September 25, 2025 • 68 mins
In this episode of The Deeply Well Podcast, host Devi Brown shares space with the inspiring Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon - a visionary, author, and the force behind The Village Market. Together, they hold an honest and soul-centered conversation about what it means to lead, heal, and build with intention, especially within the Black community.
Dr. Key opens up about her journey of creating spaces that center Black-owned businesses and why integrity has remained at the core of everything she does. From her personal rituals to her philosophy on leadership, she reminds us that healing isn't just personal, it's collective. It's about building ecosystems where we all feel seen, supported, and safe enough to grow.
They talk about the necessity of self-care, not just as a trend but as a spiritual and emotional lifeline. The conversation touches on spiritual hygiene, burnout, and the quiet strength required to lead with love and purpose in today’s world.
This episode is filled with practical wisdom, affirmations, and reminders that you are powerful, and that purpose can feel both grounded and expansive when we move in community.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Take a deep breath in through your nose. Holds it.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Now, release slowly again, deep in, helle.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Hold release, repeating internally to yourself as you connect to
my voice. I am deeply well. I am deeply well.
(01:22):
I am deeply.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I'm Debbie Brown and this is the Deeply Well Podcast.
Welcome to Deeply Well, a soft place to land on
your journey. A podcast for those that are curious, creative,
and ready to expand in higher consciousness and self care.
This is where we heal, this is where we transcend.
(01:53):
Welcome back, y'all. Thank you for being here. Of course,
I'm your host, Debbie Brown. This is the Deeply Well Podcast,
and I am always deeply grateful that you are allowing
me into your sacred space, either your home on YouTube
or your actual body and brain wherever you are listening
to this. It is a true sacred responsibility that I
(02:14):
do not take for granted, and I'm so happy that
y'all are here with us. We have been getting into
some fibers. I feel like this season we kicked off
the season with a three part teaching on integrity, and
then we moved into what has been i'm sure a
(02:36):
completely different way of understanding the world and maybe ourselves
since then. So today's episode is really leaning into something
we have never brought to this show before. So I
am so excited to expand in this Today we're exploring
the power of community. This is a word that gratefully
(02:59):
we are now starting to see everywhere, and I think
something so many of us are realizing, especially after having
a decade and a half of really intense individualism. It's
a word that many of us really don't fully understand
how to embody. What does that word mean, especially into
(03:21):
relation to how we've been living our lives the last
fifteen years and more and probably forever. But I'm excited
to dive into that here and now because it is
time for all of us to really stand in community,
embody community, understand how to grow and share and be
(03:45):
honorable in community. We're also going to be diving into
the journey of entrepreneurship and intentional economic empowerment. Our guest
today is a visionary who has built an extraordinary ecosystem
for black owned businesses and reshaped the future of black
economic power. Doctor Lakeisha Key Hollman, known as Doctor Key,
(04:08):
is a transformational social entrepreneur, speaker, civic leader and author
of No One Is Self Made, Build Your Village to
Flourish in business and life. She is the founder of
the Village market Our, Village United, and the Village Retail
platforms that have supported nearly fifteen hundred black owned businesses,
(04:29):
facilitated over ten million indirect sales, and deployed more than
a million dollars in grants and technical assistance. Her innovative
retail model spans high traffic destinations like pont City Market
in Atlanta, the Google Visitor Center in Mountain View, and
an upcoming storefront at Atlanta's Hartsfield's Jackson International Airport, collectively
(04:52):
giving black owned brands access to more than one hundred
million potential consumers each year. Doctor Key has partnered with
the Atlanta Beltline to launch the Beltline Marketplace, and served
as a program partner for Beyonce's Be Good Foundation and
The Fearless Foundation. She sits on the board of Trustees
at Tougaloo College and on the board of Invest Atlanta,
(05:17):
helping guide over one billion in active investments to foster
inclusive economic growth. Her leadership and impact have earned recognition
as a Forbes fifty Champion, a spot on the Root
one hundred Most Influential African Americans list and Atlanta Business
Chronicles forty under forty, among many other honors. She has
(05:38):
shared her wisdom on Good Morning America, The tamer and
Hall Show, CNN, The Today Show, iHeartRadio, Is, The Breakfast Club,
and so many more, and her work has been featured
absolutely everywhere, including Forbes, Essence and Black Enterprise. Without further ado,
please welcome, please join me, and welcoming the wonderful doctor Keith.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Thank you that'd be. I am so excited to be here.
I'm so grateful for you for creating this space, this
sacred space. I'm so grateful that you operate so beautifully
in your gifts, and a time like this, I understand
why your work is so needed. So I'm just so
grateful to sit in sisterhood with you and love and
(06:26):
light with you today.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So thank you, Oh my god, thank you so much.
Thank you so much. Those words mean the world to me,
especially coming from you. You know, I feel like I've
had the pleasure of being in your presence over the
last few years in some really fun times and places,
and You're just someone that deeply inspires me, Like I
just tremendously admire how you show up in the world,
(06:52):
how you are yourself and the radiant light you give.
You're very luminous, the way that you are teaching people,
the way that you were sharing and helping it. It's
just getting to the bone, you know, it's getting to
the core. It's getting to the root of the root.
And you're here and your amazing book is in the world.
(07:12):
I mean, you know, first, that title, I think when
so many of us saw it, like you're just like WHOA, Okay,
I needed someone to say that to me. Please tell
me one how you came up with that incredibly clear
and direct message and what it meant to you as
you wrote this beautiful book.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yes, I will tell you that I tussled with myself
with the title. Did I want to be punchy or
did I want to be gentle? Did I want to
stand firm and what I had to say or will
I shrink it down? And I felt very called and
(07:57):
pulled to be definitive and for me is a love
letter to our community. But to get to the love,
we have to get to the truth telling and an
entrepreneurship the truth telling. It doesn't matter how successful you are.
(08:19):
It doesn't matter if you're the face on a magazine.
It doesn't matter if you're the person sitting for all
the interviews, doesn't matter if you're the person that's on
stage accepting the award. And it would never take away
from your hard work and self determination. But everything you accept,
somebody accepted you and assisted you. That is what community is.
(08:42):
And so I had to with love say what needed
to be said for entrepreneurs, to address individualism in such
a way to pull people in, and also to do
what the title has done. When people start to say
that you know what, you're actually right, or you know what,
(09:04):
this makes me uncomfortable, and that is the way that
truth exists. But to be very transparent with you, Daddy,
I I tussled with that. I tussled with the desire
to true tell, but I didn't want anyone to feel attacked.
(09:26):
So what I had to do, while the title was
very clear direct, the writing is warm and gentle and
with love, because I wanted to make sure that as
people came to my words and really just my spiritual download,
that they felt safe to be expanded, they felt safe
(09:49):
to be challenged, and they felt a sense of safety
to really reconsider how they're existing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, because this work is it is triggering, right, Like
we are systemically generationally caught in some really hard environments,
like even the best case scenarios, right, and really, so
many of us did not have a good start, even
(10:21):
in the best case scenarios of loving, dynamic family, healthy households.
You're also on this planet, You're in this world. You
are your skin is the color, it is right, you
are no matter what, challenged by I mean just everything right,
(10:44):
like every system and every place, and it requires and
so I think when you are a masterful messenger, the
understanding that you have to be kind, you have to heal,
like you have to offer like a mothering and unconditional
(11:08):
loving which is firm, but it's so fair, it's so honest,
and it's always in support of, you know, with the
desire for the absolute best outcomes. And I think it's
just powerful that we all recognize all of us are triggered.
It's no longer this funny thing that we say a
is like, oh you trigger, I have a boundary, Like
(11:31):
it's not funny, it's not fun. Like everyone has been
enduring and wrestles with things and it's hard to hear
things sometimes and it's hard to change, but we can,
we can, and we have to arm ourselves with the
knowledge necessary to make better choices.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yes, and to know that this human existence is about
ev a lie and expansion that requires a level of discomfort,
that requires a level of undoing. And I think if
we all sat in that truth that in a level
(12:14):
of growth, we're also shredding and becoming undone, I think
we'll be less afraid of the hard moments. They're not infinite.
It's a moment so you and we can become all
that we were created to be. We can't get there
if we're not honest. We can't get there. If we
(12:35):
do not commit to our own healing, we can't get
there if our community is not reflective of nourishment, truth, love, knowledgement, resources.
It has to be a sense of community.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Can I ask you know, fundamentally, what is maybe in
this day and age, what is community? What is healthy community?
What I believe healthy community is constantly growing. Healthy community
(13:15):
is constantly relearning and examining the things that we learn
from our foundation, keeping the parts, but also letting go
some parts. Community is this being able to sit in
the presence of each other and deeply grateful that we
(13:39):
are both operating in our gifts and not being afraid
of the light that each other possesses, but being motivated
by it. That is communal and community requires active participation,
(14:00):
not dormant. It is active. It is both loud and quiet.
It's movement and stillness. It is giving, it is receiving,
And at this particular time you talked about it at
the opening where individualism is steeped into our consciousness, community
(14:22):
is remembering. It's almost like a muscle memory that the
only way that we've been able to persist, persist and
exist in this world is because we've been tethered to
each other. And I'm happy, I'm so happy, Devi that
we see the word community and hear it so much now.
(14:45):
I feel that we're having a sense of a collective
awakening that maybe, just maybe our formula has almost misguided us.
It's so interesting when the pendulum swings right, because we
(15:06):
the nature of it goes from the far end of
one end to the far reaching end of the other,
and then it takes time for it to finally go back,
go back, go back, go back. Settles in the middle right.
And I feel like, especially I think in terms of
we've been in this revolution of mental health, of kind
(15:27):
of personal destiny, really like this revolution of this word
purpose and what it means. Right, we are the purpose generation,
Like there has never been this many people alive at
once living for purpose on the planet that we know of.
And I think you know there was a piece of
(15:48):
it we have to remember and much to your point,
being here is evolutionary. Every moment, every choice should be
an evolutionary one or a nerve one. And so we
did need for a time to get out of the
ways of the world, like we the nineties the early aughts,
(16:09):
like this very bizarre celebrity driven TMZ era of life
and hyper consuming. We needed to have a certain age
of individualism to figure out who the heck we are
as an individual person, to heal the wounds we have
as an individual person. And I think that's much of
(16:32):
what God gifted us in twenty twenty. Going inside, going inward,
you were isolated, But it's not to stay forever. That
piece of the evolution has to be complete at some point,
and then we have to figure out and actually get
it out of theory and put it into practice and
be with others as this version and learn the way.
(16:55):
I'm understanding it and I'm trying to learn it and
be it now. It's like the participation, the creation, the
standing still and holding space. Even when community feels chaotic
and it's not going our way. You know, to be
in community is not constant harmony. It's hard work. Can
(17:19):
you speak to that? Like what I think?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Sometimes?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
What is the hardness or the challenge of being in
community and how do we still do it? How do
we heal it?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I'm so happy that you spoke to the challenges of
being community, because sometimes we beautify things in such a
way that if we tell people to cling to community,
to find your village, to attract your village, to track
your community, then when they find people they attract people,
they're still a lover of discomfort, and they will feel
that they got it wrong, or that we got it wrong.
(17:57):
I can only share what has been true for my
own life. When I have been stretched, when I have
been challenged with love, with nudging, with pushing, I have
become better from my own work of healing. The discipline
to sit in something, the discipline in community, to sit
(18:20):
at a table to speak and to listen in the
anchor is mutual respect, and the anchor is shared values,
and the anchor is While we may come at this differently,
the essence of what we want is the same. It
(18:45):
takes us to have a level of discipline and self
awareness and emotional intelligence to know that the discomfort and
discomfort and toxic are different.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Okay, you have the floor, settle into that for a moment.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yes, And so what we're not encouraging is for people
to be in a community that distorts their peace. What
we're encouraging is that when you're in community with people,
you will be challenge Yeah. Yeah, you will be challenged.
(19:30):
But what's also true, you will challenge. That is the
reality of being in community. It takes a I think,
what we are experiencing now, because it's almost while it
is inherently a part of our ancestry for so many
(19:53):
people are still very new.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Yes, y.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
And and because we know, due to things out of
our control and also within our control, we do have
trust issues with each other. Yeah, yeah, real, yes, And
so as soon as something feels that it may prick
(20:19):
the skin, we run away from the pain because we
don't know what type of wound would this be? And
so sometimes we run away from community too soon because
we're so afraid we're going to be hurt. We're so
afraid that we can't be held, so afraid that we're
(20:39):
not worthy to be held in such a way.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Deeply, when we think about the need for community right now,
it superceeds like or dislike. Yes, you know, and I
think so often and especially because we have been honestly, like,
let's call a thing a thing. The last twenty years
(21:07):
have been very bizarre in human evolution. Like it's been right,
it has been bizarre. It's been advancing in many ways,
but it's also for so many people it's been an
era of being programmed to compete. It's being like an
era of being programmed to even covet other people's gifts
(21:31):
and purpose and have judgment on yourself or dislike them
because of it. But it's really been it's been an
age of like dissecting people, analyzing people from afar, having
parasocial relationships, which means a lot of like raw raw
and comments and likes and but not translating into like
(21:55):
real life earned sustainable relationals skills, you know, Like there's
it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I think there's.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And it's something I realized recently that I really have rejected,
like it's hard for me to do that. Like I'm
a one on one person. I'm an in person person.
I like to be deep and best and I can
also do that in groups, but not in a way
that's necessarily instagrammable or translating to social media. And I
(22:31):
look really closely, and I think it's so important that
all of us do as we learn community and participate
with it. Where can you brush up on skills like
where have you gotten by just sending memes or liking
or leaving motivational comments in someone's post, But you don't
(22:52):
know necessarily how to be with another human body and
human person in front of you, or how to repair
or how to to engage in meaningful dialogue with another
person you know. And I think for a long time
we have let friendship feel like that while being alone
(23:13):
in your own home right, being alone in your life,
or having a completely separate physical life to the one
you have online. So there is an integration that has
to happen there for all of us to be ready
for the step of community. And there's a lot of
ways that we have to be honest. Where do you
need to brush up? Where do you need to brush
(23:34):
up on stretching your capacity for discomfort, for disagreement, for
not liking someone, but that not meaning that you have
to hate them or be against them. You know, it's
like I see that so often and it's so confusing.
You can dislike someone, that's okay, Like we all have
(23:54):
personal preferences. You can choose something else or someone else
for yourself, but it doesn't mean that they have to
be a villain in your story or you now have
an arch nemesis, or it's like, y'all, these are just
fundamental basic emotions. So how do you stretch your capacity
to hold that? We're all all of it, We're all
(24:16):
every emotion, we're all flawed, we're all trying, you.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Know, absolutely, and we're all those of us who are
discipline in our work doing the work. When you do
the work, it only opens your capacity to have more empathy,
(24:43):
more grace, and the ability to see each other. So
to your point, you can see someone and that person
not be for you, Yeah, but because they're not for you,
because they're not assigned to be in this life journey
with you. It does not mean they are the enemy. Yeah,
(25:05):
it does not mean that they're not worthy. It does
not mean that they're not doing important work. So that
means rather than giving them energetic disdain, you can keep
your boundary. You can also offer them love.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Yeah, because that is what we need. We need that
to rest in the air.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And you don't have to want to seek to destroy.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I think that's been such a big part of our
culture in so many ways. But we see it all
over especially on you know, if you watch reality TV, right,
it's like someone did one thing I didn't like or
said something, and so now everyone has to be against
them or you know, we've seen it play out in
these dramatic kind of like basketball, wifey ways. But I
(25:59):
think many younger generations of women who that was the
only example. You just think that's how you do it.
You think that's how you play it. You think that's
what it is to be in relationship. And I think
we have to do such a reevaluation. And I think
some of us that are at certain ages if you're forty,
(26:21):
if you're thirty, if you're fifty, if you're sixty, it
really is so important for us to take seriously our
roles in our community that if you have come to
a higher awareness, that you really intentionally take the time
to role model better and different behavior for people because
everyone needs to see it.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Absolutely, we have to be responsible for our gifts. That
level of responsibility is where the teaching comes from. I'm
very clear that I have a life assignment clarity. You
have a life assignment. Clarity is a privilege. Oh, there
(27:11):
are so many people that's desperate for clarity right now
and to be afforded clarity. It's something that I hold
so near and dear to my heart. But with that
level of clarity, it only allows me to operate with
a greater capacity to love. When I meet someone who
(27:38):
is hurting, I see less of the human and I
see more of the pain, and I remember my own
and I remember when someone held me and saw me
in spite of my pain. That is what I believe
our work is. And rising to our higher selves in
(28:02):
this particular time is mandatory. The narrative has to be rewritten.
We have to turn the page on this toxic culture
and to know that there's also a social programming to
see people who are amplified, who have the perception of success,
(28:23):
all the external things. Yeah, and if you map out
their journey of success, it appears the only way that
you can be successful that you have to be those things.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
So to rewrite success is that in our successes we
have to tell the story and we have to operate.
We have to operate differently as we do that, and
if we all are committed to doing it, then people
who are watching will see something different. Television never changes. Yeah,
(29:02):
if it's still the same actors, it's still the same people. Generationally,
we're going to relive this loop. But what's so beautiful
about now? We're resisting the loop? And I feel it.
I feel it in my relationships. I feel it with
people who I'm so fortunate to meet. The conversations are
(29:23):
different now, yeah there are, Yeah, my god, they're different.
It's been a quantum leap. Yes, it has because the
page is turning. Yeah, the page is turning because we're
turning the page. I want people to feel wherever they
may be, wherever you are, it is okay because sometimes
(29:50):
we listen to people and we often long to be
where a person appears to be in there level of
peace and joy, and while there is a calmness in
my spirit because I work so hard, and I have
(30:12):
worked so hard to take care of my spirit and
my heart and my soul. But there are days that
is still very hard.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah, And there are days when I'm still very much
so challenged. There are days that I'm still very much
so triggered. And if someone is on their journey, it's
so important to know that no one is at the
end of their journey. So to be in this human
experiences me You're meeting a person who is some of
(30:47):
many different parts come on and I hope that gives
people comfort.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
God, we're so faceted. We are, we are so so fasceted.
And we're just each walking into the room with an
endless amount of things that the person in front of
us doesn't know about, you know, good things, hard things,
shameful things, special things insecurity, insecurities, yeah, traumas, hopes, you know, desires, intentions.
(31:22):
It's I it is the human experience, you know. And
I think something we were actually talking about before this
episode begins, and you know, I think this is really
part of the work of my life.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
When we can really accept and allow in the understanding
that None of being alive was ever meant to be perfect.
It was not designed to be perfect. Nothing happens without
God's permission. All of this is sacred design, all of it,
(32:00):
the hard things, the good thing like all of it.
And it's like when we can just stand in the
fact that we will always be steeped in both yes, joy,
grief right like beauty, pain, all of it is always present,
you know, in this experience of being alive, and I
(32:21):
think it just really it fortifies us and allows us
to just get to work, to do our work, to
be here, to be present. That's what this experience is,
doctor Key. We you know, speaking of that kind of
connection to higher self and higher consciousness. It is so important.
(32:43):
And you know, I know some people listening right, you're
tired of healing, You're tired of working on yourself, Like
there is healing fatigue. I actually have an episode called
healing fatigue with some tips find it. But I saw
this going around a couple years ago that I'm paraphrasing,
but something along the lines of like you don't have
(33:06):
to be your highest self, just be your okay self
or just be and I get it right, Like people
are tired, but I don't believe that. I don't believe
that at all. I don't believe any of us should
be settling for our basic selves. Absolutely, Ever, I don't
(33:27):
think we have to always be working so hard and striving.
I think we can take rest, you know. I think
we can seek support for the things we can't hold.
But absolutely we should be always moving towards a higher choice,
(33:48):
the best choice for the moment. We know the difference,
you know, there's no need. I feel like everyone goes out,
there's so many things so hard in their lives. I'm
going hard, going out, I'm going to get this goal.
But then when it comes to like showing up as
like a regulated, solid, integral person, It's like, no, I'll
(34:11):
do okay. Integrity is the choice every time. But in
your work, you know, and in your book, I think
you're really building the bridge between understanding the power and
the potency of seeking higher consciousness, but also why it
is essential if you're called to lead. Can you speak
(34:32):
to that? Can you speak to the role of leadership
in our lives and also leadership within community?
Speaker 3 (34:40):
When you said that we can't settle with being a
basic level of ourselves, of being just okay, or I'm
taking a day off from being my highest self. Leadership
in community, we can't be exempt. It requires. Leadership requires
(35:06):
us to commit to the work, to integrity, yeah, to
deep reflection of our own choices, to examine our desires,
to examine the things that we long for and why
(35:27):
we long for them, to examine how we respond to
people in situations, and to always anchor ourselves God and
my performing and being who you have me. Be what
I pray for, Devin, Especially when I'm approached with a
(35:50):
very hard decision that feels personal, my prayer is always God,
put my human self here and let my higher self
be here. Because it is truly an honor of a
lifetime to have gotten the call and the trust from
(36:12):
God to be a leader. I'll hold it with such
sacred hands, and I can only wonder how our community
will transform, how our businesses will transform, how our organizations
will transform. If we see it as an appointment from
(36:36):
God and not an appointment from person, the way that
we show up would be different. And leadership does not
come without a level of sacrifice. To not be okay
(36:56):
with just being okay, because because the work that it
requires to operate in a high level of integrity and
striving to be equitable, striving to be fair. It is
easy to not and as leaders, we simply can't choose that.
(37:21):
So when I'm working with entrepreneurs and I'm listening to
them and they're frustrations, I always can come to the
agreement that I likely have been here as well. But
what I share is the other side when you choose
something differently. While entrepreneurship pulls something, Oh, it pulls and
(37:43):
pulls at you. You can have a good day and
a bad day and one email threat. Listen, yes, and
one truly one email threat. But how I react the
hard moments now is reflection how much I loved myself. Yeah,
(38:05):
that's so good, and how much I love the work
that I've been privileged to lead. And I want fellow
leaders to know that it is a privilege to be trusted.
I want fellow leaders to know, Wow, what a not
by God to be chosen for such a time as this. Yeah,
(38:26):
because it was predestined that we share this space together.
It was predestined that all the people that we know,
all the people that we don't know, it was destined
for us to share this time and space, this planet,
the city, the state, this country together and it was
not by accident. It was by divine will that is
(38:50):
going to the higher place. So while things exist around us,
it's different when you know that you're chosen. My piece
comes from knowing that I was chosen. And people who
are chosen are people who are capable, and so when
we feel incapable, you have to whisper those words to yourself. Yeah,
(39:16):
I was chosen, I was chosen. I was chosen, chosen,
I was chosen. And when you said, until you find
your light being illuminated, when you find yourself breathing just
a little bit more lighter, when you find yourself walking
into rooms and nothing compels you to shrink. Yeah, but
(39:38):
it's how we speak and how we own the gifts
of being here right now, Why it feels that all
is falling apart.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
Yeah, yeah, deeply, this is.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
A different time. I think a lot of us who
haven't yet had those big generational experiences, right, that's what
we're really recognizing. Growing up, I used to think about
World War two every day in my life. Really I did,
(40:25):
I have been? I studied, I started studying. This is
very random peek into my brain as a child but
like around eight I started actively studying Malcolm X and
also Nazi Germany. There was something that has always had
me thinking about what did it feel like the moment
(40:47):
before everything changed? That has been a question that has
been running through my mind for thirty five plus years,
you know, and I think that now more than ever,
as you're watching the texture of the landscape of our
country change, as you were watching things that are the
(41:09):
antithesis of what we learned in social studies, right, what
we learned in government in high school, right, So much
of the way we thought life worked, it doesn't work now.
Every generation has faced its own moment that felt like
(41:30):
there was no way. How does life exist after this?
This crushes everything I thought being alive was. And we
survive and we rebuild and we create even still. And
so I'm thinking about that so much right now, And
I think where I'd love to kind of go with
(41:51):
this is if we're all in agreeance right now in
this room and whoever's listening, that this moment in time
requires something more indifferent. It also requires that we really
study how God uses us and that we act. What
(42:12):
does the role of spiritual hygiene of well being playing
your life as a leader and what is the role
that it should be playing in everyone's life.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
I spent time in my book around self care in
the world community. I know that this time that we're
in it is it requires a different desire, and so
I speak. My life is surrounded by entrepreneurs, and so
(42:51):
when I first meet an entrepreneur, they want to know
how to scale their companies. First question, first question. The
reality is they're like, Doc, I need to make money.
I have kids to take care, I have dreams, I
have things like this. Yeah, And I listen because I
understand we have to be able to take care of ourselves.
(43:13):
But I often follow their desires, which I understand. But
who will you become when you achieve the things you
so desherally achieve? Are you a responsible conduit? Will the
(43:34):
external things that you desire? Will you know the assignment?
Will you know what to do with it? Because this
particular time that we're in, I want people to scale.
I want to our people to make money. I want
(43:54):
us to afford the life, to have choices. But what
I desire most for us is for us to be well.
Because if we do our spiritual work, if we have
a spiritual compass, if we are in tune with our
soul and the light of God who we are. When
(44:20):
that success wherever it is for you, when time collides
with that moment, you will move us forward because of
your discipline, and so deb you want to be clear
with you, I ask entrepreneurs these questions, and I like that, Okay, okay, okay.
(44:41):
Can I focus on that later? Spiritual work is preventative care?
And I say, do you want to have to come
back and undo the mishandling of when time collided and
you received all the things that you wanted? Or do
you want to come to that moment prepared so you
(45:03):
do not have to go back? And what our entrepreneurs
tell me is that I want to be prepared, And
so then I ask them questions. How is your breathing,
how is your rest? How is your eating? What time
do you pray, meditate, or operate in stillness? How much
(45:24):
do you journal? How much time do you go and
allow the balls of your feet to touch the face
of the earth. How are you moving your body if
you can? How are you protecting the confines of your mind?
How are you staying connected to people who feel like
(45:44):
the sun? How much are you laughing, and I ask
those questions because to me, that is what healing and
wellness is. And I tell tell them, I didn't name
that we need an infinity pool. I didn't name that
(46:05):
we need a trip to Bali though it was really nice.
I didn't name the commodification of wellness. I name things
that you can access to at any moment. Yeah, A
deep in hell, a slow exhale, we can access it
any moment, at any moment. Because to empower people, to
(46:29):
let them know how proximate they are to their own power.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
And so that is what I strive to name for
entrepreneurs when it feels that the work is so far
out there that I have to be this person, have
to be that person who's no, no, no, no. Can
you honor your breast? Can you sit in gratitude? Because
gratitude fills my cup. And while we have entrepreneurial programs
(46:57):
DAVY that runs across the country and I'm so proud
of it, but what I'm most proud of is that
every Friday we have something in the village called the
Well and entrepreneurs a focus on their self care and wellness.
Every Friday's requirement for all of our work to operate
in the village and all that I have built, it
(47:19):
is tethered to being well. So when people come to me,
I'm very clear that this is different. It will feel different,
but you will be changed because it is required of
us to change, to evolve, and in my world, to
(47:42):
raise grant money. We work with a lot of foundations
and organizations. Five or six years ago, Debbie, I'm writing
grants and I'm saying it's a requirement for entrepreneurs to
participate in the will, and that I'm going to find
wellness practice mental health practitioners and I'm going to hire
them to hold the village wow. And it's a requirement
(48:08):
for every entrepreneur that comes in our program. I was
met with resistance then, but I held the line of
what I knew to be true. We don't need to
produce more individual multi millionaires who are not focused on
(48:29):
their healing and growth and nurturing their life. Yes, to
turn the pages, to turn the page on that, but
to require the page to be changed. We have to
offer people to playbooks. Yes, and that is what I
That is why the work that I do I feel
is very special. Because it looks different, it feels different.
(48:53):
So many entrepreneurs that we work with, but tell me
that I'm just so tired to tell that they are PACI,
but that they get anxiety when they or I feel
nervous when I get an email. What happens when you're
working with practitioners in the space, they can name what
you feel. That naming for entrepreneurs in the village. I
(49:16):
can't tell you how many people who have been set
free because there's something to identify. Oh no, no, no,
this is anxiety. Yeah, oh no, no, no, this is
decision fatigue. Oh no, no, no, no, you don't your
business and you are still a creator. You're just burnt out. Yeah,
(49:37):
and we name all of these things that that's so freeing.
It is so freek it's not personal deficiency, no, no, no,
wow wow. And so out of all the things that
I have built and yet to build, I am so
(49:58):
grateful I wanted to do it differently and that I
was unafraid to do it differently. We deserve different in
our community.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, so funny. I was looking at
this old tweet I had put up, I had archived
a post, and I was really sitting in that thought.
I found it last night, and it was something I
had written saying like where I was saying do everything differently, Yes,
(50:31):
like do it all differently and do it well, Like
that is our opportunity, you know, in a way that
really has never existed before, and like we have to
choose it. What is your Tell me about your daily practice?
Speaker 3 (50:48):
It changes as I change. Well, what is consistent. I
have to go on my walks. It is something that
I look forward to. I'm a nature girl, so to
be outside it does everything for me. There is not
a day that goes by and it does not matter
(51:10):
whatever stress that I may hold. There's not a day
that goes by that I do not pray and express
thanks for this life. That practice, the practice of drinking
my water, the practice of protecting my mind, and what
that looks like and how that materializes for me. I
(51:33):
will post something and then I'm off. It's rare that
I really know what is happening in the world, but
it is intentionally. So say that, Say that because.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
It's a beautiful piece of life.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
Yes I can't I go in, but I come back out. Yeah,
because I have to protect my psyche. There's no way
that I can have an imagination if it's flooded, and
everybody else thoughts, Yes, our imagination is how we build. Yes,
the imagination is a channel, so I protect that. I
(52:07):
protect it every day. And I'm also very mindful with
the relationships that I in the conversations that I partake in.
And because of that and the way that I've designed
my life, there's not a lot of negative incoming that
meets me because I've worked so hard and have built
(52:31):
my life in such a way that FoST black. I'm
not even going to tell Keith that yep, because they
already know and so are. These are my daily practices
that I've incorporated. My best relationship that I have in
life is my relationship with God. And it's been that
(52:54):
way since I was a little girl. Yes, I will
wake up early, and I still in my early early riser.
But when I was a little girl, I will wake
up and I would look out of the window and
I see the clouds moving, and I was always looking
for God and as a little kid, and I think
(53:16):
that is just like the cutest, sweetest thing. But that
relationship in that channel has always been there for me.
That has assisted me so much in the woman that
I have become and the woman that I'm continuing to
evolve into, and what I share to all who are listening.
(53:37):
There is no right path to wellness. There is no
playbook to wellness because what works for Dabby works for Davy,
what works for Key works for Key.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
But we have to choose.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
We must choose consistently things that feel like peace. Yes,
because the world is so loud this moment that we're in.
Many of us have never experienced anything like this. But
(54:15):
as we do the work while so much is moving,
we can steal our spirits and souls at any moment
that we need to. That is why we must do
our work. Yes, But I want to encourage encourage everyone
because I know I always just go back from this
place of empathy when we listen to people and they
(54:37):
feel that they sound like they have it all together.
Wherever you may be right now, it's okay. So if
all that you can muster right now is regulating your breathing,
If all that you can muster right now is affirming
the way that your meeting will go before you go
(54:58):
on the zoom, do it. And as peace comes to
you as something else, yeah, yeah, And as we keep
adding and we keep shredding, and peace feels luminous. We
can feel the presence of why we're really here, and
(55:20):
we feel less alone, less afraid, less disempowered.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
Deeply wow. I think part of the process of when
we develop our practice, for some, when that piece of
the puzzle feels like it's missing in your life, really
investigate what it is that triggers you about caring for yourself.
(55:50):
That's good because that's a really important wound to heal,
to have sustainable, consistent personal well being. You know, and
so often depending on if needs weren't met at other
points in your life where you've always had to meet
your own needs, it can feel so daunting, but it
(56:11):
does get to a point where it actually feels creatively fun,
where you're looking for new ways to fill yourself and
fuel yourself, and you develop this kind of new language
with your body, this new language with really God and nature.
But I think part of the hardship for some, and
(56:32):
I hope this goes to whoever needs it listening. Part
of the hardship sometimes in developing a practice is being
willing to acknowledge that you have needs and figure out
what they are, to acknowledge that you don't feel well
that there is some inner suffering happening somewhere in your
(56:53):
mind or in your heart, or and your body or
in your gut. But the noticing of those things in
and of itself is a practice and well being. The
witnessing of yourself and how your body is interacting with
all your facets like that is such an important pillar
in well being. So just even scanning yourself gently, what
(57:15):
are my needs if I allow myself to have any
you know, where in my body do I need to
give myself my own attention? Or sometimes it's what feels
like it's short circuiting. Is my intuition not so sharp?
Is my compassion being impacted? Am I not naturally feeling
(57:36):
compassionate right now? Am I feeling reactive? Like witness see yourself,
see what's needed and where it's needed. I really related
so much to what you shared about being a little
girl with God. That was so special. I feel like
so often in my life I'm an only child raised
(57:57):
by a single parent, so very kind of isolated young life,
and I used to kind of do the same in
my way. I used to always like lean back somewhere
or lay down and look up with my eyes closed
and watch like the orange in my lids. And I
(58:18):
used to be like, it's you and me, God, It's
you and me. And I still like every time I'm
with the son, I'm just like, it's you and me God.
And I didn't have the experience of growing up in
the church, not where I grew up, but I was
always longing for God and I always knew that there
was a special language between us, that there was this
(58:41):
open channel to getting direct guidance that I couldn't find
other places, like being actively like parented by the Lord,
you know. And it's like, oh, this way go that
we do this, and it's just always served me and
I'm so grateful for it. And I think that channel
that we have spoken to when you do your work
(59:03):
and then when you tend to yourself over time, that's
actually what you're looking to always preserve and to sharpen
and to refine and to nourish. It's that pathway and
from that everything else comes.
Speaker 3 (59:18):
I totally agree. You know what I desire for us.
I long for us to feel the way that we
were meant to feel.
Speaker 1 (59:26):
Oh my God, please say more to that.
Speaker 3 (59:31):
I have friends who are medical doctors, and they often
have shared stories of a person who's been sick for
a long time and they gotten so accustomed to me
and sick that they they just felt that that is
the way that their body was designed. So if there
is knee pain, they're just getting used to the knee pain.
(59:53):
It's like all my knee hurts, and then they experience
as their healing, this is what it feels like to
not have this pain. My friends who have gotten laces,
good friend of mine, and I remember when she got
(01:00:14):
it for the first time.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
She's like I have.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
So I had no idea how much I couldn't see
or what I was missing the attention to details of color.
I had no idea. I imagine from a spiritual place,
from the internal work space, that when we do the
(01:00:39):
work of healing, it is similar that we operate in
this body and we've done the work, It's like whoa, Yeah,
who knew that I was missing out on this feeling?
That is what I desire for us. I'm not one
(01:00:59):
who believes that we were created to suffer. I am
one who understands that suffering happens. Yeah, yeah, I am
one to believe that we were created to experience joy
joy that is not fleeting joy that comforts us when
(01:01:21):
we're suffering. I long for our community to just choose
to do our work so that we can operate in
our higher selves, but so that we can also experience
(01:01:44):
and be felt that we're loved every single day.
Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
Yeah, our wiring will change. I wrote about in the
book that when you do the work, it modified is
how you are in relationships Listen, and so that's business,
(01:02:08):
that's family, that's romantic. It doesn't matter. When you do
the work, your relationships change because you are changed and
what you desire changes. And so I think you know
what I'm naming is that I pray for our collective
spiritual awakening. We deserve to experience that. Yeah, and I
(01:02:38):
know that whatever we may be faced with, we will
survive it if we do our work. But only in
our collective spiritual awakening that requires every individual person to
do their work. Can we act as a body. But
until we get to that place, the left arm would
(01:03:02):
be the left arm, the right arm would be the
right arm, and then the body is somewhere else when
we're trying to put things together. But the work is
for us to individually do our work. So collectively the
body can operate as one body. That the left arm
is attached and the right arm is attaching, where one
body in movement and inflow. That is the prayer. That
(01:03:29):
is the prayer, that is the prayer.
Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
Before we end every episode, I like to invite each
guest to provide what we call on this show soul work.
It is the homework of the episode, the way to
integrate and reflect on and let's settle everything that moved
through the episode. So whatever that feels like for you.
It could be a practice, it could be a quote,
(01:03:55):
but I would love for you to share some soul work.
Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
Was coming top of heart right now. I encourage all
who may hear and all who may share. I encourage
us to get back to studying, into reading, into spending
time with text. I encourage us, whatever you may believe,
(01:04:27):
that you find your sacred space to pray, wherever you
may exist on this planet, that you find some time
for yourself, and that every single day that you speak
life into yourself, and that we are present. We are
(01:04:52):
present every single day to know that this experience, this
human experience, we're having, even if life may be extremely hard.
Right now, you're chosen to be here. So if you
feel that you are never chosen, that you're overlooked, it
is someone else who always gets the call, someone always
(01:05:17):
gets the contract, someone else always gets the booked to speak.
You are already chosen because you are here. That is beautiful,
Doctor Key. Thank you so much for joining us. This
has been such a special episode and just it's a tasty,
(01:05:43):
more soul everybody like. There is a lot to savor
in this conversation. Your book, No One is self Made,
build your village to flourish, and business and life is
available absolutely everywhere. Now, how can everyone connect with you? Yes,
connect with me on social at doctor Key Hallman on
(01:06:06):
almost all platforms except for LinkedIn. LinkedIn is LOOKI Shaw Hallman.
But come spend some time with me. Beautiful. Thank you
so much, Thank you, Devin, thank you, Thank you so
much for this opportunity, but also all the opportunities that
you provide to our community, and thank you for answering
(01:06:28):
your own life's calling. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Let it all settle and take a lot of time
to reflect on this episode. As always, thank you so
much for joining us. Get doctor Key's book. It is amazing.
It is everywhere. It's also audiobook format, so I'm sure
you will love hearing her voice too, and we'll catch
you next week. Thank you for joining.
Speaker 4 (01:06:52):
No mistay.
Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
The content presented on Deeply Wells 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 is advisable
to consult with your healthcare provider or health team for
(01:07:20):
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 and send this
episode to a friend. Deeply Well is a production of
(01:07:42):
iHeartRadio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jacquess Thomas,
Samantha Timmins, and me Debbie Brown. The Beautiful Soundbath You
Heard That's by Jarrelen Glass from Crystal Cadence. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows
Take a deep breath in through your nose. Holds it.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Now, release slowly again, deep in, helle.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Hold release, repeating internally to yourself as you connect to
my voice. I am deeply well. I am deeply well.
(01:22):
I am deeply.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I'm Debbie Brown and this is the Deeply Well Podcast.
Welcome to Deeply Well, a soft place to land on
your journey. A podcast for those that are curious, creative,
and ready to expand in higher consciousness and self care.
This is where we heal, this is where we transcend.
(01:53):
Welcome back, y'all. Thank you for being here. Of course,
I'm your host, Debbie Brown. This is the Deeply Well Podcast,
and I am always deeply grateful that you are allowing
me into your sacred space, either your home on YouTube
or your actual body and brain wherever you are listening
to this. It is a true sacred responsibility that I
(02:14):
do not take for granted, and I'm so happy that
y'all are here with us. We have been getting into
some fibers. I feel like this season we kicked off
the season with a three part teaching on integrity, and
then we moved into what has been i'm sure a
(02:36):
completely different way of understanding the world and maybe ourselves
since then. So today's episode is really leaning into something
we have never brought to this show before. So I
am so excited to expand in this Today we're exploring
the power of community. This is a word that gratefully
(02:59):
we are now starting to see everywhere, and I think
something so many of us are realizing, especially after having
a decade and a half of really intense individualism. It's
a word that many of us really don't fully understand
how to embody. What does that word mean, especially into
(03:21):
relation to how we've been living our lives the last
fifteen years and more and probably forever. But I'm excited
to dive into that here and now because it is
time for all of us to really stand in community,
embody community, understand how to grow and share and be
(03:45):
honorable in community. We're also going to be diving into
the journey of entrepreneurship and intentional economic empowerment. Our guest
today is a visionary who has built an extraordinary ecosystem
for black owned businesses and reshaped the future of black
economic power. Doctor Lakeisha Key Hollman, known as Doctor Key,
(04:08):
is a transformational social entrepreneur, speaker, civic leader and author
of No One Is Self Made, Build Your Village to
Flourish in business and life. She is the founder of
the Village market Our, Village United, and the Village Retail
platforms that have supported nearly fifteen hundred black owned businesses,
(04:29):
facilitated over ten million indirect sales, and deployed more than
a million dollars in grants and technical assistance. Her innovative
retail model spans high traffic destinations like pont City Market
in Atlanta, the Google Visitor Center in Mountain View, and
an upcoming storefront at Atlanta's Hartsfield's Jackson International Airport, collectively
(04:52):
giving black owned brands access to more than one hundred
million potential consumers each year. Doctor Key has partnered with
the Atlanta Beltline to launch the Beltline Marketplace, and served
as a program partner for Beyonce's Be Good Foundation and
The Fearless Foundation. She sits on the board of Trustees
at Tougaloo College and on the board of Invest Atlanta,
(05:17):
helping guide over one billion in active investments to foster
inclusive economic growth. Her leadership and impact have earned recognition
as a Forbes fifty Champion, a spot on the Root
one hundred Most Influential African Americans list and Atlanta Business
Chronicles forty under forty, among many other honors. She has
(05:38):
shared her wisdom on Good Morning America, The tamer and
Hall Show, CNN, The Today Show, iHeartRadio, Is, The Breakfast Club,
and so many more, and her work has been featured
absolutely everywhere, including Forbes, Essence and Black Enterprise. Without further ado,
please welcome, please join me, and welcoming the wonderful doctor Keith.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Thank you that'd be. I am so excited to be here.
I'm so grateful for you for creating this space, this
sacred space. I'm so grateful that you operate so beautifully
in your gifts, and a time like this, I understand
why your work is so needed. So I'm just so
grateful to sit in sisterhood with you and love and
(06:26):
light with you today.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So thank you, Oh my god, thank you so much.
Thank you so much. Those words mean the world to me,
especially coming from you. You know, I feel like I've
had the pleasure of being in your presence over the
last few years in some really fun times and places,
and You're just someone that deeply inspires me, Like I
just tremendously admire how you show up in the world,
(06:52):
how you are yourself and the radiant light you give.
You're very luminous, the way that you are teaching people,
the way that you were sharing and helping it. It's
just getting to the bone, you know, it's getting to
the core. It's getting to the root of the root.
And you're here and your amazing book is in the world.
(07:12):
I mean, you know, first, that title, I think when
so many of us saw it, like you're just like WHOA, Okay,
I needed someone to say that to me. Please tell
me one how you came up with that incredibly clear
and direct message and what it meant to you as
you wrote this beautiful book.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yes, I will tell you that I tussled with myself
with the title. Did I want to be punchy or
did I want to be gentle? Did I want to
stand firm and what I had to say or will
I shrink it down? And I felt very called and
(07:57):
pulled to be definitive and for me is a love
letter to our community. But to get to the love,
we have to get to the truth telling and an
entrepreneurship the truth telling. It doesn't matter how successful you are.
(08:19):
It doesn't matter if you're the face on a magazine.
It doesn't matter if you're the person sitting for all
the interviews, doesn't matter if you're the person that's on
stage accepting the award. And it would never take away
from your hard work and self determination. But everything you accept,
somebody accepted you and assisted you. That is what community is.
(08:42):
And so I had to with love say what needed
to be said for entrepreneurs, to address individualism in such
a way to pull people in, and also to do
what the title has done. When people start to say
that you know what, you're actually right, or you know what,
(09:04):
this makes me uncomfortable, and that is the way that
truth exists. But to be very transparent with you, Daddy,
I I tussled with that. I tussled with the desire
to true tell, but I didn't want anyone to feel attacked.
(09:26):
So what I had to do, while the title was
very clear direct, the writing is warm and gentle and
with love, because I wanted to make sure that as
people came to my words and really just my spiritual download,
that they felt safe to be expanded, they felt safe
(09:49):
to be challenged, and they felt a sense of safety
to really reconsider how they're existing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, because this work is it is triggering, right, Like
we are systemically generationally caught in some really hard environments,
like even the best case scenarios, right, and really, so
many of us did not have a good start, even
(10:21):
in the best case scenarios of loving, dynamic family, healthy households.
You're also on this planet, You're in this world. You
are your skin is the color, it is right, you
are no matter what, challenged by I mean just everything right,
(10:44):
like every system and every place, and it requires and
so I think when you are a masterful messenger, the
understanding that you have to be kind, you have to heal,
like you have to offer like a mothering and unconditional
(11:08):
loving which is firm, but it's so fair, it's so honest,
and it's always in support of, you know, with the
desire for the absolute best outcomes. And I think it's
just powerful that we all recognize all of us are triggered.
It's no longer this funny thing that we say a
is like, oh you trigger, I have a boundary, Like
(11:31):
it's not funny, it's not fun. Like everyone has been
enduring and wrestles with things and it's hard to hear
things sometimes and it's hard to change, but we can,
we can, and we have to arm ourselves with the
knowledge necessary to make better choices.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yes, and to know that this human existence is about
ev a lie and expansion that requires a level of discomfort,
that requires a level of undoing. And I think if
we all sat in that truth that in a level
(12:14):
of growth, we're also shredding and becoming undone, I think
we'll be less afraid of the hard moments. They're not infinite.
It's a moment so you and we can become all
that we were created to be. We can't get there
if we're not honest. We can't get there. If we
(12:35):
do not commit to our own healing, we can't get
there if our community is not reflective of nourishment, truth, love, knowledgement, resources.
It has to be a sense of community.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Can I ask you know, fundamentally, what is maybe in
this day and age, what is community? What is healthy community?
What I believe healthy community is constantly growing. Healthy community
(13:15):
is constantly relearning and examining the things that we learn
from our foundation, keeping the parts, but also letting go
some parts. Community is this being able to sit in
the presence of each other and deeply grateful that we
(13:39):
are both operating in our gifts and not being afraid
of the light that each other possesses, but being motivated
by it. That is communal and community requires active participation,
(14:00):
not dormant. It is active. It is both loud and quiet.
It's movement and stillness. It is giving, it is receiving,
And at this particular time you talked about it at
the opening where individualism is steeped into our consciousness, community
(14:22):
is remembering. It's almost like a muscle memory that the
only way that we've been able to persist, persist and
exist in this world is because we've been tethered to
each other. And I'm happy, I'm so happy, Devi that
we see the word community and hear it so much now.
(14:45):
I feel that we're having a sense of a collective
awakening that maybe, just maybe our formula has almost misguided us.
It's so interesting when the pendulum swings right, because we
(15:06):
the nature of it goes from the far end of
one end to the far reaching end of the other,
and then it takes time for it to finally go back,
go back, go back, go back. Settles in the middle right.
And I feel like, especially I think in terms of
we've been in this revolution of mental health, of kind
(15:27):
of personal destiny, really like this revolution of this word
purpose and what it means. Right, we are the purpose generation,
Like there has never been this many people alive at
once living for purpose on the planet that we know of.
And I think you know there was a piece of
(15:48):
it we have to remember and much to your point,
being here is evolutionary. Every moment, every choice should be
an evolutionary one or a nerve one. And so we
did need for a time to get out of the
ways of the world, like we the nineties the early aughts,
(16:09):
like this very bizarre celebrity driven TMZ era of life
and hyper consuming. We needed to have a certain age
of individualism to figure out who the heck we are
as an individual person, to heal the wounds we have
as an individual person. And I think that's much of
(16:32):
what God gifted us in twenty twenty. Going inside, going inward,
you were isolated, But it's not to stay forever. That
piece of the evolution has to be complete at some point,
and then we have to figure out and actually get
it out of theory and put it into practice and
be with others as this version and learn the way.
(16:55):
I'm understanding it and I'm trying to learn it and
be it now. It's like the participation, the creation, the
standing still and holding space. Even when community feels chaotic
and it's not going our way. You know, to be
in community is not constant harmony. It's hard work. Can
(17:19):
you speak to that? Like what I think?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Sometimes?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
What is the hardness or the challenge of being in
community and how do we still do it? How do
we heal it?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I'm so happy that you spoke to the challenges of
being community, because sometimes we beautify things in such a
way that if we tell people to cling to community,
to find your village, to attract your village, to track
your community, then when they find people they attract people,
they're still a lover of discomfort, and they will feel
that they got it wrong, or that we got it wrong.
(17:57):
I can only share what has been true for my
own life. When I have been stretched, when I have
been challenged with love, with nudging, with pushing, I have
become better from my own work of healing. The discipline
to sit in something, the discipline in community, to sit
(18:20):
at a table to speak and to listen in the
anchor is mutual respect, and the anchor is shared values,
and the anchor is While we may come at this differently,
the essence of what we want is the same. It
(18:45):
takes us to have a level of discipline and self
awareness and emotional intelligence to know that the discomfort and
discomfort and toxic are different.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Okay, you have the floor, settle into that for a moment.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yes, And so what we're not encouraging is for people
to be in a community that distorts their peace. What
we're encouraging is that when you're in community with people,
you will be challenge Yeah. Yeah, you will be challenged.
(19:30):
But what's also true, you will challenge. That is the
reality of being in community. It takes a I think,
what we are experiencing now, because it's almost while it
is inherently a part of our ancestry for so many
(19:53):
people are still very new.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Yes, y.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
And and because we know, due to things out of
our control and also within our control, we do have
trust issues with each other. Yeah, yeah, real, yes, And
so as soon as something feels that it may prick
(20:19):
the skin, we run away from the pain because we
don't know what type of wound would this be? And
so sometimes we run away from community too soon because
we're so afraid we're going to be hurt. We're so
afraid that we can't be held, so afraid that we're
(20:39):
not worthy to be held in such a way.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Deeply, when we think about the need for community right now,
it superceeds like or dislike. Yes, you know, and I
think so often and especially because we have been honestly, like,
let's call a thing a thing. The last twenty years
(21:07):
have been very bizarre in human evolution. Like it's been right,
it has been bizarre. It's been advancing in many ways,
but it's also for so many people it's been an
era of being programmed to compete. It's being like an
era of being programmed to even covet other people's gifts
(21:31):
and purpose and have judgment on yourself or dislike them
because of it. But it's really been it's been an
age of like dissecting people, analyzing people from afar, having
parasocial relationships, which means a lot of like raw raw
and comments and likes and but not translating into like
(21:55):
real life earned sustainable relationals skills, you know, Like there's
it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I think there's.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And it's something I realized recently that I really have rejected,
like it's hard for me to do that. Like I'm
a one on one person. I'm an in person person.
I like to be deep and best and I can
also do that in groups, but not in a way
that's necessarily instagrammable or translating to social media. And I
(22:31):
look really closely, and I think it's so important that
all of us do as we learn community and participate
with it. Where can you brush up on skills like
where have you gotten by just sending memes or liking
or leaving motivational comments in someone's post, But you don't
(22:52):
know necessarily how to be with another human body and
human person in front of you, or how to repair
or how to to engage in meaningful dialogue with another
person you know. And I think for a long time
we have let friendship feel like that while being alone
(23:13):
in your own home right, being alone in your life,
or having a completely separate physical life to the one
you have online. So there is an integration that has
to happen there for all of us to be ready
for the step of community. And there's a lot of
ways that we have to be honest. Where do you
need to brush up? Where do you need to brush
(23:34):
up on stretching your capacity for discomfort, for disagreement, for
not liking someone, but that not meaning that you have
to hate them or be against them. You know, it's
like I see that so often and it's so confusing.
You can dislike someone, that's okay, Like we all have
(23:54):
personal preferences. You can choose something else or someone else
for yourself, but it doesn't mean that they have to
be a villain in your story or you now have
an arch nemesis, or it's like, y'all, these are just
fundamental basic emotions. So how do you stretch your capacity
to hold that? We're all all of it, We're all
(24:16):
every emotion, we're all flawed, we're all trying, you.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Know, absolutely, and we're all those of us who are
discipline in our work doing the work. When you do
the work, it only opens your capacity to have more empathy,
(24:43):
more grace, and the ability to see each other. So
to your point, you can see someone and that person
not be for you, Yeah, but because they're not for you,
because they're not assigned to be in this life journey
with you. It does not mean they are the enemy. Yeah,
(25:05):
it does not mean that they're not worthy. It does
not mean that they're not doing important work. So that
means rather than giving them energetic disdain, you can keep
your boundary. You can also offer them love.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Yeah, because that is what we need. We need that
to rest in the air.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And you don't have to want to seek to destroy.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I think that's been such a big part of our
culture in so many ways. But we see it all
over especially on you know, if you watch reality TV, right,
it's like someone did one thing I didn't like or
said something, and so now everyone has to be against
them or you know, we've seen it play out in
these dramatic kind of like basketball, wifey ways. But I
(25:59):
think many younger generations of women who that was the
only example. You just think that's how you do it.
You think that's how you play it. You think that's
what it is to be in relationship. And I think
we have to do such a reevaluation. And I think
some of us that are at certain ages if you're forty,
(26:21):
if you're thirty, if you're fifty, if you're sixty, it
really is so important for us to take seriously our
roles in our community that if you have come to
a higher awareness, that you really intentionally take the time
to role model better and different behavior for people because
everyone needs to see it.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Absolutely, we have to be responsible for our gifts. That
level of responsibility is where the teaching comes from. I'm
very clear that I have a life assignment clarity. You
have a life assignment. Clarity is a privilege. Oh, there
(27:11):
are so many people that's desperate for clarity right now
and to be afforded clarity. It's something that I hold
so near and dear to my heart. But with that
level of clarity, it only allows me to operate with
a greater capacity to love. When I meet someone who
(27:38):
is hurting, I see less of the human and I
see more of the pain, and I remember my own
and I remember when someone held me and saw me
in spite of my pain. That is what I believe
our work is. And rising to our higher selves in
(28:02):
this particular time is mandatory. The narrative has to be rewritten.
We have to turn the page on this toxic culture
and to know that there's also a social programming to
see people who are amplified, who have the perception of success,
(28:23):
all the external things. Yeah, and if you map out
their journey of success, it appears the only way that
you can be successful that you have to be those things.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
So to rewrite success is that in our successes we
have to tell the story and we have to operate.
We have to operate differently as we do that, and
if we all are committed to doing it, then people
who are watching will see something different. Television never changes. Yeah,
(29:02):
if it's still the same actors, it's still the same people. Generationally,
we're going to relive this loop. But what's so beautiful
about now? We're resisting the loop? And I feel it.
I feel it in my relationships. I feel it with
people who I'm so fortunate to meet. The conversations are
(29:23):
different now, yeah there are, Yeah, my god, they're different.
It's been a quantum leap. Yes, it has because the
page is turning. Yeah, the page is turning because we're
turning the page. I want people to feel wherever they
may be, wherever you are, it is okay because sometimes
(29:50):
we listen to people and we often long to be
where a person appears to be in there level of
peace and joy, and while there is a calmness in
my spirit because I work so hard, and I have
(30:12):
worked so hard to take care of my spirit and
my heart and my soul. But there are days that
is still very hard.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah, And there are days when I'm still very much
so challenged. There are days that I'm still very much
so triggered. And if someone is on their journey, it's
so important to know that no one is at the
end of their journey. So to be in this human
experiences me You're meeting a person who is some of
(30:47):
many different parts come on and I hope that gives
people comfort.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
God, we're so faceted. We are, we are so so fasceted.
And we're just each walking into the room with an
endless amount of things that the person in front of
us doesn't know about, you know, good things, hard things,
shameful things, special things insecurity, insecurities, yeah, traumas, hopes, you know, desires, intentions.
(31:22):
It's I it is the human experience, you know. And
I think something we were actually talking about before this
episode begins, and you know, I think this is really
part of the work of my life.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
When we can really accept and allow in the understanding
that None of being alive was ever meant to be perfect.
It was not designed to be perfect. Nothing happens without
God's permission. All of this is sacred design, all of it,
(32:00):
the hard things, the good thing like all of it.
And it's like when we can just stand in the
fact that we will always be steeped in both yes, joy,
grief right like beauty, pain, all of it is always present,
you know, in this experience of being alive, and I
(32:21):
think it just really it fortifies us and allows us
to just get to work, to do our work, to
be here, to be present. That's what this experience is,
doctor Key. We you know, speaking of that kind of
connection to higher self and higher consciousness. It is so important.
(32:43):
And you know, I know some people listening right, you're
tired of healing, You're tired of working on yourself, Like
there is healing fatigue. I actually have an episode called
healing fatigue with some tips find it. But I saw
this going around a couple years ago that I'm paraphrasing,
but something along the lines of like you don't have
(33:06):
to be your highest self, just be your okay self
or just be and I get it right, Like people
are tired, but I don't believe that. I don't believe
that at all. I don't believe any of us should
be settling for our basic selves. Absolutely, Ever, I don't
(33:27):
think we have to always be working so hard and striving.
I think we can take rest, you know. I think
we can seek support for the things we can't hold.
But absolutely we should be always moving towards a higher choice,
(33:48):
the best choice for the moment. We know the difference,
you know, there's no need. I feel like everyone goes out,
there's so many things so hard in their lives. I'm
going hard, going out, I'm going to get this goal.
But then when it comes to like showing up as
like a regulated, solid, integral person, It's like, no, I'll
(34:11):
do okay. Integrity is the choice every time. But in
your work, you know, and in your book, I think
you're really building the bridge between understanding the power and
the potency of seeking higher consciousness, but also why it
is essential if you're called to lead. Can you speak
(34:32):
to that? Can you speak to the role of leadership
in our lives and also leadership within community?
Speaker 3 (34:40):
When you said that we can't settle with being a
basic level of ourselves, of being just okay, or I'm
taking a day off from being my highest self. Leadership
in community, we can't be exempt. It requires. Leadership requires
(35:06):
us to commit to the work, to integrity, yeah, to
deep reflection of our own choices, to examine our desires,
to examine the things that we long for and why
(35:27):
we long for them, to examine how we respond to
people in situations, and to always anchor ourselves God and
my performing and being who you have me. Be what
I pray for, Devin, Especially when I'm approached with a
(35:50):
very hard decision that feels personal, my prayer is always God,
put my human self here and let my higher self
be here. Because it is truly an honor of a
lifetime to have gotten the call and the trust from
(36:12):
God to be a leader. I'll hold it with such
sacred hands, and I can only wonder how our community
will transform, how our businesses will transform, how our organizations
will transform. If we see it as an appointment from
(36:36):
God and not an appointment from person, the way that
we show up would be different. And leadership does not
come without a level of sacrifice. To not be okay
(36:56):
with just being okay, because because the work that it
requires to operate in a high level of integrity and
striving to be equitable, striving to be fair. It is
easy to not and as leaders, we simply can't choose that.
(37:21):
So when I'm working with entrepreneurs and I'm listening to
them and they're frustrations, I always can come to the
agreement that I likely have been here as well. But
what I share is the other side when you choose
something differently. While entrepreneurship pulls something, Oh, it pulls and
(37:43):
pulls at you. You can have a good day and
a bad day and one email threat. Listen, yes, and
one truly one email threat. But how I react the
hard moments now is reflection how much I loved myself. Yeah,
(38:05):
that's so good, and how much I love the work
that I've been privileged to lead. And I want fellow
leaders to know that it is a privilege to be trusted.
I want fellow leaders to know, Wow, what a not
by God to be chosen for such a time as this. Yeah,
(38:26):
because it was predestined that we share this space together.
It was predestined that all the people that we know,
all the people that we don't know, it was destined
for us to share this time and space, this planet,
the city, the state, this country together and it was
not by accident. It was by divine will that is
(38:50):
going to the higher place. So while things exist around us,
it's different when you know that you're chosen. My piece
comes from knowing that I was chosen. And people who
are chosen are people who are capable, and so when
we feel incapable, you have to whisper those words to yourself. Yeah,
(39:16):
I was chosen, I was chosen. I was chosen, chosen,
I was chosen. And when you said, until you find
your light being illuminated, when you find yourself breathing just
a little bit more lighter, when you find yourself walking
into rooms and nothing compels you to shrink. Yeah, but
(39:38):
it's how we speak and how we own the gifts
of being here right now, Why it feels that all
is falling apart.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
Yeah, yeah, deeply, this is.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
A different time. I think a lot of us who
haven't yet had those big generational experiences, right, that's what
we're really recognizing. Growing up, I used to think about
World War two every day in my life. Really I did,
(40:25):
I have been? I studied, I started studying. This is
very random peek into my brain as a child but
like around eight I started actively studying Malcolm X and
also Nazi Germany. There was something that has always had
me thinking about what did it feel like the moment
(40:47):
before everything changed? That has been a question that has
been running through my mind for thirty five plus years,
you know, and I think that now more than ever,
as you're watching the texture of the landscape of our
country change, as you were watching things that are the
(41:09):
antithesis of what we learned in social studies, right, what
we learned in government in high school, right, So much
of the way we thought life worked, it doesn't work now.
Every generation has faced its own moment that felt like
(41:30):
there was no way. How does life exist after this?
This crushes everything I thought being alive was. And we
survive and we rebuild and we create even still. And
so I'm thinking about that so much right now, And
I think where I'd love to kind of go with
(41:51):
this is if we're all in agreeance right now in
this room and whoever's listening, that this moment in time
requires something more indifferent. It also requires that we really
study how God uses us and that we act. What
(42:12):
does the role of spiritual hygiene of well being playing
your life as a leader and what is the role
that it should be playing in everyone's life.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
I spent time in my book around self care in
the world community. I know that this time that we're
in it is it requires a different desire, and so
I speak. My life is surrounded by entrepreneurs, and so
(42:51):
when I first meet an entrepreneur, they want to know
how to scale their companies. First question, first question. The
reality is they're like, Doc, I need to make money.
I have kids to take care, I have dreams, I
have things like this. Yeah, And I listen because I
understand we have to be able to take care of ourselves.
(43:13):
But I often follow their desires, which I understand. But
who will you become when you achieve the things you
so desherally achieve? Are you a responsible conduit? Will the
(43:34):
external things that you desire? Will you know the assignment?
Will you know what to do with it? Because this
particular time that we're in, I want people to scale.
I want to our people to make money. I want
(43:54):
us to afford the life, to have choices. But what
I desire most for us is for us to be well.
Because if we do our spiritual work, if we have
a spiritual compass, if we are in tune with our
soul and the light of God who we are. When
(44:20):
that success wherever it is for you, when time collides
with that moment, you will move us forward because of
your discipline, and so deb you want to be clear
with you, I ask entrepreneurs these questions, and I like that, Okay, okay, okay.
(44:41):
Can I focus on that later? Spiritual work is preventative care?
And I say, do you want to have to come
back and undo the mishandling of when time collided and
you received all the things that you wanted? Or do
you want to come to that moment prepared so you
(45:03):
do not have to go back? And what our entrepreneurs
tell me is that I want to be prepared, And
so then I ask them questions. How is your breathing,
how is your rest? How is your eating? What time
do you pray, meditate, or operate in stillness? How much
(45:24):
do you journal? How much time do you go and
allow the balls of your feet to touch the face
of the earth. How are you moving your body if
you can? How are you protecting the confines of your mind?
How are you staying connected to people who feel like
(45:44):
the sun? How much are you laughing, and I ask
those questions because to me, that is what healing and
wellness is. And I tell tell them, I didn't name
that we need an infinity pool. I didn't name that
(46:05):
we need a trip to Bali though it was really nice.
I didn't name the commodification of wellness. I name things
that you can access to at any moment. Yeah, A
deep in hell, a slow exhale, we can access it
any moment, at any moment. Because to empower people, to
(46:29):
let them know how proximate they are to their own power.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
And so that is what I strive to name for
entrepreneurs when it feels that the work is so far
out there that I have to be this person, have
to be that person who's no, no, no, no. Can
you honor your breast? Can you sit in gratitude? Because
gratitude fills my cup. And while we have entrepreneurial programs
(46:57):
DAVY that runs across the country and I'm so proud
of it, but what I'm most proud of is that
every Friday we have something in the village called the
Well and entrepreneurs a focus on their self care and wellness.
Every Friday's requirement for all of our work to operate
in the village and all that I have built, it
(47:19):
is tethered to being well. So when people come to me,
I'm very clear that this is different. It will feel different,
but you will be changed because it is required of
us to change, to evolve, and in my world, to
(47:42):
raise grant money. We work with a lot of foundations
and organizations. Five or six years ago, Debbie, I'm writing
grants and I'm saying it's a requirement for entrepreneurs to
participate in the will, and that I'm going to find
wellness practice mental health practitioners and I'm going to hire
them to hold the village wow. And it's a requirement
(48:08):
for every entrepreneur that comes in our program. I was
met with resistance then, but I held the line of
what I knew to be true. We don't need to
produce more individual multi millionaires who are not focused on
(48:29):
their healing and growth and nurturing their life. Yes, to
turn the pages, to turn the page on that, but
to require the page to be changed. We have to
offer people to playbooks. Yes, and that is what I
That is why the work that I do I feel
is very special. Because it looks different, it feels different.
(48:53):
So many entrepreneurs that we work with, but tell me
that I'm just so tired to tell that they are PACI,
but that they get anxiety when they or I feel
nervous when I get an email. What happens when you're
working with practitioners in the space, they can name what
you feel. That naming for entrepreneurs in the village. I
(49:16):
can't tell you how many people who have been set
free because there's something to identify. Oh no, no, no,
this is anxiety. Yeah, oh no, no, no, this is
decision fatigue. Oh no, no, no, no, you don't your
business and you are still a creator. You're just burnt out. Yeah,
(49:37):
and we name all of these things that that's so freeing.
It is so freek it's not personal deficiency, no, no, no,
wow wow. And so out of all the things that
I have built and yet to build, I am so
(49:58):
grateful I wanted to do it differently and that I
was unafraid to do it differently. We deserve different in
our community.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, so funny. I was looking at
this old tweet I had put up, I had archived
a post, and I was really sitting in that thought.
I found it last night, and it was something I
had written saying like where I was saying do everything differently, Yes,
(50:31):
like do it all differently and do it well, Like
that is our opportunity, you know, in a way that
really has never existed before, and like we have to
choose it. What is your Tell me about your daily practice?
Speaker 3 (50:48):
It changes as I change. Well, what is consistent. I
have to go on my walks. It is something that
I look forward to. I'm a nature girl, so to
be outside it does everything for me. There is not
a day that goes by and it does not matter
(51:10):
whatever stress that I may hold. There's not a day
that goes by that I do not pray and express
thanks for this life. That practice, the practice of drinking
my water, the practice of protecting my mind, and what
that looks like and how that materializes for me. I
(51:33):
will post something and then I'm off. It's rare that
I really know what is happening in the world, but
it is intentionally. So say that, Say that because.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
It's a beautiful piece of life.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
Yes I can't I go in, but I come back out. Yeah,
because I have to protect my psyche. There's no way
that I can have an imagination if it's flooded, and
everybody else thoughts, Yes, our imagination is how we build. Yes,
the imagination is a channel, so I protect that. I
(52:07):
protect it every day. And I'm also very mindful with
the relationships that I in the conversations that I partake in.
And because of that and the way that I've designed
my life, there's not a lot of negative incoming that
meets me because I've worked so hard and have built
(52:31):
my life in such a way that FoST black. I'm
not even going to tell Keith that yep, because they
already know and so are. These are my daily practices
that I've incorporated. My best relationship that I have in
life is my relationship with God. And it's been that
(52:54):
way since I was a little girl. Yes, I will
wake up early, and I still in my early early riser.
But when I was a little girl, I will wake
up and I would look out of the window and
I see the clouds moving, and I was always looking
for God and as a little kid, and I think
(53:16):
that is just like the cutest, sweetest thing. But that
relationship in that channel has always been there for me.
That has assisted me so much in the woman that
I have become and the woman that I'm continuing to
evolve into, and what I share to all who are listening.
(53:37):
There is no right path to wellness. There is no
playbook to wellness because what works for Dabby works for Davy,
what works for Key works for Key.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
But we have to choose.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
We must choose consistently things that feel like peace. Yes,
because the world is so loud this moment that we're in.
Many of us have never experienced anything like this. But
(54:15):
as we do the work while so much is moving,
we can steal our spirits and souls at any moment
that we need to. That is why we must do
our work. Yes, But I want to encourage encourage everyone
because I know I always just go back from this
place of empathy when we listen to people and they
(54:37):
feel that they sound like they have it all together.
Wherever you may be right now, it's okay. So if
all that you can muster right now is regulating your breathing,
If all that you can muster right now is affirming
the way that your meeting will go before you go
(54:58):
on the zoom, do it. And as peace comes to
you as something else, yeah, yeah, And as we keep
adding and we keep shredding, and peace feels luminous. We
can feel the presence of why we're really here, and
(55:20):
we feel less alone, less afraid, less disempowered.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
Deeply wow. I think part of the process of when
we develop our practice, for some, when that piece of
the puzzle feels like it's missing in your life, really
investigate what it is that triggers you about caring for yourself.
(55:50):
That's good because that's a really important wound to heal,
to have sustainable, consistent personal well being. You know, and
so often depending on if needs weren't met at other
points in your life where you've always had to meet
your own needs, it can feel so daunting, but it
(56:11):
does get to a point where it actually feels creatively fun,
where you're looking for new ways to fill yourself and
fuel yourself, and you develop this kind of new language
with your body, this new language with really God and nature.
But I think part of the hardship for some, and
(56:32):
I hope this goes to whoever needs it listening. Part
of the hardship sometimes in developing a practice is being
willing to acknowledge that you have needs and figure out
what they are, to acknowledge that you don't feel well
that there is some inner suffering happening somewhere in your
(56:53):
mind or in your heart, or and your body or
in your gut. But the noticing of those things in
and of itself is a practice and well being. The
witnessing of yourself and how your body is interacting with
all your facets like that is such an important pillar
in well being. So just even scanning yourself gently, what
(57:15):
are my needs if I allow myself to have any
you know, where in my body do I need to
give myself my own attention? Or sometimes it's what feels
like it's short circuiting. Is my intuition not so sharp?
Is my compassion being impacted? Am I not naturally feeling
(57:36):
compassionate right now? Am I feeling reactive? Like witness see yourself,
see what's needed and where it's needed. I really related
so much to what you shared about being a little
girl with God. That was so special. I feel like
so often in my life I'm an only child raised
(57:57):
by a single parent, so very kind of isolated young life,
and I used to kind of do the same in
my way. I used to always like lean back somewhere
or lay down and look up with my eyes closed
and watch like the orange in my lids. And I
(58:18):
used to be like, it's you and me, God, It's
you and me. And I still like every time I'm
with the son, I'm just like, it's you and me God.
And I didn't have the experience of growing up in
the church, not where I grew up, but I was
always longing for God and I always knew that there
was a special language between us, that there was this
(58:41):
open channel to getting direct guidance that I couldn't find
other places, like being actively like parented by the Lord,
you know. And it's like, oh, this way go that
we do this, and it's just always served me and
I'm so grateful for it. And I think that channel
that we have spoken to when you do your work
(59:03):
and then when you tend to yourself over time, that's
actually what you're looking to always preserve and to sharpen
and to refine and to nourish. It's that pathway and
from that everything else comes.
Speaker 3 (59:18):
I totally agree. You know what I desire for us.
I long for us to feel the way that we
were meant to feel.
Speaker 1 (59:26):
Oh my God, please say more to that.
Speaker 3 (59:31):
I have friends who are medical doctors, and they often
have shared stories of a person who's been sick for
a long time and they gotten so accustomed to me
and sick that they they just felt that that is
the way that their body was designed. So if there
is knee pain, they're just getting used to the knee pain.
(59:53):
It's like all my knee hurts, and then they experience
as their healing, this is what it feels like to
not have this pain. My friends who have gotten laces,
good friend of mine, and I remember when she got
(01:00:14):
it for the first time.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
She's like I have.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
So I had no idea how much I couldn't see
or what I was missing the attention to details of color.
I had no idea. I imagine from a spiritual place,
from the internal work space, that when we do the
(01:00:39):
work of healing, it is similar that we operate in
this body and we've done the work, It's like whoa, Yeah,
who knew that I was missing out on this feeling?
That is what I desire for us. I'm not one
(01:00:59):
who believes that we were created to suffer. I am
one who understands that suffering happens. Yeah, yeah, I am
one to believe that we were created to experience joy
joy that is not fleeting joy that comforts us when
(01:01:21):
we're suffering. I long for our community to just choose
to do our work so that we can operate in
our higher selves, but so that we can also experience
(01:01:44):
and be felt that we're loved every single day.
Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
Yeah, our wiring will change. I wrote about in the
book that when you do the work, it modified is
how you are in relationships Listen, and so that's business,
(01:02:08):
that's family, that's romantic. It doesn't matter. When you do
the work, your relationships change because you are changed and
what you desire changes. And so I think you know
what I'm naming is that I pray for our collective
spiritual awakening. We deserve to experience that. Yeah, and I
(01:02:38):
know that whatever we may be faced with, we will
survive it if we do our work. But only in
our collective spiritual awakening that requires every individual person to
do their work. Can we act as a body. But
until we get to that place, the left arm would
(01:03:02):
be the left arm, the right arm would be the
right arm, and then the body is somewhere else when
we're trying to put things together. But the work is
for us to individually do our work. So collectively the
body can operate as one body. That the left arm
is attached and the right arm is attaching, where one
body in movement and inflow. That is the prayer. That
(01:03:29):
is the prayer, that is the prayer.
Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
Before we end every episode, I like to invite each
guest to provide what we call on this show soul work.
It is the homework of the episode, the way to
integrate and reflect on and let's settle everything that moved
through the episode. So whatever that feels like for you.
It could be a practice, it could be a quote,
(01:03:55):
but I would love for you to share some soul work.
Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
Was coming top of heart right now. I encourage all
who may hear and all who may share. I encourage
us to get back to studying, into reading, into spending
time with text. I encourage us, whatever you may believe,
(01:04:27):
that you find your sacred space to pray, wherever you
may exist on this planet, that you find some time
for yourself, and that every single day that you speak
life into yourself, and that we are present. We are
(01:04:52):
present every single day to know that this experience, this
human experience, we're having, even if life may be extremely hard.
Right now, you're chosen to be here. So if you
feel that you are never chosen, that you're overlooked, it
is someone else who always gets the call, someone always
(01:05:17):
gets the contract, someone else always gets the booked to speak.
You are already chosen because you are here. That is beautiful,
Doctor Key. Thank you so much for joining us. This
has been such a special episode and just it's a tasty,
(01:05:43):
more soul everybody like. There is a lot to savor
in this conversation. Your book, No One is self Made,
build your village to flourish, and business and life is
available absolutely everywhere. Now, how can everyone connect with you? Yes,
connect with me on social at doctor Key Hallman on
(01:06:06):
almost all platforms except for LinkedIn. LinkedIn is LOOKI Shaw Hallman.
But come spend some time with me. Beautiful. Thank you
so much, Thank you, Devin, thank you, Thank you so
much for this opportunity, but also all the opportunities that
you provide to our community, and thank you for answering
(01:06:28):
your own life's calling. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Let it all settle and take a lot of time
to reflect on this episode. As always, thank you so
much for joining us. Get doctor Key's book. It is amazing.
It is everywhere. It's also audiobook format, so I'm sure
you will love hearing her voice too, and we'll catch
you next week. Thank you for joining.
Speaker 4 (01:06:52):
No mistay.
Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
The content presented on Deeply Wells 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 is advisable
to consult with your healthcare provider or health team for
(01:07:20):
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 and send this
episode to a friend. Deeply Well is a production of
(01:07:42):
iHeartRadio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jacquess Thomas,
Samantha Timmins, and me Debbie Brown. The Beautiful Soundbath You
Heard That's by Jarrelen Glass from Crystal Cadence. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows
Host
Devi Brown
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