When Success No Longer Feels Like You | Identity, Healing & Alignment With Lavada Hamphrey

There’s a version of you the world has come to know—strong, capable, reliable, successful.

But what happens when that version no longer feels like you?

In this deeply honest and powerful conversation, we go beyond surface-level success and into the quiet truth many high-achieving women carry but rarely say out loud. The pressure to hold it all together. The silent disconnection. The emotional burnout that comes from constantly performing and never truly feeling seen.

This episode explores what it really means to reconnect with your inner voice, rebuild self-trust, and return to alignment with who you truly are.

Together, we unpack:

• The hidden cost of high-functioning burnout
• What it feels like to lose your identity while doing everything “right”
• How trauma, conditioning, and expectations shape the way women show up
• The process of healing, self-discovery, and emotional alignment
• What it takes to reclaim your voice and step into authentic leadership

This is a conversation about personal growth, identity work, and the journey back to yourself.

If you’ve been feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, or quietly questioning your life—this is your reminder that you are not broken… you’re being called back into alignment.

You are not lost.
 You are returning to yourself.

The Loud Whisper Podcast: The Healing Space is your health and wellness podcast  the place where you can pause, breathe, and heal. Here, we explore conversations that nourish the mind, body, and soul, guiding you back to balance, clarity, and truth.

✨ Stay connected with me, Isabel Draughon:
 Website: www.isabeldraughon.com

 Instagram: @isabel_draughon

LinkedIn: Isabel Draughon

If you loved this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review—your support helps us amplify these soulful conversations. Together, we’re creating a community rooted in healing, wellness, and conscious living.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You are entering a safe space. Please take a moment to center yourself and allow every thought, worry, and care to fall away right now. Focus on taking deep breaths and allow yourself to feel the healing freedom that is waiting to be ignited within you. Welcome to the Loud Whisper, Reignite Your Voice Podcast. This is your healing space, providing you with hope and inspiration as you become more connected to yourself, connected to yourself, your safe vessel, helping you move to a higher consciousness to reunite your voice and discover you are destined to be inside you. I am Isabel Drone, your host. I am also an author, entrepreneur, and a life transformation and spiritual coach. Most importantly, I am a perpetual student of life, just like you. So let's explore together. Claim what is already inside you. Welcome to the Loud Whisper, Reignite Your Voice Podcast. This is your healing space, and I am your host, Isabel Drawn. Thank you so much for joining me today. If this is your first time being listening to our podcast, please make sure that you subscribe, hit the like, and share it with your friends. And of course, we are on YouTube and all of the channels. And um, I'm very excited today to have one of my sisters' very powerful, powerful, powerful woman, La Veda Humphrey. Thank you so much for joining me today. You for having me, Isabel. You thank you so much. I'm always excited, yeah, to have people on here. As I say, this is the healing space. It's a space where as human we come and unpack the things that most of us don't want to talk about, the things that the world doesn't talk about, but this is your space to be able to just be and to understand what is it to be human and what's what we're dealing with. So today is such a great day. And for those of you actually, I I for I forgot to uh mention you, is the people, if this is you're coming back today, listening to us again, thank you again so much. You could be listening to any podcast at this moment, but you're here with us. And I'm truly, truly grateful. So I'm gonna go ahead and jump right in it. And with this being Women's International Month, happy international month to all the women out there. This is, I feel like this message today is something that's really going to resonate and uh be powerful for you to listen to as we navigate this month and really every day of our lives. So thank you so much for being here, La Veda, and I am excited to jump right in. The topic for today is just amazing. I don't even know how to describe it more than just the fact that it's the word alignment itself. It's the word that what does that mean to live in alignment? You know, I always say, um, especially with being a coach and a speaker, the world always talks about balance. I don't believe in balance because when you think about balance, it's think about you being on a CISO. Yeah. And it's you're trying to find balance. So even when you get to a point where you do find that balance, it's not going to last for a very long time because somebody eventually is going to tilt. But when it comes to alignment, that that's a different ballgame. When it comes to alignment, I, for me, alignment is basically taking everything and every part of you and connecting those parts and living life authentically and with what works with you. So we're going to dive uh deep and talk more about that. So, hey sis. Hey, it is always a pleasure, always a pleasure and an honor to have you. So we talked about, um, I talked about the topic, and the topic is the courage. The courage, like it takes courage for us to do a whole lot of things. But I feel this topic is so important. The courage to live an aligned life. What does living an aligned life actually mean to you? And when did you know that you were not living an aligned life? Oh, what a great question.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

So the courage to live in alignment is when you stop editing yourself. Number one. Number two, you stop self-betraying yourself. And when you really, really stop betraying, betraying yourself, self-betraying, editing yourself, making yourself palatable, but accepting every part of you, the good, the bad, the ugly, and you can just show up in alignment, not faking it to make it, that that takes courage because we live in a world where sameness is celebrated. It's it's celebrated. I mean, she's just like me. Or he's just like me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah. I like that you say that. Sameness is celebrated, and what's so oh, that's so powerful. Sameness is celebrated, and when you think we're all different individuals, so we spend so much time trying to be the same that we forget and lose who God created us to be. That's extremely powerful. Yeah. Yeah. So when did it happen for you? You know, life is a journey, and you and I talk about life a lot. We talk about uh evolving and transformation. You know, we have those days, months, or years where we feel like, yes, we're on top of the world, we're on top of the game. And just like every human being, I always say, even the ones at the top have moments where they're like, what is it that I'm doing? Why isn't this filling my soul? Why doesn't this feel whole or full for me? When in your life did you know that I don't think I'm living in alignment with who I am? Oh, good question.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

I existed for a while, but I will say I have been living outside of myself for a lot, shrinking, making myself more palatable. But it wasn't until one evening I had I had finished the master's program maybe uh a year or so, and I just kept getting academic, you know, let me take this training, let me do this, let me do that. And then it was just one night I just heard deeply in my spirit. Who told you that? Oh, who told you that you need to get more accolades? More more paper, more certifications, more this, more that. And so I realized that alignment was something that I needed to really, really get just go from the inside out and really tap into my soul. What am I willing myself to that my will is not willing?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

What am I willing myself to that my will is not willing?

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Yes, and so that was it's it's it's been an evolution, it's it's growing, but I've realized alignment helps you not only stay in tune with yourself, but also create an atmosphere where people know how to address you, yeah, yeah. Because there's a consistency with you, there's a I don't think she would enjoy that because you're in alignment because your values and how you're created and all the things that make you you, they come together. It's like a puzzle. Okay, it's that puzzle that when you're out of alignment, that one piece that you've been looking for, but when you find it, the puzzle is together. The puzzle is together. There's clarity, there's clarity, there's courage, there's interconnection, and then there's connectivity to the people that you are supposed to align with.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

It's so deep on so many levels for the the way I look at it, and when it comes to alignment, I like everything that you were saying. And it's the fact that really knowing who you are and living with that. And you said something about sameness. I one of the reasons that as human beings, while we're always out of alignment and we're always chasing is just exactly what you said, that sameness. We've been given this idea that we need to be like everybody else, look like everyone else, and show up like everyone else. I was having a conversation with you just the other day, and I was telling you about uh whisper wellness, something that honestly, for about a whole year, God has put on my heart. And it honestly started with just soul conversations. But as human beings, you know, you have this idea and then you're looking at, you start looking at everybody else. What is everyone else doing? And then you start telling people, and that's why it even makes sense, even when it says in the Bible, that you just don't go around telling people your vision or what you have in your heart, because it's not for everyone to understand. So I'm giving up this information and I'm saying this is what's happening in my life, and I'm getting all these ideas. You know, I don't know if people receive it that way, you're too deep, you're too this. And when you look at reality, it's like, okay, people are really not talking about this. Uh, do people, some people even told me, uh, I wouldn't even come because that's too vulnerable. I don't think people want women want to be in that space. Yes, yes. And um, you know, this this past weekend was my second one, and I remember Friday night, I just I was praying to God. I said, I've decided to be obedient, to go by everything that you need me to be and who you need me to be. And this this is for you. It is, you bring the people, you bring whatever whoever's supposed to be there. I'm telling you, women came from all walks of life, and I say this to say is this. As I walked out that day, I understood the power of honoring your gift.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Father, I love that the power of honoring your gift, but the gift made room for you. Ooh, yeah, it makes room for you. And people like, did you know all these people that came from various locations? Did you know these people or no? See, it was because the gift, that's what the gift is designed to do, is to make room. But because sometimes the gift becomes so natural to us, you know what I mean? We become so natural to the gift that we forget that the gift is supposed to be unwrapped, right? And given away. And this time when you said, I'm gonna be obedient and I'm giving it to you, God, this is yours. Look what happened. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Oh yeah. Oh my god. I love that you broke it down that way. And it makes so much sense. And what I love about this space, right? The healing space on this podcast is just the authenticity and the truth. That has been, for years, you and I talked about it. And actually, you are the one person who allowed me to start moving away from a limiting belief that I had growing up in a culture where I had a child at a very young age. So while all my peers were getting educated and stuff and the culture that I come from, I always feel as though your humanity is valued according to how many degrees you have. Or I mean, people literally will fight, fight, whatever. And I think it's amazing, but they will do whatever it takes to make sure the kids go to their best schools and all the kind, all the stuff. And what God is showing me too is that is amazing. But we also forget the very education that we keep, like you were saying, the accolades and everything, it will never give you what your gift will give you. I don't matter how much education you have, you won't get it. And I was having a conversation with you one day, and we were talking about it, and I was like, sis, honestly, one of my limiting beliefs has been that, because I didn't go further and further and deeper into education. And then you said, Who said you had to get more accolades? You have spiritual academia. If you only knew how you shifted my thought process, how you spoke into me something I've never heard before. And from that day on, I honestly started saying, I am different from most people. I am different from the very people that my peers that I think are better than me because they're quote unquote more educated. What I have inside of me, there is no professor or education that can give me that. And I say that to say that when I when you gave me that word talking about spiritual alignment, um, like you have a spiritual academia, it also helped me started getting aligned with who I am. Wow. I always yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I always I am a heart-centered person. I tell people all the time, in everything that I do, I am heart-centered, meaning I'm operating from the heart. Well, the my mind is powerful, but a lot of things come from my heart. So what that did was it gave me permission.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

And that's why on your own permission slip. Your own permission slip. Yeah. And pulling from the wisdom that's already inside of you.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah. Yeah. See, we ignore what's inside of us. We ignore what's inside of us. We ignore that voice inside of us because it's foreign. So when it comes and says, Well, Isabel, you need to be doing this, all I'm hearing is everybody else's voices because that's how we were conditioned. So yeah, it is foreign. And that's and it's important. You know, we talk about proximity's power. It's important to have people like that in your life. That is a belief. And, you know, we live what we believe. So I lived that. Even as I'm coming, going out here in the world, doing my thing, and people are like, what you're doing is so powerful. Deep down inside, I didn't believe. Because it was the condition of until I get that degree, until I speak a certain way, until I show up this way, the whole being of who God created me to be is not worth it.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Well, you know, yeah, yeah. And isn't isn't it interesting how we can believe for someone else, but we can't believe for ourselves? It is. So, so listen, what like literally, I'm telling you, you have spiritual academia, and here I am getting all these certifications and this, that, and the other. But it it is so true. It's so true in the mental conditioning and what we what we have allowed to absorb within our souls and our cellular system, where the belief and the subconscious level, where these behaviors and these patterns, they basically become part of us, and before you know it, we're out of alignment. Crooked. We're chasing, we're chasing, but when you slow down and you really, really, really look at yourself. And I um I don't know this woman's name to contribute this thought process. Okay. But I wish I could give it to her. She said she was in a really bad accident, she couldn't walk, and she had to go to physical therapy. And her therapist said asked her, What do you want? And she said, I want to dance. I really want to dance again. I really want to get up and dance. And and then she said, He said, Why do you want it? She said, 'Cause when I dance, I feel free. That's my kind of girl. When I dance, I feel free. Yeah. And then he said, How are you gonna do it? And she says, I gotta get up out of this chair. I gotta get out of this wheelchair. And she said, Every time it got hard, he would ask her, What do you want? She said, I want to dance. Why do you want it? I want to be free. How you gonna do it? I gotta get out of this chair. And that is really alignment. What do you want? We really want to be ourselves. How are you gonna do it? You gotta tell yourself the truth. You gotta tell yourself the truth. And you gotta be able to assess even if it looks dark or feels dark. Eventually you will find the person who needed that light. That you have you have come through it.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

I love the fact that you said you gotta find truth. That's where the self-awareness starts. You know, good, bad, or indifferent. We're all in different spaces in our lives. Each and every one of us, you know. And it it's it's the knowing and understanding. And I mean, really, when we break it down, this just came to me. When we honestly break it down, if you don't find truth, what else are you living? A lot. Or you just wander. And the thing is, the exhaustion that we're feeling, the anxieties that we're experiencing, the depression that we go through, I believe to my core. It's that split the in-between, between who you were created to be and who you're performing to be. And who you're performing.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

I say this, Miss Alignment is uh society's greatest epidemic. You can see it in the workplace, you can see it on the streets. It is a human condition because we all want to show up as ourselves, our authentic selves, not this performative uh or uh or avatar, you know, make it look good for everyone else. Look, this is a messy day, and this is the mess that I have to break. However, it is who I am. You know what I mean? And just being real about it. Yeah. Being real about it. That's where real impact, where real impact happens when you really align up to what the soul calls for view.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

And the hardest thing about that, I love that we're having this discussion, at least for me, with everything that you're saying, the hardest thing, what was I saying? I lost my train of thought, but the hardest thing is, I find it fascinating that the hardest thing for us human beings is to be ourselves. But then when you think about it, we keep chasing and we keep trying to be this human being that does not exist. Let's really get deep in this when you think about it. We keep editing ourselves, we're living our life based on other people's expectations and opinions who we should be. We wake up in the morning, you could have a good morning. The moment you open your phone, you look at Instagram, it makes you feel like these are real things that people are experiencing. I'm 10 years behind, I should be here, I should be there. When we know these things, some are real and some are not. But ultimately, when it's said and done, it's how you live. So then we start editing ourselves, we start chasing, chasing, staying on that hamster wheel, constantly trying to be and become this person, but we are exhausted because this person does not exist. I tell my clients all the time, sometimes they will say, you know, women, they'll be like, What is so important to you? I want to feel safe. And I say, you know, the truth is you will never find safety outside. It has to start within. Ooh, say it. You will never, that's ooh, that's so delicious. You will never find safety outside.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

You have to find it within.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah. And then define it. What it looks like. And then define it. What's that exactly? What's that safety for you? You know, it's a lot of women working with them. I'm looking for safety, I'm looking for, I just want to be safe. There's no safety, there's no healing that can be found outside of yourself.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

That's why we keep chasing. Yeah. We we keep chasing for the external, but really the internal is crying. Pay attention to me. Give me what I want. Will wheel yourself to me so that. And and learn who you are. Who are you? Who are you at your core? Or who maybe you can't define that. Who do you believe you are? Ooh, I like that. If you can't define it, who do you believe you are?

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Yeah. And go from there. Yeah, who do you believe you are? You know, the most important knowledge any human being should obtain is knowledge of self. Knowledge of self. Understand who you are. For me, when I started on the journey of understanding myself, it shifted my life. I always say I'm still on the journey, even with the work that I do. But the feeling of moving from a victim to a victor, oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

It's like weight, like shape, like breaking the shape, like coming off.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Yeah, yeah. Because there's a cost. And let me ask you this, sis. What do you think the cost is, especially for women who are not living in alignment?

SPEAKER_02 23:02

You miss every opportunity that goes meant for you. The things that are supposed to be aligned to you, they come to you. I call it flow. When you are in flow and when you you just know that, okay, you don't have to second guess it. Like when you in flow and you are in alignment with yourself, you already know you're supposed to pursue that because that's that's that's within you. Because you feel it. Because you feel it. And you also feel when you're out of alignment, but you feel it. So all of this second guessing saying, What are your thoughts? Now, what are your thoughts? What are your thoughts? This is not to say that you don't get wise counsel, but you already know. You know that you know, and you function from that space, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

And you get away from the space of betraying yourself, you get away from that space of putting everybody else before yourself. And for women, um, for those of you that are listening, especially for this month, um, and every other day, honestly, I say we're we're celebrating ourselves. And I love the fact that we're celebrating ourselves, but I hope we could also take the time to tune in and discover, really, you know, who we are. Because we have the biggest thing for me is who is that woman underneath those roles? Who is she? Who are you underneath those roles? And when we start discovering that, when we start looking ourselves, because no one's life is perfect, we fear. I believe there is no human being that wants to be uncomfortable. There is no human being that wants to be in pain, there is no human being that says, I'm comfortable being in pain, I'm comfortable being uncomfortable. The only thing about us humans is we have we have mastered pain. And we don't know what joy and freedom looks like or feels like. So if you notice when you have conversations with people, they will tell they can tell you three, four, ten pages. They can probably write three, four, ten, maybe even forty-five pages of the pain that they've been through. Ask them to tell you, do you remember a time when you had so much joy? Do you remember a time when life felt good to you? We never remember those. We never remember those. We always sit um in the pain. And you can't get to the other side until you break through what you've been through. And let me explain that for a second. For me, as I mentioned earlier, it comes in different forms. You know, how could I trusted that journey? Of course, by trusting God, but even God sends people in your life in our lives if you didn't tell me you have spiritual academia. So we do. Oh, okay. So I say that to say that um we have to be in a space where we're okay with where we're at. It's okay. Nobody said you had to have figured things out by 20, by 40, by 50. Everybody's life is different. But I just want to remind I my thing that I can scream on top of my lungs is the fact find you before you leave this earth. We can only do it one time. We don't have a redo. Find you. What does alignment look for you? And alignment will be different with everybody else, right? How does it feel? We have to start learning to embody the experiences that make us feel good. We do something, we celebrate it for a minute. Oh, I got this and I did this, then we move on. So we never know how to live in the flow. We never know how to live in alignment. So that's why when there's darkness coming our way, we gravitate to the darkness because we're familiar in how to navigate the dark, because our brain will allow us and it will help us to navigate that dark. Veda, you're not good enough. Yep, that's why you're in this darkness. Yep. So we keep ruminating that and you find yourself doing that the whole day, two months, three months, one year. But what if? What if, even in the darkness, you found that joy within yourself?

SPEAKER_02 27:28

What if? What if? What if? And not only that, what if? Get curious about it and be courageous to pursue it. Curiosity is a word that I've been meditating on. Okay. Because when you talk to us about that, okay. I've been meditate because curiosity, like that thought. Yeah, where did that thought come from? Is that thought, you know, that's a pursuit of something. You know what I mean? A pursuit of something, or to look it up at the minimum. But to be curious about yourself and watch this. To be curious and say that version of me no longer exists. That part, that part, and we could be living off of old systems, thought patterns, thinking, thinking. We we we could be living off an old system. It worked, it was it was three years ago that was you, but you have evolved, you have moved and shifted. That and is it's it's getting yourself, your your spirit, your soul, your mindset in position to be that. But again, you gotta get curious. You gotta get curious why you don't like that anymore. You used to love doing that. Has the door closed? Is it time to pursue something else? Because we we never, and I believe I got this from you, Isabel. We never hit just purpose alone. We are constantly evolving. I go, it's like the scripture that uh we go from faith to faith. The measure of faith that I have today to be this woman, to be powerfully her, may shift in a year to be powerfully her. And I move from faith to faith to to learn more about her, to learn more about, oh, I didn't know I like this. I enjoyed this, but now I really enjoy this. That that that's evolution, that's growth, that's that's moving yourself forward and having the courage to live in alignment without without asking for validation.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Oh this is so good. So, as you were talking about that, what just came to my spirit, I find it fascinating as human beings, and you will you we know the word, yeah? Whoever you serve, for us, God, you know, we know the word. For me, I always look at it this way everything that God created evolves, but I don't know why we don't allow ourselves to evolve. We want to stay the same. We say we want to evolve, but evolution has a lot going on. Transformation has a lot going on. Let's think about a mango tree. I always give those examples like a mango tree. No, let's even forget that. Winter season. Let's just talk about what's happening right now. For the longest, I used to be like, oh my goodness, winter season, I'm so tired, I'm so tired, I hate the winter, I hate the winter, which I really do. I wish I lived in a warm climate. But I've also come to the realization this is the time that I get to be in solitude with myself and God. This is the time that whatever no longer whatever is no longer serving me, I need to be in that alignment so I can let it go. Just like the leaves. When I look outside now, they're bare. The trees are bare. That's evolution within itself. That same tree that was in front of me does not look the same now than it did last year, this time. Something has happened. Either the roots have grown and they spread further, right? The trunk has gotten longer, or the branches, whatever is happening, but it's an evolution happening. If we get to that point of understanding that even my life evolves. So have seasons where, and the seasons are real. You have seasons where you're pruning, you have seasons where you're shedding, you have seasons where you're growing, you have seasons where every time you look around, it seems like everything is going just fine. That's what life is about. And that's how I'm living my life. It's seasonal. If there's one thing that's constant in life is change. That's the one thing that's constant. Change is always going to happen. So when you look at the higher power and you look at everything that the higher power has created, it evolves. Season after season after season. I don't know why we've sold ourselves this story when it comes to us. Evolution doesn't require losing. Evolution doesn't require solitude. Evolution doesn't require sacrifice, obedience. Evolution doesn't require all these things for us to become who we are. When we get to that point of actually being human beings and not human doers, we'll get to understand that. You gotta be in it. You have to, you hear people talk about, and this is a coaching term, people talk about all the time, embodiment. You have to be it to become it. And in order to be it, you have to accept the losses, the gains when the leaves are falling, when people are leaving you, who are once the closest to you. You have to accept that because you are evolving as a person. You I am not the same woman I was six months ago.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Yes, yes, yes. And that is so good. When you were talking about the trees and the leaves and everything, I what came to me was not only does God put seed and opportunity in everything, in human beings. Women get egg or eggs, men get spern, uh uh, an apple has a seed, right? But there's seasons where everything dies. Everything. I was like, whoa, when you were saying that. It was like, so transformation is always an evolution, it's always happening.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Always, and I don't know about you. If you notice something anytime you experience a change that is so rapid that you feel like, oh, this just happened so fast, or maybe you don't realize what was happening through the process, you find yourself going through the same experience again because you didn't evolve through the process. Transformation, it requires you to grow. It requires you. That's why when sometimes when something comes too easy, you know, we either sit and question it, or you're like, okay, God sent me this. But if we could understand that as human beings, transformation takes time. It's evolution. We see it in the weather, we see it in the season, we see it, it doesn't matter if you don't even have season. If you all, if the only season that you have, maybe it's summertime, right? These people, they still grow palm trees. They still grow, but as those trees are growing, it doesn't matter where they're planted, they will go through a transformation. So what makes us think? What makes us think in order for us to become who we're meant to be? That, as you said, some things are gonna die, need to die. Not that they need to die. My old self had to die in order for me to be who I am today. I agree. I had to stop chasing, oh, I need this, I need it.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

It had to die, it had to come to a stop, it a full stop to say, you're enough. Yes, and you are worthy, and move forward.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So your old self has to die. So the anew comes. Who are you? And it's it's that, then we we fear that. I honestly believe we fear that because it's new. We fear that it's new. I talk about this, and I've said it for years and years, the Marianne Williamson quote. That I wrote it everywhere because she defined me. For the longest I knew deep in my call there was a calling about what I do. But that quote that she talks about, I'm just gonna paraphrase it, how she said that it's not that we're afraid, we're afraid of our own light. It's not that we're inadequate, we're afraid of our own light. I, if I could be honest, I was afraid of my light. I knew that if I stepped into that light, I had to become somebody else because that old self of who I was was not able to sustain where God was taking me. But I wanted to hold on to the people. I wanted to hold on to the things, I wanted to hold on to the pain. I wanted to hold on to this environment or the people that I thought knew me, they're the ones that will validate me and they'll make me if I do this. Like I, you you can't. But what was interesting is as the more I became, the more I let that old self die. All the people that I wanted to hold on to were not supposed to be a part of this journey.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

That part, that part, yeah, yeah. But it's also too the more you move, the more you had to go forward, the more you start learning yourself. Yeah, yeah, and then you you meet the people on the way. You do, you meet you people on the way that are in alignment with who you are, what's the purpose and the calling on your life, your communication, your doubt, you know, your tone, everything about you, the conversation, it shifts to meet you where you are. Because we attract who we are. We attract who we are. Yeah, that's good. That's that that sounds we attract who we are.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

Yeah. Yeah, we attract who we are. And um, a lot of us would be so much further in life if we were not ashamed of our being. We think I'm not good enough to show up, I'm not good enough to be in the space, I'm not good enough to do it. We always we are ashamed of our being, we're ashamed of our stories, we're ashamed of who we were. We are so, we live so much in the past that I always tell people use your pain, use it, repurpose it, repurpose it, repurpose it, repurpose pain.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

Yeah. I heard someone say um from pain to profit. That literally they were using their story um as a testimony to help somebody else. Sometimes, if they're a speaker, it you know, income comes from that, from pain to profit, use your pain as a reframe. Yeah, yeah, a setback. Willie Jolly says it bet a setback is a setup, is a setup, right? And so use that pain to as a comeback. Yeah, it's a comeback. Yeah, so it is interesting because I think about my childhood journey, you know, okay, learning, disability, and what have you. It just dawned on me not too long ago that that's your signature story, girl. That's the story that you tell people how you ended up from, special ed to run and learning and development. Do you understand what I'm saying? The thing do we do we not understand how the setback we think it's shame, but it's the story. It's the story that people need to because if you can do it, I can do it. And and and and it's the testimony. So, hey, I am all for it. And you have to have the courage to do it, though. The courage to live in alignment is to see yourself.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

I love that you brought that up. And I've heard you um talk about it. Yeah, that story of how the special ed, look where you're at, then you're speaking at conferences, you're going in different places, speaking, and listen, I'm not just saying this to say you have a powerful voice that the world needs. You you honestly do. And when you were talking about the pain, the reason most people we don't show up and talk about the pain because we don't think it's relevant. We feel irrelevant. It does, it's not packaged, it doesn't look like what everybody else says it should look like. But when you sit and look at life, the people who actually have excelled and have done well in life are the people who have not followed everybody else's path. Nobody else's blueprint. Nobody else is blueprint, you know? And and the thing is, you'll be surprised how many people your stories, your story changes. Because it's not just you, it's other people. But it's always, and not everybody can stand up and say, I was in special ed, this is what happened, but look where I'm at today. And that is why it's important for us to take heed of our calling, to honestly take heed of our calling. This is real to another level, because there are people in this world waiting to hear that story, because they're you. There are you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And we hold on to it because it does not look like everybody else's. It's not supposed to look like everyone else's. Because if it's there, if it did, what's the whole what's the point?

SPEAKER_02 41:40

What's the point? What's the point?

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Your fingerprint looks different.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

Your DNA is different, you might as well be different.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Yeah, you might as well be different. And I know for those of you that are listening, you hear it a lot. Even when I was going through my journey, even still now, through my journey, I say I have moments where I feel like this is the season. And then come Wednesday, something happened, I'm like, I don't even want to get out of bed. But you don't even want to do this video because yeah, it's the it's the ebb and flow, you know. And when you were talking about the alignment, alignment, I want to be so aligned with my life that when the wind, it doesn't matter how the wind blows, I'm still grounded within myself. I'm still aligned within myself. To the point is even when they take things away from me, I know this is only temporary. I'm not just thinking it, I'm embodying it. And that's how, you know, I'm I'm talking about alignment. But as I was saying earlier, for anybody that is listening, including myself, I pray that we can all get to a space where we trust our being enough to show up as is. As is. With no editing, with no understanding what's going to happen, and when you look at other people doing different things, to continue trusting yourself and to step out. Because if we don't show up, if we don't step out, you can't fix what you don't know needs fixed.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

I agree, agree.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

Yeah. You know, so it's just it's so powerful. And I just hope like a lot of people can start to think about what alignment means to you. You know, Luveda talked about knowing yourself to the core. Some people don't even, and she said, even if you don't, right? Some people don't know where to start. I didn't know where to start. What do I need? What are my wants? What are my desires? What gives me joy? I didn't know none of that stuff until when I became curious, like you said. Because curiosity creates the pathway for self discovery.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Yes, it creates the pathway. The more curious you are, not just about yourself, about people and things. Yeah. The more you learn, you know, about who you are, what you stand for, your values, what you will accept, what you will not accept, and your non-negotiable. So yeah, I've been exploring that word curiosity at at its core. What what what am I curious about? And and and what what informs me? Do I agree? And if I don't agree, it is okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Yeah. Perhaps. Yeah. And that's what differentiates us. You if we all agree there's a problem. Even you and I, we can't all agree because you know what happens? You're not learning, or I'm not learning. Exactly. We need to stretch. You need to stretch. You need to stretch. So I want to say thank you so much for joining me today. But before we leave, I want to give you the floor. So I normally ask us a question. I will ask you one question. What is it that you know for sure about yourself right now? And then also just for you to speak to the people out there from your heart, what you would love for people to hear today, straight from your heart, and then just let us know where we can find you.

SPEAKER_03 45:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

So where I'm at today, I am on a journey of just, I I I've just been asking God, I want to go deeper in healing. I want to know that I know. Know that I know, deeper in healing. If I were to speak to the audience today, I would tell them this. You don't have to be anyone other than who you are. And who you are, from the words of Caroline Wagner, is who you are. You can change that story, your position.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Any however you want. What is your story?

SPEAKER_02 46:07

And I would tell the audience too that their greatest gift that they can ever give themselves is time. It's time. Time, enough time to get to know who they are. Enough time to change their mind. Enough time to say, I don't want to do this anymore.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

Because nothing is settled until you decide.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

Nothing is settled until you decide. And so I would say to give yourself time and don't rush the evolution inside of you. And to listen deeply. Because the voice inside of you, you know, some call it consciousness, something said, you know, something inside, I call it the Holy Spirit. Listen to that voice. I would say listen to yourself. Spend time listening to yourself. Make space. Make space. And how to find me. You can find me on LinkedIn under Leveda Humphrey. You can also find me on Instagram, all the socials under Leveda Humphrey. And I would definitely love to for you all to reach out and say hi.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

I love it. I love it. Thank you so much and thank you for being here. Like she said, you can find on all the socials. And if you're looking for a dynamic speaker, trust me on this. Reach out to her. So once the podcast comes, I'll actually put all her information on there. The purpose I always say about the healing space is really not about me, is to be able to bring people that you guys can see, listen to, and maybe connect with. And this is a community. This is a community where you can find your tribe. You can find your people. I always say, while the podcast is my podcast, not everybody will understand me. Not everybody will be in sync with me. So the whole goal is to bring different people. I can say one thing, and La Veda comes here and says the exact same thing, and somebody hears it and it's like, hey, that's what I needed to hear. And I just say it five minutes ago. This is what I love about humanity. This is what I love about who we are. We are all connected. We all respond and vie with different people and different scenarios. So with that being said, I hope you will take the time to see what my life looks like if I live in alignment, in alignment to your values, to your beliefs. What are you convicted about? What convicts you deep in your soul? So again, thank you so much for being with us today. The podcast will be dropping on Wednesday. And during the process, right before that, in fact, I'm probably gonna start doing it today. I'll drop a few soul shows, so please share them. Please get your friends to listen. And again, from my heart to yours, thank you so much for being in this space with us. Thank you for listening to the Loud Whispery Night of Voice Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please be sure to subscribe so that you never miss a conversation. I would also be honored if you would consider leaving a positive rating and review on our podcast. As always, you can connect with me through the links in the description. Thanks again for listening. We're so glad you could join us today and look forward to supporting you on your greatest journey. Have a great day.