Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the world's most dangerous morning show, The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Charlamagne to God. Just Hilarius and Envy are out.
Speaker 2: But Laura Lero says, here and we got a special
Speaker 2: guest in the building. Her name is doctor Lakeisha Hallman.
Speaker 2: She has a new book out now called No One
Speaker 2: Is Self Made. Build Your Billage, Build your Village to
Speaker 2: flourish in business and life.
Speaker 1: Good morning, How are you, doctor?
Speaker 3: I am wonderful. I'm happy to be here for a
Speaker 3: second time. Yes, so thank you all for having me back.
Speaker 3: I've been excited to have this conversation.
Speaker 2: I'm happy that you're here, and I love the title
Speaker 2: of your book because this is what I'll be trying
Speaker 2: to tell people. Man, we live in this era right now.
Speaker 2: Thank you were living this.
Speaker 1: You got one right.
Speaker 2: We live in this era right now where everybody's always
Speaker 2: talking about you know, I'm self made.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: I did it myself. Nobody put me on, nobody help me.
Speaker 2: That's a lie. There's no such thing.
Speaker 4: That's why I.
Speaker 3: Wrote the book because it is profoundly untrue. All of
Speaker 3: us who's sitting here today entrepreneurs across the country, anyone
Speaker 3: that we've lived up, even the people that we don't know,
Speaker 3: there have been a village of people that's supporting them.
Speaker 3: And so it was critical for me to write this book.
Speaker 3: But for me, it's a love letter to our community
Speaker 3: that we must return to community and also have the
Speaker 3: true stories of what success is and how we got there.
Speaker 5: When you say return to community and have those stories,
Speaker 5: what do you mean by that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean one of the things that I write
Speaker 3: about in the book, particular in chapter one, I write
Speaker 3: about individualism. I think individualism have been propped up in
Speaker 3: this country where we talk about the self made woman,
Speaker 3: the self made man, and the more that we lift
Speaker 3: up the individual, it takes us back from that collective,
Speaker 3: the group, the village that I write about and talk
Speaker 3: about and my companies are built around. It is time
Speaker 3: sensitive that we return and get back to our togetherness
Speaker 3: and figure out how to work together, how to be
Speaker 3: tethered and took the place where we say that no
Speaker 3: one is going to separate us from our bigger purpose
Speaker 3: in doing good work together.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker 2: I think it's one of those things that you kind
Speaker 2: of got to be spiritually in tune, because it's like
Speaker 2: the ancestors are talking to us and telling us that,
Speaker 2: like I've meant, you know, I got the Black Effect
Speaker 2: podcast festival that we did this past weekend, and that's
Speaker 2: what I said. I said, I feel like nowadays we
Speaker 2: have to have more community than we've ever had, and
Speaker 2: we got to create safe spaces for each other. So
Speaker 2: I totally understand you.
Speaker 3: Mean you said something that I felt the ancestors talking
Speaker 3: to me, singing to me as I was writing this book,
Speaker 3: and not just in the book, but also in my businesses.
Speaker 3: They understood the collective. And I think what the Whisper
Speaker 3: is to our generation is to not lose sight that
Speaker 3: we are meant to be together, but not just meant
Speaker 3: we must be together. I think we're in a very
Speaker 3: critical time and that togetherness is what's going to help us,
Speaker 3: help us survive, but also get us to a place
Speaker 3: of thriving.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when you you moved to Atlanta in twenty eleven, Yes.
Speaker 4: I think it was twenty ten or twenty eleven.
Speaker 5: And I was going to ask you what brought you
Speaker 5: to Atlanta? But everything you're talking about Atlanta just feels
Speaker 5: like that the minute Juland.
Speaker 3: Yes, Atlanta is so special. You were there this fast weekend.
Speaker 3: I was, Yes, Atlanta is incredibly special. I remember when
Speaker 3: I first visited. I believe I was undergrad when when
Speaker 3: I visited Atlanta, and I hadn't experienced anything like it.
Speaker 3: It was a sea of black excellence. You all have
Speaker 3: had killer mic on your and my brother loved them
Speaker 3: up and he often talks about the history of Atlanta.
Speaker 3: Coming there from Mississippi, I was blown away. I knew
Speaker 3: that it was upon my destiny to be in Atlanta,
Speaker 3: to grow in Atlanta, and it was that deep history,
Speaker 3: but also that deep communal sense.
Speaker 1: But it's I think it's the South period.
Speaker 2: You know, Atlanta definitely, you know they leave the charge
Speaker 2: when it comes to black excellence. But when you talk
Speaker 2: about the heart and soul of Black America, it is
Speaker 2: the South. It's the Georgia's Mississippi South. Carolina is like
Speaker 2: where I'm from here, Carolina, like those sixty what is
Speaker 2: it sixty percent all black people in America living.
Speaker 4: In the South.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it is the South is the heartbeat. My
Speaker 3: my friend Charles Blow writes about this a lot about
Speaker 3: the power that we can have if more people move
Speaker 3: to the South, but also in the South if we lose,
Speaker 3: if we use our collective power. But you you're from
Speaker 3: South Carolina, so you understand there's something. There's nothing like
Speaker 3: the small towns that we come from. It's nothing like
Speaker 3: the resiliency of the people from my hometown to Baseville, Mississippi,
Speaker 3: or where my mother is from, crowd of Mississippi, or
Speaker 3: my father Marks, Mississippi. There's nothing like the resiliency of
Speaker 3: those people.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about the myth of being self made?
Speaker 1: To me?
Speaker 2: I really just want to expound on it. That's the
Speaker 2: first chapter in your book. What is the myth of
Speaker 2: being self made?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's when number one is untrue. I write about
Speaker 3: that for me to be able to sit here today,
Speaker 3: I am the product of my grandmother's prayers, their hard work,
Speaker 3: my grandfathers, my parents, the team that I have we're running,
Speaker 3: my companies, my friend group, and my extended family. I'm
Speaker 3: a product of all these people. So if I sit
Speaker 3: here and you all ask me about how my companies
Speaker 3: have been successful, and if I'm only talking about myself,
Speaker 3: I'm lying to you. The true story is that we're
Speaker 3: village made. And if we accept this title, we began
Speaker 3: to erase people that have been critical to us on
Speaker 3: our journeys. Even our first jobs are first opportunities. They
Speaker 3: were building us to be who we are today. I
Speaker 3: look at these first opportunities as divine assignments that were
Speaker 3: planning in these experiences. But to take on the title
Speaker 3: of self made, we are erasing people and then they
Speaker 3: become hidden figures. When we sit for these interviews, we
Speaker 3: are telling a profound untruth, but we're also telling people,
Speaker 3: in order to make it, you need to do it
Speaker 3: by yourself.
Speaker 1: I wonder why you have that.
Speaker 2: Well, it's not we, but there's a lot of people
Speaker 2: who have that issue, you know what I mean, who
Speaker 2: just have that issue of not wanting to give people
Speaker 2: credit like they want to just beat them. Now, I
Speaker 2: did it myself. Nobody helped me do it, Like, huh,
Speaker 2: I love assistance, Please help me.
Speaker 4: I do too.
Speaker 3: And I write about you know in the book that
Speaker 3: I believe how we got here. It's because it's been
Speaker 3: propped up that anytime we've seen people reach a level
Speaker 3: of success, the first thing that the media calls them
Speaker 3: is self made. And then we've also shunned people who've
Speaker 3: had support when that you didn't work as hard because
Speaker 3: you didn't Yeah, you didn't work as hard as somebody
Speaker 3: gave you something. But the reality is we are We
Speaker 3: should be proud that we have been able to attract
Speaker 3: people in our lives that want to assist us, that
Speaker 3: want to help us. And so it's just really training
Speaker 3: our mindsets to really look at success differently. But I
Speaker 3: think it has been sensationalized. It's self made notion and
Speaker 3: what it is deemed to be successful. This has been
Speaker 3: largely over played in the media because if a person
Speaker 3: I write about all the Titans in the book the
Speaker 3: Tyler Periods of the World, but we often look at
Speaker 3: these people as self made. They made it out of
Speaker 3: no way. But what I think is missing in the
Speaker 3: story is that what I believe the truth is that
Speaker 3: we are all self determined people. Self determination and self
Speaker 3: made are different. Self determination means all the work that
Speaker 3: you've done, Lauren to be where you are today, because
Speaker 3: I've been following your journey, you are divinely self determined. You,
Speaker 3: Charlotte Maye, all the work that you done to be
Speaker 3: who you are, You are self determined. No one gave
Speaker 3: you that but God and the stick to itness. Is
Speaker 3: the thing that I think lifts us up. But what
Speaker 3: really prepels us for is all the people that saw
Speaker 3: something in you, saw something in me, saw something in you,
Speaker 3: and that said, oh, it's something about them. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: do all that I can to make sure that they
Speaker 3: reach the pinnacle of their success.
Speaker 6: I was saying about that this morning.
Speaker 5: All the people who are like that, that just see
Speaker 5: something in you, how blessed you are to have that.
Speaker 5: But I think for us too, because when you talk
Speaker 5: about being self made, I was going to say, maybe
Speaker 5: it's like a scarcity of resources and people feel like
Speaker 5: they have to do it on their own because a
Speaker 5: lot of times you're like the first through a door
Speaker 5: or first generation. But when you talked about just your
Speaker 5: grandmother's prayers and how much that helped you, I'm like,
Speaker 5: we don't even look at little stuff like that as
Speaker 5: those that got me to the next point.
Speaker 6: Or it's like you do, but it takes you.
Speaker 1: I do, It takes you.
Speaker 5: I feel like it takes a lot of maturity. When
Speaker 5: you young, you don't think about that. You like, this
Speaker 5: person didn't give me a job. This person it's like, no,
Speaker 5: something as simple as your mom teaching you how to
Speaker 5: wake up every day and make your bed before nine am.
Speaker 5: Got you You know what I mean that that discipline.
Speaker 5: We don't think about stuff like that, and I don't
Speaker 5: know why that is.
Speaker 3: I wrote about it in the book because I want
Speaker 3: us to understand that we must think about it that way.
Speaker 3: And then if we shift and looking at these things
Speaker 3: as the people that pray for you when you have
Speaker 3: what you feel like one of your worst days, way
Speaker 3: that you can talk to your friends or people who
Speaker 3: really know you beyond all the titles, and they lift
Speaker 3: you up when all things are falling apart. That is
Speaker 3: just more powerful as just as powerful as someone financially
Speaker 3: investing in your business, they're financially investing in your spirit.
Speaker 3: And that is the true work of us and why
Speaker 3: it was important for me to write about supporting that way,
Speaker 3: because I think we always and we can get to
Speaker 3: a place where we say I don't have this, I
Speaker 3: don't have that, this person that lookout for me, but
Speaker 3: you also have all these other things. So you do
Speaker 3: have a village. You may not have the village where
Speaker 3: you can have everything that you need, but you do
Speaker 3: have a village of people pouring into you. And that
Speaker 3: is what we need.
Speaker 2: We're talking to doctor Lakeisha Hallman. She have a new
Speaker 2: book out now, Knowing It's Self Made. I love what
Speaker 2: you said about, you know, people assisting you. And in
Speaker 2: chapter two of the book you talk about discovering your
Speaker 2: purpose and getting into alignment.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's when the help comes.
Speaker 2: The help comes when you've discovered your purpose and you're
Speaker 2: starting to get into alignment. So now God starts to
Speaker 2: bring people in your life that help you, you know,
Speaker 2: as you're getting into alignment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And what I love about alignment it's not forced.
Speaker 3: Relationships are not forced, opportunities are not forced. You get
Speaker 3: to the point where you're calling the people you love
Speaker 3: him like, can you believe that this just happened to me?
Speaker 3: Can you believe I just met that person?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, that and I'm sorry to call you.
Speaker 5: I just feel so like, like, yes, that has That's
Speaker 5: literally what I've been experiencing like these Even at the festival,
Speaker 5: I was just like I cannot believe that all like.
Speaker 2: That.
Speaker 6: I mean that happens all the time.
Speaker 5: No, but just the people and how people receive certain
Speaker 5: things and how impackful things are. And then I had
Speaker 5: a moment where I was like backstage and I jokingly
Speaker 5: said it to him, but I'm like, I was like, oh,
Speaker 5: you got money, but I was just looking around. I'm like,
Speaker 5: all of this because Charlottae decided to sit down and
Speaker 5: talk on the microphone, and then so many people saw
Speaker 5: something through all of the the you know, all the
Speaker 5: crazy stuff he'd be doing, right, and he gets to
Speaker 5: that point and I'm like, man, like, I can't believe
Speaker 5: that this is happening. But everybody has shared that, Oh
Speaker 5: my god, I can't believe this is happening.
Speaker 3: Yes, and that is divine alignment. And the only how
Speaker 3: we operate in that space is saying yes to the
Speaker 3: things that we're meant to be us, accepting the path
Speaker 3: that we're on, and deciding to work extremely hard in
Speaker 3: the space that we're in. And it becomes a domino effect.
Speaker 3: You began to meet the people people who can really
Speaker 3: really look out for you in these situations. I think
Speaker 3: how you know that you are in alignment is that
Speaker 3: it's truly not forced. You're not contorting yourself to be
Speaker 3: anyone else. You don't have to go and put on
Speaker 3: your persona. To be someone who you are is enough,
Speaker 3: and people want to do all that they can.
Speaker 4: To see you be successful.
Speaker 6: No, go ahead.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: I remember when I was teaching in Jackson, Mississippi, and
Speaker 3: my colleague there, I wanted to move to Atlanta. Didn't
Speaker 3: know a lot of people in Atlanta, but I wanted
Speaker 3: to move to Atlanta, and we formed. My colleague, Ms.
Speaker 3: Ethroge and I formed a relationship where she would tell
Speaker 3: me to come over and tutor her students some days,
Speaker 3: and so miss E was like, she would call me Hallman.
Speaker 3: He was hallming, I need you to come over and tutor.
Speaker 3: Miss E taught special education. I taught honors in ap English,
Speaker 3: and so miss E would I would. I would go
Speaker 3: over anytime she did. I'm from the South, so we
Speaker 3: respect people that's older than us, so when they tell
Speaker 3: us to do something, we do it. But needless to say,
Speaker 3: that was one evening after we played tennis together, She's like,
Speaker 3: you need to take your certification exam. And I didn't
Speaker 3: see that for myself, but it stayed with me because
Speaker 3: she said I needed to do it. But when I say,
Speaker 3: I did not see that for my own life. But
Speaker 3: I went ahead took the exam. I was in my
Speaker 3: early twenties, so I almost overslept that morning, but I
Speaker 3: took the exam, didn't study. Finally got a call for
Speaker 3: a job in Cob County at South Cobb High School
Speaker 3: with my now friend, doctor Ashley Hosey, and I nailed
Speaker 3: the interview. I remember calling my mom and saying, I
Speaker 3: know that I got this job.
Speaker 4: By the time I made it back to Mississippi.
Speaker 3: The next day, doctor Hosey called and he was like, you,
Speaker 3: you did so well in your interview. However, a teacher
Speaker 3: with more seniority wants to come to my school and
Speaker 3: I cannot offer you a job. And I was completely
Speaker 3: deflated because I knew I had it now, he said,
Speaker 3: And of course he said he would refer me out.
Speaker 4: He was like, you know what, if you have.
Speaker 3: Your special Education Certification exam, I can offer you a job.
Speaker 3: And a week before I got my test results and
Speaker 3: I passed the exam.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: That is look at God, but look at divine assignment.
Speaker 3: Look at the people that's placed in your life. Like
Speaker 3: Miss Etherich who saw something in me that I didn't see.
Speaker 2: Those are the people, like the people that see things
Speaker 2: that you didn't see in Those are the ones that
Speaker 2: keep you on the path that you're supposed to be
Speaker 2: on Yes, yes, get you on the path.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to get you.
Speaker 4: On the path.
Speaker 3: And I believe that God sends them and put them
Speaker 3: in a body that you would respect, because I was
Speaker 3: raised to respect my elders, and so God knew in
Speaker 3: order to get to me, it had to be someone
Speaker 3: I deeply respected, someone that I listened to, and so
Speaker 3: through Miss Ethriche then I did that and I got
Speaker 3: the job in Cobb County.
Speaker 2: And that's how you started building your village, which is
Speaker 2: chapter three in your book.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, that's how I started to build my village.
Speaker 3: But really my village started to build before then. But
Speaker 3: when I started thinking about, you know, my companies, I
Speaker 3: didn't see myself being an entrepreneur. I didn't know that
Speaker 3: I was going to be on that path. I thought
Speaker 3: I would be in education forever ever. You know, I
Speaker 3: had ambitions of opening schools, but I really got the
Speaker 3: vision of creating a village for entrepreneurs because what I
Speaker 3: kept hearing from my friends who are more entrepreneuri at
Speaker 3: that time, it's that they didn't have support and where
Speaker 3: I didn't have the financial capital to invest in them.
Speaker 3: I knew that if I got people. If I got
Speaker 3: them people, they can scale. And so got the vision
Speaker 3: of launching the Village market And now I have my nonprofit,
Speaker 3: our village you name it. And what started as I
Speaker 3: was an educator, but I've been able to support thousands
Speaker 3: of entrepreneurs and currently our program is reaching thirty three
Speaker 3: different states and we've been able to deploy about eight
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars in grants.
Speaker 4: Wow, yeah, that's fire.
Speaker 5: Well how do you because so I know you said
Speaker 5: you respect your elders and this is the woman that
Speaker 5: you knew, so you went along and did it. But
Speaker 5: you talked in this essence article that I read about
Speaker 5: not saying yes to every invitation that you get as
Speaker 5: your building community. What's your spirit is it? I mean
Speaker 5: for a lot of people, spirit of discernment, But what's
Speaker 5: your breakdown of how you decide to say no to
Speaker 5: certain invitations?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is spiritual discernment. It's maturity.
Speaker 3: It's also me operating in the abundance rather than scarcity.
Speaker 3: I think when we're in when when we're in a
Speaker 3: scarcity mindset, we believe that we have to be in
Speaker 3: every single room, that we have to accept every invitation
Speaker 3: that we must say yes to everything. Where I am
Speaker 3: in my life now and what I'm hoping to empower
Speaker 3: empower other people is that we don't want all the yeses.
Speaker 3: We want the right yeses. And how I discern when
Speaker 3: the yes is right? Is it aligned with my values?
Speaker 3: It is this opportunity aligned with the mission that I'm on.
Speaker 3: Will it take me off course? Will I have to
Speaker 3: divorce things that I believe in? Will I have to
Speaker 3: contort and change myself? If I'm saying yes to all
Speaker 3: those things, It's not the yes that I should take.
Speaker 3: And now I haven't always been at this place. I've
Speaker 3: had to grow to get here. My deep relationship with
Speaker 3: God has helped me be here. But I remember, and
Speaker 3: I write about managing the hard stuff in a book.
Speaker 3: I remember saying yes because I was afraid that if
Speaker 3: I didn't say yes to this opportunity that I won't
Speaker 3: get it again. But the timing of the opportunity was
Speaker 3: so wrong, and so I needed to say no. And
Speaker 3: so what I've learned about life is that sometimes the
Speaker 3: test in the assignment is will we say no to
Speaker 3: things when it's out of alignment? Will we have the discipline,
Speaker 3: the spiritual discipline to know that while this may sound good,
Speaker 3: but this is not what I should be doing. Will
Speaker 3: we be strong in our faith, in our belief that
Speaker 3: our right yes is coming? And when I have done that,
Speaker 3: and again I wasn't. It's very important for me to share,
Speaker 3: because it's different when you've done the work and we
Speaker 3: can talk about these things. But I do remember what
Speaker 3: has awakened in me is more so a spirit of
Speaker 3: abundance that I only want to be where I'm meant
Speaker 3: to grow. And I don't want to be in every room.
Speaker 3: I only want to be in room where I'm meant
Speaker 3: to be transformational, not just to sit at a table
Speaker 3: just to sit there.
Speaker 2: I hate that we don't trust our instincts anymore. I
Speaker 2: hate that we don't trust God anymore, because you know,
Speaker 2: you can just.
Speaker 1: Feel it, Like everything you're talking about, you can feel it.
Speaker 2: You can feel the people you're supposed to be around,
Speaker 2: you can feel where you're supposed to be, you can
Speaker 2: feel the things you're supposed to say yes to. I'm
Speaker 2: supposed to say no to. But we let so much
Speaker 2: that's going on in the world cloud us and disconnect
Speaker 2: us from just that discernment and that instinct.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that is.
Speaker 3: I think it's distractions. I think we're at a time
Speaker 3: in our society where everything takes us away from us
Speaker 3: in what I call profound stillness, the quiet, because in
Speaker 3: our quiet times, in our still time, I believe that's
Speaker 3: when we can actually hear and feel the presence of God.
Speaker 3: But the more that we stay on apps, and I'm
Speaker 3: probably aging myself. More we stay on apps, the more
Speaker 3: we in the videos are funny, But the more that
Speaker 3: we stay to these things, it takes us more and
Speaker 3: more and more away from our internal consciousness. And I
Speaker 3: think the reason while we hear and it's because of
Speaker 3: these distractions. And I look at the distractions as a
Speaker 3: ploy to keep her, to keep us from our divine selves.
Speaker 3: And so we need to spend more time enjoy the apps.
Speaker 3: But I think everything's everything that we have need to
Speaker 3: be done in moderation. We must dedicate time to our stillness.
Speaker 3: We must dedicate times where we're nurturing our mind, bodies
Speaker 3: and spirits in that when that what you you I
Speaker 3: wrote about gut in the book as well. How you
Speaker 3: know that you're in the room where the where the
Speaker 3: vibrations are off and the vibes are off. You have
Speaker 3: to be in tune with yourself to feel it. But
Speaker 3: if you're not in tune with yourself, you're going to
Speaker 3: be in a room and you don't feel the difference.
Speaker 3: But doing that, doing our self work, committing to the
Speaker 3: stillness and quiet, and I'm a faith driven person, committing
Speaker 3: to committing to deepen our relationship with God will help
Speaker 3: us know. When you walk in a room and an
Speaker 3: atmosphere is off, you need to get out that room.
Speaker 4: It's not the room for you.
Speaker 3: Or or if you meet a person and you're getting
Speaker 3: ready to do a deal with if something feels off,
Speaker 3: it is off, and to trust it.
Speaker 5: Can you tell people, though, because you talk about the
Speaker 5: scarcity mindset and how you sorry for you to make
Speaker 5: those decisions, what do you tell people who are in
Speaker 5: that scarcity place that just need to eat real quick.
Speaker 6: They can't walk away from that deal, they can't afford
Speaker 6: to That.
Speaker 4: Is a very very very good question.
Speaker 3: Scarcity is a place of survival, So what I do
Speaker 3: have is a profound respect for people who are simply
Speaker 3: striving to survive. But the question would be, do you
Speaker 3: want to eat something that's poisonous to you? You know,
Speaker 3: do you want to accept things that it's going to
Speaker 3: actually change the makeup of who you are, that may
Speaker 3: compromise you from your greatest self. Where where we know
Speaker 3: in our greatest selves and we operate in our higher selves,
Speaker 3: more is there. And so this is a question that
Speaker 3: is less tangible, but it's truly operating in faith that
Speaker 3: if I just be consistent, I continue to work hard,
Speaker 3: I continue.
Speaker 4: To show up for myself.
Speaker 3: I need to operate with the spirit of discernment, then
Speaker 3: my opportunities are come, will come.
Speaker 4: Will you have moments?
Speaker 3: Will you have moments where you may take a smaller
Speaker 3: contract because you need to eat. I don't have kids
Speaker 3: to take care of, and so I will never be
Speaker 3: in a place of saying that I fully, fully understand.
Speaker 3: But I'm in a place where I have a level
Speaker 3: of empathy. But I do know that we while in
Speaker 3: a space of striving to survive, we can still be
Speaker 3: very selective with the things that we say yes to.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Chapter eight support.
Speaker 2: Support is a verb, and in that chapter you got
Speaker 2: a bunch of village verbs.
Speaker 1: Explain with a village verb.
Speaker 3: Is yeah, this whole book is, and why I'm so
Speaker 3: excited about it? While I tell a bunch of entrepreneur stories,
Speaker 3: things that I've experienced, and I write about many luminaries
Speaker 3: from the past and people presently who's doing the work.
Speaker 3: The anchor piece of this book is all about the village,
Speaker 3: all about.
Speaker 4: Community and the Village Verbs.
Speaker 3: When people close this book, I want people to do something.
Speaker 3: So Village Verbs is making sure that we participate in
Speaker 3: the voting process. Village Verbs is making sure that we're
Speaker 3: buying local, that we're buying from black businesses. Village Verbs
Speaker 3: is making sure that we're showing up from one another.
Speaker 3: If we do not have action behind the things that
Speaker 3: we believe, then I always ask people, do you really
Speaker 3: love it? Because if you love it, your action should follow.
Speaker 3: You have on a black brand today.
Speaker 6: I've been wearing her for years and years and years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but what you are doing today is love and action.
Speaker 3: So you support her in a real way. You're on
Speaker 3: a syndicated radio show rocking her brand. That is what
Speaker 3: it's about.
Speaker 4: Charlotte Mane.
Speaker 3: I think about the number of things that aware you
Speaker 3: probably do even more, but black effect, pot cass, your inprint,
Speaker 3: all these things. You are putting people in rooms and
Speaker 3: putting people in position and it's because you want your
Speaker 3: actions to look like things that you care about. You
Speaker 3: want people's lives to change, and not just for this generation,
Speaker 3: but next generation and next generation. But you're not just
Speaker 3: saying these things, you are doing these things. That final
Speaker 3: chapter of Village Verbs is all about us doing the
Speaker 3: things that we say and getting put our action in
Speaker 3: love behind it and our challenge. I always challenge our
Speaker 3: community that you may not be able to participate in
Speaker 3: ten different things, but you need to find something that
Speaker 3: you're passionate about and put your love and your action there,
Speaker 3: and our communities will change.
Speaker 2: I love it that the Village Verbs lock in, show
Speaker 2: up and connect, keep learning and higher, teach it, govern
Speaker 2: your words and listen intently, pivot, invest in your people,
Speaker 2: and spend locally.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, Wow, that's a plan.
Speaker 2: All this is a plan that it's a call to
Speaker 2: action and plan of action.
Speaker 3: Yes, and and and a lot of the things. Even
Speaker 3: in the sense of governing our words, I don't think
Speaker 3: we spend enough time thinking about the power of our words.
Speaker 4: Words are prophetic.
Speaker 3: We have to be in a different relationship with each other,
Speaker 3: even in a place of disagreement, even in the in
Speaker 3: the place when things don't always feel good and look
Speaker 3: good within our community. But we have to govern the
Speaker 3: way that we speak to each other. We have to
Speaker 3: govern the way that we react and interact with each other.
Speaker 3: And all of everything that I'm sharing is requires discipline.
Speaker 3: You often talk about discipline, having the the having the
Speaker 3: discipline that the change begins with you.
Speaker 5: Now what about you talk a bit about Uh, Well,
Speaker 5: I saw a statistic in the Essence article the seventy
Speaker 5: two percent of entrepreneurs struggle with mental health issues, including burnout.
Speaker 6: And you talk about how like the being the individual
Speaker 6: who did.
Speaker 5: All about himselves leads to that even if you know
Speaker 5: you didn't do it by yourself, burnout still be real.
Speaker 3: Burnout is real. Yeah, burnout is real even when you
Speaker 3: have a village. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 3: real thing. You know what I've done. Number One, we
Speaker 3: do need to delegate more. And it's hard to delegate
Speaker 3: when you're running things and trusting people with your baby,
Speaker 3: especially in the entrepreneur world.
Speaker 4: Letting go is hard.
Speaker 3: But the more that we hold on, the more that
Speaker 3: we try to do all the things, be all the people,
Speaker 3: for everybody.
Speaker 4: It's not just business, this is life.
Speaker 3: You're gonna find yourself feeling depleted and so always trying
Speaker 3: to literally be there for everyone when you haven't quite
Speaker 3: been there for yourself. When you're there for yourself, you
Speaker 3: get to replenish yourself and you have something more to give.
Speaker 3: But this sense of burnout, imposter syndrome, decision fatigue, all
Speaker 3: of these things. We in my nonprofit a our Village,
Speaker 3: you name it, We did a pole for the for
Speaker 3: the entrepreneurs in the village and what they shared was
Speaker 3: that they were burnt out, decision fatigue, and completely overwhelmed,
Speaker 3: and many of them experienced anxiety. And what I did
Speaker 3: was to make sure that all our programming that we
Speaker 3: offer for entrepreneurs are holistic, and so we have therapists
Speaker 3: on board, we have coaches on board to not just
Speaker 3: help these entrepreneurs with their with their businesses, but the
Speaker 3: help entrepreneurs with their psyche, with their mental health, because
Speaker 3: that is the only way we're really going to be
Speaker 3: our who we're meant to be. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 3: that has to be we I talked about this when
Speaker 3: I was just last time. So much a business and
Speaker 3: scaling and want to be successful is all about money,
Speaker 3: and we're spending less time of talking about the soul,
Speaker 3: less time of talking about why we're really here in
Speaker 3: this time, and it's really for us to illuminate light.
Speaker 3: We will get to do a lot of things well,
Speaker 3: but even when the positions that you all are in
Speaker 3: right now, it's to illuminate light. And in that light
Speaker 3: we can find each other when it's dark.
Speaker 1: I totally agree.
Speaker 2: I love that we're talking about villaging, we're talking about community.
Speaker 2: I know that you're on the State of the People
Speaker 2: power tool with my good sister Angela RAI.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: I was That's why I couldn't attend Black Effect podcasts
Speaker 3: in Atlanta.
Speaker 4: But I got to be there last year and it
Speaker 4: was amazing.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: But State of the People is so it's powerful.
Speaker 3: I looked at what happened in Atlanta this weekend, and
Speaker 3: what's powerful about what Angela and team has done Because
Speaker 3: she's she is adamant that this is just not about her.
Speaker 1: It's the village.
Speaker 3: And that's the way that you know she she was
Speaker 3: raised in coalition building, but in a few short weeks,
Speaker 3: intentional people decided that they were going to do something
Speaker 3: We're at a time where people feel hope, bliss, scared,
Speaker 3: and a small but mighty group of people said, not
Speaker 3: on my watch, that I am going to gather the
Speaker 3: people that I'm going to make sure that a room
Speaker 3: is comprised of people that can give resources, people that
Speaker 3: can give hope, people that can give the direction. And
Speaker 3: when you look left right, you see people that look
Speaker 3: like you.
Speaker 6: That is what.
Speaker 3: Happened this weekend in Atlanta. Day one, there was a
Speaker 3: service project done where so many snack boxes were given
Speaker 3: to elders in the community. Why that is so profound,
Speaker 3: it is because elders often feel forgotten and so for
Speaker 3: them to have a snack box with people convening from
Speaker 3: all over that say I see you, I love you,
Speaker 3: I want to support you, that kicked everything off. And
Speaker 3: then to go into the workshops, action oriented workshops that
Speaker 3: helped people build in their community. And then Sunday is
Speaker 3: what I got an opportunity to participate in was the rally.
Speaker 3: It was absolutely powerful. You had my brother from another
Speaker 3: Gary Chambers, my three dear friends, but Gary shut the
Speaker 3: house down. You had doctor Bryant, pastor doctor Jamal Bryant
Speaker 3: there and a number of others, Keisha Lance Bottles, myself,
Speaker 3: many others. It was just such a beautiful response to
Speaker 3: this moment. And why I think State of the People
Speaker 3: is so important as they go to other cities because
Speaker 3: history is determined by what you do, and when the
Speaker 3: history books are written, the history books are right that
Speaker 3: a group of people.
Speaker 4: Decided to do something and will do.
Speaker 3: I think people left State of the People feeling in power. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I remember walking to my car, Gary was walking me
Speaker 3: to my car and we could barely make it to
Speaker 3: the are people saying thank you.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: It was so I When State of the People come
Speaker 3: to other cities, I'm really encouraging people to make sure
Speaker 3: they attend because it is absolutely special.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I know you found it a village market,
Speaker 2: but you also have our Village United. What are those
Speaker 2: two entities and how are they different from each other?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I have a retail store at Punt City Market
Speaker 3: and we have a pop up at Google Visitor Center
Speaker 3: as well in California. But when you all come back
Speaker 3: to Atlanta, make sure you come by the Village Retail
Speaker 3: at Pont City Market where we have about thirty seven
Speaker 3: different black brands and it's beautiful retail store. We're going
Speaker 3: into our fifty year being open. It has been highly successful.
Speaker 3: But what I the former teacher in me, is that
Speaker 3: in order to make something real, you have to make
Speaker 3: an experience of it, and so I had to build
Speaker 3: a retail store so entrepreneurs can see themselves on shelves,
Speaker 3: and so our community community can also have a place
Speaker 3: where they can patronize. But the other part of educator
Speaker 3: inside of me is that I also wanted to make
Speaker 3: sure that entrepreneurs had the resources, technical assistance that they
Speaker 3: needed to grow. And so daily we work with entrepreneurs
Speaker 3: from our Elevated Cities program, our Get Procured program, our
Speaker 3: her pro Bono program. We're working with entrepreneurs across the
Speaker 3: country to make sure that they have a village. So
Speaker 3: we have some of the top entrepreneurs coming to teach classes.
Speaker 3: We have some of the top corporations coming and talking
Speaker 3: about supplier diversity and how to get these government contracts
Speaker 3: and things like that.
Speaker 4: Is I am when I say I'm so proud of
Speaker 4: this work. I really feel.
Speaker 3: Very fortunate that God trusted me to do this, and
Speaker 3: I take it very seriously. It's much more than me
Speaker 3: building a business or growing a nonprofit or me writing
Speaker 3: a book. I am being obedient to the call that's
Speaker 3: on my life. And so I've been able to work
Speaker 3: with so many entrepreneurs now and to see them go
Speaker 3: from early stage concept to growing, to opening their own
Speaker 3: locations to being in big box retail and to know
Speaker 3: that they are getting an education that is about the collective,
Speaker 3: because we have a collective wealth building model. So it's
Speaker 3: less about building more individual multi millionaires. It's more about
Speaker 3: when you make your money, what is your social impact focus?
Speaker 4: What is the collective of that?
Speaker 2: Wow, well, keep doing the work, doctor Lakeisha Harman. We
Speaker 2: appreciate you, and your new book is out right now.
Speaker 2: We'll get tell them more to find you.
Speaker 3: First of all, yes, you can find me at doctor
Speaker 3: key Hallman. On social platforms you can get the book
Speaker 3: and no one as self made dot com. But from
Speaker 3: all major retailers entrepreneurs, you will most definitely love this book.
Speaker 3: Leaders in the communities, you will love this book. It
Speaker 3: is very practical and prescriptive. What I didn't say this,
Speaker 3: but what special about the way the chapters end. I
Speaker 3: have reflection questions, and those reflection questions by the time
Speaker 3: you finish the book, you have a whole plan on
Speaker 3: how to map out and build community.
Speaker 6: In true teacher format, in truth teacher format.
Speaker 4: You're right, Lauren.
Speaker 2: The funny thing is I think that you'll also realize
Speaker 2: you already have that community.
Speaker 1: Yes, you just haven't acknowledged them as such. That's what.
Speaker 1: That's what.
Speaker 4: That's good.
Speaker 2: But doctor Lakeisha Hall and her new book Knowing Itself
Speaker 2: Made build your village to flourish in business and life.
Speaker 1: Go get that right now.
Speaker 4: Thank you for joining us, Thank you, and thank you.
Speaker 1: It's the Breakfast Club. Wake that answer up in the morning.
Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club.