25: Who Decides If You Are Qualified Enough to Teach This Work?

Are you holding back from integrating a modality, lineage, or practice into your business because you’re not sure if you’re “allowed” to?

In this bold and thought-provoking episode, I unpack cultural appropriation, third-party permission, and the deeper subconscious programming that keeps spiritual entrepreneurs from fully embodying their work.

We explore:

✨ Who actually grants permission in your life and business
 ✨ Cultural appropriation vs. cultural evolution
 ✨ The difference between honoring lineage and operating from fear
 ✨ Why culture is a living, breathing entity — not a static box
 ✨ How to create your own moral code for integrating modalities
 ✨ Releasing subconscious blocks around claiming your expertise

If you’re a spiritual business owner, healer, or creative who feels called toward a lineage, plant medicine, somatic practice, or sacred modality, but you hesitate because of fear, cancel culture, or not feeling “qualified enough”... this episode is for you.

This conversation bridges manifestation, embodiment, subconscious rewiring, and identity expansion. Because scaling your soul-led business requires the courage to claim who you are becoming.

The real question isn’t “Am I allowed?”
 It’s “Who told me I wasn’t?”

Want to go deeper? Apply for The School of Expansion - www.gabriellemartorana.com/TSOE

Send me a DM & let me know you tuned into the episode, I would love to hear from you - www.instagram.com/expandwithgabrielle

Transcript

Gabrielle Martorana (00:21.134)
Hello, hello.

Has there been something that you want to either dive into include practice B do you have inside of your business that you've been holding back because you're not sure if you're allowed to. So is there a modality that you want to use? Is there a lineage that you want to offer something from? Is there a concept? Is there a practice that maybe you want to integrate into your business?

into the way that you do things, but you haven't because you're not sure if you're allowed to. That's what we're gonna be diving into in this episode. I would love to explore rewriting the parameters of what is culture, what is...

Gabrielle Martorana (01:17.538)
What is culture and who is allowed to do and say what? This is a juicy topic. This may be very triggering, but what I hope this does is I hope it opens your mind, broadens your perspective to rewriting this old narrative that is very, very foundationally based in this energy of lack and separation. So to start with,

Gabrielle Martorana (01:49.976)
So to start with, you might work in a very unique industry. I think a lot of my listeners, you guys work in either healing modalities or you work in industries where you get to include multiple modalities, multiple practices, things you can weave into your work. Now, even if it's not spiritual, even if it doesn't have to do with healing.

There is this process that we have to go through as entrepreneurs of deciding when do you know enough? When have you done enough? When have you studied enough? When have you practiced it enough? When are you allowed to do it, to share it, to be it, to own it? And this is such an interesting question because we have this whole setup in society that tells us that you need a certification, you need a degree.

You basically need some other third party's opinion to tell you what you are and aren't allowed to do. I mean, think about that on a very, very fundamental level. The way that our society is set up and structured is that for most big important things, you are not allowed to decide on your own if you're ready to do them or not. You need somebody else to grant you that permission. Permission. So we're talking about...

third party permission, we're talking about social expectations, we're talking about cultural norms, and as they relate to allowing yourself to do and be what you want. This is so, so, so big. I see so many female entrepreneurs, including myself, where I hold back from including a modality, practicing a modality, embodying something, because I'm afraid of the repercussions of what other people will think.

One place where this showed up huge for me and I really had to walk myself through this was with cacao because there is so much rhetoric and narrative around cultural appropriation when it comes to plant medicines like cacao and things related to different indigenous cultures that it can be a minefield to navigate. And so I really want to break this all apart into little pieces and talk about it because it is a little bit taboo. is a little bit triggering. It is definitely out there.

Gabrielle Martorana (04:09.73)
But I think it's really important. I think it's something that we need to rewrite the status quo of what these definitions mean because they are a hindrance to the growth and evolution of us as a collective moving forward in our creative process and uniting humanity. Okay, wow. Let's dial it back a little bit. So the first thing I want to tackle is who is allowed to do what? So

What might come to mind is this idea of cultural appropriation, this idea of certain ethnicity, certain skin colors, certain lineages. If you were born here, if you had this color hair, if you have these type of eyes, you're allowed to do say beware certain things. And if you don't, you're not. And something I want to bring to your attention is defining culture and defining lineage.

and practices. And something that really cracked this open for me was a book called Sapiens. And he described culture in a way that I had never heard it described before. And when I heard it, it was just like zing through my body of, my gosh, this is truth. And basically what he says is culture requires us to focus on a snapshot in time.

And if you focus on that snapshot in time, you can then say, what is that culture of that place that left the people who dwell there? But if you zoom out and change your perspective of that timeline, so well, the culture of that area, the example that he gives that I think is very well done is the cultural Argentina. So right now in 2026, we think what is the culture of Argentina? We think of probably high quality beef,

and me and steak. think of what is the dance they do there? The tango? think correct me if I'm wrong. There's a dance that they do there. They're very well known for. We think of European architecture. We think of maybe specific types of clothing and a specific dialect of the Spanish language. Okay, that is true today. That was probably true in the early 1900s.

Gabrielle Martorana (06:36.674)
Maybe it was even true in the 1800s. But if I zoom out the lens and I look at Argentina in the year 800 BC, that is not true. There actually were no cows. There was no beef in Argentina. There was no tango. There was no European architecture that did not exist. That was not the culture of Argentina. The culture of Argentina in 800 BC was dramatically different than it is now.

And so that means when you're defining culture and you're defining who owns what and who's allowed to do what, where, what, say what, what you really have to define is what timeline are you looking at? How zoomed in on the timeline? Are you, how focused are you on the separation of the human species? Because if we zoom out far enough, if I zoom out a hundred years, a thousand years, 10,000 years,

nothing of which we can define today in these perfect little neat boxes of borders of countries and of cultures and of lineages. None of that exists and none of that is real. All of that is made up. And I think Sapiens is a really, really good job of really articulating that point that we have all of these globally accepted truths. And I put quotes heavily around these truths.

things that we've decided. We've decided that this paper is a currency and that it has value and we call it money. We decided that there are these borders between these pieces of land and they're called certain names and there are certain bodies of people who are allowed to govern them. We've decided that there are cultures, there are well-known rituals and practices and things of those areas and that they get to claim them and that we decided that those people own it and other people don't.

And the detriment comes when that starts to separate people and starts to put up these walls, these walls of depending on what your bloodline is, depending on what family you just happen to be born into, you are allowed to do certain things and you're not allowed to do certain things. And why I'm bringing this up today is actually really interesting because I had a conversation with a friend who wanted to start doing practices where she asked the spirits of the land.

Gabrielle Martorana (09:02.286)
if she was welcome to come and stay there. And she had a lot of internal backlash, internal dialogue of fear of, I allowed to do this practice because I am not the right skin color, because I didn't come from the right lineage, because I am not considered a native people to my homeland, because she's from Canada. She was born and raised in Canada.

but she's not indigenous to Canada, if you follow back the bloodline. And so is she allowed to do this? And I think that that's a very, very intriguing fundamental question. Is she allowed to do that? In my opinion, which I think you've probably gathered at this point is yes, absolutely she is because I see us as a global humanity. I see us as a greater people and I see it to be very limiting.

to look at the current borders and structures and social contracts we've agreed on as, okay, you're Guatemalan and you're American and you're Filipino that we just made up because none of that is real. It is one earth. We are one people. And to let those parameters create divides, to let those parameters stifle embodiment and to stifle culture from living.

So this is another thing that Sapien says that I absolutely love. He talks about how culture is not stagnant. Culture is a living, breathing entity that is only alive by those who practice it. And so that means cultures live and die, which we have witnessed, we've seen in the history books, we've seen our present day lives based on how many people are in existence who are living, breathing embodiments of this culture. And if there is nobody alive today practicing that culture, then that culture is technically dead.

Right? It's like somewhere in a history book, but it's not a living, breathing entity like it was before. And the only way that culture stays alive is by people falling in love with it and practicing it, embodying it, being it, making the food, learning the dances, singing the songs, wearing the clothing, et cetera. That's what keeps the culture alive. And so if we put these walls up of because of your lineage, because of

Gabrielle Martorana (11:22.168)
the way that you look, you are, aren't allowed to participate in this culture. I think we're doing humanity as a whole a massive disservice because there are a lot of people who fall deeply in love with a lot of different cultures that don't match their bloodlines, but that could be the embodiment and the continuation of that culture into the future, teaching their kids and their kids' kids, breathing that breath of life back into it. And I think that that's so magical and so beautiful. I love culture. I mean, that's why I love to travel.

I love the differences between different groups of people around the world, but I also love the open arms and welcome energy of, I want to show you what my people do, what I do, what our recipes are, and I want you to experience it. And I want you to breathe life into this too. So when we're thinking about all of this and the context of your business and the context of you speaking your truth, showing up authentically,

and doing and being and saying what you desire, these can be massive roadblocks. mean, cancel culture is real. And if you feel this fear of rejection of being potentially being rejected because you do something out of line or you do something breaking the status quo or you do something that's not necessarily allowed by whoever is making up these rules. That's that's something that will definitely block you.

And that's something that would definitely block your ability to create the things you want to create and show up the way that you want to show up. And so personal story around this that I had to experience and kind of walk through myself was all related to cacao. So I fell madly in love with cacao. I wanted to know everything about the lineage, the history, how it's worked with, how it was worked with thousands of years ago, how it's worked with today, and then carve out my path.

of how I want to be a part of that and how I want to show up in that and how I want to spread the magic of cacao. And having deepened my relationship with cacao so much, I feel very connected to the spirit of cacao, to mama cacao, Ish cacao, the goddess, my goddess of cacao. And I truly feel that I was called by her. I was called into this by her because the serendipitous sequence of events that led me to studying with different shamans and curanderes and healers.

Gabrielle Martorana (13:46.804)
in Bali, Guatemala, the Dominican, Mexico, all over the place to learn the depths of her is just so incredibly beautiful. And I'm so thankful that I leaned in and that I said yes, because there were a lot of parts of me that were very, very scared that like, are you allowed to do that? Are you allowed to learn about that? Are you allowed to hold cacao ceremonies? And of course,

I did go and validate externally validate. I'm not going to lie. I went and studied under a Mayan shaman and I got his blessing and he told me, I'm not teaching you this knowledge to keep to yourself. I'm teaching you all about Kakao, how to work with her, sit with her and hold ceremonies so you can go out to the world and spread it. And I expect you to do that. And so I like a hundred percent admit that I felt I needed third party permission to be able to do this. And I'm not even

saying that that's wrong. I'm not. I'm just saying that isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? That's something to think about. Where in my life am I holding myself back? Because I feel like I need a third party's permission to tell me that I'm allowed to do this. Where am I okay with that? Because maybe there's places where you definitely are okay with that. And where am I not okay with that? And where do I do want to grant myself my own permission?

And that's a fascinating topic too, because how do you do that? How do you grant yourself permission to study something, to share something, to embody something? Like what parameters do you use? So I went through this process of deciding what my moral code is. What are the, what's the checklist of things that I want to maybe have studied?

have done, have practiced, have embodied myself before I give myself my own permission of yes, I now feel confident in rooting into this and standing tall and committing to this and representing myself in this way in association with or in weaving these practices into my greater methodology or modalities. And so I literally made a list.

Gabrielle Martorana (16:09.398)
I sat down and I thought, what would I need to feel confident and secure and ethically and morally connected to claiming something? Claiming something as maybe that I'm an expert enough to hold space for somebody else. I'm an expert enough to be a voice for this. I've embodied and claimed this enough to this is kind of, this is like a part of me, if that makes sense.

And so I offer this to you. If there is some area where you want to be known as a thought leader, represent a certain objective or movement, or you want to preserve a certain lineage or culture, you want to integrate this into your practice.

Create a moral code. It kind of reminds me of pirates where they're like, it's more like guidelines. Like they had these, they had these guidelines or this code of being a pirate, right? It's like you get to write the code. You get to write the moral guidelines of what it means to be allowed to do something. Like what are you allowed? What are you allowed to say it? What are you allowed to put it on your business card? Do you have to go pay some college or university, some institution?

tell you you're allowed to? you have to pay a coach to tell you that you're allowed to? Do you have to pay a shaman to tell you that you're allowed to? I mean I signed up for a cacao facilitator training and went and studied in Guatemala for like a month and I mean I did that because I was obsessed. I mean I am obsessed and that's what I wanted to do but that's what I did that's what I felt like I wanted to do and that's what connected me on a deeper level and

and facilitated that confidence to say, I hold cacao ceremonies, I am a steward of Mama Cacao. And that is very much a part of who I am. On a very personal level, just start with cacao this morning, to on a public level. So what is it for you? What is your code? What are the guidelines? What are the parameters? When is it enough? When is it not enough?

Gabrielle Martorana (18:27.374)
Those are some really deep thought provoking questions. And it can be more or less depending on the topic. Maybe we're talking about being a trauma informed practitioner. Maybe we're talking about deep, deep, deep somatic release. Maybe the checklist is a lot longer. Maybe we're talking about, I don't know. I can't even think of something, but something much lighter and the checklist is shorter.

Gabrielle Martorana (19:02.958)
know that this topic can be a little bit triggering, a little bit out there, but I really want to encourage you to think about what is your perspective of culture? What does culture mean to you? Do you think it's something that needs to like sit up in a box on a shelf and be defended and that only certain people in the sandbox are allowed to play with that toy? Or do you think it's a living breathing entity that life that needs to be breathed into it?

and anybody who is willing to honor and respect and learn about the stories and the history and then bring that forward into the future is welcome. I mean, what do you believe? What do you believe around when you are or aren't allowed to do something? When you are or aren't allowed to be something? That's a funny part about my friend and wanting to connect to the spirits of the land is that's honestly not even from one specific lineage or culture.

I've studied many, many lineages and cultures and that is deeply ingrained this sense of like earth wisdom connection to earth connection to the spirits and essence of earth is actually something that can be found in every corner of the globe at different periods of time. But in her mind, it was distinctly, I think Peruvian maybe is where she learned it coming from the indigenous in Peru. So in her mind, it was like owned by them. And in her mind,

She is like an unwelcome guest in Canada and in the lands of Canada. So there's some friction. There's some tension there. And that leads me to another point of are we doing ourselves a favor by saying that some land is owned by one group of these humans and this other land is owned by this other group of humans? Or would it be more beneficial to Earth as a whole and to Gaia as a whole if we all just sunk in?

to where it is we want to be, where it is we want to live, recognize that we are a global species and take care of and protect that land and honor that land no matter where it is. If I'm living here in Bali, the land that I'm living on, I treat it as if it's the land that my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will be on. Could you imagine the difference in the building codes, the environmental practices, the pollution, the trash, the waste?

Gabrielle Martorana (21:27.424)
If we all treated the land as if it was the land that was going to be in our family for generations, I think there's this lack of claiming. Because so much colonialism happened, colonization happened, because there was so much shifting, because there is all this confusion and wounding around the taking and the painful acts that have happened over the last several hundred years, I think there's been this pullback.

And am I allowed to claim this? Am I allowed to sink into this land? Am I allowed to connect with it, to love it, to cherish it, to take care of it? Am I allowed to do that? And for me, I want to step into that. I want to step deeper into connecting with the land, cherishing the land, speaking to the land spirits, giving offerings. It's like devotive practice. I want to do that here in Bali. I want to do that when I move back to Georgia. I just want to feel the earth.

I want to connect with earth. want to connect to her seasons and her changes that I don't think we're doing ourselves any service as a collective by denying ourselves that or by having that pullback of like, am I allowed to do this? think blanket statement, if you're available to honor, protect and connect with very deeply the earth, I don't think it matters where you are or where you came from. She needs that. She wants that.

Gabrielle Martorana (22:56.654)
So to wrap up this wonderfully diverse, deep thought provoking episode, I would like to leave you with a few...

I would like to leave you with a few thoughts. One is who grants you permission of what you're allowed to be, do, say, and have? What are the parameters in your beliefs around maybe culture, lineages, practices, or even more socially accepted topics like knowledge and being an expert in something and claiming something? When is it enough? When is it not enough? What's your code?

What is your checklist? What could you feel confident in? And what is maybe blocking you from integrating things deeper into your business, deeper into your practice, deeper into your personal way of life that maybe don't need to block you anymore? I hope you enjoyed this episode. It was such a pleasure. I would love to hear from you. I am ExpandwithGabrielle on Instagram and I love, love, love when I receive comments and DMs.

about the episodes that you listen to, what resonated, what questions you have. If you want to chat about this, I am so available. So I'd love to hear from you. Until next time.