The Thread of Purpose with Elaine Welteroth

Elaine Welteroth, award-winning journalist and author, discusses the importance of purpose and how it guides her career and life. She emphasizes the need to define what you stand for and what you care about more than money or titles. Welteroth also reflects on her time as the youngest editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue and the challenges she faced in navigating her purpose within the constraints of the title.

Devi and Elaine have a moment of praise for Oprah Winfrey; as an example of someone who has used her platform to empower and elevate others.

Welteroth also shares her experience of being a mother and how it has expanded her understanding of purpose and service. Motherhood inspired her work with Birth Fund, an organization focused on expanding access to midwifery care and improving maternal health in the United States. She points out the broken medical system and the maternal health crisis in the country, emphasizing that the issue affects all families, regardless of socioeconomic status. She explains the importance of midwifery care and the need for more options and resources for birthing people.

Connect: @DeviBrown @ElaineWelteroth

@BirthFund

Learn More: TheBirthFund.com

Support: Make a donation to The Birth Fund

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Take a deep breath in through your nose.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hold it.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Now, release slowly again, deep in, helle hold release, repeating

(01:02):
internally to yourself as you connect to my voice. I
am deeply, deeply well. I am deeply deep well. I

(01:23):
am deeply.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
I'm Debbie Brown and this is the Deeply Well Podcast.
Welcome to Deeply Well, a soft place to land, a
podcast for the curious and creative who are ready to
expand in higher consciousness and self care. I'm Debbie Brown.

(01:53):
This is where we heal, this is where we become.
Today's episode, Oh my god, we are going to go
off the places. I'm so excited to share my guests
with you today. Award winning journalist, New York Times best
selling author and judge on Project Runway, Elaine Welter Roth

(02:16):
is an award winning journalist, TV host, and author of
the instant New York Times best selling book More Than Enough,
which won the twenty twenty NAACP Image Award for Outstanding
Literary Work. At age twenty nine, she was named the
youngest editor in chief in Conde nas history, where under

(02:36):
her leadership, team Vogue evolved into a platform that elevates
marginalized voices and amplifies political discourse. After spending more than
a decade climbing the ranks of magazine journalism, Elaine can
now be seen on television weekly doling out fashion industry
advice as a judge on Bravo's Project Runway. Her masterclass

(02:56):
on Redesigning your Career debuted in twenty twenty one and
has helped thousands navigate career transitions. Now, her popular new
advice column, Askalane appears in The Washington Post, exploring how
to navigate pivots in life with more ease and less inks.
In addition to the Washington Post, her writing appears in

(03:16):
The New York Times, British Vogue, and Time. She is
a new mom living with her husband in LA and
to say the least has just birthed something so powerful
for women. Welcome to the show, Elaine.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Thank you so much, Debbie. That was beautiful.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
I could listen to your voice all day. I could
just listen to you read me the alphabet.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Oh my god, Okay, I'm going to leave you a
voice and be like, eh, yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Please, yeah, I feel like I'm dropping my I'm like
getting more breathy and getting more vivy just listening to you.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Oh my gosh, you're so generous. Ele. We have so
much to talk about. Thank you so much for joining me.
I mean, you were doing really powerful things in the
world before we get into like the big thing that
I can't wait to sink my teeth into, especially as
a mama. You know what I've noticed from you and
your work from Afar is you have been weaving purpose

(04:12):
for a really, really long time. And I remember very
distinctly when I first you first kind of came into
my orbit, when you first took on the position as
the youngest editor in chief and teen Vogue, and I
remember in that moment how monumental that was and how
much that shifted things, I think for so many people,

(04:33):
and especially through the ways that you shaped a magazine
that you wanted to expect so many of the things
that came from your rain, You wanted to expect those
things to come from that publication. And so it's really
powerful and really intentional. And from seeing your transition to
then continuing to do just like a bevy of forward

(04:54):
facing projects in the world, having your book and the
things that you teach and share in the book, and
now this monumental offering with birth fund. I mean, how
have you noticed and recognized your purpose and how have
you've seen it kind of evolved but still be the
truth of what it is and all the dynamics that

(05:16):
you've been applying it to.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
I love this question.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
I love this as a place to start because I
think sometimes, you know, you mentioned about my plum talking
about career pivots and life pivots, and I think people
are like, oh, she's like the pivot queen. It's like,
you can call it that, But really, to me, the

(05:40):
thread is purpose.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
And yeah, purpose.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Is multi pronged, So it's really not about taking a
sharp left or a sharp right from the designated destination.
It's about where is purpose guiding me next? Where can
I be most of service? Where can I grow even more?

(06:06):
Where can I expand? And so I think when I
look back through my career and even at any point
in my career looking forward, I've always been guided by
purpose and the purpose, the thread has been there. Whether
people recognize that or not, you know, that's not for

(06:26):
me to teut, but for you to recognize that, for
you to say that, for you to lead with that
makes me feel seen and understood in a way because
all of these disparate things that maybe make me the
sort of like the framing might be multi hyphen it,

(06:50):
and that's fine, but really it's I hope that when
people experience my work that they experience the same that
thread of purpose and soul work and heart work and
in elevating of consciousness in different mediums.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Like that's really what it's about.

Speaker 4 (07:14):
And as I've grown, and as my perspective has shifted,
and as my purview has expanded, as life experience has
enlightened me and taught me new lessons, I feel compelled
and convicted to share that through my work in whatever medium.
And I think the beauty of being a storyteller and

(07:37):
a creator and just a person in this world in
this era is that there are no limits. Yeah right
now how you can apply yourself and those lessons and
those skill sets that you pick up along the way.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
And I think we're in.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
Such a beautiful age where that old concept of an
American dream has fallen away. The idea that you can
only be one thing, that you can only aspire to
one career path is now outdated, and we now know
that we get to design and redesign ourselves and our
path as we go, right, and the goal is to allow,

(08:14):
as you said so beautifully, purpose, to beat the thread
that weaves together that beautiful tapestry of experiences and stories
and work that we all get to leave behind.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Oh my god, I love that. I love this so much.
You hit the nail on the head in a few
different ways. I realized recently. I was like looking back
through these like my storage and finding all this stuff
that I've done and worked on over the years. And
I realized that I've been giving talks on purpose for

(08:47):
exactly fifteen years, and there was always this thread, and
I talked about it while in different careers. But I
believe the equation of purpose. The equation I found is
it's a mixture of the wisdom gleaned from your lived experience,
the skills you've amassed so far, you're innate, gifts and service.

(09:09):
And it's not purpose if it's not in service to
something more than you.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
And I think the last ten years kind of culturally
we've been in this zeitgeist and it's not all bad.
And I know everyone listening and here's me talk about
this all the time, but it's been all about kind
of performance. The optics of how you look to someone else, right,
the validation. It's been about job titles.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Right.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
This has been a very tidally time. You know, everything
is about kind of you know, like what is the
fanciest kind of way to say something or what is
the catchiest name for business you've made. But it's like
people aren't always peeking behind the hood to say, well,
what is the business or what is the purpose or
how does it serve or how does it do anything

(09:53):
other than kind of edify the person you know that
wants to share. And it's so powerful because to your point,
especially you know, and I don't. I haven't. I haven't
caught that, so I don't think that that is seen
about you. But from the outside looking in, I know
I've definitely gotten that too, where you know, people be like,
oh my god, I'm obsessed with what you've done in

(10:14):
the wellness industry or with this pivot, and I'm like, yeah,
it's not really a pivot. This has been my life,
my whole life. And you know, it's like it's using
my voice, but now in a way that I really know,
it's like channeled from God as opposed to using my
voice and being trained to use my voice in broadcasting
for many years, you know, But it's that evolution, and

(10:36):
the evolution is the new ways that you serve with
that equation, with everything that you've amassed.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
It's interesting that you're centering this conversation or starting the
conversation around purpose and the difference between purpose and job titles. Yeah,
because I do think that in my magazine editor era,
titles held so much weight and so much of your
value in the world was defined by the title that

(11:04):
you carried, and so your title chasing, right, not necessarily
purpose chasing.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
And I always, while I was focused.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
On sort of, you know, excelling in my career and
getting to that next promotion, I also felt the weight
of the responsibility that came with that title. As someone
who looked different than most people who held those titles,
I saw it as an opportunity to bring a different perspective,
to tell a different story, to open the door to
a new kind of person, so that we could redefine

(11:36):
the title rather than the title defining us. And ultimately,
when I decided to graduate from the title of magazine editor,
which had come to define me, you know, that moment
of transitioning or that moment of transitioning into the Teen
Vogue editor in Chief title that kind of went viral,

(11:57):
which is something that you don't prepare for, you don't anticipate,
you don't curate. That's a moment God made happen, right,
And I look back in hindsight and I say, thank God,
Thank you God, not for the publicity or the notoriety,
but for that divine setup for everything that you were

(12:18):
going to use me to do. Thank you for that platform.
And what was happening behind the scenes was not as
glamorous as what it looked like on the outside, and
so that timeframe was actually really challenging for me.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
There was a lot of that.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
I felt very disintegrated, Like you know, there was a
perception and then there was a lived reality, and they
were different. But I felt the weight of carrying this
crown that I was handed and now I have to
make it look good and everybody's excited for me.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Let me embrace that.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
But also I was navigating a lot internally professionally throughout
that experience, and so ultimately I felt like I was
able to trans that title into purpose work. I was
able to take what that title meant and transform it
into something different, and then something that suited me and

(13:12):
my purpose work better, or that just felt more aligned.
I was able to try to create some alignment within
a world I didn't always feel I fit into, with
a world whose values I didn't always subscribe to. I
was able to take what came with that title and

(13:33):
the publicity that came with it, and the respect and
the power and.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Sort of.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
Transfer it into spaces where I felt we needed more spotlight,
and the voices that deserved a platform, we were able
to lift them up.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
But at the point in which I.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
Felt that I had graduated, I was ready to graduate
that title and move on, and I saw all the
things that God had for me, even though other people
didn't see it.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
People saw this job as like.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
The pinnacle, like the mountaintop, like why would you ever,
you know, abandon that title, Like that title is your
value in this world.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
And while I saw that and.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
Felt that that's what people believed about me, I believed
something different about me, and I knew that God had
something more for me. And so I feel so blessed
now to look back at that time and think, think,
and again say thank you God for helping to liberate

(14:45):
me from that title and the ways in which it
could have kept me hostage to spaces that were actually
too small for what he had me to do in
the world. Right, But that you go through this like
part of the evolution also looks like the metamorphosis, right
of like a butterfly, you go through this like wormy

(15:08):
phase where it's like you just don't it doesn't look good.
It doesn't look to the world right, like it doesn't
look fully formed. It's not colorful yet, it's not you know,
like the form isn't there right, and you just feel
mushy and exposed, and like, you know, you know what
you're metamorphosis, or you hope you have a vision of

(15:30):
what it's going to lead to.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
But I think there was this awkward phase of.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Taking off that cloak of that title and going through
that metamorphosis now publicly in a way, with the pressure
of having something to prove to the world and feeling
like I had to I had to come with what
was next I prove? And so now I feel so liberated.

(15:57):
I feel so free from all of that, and I
feel the thing that I have I have always believed
about me and everybody else. I now feel like I
can live in that reality, which is it's not about
what you do, it's about what you stand for. Yes, right, yes,
And that's what I've always cared about, but that's not

(16:17):
always with the world that I've occupied has valued or
that's not how they have seen things. And so you
sort of have to play the role to gain the
respect in that world, and then you have to figure
out how to transcend that world and make and make
the kind of impact you want to make and stand
for something. So for me, I hope and you know,

(16:38):
as people listen to this, because I do think that
sometimes conversations about purpose seem a bit, a bit ambiguous,
a bit vague, a bit woo woo, a bit like yes,
but what does that mean? And like what does that
look like? What does it feel like to have one?
How do you know if you have a purpose? How
do you know if you've outgrown the purpose? Like what

(16:58):
if you're trying to formulate your purpose?

Speaker 1 (17:00):
You know?

Speaker 4 (17:00):
And so I think like sometimes using different language is
helpful because sometimes purpose just feels so big, that.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Question of like what's your purpose?

Speaker 4 (17:08):
It's like yeah, oh, it's like a big oprah question.
And so you know, sometimes we're to intimidate it to
even like engage with it. And I think a different
way of framing it is what.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Do you stand for? Yes?

Speaker 4 (17:22):
And when I think about values, which is another kind
of like ooh, values, it's like I don't know what
are my values? When I think about that, Like the
question that I pose to myself and to anyone I'm
in conversation with is what do you care about.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
More than money?

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (17:42):
Because well, we all are motivated by money to an extent.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
We all deserve to live well, to be safe, to
absolutely access to the things we.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Need, absolutely, and there's no shame in that. Especially as
Black women. We have a responsibility to try to break
some generational curses and some chains and to try to
build up some generational wealth for the families that we
are building cultivating and the lineage that comes after us.
But I also believe that we are motivated by more

(18:11):
than money, and we're not often asked about that motivation
to tap into it. And so that's been helpful for
me in guiding my career because now I'm in a
stage like you where opportunities come to us or we
have to create opportunities, and sometimes we have to put
the price tag on that opportunity, or we have to

(18:31):
say yes or no based on a price tag and
a set of criteria. And so I think it's important
to define for yourself what is your value system, what
do you stand for, and what do I care about
more than money, so that when opportunities present themselves, and

(18:51):
when they come with money or not, you have a
built in filter for how to make decisions along the
way that are true to the purpose that was placed
in you, and that will be part of the work
that you will put into the world.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Deeply. Well, I hope everyone is really connecting to this
in the core of themselves, really foundationally, because I resonate
so deeply with so much of what you said, and
so much of it was part. So many of the
things that you have said and recognized about kind of
the steps and some of the pain points about kind

(19:35):
of navigating purpose are so so similar to experiences I've
had where people will say, oh, you're crazy for leaving
that you know, like what are you doing? And it's
like sometimes you have a vision that the world doesn't
catch up to for quite a while, or you know,
I remember I was sharing I was sharing with someone recently.

(19:55):
I forget what they said, like they were just like
something along the lines, because now wellness is on trend right,
like it's very, very in since twenty twenty, and I'm
so grateful for that because it's not a fight to
kind of get people to care in the same ways that.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
It used to be, or to get it or to
get it.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
And want it and I to do value in it,
you know. But I remember someone said to me, like, oh, yeah,
I see you're in you know, you've gotten in the
mental health space, and I said, you know, it's interesting
because back when I was a number one rated radio personality,
I actually had in twenty twelve and twenty fourteen, had
started mental health shows before that term began, and I

(20:35):
had hired myself a therapist to join me on the
show this is ten twelve years ago, to talk to
the community every episode about what the psychological you know,
what's going on in our psyches as we process information.
So I'm like, this has always been the truth of
who I am and the truth of the way that
I've used my gifts and skills, but it hasn't always

(20:56):
been valuable to other people. So at the time that
I was doing that, the feedback that I'd get from
the higher ups where I worked was, well, why can't
you like, why are you asking artists about suicide? Why
are you asking them if they're depressed, Ask them about
who they have beef with, ask them about who they're
sleeping with. And so sometimes it takes you know much
to your point. You have to trust what you value.

(21:18):
You have to trust your integrity, You have to trust
your dignity and your process, and know that if it
feels really deep to you, no one else has to
get it. There might be the divine time that those
kind of paths collide and it all makes perfect sense.
But even if it doesn't, you know why you're here
and you need to get to work. You know, you

(21:39):
need to serve. It's really powerful.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Totally.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
I relate to what you're saying, and I think it's
interesting I'm remembering now because I see you as like
this version of Debbie Brown, but I know of this
radio background and like we kind of both come from
a journalist background, and it's so amazing to see how
you have flipped that, or you know, transition to that
into something that feels more aligned with absolutely your.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Soul work, like your purpose work.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
And I hope it's inspiring to journalists who are listening,
because I do think this is a hard time to
be a journalist, and I've talked to so many journalists
who feel like it's a bit of a dead end
job and those jobs are getting cut and those jobs
are not well paid and so but I see journalism

(22:28):
and storytelling as so like such relevant skill.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Sets, Oh my god, that are in such.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
Transferable skill sets for so many different career paths, and
you can flip that into whatever you want to flip
it into. So I just want to call that out
because you are an example. I think we're both examples
of like like in my in my situation, I say
like editor afterlife, but in your case, it's like, you know,
same thing. It's like, yeah, where do radio hosts take it? Well?

Speaker 1 (22:57):
You know what's interesting too about journalism specif I found
that anybody that is a good journalist has heightened intuition.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Oh, I've never heard anybody say that, but absolutely, one hundred.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
You have these knowings, you have this way to go
about finding things and information. You're tracking the evolution and
all the pieces of storyline being formed. Like it's a
very sensory highly intuitive kind of experience. Yes, so much.
To your point, that skill set is useful in so
many profound ways. You typically can be an excellent kind

(23:32):
of wisdom keeper or teacher in any capacity. You know,
put some respect yet question.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
Yes, I love that so much. You have just put
words to why. The one title that has always fit
for me is journalist.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
Regardless of what I'm doing in journalism, whether it's traditional
or not, whether I working for a company you know
or not, you are a journalist. It's like you either
are or you're not. You are born this way. You
are curious. You want to ask the deep real questions.

(24:12):
You want to interrogate the truth of the matter, whatever
it is, it's the truth.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
You're a seeker of truth.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
You are a seeker of truth.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
And that is an identity I relate to. I proudly
wear it like that's a job title that doesn't feel
constraining or fraudulent to me. Like I've had titles where
I'm like, yeah, yeah, I guess that's my title.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Huh, you know that's my lower thirds. That's what they say.
I guess so, but me, Yeah, but this is like no,
like this is this is like this is how I was.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
Born, Like my mom would call me Barbara Wah wah
when I was a little girl, because of all the
questions I would ask were like little Oprah, I would
this is who I have always been before anybody gave
me a title, I was a journalist, and after the
title that I graduated, I will always be a journalist.
And I think that now that you've framed it that

(25:03):
way for me, like it's actually something that's like it's
part of your It's part of deeply who you are.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
And Nate gifts, Yeah, Nate gifts skills amassed, you know.
And it's like even even speaking to Oprah because I
think she's one of the most God given, incredible, incredible
archetypes of exactly everything that we're saying right now, it's
like you start in journalism, right, yes, but ultimately she
was designed by God to change the world and to

(25:30):
bring a complete paradigm shift into the way that journalism
is even done and into all the ways that you
can be a journalist and what those kind of abilities
can inspire in other people. You know, her storytelling of herself,
of the world, of her guests, like it enriched people,
It evolved people, It nourished people.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yes, and she starts conversations that matter in a world
that's focused on the wrong things often the distractions, the
fluff and they, you know, and the clickbait that we
will chase. You know that that media institutions will chase.
She's going the other way. If you watch her career,

(26:10):
she's always gone her own way and started conversations that
mattered to her that then became to that that then
began to matter in the public zeitecase. And she's still
doing it now. So shout out to Oprah with that.
I love Oprah, we are your children. We are so
grateful for your life.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
One hundred percent. She will forever be the north Star.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
And even when I saw her recently on her special,
was just like, look at Oprah, still doing Oprah.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
This is what she's always done. Fine, looking so fine.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
But but what I love about her is that she's
always leaning into the nuance.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yes she is.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
She is inviting us into the gray spaces in a
world that tells us it's either black or white and
that we are meant to be divided and you're on
this side or that side. She invites us into the
common ground that is that is the great area in between.
And she did it with Ozembic, She's done it with
I mean, over the years, she has expanded our consciousness

(27:04):
around things that might seem really controversial or very polarizing
and helped us find through our own empathy and humanity.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
That we can.

Speaker 4 (27:17):
She expands our understanding absolutely, you know, and then therefore
our connection to each other. And I'm just in awe
of HER's that And that's truly when I look at
when I interrogate, like what I'm here to do, it's that.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Whenever you know, the few times
that criticisms kind of pop up about her, I'm always like, oh,
you didn't watch her every day after school? And it
shows that part because if you really, I mean, I
would run home as a child, run home three pm

(27:53):
in LA and I'd be.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
Like four pm in North California.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yes, it was parenting, It was you know it. The
way that she even was unashamed about the pain points
of her life, to me is one of the most
striking things that I think changed us cellularly on an
emotional level. People that watched her, you know, your ability
to own your story and not be reduced by it.
She embodied that.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
Yes, she was the original influencer in that way, yo,
you know what I mean, Like, because journals are trained
to not talk about themselves, you're not meant to be
a subject. But the way that she generously shared herself
with us, her vulnerabilities, you know, the secrets of her
weight loss journey, for example. She has just given us

(28:39):
such an intimate look into who she is and the
soul of this person and the character of this person.
And it's made us grow to trust her, and so
she can she can now shine that light on any
topic and we will follow her. We will follow her
and wherever she will go, we want to see where

(28:59):
she wants to flash her light next.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
And you know, we trust that she is.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
She's a guiding light for us because she has been
vulnerable enough to let us see inside her, her heart
and her and her soul and her story.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
You know, the consistency of her integrity, the consistency of
her character. You know, in the world, whether she is
out about behind a camera, in front of a camera,
it's just like you can't make that up. You know,
you can't make that up. It's the proof and the
truth of her life.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
This is like a full This can totally be like
a full Oprah Club.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Podcast just about loving Oprah me too, because you know what.

Speaker 4 (29:39):
Put some respect back on Area's name when people seeing
her be misunderstood, Oh my god publicly has It's like
I take it personally, like like you, I watch her
show every day four o'clock after school. I had a
friend that we would we would call on the commercial
breaks to chat about what we just saw.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
That's we were lost in. And she has built.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
Up so much equity that if you come for her,
I will come for you.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (30:08):
Like That's how I feel. And in this era, I
do think she's misunderstood. I do think that this younger
generation doesn't even quite understand what she has always meant
to us and the generations that came before us. So
it's really I love that this randomly came out here
because I feel like she deserves this love and this
ode and like it's up to us to carry out

(30:29):
her legacy and to tell because I will tell you
my mentee, who is twenty like early twenties, she's like
so wait, like who is Oprah?

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Like why do people care about? Like did she have
like she had like a show or something right, And I.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Was just like, oh, this is sacrilegious, Like what so
we got to keep saying her name and talking about her,
her legacy and what she means that is so interesting
now whatever.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Forever and even because we could, I mean, we could
go right. But it's like, I think one of the
things that I've consistently heard people say in a way
that makes no sense to me is like, oh, well,
she built a school in Africa, but does she care
about black people here? And I'm like, what has she
done for black people? She exists, She exists. Everything that

(31:21):
she has touched has been in service to black people
and to women and to the expansion of consciousness in
so many ways. You know what. I think about the
reach of who she puts her hands on, who she
gives her glance to, her attention to, and the reach
they have. And to me, that's always what really shows

(31:44):
a person's character and who they are as a leader.
It's who do you empower? Who have you helped, who
have you elevated? Who have you seen gifts and talent
in and gone out of your way to help that
come to fruition. That's the real sign. It's not about you.
It's more than you, and it's about everything else that
you create. And I mean I think that just that,

(32:05):
just that that can show for itself really seamlessly.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
And just people people having an opinion about what other
people should do with their purpose. Yeah, it's irrelevant. You
can go do what you were put here to do.
You have no that is the big I just want
to start there. You know, how dare you have a

(32:30):
critique about what somebody else should do with the massive purpose?
Like especially somebody her, the massive purpose that she was
placed on this earth with in all the ways that
she has manifested that for the benefit of.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
All and the heart that comes with that much visibility,
because that's a sacrifice.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
You go build your school for Black American children, please do.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
If you're not in the arena, right, if you're not
putting yourself on the line to serve, to live your purpose,
to even be still enough to figure out what it
is or to help another find theirs, what's the criticism?

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:11):
Right, Like what can really be said? You have to
get in the arena. You have to be doing something
in order, in my belief, to have the right to
criticize what someone else is doing.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
I agree with that completely, and I just you know,
you are called to service. You have to understand that
about about about purpose and work in general, right, Like,
of course Oprah could do all of those things, but
she waits for the call. She was called to build

(33:42):
that school in South Africa. That's a divine calling. How
dare you criticize what God called her to do and
that in the ways in which she was obedient to
that calling?

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Do you know what I mean? That's how I see it.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah, moving forward a little bit.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
You have pivoting.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Pivot, time to pivot. Ope, we love you you. So
we're both mamas and we are.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Both little boys.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Little boys. Oh God, I love being my son's mother,
being a boy mom me too.

Speaker 4 (34:16):
Who knew I thought I was such a girl's girl.
I mean, I am a girl's girl, but I love
being a boy mom.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Who knows what's to come? But it you know, part
of what I'm seeing as we make our way to
really kind of dive into the birth fund is I'm
also seeing the depth of the experience of you being
a mother, and I'm seeing kind of the effect and
the profound impact your son has had on your life,

(34:43):
which then of course influences your work. So tell me
how being a mom and being connected to your beautiful
son's energy has expanded the way you experience your purpose
and your service in the greater world.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
It's even surial wing you say your mother or were mothers,
because I remember most of my life not being a
mother and not knowing when that would happen for me.
And it certainly was not in my immediate roadmap when
it happened to me. And I wasn't even in the

(35:21):
place where I could receive that blessing in the in
the in the in the way that now I understand,
like how how big and how just the magnitude of
the gift of motherhood. I didn't see it that way
at the time, and I'm just so humbled, Like you know,

(35:45):
I have built this career with such intention, and I've
navigated my life with just that instinct you're talking about,
and I've trusted that, and motherhood was just something I
surrendered to. It required a completely different, like operating system.

(36:09):
I adopted a completely different operating system. Everything I've done
in this world has been the result of striving, setting
an intention, like making it happen. It's almost like this
masculine energy, and becoming a mother was about the exact opposite.
It was about releasing control, relinquishing control, surrendering to a

(36:31):
higher power, to a divine plan that came in divine
timing that was not my timing. And so even the
process that that metamorphosis, that grief, Yeah, that like, oh,
my identity is shifting and not on my terms and

(36:54):
not in my timing, and that with that came so
many humbling lessons. And then for me, pregnancy brought many
humbling lessons. I had a physically very challenging pregnancy, and
then mentally and emotionally I was impacted. And then you

(37:16):
compound that with the broken maternal the broken medical system
and the maternal health system in this country that underserves
mothers and families and particularly black women at every socioeconomic level.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
And let me say that again, because I.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
Think that there is a misconception that if you have
resources and you have you know, education, and you have
wealth and good networks, like you'll be spared. And that's
not the case. And even for me being a journalist
and being aware of the stats around the maternal mortality crisis,
I still really didn't. It wasn't an issue that hit

(37:56):
home for me until I became pregnant and was out
here looking for a doctor and that process ultimately, you know,
the process of being a mother and looking for care
and not finding it in the obvious places and having
to search outside of the traditional path and finding this

(38:20):
like oasis of support and care in an alternative path
that I had never considered before, which was Midwiffrey. And
you know this, this, this whole kind of world opened
up to me that my son led me to and
it wasn't a part of my plan. And if you

(38:40):
had asked me three years ago what Midwiffrey is, I
would have been like, what is that?

Speaker 3 (38:47):
You know?

Speaker 2 (38:47):
I didn't even. I didn't even it wasn't on my radar.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
But now and if you would have said to me,
could you know, would you ever see yourself starting a
whole new venture that is focused on expanding access to
mid with free cared, say absolutely not, like maternal health.
It's like, these are terms that felt like I don't know,
something like politicians focus on you know what I mean

(39:12):
this is? And I think that's again part of the
problem is that I think the concept of maternal care
feels like it's fringe until it's you, until you are
staring into the cracks of this system and you see
how you can fall into it, and you see how
you can become a statistic and you don't know who

(39:33):
to call for help, and you don't know what your
options are to access better care like this is in
this country. This is such a crisis that is like
our biggest open secret that we are not addressing because
we are waiting for someone else to We're waiting for

(39:54):
someone else to fix it. We think that it's philanthropists, politicians, lawmakers, hospitals, doctors,
birth workers jobs to fix this. But when you look
at the numbers and when it comes to maternal mortality
in this country, they are soaring and we're not talking
about it enough. And it is not a fringe issue.

(40:16):
It's an issue that impacts every family. We all have mothers, right,
This is if we care about life, if we care
about family, we should care about this issue. And so
this is a moment for me, going back to your
original question about purpose, This work with Birth Fund is

(40:38):
the culmination of every everything I've ever done, of every
skill set that I've picked up along the way of
every relationship that I've cultivated, every ounce of equity and
credibility that I have built in my career was for

(40:59):
this moment. It is not a pivot, It is a culmination.
It is a career culmination moment where I can finally
It's like a light bulb when out I said.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Oh, that's why, that's why you've been so good to me. God,
That's why.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
This was a setup so that when you deposited this
into my spirit, when you called on me, I could
pick up and I could, in this earthly realm make
phone calls to Serena Williams and you know, influential people
in this world that can help elevate this message, that

(41:42):
can help raise resources in real time for families that
could make this conversation relevant, like you equipped me, God
uniquely to be able to do this, to stand in
this gap for families, to do it, for the mothers
who've lost their lives unnecessarily, like senselessly. Eighty percent of

(42:05):
the maternal mortality. Maternal mortalities in this country are preventable.
Eighty percent. These are not deaths that are that you know,
childbirth is just you know, it's tough, it's you know,
it's a life or death thing. It is, but eighty
percent of these deaths are preventable. And when you when
you look at other high income countries all across the world,

(42:29):
their outcomes are so much better than ours. And the
thing that they all have in common is midwifery care
is their default birth care model. It's covered by insurance,
it's covered by their government, it's normalized in their culture.
And when you look at America, most people don't even

(42:49):
know what a midwife is. And that's by design. That's
by design. And none of this I knew. Like so
for anybody who's like, oh, it's going over my head
a little bit, it did go over my head as well.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
We were not taught about this.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
It's part of it's part of our design, it's part
of our conditioning. When you look at the history of
midwif free midwiffree is midwives, Black midwives in particular, they
birthed our country. They birthed our nation, and obstenetics and
the whole industry of obgyns, which we are taught as

(43:27):
the gold standard of medical care for you know, birth work. Yeah,
that was an industry that was invented around for profit model.
And when you really interrogate the way that that system
was built, it's built for profit over patients. And when

(43:49):
we really start to ask questions about what we were
taught about what constitutes a normal, safe, healthy birth experience,
we realize he we don't. We weren't taught very much
other than give up your authority to a doctor. Yeah,
listen to the doctor, do what they say, and that's it.

(44:14):
But the beauty of Midwiffery and how it's transformed my
life and not just the thing that I didn't realize
about the gifts that my son would bring me in
the gift of motherhood, is that it extends so much
beyond just getting that baby out of you. Like the

(44:34):
gift of motherhood, like the way that you bring in
your child is a rite of passage, and it's deeply
spiritual and it is a sacred. It's a sacred experience.
And I think that in this country, unfortunately, the medical
system has stripped away what is sacred about childbirth. And

(45:00):
for me, I was someone who was very conditioned to
trust the medical system, find a doctor, get the epidural,
have the baby, like knock me out. I don't even
want to be there. For it like I am not
that girl, I am not the wo woo girl. Like
this is brand new to me. And so what I
can say as someone who has been converted because of

(45:21):
my first person lived experience is that I for me,
birthing became the most empowering experience in my life. That
changed me fundamentally, That expanded my purpose in my work,
expanded my identity in ways I never anticipated, gave me downloads,

(45:45):
spiritual downloads. I don't even talk about this part really
because I don't know if it's ever a safe environment
or if people will hear it in the way that
it's intended.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
But I know that this is a safe space for
that here. Yeah, the spiritual.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
Downloads that I got through the sacred container that home
birth and midwives created for me has fundamentally changed my
walk in this world. So when people say why are
we talking about wherese, I'm like, why, that's.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Just you have the baby, you move on.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
The way that you have that baby can either empower
you or disempower you for the next chapter of your life.
And if we as women understood that having a child
and the way we choose to have a child can
unlock our power to ourselves, like, wake up to your power,

(46:50):
or the exact opposite can happen. If we reframe birth
in that way, then we understand that this work is
of the utmost importance at a time when women are
under siege in this country. Our autonomy, our bodies, our power,
our choices. There's a war on women right now. And

(47:12):
so the way that we can reclaim that for ourselves
is one way, just one way is through more autonomy
and our birth choice. And I want to give that
to women. That's really what Birth Fund is about. Having
experienced this, I'm like, this should not be a luxury.
This should be accessible to any birthing person who has

(47:36):
been made to feel unsafe in a surging, soaring maternal
health crisis. You should have other options. You should know
what your options are, and those options should be accessible
to you. And I want, I want women. I'm not
here to push Midwiffree on people. I'm not here to
push home birth on people. But I am here to

(47:57):
help educate and enlighten folks about your choices. Yeah, right,
so that you feel like you have some agency. And ultimately,
if this is a choice that appeals to you, I
want to make sure that there are resources available to
you that make that choice, that light off in life
saving choice available to you. And so that's what birth

(48:17):
Fund is. We are raising resources from individuals, from corporations,
people outside of the medical system, outside of legislators who
are taking too long to make the changes that we need.
And we need those changes too, and we're working on
that too. But it's and not or we're not waiting
for systemic change. We're making change right now and we're

(48:38):
opening our pockets. We're leading or leading with what we
can give first, and then we're creating this funnel where
it's like we're meeting people where they're at. Whatever you
can give it goes to a family, even if it's
five dollars. No amount is too small. And I will say,
I'm coming to you today. I think I'm more emotional
today and I'm more like, I don't know in your

(48:59):
world that would be like.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Heart chakras open today, it's open. It's like wide open.

Speaker 4 (49:05):
It is because I just like all the work that
we've been doing has culminated in literally what we are
doing this week, which is finally meeting the.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Families Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
That we're funding and we're introducing them to their funders
and you are seeing this like real human connection, this
human generosity, what we can do with our spirit, with
our gifts, with our resources to help empower and change
people's lives, like in real time, and it actually doesn't
take that much, you know. And so to see people

(49:39):
like John Legend and Chrissy meet this beautiful mother of
seven who's homeschooling all seven of her children and this
is the first time that she's going to have access
to a home birth.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
To have birth on her terms, and like it's just
it gives me chills to it's so special.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
Today Alexis o'hanian met this mother in d C. And
he's from you know, and we're pairing people with people
from cities that they're connected to.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
So John Legend grew up in Ohio.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
He's talking to a mother of seven in Ohio and
it was just amazing. Alexis o'hanian's talking to this mother
in DC and she's, you know, having her third child
and she's a birth worker, but this is going to
be the first time where she's actually going to get
to benefit from the work that she does for other people.
And it's just this is this is heart work. Like

(50:33):
this is purpose work, Like this is what if if
I leave this planet tomorrow. I'm like, yes, I have
that bio and those titles and those things. You might
you might remember me for that, but this is what
I want to be remembered for, because this is what
all that built towards.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Deeply well, I want to kind of speak to some
of the nuanced layers that I think are also behind this,
because I really want to underscore how important it is
to think about not just this work, but that kind
of portal time that we're speaking to, of a woman

(51:18):
birthing something right, bringing something to the planet. It is
a divine experience. There is no way around that. And
it is this truly portal experience that, depending on what
you have access to, could either as a woman, keep
you completely stuck and disempowered, or it could be you know,

(51:40):
the expansion of consciousness, the ubleveling of love, the healing
of what we call generational curses, you know, the birthing
on the planet of the bigger work. And you know,
some of the nuance and some context even behind these
conversations about women's bodies that I always think of is,
you know, for instance, to the formulating or the creation

(52:02):
of gynecology and obg yns and speaking to the importance
of why black women deserve this. Gynecology was created on
the backs of Black women through the person who invented
the field, experimenting on black women's bodies, experimenting on their vaginas,

(52:24):
on their wombs. You know, it's horrifying, it's horrible. So
reclaiming this is also reclaiming that for our ancestors, you know,
and when I think about, you know, a big conversation
that has been happening, I think for all of our
lifetimes around reproductive rights and whether you're pro choice or
pro life or whatever you resonate with, you know, you

(52:48):
hold inside of you. But a piece that no one
speaks to is that people are only concerned quote unquote
concerned when there is a fetus in the What I
never hear said out loud is please have the baby,
and this is how will help you. Right, Like everyone
wants to yell at women and argue and discuss and

(53:11):
oppress their bodies, but I don't ever hear someone saying, no,
we want you to give birth to this baby and
here's how we will help you. Because the number one
reason that women terminate pregnancies is actually poverty, yes, and
so that's another you know, It's like when we think
about when I think about the work that you've birthed
with this, not only are you creating safety for allowing

(53:37):
children to come into this world that sacred experience, but
you are creating the sacred container that surrounds them with
the love and compassion that is necessary for life and
that is deserved by every life that enters this world.
And that is typically the thing that so many women

(53:58):
do not have the opportunity to give their children. It
is the feeling of welcoming, of loving, of celebrating. We
see that on TV a lot, right because you often
see on TV birth happening between a two parent household
that usually has you know, no like present trauma. That
is bringing the baby into the world to a big

(54:20):
family that's going to help them with a great baby shower,
and they're coming home to this beautiful room that's decorated
for them. That's not necessarily the average experience of most
people that bring children into the world. There is a
lot of pain in it for a lot of people,
a lot of hopelessness that you never want to extend

(54:42):
to your child who doesn't want to be a great mother,
you know, but to give them this as the pillar,
as the backbone behind them, it changes the way that
you can navigate loving someone, being there for someone, all
the things that we don't talk about enough that we
actually do have to learn when we first become mothers,

(55:03):
and especially depending on what your childhood was like or
what your experiences are. You know, very often people are
creating a love for their child they didn't feel for themselves,
and it's such sacred, dignified work, it's such honorable work.
So I'm just hearing like the depth of purpose and
what you've created, but not only all of the ways

(55:25):
that it is going to profoundly alter women physically, but
also the intended good will that this sets forward into
their family lineage.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
I receive that, and I'm so glad that you are
highlighting the intersection between the maternal health crisis and the
financial crisis that we're in, because that is something that
we want to address upfront. And I think, you know,
one of the things that is important about this work
is while we are stubbornly, singularly focused on expanding access

(56:03):
to midwif free care and lifting that up as a
solution because I think there are many organizations and many
people doing great work around improving maternal health conditions in
this country, but I think they're often doing it with
like a diffused focus that people can't really grab onto.
So I think if we focus on this one thing,

(56:26):
we can make a difference.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
Right.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
But the way that we're approaching partners is, this is
what we are going to do. Will you help us
in this and what can you do right? Because we
know that this is a complex problem and the poverty
piece is massive, and so I am so honestly one

(56:50):
of the biggest blessings and another reason you caught me
and I'm telling you today this was a divine appointment
with you today because we were supposed to talk like
a month ago, I wouldn't have had this same posture.
I wouldn't have had the same story to tell because
I wasn't at this point in the story yet of
the building of Birth Fund. But literally today I got

(57:11):
to see kind of like the fruit of our labor,
not just in meeting these families, but also in our
presenting partnership with so far we are about to share
with the world this massive financial commitment that they've made
to birth Fund, but directly to these families. So each

(57:31):
of these families are getting ten thousand dollars invested into
their and invested into their family through a newborn vault.
This is what it's called, and it has a high
interest higher interest rate than any other checking or savings accounts,
like ten times the national average and more than that,
they are being paired with a certified financial planner that

(57:54):
is going to sit with them in their family to
help them map out their family's financial future.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Okay, they are.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Building a bespoke financial literacy program that's going to give
them step by step, a step by step guide for
how to budget for their family from the newborn stage
until college. This particular vault that they're gifting them is
also going to help them earmark savings for college for big,

(58:23):
big moments like this is the type of financial literacy
and preparedness that we are not as a country equipping
families with. And yet we're shaming them when, as you say,
they make the decision, fifty percent, fifty six percent of
families do not feel fifty six percent of people in

(58:45):
this country do not feel that they can afford to
expand their family Yeah, So before we are shaming people
for why they are terminating pregnancies, we should be first
of all compassionate and understanding empathetic about the conditions that
they're living in that they wouldn't want to bring a
child into and doing our part to help shift those

(59:08):
conditions and make it a better environment to bring a
child into this world. And that's what this work is about.
And so you know, partners like SOFI are just coming
to the table and creative additive ways that are expanding
our program and kind of creating this wrap around support
model that we can use as a model for what
the government should be doing and frankly what private business

(59:29):
should be doing. So you know, we've gone to like
this is what I mean by like literally everything I've
ever done has culminated in this work. Every brand partnership
that I've ever worked with, Oh, believe that they got
had up about birth Fund, and believe that many of
them came to the table creatively. Bobby is one of
I'm an investor in Bobby. It's a woman led formula company.

(59:53):
They came to the table and said, yeah, we want
to help, and we will sponsor a year of lactation
support for your families in addition to giving them free
formula for a year if they need it, if breast
feeding isn't successful for them, or if they make a
different choice. We've talked to baby lists who makes you know,
baby registries. They're giving our families fifteen hundred dollars in

(01:00:17):
gift cards. So the things that they thought they couldn't
afford suddenly they can't. Like, we're making this this comprehensive
like package for families that, like I wish I had
access to. I think every family deserves to have access to.
If you're taking on the ultimate sacrifice of expanding the
population in this country, somebody should be giving you some

(01:00:37):
rewards for that, you know, not shaming you and not
just hitting you with these bills and this care that's
so below par. So I feel like what we you know,
we are living in a time that's very dark. It
can feel very heavy, and it can feel like like
the light, it's hard to find the light sometimes even
when you're a light seeker. And I feel really powered

(01:01:00):
by being able to take back my power and focus
on what is the change I want to make, What's
the kind of world I wish I could live in?
And how can I create that even just for one person?
Because that's enough. And that's the thing that got me
started on this path. Like when I heard the call,
I questioned it. I was like, is this even going

(01:01:23):
to be?

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Like? What's is this impact going to be great?

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
How much would I have to raise to really have
the kind of impact we need to make in this country?
Like I would need to raise like millions and millions
and millions of dollars? And then I just and so
I kind of kept ignoring this call. I would I
was not picking up this call. I was not And
then on top of it, I was like, oh my god,
I have so much to do already. How am I

(01:01:49):
going to make time for this? And then kind of
like pregnancy. Honestly, it's kind of like my reaction to pregnancy.
I was like, Oh no, we don't have time for
that right now. No girl, or plate his pull come
back another day. Like it was very that I was like, ooh, girl,
we don't have time for all this. Also like I
don't honestly truly, and I feel like you're getting off
a lot. It was like a therapy session, but I'm

(01:02:10):
like I have I've carried some wounds with me from
the corporate world, and I have enjoyed working as kind
of a free agent, not really having to rely on
teams that I've built and cultivated. And I knew that
this calling was big and that it was going to

(01:02:30):
require a team, and that it's not something I could
do by myself, and that scared me, and that's also
why I put it off. And then I was called
to do healing work around some of the wounds I've
been carrying around with me quietly, no one sees them.
I had them there there, and I've had to do
some like deep personal development healing work in order to

(01:02:55):
be the person who could answer this call and who
could carry out this mission. And so I feel so grateful.
Again it all comes back to my son. I feel
so grateful to that powerful little soul that chose me,
that made way for all of this expansion in every way,

(01:03:16):
and he brings so much joy, Like this conversation is
so serious, but like our home is so silly. I'm
so silly at home with him, Like he's like the
lightest part of my life, and it balances out this
type of work. And also this work brings so much joy,
and it brings so much light and levity too, But
I just feel I feel grateful that, like I had

(01:03:40):
to get over myself and so much of what I
was caring and I had to let it go in
order to say, Okay, yes, Scot, I will take this call.
I will take this call. I will I will follow
your lead. I will do this even if and I
started small, it was like I don't even feel confident
enough to call anybody else and convince them to help
me with this yet. So I'm just going to do

(01:04:01):
it as like my own little birthday fundraiser, and I'm
going to put my own little money into this fundraiser,
and I'm going to ask my community if they want
to be part of it, you can do it, and
like I'm not going to make a big deal out
of it. There was no like follow up post, there
was no like press announcement. It was just like, let
me just see if like people will show up, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
And it was.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
It was it was like it was like having a
birthday party online, like not knowing anyone who was going
to show up to it. And then and then somebody
called me, They're like, did you see that you exceeded
your fundraising goal in sixteen hours, and I was like
what And I went on and I was like, that's it,
bet God, Yeah, I got you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Okay, So I hear you like, that's.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
The this is my sign, this is the this is
the case study. This is like the proof of concept
that I needed. I am going to take this little,
simple one to one community support model where if it's
with the intention, if I Elaine wells Wet one person
can so for one family in my community to have

(01:05:02):
this empowered safe birth experience, then I have done important work.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
I've done enough.

Speaker 4 (01:05:10):
This is going to have generational impact and if I
can inspire other people to and by the way, in
that sixteen thousand dollars that we raise in those sixteen hours,
we were able to support not one, but two families.
And I was just like, we can scale this, Like
this is a simple one to one community model that
we can scale overnight. I know ten people right now

(01:05:33):
I could call who can afford to cover the cost
of multiple people's birth experiences.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
And then wait, all those corporate partners I've been working.

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
With all these years, all these deals I've been drafting
and slanging from my magazine editors, because please believe editors
are also salespeople. We know how to keep a magazine afloat,
and it's with the support of sponsorship. We know how
to go out there and sell something we believe in,
stories that we believe in.

Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
That's what this is is.

Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
It's just like everything felt like an AHA moment about this.
It was like I could see the stars aligning, I
could see it all connected. It was like beautiful moment.
It was like a beautiful mind moment, you know. I
was like, I see how this can happen. And what
it required, though, was other people's belief. And that's something
I can't control. I have to have the belief. I
have to have the conviction that's strong enough to make

(01:06:22):
the case, and then it's up to them and every DeBie,
every person I called on my wish list said yes,
come on, every everyone. Sometimes I just have to sit down.
I'm just like I need to lay down and just
let this marinate, Like did this happen?

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
And we're just getting started.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
And there's a couple things that I really want to highlight,
especially as it speaks to purpose one. Thank you for
generously sharing that you know you had to kind of
step back and do some self exploration and see you
know where the shadows and what is being repressed and
how can I meet it? Because that's a part of
purpose too. You can get the call, it doesn't mean

(01:07:06):
the call is ready to go. You have the seed
of awareness that has planted in you with God's voice.
And then sometimes we have to do the work necessary
to rise to God's occasion, you know, to rise to
the occasion of purpose. And that's why and we've been,
I must say, we have been beautifully illustrating this throughout

(01:07:27):
the episode. That's why. Purpose is this really this this
slow growing formula, this equation that presents itself and unveils
itself in your life over time. And it's not just
a quote unquote title right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Where it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
It can't ever just be one thing. It's the totality
of all of it. But sometimes we do have to
pause and prepare to get to that next evolution of
what the purpose is. It's just it's so beautiful, it's
it's it's so powerful for everyone listening, I would love
if you would share two ways. First, if anyone listening

(01:08:09):
is really like filling this deep inside and saying I
have something to give to this, how can someone come
on and really pay it forward. And also for anyone
that's listening and saying I really need this, what's the
best way for them to get connected to this work?

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
Yes, I love that.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
So we've made it so easy for people to be
a part of this by opening up the fundraiser on Instagram.
So while we have these incredible corporate partners and these
incredible individual donors like Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian and
all these great people, it's not just for rich folks
Like this is that there is an Instagram fundraiser that

(01:08:49):
is live and it will not be live forever. It
is running through May tenth, just before Mother's Day, and
so May eleventh actually is when it ends. And so
I would humbly ask, if you have a heart to give,
give what you can give it there and it will
go directly to families who will benefit from this kind

(01:09:10):
of transformative care. And then in terms of people who
are desiring this care. On Father's Day, we are going
to open up applications publicly. Once we've closed this first
public raise and we know exactly what our capacity to
give is, there will be an open call for applications
and it will be designated based on the regions where

(01:09:32):
we have participating birth workers, and we're building this thing
really thoughtfully, really slowly. Birth is life or death, and
so it's important that we are working with the most
qualified the birth workers who have the best outcomes, and
we're vetting those partners and we'll be growing our network
over time. So for those who are looking for that care,

(01:09:53):
you can stay tuned and check in with birth Fund
on Instagram around Father's Day. Also, just stay tuned, like
follow us, because there's news all the time that we're
dropping and there will be different opportunities to get involved
along the way. We'll have different kind of pop up
events throughout the year and that sort of thing as well.

Speaker 2 (01:10:11):
So amazing, I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
At the end of every episode, I ask each guest
to provide those listening with a little bit of soul work.
So this is something that after they've heard this episode
and until we meet again next week, they can really
kind of savor and integrate everything that they've heard. And
it could be as simple as like a thought starter,
a journal prompt, an exercise of some sort or practice.

(01:10:37):
But what should the soul work be for everyone listening?

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
Wow, that's a big question, Oprah, fruit of that tree.
I guess I would say, what's coming up for me
right now is what's calling you? And I think sometimes
you have to get quiet to hear that call. And

(01:11:06):
if you already know what's calling you, I would my
public question would be what's holding you back from picking
up that call?

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
And is it you know, whatever that is. I think
this is an invitation to examine that, work through that,
heal that because whatever that is, it's keeping you small.
And you were called to greatness and you were called
to service that will benefit more than you. So I

(01:11:37):
think sometimes the call is to get out of your
own way, and that certainly was a call for me
that I had to answer first before I could answer
this call.

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
So that's what I would share.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
Beautiful, Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
This was so great, Debbie.

Speaker 4 (01:11:55):
Thank you so much for creating that space and have
this conversation. I have not had a lot of conversations
about birth one, but this one feels different and I'm
very grateful for it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you for the
work that you were birthing in the world. Thank you
for sharing your light, thank you for answering your call.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
This is such an important, powerful work that doesn't just
affect the women of this lifetime right like this is
lineage work, this is generational work. We've shifted a pattern
in our family system for good and it changes the
way people get to be in the world. So thank
you so much and thank you for coming now. Mistay

(01:12:38):
stay Stay. The content presented on Deeply Well serves solely
for educational and informational purposes. It should not be considered
a replacement for personalized medical or mental health guidance, and
does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, it

(01:12:59):
is advisable to consult with your healthcare provider or health
team for any specific concerns or questions that you may have.
Connect with me on social at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter
and Instagram, or you can go to my website Debbie
Brown dot com. And if you're listening to the show
on Apple Podcasts, don't forget, Please rate, review, and subscribe

(01:13:22):
and send this episode to a friend. Deeply Well is
a production of iHeartRadio and The Black Effect Network. It's
produced by Jacqueis Thomas, Samantha Timmins, and me Debbie Brown.
The Beautiful Soundbath You heard. That's by Jarrelyn Glass from
Crystal Cadence. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

(01:13:43):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.