If you came to today's AM office hours, you know that I tunneled DEEP into the netherworld of YouTube banners this morning. Getting the hang of the dimensions can be massively annoying, which is why I was avoiding it. However, I am SO proud of how this first iteration turned out. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/@IdentityBelongingCoach! There are tons of old videos here that will be going unlisted soon, so feel free to check them out—but I'm preparing to finally jump off into the deep blue of YouTube and I'm actually... Sort of excited about it. Let me know what you think if the aesthetic, and give me a follow if you're on! Happy Thursday and hope to see you all at the meet & greet today at 1:30 Central US/8:30 Central Europe!

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.

Temperature check. How are we doing? How are YOU doing? And when was the last time you shut off the news for three weeks straight? For those of you that have been checking in since the summit, I just want to say thank you. I cannot overstate the importance of caring for yourself (or trying to, anyway) following the inevitable crash after huge exertions of energy, brainpower and honestly, mental stability like this. Once the magic of being surrounded by likeminded individuals that share your vision of a liberated existence for all, not just some, begins to fade... Things can get dark. Really, really dark. Full transparency, this is why I actually hated DEI consulting. It wasn't for me. The idea of putting every skill, strategy and instruction manual I could recount into a bucket with holes in the bottom was depressing. Unfulfilling. And obviously, ineffective. One thing the summit did do for me, however, is show me how much I've grown my network, my audience and my community. The rooms were buzzing. Our guests were shining. The audience was equal parts captivated and catalyzed to go out there and do their part—even if it would take the rest of their lives. I'm still processing it all. And you can forget about any elaborate post-summit upsell scheme because I have nary a spoon for anything remotely strategic. I'm trying to just find a few to get The Reparations Race 4th Edition on the map so I can now REALLY dig into my purpose, which has become even more clear to me since the summit—as in, I understood MY assignment. And that's to help changemakers generate the money they need to make the impact they want to make without burnout, without fancy titles, without having to bend to the will of performative socio-politics. To those waiting for me to excitedly follow up with next-steps and save-the-dates, I promise they are coming. All of what I'm writing here is really barely scratching the surface on the fatigue I'm recovering from. But for once... It isn't fatigue from trolls or the walls burning down around me.

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