Mindset Matters

Black Woman Leading Coach Felicia Tate kicked off the morning with a session called “Mindset Matters: Embracing Growth over Perfection.”  “Mindset” is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself.  Mindset influences how you think, feel and behave in any given situation.  Your mindset impacts your success or failure.  Felicia shared the importance of flexibility to a growth mindset (“flexible people aren’t bent out of shape”) and emphasized that sometimes when we’re confronting our fears and working toward a growth mindset, this journey can get worse before it gets better, or get harder before it gets easier.  She asked the audience to reflect on these questions:

• What is currently holding me back from embracing growth over perfection?
• What do I need to release in order for me to fully embrace a growth mindset?
• What does embracing growth look like for me?

Felicia shared this quote that really stayed with me after the session and now that I’m home and reflecting: “Your mindset is the compass that guides your journey.  Embracing growth over perfection is extremely vital to how you choose to show up for the experience.”  For me, “embracing growth” definitely means re-examining my need for perfection.  I’m a “recovering perfectionist” who has to work to keep that perfectionism mindset at bay sometimes, so this topic was especially impactful for me.  

Grace and Self-Compassion

Next, we heard from Black Woman Leading Coach Karma Hill, whose topic was “Giving Grace: Self-Compassion Skills to Support your Wellness.”  Karma shared two quotes to get us thinking about the topic of grace and compassion:

• “Self-compassion involves directing sensitivity inwardly to our own experience of suffering along with a deep desire to alleviate the suffering.”  (Kristen Neff)
• “Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.” (Christopher Germer)

We learned that self-compassion is not self-pity, self-indulgence, making excuses, being passive or complacent.  Rather, self-compassion is about self-kindness versus self-judgment; a sense of common humanity versus isolation; and mindfulness versus over-identification when confronting painful self-relevant thoughts and emotions.  We even took the time for a Tender Self Compassion Break so we can practice that for ourselves to take forward after our time together.  Karma reminded us that: All humans are imperfect; we deserve kindness; and we all have life challenges and need to give ourselves grace.

Wrapping Up and Keeping the Momentum Going

Black Woman Leading founder Laura Knights closed the conference and retreat reminding us of our intentions that we created on Day 1 and the action steps that we have been creating through the conference.

As the conference closed we were reminded “I am everything I want to be. I have everything I need.” via this song.  Laura also told us not to forget to schedule an “appointment” with ourselves within the next two weeks to work on our actions.  No matter how informative and inspiring a conference or retreat may be, it’s so easy to get caught up in our day to day lives and back to “business as usual” when we get home—I’ve been guilty of this myself in the past, so I really needed this reminder to intentionally set aside time in the next few weeks to tackle the action steps I committed to at the retreat.    

I especially needed to set my “follow-up” appointment because I had barely any time to take a breath post-summit! The very day the Black Woman Leading LIVE conference concluded, I was off to Atlanta for several days to lead coaching trainings at an annual conference for AmeriCorps members that the nonprofit I work for hosts.  I was asked to lead 3 three-hour coaching training sessions, which is really just a “teaser” or introduction to coaching—but I was still a little nervous about preparing all my materials in time and getting back into in-person training after a long pivot to virtual during the pandemic.  

As I was getting prepared for my training on Tuesday, I realized that I didn’t print enough materials so I would need to find somewhere to do some extra printing.  I was really beating myself up about not being fully prepared but as I was walking to the local FedEx Office I saw this mural which has one of my favorite MLK quotes:

Reflecting on the meaning of this quote and all of my experience coming off Black Woman Leading LIVE—especially the sessions about letting go of my pursuit for perfection and giving myself grace—helped calm my nerves and remind me that I’ve trained and practiced for delivering exactly this type of training.

Once the training started, that comfort level immediately returned—and it was so great to be back training in person instead of connecting with participants through little Zoom squares on screen!  I led the participants through one of my favorite coaching activities, in which they break into small groups that each come up with an image, word, song title or some other creative way to describe several common service delivery methods—counseling, training, mentoring, and coaching—and to note the ways they differ from one another.

I love this exercise because it not only helps participants understand how coaching is unique from counseling, training, and mentoring, but I get to see so many different forms of creativity!  We had some groups share songs which they shared on their phone. We had some groups who had artists in their group, so they drew images.  We had a few skits—for example, one group acted out a scene where everyone was in an elevator together with someone and the elevator got stuck.  One person in the elevator acted out having a panic attack and each of the other group members assisted the person as a counselor, trainer, mentor, or coach would do.  The exercise allows individuals to think about how these roles have some similarities, but they are also some distinct things as well.  (I’ll share more about those similarities and differences in a future blog post!)

In addition to the excitement of this conference being back in person for the first time since 2019, for the first time the audience included not only AmeriCorps members but interns from my employer’s internship program for HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) students. Being an HBCU alum myself and having built a two decade-plus career in the nonprofit and community economic development industries, it was especially meaningful to me to have this opportunity to connect with the next generation of emerging leaders.    

Staying Connected

As you might have picked up from reading my blog posts this month, Black Woman Leading—both the live conference + retreat and the leadership program—have been transformative for me, both personally and professionally.  If you’re a Black woman, here are some great ways that you can connect with the Black Woman Leading Community:    

• Listen to the Podcast
• Join the interest list for next year’s Retreat & Conference
• Check out the programs for early career, mid-career and executives. 
• Follow Black Woman Leading on social media

For the rest of my readers, I invite you to listen to the Podcast and share information about Black Woman Leading with Black women family, friends, or colleagues in your lives.

Inspired by all of the wisdom about self-compassion and self-care that I learned at Black Woman Leading LIVE, I’ll be taking a break from posting next Thursday to give myself some time to unwind and tackle some of those action items from the summit.  But I’ll be back with a new blog series in July and look forward to reconnecting with you then!    

Leveling Up in Our Careers

Day Two of the conference had a thought-provoking and productive start, as Black Women Leading founder Laura Knights led us through a morning session focused on our next level career growth strategy.  Laura structured the agenda so that this was a working session guided by a worksheet for us to complete and a guided set of discussion topics.  We first examined our “current state” in our career and shared about our “vision state” and the things it might take to get there.  With our table-mates, we talked about our current strengths, our “gaps,” and skills we needed to develop to get to the next level in our careers.  The worksheet also helped walk us through an inventory of the relationships and resources we need to move close to that vision state.

Some of the questions that I wrote for further exploration for myself: Am I pushing myself?  Is this really what I want to do?  Am I being safe? Am I sitting in comfort?  I’ve definitely taken my career to new levels over the past couple of years—with moving into a more senior leadership role and my full-time job, launching my business, and tackling my longtime goal of pursuing ICF coaching certification —but I still think it’s important to take time to reflect, with intention, on what I want that next “next level” to look like, and to set new goals as I achieve my current ones.

Living Better through Better Sleep Habits

Then we got to hear from Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell whose session was called “Sleep Better to Live Better:  How to Elevate Your Life Through Better Sleep.”  Dr. Holliday-Bell shared seven tips for how to start doing this:

1. Prioritize sleep
2. Learn your sleep need to function optimally.  (Some of us need more sleep than others in order to feel healthy and well-rested.)
3. Start your day with sleep in mind
4. Manage daily stress and anxiety
5. Create a soothing bedroom and bedtime routine
6. Protect your relationship between your bed and sleep
7. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

This session spoke to me in so many ways!  I’m fortunate that I don’t often have trouble sleeping, but some of these tips (especially #4 on managing stress and anxiety!) are ongoing things I need to work on.  And I’d never really thought much about sleep as something that’s essential for us to protect and prioritize, so Dr. Holliday-Bell really got me thinking about how important it is to be intentional about sleep and rest.  I know that I can work to implement some of these practices to function more optimally in order to live better.

Another High-Energy Afternoon

After lunch we got a special performance by Tarrey Torae whom I had never heard of before but I’m looking forward to listening to more of her music.  She even did a mini lesson on stepping and had everyone up out of their seats learning how to step—another great example of ways that the conference organizers came up with to pull us out of that typical post-lunch energy slump! 

The afternoon continued with a panel of the Black Women Leading Coaches and there were sooo many gems dropped that I’d run out of room if I shared them all, but some of the most impactful ones that I wrote down were about boundaries and wellness.  The panel talked about how setting boundaries is really about teaching people how to treat you; setting, communicating, and upholding boundaries; and holding yourself accountable for maintaining those boundaries.  That can be tough to do, but we were reminded how important it is to be consistent in enforcing boundaries and not to waver—because ultimately, we won’t reach the level of success we aspire to without setting firm and clear boundaries.  Like many of us, I’ve sometimes struggled to set boundaries or say “no” to things in the past.  The panel reminded us to stop apologizing for your boundaries and that we don’t have to apologize for taking care of ourselves.

After discussing boundaries as a form of self-care, the panel shared other ways that we can look after our wellness, such as taking time to rest—and not only taking time, but intentionally scheduling those rest breaks so that we can be sure we take them!  This resonated with me because in the past I’ve sometimes caught myself falling into a pattern where I keep meaning to take time off, but then something always comes up that gets in the way or makes me think I should postpone my break to take care of whatever thing that popped up that seems more urgent or important.  I was grateful for the reminder from the panel that we deserve to take care of ourselves and as one panelist said “we are worthy of pampering ourselves!” and need to give ourselves permission to do so.  Everyone emphasized the wellness is a lifestyle and a practice. I came out of that session feeling re-committed to prioritizing my wellness and well-building and I’ve been using the phrase “I will chose self-care for myself” as an occasional mantra these last few weeks.

Knowing Our Value

Turning back to career considerations, our next session was Salary Negotiation with Lenna Turner.  This is a topic that is SO important for women and for Black women in particular as well as other women of color.  It also resonates personally with me because—perhaps like many of you have experienced as well—I’ve been in positions over the course of my career where I realized that I was being underpaid and undervalued and wished that I’d been more assertive in my salary negotiations in hindsight.  Of course, it’s hard because as women we’re often socialized to be nice, agreeable, non-confrontational, etc.; to be grateful for a job offer we’re given and worried about coming across as “greedy” for asking for more money.  Pay discrimination is also very real.  Employers and policymakers bear the primary responsibility to end it, but while we’re collectively worked toward this broader systems change, Lenna shared some great tips to help us raise our voices in the salary negotiation process. The core principle that Lenna shared is “Know Your Value,” and from that, take steps to convince your boss of your ”value contribution.”  Be prepared as you head into a salary negotiation, use specific examples, connect the dots between your accomplishments and skills and the value of your work, be confident, and be open to feedback.  While I’ve improved in my salary negotiation skills over the years, I’ll definitely be channeling some of Lenna’s advice when it’s time for my next compensation discussion with my boss. (These principles are also helpful to me in thinking through how I price my own services in my business.)

Making the Most of that Salary (or Business Revenue)

Our final session of the day was “You Earned It, Now Protect It: Financial Management Strategies” with Nikki Tucker.  Now, I thought I was doing an okay job with my finances.  I’ve learned a lot over the years, and I’ve also developed quite a bit of expertise in personal finance and financial coaching through my day job in the nonprofit sector.  But this session gave me some great new ideas!  To be honest, I was even a little overwhelmed at first—Nikki gave us a list of about 15 “to-dos” for our finances but also encouraged us to give ourselves “permission” to take only what we need.  I’m not going to try and be an overachiever and tackle all those 15 things, I’m going to take them one by one and over a reasonable time frame.

Nikki started by letting us know “we can’t protect what we are not aware of”; in other words, the first step (even though it might be a little scary) was taking stock and taking an honest look at where we are with our finances.  She gave us a “You Earned It Worksheet” to use during the session and for follow-up after the session.  It was broken in the following categories:

• Security
• Credit
• Assets
• Love/Marriage/Divorce

And the session ended with an “organizational pulse check” (kind of like a quiz) which I got 80% on–but who’s counting. (I can be competitive with myself but have to remember that it’s not a bad thing that I still have room to learn and grow! )

Winding Down

After another incredible day of conference sessions, dinner on Day Two was on our own.  While I had so much fun turning it up with the other conference-goers at our dinner cruise the night before, it was also nice to have some quiet time to myself to unwind.  I took time before dinner to go to the beach and take a few pics.  Then I laid out my towel, turned on my praise & worship music and just reflected on the past two days of the conference.  Taking the “rest,” “wellness,” and “self-care” themes from the session earlier in the afternoon to heart, I used this as my time to relax by the beach, hear from God a bit and just listen to the waves.  Wherever you are in the world—beach or no—and whatever wellness and self-care mean to you, I hope you too can find some time this week to relax and reflect.      

“Emotional Intelligence“

After lunch, we got right back a full afternoon with a session on:  “Leading from the Inside-Out: Growing Your Emotional Intelligence” with Black Women Leading Coach Sunnette Thompson. Sunnette defined Emotional Intelligence as: 1) the ability to recognize our feelings and those of others; 2) the capacity to motivate self; and 3) the ability to manage emotions in ourselves and relationships.  Key elements of Emotional Intelligence include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and relationship management; and we discussed the importance of “leading from within” with self-awareness and self-regulation. 

 I left the session with some powerful reflections on how this discussion applied to me and my leadership style, both in my full-time job and in my coaching and facilitation practice.  How am I using emotional intelligence as I am leading?  Am I using it? How can I do better?  How can I exercise, build and grow this muscle?

“Relationship Management“

For my readers who attend conferences or all-day work meetings regularly, you might be like me: every time I’m at a conference, I feel that post-lunch energy slump coming on mid-afternoon, like clockwork.  However, at this conference, I quickly realized there was no danger of that happening! Black Women Leading founder Laura Knights took the stage for the next session, on relationship management, and she kept the energy level at 100%!  Laura talked about the concept of “influence” and how influence really means driving action and results.  We can build our influence through relationship management, personal branding, a visibility strategy, and self-advocacy.  Managing relationships is about intentionally building connections with others, learning how to positively influence interactions, navigating through difficult situations, and actively monitoring them for mutual benefit to both parties.  Laura also talked about self-awareness about adaptations like code switching, the mirroring danger and belonging.     

I really appreciated that Laura built time into her session for small-group discussion among our tables.  She asked us to consider and share with our table-mates some of the following questions:

• How are you currently using your influence at work?
• How are you utilizing the relationships within your reach to achieve your professional goals?
• How can I create win-win relationships that will benefit me as well as them?

I’ll admit, heading into this particular session, I wasn’t sure at first what new things I might learn–even though I was confident that I would hear something thought-provoking, since I always do when Laura presents!  Relationship management is an ever-present topic for me. You could even say that I live and breathe relationship management in my full-time job.  On an almost daily basis, it’s critical to the success of my community economic development work that I build and maintain relationships with a diverse range of collaborators: staff who I supervise, executive leadership who supervise me, external parties like funders of our work, and both senior leadership and frontline staff at our community-based nonprofit partners.  

My business wouldn’t be successful without relationship management, either. Trust and strong relationships are absolutely fundamental to a productive coaching dynamic, and it’s of utmost importance to me that I maintain solid relationships with my consulting, facilitation, and training clients too.  But I hadn’t thought much about how relationship management connected to influence or what it means to cultivate influence.  I realized I’d always thought of “influence” as the domain of powerful people in high-profile roles, like CEOs and politicians–but Laura’s session made the light bulb go off in my head that we all have opportunities to cultivate influence each and every day.  This quote that Laura shared especially resonated with me, and it’s something I’m still sitting with now that I’m back home:  

“Influencing is everything we say or don’t say, do or don’t do, are or are not, that modifies, affects, or changes someone else’s behavior, thoughts or actions, consciously, or unconsciously, for good or ill”.  –Anonymous

“Personal Branding”

Of course, while on-site at Black Women Leading LIVE, I didn’t have much time to sit with that quote or my thoughts because we rolled straight into the next session on “ Being on Brand: Personal Branding for Career Growth,” led by none other than my coach from my time in the Black Women Leading leadership development program, Summer Alexander.  It was great to connect with Summer again, and to know that the entire summit audience would have the opportunity to benefit from some of the knowledge and wisdom that I knew she would share.  Some of the gems that Summer dropped included:

• As it relates to the workplace, your personal brand is the external perception of how your peers and leaders view you, based on how you consistently present yourself.
• Benefits of building your brand include differentiation, influence, career development and strong reputation.
• Four pillars of a personal brand are implementation, strategy, self-management, and  self-awareness. 
• Strategy without implementation is a waste of time, energy and the piece of paper you wrote it on.  (Having spent most of my career in the nonprofit sector where we can sometimes get bogged down in studies and strategic plans, I felt this takeaway in my soul! )
• Consistency is key when it comes to your personal brand.
• You have to know what the core of you is and know your brand.
• We have to own our own narrative. 
• Brand components include values & beliefs, skills & expertise, personality & style and strengths & opportunities.
• Be so good that they can’t ignore you.

I’ll confess, this is a topic where I am definitely still growing!  My mindset through much of my nonprofit career has been to stay behind the scenes, in service of elevating our community partners and not myself.  I had to make a major shift when I became an entrepreneur and realized that my personal brand would be critical to my success in my business–and ultimately to expanding my ability to transform organizations and change lives through my work with my clients.  I’m still a work in progress here, but Summer left us with four actions to develop a brand that positions you to accomplish your career goals:  assess your brand, boost your brand, consistency is key, and decide your journey. 

Winding Down An Inspiring Day

The day ended with a session called “Lessons from the C-Suite” with Janara Jones (Vice President – Global Taxes and Chief Tax Officer at Albemarle Corporation) and Dorri McWhorter (President & CEO of YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago).  I didn’t take notes, just listened and absorbed as these incredibly accomplished women shared about their journeys to the C-Suite.  It reminded me that our career journeys are not linear:  we get to choose which path we want to take and there’s nothing wrong with going after what you want for yourself and your career. 

True to Laura Knights’ promise that we’d have plenty of opportunities to take advantage of the “retreat” portion of the retreat and conference, our evening activity was a Dinner Cruise and we absolutely made the most of it.  Perfect weather, good food, good company, a little dancing–what more could a group of powerful, creative, energized women ask for?  We even sang a bit of Mary J. Blige in unison! 

As you can see, it was a jam-packed day of knowledge, growth, and building community with my fellow summit participants! There’s so much to share that I have yet more to write about in next week’s blog.  But for now, I want to conclude by giving a HUGE shout-out to Sandria Washington, who served as the emcee for the entire conference.  It’s a more nuanced and involved role than many people think it might be.  The emcee has to provide the transition between sessions, confidently speak before an audience of hundreds, introduce other high-powered speakers and session leaders, and share important “housekeeping” information about the agenda and conference logistics like break times and restroom location.  A truly great emcee also finds a way to keep the audience energized and engaged throughout.  Sandria had such an incredible way of connecting with the audience and getting us into the right mindset to receive what was in store for each day and each session. 

I’m definitely going to draw inspiration from Sandria’s energy in some of my future training and facilitation gigs! Until next week, I’ll leave you with a little “insider” clip of our impromptu singing during the dinner cruise and hope it brings you some of the joy we were all channeling that evening.  (And none other than Dorri McWhorter from the afternoon’s “C-Suite” panel joined right in–talk about a CEO who’s driving impact in her community, inspiring the next generation of Black women leaders, and having fun while doing it!)    

How it Started

First up, I took a long weekend off from my day job to focus on my personal development and my growth as an entrepreneur by attending the Black Woman Leading LIVE Retreat + Conference in Florida.  This was an exciting next step in a journey that started in summer 2021 when I saw a post from a colleague about the Black Woman Leading Leadership Development program.  The program called to me and to my goals as an entrepreneur, and after reaching out to Black Women Leading’s founder Laura Knights, I enrolled in and completed the leadership program later that fall.  The experiences and insights I gained through the program and the community I built with other participants made me want to stay engaged.  I continued to participate in Black Women Leading’s alumni program in 2022 to stay connected to program and other alums and I even appeared on an episode of Laura’s podcast along with other alums to talk about “Navigating Your Career Path.”

As soon as Laura announced that she’d be holding the first ever Black Women Leading retreat and conference in May 2023, I knew that I had to participate!  I got registered right away and shared the announcement with as many Black women that I knew.  (Like the colleague who first put Black Women Leading on my radar screen back in 2021, I’m always looking for opportunities to share information and resources that have helped me with my own networks.) 

I took an early morning flight so that I could enjoy the area before the pre-conference Alumni Dinner in the evening.  But traveling takes a lot out of you–especially when your flight leaves at 6:55am like mine did!–so by the time I got to the resort and my room was ready, I was so tempted to just crash and chill out in the room.  But I reminded myself that this experience was supposed to be all about self care and pouring into myself so I walked across the street for a manicure and pedicure at the spa I’d checked out briefly at the airport that morning. And I was sooo glad I did; it was a great experience and the perfect bit of pampering to banish the stress from travel and put myself in the right frame of mind for the next two busy conference days ahead!

Kicking off Black Women Leading LIVE

 Black Woman Leading’s Founder Laura Knights kicked off the conference on Friday morning by asking us to set our intentions and give ourselves “permission slips,” asking us to reflect on the question “What permission slips do you need to write yourself to be present?”  Laura also shared the “3 C’s” for attendees throughout the retreat weekend: Care, Community, and Clarity.  Reiterating the “care” mandate, she reminded us all that the weekend was designed to be a conference and a retreat and that there would be time for learning but also time for relaxing and “retreating.”  This was a welcome reminder, especially for folks like me who work in industries where the term “retreat” is often used as a euphemism for an all-day or multi-day business and strategy meeting! (And the Black Women Leading LIVE attendees definitely took advantage of the opportunity to build community and have some fun–more on that later in this post and next week’s.)     

Reflecting on Laura’s prompt, I set my intention–be open to receiving what’s for me–and gave myself the “permission slip” to be open to meeting new people and adding to my community.  Even though I often lead trainings and feel completely in my element talking to and facilitating discussion among a room full of people in my day job and my business, I can actually be more of an introvert in social and networking settings.  After Laura’s kick-off, I enjoyed two more thought-provoking and powerful sessions over the course of the morning. 

“Managing Grief from Career Transitions”

Black Woman Leading Coach Chinasa Elue, Ph.D Associate Professor of Ed Leadership and Higher Ed led this discussion, and it was truly eye-opening for me! We generally only talk about grief in the context of losing a loved one, but grief can apply in other situations too.  In this session we learned about grief in the context of job transitions and a framework for how to walk through it.  Dr. Elue shared a framework called the ACT Framework that we can use when we realize that it’s time to leave a space that we have outgrown: Acknowledge that pain exists, Care (Self & Community) & Truth (honoring our lived experience). 

This session really had me reflecting as I’ve been with my current employer for 16 years.  I’ve been fortunate to grow and develop during that time, both personally and in terms of my career advancement.  I’ve always enjoyed and felt a strong connection to my work and I’ve gained so many valuable colleagues and friends along the way–so this is something that I will have to truly think about when it’s time for me to make my next move and transition out of the company.  Every job transition has its challenges, especially when you’ve been as invested in the work for such a long time as I have, and hearing Dr. Elue apply the lens of grief to those types of transitions and provide a way of processing and moving through that grief gave me tools that I know will be helpful in my future.  I shared one of her slides that especially resonated with me in a LinkedIn recap in case it’s helpful for someone else.

“Worthiness Within Your Wardrobe”

Morgan Wider led the next workshop that was subtitled “How to Show Up with Power and Purpose.” I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I first read the session title in the conference agenda. How would our wardrobe tie in with our power and purpose?  I was intrigued to learn more, though, especially given that the pandemic and our remote work/stay-at-home time during the height of COVID-19 has up-ended some of the norms and trends around how we dress at work and even at home.  Plus, I’ve been fortunate to work in an industry for many years that hasn’t typically enforced strict dress codes, so I’ll admit it’s been a long time since I gave my wardrobe that much thought! 

It turned out this session was about so much more than wardrobe and appearance! Morgan is a sought-after speaker and style consultant but my biggest takeaway from her talk was that while clothes are an outward expression of what we feel about ourselves, truly showing up with power and purpose in our lives requires first cultivating confidence and self-love within.  Morgan coached us all to accept our imperfections–whatever those may be–practice forgiveness for our flaw or mistakes, and think about self-love as an everyday job. 

We also each went through a powerful exercise where Morgan asked us to turn our phone cameras to face ourselves and to press record as we recited this……

Needless to say, this wasn’t what I was expecting when I sat down for a conference session that I thought might be a light-hearted discussion about wardrobe, but the practice of recording our prayers of self-love and forgiveness really landed with me in a profound way and I’m still thinking about those words now that I’m back home in my day to day life.  Looking back at my notes from Morgan’s session, I wrote down what I was feeling in that moment after our exercise and I know these words will be sitting with me for a long time too:  I am Worthy; I Show up; I Show up “on purpose”; I am worthy of being seen.  And yes, the session did inspire me to start thinking about fashion too, and how I can incorporate some items into my wardrobe that better express my inner self and my unique personal style!  (I’ll let you know how that goes in the coming months and maybe even share a photo or two in a future blog if I find a new outfit that feels like a visual representation of “showing up on purpose!”)

Getting back to the “retreat” aspect of our retreat, we had lunch on the beach, which was fantastic!  If you’ve had to attend conferences over the years for your work like I have, you know that the typical conference has participants indoors for the entire day, and often in what can feel like a never-ending series of windowless meeting rooms!  Our beach lunch was a welcome opportunity to get outside and get some sun and take in the view of the water.  I’ll close out this week’s post with a few pics I captured of the Gulf of Mexico.  Wherever you are in the world–beachside or not–I hope it inspires you to take a few minutes for yourself and get outside for some fresh air this week! I’ll be making space to do the same as I work on next week’s post continuing my reflections from Black Women Leading LIVE.