45: Life After Corporate: How to Unlock Your Potential with Deepa Purushothaman

Shaping Freedom With Lisane Basquiat

This week I’m joined by corporate inclusion visionary and author, Deepa Purushothaman.
A former senior partner at Deloitte, Deepa spent more than 20 years helping clients grow. She was the first woman of color and one of the youngest people to make partner in the firm’s history. From the outside, everything looked like it was going well. But a severe health scare amplified by consistently working hundred-hour work weeks forced her to ask herself a big question: “Do I have to do a job like this to feel worthy?”
It was this question that encouraged Deepa to completely re-imagine and re-evaluate what she needed to feel healthy and whole. Eventually, Deepa left Deloitte and founded nFormation, a membership-based community for professional Women of Color. In 2022, she published her first book, The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America. And she continues to speak on the themes of power, inclusion, leadership and advancing women. I highly recommend her TED talks, which have almost 3 million views.
In today’s episode, Deepa and I talk about the experience of being first generation, the pressure that comes with being a woman of color in corporate America, and how we tend to use our careers to carve a sense of identity and belonging.
If you enjoyed my conversation with Deepa Purushothaman, I highly encourage watching her TED talks and read her book The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America.