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.

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

Today is the 5th anniversary of George Floyd's murder. That was the final catalyst (there were others) that led to the work I'm doing today: the newsletter, the book, this community and the posts and podcasts and events. It is sobering to think of those whose commitment did not last and heartening to think of those who remain committed and active. All of which is to say that I'm in a funny place emotionally today. What comes up for you? (I sent out a special edition of my newsletter today with an updated version of the poem I wrote on the first anniversary. https://www.antiracismnewsletter.com/p/reboot-remembering-george-floyd )

If anything has been made clear to me since the summit, especially in our self-care session, it’s that we’ve been holding a lot. A LOT a lot. Now it’s my turn to hold you. The people have spoken. Replenish, a 9-Week Oasis for Changemakers, begins on July 1. Register here for one of four info sessions taking place next week. Here’s the LinkedIn poll that made this possible. This program IS open to the public, and there will be equitable access tiers, an AA Community member discount for anyone in this group, and opportunities to sponsor participation for others through our 5K Fund Community Sponsorship Pool. As always, IBL members can join the program at no additional cost. 🫶🏾 All tiers will include access to the full Future of DEI Virtual Summit replay. I’ve always been one to create things that I myself need or have needed in the past. This time is no different. Likewise, everyone laying eyes, ears and other senses on this video knows someone that needs this space, right now. Let’s find them. Helpers and healers deserve healing, too. Can’t wait to see you. 🫂❤️‍🩹🌱

For those that didn't know, the power grid went dark and mainland Spain (minus the Balearic and Canary Island systems), Portugal and parts of France lost power for 8-18 hours depending on where you were in the country. If you tried to get in touch yesterday and couldn't reach me, this is why. The wildest thing is that it also included our phone service, which is clearly enough to send even the most resilient into an instant panic. What got me, though, is two things, which I dove a bit deeper into on LinkedIn earlier today. 1. As a survivor of borderline poverty (I say borderline because I rarely truly went hungry and have always if nothing else had a roof over my head) as a child and teenager, the way my nervous system immediately went into "power save" mode to calculate the best route to pick up my child, grab a few supplies and (literally) camp out on the patio and cook over an open fire until the sun went down was really surprising. I didn't know quite how far my chill-in-the-face-of-utter-chaos has come until yesterday. 2. The amount of people that were as physically unprepared as they were psychologically unprepared for having absolutely no long-distance communication in addition to no power supply got me thinking a lot about privilege: social, geographical and situational. I say situational because many of the people panicking were not the ones stuck on trains, planes, cars and elevators with absolutely no way out for hours before rescuers and civilians showed up to help. I don't say any of this to diminish anyone's panic yesterday, but I am increasingly aware that what happened to us here yesterday can happen anywhere, at anytime. The worst here was a total collapse of our transport systems with delays at train stations, airports and on highways that will take days or more to re-regulate.