Military Mental Health Nurse, Author, and Host of the Crazy Black Girl Podcast, Lt. Shatara Jewell

When I first stumbled upon Shatara Jewell’s Instagram, I thought, “Wow, she’s making an impact—I bet I could learn a lot from her!” So I reached out, she said “Yes” and the rest is history.

Shatara serves as a Certified Psychiatric Nurse Lieutenant in the United States Navy and provides dedicated care to military personnel and their families dealing with mental health challenges. 

These challenges are significant; issues like rising suicide rates, alcoholism, and substance use disorders are prevalent. Often, these struggles stem from unresolved childhood traumas, which is particularly concerning given that about 87% of recruits are ages 18 to 24. 

Shatara’s own experiences with childhood trauma give her a unique lens on the intersection of military service, mental health, and personal growth. Her journey demonstrates how faith and perseverance can lead to transformative healing. 

Speaking of faith, it’s the cornerstone of every episode of her podcast, Crazy Black Girl. You’ll be fascinated to hear how she came up with that title! I have to say, her method of sharing God’s word is inspiring. It’s as if she’s preaching, without preaching, which is the best kind of preaching.

In the five-minute snippet: Did she mention anything about tattoo shops? For Shatara's bio, visit my website (link below).

Imena and TJ go to Therapy on Amazon

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Transcript

[00:00] Michelle: When I first stumbled upon Shatara Jewell's Instagram, I thought, wow, she's making an impact. I bet I could learn a lot from her. So I reached out, she said, yes, and the rest is history.

[00:14] Shatara serves as a certified psychiatric nurse lieutenant in the United States Navy and provides dedicated care to military personnel and their families dealing with mental health challenges.

[00:27] And these challenges are significant.

[00:30] Issues like rising suicide rates, alcoholism, and substance use disorders are prevalent.

[00:37] Often these struggles stem from unresolved childhood traumas, which is particularly concerning given that about 87% of recruits are ages 18 to 24.

[00:49] Shatara's own experiences with childhood trauma give her a unique lens on the intersection of military service, mental health, and personal growth.

[00:59] Her journey demonstrates how faith and perseverance can lead to transformative healing.

[01:07] Speaking of faith, it's the cornerstone of every episode of her podcast, Crazy Black Girl.

[01:14] You'll be fascinated to hear how she came up with that title.

[01:18] I have to say, her method of sharing God's word is inspiring.

[01:23] It's as if she's preaching without preaching, which is the best kind of preaching.

[01:31] In the five minute snippet:

[01:33] did she mention anything about tattoo shops?

[01:54] Good morning, Shatara. Welcome to the podcast.

[01:58] Shatara: Good morning. How are you?

[02:01] Michelle: I'm good, thank you. It's still fairly cool here where I am. Where are you joining us from today?

[02:09] Shatara: North Carolina. And this weather does not know what it wants to do. It is warmer. It's definitely like a good 78, but we have a nice breeze going on.

[02:18] I'm just, like, a little nervous because all this. There's snakes I heard around here, and I'm just like, oh, my gosh, please don't have me run into a snake.

[02:28] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. I know a lot of people do not like snakes, and I'm not one of those people. I like snakes, but then again, they haven't, like, been in my house or around me, so maybe if they got really close, I wouldn't like them.

[02:44] Shatara: But, yeah, as long as they stay a distance, right?

[02:48] Michelle: Stay the distance.

[02:50] Well, I'm really excited to talk to you today, Shatara. We met on Instagram, and I think I reached out to you and I was just like, wow, I love what you're doing.

[03:00] You're doing so much, and that's what we're here to talk about today, so why don't you just start by giving us an introduction and kind of what led you into nursing into the military,

[03:14] and then we'll just go from there.

[03:17] Shatara: Yes. Oh, my goodness. This is definitely a good story.

[03:21] So I joined the military in 2005, and that was basically Operation Enduring Freedom. We know that 911 happened, and I joined straight out of high school. And from high school, I went straight to

[03:35] the USS Constitution, which is the oldest commissioned warship, and it's in Charleston, Massachusetts, but basically Boston. And then from there, I deployed to Afghanistan. And when I was in Afghanistan, we had a mass casualties where a suicide bomber had went out in town and basically killed a lot of people.

[03:54] So on our camp, we were kind of one of the only medical facilities that was closest, that was basically within that town.

[04:02] We were an hour away from Iran.

[04:04] And that day I will never forget. We got the call, and because I was a communications person, so I got a lot of the calls. I helped track all the missions and things like that.

[04:14] And I heard the call and I went to the medical camp and told them, like, hey, we got a serious situation here. There's a mass casualties. And from there, when we start getting

[04:25] The mass casualties in. Part of my job, unfortunately, was to put some of the locals and some of the military police and some of the people that actually were confronted with that bomb and body bags, Right?

[04:37] And that kind of stuck with me a lot, because, you know, nursing, as we know nursing comes, starts from the beginning all the way to the end. And after I did that, I was able to go into the compound where the medical officer was, and there was a young kid that had got a lot of shrapnel in his head.

[04:54] We had another individual who I was caring for personally. He basically had the IED blow up out from under the Humvee. And it kind of took a lot, I can't really put this in a better way, took a lot of his private areas out, like, you know, from basically from his front of his private area all the way up into the back.

[05:14] And my job was to put gauze in that area. So I was like, wait a minute, I'm not really qualified to do that. But the medical officer said, listen, just listen to what I'm telling you,

[05:25] and I'm going to just tell you what to do. And the whole time that I was doing that, the person I was caring for was a local national to Afghanistan, and he was part of the police.

[05:35] He was smiling, he was like, hey, go after the enemy. Please do what you can to go out there and basically showed so much gratitude for us caring for him that I felt like that was something that I wanted to do.

[05:48] Now I wasn't sure what type of nurse I wanted to be at that time, but I was able to. That was pretty much the seed that was planted for me to be a nurse.

[05:57] After that, I had my job in the military, actually, was something called Operation Specialist. I helped basically do navigation of ships and make sure, and I also helped do, like, safety of flights for aircraft that was on a ship.

[06:11] I was on the USS New York, which is kind of ironic because now I joined because of 911. Then I was on the USS New York, and I did five years on that ship.

[06:20] From there, I ended up going to Japan. And that's where we have something in the military in the Navy called mesep, Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program, which allows enlisted personnel to put in a package to say, hey, I want to be in the Nurse Corps.

[06:35] And once you get accepted, because it's very, very competitive, then they will allow you. Once you're accepted, you'll go to nursing school for three years. And that's how I actually became a nurse.

[06:45] So I didn't become a nurse until my 14th year into the military.

[06:50] Michelle: Wow, that is quite a story. You are absolutely right.

[06:55] And, man, what.

[06:58] traumatic things you had to see and be part of. And man, I can't imagine. I can't imagine. I imagine that all those experiences made you into the person that you are today.

[07:13] Did you, Shatara, did you come from a military family? Like, how did you decide to go into the military?

[07:20] Shatara: Actually, my story is very interesting. So I was raised basically, and I'm just going to be frank, like, I came from an urban area, went to the suburbs. I was the only family of color on my block.

[07:34] And I did not come from a military family. But unfortunately, unfortunately in my past, my father at the time ended up going to jail for a crime.

[07:45] And I had to make two decisions, right? My grades wasn't that great to go to college because just of like, a lot of childhood stuff along with that going along, or I had to go to the military.

[07:58] Like, that was just my two options in my mind.

[08:01] And I was actually supposed to go to the Marines, but the Marine recruiter office was closed. And I will never forget one day I was sitting on the couch and I just saw this Navy commercial.

[08:10] I was like, oh, that looks kind of cool. So I ended up just going to the Navy office and, and when I went to the recruiter office, I ended up seeing my childhood best friend that I had lost contact with for a few years.

[08:23] She was there. And then a lot of my, believe it or not, a lot of my friends was at this recruiter. So we all had the same mind frame. So we all crossed.

[08:33] Michelle: That's crazy how decisions are made. You know, last year I talked to a lieutenant in the, in the Air Force.

[08:40] Shatara: Oh, yeah, Jennifer.

[08:42] Michelle: Yeah, Jennifer Cawley. And you know, I said, how'd you make the decision, you know, to go into the Air Force? And she said, honestly, it was based on the uniform that the women wore.

[08:54] She said, I really liked it. I thought it was cool,

[08:59] you know, so it's like we make these decisions kind of, you know, not with these lofty ideals in mind, but just something really basic. And obviously it turned out very well for you.

[09:13] So, okay, so you went to nursing school and now you're a nurse. And what specialty did you go into?

[09:22] Shatara: Oh, my goodness. I am a certified psychiatric nurse.

[09:29] So that's a lot that how that came about. Right.

[09:34] So believe it or not, even though I've seen traumas, you know, being going to Afghanistan and things like that, I wasn't sure that is something I want to see. Especially like a lot of nurses, you know, they have their niche.

[09:46] So when I went to nursing school, I went to Chamberlain University in Jacksonville, Florida, and one of the hospitals there was Shands Hospital. That hospital basically is a trauma center.

[09:55] And they have a lot going on. There's a lot of people that, at the time that I went, dealt with a lot of fentanyl, a lot of homelessness,

[10:02] a lot of just drug related substance abuse disorders. And I went to every specialty, like labor and delivery. I say you send me labor delivery, I'm going to pass out.

[10:12] Mind you, I have two kids of my own. But it's just something about a head. It just seems just, God bless you if you're a labor delivery nurse. And then I went to OR, I went to the OR and I saw them just do that one little cut, almost passed out.

[10:26] God bless you if you are and OR nurse. So when I went to the psych rotation,

[10:31] you have to, when you are a psych nurse, you have to find joy in it. And I think I found so much joy, I laughed, not at the patients, but just had like certain circumstances where the patients even laughed at me.

[10:44] I was very intrigued with psych, because psych is not something that you can fix. Right. We just treat.

[10:51] So I think that the mind is definitely a very complex thing, and everything with psych is just not the same. So that's really what intrigues me into being a psych nurse.

[11:02] Michelle: Wow. Yeah. It's also different. Right.

[11:05] And, you know, I share your

[11:09]  awe of those nurses, the labor and delivery nurses. You know, being in the NICU, I got to go to labor and delivery a lot for surgeries, for deliveries, and it's the same Shatara,

[11:23] I come from a family of lots of nurses, and most of them are operating room nurses. And at one point, they tried to recruit me into the operating room.

[11:33] I was like, no, I don't want to end up on the floor, and I want my patients to be awake. I want to be interacting with them. I don't want to be talking to surgeons all day.

[11:45] So, yeah, it's so interesting how we pick, you know, where we belong.

[11:53] So now you're working as a psych nurse, and you tell me what you do there with the military as far as your job.

[12:02] Shatara: My experience started in Virginia at one of the biggest military hospitals, which is Navy Medical Center Portsmouth or Naval Medical Training Center Portsmouth, because it's a training command. Now I work on the Camp Lejeune base at the inpatient mental health ward, where we take active duty reservists, depending on, you know,

[12:22] where they are, fall in line, and dependent beneficiaries of those service members. So we take a lot of complex cases. We could take anything from as simple as adjustment disorder to psychotic disorders.

[12:35] It just depends on what we're treating. We are equipped with that. We have a team of nurse practitioner, we have psychiatrists, and basically the nurses staff is the foundation of treating these patients.

[12:47] And yeah, that's it. So military mental health is very serious. It's very stigmatized and is very, very, very crucial that I want people to understand how crucial it is for us to care about our service members' mental health.

[13:05] Michelle: Yeah, it is crucial. It's a crisis. And, you know, one of my questions around that was,

[13:13] are those services easily accessible to our members in the military and veterans?

[13:20] Shatara: Let me answer it this way. We need more resources, right? It's a lot of military service members because we could take it from two different spectrums. That's how I like to say.

[13:29] We could take it from service members that come from my time or even a little bit before, I've been in for almost 20 years, that our mentality is a little different, right where we are the suck it up and keep going generation.

[13:40] Where this generation that is forthcoming, that is coming in the military is way more knowledgeable about their mental health in different disorders and how to navigate through it. The issue that we're currently facing is that we don't have enough resources.

[13:56] We don't have enough providers just like anywhere within nationwide of mental health. It's just that it's one field that is very, very

[14:05] stigmatized and there's not enough resources and there's not enough funding, it's not enough care for people to really understand the seriousness of how it is in military mental health.

[14:19] People only think about, I feel like people when they think about military mental health is that they only think about PTSD. PTSD when it comes to war. They don't think about how some of these young people or some of us are coming into the military.

[14:33] And your first psychotic break doesn't happen until you your early 20s. And you're wondering why, like, oh my gosh, why is this person having psychotic break? Well, they joined the military at 17.

[14:43] We wouldn't see it until their early 20s or their mid-20s. You know, a lot of service members deal with childhood trauma. They like me, had an issue, you know, I told you about my dad.

[14:52] I had to go to the military. A lot of them are going from one household to another. And it's like we're basically raised, the military raises a lot of us in different ways.

[15:03] So I,

[15:05] I think that the issue is, I think it needs to be important. I think it needs to be in a forefront. I think our veterans definitely need the help that they deserve and it has to be important.

[15:16] The suicide rates of our military members are going up. It's not just because we don't see it in the news. It doesn't mean that it's not going up. I actually can tell you over the weekend we probably had alone had about five suicides and it happens every day

[15:32] So that 22 a day number is very real. It's probably more in different areas and it's very bad. I want to just continue to say that we have to have the urgency that our veterans and our service members need the resources.

[15:47] We can't just cut funding and we can't just say, oh, suck it up and keep going because that's not how this works anymore. This is not what is happening.

[15:55] Michelle: So, yeah, yeah, the suck it up generation. I feel like, you know, we're hearing stories now of veterans that came from World War II that are now in their 90s. Right.

[16:10] And they're just now starting to talk about some of the things that they experienced. And that's how much, you know, the suck it up really does for you. Right?

[16:21] It doesn't do much for you. It just delays the healing. And I'm glad to hear that service members that are entering today are much more in touch with their mental health.

[16:34] And that's one of my hopes for this Administration, was that more resources, more funding would be going to those services to help service members and veterans because they are just,

[16:50] They're just forgotten. And I think maybe, I don't know if people have this. I'll say, like lay people do have a philosophy like, hey, that's what you signed up for.

[17:05] You know, that's what you volunteered for. Yeah, it's hard, it's traumatic, but kind of don't come crying to me when you're suffering. Is. Are you seeing that at all?

[17:20] Shatara: Yes, actually, that is still the mentality of some of our leadership. And again from, like, my generation and before, that was what was taught to us. I can't say that I put the blame on, like, that 100% on those people, because that is what we taught.

[17:39] At the end of the day, yes, we're the military. We have to have standards, we have to have rules, we have to have ethics. We have to have those things in place for us to run.

[17:46] However, we have to also understand is that I think a lot of the leaders that I talked about this before, that we have to understand that we're human, too. And I think that if our leaders become a little bit more transparent about their own struggles to come from a more humanistic approach to say,

[18:02] hey, I understand what you're going through. I went through the same thing. I had some suicide ideations at one point. But let me show you how I got through. 

[18:12] And it's okay to say, I don't know what to do. Let me point you in the direction of where I think you should go. And sometimes the best answer is, how can we support you?

[18:22] The other flip side of that coin is that some service members unfortunately, kind of can use the system to say, I don't want to be in the military anymore, then this is the way I go.

[18:33] But that's not necessarily the right way to go too, because we want to make sure that everybody is getting the mental health help that they need. But I do think there is a mentality that needs to happen.

[18:44] I hope that, you know, in the future that all leadership and the administration on down really understand that. I think because sometimes that is not in their face. It's only on paper about what's happening.

[18:57] They don't really understand.

[18:59] Like, it's one thing to treat patients inside the ward, it's another thing to see somebody do who actually has a gunshot wound to their head that is self inflicted. A lot of times it's just kind of like watching the news.

[19:11] If it doesn't affect you, it doesn't really seem real. But it does affect every single person. Every service member that we lose or every service member that is not doing well is hurting the mission.

[19:24] We have to start putting our service members back in the mission as part of the mission. We cannot separate them from the mission. I know a saying that used to say, like, your family didn't come in your sea bag, but, well, guess what, they're my support system.

[19:38] They're the people that help me cope. We have to change that mentality to come from a more humanistic approach to say, yes, I care about you. Yes, we still have a mission to do.

[19:48] Yes, these things are happening. But we can also let it coexist at the same time. I believe we can take care of our service members and complete the mission and have it coexist at the same time.

[19:59] Michelle: Wow. Yeah, absolutely. I love that it has to be integrated. Right.

[20:06] So, Shatara, how important is it to the service members, to the people that you are counseling, that you are treating, that they get their help from someone like you, who has that military background, who has that experience, who has lived that experience?

[20:27] And you know, the reason I ask is because one podcaster that I just have really come to admire, James Geering, he has the Behind the Shield podcast and he talks about so many of the things that you're talking about, the first responder community, the firefighter community, the military community,

[20:47] the suicides,

[20:49] and that they go to seek counsel,

[20:53] but maybe they're not getting counsel from anybody that has any experience in their realm. And so there's this huge disconnect.

[21:04] So how important is it for service members to get help from someone like yourself?

[21:10] Shatara: This is what I tell my patients that I see. And I think I can say this across the board. For most of the nurses I work with. Nobody's going to understand 100% what you go through.

[21:22] Right. It's kind of like, I always explain like I might wear a size 10 shoe, you might wear a size 10 shoe, but the fit may be different. And I think sometimes is that the expectation is that we are going to 100% and this is just reality.

[21:37] We're going to 100% understand that's not necessarily true because we're human, you know, like we're human. I think that.

[21:46] And another caveat is a lot of times some service members are hurt by the military. Right. So how can we overcome the fact that I'm in a military uniform? I might be a trigger because not only am I in a uniform, I might be a military officer.

[22:03] I think the way that we overcome that is back to what I said. I'm not Lieutenant Jewell today. I'm just here as a resource. Listen. I may not understand exactly what you're going through, but I'm here to listen to you.

[22:15] And I also think it's important for service members to have some autonomy with their care. Right to. I always encourage them to speak up. If you're receiving counseling, right. And you're not, and you're not talking to that counselor, then it's probably time to find some other counseling.

[22:31] I think another hindrance when it comes to mental health is that service members don't know how to navigate through the mental health realm to say, hey, they think because they're appointed somebody that is the person that they have to stick with.

[22:43] Right. And that's not necessarily true. Yes. If your counselor is not helping you, not getting the care you need because it's a two way street. If you're not talking, then we need to switch counselors.

[22:54] If you are having a hard time with getting the treatment you need, I have to encourage autonomy and for them to speak up because they're their biggest mental health advocate, I'll be here.

[23:06] Right. But I always tell them that you are your biggest advocate for your mental health because you understand what you are going through. I understand that they're the stigmas or they don't want to get in trouble, but that the mental health system is there to protect the service member.

[23:21] I don't care if you joined the military for a year, you are entitled to get mental health benefits.

[23:27] So I think it's important to get mental health care for me is, if I may not understand them 100%, but my job is to empower them through the mental health world to ensure that they get the care that they need properly.

[23:41] Because some, they really don't know, especially younger service members, they just don't know, even up to, like, senior leadership, they just. They were like, well, I didn't know this was a thing.

[23:49] I didn't know this happened. And that's where the disconnect is that we're not connecting the resources to the service member as we should, or communicating with other resources to ensure that we are having a whole.

[24:05] We are caring for the patient as a whole person.

[24:08] Michelle: Wow. Yeah. Well, I love your enthusiasm.

[24:15] Michelle:  It's amazing. I feel like you're right where you need to be, Shatara. And, you know, one of the things you said was that you acknowledged that the military has hurt some service members, and yet they are in it and they are serving, and they have to kind of navigate through that.

[24:34] And I saw really, a parallel in nursing, you know, in the, I guess you could say private nursing sector or whatever. A lot of nurses are working for institutions that have hurt them and, you know, forever, whatever reason, they can't leave those institutions.

[24:54] So they have to make it work somehow. And, you know, maybe they're going to counseling to figure out, okay, I love being a nurse. I love this profession. I love the institution that I'm working for.

[25:10] How do I stay in it and get help for myself simultaneously.

[25:17] Shatara: Yes,

[25:18] I know. Especially for, like, say, for our sexual assault,

[25:22] our servicemen who are sexually assaulted within the military. And it does happen. Like, I cannot not say that, like, it does happen. How do you tell somebody, hey, you. You're still in this thing.

[25:32] How can you get through? I think this is why the military has to go to a more humanistic approach. I also think that if we need to engage with more of our outside resources as well.

[25:44] Say, for example, there aren't many. Like, we don't have many support groups. We don't have many men's support groups. We don't have many sexual assault support groups. We don't have a lot of those things in those areas.

[25:55] And I think that's like, if you're going to have to heal where you're hurt, we have to be able to provide a bridge for them to ensure that if they want to stay in this organization, we have to get them to that other side.

[26:08] And another thing I tell service members that I hope encourages, like, everybody. The whole military is not like this, especially patients that come with depression and adjustment disorder say, hey, I hope I can give you a light in the tunnel, but also, if this is not for you, it's okay.

[26:24] You're not a failure. You know, like, it's okay if this is not the thing for you, I'm grateful that you tried. I'm not pro stay in the military.

[26:33] I'm not pro get out. I'm just here to advocate for the patient. If this is not for you, and you really feel like this is something you can't get with.

[26:40] Because another thing, if a person is not going to actually stay in this organization, it's not going to help them and it's not going to help us as a whole.

[26:47] So we definitely have to bridge more, we have to create more bridges to the other side. Because for our floor, we're just in acute care. Our job is to make sure you're safe and get you to the next side.

[26:58] So then what happens when you discharge? You go to your psychiatrist, you go to those things, and then you have to basically adapt to a way of life of which you learned, of what resources you get.

[27:09] Michelle: Wow. Okay, so you also counsel family members of service members, is that correct?

[27:18] Shatara: Oh, yeah, we do. We just don't do children under 18.

[27:22] Michelle: Okay, so you're actually counseling the support system for the service members. And what are you hearing from them? What are some of their, I guess you could say, chief complaints.

[27:35] Shatara: A lot of the dependents, which usually are the spouses, whether it's a male spouse or a female spouse,

[27:42] a lot of them. Again, here's my theory, and I'm going to tell you what I heard. A lot of younger service members are getting married very quickly, and they're looking for healing in one another.

[27:55] And they're still having a lot of childhood traumas, they're like basically two people with childhood traumas, and they're trying to find healing within each other. I have experienced it myself, so I can definitely feel like I can speak on that.

[28:08] Another thing is that you do have service members that are spouses that go deploy. Their spouse deploy and they be sexually assaulted. They also deal with their own PTSD.

[28:18] They might be prior enlisted or prior officer, and they also deal with their own life. I think another thing, everybody watches the news. A lot of things are going on in the world that's also a big enough trigger.

[28:31] Alcoholism is a big one as well. Substance use is a big one across the board. This is not just dependents. This is also for service members. And I mean, just like service members are finding, like, cough medicine, again, you know how that was in the past?

[28:44] That was, like, a really big thing, you know, in the early 2000s. Now that's become alcohol. We have created a culture of alcohol in the military. You know, one of our songs in the Navy is Anchors Away, Drink to the Foam.

[28:56] So substance use, alcohol use is definitely probably one of the number one triggers to lead people to our floor. Outside of suicidal ideations, that is probably the number one.

[29:09] Wow. Dependents as well. Yes.

[29:12] Michelle: Yeah, that's heavy. Wow. Okay. So you are in school to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.

[29:23] Shatara: Yes, ma'am.

[29:24] Michelle: Yeah, I saw that on your bio. That's amazing.

[29:28] And I've talked to a couple on this program. Kirby Williams and then Tara Cattrall. So tell me how that is going to, first tell me why you're doing that, and then how's that going to help you in your mission to improve the lives of service members?

[29:50] Shatara: You know, to be honest, I was a little conflicted with becoming a psych nurse practitioner. And I have to be honest with that, because I was like, man, I just kind of feel like we're just pushing medications on people and, you know, like, we're just putting medic,

[30:06] And I feel like people just need to go outside and touch grass. You know, that was really my mentality until I started. And it's one thing to see in your own workplace because you have your own flow, you have your own way of doing things, and you kind of get comfortable in your setting.

[30:19] Until I did my own clinical rotation at another hospital here in North Carolina. And once I started learning about how medication works on the brain, how it, just different aspects of mental health outside from a provider level.

[30:37] Right. And my ultimate goal was like, I love to teach, right? I could. I love to teach. And I'm learning these things.

[30:46] And I was like, man, this is where I want to really want to be. I really want to be able to be a provider in the military, because we don't have many nurse practitioners that are psych nurse practitioners in the military.

[30:57] And our psychiatrists, some of them are getting out the military, and they are aging out, like, everywhere in nationwide. So the reason why I want to become a nurse practitioner is because I think it's very vital because.

[31:10] To help, to really service my community in the military, I see where there's a need. And at first I was like, I don't know if I can do this, because, you know, 

[31:19] I'm almost at 20 years. And I'm like, I don't know if I can do this, but I recognize my. One of my best friends, she's becoming a nurse practitioner. I have a.

[31:28] circle of friends that are stepping into the nurse practitioner a lot. And also a lot of physician assistants are coming into the mentor because we have our psychiatrist.

[31:37] We have to fill the gap, and I think that's very important. So. And I also like talking to patients. I do.

[31:43] I do like talking to patients. I love educating them about medications. I love doing that. And, yeah, I think it's pretty awesome.

[31:51] Michelle: That's so cool. That's such a huge undertaking. How has it been being, I guess, you know, an older adult learner.

[32:02] Shatara: Oh, man. An older adult learner who's clinically diagnosed with ADHD.

[32:10] It's been. It has been a

[32:12] challenge because I am, I do have children. I'm a single parent. I have help, thank God. And it's a great support system. I think, again,

[32:20] Navigating through school, I have to be honest, like, I have my own struggles. I have dealt with depression. I have dealt with anxiety. Again, I have ADHD.

[32:29] And this is what is encouraging me as not only as a lieutenant, but as a leader, to say I have to take a more humanistic approach to my life.

[32:37] And I am. And I'm very honest with my support system about how I'm feeling and what I'm doing. And I think one thing about the military that is great that we do, we can be very supportive of each other once we get the right things in place.

[32:54] So it's been a challenge. Once my great grandmother and my grandmother passed away about two years ago, I took a break for about a year from school, and now I'm three classes away from finishing, thank God.

[33:05] So I have definitely had some hurdles, morally, ethically, and personally, emotionally about finishing school. But it's also taught me about being more human,

[33:16] knowing that, hey, I go through stuff too, and I can share that with my Sailors and my junior people to say, you can. You can make it through.

[33:26] It's going to suck for a little bit. But between the suck. I got. You got to have a support system. You got to have the resources. Anything that I,

[33:33] Everything that I preach, I am going through myself or I have been through myself. So I'm just going for the ride. And I have faith. I thank God for bringing me through because some days I was like, I don't want to do this anymore.

[33:47] Yeah. But my support system for sure. And being honest, not being a superwoman, that I, you know, I don't have to wear a cape every single day, you know, we got to lean into the love that's around you because that's how you're going to get through for sure,

[34:02] man.

[34:03] Michelle: I just appreciate that so much. You're,

[34:06] yeah, you're just a down to earth person. And I think there's no better, more effective,

[34:13] you know, practitioner that really somebody that has had all those struggles and is,

[34:20] is just so motivating about, you know, I know what you're going through. I know it's gonna suck for a while. And when you said that, I was like, doesn't the military have a saying called embrace the suck?

[34:31] I don't know if that's from the Marines or what it is from, but I, you know, it's like you just, you know, it's gonna suck for a while and you'll get through it and you'll get to the other side.

[34:43] And that's great that you're going down that road because there are, you know, I talked to Kirby about this and Tara, is that there's such a shortage of psychiatric practitioners out there.

[34:57] And I'm sure it's the same in the military. It is in the lay population. But yeah, that's amazing. And I think you're probably already very effective in what you do and this is just gonna add another depth to what you're doing.

[35:13] So that's great.

[35:15] And you know, one of the things you said, Shatara, and I know this about you just from listening to your podcast and seeing some of your posts in social media, is that you are a woman of God.

[35:28] Your faith is very strong.

[35:31] And you know, when I see people of deep faith, when I hear them,

[35:37] you know, it resonates with me. And part of me is like, God, I wish I could have a faith that deep.

[35:46] So how did that come to be for you? And how is that a source of strength for you, comfort for you? Can you talk about that faith?

[35:56] Shatara: Listen,

[35:58] I am so happy you said that. Listen,

[36:02] sometimes to be quite honest, like, when it comes to faith, right, I always think, I always say, like, your gratitude has to be the anchor for your faith. Right? When I look back on my life and I just, I'm like, man, like, even I feel like, even if I didn't know who God was in the Bible.

[36:20] I just know, like, I just know that sense of comfort that I have had when I was 16, when I wanted to take my own life and I stopped. You know what I mean?

[36:28] I know that sense of comfort where I was outside crying,

[36:32] begging God to take just, I don't read the Bible every day. I don't think I do what, you know, mainstream everything every day. I just know that if no greater to me is that God's love has sustained me.

[36:46] And I just hope and pray that I am going to be a reflection of God's love and the grace that he has shown me. I know I'm not perfect.

[36:57] I know, I just stressed out about losing a mailbox key the other day. And I felt like God was like, I told you there's a solution to this problem.

[37:06] One book that I read that is by Wayne Dyer and he made a book called A Spiritual Solution for Every Problem and that my mom gave me that book and it opened my eyes to stuff that I just say, hey, you know, we may not see it,

[37:24] we may not see, but there is a spiritual solution. And a lot of times when it comes to mental health, a lot of the things that we are desiring is inside of us.

[37:34] And of course, we live in a world where we're going to want more every, we want the nice car, we want this. And it's always like, when is it going to be enough?

[37:41] So when I look at for my faith, I look around, I just look at my children. I look at the things that I prayed for and things that I didn't pray for.

[37:50] And I said, God, this, I couldn't do that. I just don't believe I could do this on my own. Like, I know people's like, oh, you could do. No, I feel like God has always been there.

[37:59] God has carried me through. God has truly shown me the grace to carry out the plan. Everybody has to understand that people's always trying to find a purpose or a thing to do when you are already walking in your purpose.

[38:13] You cannot get out of alignment of what God wants for you unless you truly want not to be in that purpose. When you, when you were born, you are walking.

[38:23] You are created in purpose, on purpose. So when I started looking at that and saying, hey, I don't really need a nice car. I don't need a fancy house. And granted, I'm blessed with, you know, I'm blessed with that.

[38:35] The military has really helped be a vehicle. And God has blessed me in that way. But I always have to use my gratitude, so when my faith starts slipping, I just start looking around.

[38:45] I start. I probably go hug a tree. If I had to go. I had to. I really do, because God is everywhere. So I think that is one of the things that 

[38:58] I try to my best in every aspect. Not perfect. I'm not. I used to be like, oh, I got to be perfect to do xyz. No, I'm just, I'm me.

[39:08] God loves me. And my job is to show that to other people as best as I can. I don't think it's about a person having as much faith as another there.

[39:18] Everybody gets a measure of faith. It's just, what are you going to do with it? You know what I mean? How are you going to, if you have faith, that's it.

[39:26] That's all you need. It could be as small as a mustard seed. It could be small like that.

[39:30] I feel like at first, when I did my podcast, I was trying to appeal to them, to a culture, per se.

[39:40] But I took a break from my podcast for a long time because I was conflicted on what to say. But I said, I have to talk about how good God is, because that's what I know.

[39:50] That's what I believe. It is not necessary to say, I'm gonna throw a Bible, and, yeah, I'm gonna put scriptures in, but that's not my goal.

[39:56] My goal is to tell people about how God loves them, how he's there, and how he was there for me. But gratitude is the anchor of our faith. That's what I say.

[40:09] Michelle: Well, I can tell you, you have a gift.

[40:13] You have a gift. Shatara, as I was listening to your podcast, you know, so much of your faith comes through and comes through, but it's also like, the humanity that.

[40:26] It's like, you aren't perfect, and you say that many times, and you give examples. And I think sometimes when we hear, like, preachers speaking, right? Or clergy people, 

[40:42] It's kind of almost condescending.

[40:46] It's like this hierarchy. Like, you know, I've been blessed by God, and I'm kind of up here, and you're kind of down here. And I just was connecting with so many of your messages because it was coming from a point of, like, this humanness, like, I am a person.

[41:07] You're a person.

[41:08] We have the same struggles. What you said a moment ago, where you said we have it inside of us, right? But so many of us don't really know that or believe that because there's so many barriers.

[41:22] There's this childhood trauma, there's these ways of relating that have, like a barrier buried that deep within us, and we don't know how to access it. And I think your message is getting through to people in terms of teaching them that you're going to access it by knowing God.

[41:44] And you know, your God that you speak about is not condescending, is not hierarchical, not patriarchal. Your God is this humanness.

[41:57] And it's beautiful.

[41:59] Shatara: Oh, my gosh. You're gonna make me cry. You're gonna make me cry.

[42:04] Michelle: I was crying.

[42:05] Shatara: You was about to make me cry. Because my podcast honestly started as a journal, because I was going through a divorce and I was going through a tough time, and it was like, on my part, I did infidelity.

[42:19] I felt like I failed my kids. I felt like I felt the person I was with, I felt I just was in a mess. And I said, I'm just gonna talk and just try if I'm just gonna talk.

[42:30] So it was basically a self talking. It was like an audio journal for myself. And then I ended up just turning. I just said, I'm just gonna put it out there and turn it my.

[42:41] Actually my boyfriend, I said, I'm gonna turn into a podcast and, or just see what happens. I wasn't getting many views and I'm still, and that's okay. But now it's just like, if it could help one person to know, like, who got God's love and how the he helped me and how these.

[42:55] It's just that makes me feel grace. I have to keep going. I love these messages. So I'm happy that.

[43:03] Michelle: Oh, man, you have to keep going. You have to keep going. I know it's touching people, but talk about your podcast. So the Crazy Black Girl podcast. First of all, the name.

[43:14] Hilarious. I love it.

[43:17] How did you think of it?

[43:19] Shatara: So, because I just told you what I was going through, my divorce, it was just one thing on top of another, on top of another, on top of another.

[43:31] And I felt like I was going crazy. So when I asked, I'm just gonna call it the Crazy Black Girl. Literally. No, no, nothing else other than that. Other than the fact that I felt like at the time when I created it that I was crazy.

[43:44] But I said that in the midst of my craziness,

[43:48] I wasn't going to allow myself to go on the deep end of the crazy because, man, it was so many things I wanted to do that wasn't.

[43:58] really Godlike. Okay. That's just how I felt when I put it on. When I said I was going to start speaking, I wrote it down and it just.

[44:07] That's the first thing came out. So now that.

[44:10] I have developed it more into more, way better. It's a term that I want people to know that a lot of times when women get called crazy, no matter what color you are, women, no matter what nationality you are, it comes with.

[44:27] It comes with a stigma that, oh, she's just crazy. Oh, that's it. Okay, well, I'm also crazy for accomplishing my dreams. I'm also crazy for doing the healing work. I'm also crazy enough to be better than what you say I am.

[44:40] I'm also crazy enough to help others in a community. So I'm turning that. I hope. Yes, it's an attention grabber, but when people listen to my pod.

[44:49] And I'm also crazy to note, to trust God in the process. So when people listen to my podcast, they're probably going to think they're going to get some craziness talk, but I want them to understand that when they step foot unto the door of my podcast, that it's okay to feel crazy,

[45:04] but it's also okay that we can work through it together. And my hope is that I'm coming off like a big sister or like your favorite aunt or maybe your little sister.

[45:13] Either way, I want it to be from a humanistic approach, like you. You're not crazy alone. We all crazy. But let's work on it. Let's work on it together to see how we can go through our healing process.

[45:25] So that's really it.

[45:27] Michelle: Yeah. And the crazy thing, you know, I think it's crazy good. You know, it's crazy in a good way. Like you said, I'm crazy in my purpose. And one of your last episodes that you did was on imposter syndrome.

[45:44] And that's something that I have struggled with my whole life. And I'm 61 years old. I just turned 61 last week.

[45:52] And so talk about that episode, because I think it could just resonate with so many people, so many nurses, so many of us in the health profession.

[46:02] Shatara: Imposter syndrome is, I think, is very, very real, especially in women in professional, like corporate, because nurses is still kind of corporate healthcare. And it goes back to this question of what I asked myself is like, why can't I believe I actually did this?

[46:22] And this is another thing where I feel like coming. God, really, truly,

[46:27] it's like you cannot operate outside of your purpose if you wanted to, no matter how much you try to run away from it. I think sometimes we cannot even believe that we're accomplishing the things that we're doing, that it feels like it's not even.

[46:39] us. But it is, right? Like, this is who we are. We are beings that are capable of doing amazing things. But when your childhood trauma tells you, this is how I like to think of us, as people, imagine, like this plant, right?

[46:57] You see this plant? Nobody on the podcast can see it, but this is a plant right now. When this plant started, it was a very little plant. Right now with plants, it starts from a seed.

[47:08] It has to have good soil to work. It has to have good fertilizer. It has to have good sun. But what happens when that plant doesn't get good seeds? When it doesn't get that good sun, it doesn't get that good.

[47:19] So we're just like plants. The seeds that are planted in our heart always comes out in full bloom in some way. And when we are accomplishing our goal, it seems like sometimes we go back to those.

[47:31] Those seeds that we were planted in us to say, oh, we weren't worthy. We're not good enough. Oh, I'm not pretty enough. I can't do this. But we're actually doing it.

[47:41] So what I like to say is that, and the cool thing with plants is you can cut off the dead stuff, you could repot the plant, you can repurpose the soil.

[47:50] You can use your purpose, your pain, and you could turn it into a purpose. So when it comes to imposter syndrome, it's all about our belief systems, about who we really are.

[48:01] So if you were feeling like that you are not, if this is not who you are, you have to check your belief systems on why, why not? Why aren't you?

[48:10] Why don't you feel like you're doing this? Me, for me? When it came to imposter syndrome, mine came from childhood trauma. I was told, I wish I was aborted at 15.

[48:18] Now, that has nothing to do against my mom, because I understand she had her own traumas, but at the time that seed bloomed, probably up until now. Except for the difference is that I know how to cut off that dead and I know how I repurpose that soil if this makes sense,

[48:33] to make sure it comes with a better bloom, a better plant, and a better me. So it's not to say that I don't struggle, but my prayer for myself and everybody else that's listening is that I hope that you see yourself as God sees you.

[48:47] God sees you as a perfect. You was created in his image. So created in his image of the most high being means that you not only are magical, you are capable of doing anything.

[48:57] And you are walking in your purpose at all times. Like, no matter what you're doing.

[49:03] That's how I think about it.

[49:05] Michelle: Girl. I want to go to your church. I want to go to the church of Shatara Jewell,

[49:12] you're fantastic.

[49:14] The way you explain things is just so.

[49:18] good. It's just something that just touches the heart, man. It touches the soul. I love it. Yeah, I absolutely learned, so I was checking out your LinkedIn, of course.

[49:31] And tell me about this sorority stuff that you got going on. I've never been in a sorority. Yeah, tell me about that. I want to know.

[49:41] Shatara: Okay.

[49:42] I am part of Zeta Phi Beta Incorporated. That is a sorority. Historically it was an all black sorority. We accept anybody how from that aligns with our core values, which we have basically is definitely sisterhood service.

[50:01] We are about the community and more importantly, we are about a sisterhood to help others. Help, community. Everything that I already talked about in this podcast, that is what that sorority aligns with.

[50:11] I joined in 2019 and let me tell you, so if you're a Zeta listening to this, please forgive me. When I joined a sorority, before I joined the sorority, I was like, I am not doing this.

[50:21] I'm not.

[50:22] I'm not doing this. I'm not. I'm not going to get, you know, the stigmas. I was like, hey, I don't want to be hazed. I don't want to do this.

[50:30] I don't want to do that. I don't want to. But when I tell you I was invited to join Zeta Phi Beta because one of my good friends is my soror

[50:40] And I saw the things she was doing and I was like, I want to check y'all out.

[50:44] Shatara: So I got invited to be checked out. You have to go through a process. And they were so loving, they were so kind. They were women that have doctorate degrees. They were in positions of superintendents.

[50:58] Because a lot of times, and this is not to big myself up, a lot of times in my circle, I'm either with people that's in the military, that we're kind of equal, or it.

[51:06] Basically, my circle is military. Right. And there's nothing wrong with that, but what I'm saying is, in the civilian world, I don't really have many connections because I'm

[51:15] in the military. So when I saw, like, the statuses of these women, that's another reason why I pursued my education, because I said, oh, I got to catch up, you know,

[51:28] so we have different locations all around the world, from Africa to Japan. It's international.

[51:35] And I linked up with some of the sorority members down here because I've still, even though I've been here for a year and a half, I'm still getting my footing in.

[51:42] But I have enjoyed the connections. I have enjoyed the sisterhood, and just being part of something that aligns with my values as a person.

[51:53] Michelle: That's so cool. Wow. Yeah. The mentorship must be just, like, phenomenal, right?

[52:01] Yeah. To see all these professionals.

[52:04] Very cool. Well, thank you for talking about that,

[52:08] because I saw that and I was like, I don't know anything about sororities, but I know Shatara is going to tell me about it, so thank you.

[52:16] Shatara: Me either. I didn't know, and I just happy.

[52:19] Michelle: Yeah. Gosh, that's awesome.

[52:22] So in addition to being a lieutenant and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, student,

[52:31] and a podcaster, you're also an author, Shatara.

[52:36] So tell me about your, when I said you're doing a lot, like, I meant that. And tell me about your book, Imena and TJ Go to Therapy.

[52:48] Shatara: So I need to be better about speaking about it. So, Imena and TJ Go to Therapy was definitely based off of my own experiences. As I told you that me and my children,

[52:58] we went through a divorce together at the same time. And as soon as it was, pretty much everything was over, we moved to this duty station. And it was very important to a lot of children's books.

[53:13] No, I can't speak for all children's books, but a lot of children's books speak about, like, the happier times and things like that. And I wanted to really do an aspect of real life, which is divorce.

[53:24] Right. Military moves, divorce and things like that. And how even though, even in the story it talked about, you know, feelings. How are your kids feeling it?  Sometimes I remember when in the beginning of going through that process and I'm pretty sure it was on both aspects for me and my ex husband,

[53:42] we were probably so boxed in our own feelings that we think about the kids. But we don't really ask the tough questions because we don't want to hear the answers that they may have.

[53:52] So my kids asked me a lot of the tough questions. Like my son thought it was my fault, my daughter thought it was her fault. You know, it was just like I was getting a bunch of questions and they do, they are in therapy right now.

[54:05] And I think it was just very important to have a book that discussed the hard topics. And then at the end of the book I did provide some questions. Questions that was asked to me as a parent that were tough to hear, but it definitely helped us as a healing,

[54:19] as a unit. As a healing unit from their dad because we have a good co parenting relationship and with our children to say, hey, your feelings matter and we want you to have a voice in this matter.

[54:33] Shatara: So. But in the beginning, of course, when you're first going through it, you're only thinking about yourself and just how to make sure the kids are okay. Are they going to school?

[54:39] Are they eating? Are they fed? But then there was questions saying, hey, what about me and my feelings? And I was like, well, I have to acknowledge that.

[54:47] So yeah, that was based on it. It's a nonfiction based on true events.

[54:57] I love it. 

[54:59] Michelle: Yeah. What can be better is something. Again, you're so effective in your job because of the fact that you have gone through all these things. And I'm sure this book is going to help countless couples and children because, you know, like you said,

[55:15] it wasn't just your divorce, you didn't just go through a divorce, you all went through a divorce. Divorce is a family thing.

[55:25] And you know, a lot of times people just focus on the couple and the kids are kind of, you know, swept aside.

[55:32] So I'm glad that you're in that space and acknowledging that through a children's book. And it's quite charming. I love the graphics on the front page, your illustrations and all that.

[55:47] Yeah. Where can we find that book Shatara?

[55:50] Shatara: The book is on Amazon, you can search. Imena I M E N A and TJ go to therapy. And just the caveat, Imena is my daughter's middle name.

[56:01] TJ is really my son's name. My daughter wanted to use her middle name. And they are my co authors because they were the inspiration. My daughter was the inspiration behind the illustrations.

[56:10] And my son is just the inspiration because he's the boy. He's the one who did ask me some of the tougher questions later. But yes, it's on Amazon.

[56:19] Support if you can. I think tough conversations are important to healing, even when it comes to God. Like a lot of times people think they can't go wrong real with God.

[56:30] Sometimes I'm like, God, I'm mad at you. And I don't know why that is how you heal is through tough conversations. And I think sometimes we avoid them because we don't want to hear the answer.

[56:40] But sometimes the answer you don't want to hear is the seed that needs to be planted for you to get better. So that is really my goal, is that as families, we have to have tough conversations with our children.

[56:50] Not just one way street, it got to be two way street. And so we can get to a better healing place. Because I see a lot of patients that are dealing with.

[56:59] Because a lot of times they are saying that I didn't have a voice, I wasn't able to speak up, I wasn't able to do that. And our children are people that are going to develop into adults,

[57:09] essentially.

[57:10] Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. Wow. And we have such a responsibility

[57:15] to help them get to those adults that don't have to deal with all the things that we had to deal with. Right?

[57:24] Yeah. Where can we find your podcast?

[57:29] Shatara: My podcast, Crazy Black Girl is everywhere. Is on Spotify, is on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Pandora, pretty much everywhere where you can find a podcast. And I drop episodes every week.

[57:44] I need to get better at it. I'm dropping an episode today, every week. It will be available by Wednesday morning. And yeah, you get inspired and I would love to have you as a guest one day.

[57:55] I gotta learn. I'm still learning how to navigate through the podcast world and just that's where you can find it.

[58:02] Michelle: I would be honored, Shatara, I would be honored. Yeah. And I'll put all those links in the show notes so everybody can find you.

[58:11] Man, this has been so inspiring and just so much fun getting to know you and what you're all about. And I thank you so much for coming on and sharing just your love for what you do, your passion, your faith.

[58:27] It's. It's been such an honor to talk to you, Shatara.

[58:31] Shatara: Thank you so much. And you are like, I'm the first, I think maybe the first guest on a podcast. I am so grateful that it was you and thank you for giving me this opportunity.

[58:42] And I am super grateful. Thank you so much. I'm never going to forget this.

[58:46] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for those kind words. Well, is there someone you recommend as a guest on this podcast, Shatara?

[58:54] Shatara: Wow. Oh, man.

[58:57] Michelle: Loaded question.

[58:58] Shatara: Yeah, it is a loaded question. In the nursing world, you know, anywhere.

[59:03] Michelle: I'm open to anything now.

[59:05] Shatara: A lot of my.

[59:07] I have a friend who is actually, it's a military friend, she was prior enlisted and she actually is becoming a doctor and she's going to

[59:22] And I think I will love for her. I'm going to send her your details. And I also have one more. I have a friend named Shakirdra. She is a powerhouse.

[59:32] Oh, my gosh. She is very into mentorship. She is very deep connected in the community. She's active duty as well. She has written like two or three books about her, about what she went through as a child.

[59:45] She's probably number one. And my other friend who's becoming a doctor who's, I think she's going to be an optima, that's a tongue twister ophthalmologist.

[59:56] And I just, she is amazing. So, yes, I definitely have two great people that I would definitely recommend.

[01:00:03] I'm going to text them right now.

[01:00:05] Michelle: Well, that's sweet. I'm so excited. Yeah, introduce us. Fabulous.

[01:00:10] Well, I'll tell you what. We're at the end and I'm almost sad that we're at the end because I've had such fun talking to you. But, you know, at the end we do the five minute snippet and it's just five minutes of fun and it's just a chance for everyone to see your off duty side.

[01:00:30] When you're not,

[01:00:32] you know, a lieutenant and a psych nurse and it's just kind of let your hair down. So you ready for that?

[01:00:41] Okay.

[01:00:42] Shatara: Yes, I am.

[01:00:43] Michelle: All right. It's fun.

[01:01:25] Okay, so convince me to live in North Carolina.

[01:01:32] Shatara: Okay. All right. So you want to come live in North Carolina?

[01:01:37] Specifically Jacksonville. We have a lot of tattoo shops down here. We have a lot of tattoo shops,

[01:01:44] A lot of tattoo shops. But if you want to, if you travel an hour away to Wilmington, North Carolina, it has a lot of history back down there, has a lot of great restaurants.

[01:01:53] Seafood is really a big thing down here. Also, fishing is amazing down here. I haven't went fishing yet. I only went fishing twice in my whole entire life. But I thought, I'm a city girl.

[01:02:03] I'm really from Jersey. I didn't think I was going to like it, but I'm looking forward to fishing. The beaches here are, down here are really beautiful. And of course you'll be surrounded by a bunch of military service members.

[01:02:13] We always have your back.

[01:02:15] So you also could travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, which is about two hours away. A lot of good events, a lot of festivals. Charlotte is about four hours away and Virginia is about three and a half hours away.

[01:02:27] Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton, if that is what you like. So yeah, that is the only thing I could say about North Carolina because I haven't traveled too much yet.

[01:02:38] Michelle: That sounds fantastic, wow.

[01:02:39] My brother in law is a captain in the Air Force and so he's done a lot of service down in Charleston, South Carolina and loves that area, yeah, just loves that area.

[01:02:56] So he's spoken very highly about that. But yeah, North Carolina sounds amazing.

[01:03:02] Shatara: Yes. Okay.

[01:03:04] Michelle: Okay. If you had an entire day to yourself, Shatara, with zero responsibility, how would you spend it?

[01:03:13] Shatara: Are we nurses? I probably would probably sleep.

[01:03:16] No, honestly, if I wasn't sleeping,

[01:03:20] I would probably sleep and then I would probably go for, I really enjoy, I just recently bought a bike. I enjoy bike riding. You can see this Peloton back here that I haven't used in months.

[01:03:31] But I do enjoy bike riding. Another thing that I really enjoy, I really enjoy gardening. I found my love for gardening last year. Right now I'm gardening peppers, tomatoes.

[01:03:43] I just harvested my first strawberry,

[01:03:48] broccoli, celery,

[01:03:51] cabbage,

[01:03:52] onions and garlic right now. So I will definitely get up, go for a quick bike ride, go in the garden, sit in the sun porch and just probably just drink some sparkling cider and just

[01:04:04] I like, believe it or not, I like silence sometimes because I have my kids and I'm around people sometimes I just like to be in solitude. I'm really much an introvert, extrovert.

[01:04:15] Like, I'm learning how to in this phase of my life, learning how to be my own friend. So I'm starting to do things more by myself and things like that.

[01:04:23] So that would probably be one of the things I do. If you had a day with no responsibilities,

[01:04:29] that sounds like a perfect day.

[01:04:31] Michelle: And, you know, I've talked to so many podcasters now that I would have never, ever guessed that they were an introvert. But it seems like a thread.

[01:04:41] Michelle: It seems like a constant thread. Okay, what's been your best purchase under a hundred dollars?

[01:04:51] Shatara: Oh, my gosh. What has been my best purchase under a hundred dollars? Oh, my gosh. Because every time I step out the house, I, Ta da. 200, $300. Probably this podcast mic honestly, it has definitely,

[01:05:02] I am learning how I was like, navigate through that. Also, I have, like this really cool red light. Listen, I like to do the red light thing on my face.

[01:05:15] It's only $60. I was going to, like, the spa to do that. And that was already $60 a month. So that's one of the,

[01:05:25] I know you said one, but if I had to pick two, it's probably my podcast mic for sure. And my red light. 

[01:05:31] I love this mic so much. Because I was recording my podcast on my phone with my voice. Like my first 20 episodes is on my phone.

[01:05:42] So now that I got this mic, it definitely helps me a whole lot better. So that's probably my favorite.

[01:05:46] Michelle: Yeah, man. A good mic is great to have. And I agree with you. I think a lot of people think that if they're looking to start a podcast, that they have to buy all this expensive equipment.

[01:05:58] Well, my mic, I absolutely love it. It was $99, so there you go.

[01:06:04] Shatara: Okay. Awesome.

[01:06:06] Michelle: Yeah. Okay. If you could put one piece of advice on a billboard for the world to see. What would Shatara's billboard say?

[01:06:16] Shatara: One piece of advice. I would say it's cool to be yourself. That's it. It is cool to be yourself. That would be my advice. 

[01:06:27] Michelle: I'm gonna be looking for that billboard Shatara, with your picture on it, saying, it is cool to be yourself.

[01:06:35] Shatara: Because everybody wants to be something, but it's cool to be who you are. So, yes, that would be what I would say.

[01:06:41] Michelle: I absolutely love that. Okay, last question. What are you excited about right now?

[01:06:49] Shatara: Oh, yes. So right now, right in this moment, my daughter. This is not a plug, but she started a bracelet business. And we have our first vendor event on Saturday. I'm super excited.

[01:07:02] I'm losing my mind. I don't know if you can see any of my hair missing, because it has been. Because as parents, you know, you want everything to.

[01:07:10] to be perfect so they won't be disappointed. But I have witnessed her go door to door and sell bracelets and make $100.

[01:07:18] I said I'm in the wrong business. So Saturday, we're going to our first vendor event. I have faith that everything is going to be well. I'm just grateful that it gave me the opportunity to go back to being a kid and being more creative.

[01:07:33] I always said I'm not as creative as I thought, but that's not true. So it's kind of like that imposter syndrome thing, making bracelets and, you know, just getting tapping into, you know, just going back to being a kid and, you know, do bike riding and things like that.

[01:07:45] So I enjoy that, not only with spending time with her, but it definitely gives me something else to do. So I'm really excited. I'm probably more excited than her, but I can't tell her that.

[01:07:54] I'm gonna have to tell her that. So. Yes.

[01:07:58] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. That's fantastic. I love that you put that you're reconnecting with your childhood self and. And that is so wonderful. It's so healing. And if we could all do that, yeah, that would be awesome.

[01:08:14] Shatara, thank you so much for playing the five minute snippet. It was super fun, as I knew it would be. I enjoyed being the grateful recipient of your joy today.

[01:08:25] Michelle: Seeing your beautiful smile. Yeah. Love it. And, yeah, I hope you just have a great rest of your day and have a great weekend. 

[01:08:32] Shatara: Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you so much. I'm super excited.

[01:08:37] Michelle: Take care.