Shayna Renee Hammond 00:04
I learned the power of reframing and reclaiming your story, and really separating what happens to you to who you are. While that happened to me, that’s not who I am. And when I reflect back on that experience, what I take away from that is, oh my goodness, I didn’t say a word. And look what kind of reaction that I catalyzed by just my mere presence.
Kristin Taylor 00:44
Hello, and welcome to How I Made It Through. My name is Kristin Taylor, and I’m an executive coach. This podcast is based on the immortal words of Robert Frost who said, the best way out, is always through. Through this platform, I get the honor of sharing remarkable stories of courage in the face of challenge. Stories that encourage us to step into our lives, even and especially the hard places, allowing whatever it is that we are facing to shape and transform us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. My hope is that the people I introduce you to will provide much needed inspiration, deepening your faith and trust in yourself that whatever you’re facing, you too will find your way through. May you see yourself in their stories, and may their wisdom help to light your way. Today’s guest is Shayna Renee Hammond. Shayna is the founder and CEO of Lead for Liberation, and Indigo Women. Shayna and I met a couple of months ago, when we were both guests on Dr. Lamar Darnell Shield’s podcast, Sound Bombing, when he hosted the second annual empower you International Women’s Summit. When she showed up on that panel, when she shared her mind and her heart, or wisdom or spiritual connection and death. I just knew that I wanted to learn more about her and learn from her. I just knew that the world needs more of this incredibly powerful and insightful, heart centered human being. And so when she said yes to being on how I made it through, I was thrilled. Here’s a little about her and what she’s up to. Lead for liberation is a leadership development organization dedicated to guiding organizations, school districts, foundations, and communities to demystify and operationalize liberatory cultures. Inspired by the success of Lead for Liberation, and her calling to raise global consciousness, Shayna founded Indigo Women, a coaching and consulting practice dedicated to creating spaces, methods and conditions for black women and leadership to thrive. In this capacity, Shayna coaches individuals and groups of black women leaders from around the globe and a spiritually inspired and research based coaching methodology created by and for black women. Shayna, it is such an honor to have you here and welcome.
Shayna Renee Hammond 03:27
Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here.
Kristin Taylor 03:31
I am too I am too and I know that you have a particular story about business and leadership that you will be sharing with us as a way to get started in talking about you and leadership. share with our audience, your values around leadership and how you live in practice them.
Shayna Renee Hammond 03:49
Yes, my two leading values are love and liberation. And when I say love, I mean love and the sense of love the force that invites people in the force that reveals who we really are inside out, the force that invites us to reveal our pain and our truth and our joy, the full range of emotions that we have as humans love as it pertains to that force that brings out the best in ourselves and everyone else around us. It’s our leading value at least for the duration as well. And it’s a guidepost. And it’s also a feeling that I desired core feeling that I you know, intend to feel every single day. The other leading value is liberation. And for liberation, especially in the workplace, it’s really that state of interdependence, where the success of everyone in the group is defined by how well every single person can thrive, innovate and experience belonging So I love for any space that, you know, I or anyone for my team stepped into to elevate that feeling of liberation for everyone in it.
Kristin Taylor 05:10
Wow, that is so beautiful. I love every part about love and liberation. Can you share a little bit about how you arrived at bat? You know, there’s so much to your story, I’m sure. But if there’s anything that stands out, that really helped to prepare you to have that clarity and step into leadership in this way.
Shayna Renee Hammond 05:29
There are so many defining moments, I think that the first one that comes to mind is actually my first day of school. I was only five years old. And I was living at the time in a small rural town called Pinckney, Michigan. And we were the only black family in Pinckney, Michigan, certainly the only black family in my school. And the first day of school, when I stepped onto the school bus, all the students moved to the edge of their seats, and they wouldn’t let me sit down, they threw things at me called me monkey called me all sorts of things. And I was only five and didn’t really understand why all the students didn’t like me, or why they had such a strong reaction to just my presence. I remember my father having a conversation with the bus driver the next day, and it was decided that I would have an assigned seat behind the bus driver, No one sat next to me for the entire school year. So my introduction to school and race were on the same day. And also my introduction to extreme exclusion also was in that moment. And I remember, in addition to feeling, of course, sad and scared, I also was very curious, I just didn’t understand why there was such a strong reaction when I didn’t say a thing. And that that curiosity also never never left me. Flash forward to you know, we moved to Washington, DC when I was 10 years old, my father was able to get his dream job in DC, his hometown. And I had my first black teacher, Mr. Beasley, and he was the first teacher and the first adult to really see me. And he called me a leader after reading a journal prompt, and one of my journal entries, and it confused me because by that time, I was a very quiet student, I was that student that, you know, was very introverted, I would kind of sit to the side observe before kind of jumping in. And so leader just wasn’t the word that I would use to describe myself. And I remember I asked him, I said, Why did you say that? You know, you said it leader. And he said, Shayna, I watch how you treat people. And I read your journal entries, and I hear what you have to say. And that completely, you know, changed my paradigm around what leadership means. And it’s much more than being vocal in what you actually say, and more about the way you make people feel, and more about who you are on the inside, and how you decide to have be your own compass when it comes to treating other people. And that was such a defining moment, that whole year, that fifth grade year was a really turning point for me. And so much so that I became a teacher. It was my first career, of course, afterwards. I mean, he taught me the power of really just one teacher, you know, really looking at the humanity and a student and completely shifting how that student can see, you know, herself. And it never left me and never left me beyond the classroom. It’s something I reflect upon all the time. It makes me think of dear Maya Angelou quote, you know, we may forget the things that people say, but we never, ever, ever forget the way that people make us feel. And I felt that on such a deep level, and I see it so much in the adults that we get to support both organizations. So it’s something that you know, will never leave me.
Kristin Taylor 09:08
It sounds like you felt so seen in a way you hadn’t seen yourself but it registered as a truth. Exactly. That’s really fantastic. You shared that story in our last podcast about the experience of the first day of school getting on that bus. I’m wondering if you can share even one more. You mentioned someone said something to the effect of Oh, how did that make you feel? And what you how you answer that? I will never forget you share how that made you feel?
Shayna Renee Hammond 09:42
Sure, it did. You know, I learned in that moment. I didn’t know I was learning it at five. But when I look back, I learned the power of reframing and reclaiming your story, and really separating what happens to you to who you are. While that happened. To me, that’s not who I am. And when I reflect back on that experience, what I take away from that is, oh, my goodness, I didn’t say a word. And look what kind of reaction that I catalyzed by just my mere presence. And so that’s a lesson to me about my presence being enough. My presence being powerful, my presence, being something that can shift an entire room without me even saying a word. And that has been true for me, ever since that day.
Kristin Taylor 10:36
Yes, yes. Thank you so much. That is an incredibly poignant insight and reframe that is so powerful about what happens to us versus who we are. I love that so much. Let’s go ahead and dive into your story around the business you shared about vision. And then when things feel misaligned, and how you recalibrate, I’ll just hand it over to you if that’s okay.
Shayna Renee Hammond 11:05
Of course. So I started Lead for Liberation. 10 years ago, we just celebrated our 10 year anniversary, thank you a couple of weeks ago relations, thank you so much. And when we first started, I was just leaving the education sector, I was leaving a national organization where my responsibility was to develop teacher leaders into principals. And I loved it. I was apprentice a young principal myself, and really loved the work really loved just what you get to create as a principal and really fell in love with coaching as a modality. And so what I did was I created in the beginning, a coaching methodology specifically for principals. And it took off in our first principles that we were able to work with as clients did extremely well after working with us for a couple of years. And what was interesting about our methodology is that we elevated racial equity and we elevated emotional intelligence. And this was back in, you know, 2012 to maybe 2015. And this was before it was centered for a lot of prep programs and leadership development programs. And so many clients started reaching out to us specifically for diversity, inclusion, racial equity work, because of what they were hearing about our early success. And I was kind of at this crossroads at that point, where I was, you know, a startup, early stage entrepreneur. And I knew that I had a certain responsibility to, of course, adjust and meet the needs of a growing demand of, you know, the clients and clients were saying, We would like racial equity work to be kind of separate. And that’s, that’s all we want. We want that particular development. What I’ve always known is that part of being a great leader, is, you know, having a lens for liberation, having a lens for racial equity, as you’re delegating as you’re doing all of the beautiful functions of a leader. They’re not separate, they’re one in the same. However, the many of the clients that I was working with, weren’t at that place. And were at a place where they knew this was a growth area for them, and they really wanted to go deep. So for several years, that’s what we did. We met the need, we went deep, and we developed a lot of content around racial equity, diversity, inclusion, etc. And we were our clients were happy, we were having fun doing the work. But I, about year five, I hit a bit of a wall that I was not expecting that I would hit, I fell out of love with my business. And I didn’t think that was possible. You know, I started it, it was my livelihood. It was a very scary time. And of course, at that time, one of our major con contracts got cut by about 80% unexpectedly. And I had to shift to full time staff members back to part time, which was devastating. And so in here, we were in year five, experiencing our scariest, you know, year that we had ever experienced. And it was really tough, because, you know, you think by year five, you have certain things figured out. And you wouldn’t get blindsided by something, but we did. And we certainly did. And what was also happening at that time was I also was exhausted, and I realized my exhaustion was because we were doing the work in ways that weren’t true to why I started it in the beginning. And I had kind of reached my ceiling if you will, with making so many adjustments and trade offs to where I just said you know what, I need to step back for a minute. And I actually took a full time job while still having you know, my business on the side took a full time job for about nine months. And it was in that nine months that Indigo women, my second business was actually birthed. And what was also kind of tugging at me in those first five years of Lead for Liberation was I kept hearing very similar stories from black women executives, stories around both triumph and also stories around exhaustion from Workplace trauma and workplace microaggressions and racism. And it just didn’t feel aligned to create just another program within my existing organization. Because my consciousness also was shifting, I was growing. And I was like, You know what this needs its own container. And so I started Indigo women, about two and a half years ago, specifically for black women in leadership. What I didn’t anticipate was in starting that program, or excuse me, that organization, it actually reinvigorated my innovation for my, my first organization lead for liberation. And I’ve finally had the inspiration, or the new business model, and really going from defense to offense and really went back to the origins, you know what, no, this is leadership development. This is about co-creating what we do want not focusing so much on what we don’t want. Because it’s, you know, what we focus on growth, exactly. And so with Lead for Liberation, we were actually called Teach to Lead at the time, and we shifted to lead for liberation. And now we really focus on the six conditions for liberatory workplace culture. So that the focus is on really helping organizations understand what kind of culture they do want to co create, and not focus as much on dismantling what they don’t want. Obviously, the dismantling still happens and needs to happen. But the focus is on the vision, the focus is on really, really tending to the soil, the conditions, the consciousness necessary to bring about a different experience for everyone within an organization. And once we made that shift, year, so about, I took off, you know, your six, and then by year eight, we had our strongest year ever, and here we are in 10. Having, you know, we just keep getting better and better. And, you know, we’re doing well in ways I just couldn’t have imagined. And a lot of it was from taking a step back and saying, You know what, this is really paying attention to my intuition that something just wasn’t right. Something just was a little off, and something needed to be revealed. And it was Indigo women, and who knew that that was what was going to also ignite innovation in my first business. And so now I in a very sustainable joyfilled way, I’m leading both organizations, and I’m just so grateful to be able to do it.
Kristin Taylor 18:08
Yeah. And again, congratulations. And there’s so much in that story that I want to pause around. Okay, I want to pause around just intuition. So you take time away, because you’re feeling burned out. It’s not quite right, you weren’t allowing yourself kind of to shape shift to what people were asking of you versus leading from your own sense of purpose and intuition Exactly. In those nine months, when you pulled back, what practice is helped to support your own intuition. Because it feels like such a fertile liminal time in such an important way.
Shayna Renee Hammond 18:45
Yes, it really was, you know, it was, I have my daily practices, I think part it was partly also consistency. So I have a very consistent daily spiritual practice that I do in the morning and in the evenings of each day. And what it what I what I did during that period was I just became more deliberate about that time, and I spent a little bit more time in the morning and then in the evening, getting quiet, more time meditating, more time, journaling more time and listening to different books and podcasts and different texts that were would inspire me. I spent more time just going in and getting still and getting quiet. I spent a lot less time on social media a lot less time in person, and just got really quiet. I also moved and so I was living in the city at one point and during that period, I was led to move outside of the city into a suburb right outside of Washington DC. And that was very purposeful, you know, the vibration was a little quieter. It was a little slower, a little lower, and I really He needed that I needed a space physically in environment, such that I could just get quiet. I remember being, you know, at my window watching deer. And you know, wildlife journaling, which was a very different practice from when I was living in the city. And I heard lots of noise and a lot of comings and goings. And so it was a combination of physical environment, really slowing down and getting quieter, and then a deliberate choice at the beginning and end of my day, to be still longer than I normally, you know, did it in the past. And through those, that consistent practice over and over, the different inspiration and downloads started coming through. And I am, I’m so grateful for that time. I look back, it was tough time. But I’m grateful for that time.
Kristin Taylor 20:54
Yeah, those times are often the best, the best gifts, but often they’re anything but easy. Where my curiosity leads me is around the intuition and the download. Yeah, I think for those who have been meditating for a while and have a spiritual practice, those words make sense. But for other people, it’s like, what what do you mean a download? And I can’t meditate? It’s really difficult for me. Hmm, what does that mean? Download? What does that mean intuition when you’re sitting in silence? Yes. Does that look like and feel like for you?
Shayna Renee Hammond 21:27
Yes. So when I say download, I mean guidance. And those pieces of guidance come to me sometimes through strangers through different conversations, I feel downloads in my body. So people who know me well know when I say my feet tingles, they know that for me, that means blue that’s resonating with me. And that’s truth, my, the bottoms of my feet literally tingle whenever, whenever I am encountering a new insight, or a new truth that I need to pay attention to. And I gain that sense of awareness in my body from meditating over a long period of time. And I say a long period of time, but the actual duration, I only meditate about sometimes just five minutes every morning, sometimes 15 minutes. But what’s worked for me and what I’ve seen work for clients is it’s not so much the amount of time you use in a sitting is the consistency by which you use it over time. Because I do it every day, many times twice a day that has gained has helped me gain awareness about my body about how I feel about how I really think about different things, it’s helped me route much deeper into what I actually believe and when I’m being influenced maybe by an outside opinion or force. And, and sometimes that sense of guidance comes from a conversation I get to have maybe with a kindred spirit. Like I said, sometimes it’s a perfect stranger, I’ll you know, be at Starbucks or something, and someone will say something that will resonate with me, and they’ll probably don’t even know what they’ve said. But it’s those little pieces. Sometimes it’s in a book. And sometimes it literally is just a knowing. And it comes out of just trusting myself. And that’s when I say knowing that’s what I mean by intuition. So you know, intuition is my inner guidance, it’s that it feels almost peaceful. It’s that that feeling of like, I’m going to be okay, I might not know how, but things are going to be okay. That’s when I know my intuition is speaking and I need to follow it.
Kristin Taylor 23:47
Oh, God, I love that so much. I love that specificity. Because these words we use so liberally, but they mean so many different things to different different people. And I love this sense of being embodied. And this self awareness, because you are still you are connected to your body. And you know what these feelings are on the feet, and that these signs and downloads have many different ways and avenues that they come to you. I want to move in a moment into these six conditions. But before we do, I know you have a very abiding and trustworthy connection to spirit. What part does that play? And how do you define that?
Shayna Renee Hammond 24:30
Oh my goodness, my connection to spirit it plays probably the biggest part in my life. It really does. When I think about I get asked the question all the time, how did you get the courage to start your business and you know, how did you have the courage to do the different things that you’ve done? And it all comes back to the relationship that I have with what I call spirit other people may call God or a law but just the A power that’s greater than me, is what’s guiding me, you know, it’s that force that’s within me that’s working with my personality that’s working with my humanity at all times. And I, it is what anchors me, it’s what I come back to, it’s what guides me, I come back to it, I used to only kind of, I used to think about it as an anchor for when times were tough or confusing. But it’s also it’s my anchor, always, it’s my anchor in those joyful times, it’s, it’s my anchor in success, it’s my anchor all the time, and those mundane times, when I don’t want to meditate, or I don’t want to work out, or I don’t want to do those things I know I need to do for me. It’s what it just, it’s because it’s so present. And I’ve seen an experience how when I prioritize my spirituality, that’s when things just fall into place, I’m able to attract the right clients, I don’t have to work as hard. You know, my children respond, you know, better to my redirection and my you know, conversations because they can see the calm and competence and trust that I have in myself, and inspires them to be the same way. So things aren’t as much of a struggle, and the more you experience, you know, success with something, of course, you depend on it even more, you know, and it just builds over time. And so to me, spirit, within me and within other people. It’s everything. It also helps me with empathy, because something often say an indigo women community is that, you know, as leaders, we’re constantly being called to learn how to trust the spirit and other people. And that’s what helps me and other leaders with not micromanaging, for example, when we micromanage people, we aren’t trusting the Spirit in them. And oftentimes, we’re also not trusting ourselves and trusting that maybe we didn’t set them up for success. We’re not trusting that it will be done adequately, etc. And so that’s an invitation to really examine self trust. All right, why am I not trusting myself? And oftentimes, for me, is there some kind of disconnect between myself and my spirit self, because whenever I’m trusting my ego self, of course, I’m going to be nervous, I’m going to claw on to the scarcity, mindset, etc. But when I attach to my true self, abundance self, that’s where the trust lies.
Kristin Taylor 27:35
So good. So so good. God, I want to I want an episode just on that just on ego itself. Yes, it’s true self. And here’s those things. Yeah, those things are so wildly and challenging. And again, the self awareness and the really recognizing what the ego itself tells us and how we know we’re in it versus how we’re knowing we’re in spirit. But I feel like you did a really good job explaining that, at least to pique people’s curiosity and interest in that way. Tell us if you would about these six conditions you referred to Yes.
Shayna Renee Hammond 28:09
The six conditions for liberatory workplace culture are conditions that invite us to go from fear consciousness or ego consciousness to love consciousness. And what we have found over, you know, working with so many organizations over the past 10 years is that there are six conditions within every organization, if cultivated, you know consistently can provide a liberatory workplace for everyone. The first foundational one, which we’ve been talking about, since the very beginning of this interview, is emotional intelligence. And as you know, there are four domains to emotional intelligence, the first most important one being self awareness. So the more aware we are of who we are of our emotions, and how our emotions impact other people, the better able we are to connect with people on a genuine level. And so we explore, of course, with all the leaders we work with, around the foundations of not just self awareness, but also self management, those practices we just got finished talking about what are those practices that anchor you? And then social awareness? How do you empathize with the people you work with? And really invite diverse perspectives? And then relationship management? How well do you manage your teams? And do you bring out the best and the people around you and really galvanize everyone to have outstanding outcomes over time? So that’s, that’s condition, one, emotional intelligence. The second condition is trust and transparency. And we purposely pair those two together. Because oftentimes, you know, we, for decades have been talking about trust and leadership, and unfortunately, haven’t been able to co create some of the, you know, conditions that we want for the workplace. And that’s because I don’t think we’ve also been talking about the importance of trans parents see and how that differs from honesty. We trust leaders who readily explain and give context to different decisions that they’re making, to different initiatives that they’re undertaking without having to be probed. So we can be honest about something, but still be a bit guarded about why, you know our rationale, for example, but from what I’ve seen, leaders who are a bit more transparent, and lean into vulnerability, tend to have teams that are much more cohesive, that tend to work quicker, tend to be more productive, and tend to have more fun at work and stick around longer. So trust and transparency is that second very important condition. The third is clarity and commitment. So clarity, and commitment is all about an organization’s articulation of their vision, mission and values and how well those three are aligned. So we started this conversation, right, talking about values. And so we start with organizations the same way, you know, what are your values? And are they lived values? Are they aspirational? And, you know, does everyone here understand what they actually mean in this context. And really helping organizations get much clearer on how to make those three better align. So everyone’s also clear on their roles and responsibilities, a lot of conflict or unproductive conflict. And drama happens when people don’t understand what their roles are. And they don’t understand maybe what the criteria for success is. And so we really work with organizations on how to get clear about that. The next condition is transformative relationships, transformative relationships. And this hinges on the belief that everything that we experience is, is a result of a relationship, some kind of relationship. And what we have, what we all kind of understand about workplaces is that we work for people. And before we even work for missions, and it’s really important that especially as leaders, we’re creating spaces where people can bring their full selves to work, and where people can also bring all their talents to work, and that they’re using their full kind of capacity of what they bring to the tailor full experiences, you know, the fact that maybe you’re a middle child, you know, and how that can add to a team. And so we really help organizations build that muscle of building relationships. Instead of just assuming that people know how to do that. It’s a muscle, we need to flex and a practice, really a spiritual practice that we need to constantly attend to all the time. So the next condition is collective accountability. So oftentimes, when we think about liberation, sometimes people think that liberation means a freedom from structure or freedom from accountability. And actually, accountability is love. Accountability is calling people into the fullness and you know, its highest potential of who they are and what they can do. And really laboratory cultures, that doesn’t happen, just top down. That happens peer to peer that happens in all directions. And so we help organizations develop practices, rituals, and routines that help them hold each other accountable to the goals and stated mission that they have. And then the final one is dynamic process and outcome. So up until this point, and a lot of leadership books, to this point, you know, you’ve heard the adage, do whatever it takes, and the whatever it takes mindset has really led to burn out for a lot of folks, it’s led to also a lot of harm, especially across difference. And dynamic process. And outcome helps us understand that the process that we take to get to the desired outcome is just as important, sometimes even more important than the actual outcome. And so we teach organizations how to really step outside of a culture of sense of urgency, and really examine what really actually is urgent, but more importantly, what’s what’s important, what’s important, how to simplify their goals, in a way where people can actually be successful and be successful over time, not just in a short period, in a very sustainable way. And so we have found that when organizations really take the time to attend to those six conditions, they have cultures that of course produce amazing outcomes, and they have cultures where their employees stay and they thrive and they’re able to bring different talent Send parts of their identity to the table and really beautiful ways.
Kristin Taylor 35:05
Wow. I keep saying, Wow, do you? Wow, wow. And I’m telling you, as I’m listening to you, I’m thinking about the clients that I work with and some of the places where they’re really feeling stuck. And so many of these, these six conditions are very relevant to their experience in their struggle. If someone wanted to start the process of gaining self awareness, this is one small thing. Let’s start with number one. What are one or two things you would offer? And suggest?
Shayna Renee Hammond 35:42
Yes, so one thing I would offer so research tells us that 75% of us overestimate our self awareness, because we grossly underestimate how other people perceive and receive us. So the first thing I would say to someone is, when was the last time you asked for feedback? And who did you ask it from? And so and then I would invite them to expand that list of people if they do have a small list or and maybe if they have no one to start that list, and really ask, you know, questions like, how do you experience me? How can I better support you? And what ways have I missed opportunities, maybe to bring out the best or provide the necessary resources for you. Oftentimes, our perception of how people receive us and receive our leadership is a bit off. So ask for feedback. So number one,
Kristin Taylor 36:36
Wonderful, wonderful. So love those questions.
Shayna Renee Hammond 36:39
And then number two, if you don’t already have one, start a contemplative practice that really invites you to calm your mind. From what I’ve seen, working with so many leaders is oftentimes what’s in the way of their self awareness is a lot of chatter, a lot of noise, a lot of chatter, a lot of self criticism, or a lot of self criticism. And so I would just I often say, just set your timer for just five minutes. That’s it, and five minutes in the morning, preferably before anyone else in your household gets up just five minutes, and just breathe with no expectation. Thoughts will come through, it’s okay. Let them come through, don’t judge it just five minutes every single day. And it really can have a profound impact. And it’s the consistency. It’s the consistency.
Kristin Taylor 37:36
It’s the consistency. Yeah, I appreciate that so much. I often share with clients, three minutes. Start with three, let’s make it feel like you can do this. You can have success. Yeah, good. So good. Well, I want to start segwaying into wrapping up here. Are there any I mean, you’ve shared so much so many pearls of wisdom, I’m taking copious notes and want to make sure that all of these are really underscored for our listeners, is there anything you have yet to share that you want to give voice to?
Shayna Renee Hammond 38:12
Anything I have yet to share? I think I shared this, I think maybe I just want to underscore it. Because I see it. I just see it as so powerful, and the turning point for so many leaders, and that is the importance of self trust. When I think about leaders that I’ve worked with who have taken off versus leaders who have taken a little bit longer, the distinguishing factor often is the level of trust that they have in themselves. And what we have found as well is that so many of the isms, especially racism, any kind of ism that you know, cause us to think that we are somehow superior to someone else. And were enacting and behaviors and language where we are marginalizing someone else, we’re doing that out of a lack of self trust, we’re doing that out of a place of fear. Anytime you are in a place of fear, you’re in a place of scarcity. And you’re likely knowingly or unknowingly, marginalizing, dismissing devaluing someone in some way. And so if there’s anything that a leader does is you know, wants to focus on, it should be self trust and self love.
Kristin Taylor 39:30
Okay? Why don’t we leave it with how people can connect with you, you’ve done such an extraordinary job of sharing such depth in such a short period of time and I know that you have gathered attention, people are paying attention. They want to connect with you. How do they do that?
Shayna Renee Hammond 39:47
Yes, you can find more information about Lead for Liberation at www.leadforliberation.com. You can email us at info@leadforliberation.com. If you’d like to have set up a conversation with me or a member of my team, if you are a black woman in leadership or you are a CEO of an organization and would like to provide some leadership development specifically for your black women, you can reach me at shayna@indigowomencommunity.com. You can also find me on Instagram @indigowomencommunity. And you can also find me on LinkedIn under Shayna Renee Hammond. I cannot wait to connect with so many of you.
Kristin Taylor 40:27
Yes. Beautiful. Thank you so much. I have just one final question. If I may. Yes, you’re going into your day to day, what are you holding most close to your heart?
Shayna Renee Hammond 40:37
You know, I am holding most close to my heart, one of our community agreements in our organization. And it is we practice progress over perfection. And so I’m just taking every minute by minute day to day progress over perfection. Lovely,
Kristin Taylor 40:57
powerful. You are lovely and powerful. Thank you so much for joining us. Really.
Shayna Renee Hammond 41:02
Thank you so much for having us. Or having me I’m sorry. And one thing I forgot to mention was my book. Yes, if folks want to learn more about the Indigo Women Community and more about my ethos around leadership, feel free to check out my best selling book, which just became just became a best selling book this week. Thank you so much. It’s called Becoming an Indigo Woman, How to Thrive and Leadership in Life. And you can find it on Amazon.
Kristin Taylor 41:35
Yes. That’s awesome. That’s fantastic. Thank you so much.
Shayna Renee Hammond 41:39
Thank you, Kristin. This was wonderful. Thanks for having me.
Kristin Taylor 41:44
You’re so welcome. Lovely and powerful indeed. What do we all want to hold in our hearts as we head into our days, our weeks, our lives. My hope is for more of us that it is anchored in love and liberation to love at force that reveals who we are from the inside out as Shayna says, that essential force that reveals our full range of human emotion. And that brings out the best in ourselves and everyone else around us and, yes, liberation, that state of interdependence when the success of the group is defined by how every single person can thrive, and experience belonging. The first step to all Shayna explains, is emotional intelligence. Cultivating self awareness, which is only heightened by a commitment and consistency to experiencing quiet, spending more time going inward and getting stale. Start small, and all importantly start. It may not be easy in the beginning, but I assure you, it is worth it. Thank you again, Shayna, for your wisdom and inspiration and for the downloads you shared. Our theme song and sound engineering was provided by Shane Suffriti. You can listen to more of Shane’s music at www.shanesuffriti.com If you have a story about making it through something that forever changed, you are want to tell us what you think about our podcast. Send me an email at coachkristintaylor@gmail.com. If you enjoyed today’s episode, we humbly ask that you share it with others. Thank you for listening. We’ll see you next time on How I Made It Through.
EIQ Media, LLC 43:39
How I Made It Through is produced and distributed by EIQ Media LLC. Elevate your emotional IQ with podcasts and content focused on overcoming adversity, leadership, mental health, entrepreneurship, spiritually transformative experiences and more.
