Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Hey, everybody listen. I love
Speaker 1: I love, I love my podcast Checking In as I
Speaker 1: love the variety of amazing, powerful, extraordinary guests. This young
Speaker 1: lady comes from hip hop royalty, right, but she herself
Speaker 1: did not follow in the footsteps of hip hop royalty.
Speaker 1: As far as the that side of the art, she
Speaker 1: is on the entrepreneurial side as it relates to legacy
Speaker 1: and an actress television mogul. Y'all, okay, I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: say it. Vanessa Simmons is here. Ladies and gentlemen, thank
Speaker 1: you for that amazing intro. Thank you, I mean, as
Speaker 1: far as I can remember or even recall of children
Speaker 1: of musical legends and what you have chosen to do
Speaker 1: with said legacy and building your own legacy.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Hand hand claps, handclaps, hand claps.
Speaker 3: I like to say I'm an extension of hip hop.
Speaker 3: You know, I was inspired by hip hop. I grew
Speaker 3: up hip hop, That's all I knew. But I wanted
Speaker 3: to add to the legacy in my own way, and
Speaker 3: that's what I really strive to do.
Speaker 1: Yes, but why didn't you go onto the stage? As
Speaker 1: far as hip hop.
Speaker 3: Is concerned, I've always wanted to forge my own path.
Speaker 3: I've always been a girl who's interested in acting. I know,
Speaker 3: being in front of the camera is something that I'm
Speaker 3: passionate about since I've been a schoolgirl and I've been
Speaker 3: doing school plays.
Speaker 2: So I always I.
Speaker 3: Knew I wanted to be in front of the camera,
Speaker 3: and I was always really I guess sometimes you can
Speaker 3: say overly ambitious. I've always just wanted to make my
Speaker 3: mark in you know, the legacy that's already been built
Speaker 3: within the Semis family. So so always just been my
Speaker 3: goal to forge my own path and be able to
Speaker 3: add to the legacy in my own way.
Speaker 1: Yes, now, listen, this is my first time being able
Speaker 1: to speak to you in this capacity, and I know
Speaker 1: you have probably been asked this question. I'm going to
Speaker 1: get to your love of stage acting and disclaimer, and
Speaker 1: we do know that we are in a sag after
Speaker 1: a strike, and we will respect that, but I definitely
Speaker 1: want to get into you, Like she said, her love
Speaker 1: of stage acting, that's a whole different beast. Like if
Speaker 1: you can do stage plays and theater, you are a
Speaker 1: lot of the greats started in theater, and we will
Speaker 1: get to that later. But I was saying, this is
Speaker 1: my first time getting being able to talk to you
Speaker 1: in this capacity. And I'm sure you've been asked this
Speaker 1: question loads of times, probably for the past thirty years plus.
Speaker 1: Did you ever feel the pressure to follow in your
Speaker 1: father's footsteps? Okay, y'all, her father is a Okay government
Speaker 1: named Joseph Simmons. Okay, okay, Reverend run from run DMC.
Speaker 1: Did you ever feel the pressure to say, well, this
Speaker 1: is what my dad does, I better do it too.
Speaker 3: You know what, I've never felt the pressure to do
Speaker 3: exactly what he's doing, but I felt the pressure to,
Speaker 3: like like I said earlier, just add to the legacy,
Speaker 3: such huge shoes to fill. And I've always knew I
Speaker 3: wanted to be in entertainment. I know, I've always wanted
Speaker 3: to do exactly what I'm doing right now, but come on,
Speaker 3: the pressure to necessarily be on stage in that capacity.
Speaker 3: But okay, always inspired by what he's done and how
Speaker 3: he's built this legacy and hip hop, and I just
Speaker 3: added that in my life in my own way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was like, I can just imagine growing
Speaker 1: up like wondering where people trying to put microphone, not
Speaker 1: not your family, but where people like, okay, you can
Speaker 1: do this, and even trying to take advantage of who
Speaker 1: you are, you know, in that in that in that state.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad to know that you were like, no,
Speaker 1: there is pressure to be great, and I'm glad it's
Speaker 1: like acknowledging those huge steps to feel and you've done
Speaker 1: extraordinarily well. You mentioned stage acting in stage plays all
Speaker 1: the way back dating to school. When did the bug hit.
Speaker 2: You early on?
Speaker 3: I would say in elementary school I started doing plays.
Speaker 3: I remember in the eighth grade I was cast as
Speaker 3: Anna and the King and I and it felt.
Speaker 2: Like so much pressure to have this you know.
Speaker 3: Huge role and still maintain myself schooling and everything else
Speaker 3: going on. But man, after all the work that we
Speaker 3: put in and all the rehearsal, the way I felt
Speaker 3: on the stage putting on that show, and it just
Speaker 3: inspired me and I was like, this is what I
Speaker 3: want to do now. What I didn't know is how
Speaker 3: difficult it would be to pursue as a professional career.
Speaker 3: And I've gone through my set of challenges, you know,
Speaker 3: trying to be a professional actress. That in that hustle
Speaker 3: because it definitely is a hustle, but it inspires me.
Speaker 3: And when I'm in the move, I'm in the groove
Speaker 3: and it feels so good.
Speaker 2: I love acting.
Speaker 3: So my love of acting started on the stage, and
Speaker 3: I'm happy to say I'm going back on the stage
Speaker 3: in a stage play. I'm doing a play called Rotten
Speaker 3: Apple with some heavyweights in the industry, people i've watched
Speaker 3: growing up on the you know, silver screen, acting in sitcoms,
Speaker 3: and I'm excited to join them.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing.
Speaker 3: Story and I'm excited that I still get to pursue
Speaker 3: these endeavors and be creative because it's definitely a passion
Speaker 3: of mine that fuels me, makes me feel alive, Like.
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations. Is this stage play going to be stationary
Speaker 1: or will it tour?
Speaker 3: It's going to be in the markets of Maryland. We're
Speaker 3: going to be in Bouie, Maryland, and in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Speaker 3: So it's for two weeks only. Hopefully we'll be able
Speaker 3: to expand and go out to more markets. But you know,
Speaker 3: I'm excited to just get.
Speaker 2: On the stage.
Speaker 3: Like you said, we are in the middle of the strike,
Speaker 3: so things have been, you know, just a little bit different.
Speaker 3: While we support the sag after strike because I do
Speaker 3: believe that we deserve certain rights that they're fighting for,
Speaker 3: but to be able to still pursue and act and
Speaker 3: be on the stage, it's it's honestly a dream come
Speaker 3: true of mine.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, coming from where you come from, even my background,
Speaker 1: I have done acting on stage and on screen. Do
Speaker 1: you feel it's more difficult or people expect more out
Speaker 1: of you because of who you are?
Speaker 3: One hundred percent, I'm expected to be a unicorn, you know,
Speaker 3: and I've had to really grow.
Speaker 2: I've had to be a student of the craft.
Speaker 3: I've been knocked down endless times, had to get myself
Speaker 3: back in class.
Speaker 2: I'm still in class.
Speaker 3: I'm always learning because people do expect a different level
Speaker 3: of excellence out of me because of my background, which
Speaker 3: can be incredibly tough at times. But I feel like
Speaker 3: at the same time, it's made me stronger, It's made
Speaker 3: me pursue it even harder, and just, you know, continue
Speaker 3: to be a student of the craft. I think that
Speaker 3: that is very important in anything you pursue, is to
Speaker 3: just continue to study, continue to learn. There's never enough learning,
Speaker 3: So I'm just strengthening my craft as I go along,
Speaker 3: taking those jabs and hits, because like you said, people
Speaker 3: do expect more out of me, and that can be challenging,
Speaker 3: but you know what, at the end of the day
Speaker 3: is going to make me stronger. Pressure makes a diamond,
Speaker 3: that's what they say. So I'm a keep on pusher
Speaker 3: to keep on going to I'm the best possible version
Speaker 3: of myself I can be, and I'm proud of that
Speaker 3: because i can see the development in myself. It's really
Speaker 3: difficult to be honest with yourself and when you need
Speaker 3: to keep on growing. But I feel like those are
Speaker 3: the type of challenges and those are the type of
Speaker 3: things that make you strongest possible, best version of yourself.
Speaker 3: And that's really what my goal is as an actress.
Speaker 3: I want to be the best actress and I'm not
Speaker 3: afraid to say it. You know, sometimes we hold back
Speaker 3: on that because we want to be humble, and I
Speaker 3: am humble. But now that I've just turned forty, I'm
Speaker 3: admitting to myself things that I need to know why
Speaker 3: I can be the best possible version of myself and
Speaker 3: I want to be the best. So I'm gonna keep
Speaker 3: studying and be a student of the craft. Getting on
Speaker 3: the stage is one of those things that strengthens your craft.
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna continue to do those things so I
Speaker 3: can be the best actress.
Speaker 1: Well in order to be and continue and to maintain
Speaker 1: being a great actress. You said something that might be
Speaker 1: shocking to people. What's that you said? You still are
Speaker 1: taking classes?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I'm always looking up new teachers, new methods, new things
Speaker 3: I can add to just strengthen myself. You are never
Speaker 3: done studying with something like acting, or like I said,
Speaker 3: anything being a business person, being a singer, or being anything.
Speaker 3: You always have to study. You always have to be
Speaker 3: strengthening your tool. And in my case, my tool is
Speaker 3: you know, the craft of active so I have to
Speaker 3: always constantly strengthen it. It's a muscle that you have
Speaker 3: to constantly work in order to be good. Stop doing it,
Speaker 3: you're gonna kind of forget, So you gotta always fine tune.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that. There are so many people that
Speaker 1: I talk to and I love how one of the
Speaker 1: tools to success everybody is to all ways be a student,
Speaker 1: whether that's actually literally in the classroom of whatever your
Speaker 1: craft is. Like, say, for if you're in a nursing
Speaker 1: or in education, you are constantly having to go to
Speaker 1: refresh your workshops or things that keep your license fresh.
Speaker 1: You have to get resoarchdify it. So even in acting
Speaker 1: on music, yes, there are still classes you gotta take.
Speaker 1: You still gotta take vocal lessons. There is someone that
Speaker 1: I know as amazing as she is. Every now and
Speaker 1: then I'm like, what's she up to today? What you
Speaker 1: doing today? Vocal teachers coming by the house?
Speaker 3: Wait, wait, wait, what you gotta do it? You want
Speaker 3: to be great, that's the price. You gotta keep learning.
Speaker 3: You don't know, you don't know it all, and you
Speaker 3: gotta admit that to yourself. You don't know it all.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna keep on studying. I'm gonna keep on pushing,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna keep on striving. No matter how high on
Speaker 3: or how successful you are. That's the people that are successful,
Speaker 3: the people who continue to grow in some way and learn,
Speaker 3: so that's where they strive to be.
Speaker 1: So there are some of us who have no excuse.
Speaker 1: I know so many talented people that won't go outside
Speaker 1: of their just talented. They don't like to rehearse, they
Speaker 1: don't like and it's like, Okay, we'll sit and be mediocre,
Speaker 1: sit and be average. Yes, this is me judging you.
Speaker 1: I don't care. On the entrepreneur side of things, I'm
Speaker 1: a lover of all things hair and I have Yummy Extensions. Yes,
Speaker 1: you've been in business also with your younger sister and
Speaker 1: that has been a success. I want to just talk
Speaker 1: about all things hair because your hair always looks amazing.
Speaker 1: Yummy Extensions is always up in the game with textures
Speaker 1: and products. What made you go into hair.
Speaker 3: Well, see Yummy Extensions. People always think that I like
Speaker 3: own Young Extensions. I'm just a partner in Yummy Extensions.
Speaker 3: I've been a spokesperson for the last Jesus like seven
Speaker 3: years or so. And I think as black women like
Speaker 3: hair and taking care of our hair is a form
Speaker 3: of self care. I always say self care is how
Speaker 3: you love on yourselves.
Speaker 2: And you know, through being.
Speaker 3: Able to change my hair and just you know, look
Speaker 3: in the mirror and feel good about myself, I feel
Speaker 3: like that is a form of self care. And I
Speaker 3: just love being able to switch it up every now
Speaker 3: and then and you know, feel good about myself.
Speaker 1: To be in partnership with the company that long though
Speaker 1: because some partnerships contractually sixty days ninety days a year,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe three years, but seven years as a partner
Speaker 1: with this extension brand is pretty amazing, which means you
Speaker 1: believe in the product. It's amazing, it's great product. Because
Speaker 1: there else she wouldn't you wouldn't be the partner for
Speaker 1: seven years.
Speaker 3: It's a great product. And I also connect heavily with
Speaker 3: the owner. She's always up in her marketing game. She
Speaker 3: inspires me as an entrepreneur. And it's more than just hair,
Speaker 3: it's a lifestyle. And I love being connected to them.
Speaker 3: Their product is great and what they see for even
Speaker 3: more aligned so with exactly like who I am and everything.
Speaker 2: So it allows in connecting and aligning.
Speaker 3: Every partnership I have is always going to align with
Speaker 3: like my values and beliefs beyond. Yeah, it's important because
Speaker 3: so many things get thrown at you in this business
Speaker 3: to you know, product, promote or endorse this or that.
Speaker 2: You have to make sure you align with everything.
Speaker 3: And I completely align with Yummy the entrepreneur and of
Speaker 3: course the hair, Like I get to do this every day.
Speaker 3: It's it's amazing. I to switch it up.
Speaker 2: I just have braids two weeks ago. It's it's an incredible.
Speaker 1: Right looking absolutely amazing. Okay, Vanessa is is about all
Speaker 1: things self care? Now before we get going on this
Speaker 1: amazing new wellness platform you have. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: say I was telling Shay before you logged in Finess.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I just love how it. I said,
Speaker 1: this is just from somebody sitting back observing. Okay. I
Speaker 1: was like, Vanessa just seems like she is just about
Speaker 1: definitely all things wellness. Drinking water, yes, and.
Speaker 3: Minding how business and being located drinking my water, minding
Speaker 3: my business, lots of self care.
Speaker 1: I am here for it. You know you are a mother.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: And it's just like people don't understand the moves that
Speaker 1: are made in silence. That's where the volume is. Being loud,
Speaker 1: is making the moves in silence. People feel like you've
Speaker 1: got to be loud or I read in an interview
Speaker 1: that you did about even balancing everything as it relates
Speaker 1: to social media. So I just want to say kudos
Speaker 1: to you, because I don't think people understand like people
Speaker 1: being out here working, drinking water, minding their business, praying
Speaker 1: and running businesses and their households.
Speaker 2: Yeah, still making there is power in the silent moves.
Speaker 1: For sure, there is power the silent moves. Well, this
Speaker 1: next move, ladies and gentlemen, that she has made ain't
Speaker 1: gonna be too silent because who she is the founder
Speaker 1: and CEO of you four euh but it's spelled you
Speaker 1: for I Ay, yes, all right. It is a business
Speaker 1: that is here and we are so excited about your
Speaker 1: new wellness platform, Euphoria. It is a wellness website, blog,
Speaker 1: and marketplace that offers the ultimate guide to healthy living,
Speaker 1: especially for people of color. I mean, you are into yoga,
Speaker 1: everything wellness. Have you yourself or someone you knew, had
Speaker 1: moments of depression or anxiety that inspired you to create
Speaker 1: the space? The reason why I ask because checking in
Speaker 1: is all things mental health and it was me taking
Speaker 1: the power back of the moment where I had to
Speaker 1: check in. So your new wellness platform is so endearing
Speaker 1: to me and I can't wait to support in whatever
Speaker 1: capacity I can.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the inspiration behind this community came from
Speaker 3: my passion about mental wellness, and I have experienced moments
Speaker 3: of depression and anxiety and have had to come to
Speaker 3: realizations of like you said, checking in with myself self
Speaker 3: correcting and finding what's not aligning and how I could
Speaker 3: be more authentic and be more in the moment.
Speaker 2: And this community is really all about that.
Speaker 3: The true inspiration where I said I'm gonna put this
Speaker 3: out there, I'm going to you know, really spotlight and
Speaker 3: put the attention on wellness came in twenty twenty. We
Speaker 3: were all locked inside. We were fearful for our health.
Speaker 3: I had a friend who were quarantining by themselves. They
Speaker 3: didn't have family, so we would often check. I would
Speaker 3: often check in with them, and I started doing a
Speaker 3: lot of research, a lot of research on how I
Speaker 3: could be my obviously best possible help self because of
Speaker 3: COVID and all that stuff, but also mentally, you know,
Speaker 3: it was, yes, it was a different time than we
Speaker 3: were going through a huge change, and I started doing
Speaker 3: research and share with my family and friends and realizing
Speaker 3: that as common sense as some of the stuff may
Speaker 3: seem a lot of people don't know these things. And
Speaker 3: I have a pretty large platform of two million people
Speaker 3: on social media and on Instagram. I want to be
Speaker 3: able to put that my platform, be able to make
Speaker 3: an impact for people to really optimize their health from
Speaker 3: the inside out, so we can truly live our best
Speaker 3: lives outside of our accomplishments, outside of you know, all
Speaker 3: of the outside noise. How can we really connect and
Speaker 3: be our best possible version of ourselves. So I'm excited
Speaker 3: to give people resources. I'm excited to educate people on
Speaker 3: how to live their best lives.
Speaker 2: And I'm even working.
Speaker 3: With an emotional intelligence curriculum called speak Life that helps
Speaker 3: peel back layers of trauma so people can really connect
Speaker 3: with their authentic self and without judgment, really be mindful
Speaker 3: and really connect back to why we're really here.
Speaker 2: Yes, we need money to.
Speaker 3: Live, Yes there's bills, Yes there's challenges, but how do
Speaker 3: we really spend our time to reconnect with ourselves? And
Speaker 3: so I'm excited to you know, partner with businesses and
Speaker 3: curriculums like that, and then also just giving people the
Speaker 3: information products they need so that they could be living
Speaker 3: their best self. And it makes me excited because this
Speaker 3: is stuff that I'm genuinely into.
Speaker 2: This is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: Every day, I drive my man crazy like, well, did
Speaker 3: you have your greens this morning before you had your coffee?
Speaker 2: And did you do this?
Speaker 3: Because I want us to be our best possible self
Speaker 3: and I'm passionate about it, and I feel like it
Speaker 3: needs the spotlight to start conversation for other people to,
Speaker 3: you know, really start thinking about it. Having preventives through
Speaker 3: the pase, you know, what we're even giving to our children,
Speaker 3: the how we're speaking to ourselves. It's just so many factors,
Speaker 3: but really simple things we can be implemented into our
Speaker 3: lives to really just make our lives shine.
Speaker 2: And I'm passionate about it.
Speaker 3: I'm excited, and I'm just hoping to spark information, spark conversations,
Speaker 3: give information, and get people talking and interesting and wellness.
Speaker 1: And you absolutely will, especially for I know it's not
Speaker 1: limited necessarily to women of color, people of color, black people,
Speaker 1: brown people, you know, because we got to start having
Speaker 1: these conversations about wellness. We have to. We have to,
Speaker 1: we have to, we have to. It's just now I'll
Speaker 1: never forget as it relates to the topic of mental
Speaker 1: health and even going to therapy. I've said this and
Speaker 1: people have laughed at me, But I thought that that
Speaker 1: was just something for like rich white people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of people.
Speaker 1: You know, and it absolutely is not you. Four Ia
Speaker 1: now dot com is the website. You can go there
Speaker 1: right now, and subscribe and register. It's all things wellness.
Speaker 1: I love. She's talking about gut health. How to ease yourself.
Speaker 1: This was the key word for me that I saw
Speaker 1: safely out of depression.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just how to ease it.
Speaker 3: How we can approach it daily and in a practical,
Speaker 3: practical manner.
Speaker 2: You know, we can be doing to ease it.
Speaker 3: And people are struggling every day with life's challenges.
Speaker 2: It gets difficult. I've been there. I go there sometimes
Speaker 2: and I got to.
Speaker 3: Kind of real myself back in and you know, focus absolutely.
Speaker 2: I want to get people hope.
Speaker 1: How did you come up with the name.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm a marketing person. I love marketing.
Speaker 3: That's even how me and my sister started pastry. Like
Speaker 3: my love of marketing started in college. I went to
Speaker 3: Saint John's for Communications and business and I fell in
Speaker 3: love with it. And so when I was thinking of
Speaker 3: what I would name this company, I was just like, well,
Speaker 3: what do we want to promote?
Speaker 2: What do we want to push? And I was like,
Speaker 2: we want people to live their most euphoric life.
Speaker 3: And I just got really unique and creative with the
Speaker 3: way to spell it, so it can just be a
Speaker 3: little bit different. Tapped into my marketing skills there and
Speaker 3: Euphoria was born to live almost euphoric life and without
Speaker 3: breaking the bank, because that's important.
Speaker 1: Yes, making it definitely affordable, because it does not have
Speaker 1: to be I mean taking a walk, you know, in
Speaker 1: a park. Yeah, it's free, unless you got to pay
Speaker 1: a dollar for parking. I know sometimes a certain public. Okay,
Speaker 1: you might have to pay for parking. But paying for
Speaker 1: parking can save your life, even as far as heart health,
Speaker 1: even what getting that heart rate up, what it can
Speaker 1: do for the mind, what it can do if you
Speaker 1: are suffering with depression, getting some sun. I am not
Speaker 1: playing about my vitamins. There are even for women our
Speaker 1: reproductive health. There are things that we are can be
Speaker 1: doing and drinking and ingesting that can help us with
Speaker 1: our reproductive health. Vanessa, I'm really excited about Euphoria. I'm
Speaker 1: then follow the page. Just everybody right now, press follow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're going to be touring and bringing these type
Speaker 3: of methods and workout classes to people across the country.
Speaker 3: Coming up Hobably twenty twenty four, we'll get more into that.
Speaker 3: I just want to make it accessible and practical for
Speaker 3: people to live a better life.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, question will you have retreats?
Speaker 3: I want to Yes, that is the goal. We want
Speaker 3: to have retreats. We want to start our conversation. We
Speaker 3: want to bring in healthcare professionals, skincare enthusias, just all
Speaker 3: the right people to give us the information we need
Speaker 3: to thrive. So yes, absolutely, from the lists, tours on
Speaker 3: the list, I.
Speaker 2: Mean I am.
Speaker 3: I'm steady building and just really trying to build a
Speaker 3: an impactful community for people.
Speaker 1: M HM. As a woman of faith, do you feel
Speaker 1: that some people could be resistant to this conversation because
Speaker 1: maybe the church because of the church or is it
Speaker 1: getting better the conversation getting better.
Speaker 2: I want it to get better.
Speaker 3: So I want to bring it full circle because I'm
Speaker 3: a woman of faith and I know that some people
Speaker 3: do have some beliefs that may be like, well, you know,
Speaker 3: is that an alignment?
Speaker 2: But it is because God wants us to live our
Speaker 2: best life.
Speaker 3: It's as easy sometimes as just not shallow breathing, breathing
Speaker 3: from your stomach. That's godly, and then you can add
Speaker 3: prayer into that. So I want to bring the conversation
Speaker 3: to be had for everybody. It's not a question of
Speaker 3: it is a question of faith. Actually, this is faith
Speaker 3: and action taking care of yourself.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned breath, shallow breathe, and it reminds me
Speaker 1: of the word called ruoc and ruoc means wind. It
Speaker 1: does mean breath. And so every time, you know, we
Speaker 1: have to stop making things so uh, I would say
Speaker 1: so like mystical or deep or demonic breathwork is used
Speaker 1: to even ease anxiety. It is used as a practice
Speaker 1: in therapy when people are processing trauma.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, these are the type of practices I feel
Speaker 3: like God.
Speaker 2: Put is giving to us. It's not demonic, it's not
Speaker 2: you know, some kind of scary thing. It's using the
Speaker 2: body God gave us to actually optimize our health.
Speaker 3: Like I said, you can breath, you can pray, pray
Speaker 3: to God while you're breathing, but He wants us to
Speaker 3: optimize our way, ourselves in that way. And you know,
Speaker 3: just taking deep breaths in the morning before you connect
Speaker 3: your day, it's powerful and it will help ease depression,
Speaker 3: anxiety and just put you in a more present state,
Speaker 3: which is how we're gonna be able to live our
Speaker 3: most successful lives, be our best selves. Is being present,
Speaker 3: and there's something sinister about that at all.
Speaker 1: MM hmmm hmmm, absolutely, y'all. I just love the conversations
Speaker 1: among the topic of balance. Y'all know, I'm always gonna
Speaker 1: scream about mental health from the rooftops. I'm gonna always
Speaker 1: talk about healing any time that I can, especially having
Speaker 1: the audience. I know my assignment and I certainly know
Speaker 1: my purpose. I was doing some browsing on your website
Speaker 1: and you were sharing that you're even gonna be doing affirmations.
Speaker 1: Can you talk to us about the importance of the
Speaker 1: things that we say to ourselves.
Speaker 3: Navigating negative self talk is one of the key things
Speaker 3: to actually being your most confident itself.
Speaker 2: You know, it can get difficult.
Speaker 3: We're gonna have challenges that are going to come up
Speaker 3: and kind of you know, maybe.
Speaker 2: Distract us or deter us. But speaking positively to yourself.
Speaker 3: Is literally faith and you know, giving yourself your best
Speaker 3: possible version of yourself. So affirmations are key to look
Speaker 3: yourself in the mirror and say I am enough, to
Speaker 3: look yourself in the mirror and say I am powerful.
Speaker 3: You know, I am in alignment. Those are things that
Speaker 3: are really going to feed our soul and it's literally
Speaker 3: speaking life into you.
Speaker 2: So how you navigate.
Speaker 3: How you talk to yourself is going to be your
Speaker 3: outcome the world that you see around you. So affirmations
Speaker 3: are our key affirmations to something that I literally live by.
Speaker 3: When I'm starting to feel low or like I'm out
Speaker 3: of whack, I resort back to it. You've got to
Speaker 3: go inside and reconnect with yourself, and affirmations is one
Speaker 3: of those ways to bring that up. Like it's so
Speaker 3: good to change the course of your day. I remember
Speaker 3: I used to take my daughter to school and she
Speaker 3: was four, and she would be a little bit scared
Speaker 3: and you know, going starting school pre school, and you know,
Speaker 3: I would just have her in the car every morning,
Speaker 3: go I am happy. I am happy, I am you know, joyful,
Speaker 3: and she would be like, after saying it ten times, Mommy,
Speaker 3: there's a smile on my face, like I really feel it.
Speaker 2: Because you say that.
Speaker 3: Enough, you're gonna trick your mind into believing it and
Speaker 3: that everything else is gonna follow that way. So you
Speaker 3: really sometimes gott to trick your mind, and you do
Speaker 3: that through affirmations.
Speaker 1: It's funny that you should say that, because sometimes you
Speaker 1: get tired of the routine. Okay, let me wake up
Speaker 1: and do my affirmations, But I promise y'all. The other
Speaker 1: day I started saying, all those affirmations that are on
Speaker 1: my white board. Yes I have the white board, and
Speaker 1: you do. You do start smiling because I really believe.
Speaker 1: I even I feel like your feet will take you
Speaker 1: to whatever your mom says. If your mom says, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, here we go with this whole horrible day,
Speaker 1: your feet are gonna take you someplace. And if you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a horrible day versus will life life, Absolutely
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't want people to think life will
Speaker 1: life and people want people, but I think affirmations or
Speaker 1: if you want to call it, even spending time with God.
Speaker 1: I sent a family text this morning and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: when you spend time with God in the morning, you
Speaker 1: will have a good day. Now again, that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: life won't happen, but I think it helps. Affirmations help
Speaker 1: us with our response to what life throws our way.
Speaker 3: What you focus on is gonna fester, is gonna matterfest.
Speaker 3: So the things you focus on, you focus on something bad.
Speaker 3: I guarantee you more bad things are gonna come your way.
Speaker 3: But you try to find the silver lining and the
Speaker 3: positive in those things, that's what's gonna come your way,
Speaker 3: that's gonna be track. What you focus on will grow,
Speaker 3: So focus on the positives. I mean, you know, worrying
Speaker 3: will not take away the problems.
Speaker 1: Come on, we are you always a person of affirmation
Speaker 1: or did you have to times where you felt like
Speaker 1: I haven't been speaking so well of myself.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
Speaker 3: This is why I came to the realization of how
Speaker 3: powerful affirmations were because I had times of doubt. I
Speaker 3: had times when I was attaching my self worth to
Speaker 3: the opportunities that were coming to me, or you know,
Speaker 3: how my career was going and not not living. You
Speaker 3: have to really find who you are authentically inside without
Speaker 3: all of those outside circumstances, and try to find the
Speaker 3: hope for yourself. So yeah, affirmations is something that I
Speaker 3: had to learn was powerful. And it was through those
Speaker 3: dark times and times that affirmations got me through those
Speaker 3: things because.
Speaker 2: You don't want to stay dark.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you need to have a moment, have a day,
Speaker 3: lay down, close the world out, but don't sit in
Speaker 3: that feeling for too long.
Speaker 2: Come out of it.
Speaker 1: And just when I was about to ask her about
Speaker 1: what she does us to help reduce stress or anxiety
Speaker 1: or technique or do you have anything that helps you.
Speaker 1: I think she just gave us what we all need
Speaker 1: to be doing. Vanessa. I'm so thankful for you. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited about Euphoria and everything that you have been doing.
Speaker 1: Everything that's coming your way, y'all, even stuff we can't
Speaker 1: talk about because of this strike, but we definitely were
Speaker 1: so excited to highlight euphoria now. So go to Euphoria
Speaker 1: Now is the Instagram page. You for the letter I,
Speaker 1: the letter aid now and the word now, and then
Speaker 1: euphoria now dot com is the website in a way,
Speaker 1: just to have. As she says, happiness, uh is something
Speaker 1: that we all can strive for. And some people think
Speaker 1: they don't deserve happiness, and I have to say, no,
Speaker 1: you do.
Speaker 2: You do change happiness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Vanessa, thank you for checking in.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. This was an amazing thank you.
Speaker 1: You're so are welcome. Thanks again. Checking In with Michelle
Speaker 1: Williams is a production of iHeartRadio and The Black Effect.
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