Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, oh, I haven't said that in a while.
Speaker 1: And we're back Brown Ambition, Manny and Tiffany. We're still
Speaker 1: looking for that intro music. Mandy like I need you
Speaker 1: to do a rap.
Speaker 2: I've kind of moved on. I feel like okay, I
Speaker 2: feel okay. The people like it. I love how you
Speaker 2: got really deep with.
Speaker 1: The Hey hey, I feel like you went a little.
Speaker 2: Very Arry Manilo, Wait.
Speaker 1: Which one? Is it?
Speaker 2: Very white?
Speaker 1: You're very white? Okay I almost said very black, but
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm pretty sure that's how the name.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so some what's buzzy? Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: I have to have to have I saw you posted
Speaker 1: it on our Brown Ambition Facebook page and I literally giggled,
Speaker 1: watched it again, giggled, and send it to everybody.
Speaker 2: Black girl, I know what?
Speaker 1: Do you know? What I mean? So the Today Show all, MG,
Speaker 1: what is happening over there? So do you want to
Speaker 1: tell the story or should I?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I didn't know it was just
Speaker 2: it just happened this week. I thought this was like
Speaker 2: an old clip or something, but apparently, poor Savannah Guthrie.
Speaker 2: They did a segment on The Today Show about summer
Speaker 2: hairstyles and you have three beautiful women of color sitting
Speaker 2: on stools and they're about to get one minute hairstyles.
Speaker 2: First of all, you tell any brown woman she can
Speaker 2: do her hair in one minute, and she will tell
Speaker 2: you that it is a lie, a lie, a both
Speaker 2: face lie.
Speaker 1: Unless you have locks, and even then it's just to
Speaker 1: take them out of a point deal.
Speaker 2: I can tell that producer did not do her fact
Speaker 2: checking because data and statistics what I've shown takes at
Speaker 2: least seventeen minutes to get anything resembling a good hairstyle, exactly.
Speaker 2: I digress. Anyway, So you see this woman. I don't
Speaker 2: know who she is or like what her business is,
Speaker 2: you know how she got on national television. But all
Speaker 2: you see is the girl in the middle getting the
Speaker 2: most ridiculous like hairstyle ever, and she's just like talking
Speaker 2: really fast over this poor girl, this poor model's head
Speaker 2: as she's yanking her curls and messing them up, like
Speaker 2: you see. What kills me is you see the expression
Speaker 2: of the model's face and it is like such a
Speaker 2: fake smile, like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because she knows, she knows she can feel it.
Speaker 1: You know, first of all, she came out there with
Speaker 1: beautiful curls.
Speaker 2: Like it fine.
Speaker 1: It looked fine, and it's all the woman had to
Speaker 1: do was maybe a bobby pin on each side and
Speaker 1: like maybe scooped it up. We would have been good,
Speaker 1: but she forceived no Mandy. When she said I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do a side ponytail, I nearly peed my pants. A
Speaker 1: side ponytail. First of all, what is she five? And
Speaker 1: then she proceeded to pull this girl's this woman's hair
Speaker 1: into the craziest looking and like, you know, she didn't
Speaker 1: have the lengths first of all, for a ponytail. If
Speaker 1: that wasn't bad enough, she took her bag and these
Speaker 1: curls that were already done. There's a you know, like
Speaker 1: if you're gonna like separate a woman of colors curls,
Speaker 1: you do so gingerly, so you keep the bounce. No no,
Speaker 1: she pulled them apart and just frizze them up. I
Speaker 1: literally I couldn't even breathe. I was laughing so hard.
Speaker 1: I was like, I have to send this to everyone.
Speaker 1: I mean, people have been posting it saying Jesus be
Speaker 1: Offence Essence posted it. It was like what is going on?
Speaker 1: But yeah, everyone is like I can't I can't. I
Speaker 1: looked it up. I did some research and I can't.
Speaker 1: I just can't.
Speaker 2: She looks like Patty Mannaise from Doug after she was
Speaker 2: done with her.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's not a cute look.
Speaker 2: Then you just see her face because I have to move.
Speaker 2: It's only supposed to take a minute, right, So they
Speaker 2: go to the next girl and all you see is
Speaker 2: this poor model like being The camera's panning away and
Speaker 2: she's just looking horrified, like what have I allowed to
Speaker 2: be happened to happen to me?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Who?
Speaker 2: Good touch? Bad touch? Everybody? You don't have to stand
Speaker 2: for that. You don't walk off the air.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just get up and say I won't. I won't.
Speaker 2: We have to find out who she is. If you're
Speaker 2: out there, hair model, yes, and you want to speak
Speaker 2: your mind, this is a safe split, This is a
Speaker 2: safe space.
Speaker 1: You can do that here. Oh my god. So if
Speaker 1: you are so, I've been letting my dream Dreamcatchers know
Speaker 1: that we are. You know we're here. I haven't been
Speaker 1: like sharing us as much. So if you're a new DreamCatcher,
Speaker 1: say hello, like comments, leave us a review on iTunes,
Speaker 1: the dream Catchers.
Speaker 2: I have a pretty good feeling a good chunk of
Speaker 2: our listeners are dream cutchers, and I'm not mad at that.
Speaker 1: And I'm hoping that like some new ones because you
Speaker 1: know now that I put them in a goodie email.
Speaker 1: So this is our goodie every week on top of
Speaker 1: whatever else I send out, Like in the goodie email.
Speaker 1: We started it this week, so so hopefully we have
Speaker 1: some new folks to listen and they in and they enjoy.
Speaker 1: Make sure you follow Mandy cause sometimes you guys will
Speaker 1: tag me. I'm like, where's Mandy? So make sure you
Speaker 1: follow Mandy Money right on Instagram. I'm right here.
Speaker 2: I've been here all along.
Speaker 1: Mandy with an eye though, Mandy Money on Instagram. So yeah,
Speaker 1: because someone tagged me in something and it was hilarious.
Speaker 1: They're like, I'm listening and they tagged me. I was like,
Speaker 1: tag Mandy.
Speaker 2: Thanks, always looks out for me.
Speaker 1: So yeah, any other buzzworthies, I'm like looking through like
Speaker 1: our feed, like what else is buzzy?
Speaker 2: Well? I want to go ahead and tease. We have
Speaker 2: a really special guest on the show today that we
Speaker 2: talked about last week. Yes, our first guest in a while,
Speaker 2: miss Keana, and we've had our conversation with her, get
Speaker 2: a tissue. I'm just gonna say, get a tissue, grab
Speaker 2: a friend, call your mom, do whatever you can before
Speaker 2: because this interview will just give you life and inspiration
Speaker 2: in a good way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it will. It just it'll give you the
Speaker 1: warm and fuzzies, and then it's gonna make you say
Speaker 1: I can do it too.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna tease it and say that she may
Speaker 2: or may not be a DC. Is that what you
Speaker 2: call yourselves?
Speaker 1: A DC DC DreamCatcher? So we don't have to be high.
Speaker 1: We've got the dream catchers. I like it, right?
Speaker 2: What else?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 2: This week at work? I yeah, I've been leaning in
Speaker 2: and I'm feeling the pain. It's a lot. I just
Speaker 2: feel really overwhelmed. I'm not gonna lie. Work has been
Speaker 2: overwhelming overwhelming. Okay, yeah, so it's been I don't know
Speaker 2: if but if you've ever well people out there, you've
Speaker 2: been running your business for a while, but when you
Speaker 2: start a new job the first it's always kind of
Speaker 2: like there's a transition period in the beginning, and there's
Speaker 2: just so much to do and everyone's pulling you in
Speaker 2: different directions, and it's kind of it's taking me a
Speaker 2: little while to sort of like focus, like a little
Speaker 2: bit longer than I would have liked to say, but
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be a little bit nice to myself
Speaker 2: and just say, Okay, it's a brand new job, like
Speaker 2: you'll get the hang of it, and I am. But
Speaker 2: since we're not going to do a tip section later,
Speaker 2: I want to do my little book recommendation now, okay,
Speaker 2: because this week I was really struggling, like I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, I don't know if I can handle this.
Speaker 2: I was like working twelve hours and coming home late,
Speaker 2: and I downloaded this book on my kindle. It's called
Speaker 2: The First ninety Days. Now I know I'm sixty days late,
Speaker 2: but I'm catching up this book. Let me make sure
Speaker 2: I got that. It's like a it's one of the
Speaker 2: it's constantly on the bestseller business books. But it's not
Speaker 2: the kind of book that's like super sexy that you would,
Speaker 2: you know, just pick up at Barnes and Noble. But
Speaker 2: if you are starting a new job, or you've been
Speaker 2: recently promoted or something, I would absolutely recommend getting this book.
Speaker 2: The First ninety Days is by Michael Watkins, and it's
Speaker 2: been out for like a decade, but it's still like
Speaker 2: the advice is so good. It was recently updated, and
Speaker 2: it basically helps you navigate your first ninety days on
Speaker 2: a new job, like whether you've been promoted or you
Speaker 2: did what I did and you're switching companies completely. And
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that resonated for me
Speaker 2: so well that he says in the book. And this
Speaker 2: is a guy who has worked. He's a Harvard Business
Speaker 2: School professor, so he knows this stuff.
Speaker 3: He said.
Speaker 2: He talks about how when you start a new job,
Speaker 2: especially if it's like a step up. So for me,
Speaker 2: I was going from being a reporter to now running
Speaker 2: a team and like being a manager for the first time.
Speaker 2: And he said that what we so often do is
Speaker 2: we focus on the thing we were good at that
Speaker 2: like made us really good at her old job. So
Speaker 2: for me, that was being a writer, and then we
Speaker 2: lose sight of like all the other stuff that is
Speaker 2: sort of like part of your new job, and then
Speaker 2: it can kind of lead you to fail. And I
Speaker 2: was sort of seeing that in myself. When you get scared,
Speaker 2: you go back to what you know, and I was
Speaker 2: focusing a little bit on, you know, a little too
Speaker 2: much on writing when I should have been focusing on
Speaker 2: other stuff that was sort of more scary to me. Okay,
Speaker 2: so he kind of like he like shook me, shook
Speaker 2: me awake a little bit this week, and I'm feeling
Speaker 2: like I'm getting back on track.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good and honestly too, sometimes, you know, I've
Speaker 1: I was talking to my sister the other day because
Speaker 1: she was like so disappointed that she applied for something
Speaker 1: and she didn't get it. She's trying to switch jobs,
Speaker 1: and I told her, you know, sometimes it's it's the
Speaker 1: overwhelming feeling that helps you grow and push to the
Speaker 1: next level.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yeah, if you're not terrified, then it's
Speaker 2: not worth.
Speaker 1: It exactly, and you just you're And I told her, like,
Speaker 1: you know, there's always going to be something that makes
Speaker 1: you say, oh my god, I can't I totally can't
Speaker 1: do this, and then you'll stretch and you'll grow, and
Speaker 1: you'll grow in your stretch, and then that thing that
Speaker 1: used to be so hard won't be so hard, but
Speaker 1: it'll be something new. And I said, you know what
Speaker 1: will happen is you'll get better at managing the emotion
Speaker 1: of I don't know how to do this, honestly, I
Speaker 1: don't know how to do anything at the budget East,
Speaker 1: Like everything we knew that we do is always like
Speaker 1: there's no precedent for it as far as in my life,
Speaker 1: you know, so there's always like, so, how do you
Speaker 1: build an online academy?
Speaker 2: And I don't know, but you figure it out. How
Speaker 2: do you start a podcast?
Speaker 1: I didn't know exactly, you didn't know you were, Like,
Speaker 1: so I did some googles and but you figure it
Speaker 1: out if you want it, and so yeah, I just
Speaker 1: think that, like I it's okay not to know, it's
Speaker 1: okay to be overwhelmed, but you won't always feel like that,
Speaker 1: and putting one foot in front of the other really
Speaker 1: can create something magical.
Speaker 2: Totally, and it's easy to be really hard on yourself.
Speaker 2: Like I'm very ambitious obviously, I got the brown ambition
Speaker 2: bug and money. When you feel like you're not, you
Speaker 2: know you I talk a lot of I just like
Speaker 2: I said, you know, it's not terrifying, it's not worth it,
Speaker 2: Like I always get that advice, but this is like
Speaker 2: I genuinely take my own advice. And it's it keeps
Speaker 2: being terrifying and it keeps being stressful, and you kind
Speaker 2: of have to like learn how to trust yourself and
Speaker 2: be nice as you're going through those growing pains, because
Speaker 2: they're real and it like can bleed into all the
Speaker 2: you know, I'd be like a little bit snappier to
Speaker 2: for fiance boo. You know you you always have your
Speaker 2: like pretty game face on during the day, and then
Speaker 2: you go home and it's like you I turn into
Speaker 2: like the monster from the crypt. It's like, what did
Speaker 2: I do that?
Speaker 1: You're breathing.
Speaker 2: But it's not okay. So I'm I you have to
Speaker 2: sort of like I'm trying to get better at like
Speaker 2: managing my emotions and not letting every little setback like
Speaker 2: pile up on top of itself. Yeah, and just like
Speaker 2: put me in a funk.
Speaker 1: You know what I've been doing lately, I've been I've
Speaker 1: been telling this to other people too, but I've been
Speaker 1: doing this for myself lately. That helps, But because I
Speaker 1: you know, you're going to get in a funk sometimes,
Speaker 1: and some funks you're really just supposed to stay there
Speaker 1: for a little bit, but most of them are barely temporary.
Speaker 1: So what I've done is I created like my like
Speaker 1: anti funcalists, like things that I like to do that
Speaker 1: usually lift my spirits, so like taking a walk. I
Speaker 1: love reading like random books, you know, not like I'm
Speaker 1: not talking like I love reading marketing books. But if
Speaker 1: I'm in a funk, I want to read like the Devil,
Speaker 1: Where's Prada? You know, like just something fun. I love
Speaker 1: Fixer Upper on HGTV. My jail right, isn't the first
Speaker 1: of all? Joanna and Chip games. They are so freaking
Speaker 1: and adorable, aren't they.
Speaker 2: I don't think they're real. I think they're like aliens.
Speaker 1: I just love Joanna. I'm just like Chip Chip.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do some recess lighting in here, Chip Chip,
Speaker 2: stop throwing that football. Chip.
Speaker 1: I told you right, And her taste is amazing. I'm
Speaker 1: like Joanna fixed my life and so I you know,
Speaker 1: so that's another one of my life, you know, feeling
Speaker 1: like my uplifting things I can do. It's all like
Speaker 1: all my lists. Indri is another one. So I have
Speaker 1: like a list of things that when I'm in a funk,
Speaker 1: maybe take a nap. So when I'm in a funk,
Speaker 1: I'll run through them, like, let me take a nap,
Speaker 1: still mad, let me go for a walk. Oh I'm
Speaker 1: feeling better. Let me call Cabral and ask him to
Speaker 1: go out to dinner. He's one of my really great friends,
Speaker 1: and he just has such a great, warm spirit and
Speaker 1: so and usually once I get down to two or
Speaker 1: three or four of the list, it will have broken
Speaker 1: or at least receded some. And so I encourage people
Speaker 1: to do that, to make a list of the things
Speaker 1: that really bring you genuine joy, and like, if you're
Speaker 1: feeling some kind of way, to kind of work your
Speaker 1: way through them. And sometimes none of them work, honestly,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, well, I'm just in a bad mood,
Speaker 1: and so I just try to avoid people for a
Speaker 1: few days.
Speaker 2: All right, Guys, Tiffany, I'm so excited for our guest today.
Speaker 1: I am super excited for her too.
Speaker 2: We don't often just invite random pace bowl off the
Speaker 2: streets of America onto the podcast, but when you get
Speaker 2: an email like the one that I got from miss
Speaker 2: Keona Harris from Houston, Texas, you just got to have
Speaker 2: her on. We talked about her last week, but just
Speaker 2: to recap, Keona decided to do her summer break for
Speaker 2: her daughter, her thirteen year old, just a little bit differently,
Speaker 2: you know, no camp. She decided to do a fifty
Speaker 2: state road trip throughout the entire United States that she's
Speaker 2: doing a little chunks and pieces this year. So far,
Speaker 2: she's already been to twelve states with her daughter, which
Speaker 2: is pretty impressive. But they're not just like taking pictures
Speaker 2: in from the world's largest like porch chair and stuff
Speaker 2: like that along the way and eating at cracker Barrel.
Speaker 2: They are doing all kinds of volunteer work and just
Speaker 2: being all around a super cute mom and daughter pair. So,
Speaker 2: Keona want to welcome you to Brown Ambition.
Speaker 4: Yes, thank you, Mandy, Thank you Tiffany for having me.
Speaker 2: So why we decide to do a cross country road
Speaker 2: trip with your daughter when she's thirteen? Like, does she
Speaker 2: appreciate it? How cool you are?
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 3: I don't think she does.
Speaker 4: No, she's she's nine, So she's she doesn't nine?
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's nine years old.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at the time she's thirteen. You want to finish it? Oh, okay,
Speaker 2: I got it right.
Speaker 4: So I'll tell you I've always wanted to travel with her.
Speaker 4: Travel experience is a big deal to me, and so
Speaker 4: a couple of years ago I decided to you know,
Speaker 4: start our our fifty state World tour or you know
Speaker 4: us tour we did a road trip with some fam
Speaker 4: with some cousins and we went from the South up
Speaker 4: through like DC and back, and so that kind of
Speaker 4: was the catalyst of it. And so each up until
Speaker 4: she's thirteen years old, I want to see all fifty
Speaker 4: states by the time she's thirteen, and then when she's thirteen,
Speaker 4: we're gonna go internationally and hit one continent each year,
Speaker 4: so that by the time she's twenty years old, she's
Speaker 4: seen the world.
Speaker 3: That's the bigger vision.
Speaker 1: Seeing the world, seeing the United States, especially at a
Speaker 1: young age, it's really just going to open.
Speaker 3: Up her, just her.
Speaker 1: The way she thinks about things. But yeah, go ahead, Mandy,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, Wow, I'm in awe.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I want to know. I mean, this must have
Speaker 2: come from a personal place for you. Why was it
Speaker 2: so important for your daughter to see the world. Did
Speaker 2: you do a lot of traveling when you were younger?
Speaker 3: Actually, not at all.
Speaker 4: I am born and raised in Sacramento, California, and I
Speaker 4: didn't leave California until I went away to college. So
Speaker 4: at seventeen, I went to Xavier University in New Orleans
Speaker 4: and that was my first time out of the state.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And then.
Speaker 4: And then I did a lot of traveling in college.
Speaker 4: I had friends from DC, from Atlanta. We were everywhere
Speaker 4: in my little red sunfire. Wherever the sunfire could get to,
Speaker 4: you got there. And then I went internationally for the
Speaker 4: first time. I was actually pregnant with my daughter and
Speaker 4: went to to Italy to Europe, and there was a
Speaker 4: little and I was super nervous being on a plane
Speaker 4: going out of the country. But there was a little
Speaker 4: boy who was like seven years old, flying by hisself,
Speaker 4: and I asked him, I said, are you nervous?
Speaker 3: Are you scared? He's like, no, I do this all
Speaker 3: the time, and now here I am this.
Speaker 4: Big, twenty six, twenty seven year old woman, all scary.
Speaker 4: But I love meeting new people and learning new cultures
Speaker 4: and just experiencing life outside of you know, the world
Speaker 4: is bigger than your corner store.
Speaker 3: You know all of that.
Speaker 4: So I've always wanted I think that's important and important lesson.
Speaker 3: I want to.
Speaker 1: Leave with her, leave her with Okay, it's let me
Speaker 1: get out of your your box. So I think the
Speaker 1: burning question that a ton of people are thinking is
Speaker 1: how how can you afford to do this? How are
Speaker 1: you making this happen?
Speaker 4: Financially well, last maybe it was last year or the
Speaker 4: year before, Tiffany, I thought I joined your I joined
Speaker 4: your dream Catchers. Look at that, and that was not
Speaker 4: a set of as, it was not a setup. I
Speaker 4: found brown ambition because of dream Catchers. So I've started
Speaker 4: following you. I think a friend of mine told me
Speaker 4: about the liver Riture Challenge, and so I did that
Speaker 4: and I followed it to a tea. It was two
Speaker 4: years ago, and within that year, just following your ten
Speaker 4: day program, I paid off all of my debt except
Speaker 4: student loans.
Speaker 3: Those are forever and give her take, give or take.
Speaker 4: Still working on that, but I paid off all of
Speaker 4: my debt, and I opened up my money buckets and
Speaker 4: my savings and my budgeting, did everything that you suggested
Speaker 4: and really didn't change my life and how I view money.
Speaker 4: And one of my money buckets was my travel my
Speaker 4: vacation bucket, and so I bought a house that year,
Speaker 4: like all kinds of stuff. So now I have student
Speaker 4: loans and a mortgage that's gonna be forever. But this
Speaker 4: year and my money bucket for our vacation, I've been
Speaker 4: saving like one hundred.
Speaker 3: Dollars a month.
Speaker 4: Okay, so equals twelve hundred dollars, right, And that was
Speaker 4: the budget, the cash that I took on this trip,
Speaker 4: and I stayed accordingly. I wanted We're going through twelve
Speaker 4: different states, so I said, I want to spend at
Speaker 4: least one hundred dollars in estates.
Speaker 3: Including gas, lodging, food.
Speaker 4: So the cities where we went and we could stay
Speaker 4: with friends or family, we did that. And then the
Speaker 4: activities that I found in advance.
Speaker 3: A lot of times they were free.
Speaker 4: It's you know, free to go into see different monuments
Speaker 4: and things like that, and I can't. Actually I came
Speaker 4: back with money still, so that's amazing, pretty good.
Speaker 2: You want to do a slow clap.
Speaker 1: I know, honestly, I'm cheesing because that's not what I
Speaker 1: was expecting you to say. And I you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a setup. I'm like, no, that is. It's stories
Speaker 1: like that that make you know, like what me and
Speaker 1: Mandy do, like that's the reason why you know that
Speaker 1: we think that women in particular, you're capable, and you're able.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just the lack of not knowing how.
Speaker 4: Right, and it does take this so and I'm a
Speaker 4: single parent as well, so you know, if something is
Speaker 4: important to you, you make provision for it.
Speaker 3: And travel is very very important to me.
Speaker 4: This experience is very important to me, so I made
Speaker 4: sure to make provision for it.
Speaker 2: Well, I just want to say, as you know, I
Speaker 2: grew up when I was when I was your daughter's age,
Speaker 2: my mom had just gotten divorced, and I remember those
Speaker 2: years after the divorce as being like the best years
Speaker 2: with my mom. So I think it's so cool what
Speaker 2: you're doing because you never are closer to your your kids.
Speaker 2: I don't think until something like that happens.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, and that's true.
Speaker 4: Actually I went through divorce last year too, so a
Speaker 4: lot of changes in our lives and happened in a
Speaker 4: short amount of time and going you know, coming through
Speaker 4: and from that. She's the only child, so I don't have,
Speaker 4: you know, I don't have to divide my attention to
Speaker 4: other kids. I just wanted to, you know, give her
Speaker 4: the best of me, and hopefully I'm doing that. I
Speaker 4: also I worked, you know, I left my planned it,
Speaker 4: you know, financially planned as well, to leave my full
Speaker 4: time job to pursue entrepreneurship. I'm a private coun a
Speaker 4: licensed counselor and I started my practice full time two
Speaker 4: months ago, and while she was spending the summer with
Speaker 4: her dad, I just felt like, when she comes back this,
Speaker 4: I won't never have this time again. I don't have to,
Speaker 4: you know, request PTO. I don't you know all those
Speaker 4: different things that you do when you have a full
Speaker 4: time job. So I said, let me just go ahead
Speaker 4: and and just do this and when school starts, that's
Speaker 4: that's it. That's all I got.
Speaker 2: I mean, you always hear these stories about these surveys
Speaker 2: and studies. You know how many Americans don't take their
Speaker 2: vacation days or take time for a family. I mean,
Speaker 2: you made it work. You're a single parent, you're working
Speaker 2: full time, transitioning to you know, your own business. What
Speaker 2: advice do you have for other people, other parents out
Speaker 2: there who just feel like there's no time for them
Speaker 2: to do this sort of thing.
Speaker 4: Well, when you say there's no time, we we have
Speaker 4: to prioritize ourself. Work is always going to be there.
Speaker 4: And I was one of those people when I had
Speaker 4: PTO days to take, but I could or wouldn't because
Speaker 4: the work would get backed up, and I just really
Speaker 4: had to look at my situation or you know, look
Speaker 4: at my things, like what's most important or what is
Speaker 4: more important to me?
Speaker 3: My child was going to.
Speaker 4: Daycare all day, go to school all day, and I
Speaker 4: didn't get home till time, just put her to bed.
Speaker 4: And I didn't want that life for her, you know
Speaker 4: I didn't. I didn't want that life for us. So
Speaker 4: I had to have a you know, let her look
Speaker 4: atself and say, you know, I don't need to give
Speaker 4: my the best of my years and my time to
Speaker 4: an institution when my daughter needs me most. And it
Speaker 4: was scary, like entrepreneur life is not all that you
Speaker 4: know I thought it would be. It's definitely not sexy.
Speaker 4: Every you know, I need a job. I need a job.
Speaker 1: Why you better talent? Everybody? I want to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: It is not.
Speaker 3: It is not.
Speaker 4: But then I have friends that say, you don't need
Speaker 4: a job, you are your job. So I have a
Speaker 4: lot of encouragement, a lot of encouragement around me.
Speaker 3: I'm grateful for it.
Speaker 4: And then even as a counselor, when I have families
Speaker 4: come in, you know they're dealing with their the issues
Speaker 4: of their teenage children, and it's not necessarily too late
Speaker 4: to reach their child, but their child there's a disconnect
Speaker 4: because they didn't reach them when they were six, seven, eight,
Speaker 4: nine years old, So now they're sixteen and there's a
Speaker 4: breakdown and you want me to fix it. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I just see the value of putting family first, what's
Speaker 4: the most important, and prioritizing that way.
Speaker 2: I have an unrelated question to like finances or even
Speaker 2: what we're really talking about, but you just brought up
Speaker 2: something interesting. I've always wondered and Tiff and I have
Speaker 2: kind of touched on this before. When you're surrounded by
Speaker 2: people who have all this energy and then you're kind
Speaker 2: of taking on the energy, like as a therapist in
Speaker 2: your job, how do you protect yourself from all that?
Speaker 2: I'm assuming negative, not happy energy, and I think anyone
Speaker 2: could probably it's this advice just in every day life.
Speaker 1: I'm waiting with breath because I get you. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm not you know, I can't pay this or I
Speaker 1: don't have that, and it can be a lot. So yes,
Speaker 1: what do you do?
Speaker 4: Well, it's as a therapist, you we are trained to
Speaker 4: we don't own someone else's problem or issue, So I don't,
Speaker 4: although I care and I empathize, it's your problem to
Speaker 4: fix out and to you know, resolve. I'm just here
Speaker 4: to help you, guide you through it. So sometimes the
Speaker 4: things that people say un till you are very heavy
Speaker 4: and just being human, it's easy to you know, absorb that.
Speaker 4: But that's why you Every therapist has a therapist or
Speaker 4: should have a therapist. You have to have your own
Speaker 4: your own outlets. And yes, yes, I if it's not
Speaker 4: a therapist, you're you. I have good friends, like my
Speaker 4: best friends, my you know, family members who I can
Speaker 4: just be myself with. And self care is very important.
Speaker 4: Do the most of what you know is important to
Speaker 4: you to relax. I love water, so I moved to
Speaker 4: Houston because it's closer to the water. I lived in
Speaker 4: Dallas before. So whenever I'm just need to kind of
Speaker 4: think and get away, I'll go sit by the beach
Speaker 4: or something. I also work out a lot, just for
Speaker 4: the energy, you know, just kind of get some of
Speaker 4: that energy. And I'm a night out.
Speaker 3: I stay up.
Speaker 4: I get inspiration in the middle of the night sometimes,
Speaker 4: so I'll get up and have to write things down.
Speaker 1: And you you.
Speaker 4: I love also children, so my daughter being the only child,
Speaker 4: I will go find kids to play with.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I do a lot of stuff like that
Speaker 3: with my little cousins, and I'm a.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they they come around a lot, and they love
Speaker 4: game nights and stuff at my house because that keeps
Speaker 4: me not having to be so heavy all the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard when you have a kid around there.
Speaker 2: They're like their own form of therapy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, Supergirl a lot cheaper, right, she certainly
Speaker 1: teaches me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And Maya's fun. This this trip was was amazing
Speaker 4: just to see her be nine.
Speaker 3: And you know, I.
Speaker 4: Think I had did a video for my Facebook page
Speaker 4: just what I learned from her about just being slowing down.
Speaker 4: So I'm usually it's a real go go go type
Speaker 4: of person. And Maya's very like sauntering and slow. So
Speaker 4: while we were walking through Chicago and I'm like, on a,
Speaker 4: I'm on a time frame, like we got to see
Speaker 4: this side and we gotta get back in the car
Speaker 4: and head to Milwaukee. And I'm walking real fast. I
Speaker 4: have long legs and my stride is a lot longer
Speaker 4: than hers. And she would she grabbed my hand and
Speaker 4: she was like, Mommy, let's walk. Like she tried to
Speaker 4: walk in step with me. We'd have to count down
Speaker 4: and walk on the same foot. So she just saw
Speaker 4: that as it's a game to her. But I took
Speaker 4: that as mommy, slow down, don't miss the journey, you know,
Speaker 4: trying to get to the destination. And so if there's
Speaker 4: a lot of lessons to have been learned just in
Speaker 4: that experience, if you pay attention to your kid, you
Speaker 4: can learn so much.
Speaker 2: That is such a sweet image you just painted. I know,
Speaker 2: I might, I might have teared up. I need to
Speaker 2: go call my mom real Q.
Speaker 1: No, that's just so so. If you if there's someone
Speaker 1: who's listening and they're like, oh my gosh, I want
Speaker 1: to even if it's not with their child or or
Speaker 1: maybe it's with their significant other, by themselves, I want
Speaker 1: to do that. What's what would you tell them, like,
Speaker 1: the first step, the first thing they can do. They're like,
Speaker 1: I have dad, I don't have any money. You know, everybody, everyone,
Speaker 1: This is what I get from everyone, like I don't
Speaker 1: I don't have the income, I don't make enough, and
Speaker 1: I have a whole bunch of debt. What would you
Speaker 1: say their first step should be.
Speaker 4: The first step would be looking your own backyard. I
Speaker 4: live in Houston, and there's so many things to do here.
Speaker 4: I have yet text me, I've only been lived here
Speaker 4: a year, so a lot of times the museums have
Speaker 4: free days or you know, find something that that's within
Speaker 4: with within your budget you're laying and you'll get the
Speaker 4: same expense. Because if it's your you know, your your
Speaker 4: child or your children significant other. Just enjoy what is
Speaker 4: available to you. What are your options. Don't look at
Speaker 4: what the next person is doing or have done. It's
Speaker 4: one it's free to help people. The community service thing,
Speaker 4: I literally posted in a Facebook group.
Speaker 3: Hey, I'm a counselor from Houston.
Speaker 4: I'm going on a road trip and I want to
Speaker 4: serve the communities while i'm there. Any any nonprofit organizations
Speaker 4: out here willing to let me come do something?
Speaker 3: And I got responded that way.
Speaker 4: All it took was an email or you know, something
Speaker 4: like that. It doesn't really it doesn't take much money.
Speaker 4: It takes your time, but it doesn't take money to
Speaker 4: do something like that.
Speaker 2: We didn't even get to the really cool part of
Speaker 2: your story. The other part is the fact that you guys,
Speaker 2: you know, we're doing volunteer work. Can you talk about
Speaker 2: some of those experiences?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 4: So, aside from travel, community service, I'm really really big
Speaker 4: on being a good citizen and giving back in your
Speaker 4: community wherever you are. And that's another nugget. I want
Speaker 4: my daughter to know an experience. And so when we went.
Speaker 3: To not in every city, we didn't get to do
Speaker 3: something I tried. At first.
Speaker 4: I had went into like a United Way website and
Speaker 4: trying to connect with you know, bigger nonprofit organizations. But
Speaker 4: there their systems are set up a little different where
Speaker 4: you have to have a background check and you know,
Speaker 4: stuff like that. And so that's when I put that
Speaker 4: ad out into the Faith book group. And I'm met
Speaker 4: online a lady named Sheena Thomas, and she has a
Speaker 4: nonprofit group she mentors kids. And this was in Arkansas,
Speaker 4: and so she invited me to come out and I
Speaker 4: did a group with them. They're about about fifteen adults
Speaker 4: or parents and then about twenty to thirty children. And
Speaker 4: the activity that I did with them, it was so amazing.
Speaker 4: So I had the child sit in a chair. They
Speaker 4: were like the king or the queen on the throne,
Speaker 4: and I had all the parents adults, they had to
Speaker 4: come down the line and say something positive about this
Speaker 4: child to the child. And so if you you know,
Speaker 4: if you imagine a kid sitting there, and you have
Speaker 4: fifteen to twenty adults coming down the line affirming you,
Speaker 4: encouraging you, saying that you're smart, you're beautiful, you're worthy,
Speaker 4: and it just felt so good. And there was some
Speaker 4: mother daughter pairs or some you know, it was a
Speaker 4: mom who got when she got in front of her daughter.
Speaker 4: I think the little girl was like maybe sixteen or seventeen,
Speaker 4: and you could see the things that she was saying
Speaker 4: was very heartfelt. And at the end, I had asked
Speaker 4: the kids, how did it make you feel to hear
Speaker 4: such positive things about yourself? And then you know, they say, oh,
Speaker 4: it felt good. And then but when that seventeen year
Speaker 4: old girl she said, at first I was just hearing,
Speaker 4: you know, I heard what they were saying. But then
Speaker 4: I really listened to what they were saying, and it
Speaker 4: made me cry because we don't give back. We don't
Speaker 4: give back and talk to our kids that way. Like
Speaker 4: one girl she said, you never you don't really hear
Speaker 4: good things like that. And especially now, it's so important
Speaker 4: to affirm our kids because they are seeing these negative
Speaker 4: images on TV, in social media, or wherever the case
Speaker 4: may be. So it is so important that if you
Speaker 4: don't build your child up, your you're not even to
Speaker 4: your birth child, your community of children if you don't,
Speaker 4: if you're not feeding into them, no one else is
Speaker 4: going to do it.
Speaker 1: So, oh my gosh, you're like my new favorite person.
Speaker 3: Your friend. I know, right, I want to be your friend.
Speaker 2: So can we call each other like around five pm
Speaker 2: every Tuesday?
Speaker 1: No, Honestly, I just wish more people start like that,
Speaker 1: because I truly believe that, you know, giving activates abundance
Speaker 1: and that you don't have to. What I love about
Speaker 1: what you're doing is that you're teaching your daughter that
Speaker 1: you don't have to do these huge acts of service
Speaker 1: to change the world. That you could literally just affect
Speaker 1: the serpent, the small network and circle around you and
Speaker 1: that effect will ripple you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And when you talk about young kids, when I
Speaker 2: was a little girl, it's it's incredible when I think
Speaker 2: back how young I was when I was on a diet.
Speaker 2: I think I had my first diet when I was
Speaker 2: like eight years old, seven years old, and I was
Speaker 2: and you read about kids and how they are, confidence,
Speaker 2: especially young girls, just plummets by the time they get
Speaker 2: into like high school, middle school age from when they
Speaker 2: were little kids and they're so confident, and you're right,
Speaker 2: it's like you need to nurture that confidence and make
Speaker 2: sure it doesn't wane as they get older, because sudden
Speaker 2: it just carries you through college and then in your
Speaker 2: career and then you look up and you have to
Speaker 2: make up for all this lost time.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 2: Yep, you had a lucky little daughter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one day she'll realize it, because you know, they
Speaker 1: don't realize it. You know, you know how it is
Speaker 1: you were a daughter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well you still are, but yeah.
Speaker 1: Like you know, you don't realize until you get I
Speaker 1: would say late twenties and you're like, oh, so the
Speaker 1: fact that you've fed me and had a please jeep,
Speaker 1: that was pretty awesome.
Speaker 4: She's she's a really cool kid, though I don't I
Speaker 4: can't take credit for she She's always been just a
Speaker 4: real cool kid. She's the kind of kid where you say, Maya,
Speaker 4: what do you want for Christmas? And she'll say, surprise me.
Speaker 4: She's always been that way.
Speaker 2: Oh she's a better kid than me.
Speaker 1: Get my list out right.
Speaker 4: She's always been there. I don't know where this kid
Speaker 4: came from, but I'm blessed.
Speaker 3: I'm very blessed to have. I'm God. I'm glad that
Speaker 3: God gave him to me.
Speaker 2: So tell us if you want to follow your work,
Speaker 2: where can people find you?
Speaker 4: I have My website is www dot bridges Behavioralhealth dot org.
Speaker 4: I am on Facebook as well, Facebook dot com, slash
Speaker 4: bridges Behavioral Health and also I'm on psychology today as
Speaker 4: Keana Harris, Licensed Professional Counselor that's spelled k e o
Speaker 4: n A Heiress LPC. And you'd probably have to search
Speaker 4: Houston to find me there.
Speaker 2: People of Houston, God of Houston.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Keanna, thank you ladies. You guys have a good evening.
Speaker 1: You too.
Speaker 2: Oh I feel all warm and fuzzy.
Speaker 1: I know. I love when people are just good people.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh my god.
Speaker 2: I need to be a better person. How long if
Speaker 2: I lived in my new neighborhood, I haven't done.
Speaker 1: Anything, honestly, And I'm like lazy. People are always like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you get for a living. I'm like, yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2: Different, Like, well, it's got to be nice to hear
Speaker 2: her story. No, it is literally because of you. She
Speaker 2: did what she instigated in her She accomplished what she wanted.
Speaker 1: And it just it doesn't even feel real, like it's honestly,
Speaker 1: people always say how does it feel, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel always so detached and removed
Speaker 1: because it's almost like I cannot conceive that that's what
Speaker 1: something I created has has helped to bring that about.
Speaker 1: So instead of like because I can't conceive of it,
Speaker 1: it's like over there, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: weird because I'm just like, how this was just something
Speaker 1: where I was like, you know what, I'm so sick
Speaker 1: of tired of everybody telling me that they can't help women,
Speaker 1: especially women of color. I'm gonna make something. I'm tired
Speaker 1: of begging these companies and then telling me no, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. And then for someone to say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm taking my daughter around the country then around the world.
Speaker 1: You're like, wait, what, but I made that in my
Speaker 1: pj's at my house. Yeah. So it's just I'm just
Speaker 1: really grateful and just I love hearing stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But you can tell she was gonna find a way
Speaker 1: she just needed and that's what why, Like I said before,
Speaker 1: that's why it's so important what we do because so
Speaker 1: many women. I think for News told me she was like,
Speaker 1: you know that it's so important, Tiffany that you win.
Speaker 1: She was like, not even for yourself, but because you're
Speaker 1: a woman, and because you're a woman of color. Quite honestly,
Speaker 1: there are gonna be people who would otherwise not benefit,
Speaker 1: but you winning. You know, because sometimes, you know, I
Speaker 1: shrink a little, I'll be like, well, I'm good, this
Speaker 1: is enough, this is and learning to like, no, go
Speaker 1: for it all. Not because of you so you could
Speaker 1: be the limelight or whatever, but because because you being
Speaker 1: out there means that someone who likely would not get
Speaker 1: help or would not be seen or whatever, it's going
Speaker 1: to get that opportunity. And so like I think I forget.
Speaker 1: I think she said that on that panel, you guys
Speaker 1: did something to that effect. And since then I have
Speaker 1: been like not allowing myself to shrink back because I
Speaker 1: feel like, well, you know, it's good enough. I'm doing well, enough,
Speaker 1: I'm making enough, and I think to myself, well it's
Speaker 1: maybe enough for you, but not enough for everyone.
Speaker 2: Well, certain people are always gonna win, and I think
Speaker 2: it's when the people who don't always win, women people
Speaker 2: of color, when we are in positions of power. It
Speaker 2: just makes everything more balanced exactly. And people, yeah, and
Speaker 2: people question it all the time, like what does it matter?
Speaker 2: Just you know, what does it matter the color of
Speaker 2: the president or the sex of the president? Like it matters.
Speaker 2: Maybe not to you who's always winning and feels like
Speaker 2: everything is okay, but for the rest of us it
Speaker 2: matters hugely.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it does.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me like a little bit of
Speaker 2: a bout come on.
Speaker 1: It's hard. I don't know why. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but it's always like, oh, that's right, okay, next, next, okay,
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 2: We can move along. Then, fine, fine, fine, lavish compliments
Speaker 2: upon me.
Speaker 1: I will take them.