Ep 7: Girl Talk: Burnout, Boundaries & Dr. Bronners

Have you ever felt the tug-of-war between your calling and your capacity? Between pushing through and surrendering to rest? This one’s for every Christian woman who is a leader, faith-based entrepreneur, and creative navigating transition, burnout, and the beauty of building with God.

Welcome back to Crafted for Glory — the Christian leadership podcast where faith meets business, creativity, and community. In this episode, we cozy up for a girl’s talk with two inspiring women: Ericka Nicole, founder of Silkenn Skincare and host of The Boss Babe Reset, and Kindra Monét, a content creator and beauty educator navigating her own path of rediscovery.

We’re talking skincare, identity, marriage, and purpose — and how to stay spiritually grounded and emotionally honest while growing something meaningful.

In today’s episode, we explore:
 ✔️ The realities of pivoting and rebranding in business
 ✔️ What no one tells you about burnout (and why rest is holy)
 ✔️ How to keep showing up when your identity shifts
 ✔️ Why boundaries are a spiritual discipline
 ✔️ The challenges of growing a brand while nurturing relationships and marriage
 ✔️ Embracing feminine leadership while building in a Kingdom mindset

📖 Scripture Focus:
 Matthew 11:28 — “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

👥 Join the Conversation!
 Are you in a season of pivot or rediscovery? How do you maintain your Kingdom mindset while growing your brand, nurturing your relationships, and honoring your rest? Share your favorite takeaways and tag us on socials using the hashtag #CraftedForGlory.

🙏 Let’s Pray Together!
 This episode is a reminder that your rest is holy, your voice matters, and you’re never building alone. If you’ve felt unseen, burnt out, or unsure of your next move — this one’s for you.

📩 Subscribe & Share!
If this episode blessed you, be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast! Share it with a friend who needs to hear this message.

Socials:

 Connect with Jasmine Green: @theoriginaljcg

 [Website] (www.jasminecgreen.com)

 [Instagram] (@craftedforglorypodcast)

 [YouTube] (https://youtube.com/@theoriginaljcg?si=HKs89aZZW_371NnE) 

 [Email for Inquiries] (info@craftedforglory.com)

Connect with Our Guests:

Ericka Nicole
 🧴 Founder of Silkenn 
🎙️ Host of The Boss Babe Reset Podcast
💫 Follow her journey on Instagram @theerickanicole

Kindra Monét
 🎥 Content Creator & Beauty Educator
 💫 Follow her journey on Instagram @themoneedit

#FaithBasedEntrepreneur #KingdomMindset #ChristianLeadership #ChristianEntrepreneurship #BiblicalEntrepreneurship #GodAndBusiness #CreativityAndLeadershipPodcast #PurposeDrivenLeadership #CraftedForGlory

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Socials:

 Connect with Jasmine Green: 

 [Website] (www.jasminecgreen.com)

 [Instagram] (@craftedforglorypodcast)

 [YouTube] (https://youtube.com/@theoriginaljcg?si=HKs89aZZW_371NnE) 

 [Email for Inquiries] (info@craftedforglory.com)

#FaithBasedEntrepreneur #KingdomMindset #ChristianLeadership #ChristianEntrepreneurship #KingdomNetworking #FaithOverFear #CraftedForGlory #ChristianBusiness #Entreprenurship #FaithandBusiness

Transcript

Ep7

Oh my goodness, I'm so excited. I cannot believe that we're here. Like we're literally on the set of Crafted for Glory and this is about to be a girl's talk.

Yes. Okay. We've got my friends here.

We've got Ericka right here, my girlfriend, who is also the owner of an amazing skincare company, but I'm going to let her tell you about that. Then we got my girlfriend, Kindra, looking gorgeous. Come on, baby.

Let's get it. We're going to get into the skincare routine. Look, I actually just tried out some of Ericka's Silkenn products.

I did a one week test and baby, it did what it needed to do. Okay. Okay.

I'm excited. We want to chat and we want to talk about that. But I got my girlfriends here and you guys are tuned into a really cute little coffee and tea time chat.

So it's no organization here. We just about to have a good old girl's time talking about some fun topics and I can't wait to do it. I have some amazing creators here and they have their own journey and I would love for them to kick us off with a little brief introduction about yourself.

Who wants to go first? I hate introducing myself, but I'll go first. Okay. My name is Ericka Nicole.

I am the founder and CEO of Silkenn  Skincare. We are an environmental defense and microbiome based skincare brand. I'm also the host of the Boss Babe Reset Podcast where we help high achievers prevent burnout.

And yeah, that's what I got. Yeah. Okay.

I mean, the girls, she eats. I just want y'all to know. Yeah.

Okay. She's also got the elevator pitch perfected. So I love that.

I love that. I should take notes and practice mine. But hey, I'm Kindra Monet.

I am a beauty educator, content creator. I'm a wife. I'm a mother.

I'm a speaker. And honestly, I'm really on a journey. I'm in such a season of transition right now and deciding what works for me and what doesn't work for me anymore.

So we're ebbing. We're flowing. By the time this comes out, I might be something else.

Who knows? I love it. Okay. I'm not going to say me I was five minutes ago.

Don't hold me to that. We love that. We love that.

We love a good moment of growth. That's why we love to be crafted for God's glory. Listen, I'm so excited to jump us in.

So we're going to play a little icebreaker game and I'm really, really going to just lean into y'all knowing that y'all got this answer because I know y'all, okay? So we're going to kick it off. I want you to give me your top three skincare products you cannot live without. Top three skincare products.

Girl, I am so biased. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Why would you do that? Because I want you to give us all a tea. Soaking or nothing. Is it the brand or the type of product? So let's do... Like category or brand? You know what? Do whatever you want. Okay.

Give us the top three. And whoever wants to kick us off can go first. Hit it, Silkenn

Okay. I will say for a cleanser, because we don't have a cleanse in the line yet. You to the people superfood cleanser.

Oh, I love you to the people. Chef's kiss. So, so good.

Love the lather. Love the foam. Then it would have to be our powerhouse microbiome serum at Silkenn.

Okay. Y'all better... The skin is skinning. The skin is skinning.

And then obviously our moisturizer, our rebound moisturizer. So it's the whole thing. Okay, but tell... Because you talking about it, but you got to tell the girls where to get it.

Because I don't think they know. It's not available yet. Okay.

So September 2025, stay tuned. But you should head to www.Silkennco.com, sign up to our wait list. We have a lot of in-person activations coming up.

So if you're in the New York, LA area, you better be there. And I will say, because I feel like sometimes it's like, does the world need another beauty product? But you actually found some white space and it's different. Like it's actually different.

It's really good. I felt like my skin was so balanced after using it. And she didn't tell me anything about it.

It was a true blind test. I really enjoyed it. I gave her no context at all.

But you're up next. You're up next. Yeah.

Give me the no context. For sure. For sure.

I literally love the skincare journey. Like honestly, I had struggled for a long time with my skin. Like I was not confident.

Like how I used to like... Nowadays, I barely wear makeup like two, three times a week. And now it has to be like if I'm going to an event or if I'm doing a thing. But honestly, like five, six years ago, I literally had to wear makeup all the time.

I've been there. I could not leave the house without makeup. I was just like so obsessed with the fact that like I needed to be perfect.

Or I needed to have my skin all together. And so when I think about like my top three like products, I automatically think about things that make me feel good. So the first product that I absolutely love that makes me feel good is actually when we went to the event.

It's this hydro mist. No, not hydro mist. It's a hydro foam.

It was the foam cleanser that is by Hempz. Hempz Okay.

Okay. Okay. And I couldn't think of the name, but it's Hempz Foam Cleanser.

And I absolutely love that cleanser because it makes me feel so refreshed. And like I feel like after I wash my face, I don't have to run and put on moisturizer. Like I can just let it set and it feels so good.

My second favorite product, I know we're talking about skincare, but skin is not just your face. Skin is your body. Okay.

So Natrium. Okay. This is not sponsored.

This is just my tips. Yeah. Natrium's Body Wash.

I love. It's an oil and I want to say it's oil infused body wash that keeps your skin nice and soft. But does it lather? Oh, it lathers.

It gives you a lather? It gives me a whole lot. But it's not going to give me like. It's not giving me bubble bath.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Listen, everybody. All of our people, but especially the blacks, because I know y'all like to get really squeaky. Okay.

It is not actually really good to have a serious, serious lather. Yes. That's good.

Congratulations. It's going to dry you out. Really? It's going to strip your skin.

But it looks so cute. Like when you got the little bubbles and everything. I know we love the bubbles.

I know we love the like, what is it? Because people really love Dr. Bronner's. Yes. I love Dr. Bronner's.

Stop. If you can clean the floor with it, don't clean your skin with it. Stop.

My heart. I know because you like that squeaky clean feel you get afterwards. But that is your skin just being stripped.

Yes. That's actually a good point as we're like jumping into that too. Because I feel like as I've learned about like skincare and taking care of your skin, especially as a black woman.

Right. One thing I've really learned is like too much product is actually bad for us. Right? And so for me in my own personal skincare journey, what I love to do is to have like multiple routines for different seasons.

Yeah. So like in the summer, I got a different routine when it comes to my skin. But in the winter, I'm a little bit more, I got to be a little bit more moisturized because my skin gets drier.

You're supposed to though. And like according to your skin type too, because your skin type changes throughout the seasons. Tell us a little bit about your favorite.

You can do two, three products, whatever. Okay. So for skin, specifically for body, as a beauty editor in the past, I would be sent so many different products and get to try a lot of them out.

And I feel like I know it's good if I've been gifted it for free and then I go back to purchase. Yeah. So the Fresh Soy Balancing Makeup Removing Cleanser, it's so good.

Is it an oil cleanser? It's a, it's like a gel cleanser. Okay. It's a gel cleanser, but it's really balancing and it removes your makeup and waterproof mascara.

I still like to do a double cleanse. Like I love to get like an oil or like a balm cleanser first and then bring it on. But the Soy Makeup Removing Face Wash.

It sounds fire. I'm not gonna lie. I mean, Fresh.

It's from Fresh. It's a soy cleanser. Very good.

I love that. I also really love 54 Thrones for body care. So 54 Thrones is a Black-owned brand.

They make their, they source their shea butter from Ghana, I believe. Okay. Yeah, I know.

But you know how it's so hard to like rub your shea butter in? Yes. They actually have a very, it's more lotion-like shea butter. So it's easy to rub it in.

So we love that. And then, yeah, I'll just leave it at two. Because then I can just keep on going.

Those are my two favorites. Yeah, I love that. Like literally, first of all, shea butter in any of my products.

I love that almost. Yes, we love the shea. It's just very moisturizing.

And I love that. Like it's just, I'm gonna say one more product. It's actually not like something you would be putting on your skin.

It's more of something to remove makeup. There are these little microfiber washcloths. Yes.

Oh my gosh. Have y'all used those? Like tell me in the comments. Like did you use that? Because I have been, those are holy grail.

Really? And they're sustainable. They're sustainable. We love that.

I wash it. I can wash it and reuse it. So you're not using paper towels anymore? No.

Because I feel like that's- I don't think I'm doing that. It's disposable. I don't want to dispose.

To dry your face? Yeah, to pat dry. Because we're not using washrags. No, no, no.

That is very much 20 cents. But hear me out. Hear me out.

Go to the dollar store. Get a 50 pack of white washcloths. And use a different one every day.

No, that's a good point. That's a good point. I don't feel like that's sustainable.

That is sustainable. You just throw them in the washing machine. It's not worse than your paper towels.

They're going to trash. It's supposed to do that. I'm crying.

It's just extra absorbent. Y'all are crazy. Anyway.

The beauty girls. We could do this all day. I'm crying.

Thinking of that disposal thing. I like them because you can put them in the washing machine. You can wash them and reuse them.

And they're amazing. Literally, it sucks the makeup off. All you need is water.

Okay. But do they clean all the way? It cleans. You probably need to cleanse after.

Yes. But it removes the makeup. It removes the makeup.

Okay. Thinking of removal, let's think about some things that we could probably remove in some areas of our life. I'm going to navigate us over a little bit to this girl.

Triggered. Child early. It's too early.

Is it too early? You're too early. No, go ahead. You know what? Let's actually run it by a number.

We're going to play this little game that I came up with. You guys ready? I love games. So exciting.

Basically, I'm going to put a number in this number generator, and it's going to generate a category, and I'm going to pull a question for it. Let's go. You guys ready? So we're going to remove some things.

Hopefully, it blends our relationships. Let's see. Generate.

Okay. Number three. All right.

Category number three is entrepreneurship and creativity. Okay. Y'all ready? Let's get to it.

I feel like I need a sip. I need a sip. Let's do it.

Are we cheersing? We need cheers. Let's do it. Cheers.

Girl time. Yes. I love it.

I am so excited to talk about this. Okay. So let's get into it.

So this topic is entrepreneurship and creativity. Category three, and it says the realities of building a brand. Ciao.

The PTSD is kicking in. Stop. Well, we got to give the audience what they need.

They're here for a reason, so let's do it. It says what you weren't prepared for when you first started to pursue your passion or your business. What was one thing you weren't prepared for when you started to pursue your passion or your business? Who wants to kick it off first? I can start.

Okay. Let's do it. So for me, my journey has been all over the place, and I feel like a lot of the times, it really just came from like me pursuing my interests and then opportunities coming my way, and then I just ran that way.

But then I had to take a step back and say like, what do I actually want to do? So in 2020, I was doing fashion PR at the time, and I quit my job, and I was like, I want to get back to my roots of editorial. I want to get back to writing, and it was the perfect time, and then COVID happened. Boom.

Okay. What am I going to do? Like, this is not... And I was like, let me build my freelance writing business. And so actually, it kind of was a good time because of all the shifts that were happening, and suddenly everybody realized that there were all these natural hair articles that had been written by women with straight hair, and they finally needed women with natural curly hair to write them.

Look at the turntables. So it did all come my way that way, but it all came from me first building my own platform and doing things for free and connecting with people. Like, I think so often, everyone's like, name your price and then double it.

But like, honestly, if you don't have a reputation, people aren't paying you double for not knowing anything about you. So sometimes you have to volunteer. Sometimes you have to make connections.

And I think one thing I wasn't prepared for, as I had gotten started, and I had a podcast, and I had this blog, and I had a brand that was doing really well, and then I started to change. And then I no longer identified with this brand that I created because I created it in a different season of life. Yeah, that's great.

And so I just had to shut it down for a while and rediscover myself. And I think that in our content creation world, everybody feels like you have to always be putting stuff out, and you have to bring people along for every transition of life. But sometimes you actually just need to go inward.

Exactly. Rediscover yourself. Yes, that's great.

And then once you are secure in your identity, then you can pop back out, and now you know what your brand needs to be, now you know the direction. But I wasn't prepared for waking up and going through these life changes and saying like, oh my God, I created this when I was in a totally different season of life, and I don't relate. And now I got to go back to the drawing board and start all over again.

Yeah. And you have to be okay with that. Yeah.

And honestly, Kindra, you just said something that reminded me of your story too, Ericka, about the rediscovery point. Yes. So Ericka, tell me a little bit about the rediscovery, because you just went through an incredible transition of change, and you also went through an incredible transition of branding.

And I think that there is some amazing person that's trying to figure out what they're about to do in that season. And so what is it that you wish that you would have done in this rediscovery season? I think asking for help when you need it has been the hardest part of my entrepreneurial journey. I can do it by myself first, and I got it.

I don't need nobody. I'm good. Because no one's going to be able to execute something the way that I can execute something.

So I think learning how to build a team, how to hire good talent, what to look for when you're looking to bring people onto your team. Not only are we compatible, but do you have building blocks that I can build off of and integrate you into different areas of the business? What's your capacity and superpowers? So there was a leadership quality that I don't think I was fully prepared for, and I wish I would have had a me back then to help me now. I feel like my eye is tearing.

No, you're fine. That's amazing. I feel like that is right on point, because it had me thinking as I'm listening to both of your stories, is there are always going to be pivots in your journey.

And I think that a lot of times when people are tapping into entrepreneurship and creativity, they're not realizing that there will be pivots. And so I was listening to this podcast the other day, which was so amazing. I think it was with Darius Daniels, and he had his portion of podcasting.

So he said something that has stuck with me as you guys were talking about the pivot, which was you're not preparing for your good days. You're preparing in entrepreneurship for your bad days. Because your bad days are the days that you're not going to want to get up.

The bad days are the days that you're not going to feel like calling that client or making 100 cold calls. I used to tell people that in the beginning of my business, I used to knock on stores' doors just to be like, hey, I got a model agency. You need some talent, baby.

And they look at me like I'm crazy. They don't prepare you for you to get rejected. They don't prepare you for those different pieces.

And so as I listen to both of your stories, it has literally been a pivot. And I'm really encouraged also by both of you, because you're very talented. I know we ain't getting all the talent right now, but you both are incredibly talented.

And it leads me to my next question in this category, which is along the lines of how do you protect yourself from burnout while you're going through the hustle? Because that is something as a mom, as a wife, and even in your dating season, right? Because both of you are wives. In your dating season, how did you build that to be able to make sure you don't burn out in that space? Yeah, I literally just recorded an episode on this yesterday on the Boss Baby Reset podcast. But boundaries, setting boundaries with yourself, I think, is one of the hardest things to do.

I think society is very big on setting boundaries with other people, right? Say no, set boundaries. But learning how to set boundaries with yourself, extremely hard, because you can out-talk yourself out of so many different things. So you're like, you know what? I'm not going to work past 6 today.

But it's like, well, this actually really needs to get done, and no one can do it like me. So I'm just going to do it anyway. Yep, wow.

You not keeping promises to yourself is one of the biggest forms of lack of self-love I feel like there really is. I feel like he was talking to me, OK? But not keeping the promises to yourself. He's not keeping your promises to yourself.

If you're taking notes, you need to be writing this down right now, because that is a big one. You also lose trust with yourself when you break the promises to yourself. Let's talk about it.

OK, wait, no, I need you to tell me. You can't just leave that note and just, you got to tell us what that means. Yeah, I mean, for example, I had always told myself that I'm not an administrative person.

Paperwork? Never. Nope, can't do it. No.

And so when those things would come up, I would put them off, and I would tell myself I was going to do it, and then I wouldn't do it. And then by that habit of breaking those promises to myself, I began. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I would tell myself I was going to do something, and then I would put it off. And then you start to lose faith in your ability to do things. Literally, at the end of last year, I had all these goals that I wanted to do for 2025.

And I said, before I capture any of those goals, I need to do all of the paperwork, all of the administrative things that I had been putting off, and all these tasks that became so big in my mind that literally took one day or an hour to complete. And when I tell you by doing that, I built up trust in my ability to handle administrative tasks. And now when something comes my way, I just handle it immediately.

But I had just lost trust in myself in that area. Yeah, that's great. I mean, you both really said some really great gems in that.

And it had me thinking about even just listening to you, Kindra, about building trust in yourself. I think that as you go throughout entrepreneurship, you will face burnout. You're going to ultimately come into it, but it's up to you to have that trust within yourself that you can push past it.

Because that's the biggest thing of burnout and breakthrough. It's like you experience your breakthrough when you realize that the way you've been operating doesn't work. But I want to challenge that, because sometimes it's not something that you need to push past.

Sometimes it's something you need to sit in. Yeah, that's good. I'm tired.

Yeah. And that's OK. And I'm going to be tired today.

Yes, you are. That's so good. And I think we need to get uncomfortable with that uncomfortable, because I feel like we're high achievers.

We're creative. We have these big dreams. It's like we just got to keep going, keep going, keep going.

That's so good. I think burnout and exhaustion are two different things. That's great.

Exhaustion is a temporary state. Burnout is you may never come back from that. So I think we need to be able to protect our peace, protect our space.

And I was going to go deep. We need to create a rhythm of rest to prevent burnout. When you have a Sabbath, whether that's from Friday night to Saturday night, like I don't do any work, or whether that's your Sunday.

Maybe you serve really big at your church, and Sundays aren't a rest day for you, so you need to find a day that's not Sunday to Sabbath. But by actually incorporating those rhythms of rest, you're able to kind of pull that back. And I also want to touch on what you said, Jasmine, about being in that season of rest versus being a mom.

And I'm not telling single women to hustle it all out and to the point of burnout. But I will say that you can drop more balls when you're single that won't break. Like if I drop a ball on a day with my son and I decide I'm not doing anything, dad's there.

But, you know, dad will give him food, but he might just eat five bananas that day. Like I don't get to tap out when you're a mom or a wife. Like you have to show up.

But when you are in a season of singleness, it is an opportunity for selfishness in a different type of way where you can say, of course, still be a good friend. Be a good sister. Be a good mom.

These people love you and need you. But you get to say, when I was single, my boyfriend then, my now husband, would be like, hey, do you want to hang out today? Sometimes I would say no. I'm actually just driving by myself.

Or actually, no, I'm riding all day today. And I had the privilege of that. Still give yourself that Sabbath, but also take advantage of the selfishness that you get to have and to be able to focus on your dreams and like go, go, go, rest.

Go, go, rest, rest. At a pace that you can't do in another season of life. This episode is proudly sponsored by Tech Light Associates.

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See you soon. Bye. No, that's great.

Honestly, I'm glad you touched on relationships because I actually hit the generation of numbers. Aren't you supposed to be asking us the numbers? I feel like you're rigging it. No, no.

You were supposed to be getting the numbers. I hit generate. And it said number three.

I mean, number four. And so number four is actually relationship and personal life. So I'm glad you actually talked about that.

So I kind of want to go ahead and jump into that space because I feel like when it comes to building up your entrepreneurship life or maybe you're a leader at some point in your life, maybe you lead in corporate or maybe you lead in the marketplace or maybe you're a creative and you're like, girl, I ain't got no leadership skills. I just be doing the best I can with what I've got. So I want to talk to those audiences and I really want to talk about it in the space of relationships because you mentioned how when you were dating, you had boundaries.

And Ericka also mentioned boundaries as well when it came to her personal self. So my next question is, how do you maintain boundaries when it comes to building something as a friendship and a relationship? And a relationship can be intimate like a partner or your husband or your wife or maybe you're building it and you're dating. But how do you set those boundaries to be able to balance both of those things as an entrepreneur? What I see is that the boundaries that you set for yourself are the ones that people are going to respect.

So, again, it goes back to keeping that self-trust. If you're not treating yourself properly, if you're not keeping your promises to yourself, people are not going to be able to rely on you and people are not going to be able to treat you the way that you need to be treated. So I think for me, when I want to say no in certain seasons or because I'm tired, I don't want to do dinner tonight or I don't want to do these things.

They know that it's for a reason. They know that, listen, Ericka's having a time right now. Ericka's in a season.

And that's why communicating with your friends and the people around you are so important. All of my friends know what I'm building. I feel like I'm building very publicly.

So if they want to do a happy hour, they want to do it. Guys, I don't have it in me today. And I don't have to fear that, oh, Ericka's so flaky.

Ericka's always doing this and that. They know. So I think part of also having boundaries is communicating those boundaries to other people and letting them know what season you're in, letting them know where you're at.

Because people are not mind readers. I feel like that's a very big issue in a lot of friendships and why a lot of relationships just kind of melt away is because we're not communicating our needs. We're not communicating our seasons.

And I think the more open we are with people, the more vulnerable we are with people. We give people an opportunity to support us and be there for us in a way that wouldn't be possible if we were closed off. I'm also learning to have boundaries around other things like boundaries around work or boundaries around my own creative time so that I can prioritize my relationship and that I can prioritize my son.

And I think it's so easy when you're and especially let's talk about it. Men and women, we can be a little bit different. Yeah.

Even in our capacity for respecting the other person's hustle. I'm not saying it should be this way. I'm just saying sometimes it is that way.

And our husbands need our support so much. And even more than I realize, like when I had a transition with work, like let's be transparent. We're being real here.

So I was working, you know, nice cushy six figure beauty job and I got laid off. Yeah. And it was shocking, but also kind of relieving.

I was thinking about transitioning out. And then the time come and I started to list off all the other things I was going to have time for. I was like, I'm going to have more time to volunteer at church.

I'm going to have more time to write this book. I'm going to have more time for. But no, I actually, I didn't make, obviously to be my son, but I didn't put my husband on the list.

I didn't put my marriage on the list of all the things I was going to have more time for. And even helping him build his business. You know, my husband's an entrepreneur as well.

And I have so many skills that could help him, but that's not where my brain went originally. And I had to get checked on that and realize like, oh, my God, I need to have boundaries. Oh, that's so around the priority of my marriage and of my relationship.

And it's an opportunity to have more time with him as well. And not just to only use that time. That's so good.

I feel like when you say that, though, I mean, I immediately think about like when I first got married. Right. Like so as you ladies know, James and I got married three years ago.

I cannot believe it. Month and a half. I'm so excited, but it's so weird because it's like you as you get in transition.

And this could probably be for any of my girls that are they were building their own business and then they got married. And so you're now merging two different lives. And I something that as I'm hearing you talk about your season and just like the layoff and just how you had to transition.

If there was a transitional point in my singleness as an entrepreneur, my singleness as a married woman. And I think that a lot of times when we hear things from like women who are entrepreneurs, when we hear things from these big leaders, I feel like nobody talks enough about that transitional season and how hard it actually is to shift going from being an individual to being married. And I'm not saying hard in a sense that like, oh, my gosh, like my marriage is hard.

I think it's an internal battle that you have to unwind with yourself because I spent what my business, praise God, is nine years old this year. And so I spent the bulk of about eight, seven years building that thing by myself. That was my baby.

That was my priority. You know what I mean? Like I was missing the girl chat and the travel with my girlfriends to build this baby. You know what I mean? And I realized like once I got married, I moved to a new state that there was so much more that God had for me if I was open to the transition.

And it actually had it leads me to one of those other points that I want to kind of tap into is that I felt like I was playing tug of war with God. I felt like when I was in that transition season trying to manage the entrepreneurship, I'm like, oh, God, you know, I'll give you a little bit of that. And then I pulled it back.

I'm like, no, I want it back. Like, I'll give you a little bit of that. And I pulled it back.

And I think there might be somebody listening that really needs to understand how to maintain the tug of war. And my biggest point of that is you got to release the rope. So my question to you is, at what point did you release the rope in this tug of war in your transition? I'm still releasing it.

It's hard. So I've been married. It's going to be six years this year.

Oh my goodness. That's so weird to say six. How is that possible when we're all teenagers? I mean, I'm only 20.

Just a girl. Just kidding. But yeah, I think it's something that I'm still I'm still navigating because I think for a long time, I believe the lie that you and your spouse can't build at the same time, because we need to focus our resources on one thing at a time.

So now as we're going into six years of marriage and we both have our own individual businesses, like I have like my skincare brand and he has his logistics company. It's like, how do we separate our resources as a married couple to support both? And what does that look like practically? And is that is that a feasible thing? So even for me, that's letting go of what I thought my business would be by this point, because now our resources are shared but split. So I think even still letting go of how much am I willing to compromise on this? Am I willing to not take late meetings? Am I willing to not work weekends to prioritize my marriage, to support my husband in his endeavors like he has, you know, with me? So it's something that I don't think you ever get over.

It's this constant like give and take, ebb and flow that I think you eventually find your flow in. And I feel like you find your season. Right.

Right. Like I feel like every season is different when I think about it. Yeah.

And it takes faith and trust in God to take that step back. And it's not even a step back. Like God is you.

God is going to bless you for prioritizing your marriage on a Friday night instead of working those extra three hours. You know what I mean? Like you are not going to miss anything because you take that opportunity to trust God and just to, you know, relax a little bit. But I read I can't remember where exactly I heard this.

I was listening to a podcast. They were talking about a study of high power women from all around the world who were also in healthy, successful, happy marriages. And all of these women, the commonality was that they were out there killing it in the world.

But then when they were around their husbands, they melted. They softened. And I love that.

I love that. And they allowed themselves to allow. I'm working through that.

You love that for them? I love that for them. You have to be in your femininity. You know what I mean? Like you might be calling the shots, but, you know, there's a there's a there's a way to do it with gentleness when it comes to your husband.

That's so good because I think about when you go, I learned this from my therapist because shout out to therapy. OK, if you're not in it, get in it, baby, because it's going to help change your life and stay in it and stay in it as much as you can. But I think about when I go back to like the first year when I got married and I remember like talking to my therapist and I was like, you know, I got all these decisions I got to make.

You know, I've been making them with my business. I got to decide if I want to pay this person or if I don't want to pay this person or if I have to do this or I got to write this contract. I'm deciding things all day, every day.

And then I get home and I'm depleted. So when my husband asked me, OK, what do you want for dinner? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what I want to eat.

Decision fatigue. And so she helped me like really walk through understanding that it's OK to not always have to know the answer to everything. And to also set a boundary and a balance between you making a decision for yourself.

So she taught me this one thing. And I'm going to share it because I think it'll be very helpful for any leader that's out there. She taught me something along the lines of sometimes, like you said, Ericka, earlier of just you have to ask for help.

So I'm telling I'm telling her, I'm like, OK, this is the problem. And how do I fix it? And so what she broke down to me was that you have to share with your spouse that you need help with making a decision. And she's like, that sounds so basic.

But a lot of times, women who are high achieving women who are constantly making decisions as CEOs or leaders in their household or their families. These women oftentimes have no mental capacity to make another decision. Right.

And so she said, you do this. She said, literally, you're going to say, hey, next time we have to make a decision, can you give me options? And I was like, options. OK, so how do I break that down? So now my husband and I, we have this thing where if he's asking me about, OK, what do you want to eat for dinner? He's like, do you want fried food, soul food or Chinese food? Which one? And I'm like, that's giving me the opportunity to think about what I need, not about the decision I have to make.

The decision I have to make becomes a task. And I've learned that even when we kind of have relationships with friends, it becomes a task to decide on something when in reality you can teach people how to help you respond better. And I've learned that in multiple relationships is like, hey, girl, because I used to feel like in the beginning I had to always show up for everybody, especially in my entrepreneurship journey.

I felt like I always had to be at this birthday party, this event or with my husband or at this church event or something. And so I had to realize, like, if I'm not able to do one thing, I should have the option to do another. And the way that I created that was really sitting and focusing on like, OK, if I can't go to the birthday party, maybe I can send a gift.

Right. How can I show up? Exactly. And so I have a question for you ladies in this space of when it comes to relationships.

What tips would you give somebody who might be struggling with that to help them better show up for themselves? Oh, be consistent with your consistent. Now I can't speak. Be consistent with your date nights.

I feel like even in my marriage, date nights are priority. Like despite whatever meetings I may have, whatever business calls, like that time that we have is uninterrupted. And I mean, like phone do not disturb type interrupted.

And it's an opportunity to have very open conversation and to check in and to see where each other is at at that point in time. Because how I was yesterday or how I was last week may not be how I'm doing this week. So having that those pockets of communication time are very important and having it be habitual.

So trying to have it the same day every week if possible. But I think that consistency allows for consistent communication. That's great.

Yeah. I think, like you said, it's date night, but it's just having fun. Yeah.

Because when you're working so hard, you're building your business, you're maybe you're having children and you're working on the children. You can become such collaborators and such partners that like the friendship fun side can start to take a step back. And then you're just annoyed with your co-worker.

And then you'll hang out and you're like, I like you. You're fine. I like you a lot.

Yeah. I like you. But you can like get so wrapped up in the day to day of life that you can kind of forget that.

So it's important just to like bring fun into it because the work will be there. So speaking of fun, I'm going to let Ericka choose the generation number. So generate is the number.

Since Jasmine is scheming. We're going to do it together. No, no, no, no.

OK, number four. So we're going to go with number four. And that's great.

Number four is the lighthearted and fun topic. So let's do it. OK, cool.

So ladies, let's get into what is your most go to comfort food? Ramen. Ramen. I love ramen.

Especially if it's cold. You like cold ramen? No, no. I don't want the ramen cold.

I was like, I don't know about that. You mean outside? No, no, no. When it's cold outside, a nice, hot, warm bowl of ramen.

Give me the extra soy egg, the soy sauce egg. OK, OK. I love that.

I don't like a runny egg in my ramen, though. I don't either. It's not runny.

It's more like sticky. You like it when it's like half cooked? Yeah. OK.

All right, we're going to let you have that one. We're going to let you have that one. I'm loving that for you.

I love me some oxtail, some rice and peas, and some callaloo. Scrumptious. Where are you getting your oxtail from? I'll make it.

She's homely. She can cook. Can I be honest? I never had oxtail until I moved to New York.

I didn't know. I'm from the South. There's not a lot of people.

No, but they make oxtails different in the South. Southern oxtail is not Caribbean oxtail. Let's just make that extremely clear.

I don't know. You're going to have the comments going on right now. I'm just letting y'all know.

It's like the war with Jollof in Nigeria and Ghana. I'm just saying my husband's got to eat some. I didn't know either.

If your oxtail is light brown, it's not cooked. Oxtail is good, though. I don't eat red meats now, but when I did use to eat oxtail, Jamaican oxtail was so, so good.

I would say my comfort food that I really loved, I still love it, but I have to say fried chicken. I don't eat it often, but a good crunchy fried chicken, well-seasoned. It don't got to be all oily and whatnot.

I just want it to be fresh. Sometimes I make it at home, and it's so good. When you say fried chicken, are you talking about a Kennedy's fried chicken or a KFC fried chicken? Neither one of those are suitable.

Neither one of those are suitable examples of fried chicken. What's the Jersey equivalent to Kennedy's? I don't know. Crowns? What y'all have out here? None of those spots.

There's a hot spot that I like going to. I'm not going to show them. I'm not giving them publicity, but I love this hot spot.

Their chicken is busting. It's just very crunchy, and they have flavors. It's so good.

I love a good fried chicken. We're going to close out. Not to be super long-winded, but I want to go into the next question.

What is one thing you can't live without? You can take it on a spiritual deep end, but we're going to make it fun and light. What is one thing, maybe in your house, or maybe on your day-to-day that helps you with your entrepreneur journey that you feel like you just can't live without? Recently, for me, it's been bath time. Because bath time is not like Langston's bath time.

That's a necessary thing to do. It's fun. My bath.

Bath has become worship time for me. It's become quiet time. It's thinking.

Sometimes it's just scrolling. My bath, and I'm talking about 45 minutes to an hour. I'm really taking my time.

I've been doing it each night. I've just been allowing that to be my time to myself, whether I'm using that as a prayer time or it's mindless. I need that wind down me time.

I love that. This sounds silly, but my bed. I'm a sleepy girl.

I love a good nap time. I'm the girl that can sleep anywhere, anytime, anyplace, sun, it don't matter. Being able to lay down, decompress.

My bed is my safe space. I love that. I would say my thing, that one thing that I can't live without, it has to be something along the lines of my music time.

My worship time. I really enjoy just listening to music and listening to the presence of God and quiet time. If I could do it for hours, I probably would.

I just like being at that peace. If they got rid of music in this world, I would be so sad. I really love my music.

It's just such a good time. Kind of leads me to the next note. I am so grateful that I get to experience this with you ladies.

You're another part of my life that I just cannot live without. I'm so grateful for both of you. The way that you have shown up in my life, I gotta give you your flowers.

The way you have shown up constantly over and over again, no matter if I'm sending a million long texts or if I'm like, hey, I need some advice about something. You guys have done so many great things and I just know that God's going to continue to bless you in your journeys as entrepreneurs, as wives, as mothers, as literally leaders in everyday people's lives. I'm so grateful for you and I just want to say thank you for coming on the Crafted for Glory podcast today.

Thank you for having me. In the comments, make sure you clap it up for my sisters and make sure you follow them on their social medias. It will be linked and ready for you.

Thank you family. I just want to say you have tuned in to the Crafted for Glory podcast and it is an honor to have you here. No matter where you're tuning in from, whether you're driving in your car this morning or you're watching us on YouTube while you're cleaning the dishes, you belong.

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Love you. Bye.