Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is my legacy, and in honor of Mental Health
Awareness Month, we're sharing more from our conversation with Keisha
Chante and our longtime mentor Stephen Hill. Because sometimes protecting
your piece starts with having the right people in your corner,
the kind of support that not only lifts us up,
but helps us find our own strength, our voice, and
(00:25):
our compass when we need it most.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
So one of the reasons I love this show is
because we get to actually peel back the curtain and
actually see just your eyes. For our listeners, I wish
they could see and just the glowy or smile of
this relationship. And I love mentorship. I think it's so important.
So Steve this beautiful tribute. So you have launch careers,
you have shape culture, You've elevated black voices, you had
this extraordinary role. So tribute came from you to him.
(00:53):
I'm going to ask you, Stephen, is there something that
a mentee has shared with you that makes you such
a great mentor?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Wow, oh question.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
Yes, that I listen well and I can approach things
from multiple sides. That's It's everything else springs from from
that to really be able to listen. Yeah, I've said,
and address things from both sides, understand and have an
(01:34):
understanding of where that person or that mentee wants to be.
And sometimes it's just I have the benefit of having experience.
I always like to tell people I'm not telling you how.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
To do it.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
I can tell you how it's been done. You can
take that and move it forward in a different way.
It's not it's not necessarily how to do it.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So yeah, and you're not judged mental.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
That's what I love about you, genuinely, Like listening is
a superpower. You listen well, you articulate your thoughts well.
But also you're not judgmental. You've always made it a
safe place. From when I was sixteen, twenty, twenty five,
thirty five, I can.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Tell him anything, no matter how crazy it may be, and.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
He will be like hmm okay, Like he will digest
it and then he will give you wonderful feedback, honest
feedback and real feedback. So yeah, you make it. You
create the environment for it to be a safe place
to communicate.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And that's incredible, is that? Yeah, to have to have
that in your life.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yes, And one of the things I admire about you Keisha,
is that you know you have walked away from things
when it didn't serve you. Oh yes, How would you
say to our listeners? How has that your how is that?
What would you say to them about taking care of
their mental health?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Mental health is a huge thing.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I find it so fascinating that we speak on physical
health and we separate mental health like it doesn't exist,
like your is your brain not attached to your body?
Why why are we treating it as a separate thing.
But there's something very humbling about experiencing depression. It's at
your lowest moment where you I've experienced times where I
(03:20):
was like, I don't want to do this anymore. I
am done, I'm tired, and it's you know, sometimes it's
just a lot of maybe trauma of you you experience
and it gets overwhelming. But once you've made it out
of depression one time, it renews your faith in God.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Or whatever you believe in. Right for me, it was God.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
It makes your faith stronger, but it also makes you realize,
like I can really get through it. I just have
to figure out what my game plan is to get
out of it. So I would say, you know, through
my experiences in life. It's it's the falling and the
getting back up that has allowed me to believe that
(04:02):
there's more. And also when you feel so close to
not wanting to be here, or when you experience a
huge death, when you lose someone, it really makes you
realize how precious life is and wanting to maximize your
time here. So I genuinely have this place of like
I don't know what's happening tomorrow or the next week
(04:23):
or the next month, but I want to make sure
it's a good one. I want to make sure that
I'm giving as much as I can. Like when I
leave the house, I try to be as intentional. Sometimes
I'm having a bad day or I'm struggling with anxiety
or depression, and I try to still go out in
the day and be as mindful and as self aware
as I can with people, because I want to pour
into people as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So if I feel like something isn't.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Right, and I immediately I'm like, this is a waste
of time, no matter how valuable it could be to others.
If I don't feel like it's right to my core,
or it takes me out of alignment with my relationship
with God. There is nothing more important to me than
my relationship with God. So if it doesn't feel right,
I'm good. I don't care how much money it is.
(05:08):
I don't care how cool it is. If it doesn't
feel right with me and Him when I go to
bed at night, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
So I have no problem walking away.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
And I'm lucky to have parents that are like, good on,
you do it, yeah girl, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
I think one of the one of my favorite things
over the last ten years, I'll say, is people being
much more open about their mental health and what it
takes to keep your mental healthy right. It's not hidden
in a closet anymore. You can really say, look, I've
gone through depression. I understand what it is because there's
(05:43):
something about not locking it inside that makes it freeing
and helps and helps helps, it helps you towards the positive.
And so I love that through social media or whatever
it is, mental health has been much more on a
conress and much more people have been much more open
about it over the last it feels like ten to
(06:03):
fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And let's just say it too, it's important for everyone's
mental health. I think it's been so wonderful that in
the Black community that we are talking about mental health
and ways in which we haven't. And I'm sure in
all communities, but in the Black community that we're able
now to talk more openly about mental health. That's critical
(06:25):
and so healing. I think yes, this show is built
on connection, on showing up authentically, and on reminding each
and every one of us of what really matters. If
this resonates with you, subscribing is the easiest way to
support what we're building and help us bring more of
these uplifting conversations into the world. Back in a moment,
(06:54):
Now back to my legacy and Alkeshan, I'm going to
look down at my notes because you've done so much
as a business woman, and I want to make sure
that I could celebrate it all because from music to
acting to entrepreneurship, I've noticed that you've created space for others,
especially women of color. And so from your first single
(07:16):
to your hair care brand to you have a new
film coming out. What's the kind of the line that
connects the artist that you were with the woman that
you are.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
As a little girl, I feel like it was always
just want to make my parents proud.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I just want to live out my dream. This is
so fun. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
And then now as an adult woman, there's a different intentionality.
There's life experiences, and I would say therapy too. Therapy
has been amazing, just going through key moments in my
life that have made me see things a certain way
and how I could really make it impactful that I
(08:00):
am now I advocate for my people because of experiences
that I've had over the years. You know, I remember,
for example, I was a six years old or uh,
just as a little girl. For example, I would drive
with my dad and my dad would get stopped all
the time by the cops for no reason, and it
was escalating and I and I could tell he was
(08:21):
being picked out and he was dealing with a lot
of racism, and he was sharing with.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Me what he was going through.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
But I remember one specific time, being six years old,
they arrested him and they put him in the back
of the cop car for nothing, and they put me
in the back of the car with him, and I
remember being in this little cage and looking over at
my dad with tears in his eyes, and he was
trying to be as strong as he could handcuffed, and
(08:48):
he asked me to grab a quarter out of his
pocket and walk across the street and call my mom
and tell her to come get me. And I remember
going through his pocket and he's and it's he's tight,
and calling my mom and picking him up and just
when my mom when my well, he got taken.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
But when I got in my mom's car, seeing him
leave in the cop car, I will never forget that
created a rage in me.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
And a rage can be really powerful if you are
mindful in your strategic about it, because it could go
negative or could go positive. But that's where the core
of it, that wanting to protect my dad started at
a young age where I was like, oh no, I
need to figure something out.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
This can't be it.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And then other moments throughout my life encountering racism or
even just one thing, for example, going to a school
where no one looked like me, and then my grandparents
living in Hinesville, Georgia, and my parents would ship.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Me off to them every summer for two months.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
And I was in an all Catholic It was at
a Catholic school, and I was in the Catholic girl choir,
and as you guys know, in Catholic church it's very
very respectful.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
But very conservative and a certain way.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
And then I would end up Hindeswood, Georgia, at a
Baptist church praise and worship, and it was a whole
different experience just going from the Deep South to Ottawa, Canada.
Sure having that every single year, and some of the
things I would witness, even in Georgia that I wasn't
happy with. My grandmother, a dark skinned woman. We would
(10:35):
go to hair salons and just even go places, and
I just the way she would be treated to this.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Day still infuriates me.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
So in wanting to protect my loved ones, I realized that, yeah,
I'm living out my dream, but God gave me a
purpose And yeah, you can feed yourself and receive all
the blessings, but how are you blessing others? Because at
the end of the day, I wanna make sure that
the world is a better place for my dad, for
my grandmother, and one day I'm gonna have a child.
(11:08):
What's this world gonna be like for the child? So
there's just a different intentionality that I would say that
I have way more meaning.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It's way more personal.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
My fight, and it's every single day and everything I
do I I went to a last story real quick,
but I I went to a network and they had
a bit of a s a scandal, and I remember
people of color quitting and they were like, what are
you doing?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Are you gonna quit? Y?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
You need to quit this network because they're not representing us.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And I thought, well, perfect example, you could.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
There's the MLK route, there's the Malcolm X route, there
is an internal route, there's an external route. They took
the external route and I embraced it, but I said,
I'm respected at this network. What can I demand internally?
How can I watch the change happen? And boy did
I do that. Black producers hired, black talent was hired, Black.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Voices were brought in.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
And we were able to redesign the infrastructure of the company.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Internally, I was I was the black sheep and the
only one they're doing it at the time.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
But it just I try to everything that I do,
I try to be intentional, and that is always my
personal goal is like how can I just make this
place better? And it might not just be for my people.
It could be mental health, it could be women entrepreneurs.
I just oh, my gotta make this more impactful. Yeah,
this can't just be a thing I show up to
and take a picture and leave.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Well, y, you you obviously have read or inter or
s some type of way, you know, figured out one
of the message of Martin Luther King because he talked
about the importance of external and internal change. Yes, and
he talked about the fact that it that in his opinion,
it's a it's a mixture of both, that there wasn't
a one way highway into change and into ending racism,
(12:59):
and that it takes both ways and in order to
help us reach the beloved community.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Well, one reason why I love what you had to
share is I feel like you were so honest and
vulnerable even in the last comments, because now I understand
why this six year old wanted to be great. Yeah,
and this thirteen and sixteen year old want to control
over economic future, as you said, your dad, your mom,
your grandma, your future. It's what I love about the
show is we get to really peel back the laters.
(13:27):
And I love in the mentorship relationship because you showed
it didn't happen by accident, and I love the honesty
of both of you sharing the mentorship that you've had
for each other, and so I just want to encourage
any of our listeners or viewers to reflect on the
mentors in their life, to reflect how they can be
great mentors, to share this with their mentees, or share
this with their mentors to have that relationship. And deeply
(13:50):
grateful to both of you for living your legacy and
sharing your legacy with us.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us. If
you enjoyed today conversation, subscribe, share and follow us at
my Legacy Movement on social media. New episodes drop every Tuesday,
with bonus content every Thursday. At its core, this podcast
honors doctor King's vision of the beloved community and the
(14:15):
power of connection. A Legacy Plus Studio production distributed by
iHeartMedia creator and executive producer Suzanne Haywood co executive producer
Lisa Lyle. Listen on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts. Until next time, may you find inspiration
(14:35):
to live your legacy.