Episode 243

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Published on:

18th Apr 2026

Episode 243: Implementing DEI: The Antidote to Toxic Workplace Culture [featuring Angela Howard]

In this episode, Patrick Casale talks with Angela Howard, founder of Call for Culture and former head of People and Culture, about transforming workplace culture and leading substantive organizational change. Angela shares insights on building truly equitable, people-centered organizations and offers a much-needed reality check on performative vs. authentic DEI efforts.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

  1. True Culture Change Starts at the Top: Diagnose gaps within your organization. Often, leadership habits are the real barrier to progress, not the employees. Addressing leadership resistance is vital for sustainable transformation.
  2. Beware the Red Flags: Language like “we’re all family here” or “work hard, play hard” can signal toxic workplace dynamics. Evaluate if your organization values partnership over possessiveness and transparency over secrecy.
  3. Choose Collective Action over Empty Marketing: Conferences and gatherings should prioritize actionable conversations, equitable opportunities, and systemic impact—not just box-ticking or PR. Seek out spaces that foster real change, not just appearances.

More about Angela:

Angela R. Howard is a globally recognized equity-centered organizational culture and change strategist who speaks, writes, and advocates for the transformative power of work in driving social impact.

As the Founder of Call for Culture, a strategic advisory firm and community of practice, Angela helps organizations align, mobilize, and transform into humane, people-centered workplaces that create meaningful and lasting change.

A former executive leader and Head of People and Culture, Angela has firsthand experience navigating organizations through complex culture transformations. She has witnessed how the workplace often lags behind societal and generational shifts, and how unsustainable approaches to change can negatively impact both people and profit. Leveraging her expertise, Angela has guided organizations worldwide to build sustainable, adaptive, and responsive workplace cultures.

Angela holds an MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and lives in the Chicagoland area. Her team leads Call for Culture’s annual Culture Impact Lab conference. This event brings together culture changemakers to address challenges at the intersection of social impact and the workplace, fostering a vision for a more equitable, inclusive, and just future of work.

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NeuroPreneur Circle Community

NeuroPreneur Circle is an online community built by and for neurodivergent entrepreneurs who want a supportive space to build a business, a space where they can show up as themselves and in whatever way feels most comfortable. NeuroPreneur Circle exists because community built on masking isn't really community. And business advice built for neurotypical brains isn't actually useful to us, no matter how many times we try to make it fit. Whatever your neurotype, whatever you're building, there's a space here for you. You've been creating alone long enough. Visit: https://atppod.com/community

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About the Podcast

The Neurodivergent Entrepreneur
Honest conversations about building a business while Neurodivergent, the self-doubt, the chaos, and everything in between.
The Neurodivergent Entrepreneur is a podcast for ADHD, Autistic, and all other neurodivergent entrepreneurs who are building businesses, creative work, and lives that actually fit how their brains work. Hosted by Patrick Casale, LCMHC, this show is for people who
want to create meaningful work, create outside of the box, grow their impact, and build something sustainable without losing themselves in the process.

Being a neurodivergent entrepreneur can feel like holding a lot of contradictions at once. You may have big ideas, deep passion, creative energy, and a strong desire to do things differently. You may also be navigating burnout, masking, self-doubt, perfectionism, rejection sensitivity, executive dysfunction, inconsistent energy, and the pressure to keep showing up when your capacity is already stretched. This podcast speaks to that reality honestly, because building a business around your brain, your values, and your lived experience can be powerful, complicated, messy, and deeply personal.

Patrick Casale is a chronically ill, AuDHD, mental health therapist, entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, event host, group practice owner, and neurodivergent business owner who has built, grown, burned out, pivoted, and kept going. His work brings together clinical insight, lived experience, business perspective, and real conversation about what it actually takes to create something that feels values aligned. His conversations are direct, compassionate, unfiltered, and practical, with room for both the emotional reality of entrepreneurship and the concrete decisions that shape a sustainable business.

New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature honest conversations with neurodivergent entrepreneurs, creators, therapists, business owners, and leaders. Together, Patrick and his guests explore entrepreneurship, identity, mental health, chronic health,
creativity, leadership, systems, money mindset, visibility, community, sustainable growth, and the behind-the-scenes reality of creating work that matters.

Build your dream business. Protect your capacity. Work with your brain instead of against it.