Bea Gale
I met Bea (government name being Brittney Gale) at the beginning of my cohort experience as a Bonfire Fellow in 2020, and since then in lots of virtual rooms, most recently through being involved in the current cohort’s small groups. I was delighted when she agreed to speak with me for the Spotlight Series! I had not even finished speaking out loud the question of where she sees her origin story (my opener always) before I noticed that Bea has an answer and it shows on her face. And boy oh boy does she have one. “Chicago is my origin story”, she tells me. She sees herself in all the neighborhoods, all the places where she lived, studied, worked. It is the city that has allowed her to be the hardworking, scrappy woman she is. It is this love for Chicago that led her to do a photoshoot of different Chicago neighborhoods for her 30th birthday; it covers everything from her Metra stop to her church; from her senior year homecoming location (Gately stadium for the curious) to DePaul; from King HS to Joffrey Ballet.
Throughout her adult life, she has been in a space of learning, both as a student and a teacher. She has been a coach, a dance teacher and mentor for over hundreds of students. It started at home - her mom is a CPS teacher, and Bea remembers being her little helper, taking stuff down at the end of summer and putting things back before school started. Bea was also there for all of her mother’s graduation: Bachelor’s; Master’s and PHD - the pride and love shine brightly. Teaching wasn’t a career path her mother encouraged, and somewhere during undergraduate she fell in love with public relations and advertising (as far away from Maths as possible). She had this vision of being a cool millennial boss woman.
After undergrad, she continued her job as a dance teacher to make money, and realized how much she enjoyed the purpose and passion in these communal spaces. She didn’t really think that teaching was a transferable skill but always enjoyed interacting with students, the personal connections and conversations and trust. She has missed the intimacy of in-person interaction.
Her next job was at Soho House, where she learned the term “putting sugar on shit” in the context of some workplace dynamics; it was the first time a woman was honest with her about the gender play around niceness and good work.
She then joined Uber, where she had a choice between taking a position that would involve managing people, or being an individual Learning and Development (L&D) contributor. She chose the latter, which was a very fulfilling choice. She started as a L&D specialist within Uber Support’s Center of Excellence, became a training specialist for Uber Freight, where she was developing brand new training programs. She was subsequently promoted twice while at Uber and wanted to further her career. The unstructured nature of the overall environment wasn’t something she was interested in long term, and she was looking for more structure -- she moved to PwC, and realized she had manifested way too much structure in her life. It was around this time that a friend of hers, Mica Vargas, reached out about an opportunity at Bonfire -- a hustle with chill -- and that is where she has been since November 2019.
Of course, all of these experiences aren’t without some learning of her own. She tells me that she wasn’t prepared for corporate work life, especially since they were city workers. She wasn’t prepared for the mental gymnastics of nice-nasty in the private sector; she also learned that as a black woman, being nice was not enough - she always had to be ‘nicer’, an exhausting way to live. She didn’t just have to manage up, she had to manage across and down.
In her spare time, she loves working on her podcast Tactless Radio. Bea identifies as a cultural consumer and connoisseur who shares how we’re all feeling but never share tactlessly. Her podcast is wide-ranging covering topics from health, personal growth, corporate work life to transphobia, racism and tearing down the patriarchy. Five years from now she wants Tactless Radio to be a catalyst that moves us from wanting to have difficult conversations to engaging in those conversations with the intention of us making the world better for one another.
When I ask her about the biggest influences in her life, she tells me about her mom (of course) and her older cousin Shea, who her mother calls her sister-cousin. Her mom faced adversity while pursuing her dream as an educator which showed Bea and her three siblings that despite what life gives you, you make lemonade. Her mom recently founded Beacon of Light which is a consulting company that focuses on parent workshops, educator support, and personalized curriculum planning. Shea is the closest thing Bea has to a big sister, and is someone she has always looked up to. She has seen how far Shea has come, and her every milestone from becoming a super mom to becoming the founder of FAAAM which is an organization that connects and champions inclusive and authentic representation of African Americans in marketing and advertising.
There are so many interests Bea has, but the ones closest to her heart are astrology, home-made beauty products (she calls herself a kitchen witch), and hip-hop music. She is driven to challenge misogyny in music, empower learners to take control of their development and share how we all should live our lives to the fullest. Don’t forget to check out Tactless Radio!