June 23, 2023 • 70 mins
Keisha Blair has the wisdom of a woman who became a widow at an extremely young age.
Keisha, an up-and-coming career woman, found herself with small children and many decisions to make about her life, career, raising her children, and finding purpose again.
On this heartfelt episode of Grief 2 Growth, host Brian Smith welcomes Keisha Blair, a remarkable strength and resilience woman who turned her profound loss into a platform for growth and purpose.
Enduring the tragic loss of her husband at a young age while navigating life with small children at home, Keisha's story is a testament to the power of the human spirit when faced with unimaginable adversity. Her journey from despair to finding hope and purpose will inspire and resonate with listeners navigating their own struggles.
Keisha generously shares her experiences and insights, from the immediate grief of loss to the process of healing and rebuilding. Her wisdom, earned through her challenging journey, is a beacon of light for anyone wrestling with pain and grief.
Join Brian and Keisha in a profoundly moving conversation that explores the hard truths about grief and how it can shape our lives. As Keisha opens up about her experience, she offers practical tips and sage advice on coping with loss, nurturing resilience, and finding purpose amidst unimaginable pain.
Through her resilience and strength, Keisha transforms her tragedy into an inspiring narrative of hope and transformation. Deeply impressed by Keisha's courage and grace, Brian facilitates an empathetic and impactful dialogue that explores the intersection of grief, resilience, and growth.
This episode is a testament to our capacity to transform life's greatest tragedies into stepping stones for growth and purpose. Dive into this inspiring conversation and come away with newfound perspectives on grief, resilience, and the transformative power inherent in each of us.
🔗 www.keishablair.com
00:00 Introduction
02:45 Keisha Blair and the tragic death that inspired her
04:10 Inspiration behind the holistic wealth movement
09:55 How to channel your grief
17:17 What are the contributing factors to Black healthcare outcomes?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian Smith (00:00):
Close your eyes and imagine
what are the things in life thatcauses the greatest pain, the
things that bring us grief, orchallenges, challenges designed
to help us grow to ultimatelybecome what we were always meant
to be. We feel like we've beenburied. But what if, like a seed
(00:21):
we've been planted and havingbeen planted would grow to
become a mighty tree. Now, openyour eyes, open your eyes to
this way of viewing life. Comewith me as we explore your true,
infinite, eternal nature. Thisis grief to growth. And I am
your host, Brian Smith. Allright, everybody. Welcome back
(00:48):
to grief to grow. today. I'mhonored to have a very special
guest with us. She's an awardwinning international best
selling author. She's aneconomist. She's a Harvard
trained policy expert has beenrecognized by world leaders for
her groundbreaking work. Hername is Keisha Blair. She's the
author of the phenomenal book,holistic wealth expanded and
updated 36 life lessons help yourecover from disruption, find
(01:10):
your life purpose and achievefinancial freedom. This
transformative book has beenlauded by CNN senior political
analyst analyst Kirsten power asan essential guide to the art of
recovering from disruption. Andby iconic actress Kelly
Rutherford, who also wrote theforeword she describes it as
game changing. Keisha is oftenreferred to as the mother of
holistic wealth. She's also thefounder of the Institute on
(01:33):
holistic wealth and the drivingforce behind the holistic wealth
movement. her innovativeapproach to wealth that extends
beyond the financial into thepersonal and professional realms
of life has shifted paradigmsand challenged conventional
wisdom. Her expertise is Centeras a set, as seen here, I should
say as part of the PrimeMinister's supporting delegation
to the World Economic Forum inDavos, Switzerland, and East
(01:55):
Asia Summit in Singapore. Aprofound insight and wisdom of
featured in The New York Timesreal simple magazine, Forbes,
the Harvard Harvard BusinessReview, Essence magazine and
many others. Her viral articlemy husband died at age 34. Here
are 40 life lessons I learnedfrom it deeply touched more than
50 million people around theworld and that exhibits a
(02:18):
powerful impact of her messages.
Her books and her wisdom havealso garnered recognition from
people like Maria Shriver, theeditor is Oprah Daily Dot Oprah
daily.com That produces a JadaPinkett Smith read table talk,
the lower coach show theproducers of Mel Robbins show,
as well as Yahoo Finance is theroute final round. So I'm really
honored that Keisha has chosento be with me today. And with
(02:39):
that, I want to welcome KeishaBlair to Creek to growth.
Keisha Blair (02:45):
Thank you so much, Brian. It's great to be here.
And thank you for that wonderfulintroduction. Well, you're quite
an impressive person, Iappreciate you taking the time
to sit down with me today. I'mI'm really looking forward to
talking to you about yourfinancial work, but also what
led to what you're doing. Sofirst of all, I want to say I'm
really sorry about what happenedto your husband, that's
(03:07):
something that you and I shareis losing someone very close at
an early age. But how did thataffect you your life? And did
that? Is that what led to thework that you're doing? Yeah,
no, absolutely. It had a hugeimpact on the person I am today.
And it's inspired this wholeholistic wealth journey and the
movement. You know, he passedaway pretty young he died from a
(03:29):
disease that is so rare, andmost doctors will never see it
in their lifetime and in aliving person. Only in
textbooks, so it's it's so rarethat one in 1 million people get
it each year. And it you know,it became a medical mystery when
he died quite suddenly. It tookone year for the autopsy
(03:50):
results. And it was just aharrowing process. I remember
the night he died. I walked outof the hospital room and you
mentioned that viral article,Brian, I walked out of the
hospital room that night with awhite plastic bag with his
belongings, some of the mostprecious things.
You know, like his wedding ring.
And I remember thinking, youknow, those aren't the things
(04:15):
that last, you know, what lastis our legacy, the way we treat
others, the more intangiblethings in life and as a trained
economist, who, you know, workedon measuring GDP growth and
measuring economic growth, itbecame very clear to me at that
point, I'll never forget, youknow, holding that white plastic
(04:38):
by and thinking there has to bemore there is more to this. And
so, you know, as I explained inthe book, I you know, I went on
a soul searching journey. Andthat inspired this holistic
wealth framework that I came todevelop while on sabbatical
while on leave. But absolutelylike this whole it's perience
with grief and having toovercome that kind of tragedy
(05:01):
has absolutely inspired who I amand the journey and the whole
holistic wealth movement andwhy, you know, I came up and
coined the term holistic wealth.
Because during the midst oftragedy, it becomes clear,
right. And I know, you know, inthe midst of tragedy becomes
clear that, you know, it's it'show we impact others, it's the
(05:22):
legacy we leave. And it's, it'sthe intangibles, and it's about
honoring those who we love inour lives. So that's basically
the inspiration behind thismovement.
Brian Smith (05:33):
And how long ago was your husband passed away?
Keisha Blair (05:36):
Quite a while. So it's been, what, 14 years to be
exact. And, you know, quite alot has happened since then. So
it's, it's taken that long, andI've been working on you know,
writing since then, and workingon everything the nuts and bolts
of so this hasn't been overnightby any means. This has been a
(06:00):
long process of slugging throughgrief and coming up with this
framework and, and really tryingto educate others and, you know,
inspire other people goingthrough this type of a setback
that there is hope. So it's,it's, it's it has been a while.
And it's by no means I know,people hear my story. Sometimes
(06:21):
I think, Wow, this is overnight.
Like how did you do this?
overnight? It has been, it'sbeen a long journey.
Brian Smith (06:27):
Yeah. People do want to assign like, oh, look,
it's everything was fine, right.
But so I like to set that thatexpectation for people that we
can recover, and we can dobetter. But also, a lot of
times, we can be very impatientwith ourselves, and we'll look
at someone like yourself andsay, I should be doing what
she's doing.
Keisha Blair (06:45):
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And even when I, you
know, when it happened, whentragedy struck, it took me a
while to even think about, okay,what do I do next. And then I
decided to take that one year,you know, my things in a 40 foot
container, rented my house, soldeverything else, you know, took
(07:07):
my babies, and went on that soulsearching mission. And that was
a whole process in itself, interms of the decision to do that
the mechanics of how I did whatI had to put in place to get
there. And that year, that wastransformative for me. So
absolutely, I think we need tobe patient with ourselves, give
(07:29):
the process time, there is noone size fits all process in
terms of how we grieve, in termsof, you know, what we should be
doing, when I often, you know,say to people that you know,
grief, grief is like mushrooms,it just pops up. And you know,
those, you know, things thathappen to you along the way,
make it fertile for that griefto grow. And sometimes, you're
(07:53):
fine. And sometimes you're not.
So absolutely giving your timeto space, giving yourself the
space and the time to grieve,and to figure out next steps is
absolutely important.
Brian Smith (08:03):
So I assume you were doing the economic work
before your husband passed. Isthat Is that correct? Yes,
that's correct. So and then youtook some time to your to kind
of reset, and then came back?
How did it feel when you cameback into that work after after
that sabbatical?
Keisha Blair (08:21):
Ah, it felt different. Because I was not the
same person who was there beforein terms of my mindset, my core
values, I was transformed. And Iyou know, this impacted my work
in a positive way. But also, itmade me realize certain truths.
You know, like I mentioned inthe book, like I was on a path
(08:43):
to being, you know, one of thefew leaders chosen to leave the
organization going forward. Andeven though I still went on that
path, I realized that there werecertain values that were more
important to me, this work andmy life purpose and my mission,
(09:03):
in terms of connecting withpeople who were grieving and
other widows and, you know,children with mentorship, and
youth. Those are all soimportant. So that made a big
impact in terms of, you know,how my career turned out, and
the decisions that I've madeafterwards, even with writing
(09:23):
the book, and even with updatingthe book during COVID-19. So
it's unbelievable, once thishappens, and you realize that
your life purpose is so muchgreater and so much bigger than
that. I mean, some careerhighlights that you included,
when you introduced me, Brian,we're after that sabbatical.
(09:44):
Parts of the Prime Minister'sdelegation and supporting
delegation that was after thatsabbatical, but still, I really
feel like even it influenced mywork. The type of advice I was
able to give and leading intothis phase of my life If that
I'm in now with the Institute onholistic wealth coaching women
on different forms of trauma,including money, trauma,
(10:07):
coaching women on grief, it'sinfluenced that tremendously,
and even the holistic wealthpodcast. So I think, you know,
if people are in a point wherethey're thinking about
transitioning, especially afteryou've been through a tragedy
know that it doesn't have to bein a vacuum, like all of your
experiences can be used toinfluence to make the impact
(10:31):
that you want to make, itdoesn't have to be one or the
other, you can absolutely makethe same impact within your job
outside of your job, you know,or vice versa, like it really is
that taking that holisticperspective of what you want
your life to look like, and howyou want to channel that grief.
You know, just like what you'vedone brand with your experience.
(10:54):
So that's basically how itturned out in my own life. But
it's, as you said, it's aprocess. And it takes time. And
it's unbelievable. That we canall get there, you know, in our
own unique way. Because we eachhave stories that are so
(11:14):
important to tell and thatDurrell needs. So it's, it's
really important. Yeah, and
Brian Smith (11:19):
I did you mentioned so much there that when I wanted
to dive into, you know, becausethere there's I know, a lot of
times when things like thishappen, we feel like okay, my
life is just over and I can'timagine how difficult it must
have been for you. You're You're34 As a very young age to pass
away. You had a couple of youngchildren, I think at the time.
(11:42):
How'd that feel? I mean, how didhow did? How did you feel at
that time?
Keisha Blair (11:48):
Yeah, so he was 34 as 31, I had just given birth to
my second child, eight weeksprior. And I had a near death
experience with my first child,which was three years before my
husband died. So you can imaginewhen it happened to me, I was It
was horrific with with thesecond pregnancy. That was also
(12:13):
difficult. And you know, as Iwrote in the book, like I was
not healed physically, myself. Ihad undergone a traumatic
pregnancy, like many blackwomen. Because we're the first
one I'm a maternal near misssurvivor. So for myself
personally, in terms of what Iwas going through physically,
(12:34):
that was hurting in itself, andthen to have your husband
suddenly pass away, and nothaving the answers not know why,
like to us he was a healthy 34year old running marathons at
the peak of his life, a greatdad, a great husband. And it was
(12:55):
just a huge, huge loss. It was ashock to my system, I remember
losing 40 pounds in like twoweeks, I couldn't eat. My stress
levels were so high, I couldn'tbreastfeed. Luckily, my friends
came over in two times in thenight to wake up to feed, you
know, because feed Alex becausehe was eight weeks old at that
(13:17):
time. So as you can imagine, mywhole life was turned upside
down. And that's why I've statedin the book, that when you're
going through a period of grief,and tragedy, your relationships
around your key. Thoserelationships can really provide
that buffering that you need to,you know, go through that
(13:39):
period. And, you know, it'sunbelievable, Brian, that when
that viral article you mentionedwent viral that was after my
sabbatical. And I came back, youknow, and they said to me, you
have to write a money book, anagent said, You should write
that booking you should write amoney book. And I said, no,
like, I cannot just write amoney book. There's so much more
(14:02):
to this story to this, you know,than money. And it's
unbelievable that all those corefacets of holistic wealth, were
what got me through that grief.
It was not only therelationships, but it was you
know, taking the time to dealwith my mental and emotional
health. It was trying to get meon a path to eating well again
(14:22):
into nourishing my body. It wasspiritual self renewal everyday
meditating, praying, thinkingabout and reflecting upon my
life and where I wanted it togo. And you know, what was the
story and what was the universetrying to tell me here? It was
those various facets of holisticwealth that kept me afloat. And
(14:44):
that's what I think is the keyin terms of building resilience
and having that core, that coreset of beliefs that can guide
you through any setbackregardless of what the setback
is. But that's why I think, youknow, how we look at our lives
and thinking about holisticwealth and thinking about living
(15:05):
holistically wealthy lives wherewe're, you know, not focused
just on one area of our life.
But we're focused on all thesedifferent facets also helps us
to build resilience, resilience.
And, you know, it gives us thatstrength to weather setbacks.
Brian Smith (15:24):
Yeah. You mentioned you had a near death experience
with your with your first child,the how did that impact your
view on life?
Keisha Blair (15:33):
Yeah, I know, that is it's become a part of my
mission in terms of, you know,giving a platform to others,
like myself, maternal near misssurvivors, and those who have,
are working in the field ordoing advocacy advocacy
organizations. And, you know,it's, it's, it's tremendous, the
(15:57):
barriers that black women face,it's tremendous in terms of our
healthcare, what we go through.
And so for me, it's basicallybeen a part of my mission, it's
influenced this holistic worldframework, because as I went
through that near deathexperience, and I wasn't the
only one who's whose life was atrisk. My baby's life was at
(16:18):
risk. So both of us nearly died,he had the umbilical cord was
wrapped around his neck. And sohis heartbeat went to almost
nothing like it. So, you know,health. And access to proper
care is a big part of thenarrative. It's a big part of
holistic wealth, especially forcertain communities for the
(16:40):
black community. And we've seenwith COVID, in terms of what,
you know, what we've beenthrough, the black community has
had the biggest losses duringCOVID-19. And if you look at the
impacts afterwards, it's it'songoing in terms of the economic
and social impacts in terms ofour health. And so it's been a
(17:01):
huge part in terms of thissocial justice piece and this
healthcare piece of you know, ofthat holistic love framework. So
that's been a big part of mywork, as well as just, you know,
getting people more aware.
Brian Smith (17:17):
Yeah,
Keisha Blair (17:18):
I don't think causes.
Brian Smith (17:19):
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people are aware of the
health issues that black womenhave health issues to issues at
the medical community, and howthey have more often black women
die in childbirth, for example.
And it's not just economic,it's, it's, it's across all
economic stress. So is that truein Canada as well? I know, it's
definitely true in the US,
Keisha Blair (17:40):
it absolutely is true of Canada, as well. And you
know, in terms of the causes theracism, the, you know, sexism,
like, there's, there's a lot tounpack in terms of what it's
very similar in Canada, thecontributing factors for black
woman are pretty much the same.
I mean, our health care systemis universal care. So it's a bit
different in terms of thestructure of the health care
(18:04):
system here. But the underlyingcauses of why, you know, we
don't get the standard of careare still the same. They're
still absolutely the same. So.
Brian Smith (18:16):
And that's why
Keisha Blair (18:21):
even with a health system that's structured
differently. It's similaroutcomes.
Brian Smith (18:25):
Yeah. And that's, I think, the most shocking thing.
So I think a lot of times wethink the black healthcare
outcomes are because of economicissues. And but even when you
even when you allow for that,it's the way doctors treat
women, and the way doctors treatblack women in particular, that
leads to these negativeoutcomes. So I'm glad that
you're bringing that forward.
And I think it's reallyimportant for people to
(18:46):
understand.
Keisha Blair (18:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
Brian Smith (18:51):
So you when you came back from your sabbatical,
and you mentioned core values,which is another thing I really
want to talk about, because Ithink it's really important,
that we understand what our corevalues are. Do you feel like
your core values changed afteryour husband's passing? Or did
they just become more important,or they become more prominent?
How would you describe that?
Keisha Blair (19:12):
Yeah, I think core values. It's interesting that
you asked that question, becauseI think from for me, personally,
most of my core values hadremained the same. I think what
shifted with the tragedy was,okay, are they know, are they in
alignment with the path that I'mon? You know, and will I be able
(19:36):
to stick with the path that I'mon wholesale and retail and
still make the impact that Iwant to make, do the type of
work that I want to do? So therewas a conflict? There was a
conflict and I think it's theconflict with the values that
causes the problem for mostpeople. Because when we look at
(19:56):
what we spend our time doing forThe majority of our work day or
for the majority of our days,it's in conflict with what we
want to be doing and what wewant to be achieving. So for
instance, family was always acore value for me as a mom. But
then how do I structure my dayto spend more time with family?
How do I structure my day toimpact my family in the way that
(20:20):
I want to and build a type ofcollective mission because I
talk about building a mission,as well as part of holistic
wealth? So I think with manypeople, I think the values are
often in conflict with what wewant to get done. And so it's
looking at where that conflictis why? Or what are we spending
our time on, like doing thatinventory? And then figuring out
(20:44):
like, are, you know, are therethings that are, you know, not
in alignment, like, I oftentalked about, you know, this
values pyramid that we can useto, you know, fish out our top
five values? What are your topfive values in that pyramid, and
what's out of alignment? BecauseI think that's a way of
prioritizing what we should bespending our days on and
(21:07):
spending our time. So it'simportant to look at not only
values writ large, but what arethe top five values? And is it
in alignment with how I'mspending my time, which is,
which is great, I think, for me,it was just kind of rejigging my
life, so that it became moreholistic. So, you know, if I
(21:29):
needed to build out thisframework, and impact the
community in the way I wantedto, what did I do? What do I
need to do? And so all of thatwork was basically, you know,
given to me by readers, when thefirst edition of the book came
out, readers came forward. Andthey were like, well, we want to
be certified holistic wealthconsultants, we want to go out
(21:50):
in our communities and impactother women and teens. And some
of them are now doing voluntarywork with the YWCA of Canada,
they're doing work. And I mean,they're certified holistic
wealth consultants all over theglobe, in their communities
doing work. But most of themcame forward to me saying, we
want to be certified to do thiswork. How can we impact our
(22:11):
community that way, because I,you know, we see where we can
use this in our variouscommunities. So basically, it
was spending that time that, youknow, I needed to craft these
different programs so that womencould go out there and impact
their communities separate andapart from me in a way where
(22:31):
they were empowered with thismessage and the tools and the
framework to go out there and doit in a systematic way that was
in alignment with the work thatI had done. So that's basically
how the message has bred, it hasbeen really organic routes that
bottom up with readers justsaying to me, you know, this is
(22:51):
what we want to do, let's seehow we can work together to do
it. And I find that once, youknow, you become more aligned
with your purpose, and once youbecome more aligned with those
values, and you start puttingthem into action, then it
becomes really easy for that totake shape. And for that work to
(23:12):
take on a new, you know, meaningand, you know, start impacting
in a way that you want thatimpact to take place.
Brian Smith (23:21):
Yeah, I think that yeah, thanks for the answer. I
think that's a that's a greatanswer. And I kind of think the
core values tend to not change.
We do change as people we grow.
But I think core values prettymuch stayed the same. But I
think what happens when thesetragedies happen to us, it
causes us to reset, we examinethings, and we accept in our
(23:43):
Western society, living out ofalignment with our core values,
we just think that's just whatwe do. We don't we don't even
need to examine our value. Idon't even know what my values
are. I just know I go to thisjob every day. And I know that I
hate it. And I can't wait tillthe weekend. I can't wait to go
on vacation. I can't wait toretire. But we don't really
question like, What can I dodifferent and when your life is
(24:04):
just ripped apart? Everything'sup in the air, everything's up
for grabs. You say, Oh, I coulddo anything I want. What am I
what do I want to do?
Keisha Blair (24:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
And when you know, as you said,you know, Brian, just know when
your life's ripped apart whenmine was, I started thinking,
Well, no, I'm a single mom. Howdo I spend more time with my
kids like that was that becamemore need because not only was
my oldest son Noah grieving theloss of his dad, but he had one
(24:34):
parent left. And so where as Iwould be able to spend more time
at work before he died doing thethings that I you know, in terms
of my career path, I had to setthat aside and now focus on
them. And that was no what wasjust you know, became a core
need. Yeah, so that was it withwith everything and then with me
(24:57):
personally Only with taking thattime that I needed. So
absolutely, you're absolutelyright. In the quarterback,
they're always there. But youknow, it often takes a reset.
That's required for you to say,Well, yeah, you know, I have to
flip this, this switch. Now thisis absolutely necessary.
Brian Smith (25:21):
So during that time that you took off and
sabbatical, which I think is sowise, if you're able to do it,
that's awesome. Did you thinklike, about not going back? Did
you think about doing somethingcompletely different? How did
you realize that you could dowhat you were doing and
alignment to your values?
Keisha Blair (25:39):
Yeah. So there were thoughts, there were
different thoughts going throughmy mind? At one point, yes. I
thought, well, maybe I shouldnot go back. Maybe I should just
go full time into my, you know,into into writing I had started
writing on sabbatical starteddoing different work on
sabbatical as a you know, notwork work, but exploring
(26:01):
different passions. And, and,you know, different people
started saying, well, you shouldexplore those passions full
time, like, don't bother goingback to work. Yeah, you're
obviously talented and gifted inthis type of space. So just just
focus on this. But at the time,I made that cost benefit
(26:22):
analysis. And I'm, you know, ifanybody's listening in and are
thinking, What should I do, I'mat this stage, I'm at this
critical juncture do that costbenefit analysis. And this is
where the finance comes in, aswell. And this is where
everything comes in, in terms ofyour family or age, do you have
a young family at the time Idid, I was 31, I was still very
(26:43):
young. And I thought, You knowwhat, like, I still had certain
career goals that I wanted toachieve, which I did. I've
always wanted, for instance, to,you know, to do certain work as
an economist, and, you know,going back to work, gave me that
(27:03):
opportunity, because I landed ina spot where I started doing
this type of work, and beingable to, you know, to
participate, you know, insupporting delegations and that
type of thing. And, of course,that is invaluable. And that
became an invaluable part of mystory. And it gave me certain
(27:25):
skills, which were alsoinvaluable. And I'll never, ever
forget that. So I think, youknow, if, if people are
listening in and are thinking,Well, you know, I'm at this
point, I'm at this criticaljuncture right now, we'll do
that cost benefit, you know,what you need to achieve, you
know, what your financial goalsare? Are you there yet? How do
(27:46):
you want to retire? How doesyour retirement look like, and I
often tell people, you know,what, this is what we do at the
Institute, we help people withtheir holistic wealth
portfolios. And if you are at aparticular spot, we'll look at
all your goals holistically. Andthink, think about where you are
right now, in this moment, andwhat you want to achieve. And
(28:06):
that's what I did. And Ifigured, you know, what, I still
have some career goals that Iwant to achieve. But yet still,
I know that I have this greaterpurpose now, which will
eventually take over, which willeventually be the emphasis and
focus on my life. And, andthat's how I did it. So it was a
(28:26):
slow transition. And I used myexperience to gain the skills
that I needed, because I knew Istill needed to fine tune some
skills. And you I wasn't quitethere yet. I was still young,
still had young babies. And Ineeded to do more. And, you
know, that was invaluable. So ifsomebody's thinking of doing
(28:48):
that listening in, then justthink about where you are right
now, what your goals are, whatdo you want your life to look
like?
Brian Smith (28:56):
Yeah, I just love the way you said that. And the
way you did that, it's like,instead of just throwing
everything away and startingover I'm you have this
incredible skill set that youcould use, and you say, you say,
Okay, here's my, here's myvalues. Here's my holistic
goals. Here's a skill set Ihave, how can I take this skill
(29:17):
skill set, and meld these twotogether? You don't have to
throw everything away. And Iknow people are like, I just I
want to do something meaningful.
So I'm going to quit my job andgo do something else. It's like,
yeah, yeah, that might not bepractical.
Keisha Blair (29:31):
Exactly, exactly.
And it's one of the things tothat with having holistically
wealthy workplaces on the otherside of it, for organizations to
actually think about how theycan accommodate employees who've
had these transformativeexperiences, and want to make an
impact in their communities.
Well, how can we help youachieve your purpose? How can we
(29:54):
keep you interested and focusedat work? Yes, but with this
newfound You know, experiencethat you've had and these new
skills that you've picked up andthis new impact that you want to
make? How can we help you fosterthat? And for me, there was a
bit of that at work as well,when the first edition of the
book came out. And I got thattremendous support. That was
(30:17):
tremendous. And so, absolutely,it's not just about throwing
everything away. It's aboutthinking about how I can achieve
this purpose in the mostpractical, efficient way
possible. And yes, maybe earlyretirement is part of what you
know, my long term goal is, buthow do I transition into it? And
how do I make it workfinancially, and otherwise, in a
(30:40):
more holistic way, so that I'mnot, you know, just, as you
said, just taking these hugerisks, and then not knowing how
to deal with a setback if asetback arises?
Brian Smith (30:51):
Well, we've talked a lot about holistic health,
let's, let's define it, I'mexcited to announce I have a
great new resource. It's calledgems, four steps to move from
grief to joy. And what it is,it's four things that I've found
that I do on a daily basis, tohelp me to navigate my grief.
And I'm offering it to you freeof charge, it's a free download,
(31:11):
just go to my website, www dotgrief to growth.com/gems G m s,
and grab it there for free, Ihope you enjoy it, to find a
Keisha Blair (31:22):
holistic wealth is it's a framework that, you know,
I developed, and it basicallyit's this new paradigm of how we
define wealth. So traditionally,we defined wealth as, you know,
net worth, and we looked atwealth in terms of our assets,
(31:43):
and you know, more physicalmaterial possessions. With
holistic wealth, we're alsolooking at not just that,
because that plays a part. Andit's mostly in terms of
financial independence, morethan just physical assets. But
also mental health, or spiritualhealth, or emotional well being,
(32:05):
or physical health, and alsohaving a life purpose and
meaning, and or relationships.
So in the book, I go througheach chapter, and each chapter
builds on especially in the newversion, a new edition of
holistic wealth, each chapterbuilds on the other until we get
to the part where we build aholistic wealth portfolio. And
you can see the key, you know,facets of holistic wealth,
(32:29):
they're the key pillars. Andwhat I'm saying here is they're
all interdependent. You know, weeverybody knows that, quote,
There is no wealth withouthealth. And that's so true. And
it's also more than that. It'salso all these key pillars that
provide this buffering that weneed, in times of setback that
help us become more resilientand able to overcome these
(32:53):
setbacks. So it also buildsresilience, and helps us
overcome, you know, thesetragedies and, and hurricanes
and storms that happen, youknow, over a lifetime.
Brian Smith (33:10):
Yeah, absolutely. I love the fact that you're,
you're integrating this alltogether, it reminds me, I
interviewed recently, a coupleof people who are transpersonal,
psychotherapy psychotherapist,which is something I really
hadn't heard about before. Butthey're, they're looking at the
whole person and looking atspiritual, emotional, you know,
as well as mental health. And inthis case, when you talk about
(33:32):
wealth, it includes everythingin our life and includes, you
know, resilience, as you'vetalked about a lot. So when
people, when people do discoverthis, are they, the people that
you work with? Are they oftencoming out of grief is that what
leads them to you or arehealthy, not healthy, but people
who are relatively happy to theycome to you as well.
Keisha Blair (33:53):
So the women, the people who come forward are
people who are often helpingother people in a professional
capacity. And they've read thebook, and they've realized, oh,
my gosh, I don't even have halfthe tools I need to really help
in the way I want to help. Andit's unbelievable, because let's
see, there are some that arefinancial analysts, who are
(34:18):
working with people out therewho have suffered various
setbacks, and they've read thebook. And they've realized that
their training, and theirexperience hasn't really
equipped them to really adviseon certain things, and they've
read the book, and they're like,oh, my gosh, like, you know, we
need to be certified. We need togo deeper into the material so
(34:39):
we can help others with thesekinds of setbacks and give
better advice. So we've hadpeople from every industry and
every walk of life, but the keything here is that they've all
felt ill equipped, you know, toreally help people in the way
that they really want to help.
And so we've been building onthat to help them to help people
(35:00):
who've been through moneytrauma, because 80% of the
population has some money fromand especially if you've been
through grief of any kind, anyloss of any kind, you have so
many trauma. And so helping themto help other people who've gone
through this kind of trauma hasbeen very fulfilling, because
it's just so widespread. Andit's not talked about that much.
(35:24):
Even when we speak about grief,we don't often speak about the
money trauma part of it. Wedon't speak about the fallout in
terms of how that you know howthat experience makes me feel
about money in my personalfinances now, but it needs to be
spoken about, because I know Iwent through it. And I know so
(35:44):
many people are going throughit. And even as a trained
economist, I can't imagine if Ididn't have the training I had,
how I would, you know, come outof this without the kind of
support and help needed. Sothat's one way that I've melded
my experience in my background,having also gone through grief
and loss to try to help others.
Brian Smith (36:08):
Yeah, tell me about the money trauma. What do you
mean by that?
Keisha Blair (36:11):
Yep. So, you know, it's unbelievable, as I said,
80% of the population almost 80%has some kind of money, trauma.
And money. Trauma is basicallyjust trauma that arises from
some sort of financialsituation. Most people though,
have you experienced that evenfrom childhood and have
(36:33):
experienced, you know, whetherit's, you know, parents arguing
about money, or growing up inpoverty and growing up in
scarcity. And even if you grewup in abundance, there can be
money trauma, it just arisesbecause of a wide, it could be
intergenerational, it could bethe narratives you've heard
about money, money is evil, itcould be any, you know,
(36:54):
situation, and it can besomething catastrophic, like a
divorce, or, you know, yourspouse passing away, or a child
passing away, that causes somesort of financial implications.
And even if you have things inplace, like a life insurance
policy, or even if you, you arein a state of abundance, and it
(37:15):
happens, just the grief andthose feelings can also cause
money trauma, because of, youknow, the feelings that arise in
grief and the fact that yourlife has been upended. So we've
been trying to do some workaround that to educate people
who've been through grief,people who've had a loss of any
kind, it could be chronicillness, it could be loss of a
(37:37):
job, it could be loss of aspouse could be loss of a child
loss of a parent, any kind ofsetback like that can cause some
form of money, trauma. And, youknow, being self aware, and
recognizing those feelings, interms of your finances is one,
one way that you can recognize,hey, something's not right here,
(37:58):
or, you know, I'mdisassociating, I don't want to
think about my finances, I don'twant to think about money, I'm
not checking my credit cards,I'm not checking my bank
statements, I'm, every time Ithink about money, it just makes
me feel nervous and anxious. AndI get butterflies and I feel
nauseous. Those are some, youknow, some quick symptoms, and
(38:19):
but being self aware, especiallyif you're going through a period
of grief, and loss of any kindis critical. Yeah,
Brian Smith (38:26):
a lot of times grief, can actually trigger or
can reignite other traumas thatwe've had. So as you were
talking, I was thinking about,you know, your relationship with
money, like when you're a child,whether you had money or didn't
have money, your parents view ofmoney, all those things, you
know, are we carrying aroundwith us, and then they get
(38:46):
these, they get activated? Whenwe go through an event. And we
might even we might be carryingthem around subconsciously, then
they just suddenly come to thesurface.
Keisha Blair (38:54):
Absolutely. I often tell students who take the
course with me, you know, plotyour disruption timeline, and
start from your earliest memory,and all those disruptions that
you've had, think about any ofthose that had financial
implications, or that impactedyour money mindset, or your
(39:15):
money situation, and reallywrite it down and write down how
much it impacted you. And Ithink if we go through our lives
like that, and you think about,you know, so many people come on
my podcast, and they're like,Oh, my parents lived through. My
grandparents lived through WorldWar Two, or my grandparents had
to flee as refugees, or myparents had to flee as refugees.
(39:36):
And it's impacted the way thatthey view money, their
relationship with money. Sothinking about all those
disruptions into adulthood cangive us an idea of really the
kind of money trauma we'redealing with, whether it's
significant or it's just, youknow, mild or but it really does
put things into perspective.
Brian Smith (39:58):
Yeah, and you mentioned some All times the
word resilience, which is a wordthat I, I always talk to my
clients about as well, becausethe time to build resilience is
when you're not not in crisisbecause we know these
disruptions as you call, as youcall them. We know they're
coming. You know, every, everyone of us goes through them in
(40:18):
some sense or another, whetherit's a health thing and divorce,
you mentioned divorce, whetherit's, you know, losing a child
or a spouse or financialsetbacks with job. So we
constantly have to be buildingour toolset, which it sounds
like what you help people do tobe ready for these disruptions?
Keisha Blair (40:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I actually train my studentslike the certified holistic
wealth consultants to plan fortwo setbacks per decade because
studies show and even when welook at different financial
crises, like I've spoken aboutin my book, and I've studied as
an economist coming up from, youknow, the big one we had in
2008. And even before and after,we see where there's been at
(40:59):
least two big ones per decade,that globally we face, even if
we don't think about them, theother ones that we're facing in
our own personal lives. So if wecan plan for two setbacks per
decade, you know, to help ushave that resilience that you
mentioned, and build a portfoliothat is resilient, then I think
(41:19):
that's that, you know, that'sthat's a good thing to do.
Because we know setbacks arecoming. It's it's just being
ready for them.
Brian Smith (41:28):
Wow, what would you say to SEPA? I have two feelings
are one is it's great to beready for them. The other is
that sounds like a lot.
Keisha Blair (41:36):
Exactly. And if you look at this COVID period, I
mean, we've been through we'vebeen through a lot in these few
years. And I mean, this isn'ttypical. I know, this isn't
typical. But even as aneconomist, and I'm thinking this
is unprecedented. This is likeany, unlike anything I've seen
in my memory in my living years.
So even if we take this smallperiod, you know, then we're
(41:56):
thinking, Yeah, we actually needto be doing far more than what
we're doing to build thatresilience to build our
portfolios to plan ahead.
Brian Smith (42:06):
Yeah, this this last three years has been crazy
on so many levels, on theeconomic level, but since we're
talking about holistic welfare,also, you know, it's affecting
all of us mentally andemotionally. And we're still
dealing dealing with supplychain issues and people, whether
I'm going to work from home orgo back to the office, and now
there's a conflict, because alot of employers want to let the
(42:29):
people come back to the officeand people are like, I'd like
working from home. Yeah, they'requitting their jobs and say, I'm
not going back.
Keisha Blair (42:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
There's unprecedenteddisruption. And as I said, in,
you know, holistic world, thisis the art of recovery from
disruption. It's how can I buildthose? You know, if we're
talking about personal finances,it's how can I build that
financial resilience piece, sothat I have everything in place
so that if my employer says,Well, you know, we're bringing
(42:57):
everybody back into the office,it's how I can put things in
place so that I can make atransition out, or I'm thinking
of staying, but I'm thinking of,you know, doing certain things,
it really lends itself to theconversation that we've been
having so far, Brian, in termsof how do we structure our lives
in a way that honors those corevalues that were able to live
(43:19):
that genuine, authentic lifethat we've always dreamed of,
and it is doable, it's just amatter of putting those pieces
in play, and especially whenyou've been through a big
setback like we've had, and onethat is life defining, then it's
even more important to reallytake the time to do it.
Brian Smith (43:42):
I know you work, you mentioned that you work, a
certification program for peoplewho are financial advisors,
which I think is awesome. I havetalked to my financial advisors
about they're really goodanyway, about that kind of
stuff, but I'm gonna let themknow about your program. But you
also work with individuals, andI guess you have like coaching
programs or programs that peoplecan go through. So tell me more
about your individual work?
Keisha Blair (44:04):
Yeah, so yeah, so the certification programs for
sure, are for people who want tobe certified to go out into
their communities to help otherspeople who may want to then earn
revenue from it in terms ofhelping clients or add to their
suite of services, and or go outinto nonprofit organizations and
(44:25):
be certified. But then,individually, I do help clients
one on one, like I take on, youknow, core set of clients on an
individual basis. And that canalso be in terms of just one on
one coaching. So I referencedthe art of recovery from
disruption. There's that piecealso where I've had, you know,
(44:49):
women come to me and be like,well, you know, I've been
through a divorce or I've beenthrough some kind of setback,
and I need some mental work. Ineed to really bolster my mind
that, and I feel like I've beendown a rabbit hole a path that
and going that I can no longergo down. I've had those
experiences where I've had tocoach people, just one on one
(45:11):
through that. So there are thedifferent key pieces of holistic
wealth that require notnecessarily certification, but
require that kind of one to onePII somebody has been through
something similar. And you know,I have the tools and other
pieces that I can readily justpull on to help. And I've done
(45:32):
that in terms of just one on oneas well with people who need
different very specific guidancein terms of building back a life
from scratch, or, you know, justmindset work or something else,
you know, that they're thinking,you know, I need help with to
kind of go on and I need someonewho has done the work themselves
(45:56):
and who's figured it out.
Brian Smith (45:58):
Yeah, I had a misunderstanding about the
certification program. So it'snot just for professionals.
Keisha Blair (46:03):
It's not, and it's not just for people in the
finance industry, people who'veparticipated, who are doctors,
who are interior designers,teacher, teachers, nurses. So
it's, it's, it's for anyone whowants to be able to dive deeper
into the work to help others.
And so that's the key, like, Iget people who come to me
(46:24):
individually, they just want todeal with their personal issues
their thing. But once you wantto help somebody else, as part
of your mission, or you want tohelp somebody else through a
suite of other courses that youmight have or other online
offerings, then that's where thecertification is very helpful in
giving you those tools, becauseit also comes with the tools,
(46:46):
you know, that you can use withclients. Yeah, it's very helpful
for that. Yeah, that's
Brian Smith (46:54):
fascinating. I'm glad. I'm glad that we clear
that up. Because I could see alot of people need people to do
the work that I do. I think it'dbe very, very beneficial for
kids. All these things. I lovethe word holistic, because all
these things tie together. So weoften think of our finances as
one thing. Our physical healthis one thing or mental health is
(47:15):
another thing, our spiritualhealth is another thing. But
they're all They're all. They'reall tied together. And for
example, if you're financiallystable, then that takes some
pressure off of all the otherthings, you know, but if you're
not, then it's like Maslow'shierarchy, right? If I don't
have enough money, it's kind ofhard for me to self actualize
when I can't pay the electricbill.
Keisha Blair (47:36):
Exactly. And it's, you know, you mentioned the
sabbatical part of it, forinstance. So I do train people
who wants to take a sabbatical,because you mentioned that,
right? Like, if you're notfinancially able to, then it's
very devastating when somethinghappens, and you can't take that
time off to really grieve or toset your life in a different
(47:58):
path. And that's what havingthose key pieces in place
enables you to do. And so otherpeople can find they're like,
Yeah, I want to take asabbatical. Can you coach me
through that? Or do you have acourse which we have for the at
the institute almost equipped tohelp with that, because I went
through that whole planningstage. And now I'm helping
(48:18):
people to do that, who need totake that time off, and do it
very productive and do it in away where they're not going to
ruin their finances, or ruintheir career. You're doing it in
a systematic planned way whereyou will come out, you know,
with some key outcomes thatwe've we've outlined some key
(48:39):
outcomes that will put you on apath to being able to you know,
actualize your dreams, as yousaid, and to live the life you
really want to live.
Brian Smith (48:47):
That is that is so profound. Because as you said,
we know we're going to have acouple of events, you know, a
decade, and we know something'sgoing to happen. So being able
to have that buffer, becausewhen you're in grief, people
that aren't certain, you know,professions are like, Okay, you
get three days, you get fivedays if it's somebody else.
(49:08):
Yeah. And so now you're tryingto deal with your career and all
that stuff. And meanwhile, youyou're dealing with brain fog,
and you're, you know, becausethe first couple of years of
grief, your brain doesn'tfunction properly. And it's just
it really prolongs I think thatrecovery period, you know, what
you were able to do to take thatsabbatical can make a
(49:29):
transformative event, whichbecause you're just it's a reset
almost, it's a we just said, youknow, looking at my values, I'm
looking at my skills, I'mcombining those things together
and you can do with that thatpressure of the day to day
haven't been on nine to fivegoing into the office.
Keisha Blair (49:45):
Absolutely. And you know what, like, Ryan, I had
to take a note I had to take nopay leave. And for the majority
of us like I did one year forthe majority of us, if not all,
let's say in a work setting, itwould have to be no paid. For
that current kind of time,right? But when you look at the
cost benefit, and yes, I didgive up, I did give up some
(50:07):
stuff I did. But when you lookat the cost benefit of what I
was able to achieve personally,and in terms of a recent of my
own life, like I can't imagine,what would have happened, had I
not taken that sabbatical, like,I don't even want to think about
it. And when I think about thepath that I'm on now, because I
(50:28):
was able to take that time, notonly to build back who I was,
but to think about how I wasgoing to live my life, there's
just no valid monetary valuethat you can put on that.
Brian Smith (50:41):
Yeah, you know, it reminds the conversations, we've
been having my my daughter's mid20s, and all our friends are mid
20s. So they're, you know,they're thinking about careers.
So they were encouraged into thecareers and they're thinking
about getting married and havingchildren. And my wife and I have
had a couple concerts, mydaughter recently, I'm like, I'm
glad I don't have to do thatagain. Because, you know, it's
like, when I have my career, Iwant to be independent, and then
(51:03):
when depend on anybody else, I'mlike, once you have children,
you know, then then you've got,you know, soccer practice and
swim practice, and basketballpractice and all the things that
they're going to be doing. Andif you're both out working, you
know, full time and you're bothlike all about your career, I'm
like, Well, I don't want tonavigate that. And we haven't
(51:23):
taught people how to navigatethat holistically. Right?
Because people think it's got tobe one or the other, either, I'm
going to be super clear, or I'mgoing to take care of my family.
Exactly, absolutely. And
Keisha Blair (51:34):
especially in the face of a setback. And you
haven't taught people that andit's so funny, when the first
edition of the book came out,Arianna Huffington quote, quoted
a line from the book on hersocial media than and I
mentioned the education system,not having prepared me, I don't
have the exact quote from thebook I wish I did right now. But
basically, the education systemteaches linearity. It doesn't
(51:58):
teach the art of recovery fromdisruption. And you're
absolutely right, it doesn't,we're not exactly taught how to
balance all of these competingpriorities. And we're taught
one, one thing, just this linearapproach. So when you know, life
doesn't work that way, then itbecomes confusion. And there is
(52:19):
no real framework that helps usto get through this. So that was
kind of my thinking, as well,especially as an economist about
Well, I wanted to talk aboutgrief. But I wanted to do it in
a way to help others recover ina systematic way with a
framework that was ready forthem, because I felt like when I
(52:39):
went through it, there was none.
There were tons of grief booksabout grief stages of grief,
what to do, you know, grief inyour 60s 70s 80s, there was
nothing there for me at 3131just had, you know, a baby eight
weeks prior to get back, youknow, a life and to rebuild, and
to think about how to do thisholistically. So that's the
(53:04):
framework that, you know, Itried to provide to others and,
and I'm glad like every time wehave, you know, I get the
opportunity to have thisconversation, it becomes a
blessing to me, because I knowit's so needed for people out
there.
Brian Smith (53:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's 100% needed. And you'rejust such a great example of
resilience and what we can do,and how, you know, I talked to
so many people who they gothrough a tragedy, and they say
what my life is over, you know.
And in a sense, one part of usdoes discontinue and become a
(53:45):
different person. I'd imagineyou would probably say after you
came back from that sabbatical,you're you know, and way a
different person you were whenyou when you left.
Keisha Blair (53:54):
Absolutely, absolutely. I still remember the
day, you know, sitting in frontof my boss one day, soon after
my husband died. And I rememberhim looking into my eyes and
saying, we want the old Keshaback. We want the old Kesha back
because I was, you know, youknow, killing all these targets
at work and achieving thesemilestones. And when he said
(54:15):
that to me, I was like, Well, Idon't think the old Keisha is
coming back, you're going to geta different Keisha, a new
version, but it's not going tobe the old Keisha.
Brian Smith (54:26):
I am so I just got goosebumps, you said, I'm so
glad that you said that. Becausepeople are like, people around
us just like I want to get Iwant you to go back to who you
are. And my clients will come tome and say, Well, I want Am I
ever going to be the person thatI was? And I'm like, I sure hope
not. I am. I'm a very differentperson than I was, you know,
(54:46):
eight years ago. It'll be eightyears for me in exactly a month
or month in two days. So I'm aI'm a different person, but
that's that's a good thing.
That's not a that's not a badthing. Yeah, we are as human As
we we want to avoid change, wewant to avoid disruption, that's
natural. But the reality is wecan't we change, things change
(55:08):
around us. Disruptions happen,as you said, at least twice
every twice a decade. So we haveto accept that way to figure out
okay, what do I do with this?
What? How do I take this? Andhow do I make it into something?
You know, beneficial?
Keisha Blair (55:27):
Absolutely. And I think it's a lesson for those
around us as well. So not justin the workplace or
organizations, it's a lesson forfriends around who are
witnessing this transformation.
You know, and how do you supportthat? And how do you, you know,
enable that, because that's thatwanting the old Kesha back?
Wanting the old Brian back isn'tgoing to happen, you're going to
(55:49):
get a new and improved version.
But how do we, you know, supportthat this new journey? That's
this new phase, this new seasonof life? Yeah.
Brian Smith (56:02):
Well, after, after 14 years after your, your
husband's passing, and and thisis a this is a delicate
question, but how do you feel?
Do you feel like things likethis in life are planned, you
know, by like, some sort of soulplanning or something? Are? What
are your What are your feelingsabout about that event now?
Keisha Blair (56:22):
Yeah, so yeah, it's unbelievable. Because going
through the tragedy, I oftenwondered, you know, was this
planned? Was this a part of whatwas supposed to happen to me?
And I do think so. I am also aspiritual person. So I believe
(56:44):
that our lives, you know, areordered somewhat, I do believe
that it was to be a part of myjourney. There is no way you
know that, with how my life hasturned out that I could say
otherwise. It has just been tooobvious to me personally, with
(57:09):
my story in my life, that thiswas supposed to happen. And it
was to be used, as, you know, alesson and for purpose, and to
help humanity forward. And whenI look at the unique skills and
experiences of my life, not justthe personal part, but my
(57:31):
background, my training, myskills, my personal journey,
it's obvious to me that thathappened for a reason. And that,
yes, it was a part of thatjourney. You know, I remarried
afterwards, and I did have adaughter and and my life looks
(57:52):
very different now. Butabsolutely, absolutely. I do
believe that this was part of mydestiny, the work I'm doing now
was ordered, and that I am justbasically doing what was meant
for my life. And it's a soulcalling and I feeling I feel it
very deeply. And I feel that,you know, this message that I'm
(58:16):
bringing forth, has beenordered. And so you know, it
gives me great relief. And itmakes me feel very whole and
very comforted. That somethingso positive can come out of this
great tragedy. And if I can usethis to help others, then my
(58:40):
life wouldn't be in vain. Andthat might my children losing
their father at any age wherethey'll never remember his voice
ever again, that won't be invain. And sometimes most times I
pray that I'm able to do this ina way to truly touch the lives
(59:00):
of others That's my prayer rightnow that I'm doing it in a way
that honors that so absolutely.
Brian Smith (59:08):
I suspected that would be your answer just from
the the feeling I get from you.
You're such an inspiration andyour and your and your story and
I believe in I believe thatbelieving we have a purpose
helps us achieve more you know,I can't imagine living a life
where I think everything is justrandom that this tragedy but
(59:30):
fulfill me and nothing good willever come of it I just it
doesn't work for me I know forsome people choose to believe
that way. But the people that Imaybe a people are attracted or
drawn into my life, but likesomeone like yourself, I'm like,
Yeah, this has got to beordered. This has got to be, you
know, planned, and I don't seethe impact that you're making.
(59:54):
It's so interesting, and I saythis for the better people that
are listening, because I knowwhen you're six months and a
year in two years in threeyears, and this may sound crazy
to you, but once you I want togive an example, somebody that's
14 years into this and can see,see the path now behind them and
(01:00:16):
say, Wow, that it made somesense.
Keisha Blair (01:00:21):
Absolutely. And as you said, Brandon, you know, it
gives great comfort and relief,that, you know, there can be
that, that huge positive benefitand that impact on others. And
absolutely, you know, I could gointo detail about so many things
(01:00:45):
that have happened, that have,you know, that are obvious of
yours that, you know, this isthis was meant to be and and
that, yeah, we're making animpact and doing the work. And
I, you know, it's great the workthat you're doing to and the
lives that you're touching inthis space. So absolutely.
Brian Smith (01:01:07):
It's interesting, you talked about the detail,
because people asked me like howI got to be where I am like,
that would take a very long timebecause the synchronicities
start to happen, you know, doorsstart to open, you meet certain
people, certain things happen inyour life. And again, they just,
they're not random. They're notcoincidences, like, you know, if
you're, you kind of get on yourpath things doesn't mean you
(01:01:29):
don't have setbacks doesn't meanyou'll have difficulties, but
things do seem to go easier whenyou're going in flow.
Keisha Blair (01:01:35):
Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely. And you're right,certain people come into your
life, you make theseconnections, and and it just, it
just happens. And it gives youthis greater awareness that
absolutely, this is the workthat you need to be doing at
this moment in time. Soabsolutely,
Brian Smith (01:01:56):
yeah. Okay. So tell people where they can reach you
remind them about your book,your programs, all that stuff.
Keisha Blair (01:02:04):
Yeah, so the book is available everywhere online
and in bookstores. It's onAmazon. It's in Barnes and Noble
target. It's in bookstores allacross the globe, and my website
is Keisha blur.com. The coursesare available on the Institute
on holistic wealth.com I'm onsocial media, to Keisha
(01:02:25):
overlayer on Instagram andTwitter and I'm on Facebook at
Keisha Blair author, you cancheck out the holistic wealth
podcast tune in to hear aboutother people's lives and how
they live this holisticallywealthy lifestyle. And yeah, you
know, connect. I love hearingfrom readers. So that would be
(01:02:47):
amazing hearing from peoplewho've tuned in or who've read
the book.
Brian Smith (01:02:51):
But it's it's been an honor and a pleasure to have
you here today. Thank you somuch for doing this.
Keisha Blair (01:02:57):
Thank you for having me, Brian. This has been
amazing. Thanks for having me onthe show.
Brian Smith (01:03:01):
All right. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Keisha Blair (01:03:03):
Thank you. You too.
Close your eyes and imagine
what are the things in life thatcauses the greatest pain, the
things that bring us grief, orchallenges, challenges designed
to help us grow to ultimatelybecome what we were always meant
to be. We feel like we've beenburied. But what if, like a seed
(00:21):
we've been planted and havingbeen planted would grow to
become a mighty tree. Now, openyour eyes, open your eyes to
this way of viewing life. Comewith me as we explore your true,
infinite, eternal nature. Thisis grief to growth. And I am
your host, Brian Smith. Allright, everybody. Welcome back
(00:48):
to grief to grow. today. I'mhonored to have a very special
guest with us. She's an awardwinning international best
selling author. She's aneconomist. She's a Harvard
trained policy expert has beenrecognized by world leaders for
her groundbreaking work. Hername is Keisha Blair. She's the
author of the phenomenal book,holistic wealth expanded and
updated 36 life lessons help yourecover from disruption, find
(01:10):
your life purpose and achievefinancial freedom. This
transformative book has beenlauded by CNN senior political
analyst analyst Kirsten power asan essential guide to the art of
recovering from disruption. Andby iconic actress Kelly
Rutherford, who also wrote theforeword she describes it as
game changing. Keisha is oftenreferred to as the mother of
holistic wealth. She's also thefounder of the Institute on
(01:33):
holistic wealth and the drivingforce behind the holistic wealth
movement. her innovativeapproach to wealth that extends
beyond the financial into thepersonal and professional realms
of life has shifted paradigmsand challenged conventional
wisdom. Her expertise is Centeras a set, as seen here, I should
say as part of the PrimeMinister's supporting delegation
to the World Economic Forum inDavos, Switzerland, and East
(01:55):
Asia Summit in Singapore. Aprofound insight and wisdom of
featured in The New York Timesreal simple magazine, Forbes,
the Harvard Harvard BusinessReview, Essence magazine and
many others. Her viral articlemy husband died at age 34. Here
are 40 life lessons I learnedfrom it deeply touched more than
50 million people around theworld and that exhibits a
(02:18):
powerful impact of her messages.
Her books and her wisdom havealso garnered recognition from
people like Maria Shriver, theeditor is Oprah Daily Dot Oprah
daily.com That produces a JadaPinkett Smith read table talk,
the lower coach show theproducers of Mel Robbins show,
as well as Yahoo Finance is theroute final round. So I'm really
honored that Keisha has chosento be with me today. And with
(02:39):
that, I want to welcome KeishaBlair to Creek to growth.
Keisha Blair (02:45):
Thank you so much, Brian. It's great to be here.
And thank you for that wonderfulintroduction. Well, you're quite
an impressive person, Iappreciate you taking the time
to sit down with me today. I'mI'm really looking forward to
talking to you about yourfinancial work, but also what
led to what you're doing. Sofirst of all, I want to say I'm
really sorry about what happenedto your husband, that's
(03:07):
something that you and I shareis losing someone very close at
an early age. But how did thataffect you your life? And did
that? Is that what led to thework that you're doing? Yeah,
no, absolutely. It had a hugeimpact on the person I am today.
And it's inspired this wholeholistic wealth journey and the
movement. You know, he passedaway pretty young he died from a
(03:29):
disease that is so rare, andmost doctors will never see it
in their lifetime and in aliving person. Only in
textbooks, so it's it's so rarethat one in 1 million people get
it each year. And it you know,it became a medical mystery when
he died quite suddenly. It tookone year for the autopsy
(03:50):
results. And it was just aharrowing process. I remember
the night he died. I walked outof the hospital room and you
mentioned that viral article,Brian, I walked out of the
hospital room that night with awhite plastic bag with his
belongings, some of the mostprecious things.
You know, like his wedding ring.
And I remember thinking, youknow, those aren't the things
(04:15):
that last, you know, what lastis our legacy, the way we treat
others, the more intangiblethings in life and as a trained
economist, who, you know, workedon measuring GDP growth and
measuring economic growth, itbecame very clear to me at that
point, I'll never forget, youknow, holding that white plastic
(04:38):
by and thinking there has to bemore there is more to this. And
so, you know, as I explained inthe book, I you know, I went on
a soul searching journey. Andthat inspired this holistic
wealth framework that I came todevelop while on sabbatical
while on leave. But absolutelylike this whole it's perience
with grief and having toovercome that kind of tragedy
(05:01):
has absolutely inspired who I amand the journey and the whole
holistic wealth movement andwhy, you know, I came up and
coined the term holistic wealth.
Because during the midst oftragedy, it becomes clear,
right. And I know, you know, inthe midst of tragedy becomes
clear that, you know, it's it'show we impact others, it's the
(05:22):
legacy we leave. And it's, it'sthe intangibles, and it's about
honoring those who we love inour lives. So that's basically
the inspiration behind thismovement.
Brian Smith (05:33):
And how long ago was your husband passed away?
Keisha Blair (05:36):
Quite a while. So it's been, what, 14 years to be
exact. And, you know, quite alot has happened since then. So
it's, it's taken that long, andI've been working on you know,
writing since then, and workingon everything the nuts and bolts
of so this hasn't been overnightby any means. This has been a
(06:00):
long process of slugging throughgrief and coming up with this
framework and, and really tryingto educate others and, you know,
inspire other people goingthrough this type of a setback
that there is hope. So it's,it's, it's it has been a while.
And it's by no means I know,people hear my story. Sometimes
(06:21):
I think, Wow, this is overnight.
Like how did you do this?
overnight? It has been, it'sbeen a long journey.
Brian Smith (06:27):
Yeah. People do want to assign like, oh, look,
it's everything was fine, right.
But so I like to set that thatexpectation for people that we
can recover, and we can dobetter. But also, a lot of
times, we can be very impatientwith ourselves, and we'll look
at someone like yourself andsay, I should be doing what
she's doing.
Keisha Blair (06:45):
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And even when I, you
know, when it happened, whentragedy struck, it took me a
while to even think about, okay,what do I do next. And then I
decided to take that one year,you know, my things in a 40 foot
container, rented my house, soldeverything else, you know, took
(07:07):
my babies, and went on that soulsearching mission. And that was
a whole process in itself, interms of the decision to do that
the mechanics of how I did whatI had to put in place to get
there. And that year, that wastransformative for me. So
absolutely, I think we need tobe patient with ourselves, give
(07:29):
the process time, there is noone size fits all process in
terms of how we grieve, in termsof, you know, what we should be
doing, when I often, you know,say to people that you know,
grief, grief is like mushrooms,it just pops up. And you know,
those, you know, things thathappen to you along the way,
make it fertile for that griefto grow. And sometimes, you're
(07:53):
fine. And sometimes you're not.
So absolutely giving your timeto space, giving yourself the
space and the time to grieve,and to figure out next steps is
absolutely important.
Brian Smith (08:03):
So I assume you were doing the economic work
before your husband passed. Isthat Is that correct? Yes,
that's correct. So and then youtook some time to your to kind
of reset, and then came back?
How did it feel when you cameback into that work after after
that sabbatical?
Keisha Blair (08:21):
Ah, it felt different. Because I was not the
same person who was there beforein terms of my mindset, my core
values, I was transformed. And Iyou know, this impacted my work
in a positive way. But also, itmade me realize certain truths.
You know, like I mentioned inthe book, like I was on a path
(08:43):
to being, you know, one of thefew leaders chosen to leave the
organization going forward. Andeven though I still went on that
path, I realized that there werecertain values that were more
important to me, this work andmy life purpose and my mission,
(09:03):
in terms of connecting withpeople who were grieving and
other widows and, you know,children with mentorship, and
youth. Those are all soimportant. So that made a big
impact in terms of, you know,how my career turned out, and
the decisions that I've madeafterwards, even with writing
(09:23):
the book, and even with updatingthe book during COVID-19. So
it's unbelievable, once thishappens, and you realize that
your life purpose is so muchgreater and so much bigger than
that. I mean, some careerhighlights that you included,
when you introduced me, Brian,we're after that sabbatical.
(09:44):
Parts of the Prime Minister'sdelegation and supporting
delegation that was after thatsabbatical, but still, I really
feel like even it influenced mywork. The type of advice I was
able to give and leading intothis phase of my life If that
I'm in now with the Institute onholistic wealth coaching women
on different forms of trauma,including money, trauma,
(10:07):
coaching women on grief, it'sinfluenced that tremendously,
and even the holistic wealthpodcast. So I think, you know,
if people are in a point wherethey're thinking about
transitioning, especially afteryou've been through a tragedy
know that it doesn't have to bein a vacuum, like all of your
experiences can be used toinfluence to make the impact
(10:31):
that you want to make, itdoesn't have to be one or the
other, you can absolutely makethe same impact within your job
outside of your job, you know,or vice versa, like it really is
that taking that holisticperspective of what you want
your life to look like, and howyou want to channel that grief.
You know, just like what you'vedone brand with your experience.
(10:54):
So that's basically how itturned out in my own life. But
it's, as you said, it's aprocess. And it takes time. And
it's unbelievable. That we canall get there, you know, in our
own unique way. Because we eachhave stories that are so
(11:14):
important to tell and thatDurrell needs. So it's, it's
really important. Yeah, and
Brian Smith (11:19):
I did you mentioned so much there that when I wanted
to dive into, you know, becausethere there's I know, a lot of
times when things like thishappen, we feel like okay, my
life is just over and I can'timagine how difficult it must
have been for you. You're You're34 As a very young age to pass
away. You had a couple of youngchildren, I think at the time.
(11:42):
How'd that feel? I mean, how didhow did? How did you feel at
that time?
Keisha Blair (11:48):
Yeah, so he was 34 as 31, I had just given birth to
my second child, eight weeksprior. And I had a near death
experience with my first child,which was three years before my
husband died. So you can imaginewhen it happened to me, I was It
was horrific with with thesecond pregnancy. That was also
(12:13):
difficult. And you know, as Iwrote in the book, like I was
not healed physically, myself. Ihad undergone a traumatic
pregnancy, like many blackwomen. Because we're the first
one I'm a maternal near misssurvivor. So for myself
personally, in terms of what Iwas going through physically,
(12:34):
that was hurting in itself, andthen to have your husband
suddenly pass away, and nothaving the answers not know why,
like to us he was a healthy 34year old running marathons at
the peak of his life, a greatdad, a great husband. And it was
(12:55):
just a huge, huge loss. It was ashock to my system, I remember
losing 40 pounds in like twoweeks, I couldn't eat. My stress
levels were so high, I couldn'tbreastfeed. Luckily, my friends
came over in two times in thenight to wake up to feed, you
know, because feed Alex becausehe was eight weeks old at that
(13:17):
time. So as you can imagine, mywhole life was turned upside
down. And that's why I've statedin the book, that when you're
going through a period of grief,and tragedy, your relationships
around your key. Thoserelationships can really provide
that buffering that you need to,you know, go through that
(13:39):
period. And, you know, it'sunbelievable, Brian, that when
that viral article you mentionedwent viral that was after my
sabbatical. And I came back, youknow, and they said to me, you
have to write a money book, anagent said, You should write
that booking you should write amoney book. And I said, no,
like, I cannot just write amoney book. There's so much more
(14:02):
to this story to this, you know,than money. And it's
unbelievable that all those corefacets of holistic wealth, were
what got me through that grief.
It was not only therelationships, but it was you
know, taking the time to dealwith my mental and emotional
health. It was trying to get meon a path to eating well again
(14:22):
into nourishing my body. It wasspiritual self renewal everyday
meditating, praying, thinkingabout and reflecting upon my
life and where I wanted it togo. And you know, what was the
story and what was the universetrying to tell me here? It was
those various facets of holisticwealth that kept me afloat. And
(14:44):
that's what I think is the keyin terms of building resilience
and having that core, that coreset of beliefs that can guide
you through any setbackregardless of what the setback
is. But that's why I think, youknow, how we look at our lives
and thinking about holisticwealth and thinking about living
(15:05):
holistically wealthy lives wherewe're, you know, not focused
just on one area of our life.
But we're focused on all thesedifferent facets also helps us
to build resilience, resilience.
And, you know, it gives us thatstrength to weather setbacks.
Brian Smith (15:24):
Yeah. You mentioned you had a near death experience
with your with your first child,the how did that impact your
view on life?
Keisha Blair (15:33):
Yeah, I know, that is it's become a part of my
mission in terms of, you know,giving a platform to others,
like myself, maternal near misssurvivors, and those who have,
are working in the field ordoing advocacy advocacy
organizations. And, you know,it's, it's, it's tremendous, the
(15:57):
barriers that black women face,it's tremendous in terms of our
healthcare, what we go through.
And so for me, it's basicallybeen a part of my mission, it's
influenced this holistic worldframework, because as I went
through that near deathexperience, and I wasn't the
only one who's whose life was atrisk. My baby's life was at
(16:18):
risk. So both of us nearly died,he had the umbilical cord was
wrapped around his neck. And sohis heartbeat went to almost
nothing like it. So, you know,health. And access to proper
care is a big part of thenarrative. It's a big part of
holistic wealth, especially forcertain communities for the
(16:40):
black community. And we've seenwith COVID, in terms of what,
you know, what we've beenthrough, the black community has
had the biggest losses duringCOVID-19. And if you look at the
impacts afterwards, it's it'songoing in terms of the economic
and social impacts in terms ofour health. And so it's been a
(17:01):
huge part in terms of thissocial justice piece and this
healthcare piece of you know, ofthat holistic love framework. So
that's been a big part of mywork, as well as just, you know,
getting people more aware.
Brian Smith (17:17):
Yeah,
Keisha Blair (17:18):
I don't think causes.
Brian Smith (17:19):
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people are aware of the
health issues that black womenhave health issues to issues at
the medical community, and howthey have more often black women
die in childbirth, for example.
And it's not just economic,it's, it's, it's across all
economic stress. So is that truein Canada as well? I know, it's
definitely true in the US,
Keisha Blair (17:40):
it absolutely is true of Canada, as well. And you
know, in terms of the causes theracism, the, you know, sexism,
like, there's, there's a lot tounpack in terms of what it's
very similar in Canada, thecontributing factors for black
woman are pretty much the same.
I mean, our health care systemis universal care. So it's a bit
different in terms of thestructure of the health care
(18:04):
system here. But the underlyingcauses of why, you know, we
don't get the standard of careare still the same. They're
still absolutely the same. So.
Brian Smith (18:16):
And that's why
Keisha Blair (18:21):
even with a health system that's structured
differently. It's similaroutcomes.
Brian Smith (18:25):
Yeah. And that's, I think, the most shocking thing.
So I think a lot of times wethink the black healthcare
outcomes are because of economicissues. And but even when you
even when you allow for that,it's the way doctors treat
women, and the way doctors treatblack women in particular, that
leads to these negativeoutcomes. So I'm glad that
you're bringing that forward.
And I think it's reallyimportant for people to
(18:46):
understand.
Keisha Blair (18:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
Brian Smith (18:51):
So you when you came back from your sabbatical,
and you mentioned core values,which is another thing I really
want to talk about, because Ithink it's really important,
that we understand what our corevalues are. Do you feel like
your core values changed afteryour husband's passing? Or did
they just become more important,or they become more prominent?
How would you describe that?
Keisha Blair (19:12):
Yeah, I think core values. It's interesting that
you asked that question, becauseI think from for me, personally,
most of my core values hadremained the same. I think what
shifted with the tragedy was,okay, are they know, are they in
alignment with the path that I'mon? You know, and will I be able
(19:36):
to stick with the path that I'mon wholesale and retail and
still make the impact that Iwant to make, do the type of
work that I want to do? So therewas a conflict? There was a
conflict and I think it's theconflict with the values that
causes the problem for mostpeople. Because when we look at
(19:56):
what we spend our time doing forThe majority of our work day or
for the majority of our days,it's in conflict with what we
want to be doing and what wewant to be achieving. So for
instance, family was always acore value for me as a mom. But
then how do I structure my dayto spend more time with family?
How do I structure my day toimpact my family in the way that
(20:20):
I want to and build a type ofcollective mission because I
talk about building a mission,as well as part of holistic
wealth? So I think with manypeople, I think the values are
often in conflict with what wewant to get done. And so it's
looking at where that conflictis why? Or what are we spending
our time on, like doing thatinventory? And then figuring out
(20:44):
like, are, you know, are therethings that are, you know, not
in alignment, like, I oftentalked about, you know, this
values pyramid that we can useto, you know, fish out our top
five values? What are your topfive values in that pyramid, and
what's out of alignment? BecauseI think that's a way of
prioritizing what we should bespending our days on and
(21:07):
spending our time. So it'simportant to look at not only
values writ large, but what arethe top five values? And is it
in alignment with how I'mspending my time, which is,
which is great, I think, for me,it was just kind of rejigging my
life, so that it became moreholistic. So, you know, if I
(21:29):
needed to build out thisframework, and impact the
community in the way I wantedto, what did I do? What do I
need to do? And so all of thatwork was basically, you know,
given to me by readers, when thefirst edition of the book came
out, readers came forward. Andthey were like, well, we want to
be certified holistic wealthconsultants, we want to go out
(21:50):
in our communities and impactother women and teens. And some
of them are now doing voluntarywork with the YWCA of Canada,
they're doing work. And I mean,they're certified holistic
wealth consultants all over theglobe, in their communities
doing work. But most of themcame forward to me saying, we
want to be certified to do thiswork. How can we impact our
(22:11):
community that way, because I,you know, we see where we can
use this in our variouscommunities. So basically, it
was spending that time that, youknow, I needed to craft these
different programs so that womencould go out there and impact
their communities separate andapart from me in a way where
(22:31):
they were empowered with thismessage and the tools and the
framework to go out there and doit in a systematic way that was
in alignment with the work thatI had done. So that's basically
how the message has bred, it hasbeen really organic routes that
bottom up with readers justsaying to me, you know, this is
(22:51):
what we want to do, let's seehow we can work together to do
it. And I find that once, youknow, you become more aligned
with your purpose, and once youbecome more aligned with those
values, and you start puttingthem into action, then it
becomes really easy for that totake shape. And for that work to
(23:12):
take on a new, you know, meaningand, you know, start impacting
in a way that you want thatimpact to take place.
Brian Smith (23:21):
Yeah, I think that yeah, thanks for the answer. I
think that's a that's a greatanswer. And I kind of think the
core values tend to not change.
We do change as people we grow.
But I think core values prettymuch stayed the same. But I
think what happens when thesetragedies happen to us, it
causes us to reset, we examinethings, and we accept in our
(23:43):
Western society, living out ofalignment with our core values,
we just think that's just whatwe do. We don't we don't even
need to examine our value. Idon't even know what my values
are. I just know I go to thisjob every day. And I know that I
hate it. And I can't wait tillthe weekend. I can't wait to go
on vacation. I can't wait toretire. But we don't really
question like, What can I dodifferent and when your life is
(24:04):
just ripped apart? Everything'sup in the air, everything's up
for grabs. You say, Oh, I coulddo anything I want. What am I
what do I want to do?
Keisha Blair (24:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
And when you know, as you said,you know, Brian, just know when
your life's ripped apart whenmine was, I started thinking,
Well, no, I'm a single mom. Howdo I spend more time with my
kids like that was that becamemore need because not only was
my oldest son Noah grieving theloss of his dad, but he had one
(24:34):
parent left. And so where as Iwould be able to spend more time
at work before he died doing thethings that I you know, in terms
of my career path, I had to setthat aside and now focus on
them. And that was no what wasjust you know, became a core
need. Yeah, so that was it withwith everything and then with me
(24:57):
personally Only with taking thattime that I needed. So
absolutely, you're absolutelyright. In the quarterback,
they're always there. But youknow, it often takes a reset.
That's required for you to say,Well, yeah, you know, I have to
flip this, this switch. Now thisis absolutely necessary.
Brian Smith (25:21):
So during that time that you took off and
sabbatical, which I think is sowise, if you're able to do it,
that's awesome. Did you thinklike, about not going back? Did
you think about doing somethingcompletely different? How did
you realize that you could dowhat you were doing and
alignment to your values?
Keisha Blair (25:39):
Yeah. So there were thoughts, there were
different thoughts going throughmy mind? At one point, yes. I
thought, well, maybe I shouldnot go back. Maybe I should just
go full time into my, you know,into into writing I had started
writing on sabbatical starteddoing different work on
sabbatical as a you know, notwork work, but exploring
(26:01):
different passions. And, and,you know, different people
started saying, well, you shouldexplore those passions full
time, like, don't bother goingback to work. Yeah, you're
obviously talented and gifted inthis type of space. So just just
focus on this. But at the time,I made that cost benefit
(26:22):
analysis. And I'm, you know, ifanybody's listening in and are
thinking, What should I do, I'mat this stage, I'm at this
critical juncture do that costbenefit analysis. And this is
where the finance comes in, aswell. And this is where
everything comes in, in terms ofyour family or age, do you have
a young family at the time Idid, I was 31, I was still very
(26:43):
young. And I thought, You knowwhat, like, I still had certain
career goals that I wanted toachieve, which I did. I've
always wanted, for instance, to,you know, to do certain work as
an economist, and, you know,going back to work, gave me that
(27:03):
opportunity, because I landed ina spot where I started doing
this type of work, and beingable to, you know, to
participate, you know, insupporting delegations and that
type of thing. And, of course,that is invaluable. And that
became an invaluable part of mystory. And it gave me certain
(27:25):
skills, which were alsoinvaluable. And I'll never, ever
forget that. So I think, youknow, if, if people are
listening in and are thinking,Well, you know, I'm at this
point, I'm at this criticaljuncture right now, we'll do
that cost benefit, you know,what you need to achieve, you
know, what your financial goalsare? Are you there yet? How do
(27:46):
you want to retire? How doesyour retirement look like, and I
often tell people, you know,what, this is what we do at the
Institute, we help people withtheir holistic wealth
portfolios. And if you are at aparticular spot, we'll look at
all your goals holistically. Andthink, think about where you are
right now, in this moment, andwhat you want to achieve. And
(28:06):
that's what I did. And Ifigured, you know, what, I still
have some career goals that Iwant to achieve. But yet still,
I know that I have this greaterpurpose now, which will
eventually take over, which willeventually be the emphasis and
focus on my life. And, andthat's how I did it. So it was a
(28:26):
slow transition. And I used myexperience to gain the skills
that I needed, because I knew Istill needed to fine tune some
skills. And you I wasn't quitethere yet. I was still young,
still had young babies. And Ineeded to do more. And, you
know, that was invaluable. So ifsomebody's thinking of doing
(28:48):
that listening in, then justthink about where you are right
now, what your goals are, whatdo you want your life to look
like?
Brian Smith (28:56):
Yeah, I just love the way you said that. And the
way you did that, it's like,instead of just throwing
everything away and startingover I'm you have this
incredible skill set that youcould use, and you say, you say,
Okay, here's my, here's myvalues. Here's my holistic
goals. Here's a skill set Ihave, how can I take this skill
(29:17):
skill set, and meld these twotogether? You don't have to
throw everything away. And Iknow people are like, I just I
want to do something meaningful.
So I'm going to quit my job andgo do something else. It's like,
yeah, yeah, that might not bepractical.
Keisha Blair (29:31):
Exactly, exactly.
And it's one of the things tothat with having holistically
wealthy workplaces on the otherside of it, for organizations to
actually think about how theycan accommodate employees who've
had these transformativeexperiences, and want to make an
impact in their communities.
Well, how can we help youachieve your purpose? How can we
(29:54):
keep you interested and focusedat work? Yes, but with this
newfound You know, experiencethat you've had and these new
skills that you've picked up andthis new impact that you want to
make? How can we help you fosterthat? And for me, there was a
bit of that at work as well,when the first edition of the
book came out. And I got thattremendous support. That was
(30:17):
tremendous. And so, absolutely,it's not just about throwing
everything away. It's aboutthinking about how I can achieve
this purpose in the mostpractical, efficient way
possible. And yes, maybe earlyretirement is part of what you
know, my long term goal is, buthow do I transition into it? And
how do I make it workfinancially, and otherwise, in a
(30:40):
more holistic way, so that I'mnot, you know, just, as you
said, just taking these hugerisks, and then not knowing how
to deal with a setback if asetback arises?
Brian Smith (30:51):
Well, we've talked a lot about holistic health,
let's, let's define it, I'mexcited to announce I have a
great new resource. It's calledgems, four steps to move from
grief to joy. And what it is,it's four things that I've found
that I do on a daily basis, tohelp me to navigate my grief.
And I'm offering it to you freeof charge, it's a free download,
(31:11):
just go to my website, www dotgrief to growth.com/gems G m s,
and grab it there for free, Ihope you enjoy it, to find a
Keisha Blair (31:22):
holistic wealth is it's a framework that, you know,
I developed, and it basicallyit's this new paradigm of how we
define wealth. So traditionally,we defined wealth as, you know,
net worth, and we looked atwealth in terms of our assets,
(31:43):
and you know, more physicalmaterial possessions. With
holistic wealth, we're alsolooking at not just that,
because that plays a part. Andit's mostly in terms of
financial independence, morethan just physical assets. But
also mental health, or spiritualhealth, or emotional well being,
(32:05):
or physical health, and alsohaving a life purpose and
meaning, and or relationships.
So in the book, I go througheach chapter, and each chapter
builds on especially in the newversion, a new edition of
holistic wealth, each chapterbuilds on the other until we get
to the part where we build aholistic wealth portfolio. And
you can see the key, you know,facets of holistic wealth,
(32:29):
they're the key pillars. Andwhat I'm saying here is they're
all interdependent. You know, weeverybody knows that, quote,
There is no wealth withouthealth. And that's so true. And
it's also more than that. It'salso all these key pillars that
provide this buffering that weneed, in times of setback that
help us become more resilientand able to overcome these
(32:53):
setbacks. So it also buildsresilience, and helps us
overcome, you know, thesetragedies and, and hurricanes
and storms that happen, youknow, over a lifetime.
Brian Smith (33:10):
Yeah, absolutely. I love the fact that you're,
you're integrating this alltogether, it reminds me, I
interviewed recently, a coupleof people who are transpersonal,
psychotherapy psychotherapist,which is something I really
hadn't heard about before. Butthey're, they're looking at the
whole person and looking atspiritual, emotional, you know,
as well as mental health. And inthis case, when you talk about
(33:32):
wealth, it includes everythingin our life and includes, you
know, resilience, as you'vetalked about a lot. So when
people, when people do discoverthis, are they, the people that
you work with? Are they oftencoming out of grief is that what
leads them to you or arehealthy, not healthy, but people
who are relatively happy to theycome to you as well.
Keisha Blair (33:53):
So the women, the people who come forward are
people who are often helpingother people in a professional
capacity. And they've read thebook, and they've realized, oh,
my gosh, I don't even have halfthe tools I need to really help
in the way I want to help. Andit's unbelievable, because let's
see, there are some that arefinancial analysts, who are
(34:18):
working with people out therewho have suffered various
setbacks, and they've read thebook. And they've realized that
their training, and theirexperience hasn't really
equipped them to really adviseon certain things, and they've
read the book, and they're like,oh, my gosh, like, you know, we
need to be certified. We need togo deeper into the material so
(34:39):
we can help others with thesekinds of setbacks and give
better advice. So we've hadpeople from every industry and
every walk of life, but the keything here is that they've all
felt ill equipped, you know, toreally help people in the way
that they really want to help.
And so we've been building onthat to help them to help people
(35:00):
who've been through moneytrauma, because 80% of the
population has some money fromand especially if you've been
through grief of any kind, anyloss of any kind, you have so
many trauma. And so helping themto help other people who've gone
through this kind of trauma hasbeen very fulfilling, because
it's just so widespread. Andit's not talked about that much.
(35:24):
Even when we speak about grief,we don't often speak about the
money trauma part of it. Wedon't speak about the fallout in
terms of how that you know howthat experience makes me feel
about money in my personalfinances now, but it needs to be
spoken about, because I know Iwent through it. And I know so
(35:44):
many people are going throughit. And even as a trained
economist, I can't imagine if Ididn't have the training I had,
how I would, you know, come outof this without the kind of
support and help needed. Sothat's one way that I've melded
my experience in my background,having also gone through grief
and loss to try to help others.
Brian Smith (36:08):
Yeah, tell me about the money trauma. What do you
mean by that?
Keisha Blair (36:11):
Yep. So, you know, it's unbelievable, as I said,
80% of the population almost 80%has some kind of money, trauma.
And money. Trauma is basicallyjust trauma that arises from
some sort of financialsituation. Most people though,
have you experienced that evenfrom childhood and have
(36:33):
experienced, you know, whetherit's, you know, parents arguing
about money, or growing up inpoverty and growing up in
scarcity. And even if you grewup in abundance, there can be
money trauma, it just arisesbecause of a wide, it could be
intergenerational, it could bethe narratives you've heard
about money, money is evil, itcould be any, you know,
(36:54):
situation, and it can besomething catastrophic, like a
divorce, or, you know, yourspouse passing away, or a child
passing away, that causes somesort of financial implications.
And even if you have things inplace, like a life insurance
policy, or even if you, you arein a state of abundance, and it
(37:15):
happens, just the grief andthose feelings can also cause
money trauma, because of, youknow, the feelings that arise in
grief and the fact that yourlife has been upended. So we've
been trying to do some workaround that to educate people
who've been through grief,people who've had a loss of any
kind, it could be chronicillness, it could be loss of a
(37:37):
job, it could be loss of aspouse could be loss of a child
loss of a parent, any kind ofsetback like that can cause some
form of money, trauma. And, youknow, being self aware, and
recognizing those feelings, interms of your finances is one,
one way that you can recognize,hey, something's not right here,
(37:58):
or, you know, I'mdisassociating, I don't want to
think about my finances, I don'twant to think about money, I'm
not checking my credit cards,I'm not checking my bank
statements, I'm, every time Ithink about money, it just makes
me feel nervous and anxious. AndI get butterflies and I feel
nauseous. Those are some, youknow, some quick symptoms, and
(38:19):
but being self aware, especiallyif you're going through a period
of grief, and loss of any kindis critical. Yeah,
Brian Smith (38:26):
a lot of times grief, can actually trigger or
can reignite other traumas thatwe've had. So as you were
talking, I was thinking about,you know, your relationship with
money, like when you're a child,whether you had money or didn't
have money, your parents view ofmoney, all those things, you
know, are we carrying aroundwith us, and then they get
(38:46):
these, they get activated? Whenwe go through an event. And we
might even we might be carryingthem around subconsciously, then
they just suddenly come to thesurface.
Keisha Blair (38:54):
Absolutely. I often tell students who take the
course with me, you know, plotyour disruption timeline, and
start from your earliest memory,and all those disruptions that
you've had, think about any ofthose that had financial
implications, or that impactedyour money mindset, or your
(39:15):
money situation, and reallywrite it down and write down how
much it impacted you. And Ithink if we go through our lives
like that, and you think about,you know, so many people come on
my podcast, and they're like,Oh, my parents lived through. My
grandparents lived through WorldWar Two, or my grandparents had
to flee as refugees, or myparents had to flee as refugees.
(39:36):
And it's impacted the way thatthey view money, their
relationship with money. Sothinking about all those
disruptions into adulthood cangive us an idea of really the
kind of money trauma we'redealing with, whether it's
significant or it's just, youknow, mild or but it really does
put things into perspective.
Brian Smith (39:58):
Yeah, and you mentioned some All times the
word resilience, which is a wordthat I, I always talk to my
clients about as well, becausethe time to build resilience is
when you're not not in crisisbecause we know these
disruptions as you call, as youcall them. We know they're
coming. You know, every, everyone of us goes through them in
(40:18):
some sense or another, whetherit's a health thing and divorce,
you mentioned divorce, whetherit's, you know, losing a child
or a spouse or financialsetbacks with job. So we
constantly have to be buildingour toolset, which it sounds
like what you help people do tobe ready for these disruptions?
Keisha Blair (40:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I actually train my studentslike the certified holistic
wealth consultants to plan fortwo setbacks per decade because
studies show and even when welook at different financial
crises, like I've spoken aboutin my book, and I've studied as
an economist coming up from, youknow, the big one we had in
2008. And even before and after,we see where there's been at
(40:59):
least two big ones per decade,that globally we face, even if
we don't think about them, theother ones that we're facing in
our own personal lives. So if wecan plan for two setbacks per
decade, you know, to help ushave that resilience that you
mentioned, and build a portfoliothat is resilient, then I think
(41:19):
that's that, you know, that'sthat's a good thing to do.
Because we know setbacks arecoming. It's it's just being
ready for them.
Brian Smith (41:28):
Wow, what would you say to SEPA? I have two feelings
are one is it's great to beready for them. The other is
that sounds like a lot.
Keisha Blair (41:36):
Exactly. And if you look at this COVID period, I
mean, we've been through we'vebeen through a lot in these few
years. And I mean, this isn'ttypical. I know, this isn't
typical. But even as aneconomist, and I'm thinking this
is unprecedented. This is likeany, unlike anything I've seen
in my memory in my living years.
So even if we take this smallperiod, you know, then we're
(41:56):
thinking, Yeah, we actually needto be doing far more than what
we're doing to build thatresilience to build our
portfolios to plan ahead.
Brian Smith (42:06):
Yeah, this this last three years has been crazy
on so many levels, on theeconomic level, but since we're
talking about holistic welfare,also, you know, it's affecting
all of us mentally andemotionally. And we're still
dealing dealing with supplychain issues and people, whether
I'm going to work from home orgo back to the office, and now
there's a conflict, because alot of employers want to let the
(42:29):
people come back to the officeand people are like, I'd like
working from home. Yeah, they'requitting their jobs and say, I'm
not going back.
Keisha Blair (42:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
There's unprecedenteddisruption. And as I said, in,
you know, holistic world, thisis the art of recovery from
disruption. It's how can I buildthose? You know, if we're
talking about personal finances,it's how can I build that
financial resilience piece, sothat I have everything in place
so that if my employer says,Well, you know, we're bringing
(42:57):
everybody back into the office,it's how I can put things in
place so that I can make atransition out, or I'm thinking
of staying, but I'm thinking of,you know, doing certain things,
it really lends itself to theconversation that we've been
having so far, Brian, in termsof how do we structure our lives
in a way that honors those corevalues that were able to live
(43:19):
that genuine, authentic lifethat we've always dreamed of,
and it is doable, it's just amatter of putting those pieces
in play, and especially whenyou've been through a big
setback like we've had, and onethat is life defining, then it's
even more important to reallytake the time to do it.
Brian Smith (43:42):
I know you work, you mentioned that you work, a
certification program for peoplewho are financial advisors,
which I think is awesome. I havetalked to my financial advisors
about they're really goodanyway, about that kind of
stuff, but I'm gonna let themknow about your program. But you
also work with individuals, andI guess you have like coaching
programs or programs that peoplecan go through. So tell me more
about your individual work?
Keisha Blair (44:04):
Yeah, so yeah, so the certification programs for
sure, are for people who want tobe certified to go out into
their communities to help otherspeople who may want to then earn
revenue from it in terms ofhelping clients or add to their
suite of services, and or go outinto nonprofit organizations and
(44:25):
be certified. But then,individually, I do help clients
one on one, like I take on, youknow, core set of clients on an
individual basis. And that canalso be in terms of just one on
one coaching. So I referencedthe art of recovery from
disruption. There's that piecealso where I've had, you know,
(44:49):
women come to me and be like,well, you know, I've been
through a divorce or I've beenthrough some kind of setback,
and I need some mental work. Ineed to really bolster my mind
that, and I feel like I've beendown a rabbit hole a path that
and going that I can no longergo down. I've had those
experiences where I've had tocoach people, just one on one
(45:11):
through that. So there are thedifferent key pieces of holistic
wealth that require notnecessarily certification, but
require that kind of one to onePII somebody has been through
something similar. And you know,I have the tools and other
pieces that I can readily justpull on to help. And I've done
(45:32):
that in terms of just one on oneas well with people who need
different very specific guidancein terms of building back a life
from scratch, or, you know, justmindset work or something else,
you know, that they're thinking,you know, I need help with to
kind of go on and I need someonewho has done the work themselves
(45:56):
and who's figured it out.
Brian Smith (45:58):
Yeah, I had a misunderstanding about the
certification program. So it'snot just for professionals.
Keisha Blair (46:03):
It's not, and it's not just for people in the
finance industry, people who'veparticipated, who are doctors,
who are interior designers,teacher, teachers, nurses. So
it's, it's, it's for anyone whowants to be able to dive deeper
into the work to help others.
And so that's the key, like, Iget people who come to me
(46:24):
individually, they just want todeal with their personal issues
their thing. But once you wantto help somebody else, as part
of your mission, or you want tohelp somebody else through a
suite of other courses that youmight have or other online
offerings, then that's where thecertification is very helpful in
giving you those tools, becauseit also comes with the tools,
(46:46):
you know, that you can use withclients. Yeah, it's very helpful
for that. Yeah, that's
Brian Smith (46:54):
fascinating. I'm glad. I'm glad that we clear
that up. Because I could see alot of people need people to do
the work that I do. I think it'dbe very, very beneficial for
kids. All these things. I lovethe word holistic, because all
these things tie together. So weoften think of our finances as
one thing. Our physical healthis one thing or mental health is
(47:15):
another thing, our spiritualhealth is another thing. But
they're all They're all. They'reall tied together. And for
example, if you're financiallystable, then that takes some
pressure off of all the otherthings, you know, but if you're
not, then it's like Maslow'shierarchy, right? If I don't
have enough money, it's kind ofhard for me to self actualize
when I can't pay the electricbill.
Keisha Blair (47:36):
Exactly. And it's, you know, you mentioned the
sabbatical part of it, forinstance. So I do train people
who wants to take a sabbatical,because you mentioned that,
right? Like, if you're notfinancially able to, then it's
very devastating when somethinghappens, and you can't take that
time off to really grieve or toset your life in a different
(47:58):
path. And that's what havingthose key pieces in place
enables you to do. And so otherpeople can find they're like,
Yeah, I want to take asabbatical. Can you coach me
through that? Or do you have acourse which we have for the at
the institute almost equipped tohelp with that, because I went
through that whole planningstage. And now I'm helping
(48:18):
people to do that, who need totake that time off, and do it
very productive and do it in away where they're not going to
ruin their finances, or ruintheir career. You're doing it in
a systematic planned way whereyou will come out, you know,
with some key outcomes thatwe've we've outlined some key
(48:39):
outcomes that will put you on apath to being able to you know,
actualize your dreams, as yousaid, and to live the life you
really want to live.
Brian Smith (48:47):
That is that is so profound. Because as you said,
we know we're going to have acouple of events, you know, a
decade, and we know something'sgoing to happen. So being able
to have that buffer, becausewhen you're in grief, people
that aren't certain, you know,professions are like, Okay, you
get three days, you get fivedays if it's somebody else.
(49:08):
Yeah. And so now you're tryingto deal with your career and all
that stuff. And meanwhile, youyou're dealing with brain fog,
and you're, you know, becausethe first couple of years of
grief, your brain doesn'tfunction properly. And it's just
it really prolongs I think thatrecovery period, you know, what
you were able to do to take thatsabbatical can make a
(49:29):
transformative event, whichbecause you're just it's a reset
almost, it's a we just said, youknow, looking at my values, I'm
looking at my skills, I'mcombining those things together
and you can do with that thatpressure of the day to day
haven't been on nine to fivegoing into the office.
Keisha Blair (49:45):
Absolutely. And you know what, like, Ryan, I had
to take a note I had to take nopay leave. And for the majority
of us like I did one year forthe majority of us, if not all,
let's say in a work setting, itwould have to be no paid. For
that current kind of time,right? But when you look at the
cost benefit, and yes, I didgive up, I did give up some
(50:07):
stuff I did. But when you lookat the cost benefit of what I
was able to achieve personally,and in terms of a recent of my
own life, like I can't imagine,what would have happened, had I
not taken that sabbatical, like,I don't even want to think about
it. And when I think about thepath that I'm on now, because I
(50:28):
was able to take that time, notonly to build back who I was,
but to think about how I wasgoing to live my life, there's
just no valid monetary valuethat you can put on that.
Brian Smith (50:41):
Yeah, you know, it reminds the conversations, we've
been having my my daughter's mid20s, and all our friends are mid
20s. So they're, you know,they're thinking about careers.
So they were encouraged into thecareers and they're thinking
about getting married and havingchildren. And my wife and I have
had a couple concerts, mydaughter recently, I'm like, I'm
glad I don't have to do thatagain. Because, you know, it's
like, when I have my career, Iwant to be independent, and then
(51:03):
when depend on anybody else, I'mlike, once you have children,
you know, then then you've got,you know, soccer practice and
swim practice, and basketballpractice and all the things that
they're going to be doing. Andif you're both out working, you
know, full time and you're bothlike all about your career, I'm
like, Well, I don't want tonavigate that. And we haven't
(51:23):
taught people how to navigatethat holistically. Right?
Because people think it's got tobe one or the other, either, I'm
going to be super clear, or I'mgoing to take care of my family.
Exactly, absolutely. And
Keisha Blair (51:34):
especially in the face of a setback. And you
haven't taught people that andit's so funny, when the first
edition of the book came out,Arianna Huffington quote, quoted
a line from the book on hersocial media than and I
mentioned the education system,not having prepared me, I don't
have the exact quote from thebook I wish I did right now. But
basically, the education systemteaches linearity. It doesn't
(51:58):
teach the art of recovery fromdisruption. And you're
absolutely right, it doesn't,we're not exactly taught how to
balance all of these competingpriorities. And we're taught
one, one thing, just this linearapproach. So when you know, life
doesn't work that way, then itbecomes confusion. And there is
(52:19):
no real framework that helps usto get through this. So that was
kind of my thinking, as well,especially as an economist about
Well, I wanted to talk aboutgrief. But I wanted to do it in
a way to help others recover ina systematic way with a
framework that was ready forthem, because I felt like when I
(52:39):
went through it, there was none.
There were tons of grief booksabout grief stages of grief,
what to do, you know, grief inyour 60s 70s 80s, there was
nothing there for me at 3131just had, you know, a baby eight
weeks prior to get back, youknow, a life and to rebuild, and
to think about how to do thisholistically. So that's the
(53:04):
framework that, you know, Itried to provide to others and,
and I'm glad like every time wehave, you know, I get the
opportunity to have thisconversation, it becomes a
blessing to me, because I knowit's so needed for people out
there.
Brian Smith (53:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's 100% needed. And you'rejust such a great example of
resilience and what we can do,and how, you know, I talked to
so many people who they gothrough a tragedy, and they say
what my life is over, you know.
And in a sense, one part of usdoes discontinue and become a
(53:45):
different person. I'd imagineyou would probably say after you
came back from that sabbatical,you're you know, and way a
different person you were whenyou when you left.
Keisha Blair (53:54):
Absolutely, absolutely. I still remember the
day, you know, sitting in frontof my boss one day, soon after
my husband died. And I rememberhim looking into my eyes and
saying, we want the old Keshaback. We want the old Kesha back
because I was, you know, youknow, killing all these targets
at work and achieving thesemilestones. And when he said
(54:15):
that to me, I was like, Well, Idon't think the old Keisha is
coming back, you're going to geta different Keisha, a new
version, but it's not going tobe the old Keisha.
Brian Smith (54:26):
I am so I just got goosebumps, you said, I'm so
glad that you said that. Becausepeople are like, people around
us just like I want to get Iwant you to go back to who you
are. And my clients will come tome and say, Well, I want Am I
ever going to be the person thatI was? And I'm like, I sure hope
not. I am. I'm a very differentperson than I was, you know,
(54:46):
eight years ago. It'll be eightyears for me in exactly a month
or month in two days. So I'm aI'm a different person, but
that's that's a good thing.
That's not a that's not a badthing. Yeah, we are as human As
we we want to avoid change, wewant to avoid disruption, that's
natural. But the reality is wecan't we change, things change
(55:08):
around us. Disruptions happen,as you said, at least twice
every twice a decade. So we haveto accept that way to figure out
okay, what do I do with this?
What? How do I take this? Andhow do I make it into something?
You know, beneficial?
Keisha Blair (55:27):
Absolutely. And I think it's a lesson for those
around us as well. So not justin the workplace or
organizations, it's a lesson forfriends around who are
witnessing this transformation.
You know, and how do you supportthat? And how do you, you know,
enable that, because that's thatwanting the old Kesha back?
Wanting the old Brian back isn'tgoing to happen, you're going to
(55:49):
get a new and improved version.
But how do we, you know, supportthat this new journey? That's
this new phase, this new seasonof life? Yeah.
Brian Smith (56:02):
Well, after, after 14 years after your, your
husband's passing, and and thisis a this is a delicate
question, but how do you feel?
Do you feel like things likethis in life are planned, you
know, by like, some sort of soulplanning or something? Are? What
are your What are your feelingsabout about that event now?
Keisha Blair (56:22):
Yeah, so yeah, it's unbelievable. Because going
through the tragedy, I oftenwondered, you know, was this
planned? Was this a part of whatwas supposed to happen to me?
And I do think so. I am also aspiritual person. So I believe
(56:44):
that our lives, you know, areordered somewhat, I do believe
that it was to be a part of myjourney. There is no way you
know that, with how my life hasturned out that I could say
otherwise. It has just been tooobvious to me personally, with
(57:09):
my story in my life, that thiswas supposed to happen. And it
was to be used, as, you know, alesson and for purpose, and to
help humanity forward. And whenI look at the unique skills and
experiences of my life, not justthe personal part, but my
(57:31):
background, my training, myskills, my personal journey,
it's obvious to me that thathappened for a reason. And that,
yes, it was a part of thatjourney. You know, I remarried
afterwards, and I did have adaughter and and my life looks
(57:52):
very different now. Butabsolutely, absolutely. I do
believe that this was part of mydestiny, the work I'm doing now
was ordered, and that I am justbasically doing what was meant
for my life. And it's a soulcalling and I feeling I feel it
very deeply. And I feel that,you know, this message that I'm
(58:16):
bringing forth, has beenordered. And so you know, it
gives me great relief. And itmakes me feel very whole and
very comforted. That somethingso positive can come out of this
great tragedy. And if I can usethis to help others, then my
(58:40):
life wouldn't be in vain. Andthat might my children losing
their father at any age wherethey'll never remember his voice
ever again, that won't be invain. And sometimes most times I
pray that I'm able to do this ina way to truly touch the lives
(59:00):
of others That's my prayer rightnow that I'm doing it in a way
that honors that so absolutely.
Brian Smith (59:08):
I suspected that would be your answer just from
the the feeling I get from you.
You're such an inspiration andyour and your and your story and
I believe in I believe thatbelieving we have a purpose
helps us achieve more you know,I can't imagine living a life
where I think everything is justrandom that this tragedy but
(59:30):
fulfill me and nothing good willever come of it I just it
doesn't work for me I know forsome people choose to believe
that way. But the people that Imaybe a people are attracted or
drawn into my life, but likesomeone like yourself, I'm like,
Yeah, this has got to beordered. This has got to be, you
know, planned, and I don't seethe impact that you're making.
(59:54):
It's so interesting, and I saythis for the better people that
are listening, because I knowwhen you're six months and a
year in two years in threeyears, and this may sound crazy
to you, but once you I want togive an example, somebody that's
14 years into this and can see,see the path now behind them and
(01:00:16):
say, Wow, that it made somesense.
Keisha Blair (01:00:21):
Absolutely. And as you said, Brandon, you know, it
gives great comfort and relief,that, you know, there can be
that, that huge positive benefitand that impact on others. And
absolutely, you know, I could gointo detail about so many things
(01:00:45):
that have happened, that have,you know, that are obvious of
yours that, you know, this isthis was meant to be and and
that, yeah, we're making animpact and doing the work. And
I, you know, it's great the workthat you're doing to and the
lives that you're touching inthis space. So absolutely.
Brian Smith (01:01:07):
It's interesting, you talked about the detail,
because people asked me like howI got to be where I am like,
that would take a very long timebecause the synchronicities
start to happen, you know, doorsstart to open, you meet certain
people, certain things happen inyour life. And again, they just,
they're not random. They're notcoincidences, like, you know, if
you're, you kind of get on yourpath things doesn't mean you
(01:01:29):
don't have setbacks doesn't meanyou'll have difficulties, but
things do seem to go easier whenyou're going in flow.
Keisha Blair (01:01:35):
Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely. And you're right,certain people come into your
life, you make theseconnections, and and it just, it
just happens. And it gives youthis greater awareness that
absolutely, this is the workthat you need to be doing at
this moment in time. Soabsolutely,
Brian Smith (01:01:56):
yeah. Okay. So tell people where they can reach you
remind them about your book,your programs, all that stuff.
Keisha Blair (01:02:04):
Yeah, so the book is available everywhere online
and in bookstores. It's onAmazon. It's in Barnes and Noble
target. It's in bookstores allacross the globe, and my website
is Keisha blur.com. The coursesare available on the Institute
on holistic wealth.com I'm onsocial media, to Keisha
(01:02:25):
overlayer on Instagram andTwitter and I'm on Facebook at
Keisha Blair author, you cancheck out the holistic wealth
podcast tune in to hear aboutother people's lives and how
they live this holisticallywealthy lifestyle. And yeah, you
know, connect. I love hearingfrom readers. So that would be
(01:02:47):
amazing hearing from peoplewho've tuned in or who've read
the book.
Brian Smith (01:02:51):
But it's it's been an honor and a pleasure to have
you here today. Thank you somuch for doing this.
Keisha Blair (01:02:57):
Thank you for having me, Brian. This has been
amazing. Thanks for having me onthe show.
Brian Smith (01:03:01):
All right. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Keisha Blair (01:03:03):
Thank you. You too.
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