From Dominican Backyard School to Fortune 500 Advisor | Yulkendy Valdez

Show Notes

In this episode of Building Leadership Community, Coach Dora Mendez talks with Yulkendy Valdez — social entrepreneur, consultant, and founder of Phenomenal Talent .

Yulkendy shares how her leadership journey began in the Dominican Republic, teaching neighborhood children to read , and evolved into building ventures that empower underrepresented creators .

Together, they explore:

• The courage to choose purpose over stability
• Mentorship and sponsorship as leadership accelerators
• Healing as a leadership practice
• Why community sustains long-term impact

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
03:39 – Founding Forefront & Early Entrepreneurship
07:16 – Backyard School in the Dominican Republic
11:59 – Spelling Bees, Representation & Confidence
18:12 – Choosing Entrepreneurship
21:37 – Wellness & Leadership

Guest

Yulkendy Valdez
Founder, Phenomenal Talent
Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree

Connect with Yulkendy:
https://linkedin.com/in/yulkendyvaldez/
https://yulkendyvaldez.com

Check out The Entrepreneur's Podcast Blueprint course: https://www.coachdoramendez.com/offers/nbFVW58k/checkout

Subscribe, share this episode with your leadership circle, and help us build community together

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back, amazing leaders, to another powerful episode of Building Leadership Community Podcast. I'm your host, Coach Dora Mendez, and today's conversation is one that speaks directly to the future of leadership, equity, and purpose-driven impact. This episode is especially meaningful because we are joined by a leader who represents what it looks like to build boldly, lead with intention, and create opportunities where none previously existed. Our guest today is Julkendi Valdez, a Forbes 30 under 30 social entrepreneur, consultant, and global public speaker, whose work sits at the intersection of innovation, equity, and community power. Julkendi has advised some of the world's most influential organizations, build ventures that uplift underrepresented creators, and continues to challenge how we think about leadership in the future of work. By the end of this conversation, you will walk away with a deeper understanding of what it means to lead inclusively, to build ecosystems, not just companies, and to stay rooted in purpose while navigating growth and global impact. This episode is your reminder that leadership is not about titles, it's about who you bring with you and how you create space for others to rise. So settle in, take a breath, and get ready. Hello and welcome to Building Leadership Community Podcast. I'm your host, Dora Mendez. I'm the founder and CEO of CoachDora LLC, our guest holding entrepreneurs, small business owners, and community leaders that drive social impact. It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be. Thank you so much for being part of the Building Leadership community. Whether this is your very first episode or you've been rocking with us for a while now, as we always say here, it can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be. That belief is the heartbeat of this podcast. If you're new here, welcome. We're so glad you found us. And if you're a returning listener, thank you for continuing to show up for these conversations week after week. Please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe if you're watching us on YouTube, so you never miss an episode and say hello in the comments. We love hearing from you. If you've been thinking about starting your own podcast, be sure to check out our mini course, The Entrepreneurs Podcast Blueprint. I created it alongside my husband and co-producer Dylan Rogers. It includes five easy-to-follow video modules, a downloadable workbook, and an AI prompt sheet to help you get your ideas out into the world with clarity and confidence. The link is in the description. So now let me introduce today's incredible guest, Yulkendi Valdez, is a Forbes 30-30 honoree, social entrepreneur, consultant, and internationally recognized public speaker. While studying business at Babson College, the number one school for entrepreneurship, she co-founded Forefront, a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultancy that partnered with leading organizations, including Boston University and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Over five years, Forefront received investment from top accelerators like Techstars and Yukendi's work has been personally recognized by former president Bill Clinton and featured in outlets such as Fast Company and the Boston Globe. She is also the founder of Phenomenal Talent. And that she is a venture that connects businesses with BIPOC creators, from public speakers and poets to DJs and wellness practitioners, creating economic empowerment while supporting social impact work. Jul Kendi speaks on global stages from Lions to St. Gallen. Oh, I probably pronounced that wrong on the topics including the future of work, women of color and technology, mentorship and sponsorship, and engaging millennials, Gen Z, leaders of color. She is one young world ambassador, a fellow of organizations such as Future Founders, Young People for, and the Resolution Project. With roots in St. Louis, Missouri, and having traveled to over 40 countries, she currently calls Brooklyn, New York home, where she continues to consult in cultural organizations like Google and La Familia Foundation. Today, Julkendi is here to share her leadership journey, her insights on community-centered leadership, and her vision for what's next. Let's welcome the phenomenal Julkendi Valdez.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Hi. Hello. Thank you, Coach Dora, for inviting me to this beautiful space. Leadership is a role I take seriously. So excited to have this conversation.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

And I'm excited to talk to you. I think our uh listeners and viewers are gonna get so much out of this conversation. You're such an interesting person. It's been such a long time since we since we've spoken. I think when we first talked, it was in the summer of 2025. And you had just uh come from Greece, taking a vacation in Greece, I think. Was that the case?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Oh yes, and I I don't I don't regret that. Uh especially I think for everyone listening, if you don't uh get anything from this conversation, the one thing I want you to get is like rest is the most powerful uh leadership recipe. Um, and travel to me has been one of the my most frequent methods that I use where I get rejuvenated.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

I love that. That's something that we share in common. So, as you know, here at the Building Leadership Community podcast, we ask all our guests to share uh their leadership, their leadership story. So we'd love to um hear from you. I'd love to pass the mic and let you share um what leadership means to you. What's your story?

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah, you know, and I want to preface that, you know, when I still hear the word leader, I want to run away from it. But then I remember my I remind myself that people like us are the ones that should be claiming uh the role of leadership. One is driven by true purpose, not ego. And and that's the way I really have taken on that role. It's truly personal to me. And it also started at a very young age. Um, my leadership journey really, uh, if I look back, you know, hindsight is always 2020, but really started at the age of six. I started a school in my backyard in the Dominican Republic. I was born in a very small town, uh, grew up with my grandparents, like many children of immigrants. My uh mom had already left the United States and I stayed back in in the island. And because of my family was able to benefit from immigration to the United States, I grew up with more resources in my neighborhood. So when I noticed my friends couldn't read, and I could, I said, come on to my backyard. I charge you five pesos because I guess I am uh entrepreneurship. I'm not a bit of a capitalist. I do believe you could be some good. And um, I would we I would teach my friends in the neighborhood how to read. And now I look back and realize that was one of the first signals that I was meant to use my my voice uh for good, that I was meant to be a convener. Um and I just had to let things happen um uh accordingly. And that ultimately led me to building a company at a at a very young age. Um and I had to make that tough call early on. You know, being a first generation college student, I didn't have no emergency fund, no parents I could call. In fact, it was the opposite. I was faced with with a lot of guilt, having to decide between a stable career in my early 20s or choosing to build a venture to solve a problem in my community that I that I care about. Um, and I ultimately call because I realized I rather see a future where my younger siblings can feel seen, heard, and and valued than uh a temporary financial, stable present where it doesn't really feed anyone outside of myself. And so I always look back to to gain some some strength to what I did at age six, and that allowed me to do some more in my 20s, and now that I'm in my 30s, um, I'm allowing that to multiply even more.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

It takes a lot of courage to go out on your own and to be independent, and you and I I admire that so much about you. And um, you know, we talk a lot about leadership. Uh, it can be isolating. You kind of touch upon it a little bit about um, so what is commute, why is community so essential um to sustainable leadership? And how do you stay grounded while doing such expansive work?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yes, it it it was it was uh very, very isolating. Uh, when I moved from the Dominican Republic, it was to the state of Missouri, the good old Midwest. Um, I thought I was gonna get the Dominican York experience, which is where I'm now. I can walk down the street and get some Sancocho, uh some tostones, and I feel at home. In Missouri, it was a complete opposite story. You know, I live in a neighborhood, neighbors weren't talking to each other. And that was so foreign to me because I really uh was supported by a village as a kid. To then go to Missouri, that was a very much a culture shock. I also didn't know English as much as I try to take um take classes. So it was really, really lonely at the beginning, especially as someone that uh was born, you know, had that story. Teenage parents felt that I had a lot to prove. Um, it it was really hard. Um, but funny enough, I I'm gonna continue to share those childhood stories because I think they were all catalysts to the to the point that I'm today. Um, when I ultimately got a conference, US was actually participating in spelling beast as a team. And I started reading the dictionary, had to give all my awelas. Um I'm like, I need to start watching the Disney Channel, I need to catch up and learn English because I feel behind, I feel alone, I can't make connections. So I I figure it out for my own. I started reading dictionaries, competing in the spelling bees, and ultimately represented um Missouri and um ESPN. Um, and that's not common. Uh, there's not a lot of Latinos, maybe Afro-Latinas that participate. The the competition is dominated mainly by um white Americans and and Asian Americans. And so here I come saying, um, hey, uh, I'm gonna learn the English language overnight, also roots, Greek root, Roman roots, and I'm gonna compete at that level. When that happened, I said, you know, I could I could really do anything. If I could do this, I could also lead Fortune 500 companies. Ultimately, like I did, advice them and be at that level. And the reason I took that to heart and that very seriously was not only my own ambition, is because in the media I realized how much of an anomaly I was made to feel. Where it's like I'm just competing in a spelling bee, and the media was in the comments, you would read, immigrant, oh, that's immigrant taking our jobs. I'm like, it's a spelling bee. It's not a job, but but it's just the the disconnect, the the hate and the dynamics, um, especially being from the Midwest, really educated me about the US and the polarities that exist, and I had to face that head on. So I think that made me say if the toolkit is not built for me, I'm gonna build it. And for so long I tried to push on my own, but ultimately when I was going from school to career, I realized I'm gonna need people around to sustain me, mentors and sponsors. One of the special day ones was actually your mom, as you know, that that really uh believed in me, Senaida, um, and and and empowered me to do amazing work. And it led the serendipity to us having this conversation uh today.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Thanks for uh name-dropping uh Senaida Mendez. Talk about immigrant story. I don't know if you know you candy. Mom's mom's uh wrote a memoir, and she's the she was the first guest on our show. Uh she's been the first season one, season two, season three uh premier guest on on our show because she just has so much to to share. Um, and I'm I'm it makes me so proud that we we share that connection. Um, but but also I have to just tug on something a little bit. Um you know, when you mentioned the spelling bee, I keep thinking that movie Akeelah and the Bee comes in my head because I I love that movie. Did you ever see that movie? Yeah, okay, all right. Of course I do. Absolutely. We could have a whole nother podcast. I don't want to like diverge from the, but we could have a whole nother podcast about immigrants take my jobs because you are a U.S. citizen, correct?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

So it just it just it's we could have a whole nother show about uh the contribution immigrants made. And but you are a citizen and you are an American and and you are living the American dream. And it just it just is so inspiring. So I would love, and what I love that would the way you share when you talk about sustaining, you're always looking back at your younger, at your younger self, and you're pulling from those roots um and the sick the success that you had in early childhood. Uh, can you would what would you, if you could go back and speak to your younger self, what would what advice would you offer her?

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah, and I and I think the reason I like to ground in those early early childhood stories leading to my teenage years and ultimately to post-secondary education and early career, is that for me, one of the number one rules of leadership is to follow the science of luck. Serendipity, we're talking about, I love words, serendipity is one of my favorite words. Also, if you like rom-coms, really good, good movie. But it's really around timing and and being in the lookout. And uh it's it's now early, early, early year, new year. This is a good time to reflect. And I bet if a lot of us just go way back um and let ourselves sit sit in how certain things happen, how our journey has panned out professionally and personally, we can see signs that we didn't catch. Um, and that has helped me be more successful and just happy at life because I keep my eyes open for the sign for the signs of luck, for that magic. And I know I don't want to get all like uh uh but you're not true. It's still true. And actually, I I'll tell the story and I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Uh, a coach, this was actually taught to me. Uh Scott Sherman had a leadership um uh boot camp. And this was a big catalyst for me because when I was choosing whether to build a company, uh drop out of the corporate workforce, I had to choose to show uh whether I was gonna show up for this final round interview or go to this leadership boot camp with Scott Sherman in LA. And last-minute decision, I was I was in an airport to LAX, and I ended up doing this boot camp. And a lot of what it talked about was the science of luck and research that has been done, where folks that are not looking could miss out on a hundred dollar bill in the streets. But if you're trained your mind to look and watch out for those opportunities to lead and step up, you will see them. And I think that's something that I trained myself a lot in the last decade, and it has led me to to a lot of serendipitous opportunities. But we love your thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Well, it's well, you make your own luck because what you've done is you have you prepared yourself, you know, you've educated yourself, you trained yourself, you you're prepared. Um, but you you also is it I I want to I the idea of luck has come up a lot when it comes to leadership. And I just I love this perspective. Because for me, I I I when I hear your background, I listen to your story, you you've taken initiative and you you make your own stage, you make your own business. You have always uh, you know, I was surprised to say that you run away from the title of leadership because that I feel like that's like who you are, you know. Like I I just I have that picture of you as a child teaching the kids in the backyard. Like it's just like it's you just paint such a like incredible picture, like you're you're just a natural. It's you're just a natural, and um so um I I just I think a a lot of our audience is gonna get a lot of this idea of serendipity, you know. But I feel like you make your own luck. It isn't like you're floating on a breeze. I think you have you have a str a plan, like a goal, or or am I wrong on that?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Well no one say I think it it is that mindset, and it it's easier said than done, but we need to have that mindset based on on that science, right? Of the laws of attraction. So um I think to get to this point and to maintain it, even if you were born with this like positive mindset, let's do to maintain it, you have to position yourself as a leader, which again, it's hard. Like there's some inner work. I might try to run away from it because I feel at times you anyone can feel this, right? You're not enough, or you don't have the capabilities that are shown as the standard, right? As the Eurowhite standards or how do you show up in a boardroom, or who gets to build this massive company, or who gets to be um uh uh a political leader, etc. So those are things that go internally, and that's what I mean. You have to work on your uh on your mindset around luck, serendipity, open up and and heal, whether that's to travel, journaling, uh talking to a therapist, um, and doing a lot of movement exercise. I I had to to do that ultimately, um, even though earlier on it seemed like I carry it so naturally. Actually, after closing my business right around the pandemic, where a lot of us had were forced to have breakthroughs, I was like, oh my God, I really have to maintain it or I'm gonna lose it. And I really started restructuring my whole life to make sure it accounts for that healing, recare, and healing. You know, what's in my calendar? Does it include movement? Does it include uh inner work? Does it include body work? Does it include family community as we were talking about?

SPEAKER_01 22:06

So overall wellness. Right? Yeah. Overall wellness, which is something that, you know, at at in which we which we think about here at at uh you know at at building leadership community, sort of like our overall wellness. And I love that you mentioned mindset because when I hear what you're saying, I it's like it's that growth mindset of continuously learning and continuously improving and um celebrate your wins. You get you seem to be like you seem to be a leader that's hard on themselves. So I you need to give yourself some grace because you've done so many great things. Um and you lift people up as you rise. So I'd love for you to, you know, I want to give you the mic now to share what you like to share with our audience, share how people can get in touch with you, learn more about you, your business. Um yeah, I want to, you know, pass the virtual mic to you.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Yeah, no, uh, if you love having conversations about leadership, wellness, community, entrepreneurship, uh, please follow me on LinkedIn. I'm constantly posting it uh about it and opening the door to have these safe spaces about how we can lead our own way authentically and differently. Um and thank you, Coach Dora, for calling me out. Uh it's a good reminder. Uh it it's so true. It's it's important to celebrate that journey in the small wins. Um, a lot of us have really hard standards, right? Because we want to see the world a certain way. We know we can uh be better, but especially with the way everything is happening, a lot of technological advancement, uh, political and economic um instability. It's important to ultimately uh go into our crew, our village, celebrate those small wins, feed our joy, because that's our resistance. That's a way we rebuild and fight for the long haul. So you're so right about that.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Yes, I'm so happy that you're here. And so we're going to put the link to we're we'll have your LinkedIn in the description. And uh, I'm gonna ask you to hold on a second as we close out. I want to thank all our listeners and viewers for joining us. I certainly am um so I'm so proud to highlight um our leader today, Julkendi Valdez. And uh we'll see you next week. You've been listening to Building Leadership Community. Watch on YouTube at CoachDoraM. Listen wherever you get your podcast. Follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube at CoachDoraM. Visit me on the web at coachdoramendez.com. Hosted by me, DoraMendez. Produced by Dora Mendez and Dylan Rogers. Graphics, editing, and sound mixing by Dylan Rogers.