At the start of 2026, The Riveo Impact Lab is kicking off a new monthly release schedule—and the year is beginning with a conversation that gets right to the heart of what impact really looks like for small businesses today.
In this episode, Emily sits down with Chandra Chea, co-founder of Essence Consulting Collaborative (ECC)—an LGBTQ+ and women-owned, multilingual organizational development collective that helps small to mid-sized organizations strengthen their internal systems through an equity-, accessibility-, and people-first lens.
Chandra and Emily explore what happens when an organization’s mission isn’t aligned with its day-to-day operations, why that disconnect can stifle impact (and fuel burnout), and what it takes to build workplaces—and communities—where inclusion isn’t just a value statement, but a lived practice.
Building Organizations That Actually Walk the Talk
When Chandra Chea co-founded Essence Consulting Collaborative, she wasn’t just starting another consulting business. She was creating the workplace she’d always wished existed. One that actually aligned operations with mission. One that treated equity as more than a buzzword. One that didn’t exhaust people of color by forcing them to constantly justify why fairness matters.
On a recent episode of the Riveo Impact Lab podcast, Chandra shared insights from her journey as a child of Cambodian refugees, through Peace Corps service in Zambia, to building an LGBTQ+ and women-owned organizational development collective. Her message? The gap between what organizations say they value and how they actually operate is wider than most leaders want to admit. And closing it takes more than good intentions.
The Mission-Operations Gap
Chandra and her co-founder Breanna Rodriguez kept seeing the same pattern in the nonprofit sector:
“We’ve noticed a lot of organizations had these big, amazing missions and their internal operations were rarely aligned with what their missions were.”
They lived it firsthand. Burnout. Racism. Being ignored despite their expertise. Organizations dedicated to equity maintained inequitable salary structures. Nonprofits serving marginalized communities marginalized their own staff. Leaders spoke about inclusion while keeping decision-making firmly hierarchical.
Sound familiar?
A Lesson in Privilege That Changed Everything
During Peace Corps service in Zambia, Chandra was perceived as “AmaZulu” (white) in many spaces. This jarred against her experience as a person of color in America.
The turning point came on a crowded bus:
“We were trying to get on the bus, but the bus was full and we had a police officer come onto the bus and say, no, you have to take these volunteers with you on the bus. Even though it broke the rules and the bus was full… There was a teacher on the bus, and he stood up and he said, you would never, ever do this for a Zambian. You are only doing this because they’re white.”
Her initial reaction? Embarrassment and defensiveness. But reflection brought clarity:
“As we stood there and talked about what had just happened, I started to realize, he was so right. These are things that we were walking around and moving around in the country as if everybody just walks around and moves around like this.”
Years later, she still asks herself: What is my position of privilege here? Whose perspective am I not considering?
Why You Can’t Train People to Care
After years on diversity councils trying to create change from within, Chandra learned an uncomfortable truth:
“I don’t think it’s my job to convince you that people matter. I think that is your job to decide whether you think people matter in your organization or you think the people around you in your community matter.”
The Real Cost of Performative DEI
Too often, equity initiatives become an extra burden on the very people they’re meant to support:
“We’re fighting this uphill battle in these committees that require extra work that have no input on our performance evaluation, no input on any raises or bonuses. So you’re really, a lot of places these initiatives look like putting an extra burden on the people of color in your organization to do this.”
The solution? Leadership that genuinely commits to fairness as a core business priority, not a compliance checkbox.
Where Small Business Owners Should Actually Start
If you’re thinking, “I want to do better, but where do I begin?” Chandra has clear guidance. And it starts before any training, consultant, or new policy.
Get Honest with Yourself
“I would challenge all of these notions of like, I have to do this and start asking yourself, is it a priority for myself that I work with people who are treated fairly? Is it a priority for myself that I build a business which is inherently, especially the small business owner and the amount of control you can have, an extension of yourself in the world and your impact in the world.”
Your business is an extension of who you are. If you’re not ready to commit to equity as a personal priority (not just a business strategy), the rest won’t matter.
Go Beyond the Numbers
Don’t just count how many trainings people completed. Start asking questions and actually listening:
“Start asking the people that you’re working with, start asking the people that you’re serving and beyond just asking, you need to create an environment where feedback is actually something that people can give.”
This means creating anonymous feedback channels, protecting people from retaliation, and recognizing that your “open door policy” might not feel open to everyone. Building trust takes time.
Recognize the Power Dynamic
As a leader, sit with this reality:
“You have to sit in their shoes and say, okay, my staff member does not have the power in this conversation when it comes to their employment, their salary level, all of these things. How can I build a trusting relationship with them and actively work towards that?”
Learn to Have Difficult Conversations
This is non-negotiable. Chandra recommends courses in conflict management and nonviolent communication:
“Unless they’re primed for change management, unless they’re primed to have a difficult conversation, unless you’re actually ready to move into action, and to actually create an environment that listens and hears from your staff, it doesn’t matter how many tools, templates, trainings anybody takes.”
And remember:
“Listening is one piece. But at the end of the day, if you’re not doing anything about it, then what was the point of me even talking?”
Rethinking Hierarchy
One of Chandra’s core beliefs challenges traditional organizational structures:
“Everybody plays an essential role, whether it’s taking notes in a meeting or it’s making high level strategic decisions. Without that person, things are not functioning… There’s no one in my perspective that is more important than the other.”
When you truly believe this, decision-making changes. You engage people at all levels. You recognize that the person taking notes has valuable insights about how meetings function. Everyone deserves a voice in the place they spend most of their waking hours.
Choice Is a Privilege
Perhaps Chandra’s most powerful point was about who gets to choose whether equity matters:
“It’s a unique option to say, hey, I don’t care about diversity, equity and inclusion. Because for me, if I’m working for an organization that doesn’t care about that, I have a lower salary, I’m treated in a certain way. I receive these things. So it’s not a choice for me whether I care about it or I don’t, because it affects how I’m treated every day in life.”
If you’re in a position to choose whether to engage with equity work, that’s your privilege showing. For many people, it’s not theoretical. It’s survival.
What Liberation Looks Like
When Chandra and Breanna started Essence Consulting Collaborative, they wanted time for family, real work-life balance, and freedom from daily microaggressions. But they also discovered something unexpected:
“The biggest thing that’s changed for me is I don’t have to deal with microaggressions every day. I don’t have to deal with explaining to people why my opinion matters.”
They created what Chandra calls “busy, calm, and aligned.” A workplace that moves fast but doesn’t drain people. That pushes for excellence without sacrificing wellbeing.
Her challenge to other business owners:
“I would challenge businesses to say, is it stressful because it’s busy or could this be calm and busy? Could taking on some of these initiatives actually make work better for you every day, could make the workplace a more enjoyable place to be?”
And leaders must model what they want to see:
“I can tell our other consultants, go ahead, take your time off. But if they don’t see me actively putting in the processes to take our time off, no one’s going to feel comfortable enough doing it.”
Impact vs. Intention
When asked what impact means to her, Chandra didn’t give a feel-good answer:
“When I hear the word impact, I think both positive and negative. It’s really the effect of your actions on the community in the world. I think we all come in with great intentions of positive impact. But there are plenty, plenty of ways we can impact the people around us negatively.”
The distinction that matters:
“Your impact is not tied to your intentions. It’s tied to your actions.”
You can mean well and still cause harm. The question is: what do you do when you realize the impact doesn’t match the intention?
Moving from Guilt to Action
Chandra’s learned this through experience:
“My experience has really helped propel me into that space of like, great, you didn’t mean to do that, but now what are you going to do? What are you going to learn? How are you going to change? What are the actual systems you’re going to put in place?”
Sitting in guilt is comfortable in its own way. It lets you stay focused on your feelings rather than the harm caused. Action requires something harder: admitting you were wrong and changing course.
And here’s what Chandra wants you to know:
“Being uncomfortable is never going to end. But it is always an opportunity for learning. You’re not going to get comfortable being uncomfortable. You’re just going to be uncomfortable. But you’re also going to get to learn and actually grow from this.”
The Bottom Line
Building an organization that lives its values requires honest self-examination about what you truly prioritize, genuine commitment beyond compliance or optics, and leaders who model the behavior they want to see. It means being willing to be wrong and taking action when problems are identified.
As Chandra reminds us, being wrong and growing from it is one of the most powerful skills a business leader can have. The question is: are you ready to use it?
This Week’s Challenge: Take a conflict management course. Whether your budget allows for a free webinar or a paid program, learning to handle tough conversations is crucial for creating a thriving team.
Connect with Chandra: Essence Consulting Website and Chandra’s LinkedIn
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