A Queens kid learns to ask for help: vulnerability, trust, and connection with Rebecca Taylor
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Belonging does not begin at work. It begins in the people who hand you a baby at a family picnic and never think twice, in the neighbors who show up when the holidays fall apart, and in the quiet moment you finally let yourself ask for help.
On this episode of I Know I Belong When…, host Christopher Bylone welcomes Rebecca Taylor, a people strategy leader who has spent more than a decade in HR saying the quiet part out loud. Rebecca co-founded SkillCycle and helped scale it onto Inc's fastest growing companies list three years running, and she now leads community and content at All Voices, where she hosts HR Voices. She is also a Queens kid who will not go 10 minutes without telling you so.
This is a conversation about building belonging across every arena of a life. Rebecca traces the four-generation friend family that raised her, the moment at work when she knew she did not belong, and the leader she chose to become because of it. Belonging, here, is not one more pillar of inclusion work. It is the outcome of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility done well, and it gives listeners language to name a sense of belonging in their own lives.
Watch the full episode :
Must-hear insights & key moments
Why comfort and certainty are not the same as safety, and why real growth requires being uncomfortable
What a four-generation friend family taught her about trust, including the moment a near-stranger handed her a baby without a second thought
How a high school falling out taught her that belonging is something you help build, not something you wait for
The recruiting agency moment that sent a chill down her spine, when a qualified candidate was gatekept over the area code on her phone
Why she changed her name professionally to be considered palatable, and what that revealed about the culture around her
How she rebuilt HR Voices to center the human in front of you, not the system on paper
The one small, unscripted step she wants every listener to take this week to build the muscle of connection
Rebecca’s standout quotes:
“we try to strive for comfort and clarity, and we think that that's the goal, but I don't think it really exists in workplaces.”
“You're in the family. Like, I know that nothing's going to happen to this child in your care, because that's the level of just, like, connection that we all have.”
“You can call me in 10 years, we might not have spoken, like I'm here. Whatever I can do, I'm here, right?”
“when I realized that this was sort of a whole agency that was gatekeeping roles from people who didn't look a specific way, I was like, ‘I can't.’”
“I know that I belong to you and you belong to me when I can ask you for help, and I don't feel like I have to bend over backwards to do it.”
Why this episode matters
Belonging is not a workplace perk. It is a whole-life reality that shows up at the family table, in the text thread that lights up when life falls apart, and in the courage to be seen. Rebecca's story gives listeners language for belonging that reaches from self to home to community to work, and it reframes vulnerability as the doorway to trust rather than a risk to manage. For anyone building inclusive culture or practicing authentic leadership, this episode is a reminder that people experience is human experience first.
Who should listen
This one is for everyone. It is for the person working out who they are and learning to ask for help. It is for parents, caregivers, and anyone building a home or a chosen family. It is for community builders, organizers, connectors, and people of faith who nurture the circles around them. It is for HR leaders, people managers, and inclusion practitioners searching for strategic inclusion and human-centered innovation that starts with the human in front of them. And it is for anyone looking for language to name belonging in their own everyday life.