Structure and Soul Podcast
Ep. 3.5 | Black Women Disrupt: Reinvention, Resilience, and Refusing to Shrink with Zakiya Carr
What happens when a former Chief Diversity Officer, diplomat, and international equity strategist decides to bet on herself? You get Zakiya Carr — founder of Odara Solutions and the Black Women Disrupt Initiative — and one of the most honest conversations we've had on Structure and Soul about reinvention, identity, and what it really costs to step out from behind the scenes.
We met at the Every Kid Thrives Festival at the Obama Presidential Center — two women from the DC area, in the same room, in the same season of rebuilding. This one felt personal.
What We Cover:
- How Zakiya went from advising governments and international agencies to building her own firm from scratch — and what nobody tells you about that transition
- Why Black Women Disrupt exists and what it means to build a community when your own peers won't share their resources
- What it felt like to pause Odara Solutions and return to it with fresh eyes in 2025
- The identity crisis that hits when the title disappears — and how she found her way back to herself
- Why she refuses to change her name — and what that choice says about how we show up in a world that keeps asking us to shrink
- The filmmaker, the diplomat, the strategist — why being multifaceted is a strength, not a distraction
- How Shanel and Zakiya both stopped separating their community work from their professional identity — and what opened up when they did
Key Takeaways:
- Disruption for the sake of disruption isn't the goal — disruption with intention changes communities
- Building in isolation is a choice. Black Women Disrupt exists because women deserve a table that shares, not guards, the blueprint
- You don't have to change who you are to fit the room. Sometimes you just help people understand what your name means
- The skills you use in your nonprofit, your church, your community — those count. Stop moving in silos within your own life
- Sometimes you put something down so it can grow. That's not failure. That's strategy.
About the Host: Shanel Evans is a business strategist and coach who helps entrepreneurs shatter revenue ceilings and attract their dream clients through client attraction and social media strategies. Known for her "red pen" moments, Shanel offers feedback that helps entrepreneurs course-correct while staying true to their goals, delivered with love.
Where to Find Us:
Host Website: www.shanelevans.com
Apply to be a Guest: www.structureandsoulpodcast.com
LinkedIn: Shanel Evans
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