On Call: Connections & Conversations

Customer intimacy is the hardest business advantage to copy, and in federal subcontracting, it might be the hardest one to build without breaking a rule. In this episode, Doctor DeJuan Stroman-Price breaks down why customer intimacy runs the whole business, not just the sales pitch, what actually stands in the way of building it, and where the real door is open in a federal market split apart by procurement rules. Whether you sell in the commercial world or navigate government subcontracting, the discipline is the same. Only the path to build it change

Cambridge's youngest Black professor was found dead days after resigning under a wave of plagiarism allegations. Dr. DeJuan Stroman-Price sits with what Jason Arday's death reveals about race, credibility, and the myths institutions ask scholars of color to perform — drawing on her own experience finding a genuinely safe research environment at Pepperdine, where so many others don't. The full written analysis is on her Substack, Beyond the Business Card — link in the show notes.

In this brief episode, Dr. DeJuan Stroman-Price reflects from Philadelphia while attending the Academy of Management Annual Conference. She shares how her research on Black women entrepreneurs, professional networks, technology, and equity connects to today’s changing world of work—and why access to relationships and opportunity is never neutral.

Everyone is asking whether Cheyenne Bryant lied about her credentials. I'm asking a different question: what kind of environment makes that lie work?
This episode sits at the intersection of anti-intellectualism, media literacy collapse, AI, and the brutal paradox Black women face as the most educated demographic in the country who are still systematically undervalued. I bring in Baudrillard, break down the Amanda Seales and Maya Angelou comparison, and get honest about what it actually costs to earn the title.
Companion essay: https://thenetworkingdr.substack.com/p/the-weight-of-the-title

People ask me all the time — what exactly do you do? In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain. I break down the "networking first" model that defines every engagement at The Networking Dr.™, the doctoral research behind it, and the four service areas where I help founders, professionals, and organizations grow through relationships. I share a client testimonial, get specific about who I work best with, and introduce the Connection Blueprint™ intake — a tailored, two-part experience designed to give us both a clear starting point before we ever sit down together. If you've been curious about working with me, start here.
 
Start your Connection Blueprint™ intake: https://connect-blueprint-flow.base44.app Learn more: https://www.thenetworkingdr.com Subscribe to Beyond the Business Card: https://thenetworkingdr.substack.com

I spent years interviewing Black women entrepreneurs for my doctoral research at Pepperdine. I asked them about their networks, their decisions, their wins and losses. I wrote 387 pages about how they build and sustain businesses. And then I left my role as Senior Director at a small business and launched my own consultancy. This episode is about what that transition actually looks like when you stop studying it and start living it. I talk about the career arc that brought me here, from a global consultancy to a small business to my own firm. I talk about what The BOW Institute has taught me as a training participant, and why being in a room with founders who are building, not performing, has been one of the most grounding parts of this process. If you are considering the leap from someone else's org chart to your own, this one is for yo

Episode 4: You're Not Invisible. You're Just Inconsistent.
After the last presidential election, I wrote a post. It was researched, honest, and fair. It was also some of the most personally revealing writing I had done in a professional context. I read it eleven times.
It is still in my drafts.
In this episode, I use that story as the entry point for a conversation about Intentional Visibility — one of the four pillars of my R.I.S.E. Framework, developed through my doctoral research on how Black women entrepreneurs build and leverage professional networks. Intentional Visibility is not about posting more. It is about showing up strategically, consistently, and authentically in the spaces where it counts.
I walk through five specific places professionals quietly lose ground on visibility — from showing up only when you have news, to confusing a full calendar with being known. We also get into the cringe factor: that hesitation between having something genuine to say and actually saying it, and what it is quietly costing you.
If you have ever closed a tab on something you should have published, this one is for you.
In this episode:
Why visibility problems look like waiting, not invisibility
The difference between genuine connection and programmatic outreach
How to maintain your network before you need it
What your outdated bio is actually communicating
Connect and go deeper: Substack: https://thenetworkingdr.substack.com Website: https://www.thenetworkingdr.com

Three legal actions. Six weeks. One pattern. In this episode, Dr. DeJuan Stroman-Price connects the dots between the EEOC's lawsuit targeting a women's networking event, Edward Blum's challenge to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation scholarship, and Executive Order 14398 — the new federal contracting mandate with False Claims Act teeth. Drawing on her post-doctoral research and the history of Black institution-building in America, she makes the case that these aren't isolated legal disputes. They are a coordinated effort to dismantle the infrastructure that formal identity-based networks produce — and if you are a Black woman in business, the stakes are in your pipeline right now.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Last episode was the diagnosis. This one is the prescription. Dr. DeJuan Stroman-Price breaks down the R.I.S.E. Framework™ — the four-pillar networking model that emerged from her doctoral research on Black women entrepreneurs — and applies it directly to the Crisis 600: nearly 600,000 Black women economically sidelined since February 2025. This episode covers Intersectional Network Agility (a new research construct for navigating identity-affirming and structurally advantaged networks), specific action steps for Black women in transition, why rest is a strategy and not a reward, and four non-negotiable commitments for allies and institutions. The full 20-step strategy is on Beyond the Business Card on Substack.

The headlines are calling it ambition. The data tells a different story. In this debut episode, Dr. DeJuan Stroman-Price unpacks what is actually driving the rise of Black women entrepreneurs — and why resilience alone is not enough. Drawing from her own experience launching The Networking Dr.™ and years of doctoral research, she makes the case for what is actually owed.