Ever been told your communication skills need work, but you’re already leading projects, managing teams, and getting things done?

They say immigrants lack soft skills — but who decides what good communication even looks like?

If you’re an immigrant or part of the diaspora, this might sound familiar. You speak more than one language, but somehow your accent, grammar, or “tone” becomes the reason you’re rated lower in performance reviews. Soft skills? You’ve got plenty. But they don’t seem to count the same.

In this episode, I unpack how communication and soft skills are often used as coded feedback—a quiet form of bias that holds many immigrants back from promotions, raises, and recognition. I share my own lived experiences with white and South Asian bosses, including:

• Getting my emails proofread after I was already managing people

• Being asked “Who helped you?” after creating a training guide

• Watching my grammar get fixed, my credit erased, and my confidence shaken

• And later, finally being rated the highest by a director who saw my real value

This episode is for anyone who’s ever been made to feel like their voice doesn’t fit the corporate mold. Because communication isn’t grammar—it’s how we lead, handle chaos, and move things forward.

If you’re tired of being told to “speak or write better” just to be heard, this episode is for you.

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• Diaspora's Career Challenge Podcast Episodes: teachndo.com/podcastepisodes

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  Sweta Regmi - https://www.teachndo.com/speaker

It’s AAPI Heritage Month — but let’s be real: South Asians are still the afterthought.

In this raw and unapologetic episode of Diaspora’s Career Challenges, Sweta Regmi dives into the erasure of South Asian voices during AAPI Month and beyond. From the dominance of East Asian representation in media and corporate diversity panels, to the harmful stereotypes, casteism, and colorism within our own communities — this episode unpacks the layered struggles South Asians face in both professional and cultural spaces.

We talk about:

• Why “Asian” doesn’t always mean East Asian

• How anti–South Asian hate is rising — and being normalized

• The myth of the “good immigrant” and the cost of staying silent

• Workplace invisibility, emotional labor, and missed promotions

• Intra-community discrimination: caste, color, and gender bias

• Why exposure ≠ compensation — especially in DEI spaces

From curry jokes to corporate gaslighting, from internalized shame to external discrimination — we’re done being the diversity checkbox.

South Asians aren’t a monolith. We’re not your punchline. We’re here, we’re loud, and we’re taking up space.

🎧 Tune in, share it, and let’s rewrite the narrative — because South Asian stories deserve more than just a heritage month shoutout.

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• Diaspora's Career Challenge Podcast Episodes: teachndo.com/podcastepisodes

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  Sweta Regmi - https://www.teachndo.com/speaker

#AAPIHeritageMonth #AmplifySouthAsianVoices #Diaspora'sCareerChallenges

Ever pressed 2 for French or Spanish to dodge an accent? This episode exposes the not-so-subtle bias behind “accent shopping” in customer service calls. From real-life contact center stories to AI now being used to mask employee accents as digital whitewashing, we dive deep into the uncomfortable truth: It’s not always about comprehension—it’s about who sounds “acceptable.”

So here’s how it goes…

You call a contact center. You don’t press 1 for English—because let’s be honest, you don’t want to get ‘Raj from Bangalore’ or ‘Mei from Manila.’

Nope. You press 2 for French… or Spanish.

Then go, ‘Oops! Meant English!’—knowing that bilingual reps are usually North American-born.

Welcome to Accent Shopping.

It’s not in the handbook, but it’s alive and thriving in every customer service line across North America.

And now?

Companies are using AI to MASK employee accents.

Yes. We’ve gone that far to please a customer.

So I gotta ask:

What will customers complain about now? That the AI sounded too ‘neutral’?

Let’s dive in.”

🎧 Listen as we unpack:

• Why customers game language menus to avoid international voices

• How AI is erasing human identity for “neutral” North American speech

• What counts as a “Canadian,” "American" or “professional” accent

• Real examples of bias in call transfers—and who gets deemed “Canadian enough”

Whether you’ve ever been judged for your voice or caught yourself preferring certain accents, this one’s got some real talk you need to hear.

Free Career Resources: https://www.teachndo.com/resources

• Diaspora's Career Challenge Podcast Episodes: teachndo.com/podcastepisodes

  Book me to speak

  Sweta Regmi - https://www.teachndo.com/speaker