Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Your Job Shouldn't Cost You Your Health
Licensed Clinical Psychologist Dr. Kimani Norrington-Sands returns with co-host Social Worker Marissa Price to discuss their annual Job Liberation Summit, a virtual event designed to help Black women escape toxic workplaces on their own timeline with support and resources.
• Toxic jobs trigger our brain's fear response, preventing access to the areas of the brain needed for planning
• Chronic workplace stress causes physiologic harm which can lead to accelerated aging of organs
• Black women often stay in harmful jobs due to financial concerns or fear starting over
• The Job Liberation Summit provides comprehensive resources including financial exit planning, health insurance considerations, and retirement options
• Community support from other Black women provides validation and healing from workplace trauma
• Skills learned at the summit can be applied to other toxic situations beyond the workplace
Register for the Job Liberation Summit happening May 16-18, 2023, with bonus sessions through May 21st. Register here:
https://2025jobliberationsummit.heysummit.com/?ac=KmQBDvM5
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Hey Ange.
Speaker 2:Hey Liz, how you doing.
Speaker 1:Doing great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you look good You've recovered from our reunion weekend. Not quite yet.
Speaker 1:But the physical therapist says I'm doing better. That castor oil that you. The castor oil and the dancing all night it's going to work, it's going to work. The castor oil and the dancing all night it's going to work, it's going to work. So I'd like to say welcome to another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2:I'm Angella and that's Leslie, my best friend of almost 50 years. We are two free-thinking 60-something-year-old Black women who've decided to live our lives more boldly and more joyfully, and we invite you to join us along our journey. Today, we have some special guests to the summit that they're going to be hosting, because there is nothing more joy-sucking than being in a job that no longer serves you. We have you guys have seen Dr Kimani Nordin-Sands before. She's been here a few times, been our guest, and the last time she was with us in January, I think it was. We definitely will put a link to that last episode.
Speaker 2:Dr Kimani is on a mission and she clearly has brought others along, because the other guest that we have today is Marissa Price, and they are co-hosting a summit, a job liberation summit. It's a virtual summit and it is going to teach you everything you need to know to leave the job that's no longer serving you. That's no longer serving you, and I'm going to leave it there and I'm going to ask Dr Kimani to introduce yourself and then we'll go over to.
Speaker 3:Marissa. Thank you, angela and Leslie, so happy to be here. So my name is Dr Kimani. I'm a licensed clinical psychologist. I've been licensed for over 20 years. I'm also a toxic job survivor so I can definitely relate to being in a soul-sucking job and how harmful that can be. I am now a toxic job liberator for Black women and also the co-founder of the second annual Job Liberation Virtual Summit for Black women with Marissa Price and I have a YouTube channel called Lifting as we Climb Consulting Wellness Services where I talk to Black women no matter where you are in the world, no matter what your job situation is. I talk to Black women to offer support and to share resources Again my YouTube channel is Lifting as we Climb Consulting, wellness Services, all right.
Speaker 4:Thank you and Marissa, yes, I am Marissa Price. I am a social worker. I am a healing practitioner, also a freelancing advocate for Black women, so freelancing was my pathway out of a very toxic, traumatic work experience. Kamani's channel worked as her virtual assistant for a little over a year and then transitioned to my own business as a solopreneur and now co-hosting the Job Liberation Virtual Summit for Black women, providing resources, knowledge, safe community for Black women to be able to make their exit plans on their timelines from jobs that are not serving them right, and this has impacted Black women globally. And so just to see the mark that it has left already and this is our second year hosting it is really profound and something that means a lot to both of us, so I'm very happy to be here. Thank you for having me, yeah.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Listen, I just want to say something right out the gate, out the gate. What I want to kind of highlight, and what Marissa has just said, is the paths that have been created. Right, she talked about leaving. She talked about being virtual assistant. She talked about finding Dr Kimani, because Dr Kimani is out here. She is out here giving the information Marissa found. Her went from virtual assistant now hosting a second summit. These are new pathways that have been created and oftentimes when we think about our jobs, we think about these roles, we think about these kind of set ways of doing things. Especially as older folks like Leslie and I, we have these single ways that we think about doing things. We don't often think about tributaries and new pathways and work and pathways in how we think, and I just wanted to call that out because that's just what I thought. I'm like look at that, she found a way, she found a way, that's all.
Speaker 1:Well, what I want to say before I forget, because you are one of the people I really most admire. I've met you quite some time ago virtually. I've met you quite some time ago virtually, and I've been really following your work because I'm proud of the courage that you always show in sharing a traumatic story and I think the effectiveness to your audience and certainly I'll speak to me personally is that you are a person who has lived trauma and instead of taking that trauma inward and suffering inward, you've spoken about it and re-traumatized yourself and your audience and the people who listen to you and care about you. We feel that Wow.
Speaker 1:So it's really moving to me and if I've not told you that before, I got to tell you. When I visit your pages on LinkedIn and read some of the stories and the things that you tell, it touches me.
Speaker 3:Wow, thank you, I received that. I received that. Wow, thank you, I received that. I received that. And I know, angela, you asked me earlier if I know that I am inspiring others and I was saying how surreal it is for me to think that, on one level, yes, it fills my heart up, it fills my soul to know that I'm helping other black women. At the same time something I'm still struggling with again, I'm in a healing journey because I've left I resigned about two and a half three years ago still in that healing journey. Part of the healing that I'm still dealing with is coming to terms with. This is how I'm inspiring people, yet accepting what all that I had to go through to get to this point. Right, and so you know, like you said, angela, like really sit with that and think about coming to terms with that so I don't have to keep going back and questioning like why did this happen to me? Why did this happen to me? And I really need to work on that, because this is a very personal, to work on that, because this is a very personal, vulnerable state that I am.
Speaker 3:When I'm on YouTube, I'm often talking about my own trauma and a toxic job and I'm providing space for other Black women.
Speaker 3:So I'm hearing their stories and providing support, because that is part of my healing, because I know that I need to get this toxicity out of my system Right, and part of what I also know that me being vocal about it is my healing too, because as a job, there were so many things that they did. Yesterday I did a video with Elle and I was very open about a lot. I talked about the whole thing that happened to me when I was at this hospital. I laid it all out. I talked about the whole thing that happened to me when I was at this hospital. I laid it all out right, and to be able to talk about it and just to see her expression mirrored back to me was how ridiculous and traumatic it was, and to be able to share that it's therapeutic for me. And I know when she was mirroring back to me, I was like they were trying to break me. They really were trying to break me. They really were trying to break me.
Speaker 3:And so being able to see that and saying you know what? You tried to break me, but she didn't break me. In fact, you transitioned me to a different position, just like Marissa transitioned to a different position. So now I've transitioned. I've pivoted in different directions to help liberate other Black women, but it's healing for me too. Okay, it's healing for me too, and when?
Speaker 3:you talk about how, as Black people, or just anybody, when we get used to doing something the same way we go to a job we have like, okay, this is going to happen, I know I got to do this we come these very structured ways of being Neuroplasticity right, and this is what I want Black people to see, black women to see is that, even though you might be in a toxic job now, you are able to pivot and form new connections in your brain.
Speaker 3:So you might think there's no way out for me. I got to stay here. I'm 50. I got to stay here. There's no way I can go to us because all jobs are toxic. Right, there's other ways for us to be, but developing those new pathways when we're exposed to new information and we start doing things in a different way Now.
Speaker 3:We're developing new pathways in our brain and I'll also, if I could just take a moment, to talk about, just biologically, what happens to so many of anybody, humans, just in general. What many of us are going through in a toxic job is that we perceive that the environment is not safe for us. So we see it, since this is not a psychologically safe environment. So in our brain we have the amygdala I know Leslie knows this. We have the amygdala and the amygdala is perceiving oh my God, we're in a dangerous situation. Fight, flight or freeze. Right, we need to freeze, and I think that's what's happening to a lot of Black women, particularly 50 and over, that we get in this.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, this place is unsafe. Oh my God. Look at the job market. Oh my God. Look at the chaos and confusion. Look at my fear of 401k, Look at all these things. So that's causing a lot of fear. So the amygdala takes over. So now you're not able to access your prefrontal cortex. Your prefrontal cortex, that's where planning, organization and judgment happens. So if the amygdala is taking over, you can't even foresee the possibility of leaving a job that you've outgrown.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:That's harming you. Or, let's say, you got laid off, you are in crisis survival mode. So what we hope to do during the summit is to provide a safer space for Black women. Okay, because it's all Black women that we are all there together, similar experiences, but pouring into one another. You could turn down that survival brain as Black women and access the information. So now you can plan, you can organize and you can use your judgment about when is it that I want to leave or, if I've already been laid off, let me see what my options are, because many of us are in this crisis stuck mode and we can't even see what the options are or we shut it down, right. No, I got to stay here.
Speaker 4:No, I'm going to stick it out.
Speaker 3:No, I got to stay here because I retire. That's crisis trauma response mode and being able to call it out for what it is and to normalize it. It's a normal experience.
Speaker 1:It's normal, right, right. The only one thing I want to say about that because, man, I was just thinking about when you really talked about what goes on in the brain when you're in these circumstances I can also say what happens in the body and one of the things that we may feel proud or it's okay. And one of the things that we may feel proud or it's okay. We've been through it this long. I'm 50 years old. I'm 60 years old. I can deal with it just a little while longer. You may not realize, but a constant trauma and flight and fight. It changes your heart Increased cortisol and stress hormones. It remodels your heart and your vasculature. So in bodies like mine, 63 years old, I have a vasculature of an older woman. I don't realize that constant cortisol increases in my body is changing my blood pressure, it's increasing demand on my heart and I wonder, and this fatigue and stress, it becomes a cycle where you're doing your own self-harm. If you say, I'm going to stick it out, for who, for what?
Speaker 3:That part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and also when you cause, I was thinking about like even weathering. So your organs are aging with all that chronic stress. So you may not even know I'm 54, right, I don't know how old my organs are, but if I would have stayed in that environment with that chronic stress, I could imagine that my organs would have been much older right Than 54. So for us to keep in mind there is a physical toll and there's a psychological toll. There's even a spiritual toll, because when I was at that job and all that terrible stuff was happening to me, I would.
Speaker 3:I would literally ask like god why are you doing this to me?
Speaker 4:why are you doing this to me?
Speaker 3:I'm a good person, I'm a fantastic employee. This doesn't make any sense. Why you? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you doing this to me? I'm a good person, I'm a fantastic employee. This doesn't make any sense. Why are you making me suffer like this? What's?
Speaker 4:happening here. Why would you do that? And so?
Speaker 3:I was mad.
Speaker 4:I was like what is going on here?
Speaker 3:And so my therapist black woman therapist who's also very spiritual she's like listen, I need for you to look at this in a different way. Okay, I don't think that God is punishing you. I think that God is saving you. I think God is rescuing you from this environment because, you don't belong here. You belong somewhere bigger and better. And God is telling you. See, all those signs God's been giving you and you've been ignoring and you've been ignoring you.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you need this.
Speaker 2:Now he's shouting yes.
Speaker 1:Right, you missed the whisper.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and so being able to be in spaces like therapy or good friendships, where you're able to talk to people about what's happening to you, and for somebody to reality test back and say, girl, no, that's not you, that's that place, and I need for you to pay attention to the harm that being in this environment is having on you and for us to listen to that too.
Speaker 2:Wow. So and I one of the things that I want to ask about the summit specifically, because I know you have a lot of speakers coming, you give so much content away, you have your YouTube channel, you have a lot of resources on your website, so for someone who's thinking, I'll just watch everything you've ever produced, I'll just get educated through those channels, why would you tell them to still come to the summit? What is kind of the space that you've created within the summit? That would be different, special, would be more transformative than doing it the free 99 way.
Speaker 3:Right. So my YouTube channel is a way it's really a healing space for us as Black women to feel validated. So that's the main purpose of my YouTube channel is, like I see you, I hear you, I feel you, I understand you are not alone, right? The second thing is that I want my YouTube channel to know that Black women, we have options. We don't have to stay in these environments. And number three is I want to share resources.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I can share some things, but it's a lot of things I'm not an expert in, and so that's why I lean into other Black women. Like you got to help me with something, because when I was at that toxic job trying to transition out, I knew I needed coaching, so I started working with Black women coaches. I knew I needed help with my financial exit plan, so I started working with Dr Roche Brown as a financial psychologist, because I didn't know how to do that. And so when Marissa and I came together and Marissa came up with the idea for having a summit I'll have her talk a little bit more about that motivation year we thought about what are all the issues that a black woman would need to know and address and get a handle on so that she would have the information. So once she's ready to pivot on her own terms, when she's ready to go or if she's already left, what she'll be able to do.
Speaker 3:We covered all those bases, so it's not like somebody said oh, I got to go on YouTube, I got to go on Google, I got to try to figure it all out. I'm trying to copy it all together and try to figure out. No, you are learning from Black women who have done the thing and they're experts in this area. So that's where they are, the summit speakers. So how do we learn from one another? I don't know all this information and. I'm humble enough to say I don't know no-transcript.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so the motivation was to have information resources in one place so that, again, if you are in survival mode which a lot of these jobs place us in right, where Dr Kamani shared you don't always have the access, the capacity to make your exit plan, to know that it's in one place, right, and replays are available. So if you do have to step away during a live summit, you can go back and watch the information, but to know that you have that in one place, your exit plan is literally waiting for you when you're able to access it. I think that's the purpose of the summit, it also being in Dr Kamani's chats, right, I had no idea what was happening to me at the time. I was in that toxic job environment and the power of community, I think, is one of the other components of the summit For other people, other Black women globally, to be able to reflect back to you. This also happened to me.
Speaker 3:And it's not you right.
Speaker 4:There's a deep level of healing that occurs when you see that it's not just you and that this is, in fact, like something that has happened to so many of us over and over again due to systemic racism, sexism, right that exists in the world and so that really powerful component of community being in a safe environment. We have privacy considerations, so no attendees will be shown on camera and you can also change your name after registering, because some of these jobs right surveillance is real.
Speaker 4:And so to have that in place to know that you're in a safe environment. Low pressure, no pressure. You can make your plan on your timeline timeline and I think, both of us being mental health professionals why we realize that if you try to rush someone through a process of change, that can create even more trauma, and so to take this on your own pace, on your own timeline, but to know that the information is waiting there for you in one place. I think is the purpose of the summit.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect.
Speaker 1:There's something I want to share before you get into that, ange. I've been thinking, certainly since I've known you, dr Kimani. I've said, you know, I don't think that I've really been in a toxic job in my past, through the years, and then it hit me, believe it or not, some of the toxicity was coming from myself and, let me, it was a revelation that was. It's actually recent when I started thinking about you and our conversation A number of years ago. I stayed in a job because it was comfortable, because it was easy. It was not serving me at all.
Speaker 1:I was a single parent. At the time. I was from my own mind. I was afraid. I said, and my friends and I had my people saying you know, you want to go to medical school, you want to do this, you want to do this, why don't you do it? And I was stuck. I did not know how am I going to survive, how am I going to feed? I'm a single parent, I support my son and who was going to take care of him? All of these negative things were in my mind. I was just thinking. A summit like this where all of these people were put together and just showing me steps that it took me years to figure out on my own. Yes that part, yes that part, yes. So what I'm saying is it's like at first I really couldn't identify with not an external source creating havoc, but I was locking myself in a position.
Speaker 3:That's the common In a position.
Speaker 1:The fear. You're locked in and it's like I can't stay here, but I can't get out of it either. Yes, yes and yeah. That just hit me the other day and I was like, wow, Les.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it took years it really took years to break out of that. And I look back and it's like, wow, why didn't I do this sooner?
Speaker 3:But I was stuck, I couldn't recognizing the fear is a normal part of the process. So how do we embrace the fear as a normal part of the process For us? We feel the fear and then we go fight, flight or freeze and we think that means stay. No, there are situations that, no, you need to flee right. But in these job situations we have misconstrued the fear meaning stay.
Speaker 3:No, it is not it just means what do we need to do to prepare ourselves, which is why the summit is created to help prepare, so that all the issues that you could think about about replacing your income, multiple streams of income, what's about your health insurance, what's's about your retirement all those big fears are addressed and, as marissa said, you're a community with other black women, so you don't feel like you're alone on this path yeah that right there I, you know, sometimes because Black women we tend to be like MacGyver, you know we can.
Speaker 2:Jamaica, you say you can make life. You know you can figure things out. You can bubble gum this here, put a bandaid on that, put a rug band around that, put some tape up on there and you kind of cobble things together to make them work what this summit is about. How about if you just came to one place where everything that you needed to help you was there? How about giving yourself that gift? And that this change that you want to the access beyond the. I think the dates are the 16th to the 18th.
Speaker 3:We have the three bonus sessions too. We'll talk about the bonus sessions. What are those? So the bonus sessions are in the evening, so after the summit. There's three bonus sessions. So the first one is with Dr Roche Brown. So she is the Black woman financial psychologist who.
Speaker 3:I work with to get my financial exit plan together. So she's going to be talking about creating that financial exit plan based upon your timeline. When do you want to go? If you've already left? What are the financial considerations you need to get in place? She's also going to talk about what to do about your retirement and what to do about health insurance. So that's that first day, that's that Monday, that Tuesday is oh it's, oh my.
Speaker 4:God, jenna Sutherland, jenna Sutherland, jenna Sutherland.
Speaker 3:And she's going to be talking to Black women 50 and above, about ways that we can pivot, because once we get 50, that fear gets heightened.
Speaker 1:Oh my.
Speaker 3:God, I'm 50.
Speaker 1:I cannot do it anymore. Exactly I'm stuck now. It's just too late. I'm vested.
Speaker 3:You know I got my retirement, I'm waiting for my kid to graduate. I got all these things. So Janice is going to be talking about how black women, 50 and above, can pivot. And then the third day is our last bonus session. That's where Jackie Abram and she's going to talk about when you're still in a job and, let's say, you're not able to pivot out right away because most of us, it takes time to create an exit plan. What are the things that you can do to survive being in that workplace until you create your exit plan?
Speaker 3:So, those are the three bonus sessions after the summit, right? So you have the regular tier of tickets where you get the six, the eight, tell about the regular, tell about the tiers. I feel like I'm not doing it justice. So, Marissa, talk about the tears okay, yes, yeah.
Speaker 4:So the standard liberation pass will give you access to the Fridays. So Friday is the kickoff with Coach Yolanda She'll be leading us through a guided meditation session and then the two full days, so Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is really about reclaiming yourself, and we have 10 sessions on Saturday, and then we have 10 sessions on Sunday. Sunday is really about making your exit strategy, and so the Liberation Standard Pass gives you access to that replays if you need longer to access the information. To let it simmer a little bit, in addition to the bonus sessions, the three bonus sessions that Dr Kamani just laid out, on the Monday, tuesday and Wednesday, following the weekend of the summit, and, like she said, they're in the evening, they're on Zoom, so more intimate setting, and they're also recorded If you can't actually attend a live session the replays will be sent out.
Speaker 2:Okay, perfect, perfect.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I want to also kind of call out the care that I hear in the way that this has been planned right. I hear in the way that this has been planned right, the way that you have considered what's creating the fear to come to something like this right. Who allows people to come in and change their names. Who's thinking about that? Really Like these things should be an indicator to you that these people are mindful of the things that matter to you.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4:That's what these?
Speaker 2:little things. I call them significant smalls. They're these little things that people do to show you that they see you, and so when you said that, I'm like wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, who would think of that? But you know who would think of that, someone who has experienced that and they know what their personal concerns were and what was some of the barriers that kept them in that situation. So long you know what was really moving to me when you said, marissa, what happens on Friday when it's a guided meditation session? So, in other words, we want to quiet your mind and allow you to push some things out so that you could receive all of this package that you're about to undertake.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 1:You know you've got to come in quiet and open.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and I love the fact that and prioritizing ourselves.
Speaker 4:Yes, which? Is really a lot for us as black women because we always prioritize other people over ourselves Right.
Speaker 3:So this is a time for us to prioritize ourselves and get our plans together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like if I could just disclose something that happened before we started recording. Dr Kimani came from a session and she probably was just a minute late, but anyway, apologize for getting here late and so on, and we all recognize that she needed to just pause a little bit, right.
Speaker 2:I mean sometimes you just need to do that before running into the next, and that's what it felt like. It's like, okay, we're giving her space to just do a little woosah, that's what, that's what. Yeah, that is the those. So we're not going to be able to be there live, but we're definitely going to be consumers of this content because, whether you're in a toxic job or not, there's probably stuff that you're going to learn from this that could move you to any other toxic situation that you are in. I won't call out some of the common toxic situations that you may be in that may cause you to have to plan an exit strategy, that may cause you to have to kind of see options that you may not be seeing right now. So there may be other things and I don't want to kind of move anyone too much, but what I hear is toxicity.
Speaker 2:And I know that there are things that will be taught to you in the summit that can be used for other toxic situations that you find yourself in. I mean, is that true?
Speaker 1:You are completely correct.
Speaker 1:I got to tell you. I love that you said that, because many people who know that I was recently divorced after a long marriage and so many of the feelings of fear, so many of the ideas and the self-doubt and can I do it? And the increased cortisol levels through this, you know difficulty, especially during the ending of my marriage, whether they're jobs or marriages or relationships with other people or friendships or family situations that we don't know how to get out of. I don't have enough money to live on my own. I may have to pay alimony. What am I going to do? I have little children. Let's wait until the children are grown. How many times have we heard that?
Speaker 3:Yes, so the quality of your life while you're waiting for them and the quality of your children's life.
Speaker 1:What are you modeling for them? By staying in situations that mommy and daddy are not happy? They're not living their best lives.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad you brought up about what are we modeling specifically for? If you have kids, what are you modeling? For the kids. So when you think about being in any toxic environment, you have to think what are my kids saying from this?
Speaker 2:Older kids too. It's not just children at home, older kids too. And do I?
Speaker 3:want them to believe that it's okay to stay in any environment that's harming them. Yeah, is that what I want them to know, right? Or do I want them to know? You clock it for what it is and then you start preparing yourself so you can pivot out, but you need to have a plan. You need to have plans in place.
Speaker 2:Right, right, beautiful, all right, that's how we do it on time.
Speaker 1:You're my timekeeper, I know we're doing okay, we're coming up toward the end, but I just want to make sure that we're going to include all of the links to the summit. We we're going to include all of the links to the summit. We'll give information about how to reach you all personally, as well your contacts and your socials, because even when this summit is over, like I said, I benefit from knowing you and reading your content and and and things that come across my feed. It's very helpful, you know. I see that. The universal extension oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:We just recently got a comment from your episode that you were a guest on in January that said oh, I needed this. Yeah, and I just added well, guess what, you're in luck because it just happened back in January. They were like I needed this and I'm like yeah, yeah, we do.
Speaker 1:We're here for you.
Speaker 3:That's amazing how like the universe provides for when people need things.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Even like how I met Marissa. So Marissa was watching my videos and she was commenting on my videos and everything. And it was at a time that I needed a new VA. And I remember Marissa writing in the chat that she was a VA and I found out how to reach out to her. And you, marissa, writing the chat that she was a VA and I reached out. I found out how to reach out to her and you know I'm researchers. I found out how to reach out to her. I said can we schedule a meeting? And we started working together immediately.
Speaker 3:So it's like amazing universe. That's how we met. And now Marissa. When she was like I need to transition out of VA service, I was like no right, like oh no, but I am of. I like to support people in their growth yeah, so even though Marissa is a phenomenal VA. I just say you know what? This is not her path anymore. She wants to grow and I want to support her in growing and we can still work together, but it's in a different capacity that's right but, the universe brought it together.
Speaker 3:I've met so many the way I've met you guys I've met so many black women who are so supportive of me yeah it is absolutely mind-blowing. It is absolutely mind-blowing. I've created a virtual community of black women, some whom I've never met in person. But it's just amazing to know this many black women that I'm now connected to.
Speaker 1:It's true, it's true. And what I was thinking earlier was that you know how the number of likes and subscribers you have. It's really just a small representation of the impact that you have.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really. I mean it's really if you think about it. It's exponential, because I may like a comment, but I'm also speaking to other people and carrying that, so it's. It's just a small representation of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's amazing. It really is amazing because I'm such a private person. Honestly, I am such a private person. Like four years ago, honestly, when I was at the Talk to Job, people would send me like LinkedIn requests and stuff. I was like what is this LinkedIn? What is this Like? Why do people keep sending me these LinkedIn? What is this Like? Why do people keep sending me this book? What is this? I don't want anything to do. What is this Facebook?
Speaker 4:I couldn't stand it. But, look at me now.
Speaker 3:I'm always on social media, like what, like. Who is this person? But again, like now, I've gone through such trauma that part of my healing I've experienced post-traumatic growth.
Speaker 4:So gone through the trauma healing from the trauma.
Speaker 3:Now I'm at a higher level, doing things I never could have envisioned doing never ever.
Speaker 1:That's how the universe meets you. You take a step and he says all I need you to do is take a step, right, right, and I will meet you where you are and cover you Exactly, I believe that.
Speaker 3:Part of it, too, was I had to shift from fighting right Because my fists were like this I was fighting people.
Speaker 1:That's what we do, right.
Speaker 3:We fight these people, so I had to shift from this. I was fighting people. That's what we do, right Fight these people. So I had to shift from this. So I release, I release it. I release that toxicity, I release it, I release fighting these people and I surrender to God but, God to show me what direction I'm going at. So every day I wake up, God, you let me know what direction you want me to go in.
Speaker 1:Hallelujah.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Totally different perspective now. Totally different perspective yes, and.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you feel that.
Speaker 2:This is what's called co creation.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Right, the free will, that part that's co-creating, that is connected to the divine. But it's what are you bringing in? How are you stepping in? What are you?
Speaker 3:saying yes to, what are you saying no to?
Speaker 2:You know what I mean and seeing how the Spirit leads you in that, it's a phenomenal thing. And so, leslie and I just really want to encourage our listeners to look at the information about the summit that's in the description. We want you to. If you're not in situations that where this resonates for you necessarily, you're probably still watching because you know someone who is feeling this and you feel for them and you know that they need help.
Speaker 2:They're not listening to you anymore. You've told them all, you've tried everything um just send them this link. So they can learn more about the summit. That is your gift to them and um, and get the word out there is, there is, there's help, there's, there's so much um that has been thoughtful about the way that um, dr kimani and marissa work. You, you, you can hear that already. You're going to be taken care of, you're going to be taken care of. We encourage you to check it out and join the summit.
Speaker 1:Um, it's may 16th through 18th, 18 plus three bonus sessions through the 21st, now Right with the three bonus sessions.
Speaker 2:And yeah, you'll find all the links in our description. And, yeah, anything before we wrap that you want to share, dr Kamani or Marissa, I just love seeing you all in action.
Speaker 3:I mean just to see sisters together for this long and pouring into one another, and just to me it really models sisterhood. I believe in sisterhood. I'm a proud alum of Spelman.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 3:I believe in sisterhood and this is the extension. The summit is an extension of sisterhood.
Speaker 1:Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 3:And I'm just so grateful to both of you. And I'm grateful to both of you that you were both able to pour into me today when you know I was like it's still right A part of the healing journey. Why did I have to go through this? I'm happy for what I'm doing now, I love what I'm doing right now, but why did I have to go through this so really reminding me that there's an area of healing that still needs to happen?
Speaker 2:So I receive that. I want to thank both of you for that.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:Marissa anything else before?
Speaker 4:we close. Yeah, thank you so much for having me as a guest. This has been a beautiful, healing experience for me, awesome, and yeah, I just want to share. I guess you don't have to do it alone, right? You don't have to plan your pivot, you don't have to gather the information in isolation, because that can really be a draining process that can kind of sink your ship before you even get it sailing, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, kind of sink your ship before you even get it sailing, right, yeah, um, so, being in community where we are pouring into each other just as we've, done in this interview right in, in reflecting back to each other that we are so incredibly powerful that's often why we're targeted in these workplaces right, because of our brilliance, because of our power, because we see things much differently than other people, um, and to reframe that as a strength and to get in community with other black women who are on the same journey. Um, it's so special. It's a very special place that we've curated, and we love for you to attend the summit thank you so much.
Speaker 3:I think, mercy you call it truth tellers that black women were truth tellers. I think that's what kind of makes us a target in the workplace, and you know what's so magical about this space right now. I was just literally just thought about this. We have boomers, we have Gen X and we have millennial. So to show across all the generations how we're able to come together and learn from one another and uplift one another for sure.
Speaker 3:It's a beautiful thing well, I can't wait to see you all again can't wait to be here again, yeah this is a great way to close.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. This has been another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn, brooklyn. This has been another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
