing up as your authentic self when corporate trained you to be performativeJoin the community: What Black Women Know is brought to you by She Leads Here — the global membership community for Black women who are building something, at every stage. Coaching, community, and real connections across the US, UK, Africa, Europe, and the Gulf. Join us at www.sheleadshere.org

  5. Jun 16

    EP 04 | The Rules You Didn't Choose | Petra Owusu-Brandstaeter

    Most of the rules running your life, you never actually agreed to. You inherited them — from a mother working three jobs, from a culture that told you what a young lady does, from a workplace that rewarded you for being the strong one who never asks for help. Petra Owusu-Brandstaeter has spent fifteen years figuring out how to take those rules apart. About this episode: Petra calls it the inner architecture of self-leadership — the layered operating system of emotional rules, personality, values, and beliefs that drives every decision you make before you're aware you've made it. In this conversation she breaks down why knowing better rarely changes behaviour, why the strengths that carried you up the ladder eventually become the ceiling, and how to tell which of your rules still belong in the life you're living now. Jamilia goes first, unpacking her own rule live — "young ladies always wear earrings" — and tracing it straight to the perfectionism she leads with today. You'll leave able to name at least one rule you've been following without choosing it. About Petra: Petra Owusu-Brandstaeter is the CEO of Unbox Leadership Consulting and a Founding Coach at She Leads Here. Born in Ghana, raised in Germany, and shaped by eight years building a life and raising her son in Guangzhou before settling in Dubai, she has spent over fifteen years working across Europe, China, and the Middle East. She started in emotional intelligence training for leaders — then went underneath it, to the self-leadership that decides whether any of it ever sticks. In this conversation: Why "the knowing does not equal the doing" — and what's actually blocking the change you keep failing to makeEmotional rules: the inherited, unspoken instructions that quietly run your career, your relationships, and your reactionsHow independence becomes a strength that turns into a cage — and why high-performing women are so often the ones who hit the wallJamilia unpacking her own emotional rule on air, and what she'd be doing if she'd never learned itThe "soft life" reframe: how the rule you live by becomes your identity — and how to rewrite it on purposeJoin the community: What Black Women Know is brought to you by She Leads Here — the global membership community for Black women who are building something, at every stage. Coaching, community, and real connections across the US, UK, Africa, Europe, and the Gulf. These conversations are also recorded live inside the community, where members go deeper, ask the guest their own questions, and bring the lesson into their own work. Join us at sheleadshere.org

  6. Jun 8

    EP 03 | The Art of Self-Prioritization: Stop Giving From Empty | Haamacha Ngandu

    You were taught to be strong. To show up for everyone. To give to your family, your community, your partner, your colleagues — and to do it without complaint, without rest, and without putting yourself first. But nobody told you what that would cost you. The panic attacks. The high blood pressure. The resentment that builds quietly until one day you do not recognise yourself. The exhaustion that has nothing to do with how much sleep you got. This is what happens when the strong Black woman label stops being a compliment and starts being a cage. In this episode, Haamacha Ngandu — self-prioritization coach, founder of The Art of Self-Prioritization, and a woman who has lived every word of this framework — breaks down what it actually means to put yourself first. Not selfishly. Not at the expense of the people you love. But strategically, incrementally, and with the kind of unapologetic clarity that changes how everyone around you treats you. Haamacha speaks from Milan, Italy — where she rebuilt her life after 20 years of marriage, navigated a five-year court battle, and discovered that the boundaries she fought for in a courtroom were the same ones she had been afraid to set at home. In this conversation: Why the strong Black woman label is one of the most dangerous identities we carry — and what it is quietly doing to our bodiesThe Art of Self-Prioritization framework — soft nos, deep whys, and the small incremental choices that compound into a completely different lifeWhy resentment is not about the other person — and what it is actually telling you about yourselfHow to identify your deep why and use it to stay consistent when every instinct tells you to give inWhat Black women specifically have been conditioned to believe about rest, boundaries, and self-worth — and how to start deprogramming it nowWhy self-prioritization is not a destination but a daily practice — and what that looks like even on the hardest daysReady to be in the room where this conversation continues? She Leads Here is the global membership community for Black women in leadership and entrepreneurship — where the coaching is real, the community is global, and the women you meet here have been exactly where you are. Haamacha Ngandu is a founding coach inside She Leads Here. You can work with her and coaches like her inside the community. Join us at sheleadshere.org

  7. Jun 8

    EP 02 | Why Love Is the Most Powerful Business Strategy You're Not Using | Annie Paraison

    What if the most powerful tool in your leadership arsenal was the one you were taught to leave at the door? This episode makes the case that love is not a soft skill. It is a strategy. One that increases retention, reduces burnout, grows profits, and fundamentally changes how you show up as a leader, a colleague, and a human being in every room you walk into. Annie Paraison — leadership and relational intelligence coach and founder of Love Before All — breaks down exactly how to use love as an actionable framework in business and in life. This is not a conversation about being nice. It is a conversation about building the relational skills that most of us were never taught, and that Black women in business and leadership need now more than ever. In this conversation: Why love is an action, not a sentiment — and what that means for how you lead your team and run your businessThe stories your eight-year-old self is still telling you — and how to rewrite them without losing yourself in the processWhy Black women are often the most relationally skilled people in the room and the least protected by itThe three shifts that change everything: from fixing to seeing, from perfection to repair, from time management to energy scaffoldingHow to stop taking it personally — and access your full brilliance to solve what's actually in front of youReady to be in the room where this conversation continues? She Leads Here is the global membership community for Black women in leadership and entrepreneurship — where the coaching is real, the community is global, and the women you meet here have been exactly where you are. Annie Paraison is a founding coach inside She Leads Here. You can work with her and coaches like her inside the community. Join us at sheleadshere.org

  8. Jun 8

    EP 01 | We Are High-Functioning on the Outside and Overwhelmed on the Inside | Dr. Aleesha Grier-Rogers

    There is a name for what you have been carrying — and it has been costing you more than you know. In this episode, Jamilia Grier sits down with Dr. Aleesha Grier-Rogers, clinical psychologist and women's health coach, to break down the Triple Tax — the layered, compounding weight that Black women absorb daily across every space they occupy. The performance tax. The emotional labor tax. The resilience tax. And for many, the maternal mental load multiplier sitting on top of all of it. This is not a conversation about struggle. It is a conversation about clarity — naming what is real, understanding what it is costing you, and beginning to put some of it down. Dr. Grier-Rogers specializes in working with women of color navigating women's health, fertility, and the psychological weight of showing up in spaces not built for them. This episode is her first session inside She Leads Here — and it will stay with you. In this conversation: What the Triple Tax actually is — and why Black women carry it in ways others simply do notThe performance tax: why we are always monitoring, editing, and translating ourselves even when we are exhaustedThe resilience tax: how the cape that was supposed to protect us has been quietly depleting us for generationsThe maternal mental load multiplier: the invisible cognitive weight that does not stop, even in sleepWhat it actually looks like to start putting it down — boundaries, emotional selectivity, and redefining what strength meansReady to be in the room where this conversation continues? She Leads Here is the global membership community for Black women in leadership and entrepreneurship — where the coaching is real, the community is global, and the women you meet here have been exactly where you are. Dr. Grier-Rogers is a member of She Leads Here. You can connect with her and coaches like her inside the community. Join us at sheleadshere.org

  9. Jun 8

    What Black Women Know - Official Trailer

    What Black Women Know is the podcast for Black women in business, leadership, and life — featuring candid conversations with coaches, mentors, and experts from around the world who have navigated exactly what you are facing right now. Every week, host Jamilia Grier sits down with an expert guest who has climbed the mountain — and she tells you what it actually takes to reach the summit. Not theory. Not polished success stories. The real, hard-won knowledge that gets you through the challenge, the decision, the week in front of you. This is coaching for Black women, by Black women. Business. Leadership. Career. Entrepreneurship. Life. Wherever you are in the world, the expert you need is here. What Black Women Know is brought to you by She Leads Here — the global membership community for Black women in leadership and entrepreneurship. Coaching, community, and real connections across the US, UK, Africa, Europe, and the Gulf. New episodes weekly. Subscribe now. Join the community: sheleadshere.org

    What Black Women Know - Official Trailer

Trailer

About

Black women are leading, building, healing, and creating at the highest levels — all over the world. And every Black woman deserves access to what they know. What Black Women Know is the podcast where that access happens. Hosted from Dubai by international lawyer and She Leads Here founder Jamilia Grier, the show convenes the successful Black women who rarely sit at the same table: celebrities, executives, founders, experts, and coaches. From New York to Lagos, London to Atlanta, Dubai to Johannesburg — each week, a new conversation with a woman sharing her lived experience: the work, the life

Information

  • Creator
    Jamilia Grier
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Jamilia Grier
  • Show Website
    What Black Women Know