We had a fabulous inaugural town hall & support session today. Appreciate these lovely ladies for holding it down when I needed to step away to put out a small family fire! While we didn't record the whole session, there was a really great question/reflection that I wanted to be sure to capture. With permission from @Cheryl Wozniak and @Kristin Bigras, I wanted to share this clip. In matters of accompliceship in turbulent times when it seems like no one is being spared, it's important for us to remember that no matter how close an incident hits to home, social dynamics continue to exist. While we are all impacted and no two lived experiences are exactly alike, recognizing these dynamics and knowing when to decenter (and stay out of the center, period) is critical to the effectiveness of your advocacy. While you may *feel* a sense of identity, deep empathy or parallelism with a particular struggle, it's not always right for the moment to lead with this conversation—especially if you are of a predominantly privileged background or are in a position to guide or coach others through a difficult experience. It IS, however, important to use that gut emotion as information to guide a line of questioning that keeps the marginalized individual at the center of the issue being discussed. Use empathy as a catalyst, not a cover. Let me know what comes up for you as you hear this clip. 💛 A reminder that we'll be back next Thursday 1/22, same time (1pm CST/8pm CEST) for our next session. Link to register in the calendar tab. Looking forward to seeing more of you there!

A welcome redirection of the energy around me today came when I logged on to Skool today and saw that my mentor, Arlan Hamilton (who you may have also seen at The Future of DEI Virtual Summit last May), had published my episode of her YouTube interview series titled, "The Assignment." You can follow Arlan on YouTube at youtube.com/@arlansyourfirstmillion. In the darkest of times and the lowest of moments, having your words reflected back to you can shift your entire perception. Flashes of a life built brick-by-brick out of the remnants of a childhood dream of life abroad, even when it was hard to be far away from home, remind you that no matter what you think of yourself in any given moment... Receipts are forever. I am who I am BECAUSE I decided to take that first step outside of the US, outside my current reality, almost 13 years ago—read: long before it was trendy. I am who I dared to look further for those missing pieces. To lean into my gifts. To embrace new skills. To (literally) find my voice. Then, I decided to transcribe that process of "becoming" into a blueprint that others on a similar path can use to get there a little faster—and DEFINITELY less alone—than I did. That is why the Changemaker's Haven—and the Identity & Belonging Lab—exist. Because in order to serve, you must first know who you are in service to. And in order to be in service to others, you must first be in service to yourself. And in order to be in service to yourself, you have to be given space to discover, question, and affirm who you are. Congruence is not a given in life. It's not something you can simply decide to be, or take someone's advice to save yourself the mistakes by trial, error, and repitition. Congruence is the result of a hard-fought process of discovering not only the skills you have spent your entire career cultivating and what makes you the most money. It's about which of all those skills brings out the best in you. It's about what makes you feel like the most complete version of yourself—and building in that direction.

Today, I am grieving the version of me that innocently and innocuously celebrated the 4th of July for the first 25 years of my life. That attended fireworks displays, staring up at the sky with wonder and awe at the explosive spectacle of light, sound and color. The United States of America was always painted to us as the pinnacle of freedom and democracy. A picture of progress and the embodiment of limitless opportunity. I grieve the little girl that thought slavery was a moment in time. A complicated history that was corrected and as such, justice was served. It was not corrected. It was covered. Buried. Hidden. Attempted to be rewritten. But there can be no reconciliation without repair. So as memories of rose-colored flag glasses, Old Navy t-shirts and firecrackers on the front porch fade into the distance of my memory, I come into consciousness. We are living in a world where suffering is so normalized, where partisan politics are so weaponized and white supremacy is so violent that dozens of white men can now, in broad daylight, unhooded and undeterred, vote against basic human dignity in at least seven different variatiants including but not limited to revoking healthcare, ending SNAP benefits, and violently detaining citizens and parents of citizens on the basis of race. And because we have normalized it, we can no longer control it. So if today you need to just let the tears fall, do that. If you need to write and write and scream and write until your fingers fall off, do that. If you need to cancel everything and sit in a dark room, do that. But if you feel the need to take up space today, do that too. You can start here. Write how you’re feeling below. Tell me what comes up for you. You don’t have to have a solution. You don’t have to find a bright side. It’s okay if it feels like there isn’t one. This is your community, and it is protected to the best of my ability so that you can say whatever is on your mind. Please use it if you need it.

To be a professional changemaker is to be constantly holding the duality of helplessness and hopefulness at the same time. I’m feeling it hard today. One month ago today, we kicked off the #FutureOfDEI summit. It was a monumental effort, an extraordinary output and a life changing experience being seen, heard and held in a growing community of changemakers. One week from today is Juneteenth, and our ceremonious opening of the 4th Edition of The Reparations Race. Today should be a celebration. Today should be about honoring milestones and progress towards a liberated future, doing my individual part while empowering others to do theirs. Instead of being able to be present with these hard-fought milestones, my head is pounding and my heart is heavy. Instead of being able to complete the most mundane of tasks, I float from day to night to day again, wondering why we’re doing this work at all. I am grieving the state of the world. I am enraged at how human life is being disregarded over arbitrary borders and fabricated hierarchies. I am so desperately exhausted of being overworked and underfunded, as so many multiply-marginalized founders are. And like so many of you, I sometimes wonder if life would be easier if I didn’t care about anyone by myself. Abstractly. In a detached way. But I do wonder. I have learned that for me, the month of June is a time of seasonal transition in which I must learn how to be held. How to be guided. How to follow. How to surrender. In some seasons, I am the protagonist. In others, I am a passenger. This one is the latter, because if I deplete myself trying to keep up with every single cause that needs urgent attention, I won’t be able to fully show up for any of them. If you are where I am, let this be a sign. You must learn how to be still. To be silent. Silence is not always complicity. Sometimes, its regeneration. Recalibration. Revelation. Recommitment. It’s in that silence that some of the most groundbreaking ideas that have changed the course of society have arisen.

Hey, all! I'm in the process of doing a lot of restructuring the groups (and articulating some of my own internal shifts as a coach, community organizer and activist). As I prepare to pivot my focus to supporting changemakers and facilitating dialogue on the issues rather than spending days entrenched in debate around what is right and wrong, I want to reintroduce to you the vision I have for this group to continue to be a soft, inviting space for changemakers of all levels to convene, converse, and connect to opportunities that advance our individual and collective purpose. Enter the Changemaker's Haven, our rebranded starting point for changemakers and aspiring accomplices to social justice. What will change: 🌱 Our group name 🌱 Our URL (will soon be changed to skool.com/changemakers-haven) 🌱 Quite possibly the name of the webinar learning series itself, still deciding on this 🌱 The Identity & Belonging Lab's pricing structure, which will now include a monthly option so that you can receive direct support 🌱 The next step from this group for those looking for "what now?" support around monetizing their impact platforms expertise What will NOT change: 🌱 The focus of this group, which will be to amplify each other's work, share relevant resources along our journeys as allies to our own causes and those of others 🌱 The cost, which will stay FREE to join from any of our webinars and events These changes feel relevant, but aligned. I'm looking forward to seeing how the direction of our conversations shift as a result. What do you all think? I very much value your input, so please let me know how this resonates. Have a very Happy Monday and looking forward to seeing some of you this week for our REPLENISH Summer Life Coaching Program Info Sessions