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