We recently connected with Althea Bates and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Althea, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Brokenness, Baggage, and Blessings (the title of her forthcoming autobiography) has served as the backdrop for her life story. A story of happiness, hurt, growth, pain, anger, fear, boldness, and most of all resiliency. A life documented, lived, and survived. She deems herself a survivor. Bates has not only survived she describes “I have thrived on my journey to becoming Althea Webber Bates. I am still learning and being molded into the best version of myself. I am sharing what I have learned so far on the journey to becoming me in the hopes that I may inspire someone else.”
Bates states “Failure was in my DNA so to speak I was born into a situation where the odds were already stacked against me.” She describes in detail that in her 43 years of existence “I have survived being a sexual abuse survivor, marrying young, divorced young, being a child out of a wedlock relationship between my mother and father’s affair, teen abortion, bullying, failed dating relationships, struggles in my academics, two broken legs, job lay-off, etc.” She further states “the failure was embedded in me not by messages I received from my household growing up but from my own self-inflicted messages of self-hate, self-doubt and lack of self-esteem.” Mrs. Bates describes “sometimes I feel like I am having an out of body experience when it comes to things I have been through. I mean how does this happen to someone like me, someone with goals, hopes, dreams and a vision for their life end where I did….stuck.” Bates shares “the truth is I was busy trying to appear to have it together hoping no one would suspect that I was failing at that as well.”
The ultimate favor in failure Bates states she gained from examining the various points of “epic fails in my life is that I would not be me without any of these experiences, paths or journeys explored throughout my life. The journey to myself has been on that I would not change because it molded and shaped me into the best version of myself. My favor in failure led to my being an author, my starting my businesses, my working on a doctoral degree, my being a mother, a daughter and one of the things I am most proud that favor in failure to was my Non-Profit Project Resiliency Movement, LLC a social movement go birthed in me to support, encourage and empower women in areas of resiliency and self-care.” She now uses and shares the beauty in her failures with women that she comes in contact with she shares the message of resiliency and self-care with women.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Who Is Dr Bates?
Dr Bates Is A Executive Life Strategist Coach, Health and Wellness Coach, Resiliency Coach, Author, Motivational Speaker, Image Consultant And A Nonprofit Thought Leader in The Areas Of Women Empowerment, Women’s Advocacy, Youth Development and Workforce Development. She Does It All, Not Only Does She Care About The Rights Of Women She Cares About Their Mental Health, Holistic Healing and Wellness As Well As Them Focusing On Their Own Resilience and Self-Care.
MIND Coaching Services
Motivational Speaking
SOUL Health & Wellness Coach/Advocate
BODY Health & Wellness Coach
Immunity Building Strategies
Image Consultant
WHO IS Dr. BATES? SHE DOES IT ALL
MIND
A healthy mind lays the foundation for creating the life that you want. What we tell ourselves in our heads is often shown through our bodies. Our thoughts are driving the vehicle (our body). When we learn how to change our thought process, our bodies soon follow and build resilience.
BODY
Our temple is what keeps us living and breathing here on earth. It gives us signals to guide us so that we can continue thriving. When we learn to listen to what it has to say, we open a pathway for positive change to occur in what we put in our bodies to not only nourish but build our immunity.
SOUL
The deepest part of ourselves comes from our souls. When we choose to openly accept and love ourselves, our hearts are naturally guided to what we desire most in life. Growing this connection leads us to new opportunities and helps us to prioritize what’s most important you and your heath, mental health and holistic wellness.
Dr Bates has an authentic passion and drive as a visionary leader that is simply magnetic. She lights up rooms and inspires you to go after your own passions, dreams and goals. She built her empire through transperancy, speaking her authentic truth in her authentic voice and encouraging everyone to take the ride to self- discovery alongside of her to unpack, heal and face those broken, baggage’d and toxic parts of ourselves. She then expanded and evolved her brand to support clients from her nonprofit work that needed life coaching and consulting. Marketing came from the truth serum she gives as doses to the women attending her motivational talks, conferences, forums and webinars.
During this pandemic the landscape of her A Bates Consulting Business, a full-service consultancy offering resiliency and wellness coaching, youth development, case management and workforce development services in the Greater Hartford Area as well as nationally was challenged as people shifted their focus from self- development to survival of Covid and Quarantine this also shifted her business model and structure. Althea made the difficult decision to scale down her consulting business and focus on the areas her clients most needed in resiliency and wellness coaching she started doing a weekly podcast series and going live on her social media pages to engage and dialogue with her key audience and demographic around being resilient and taking care of their physical, mental and emotional health during the pandemic. She began sharing natural herbs, spices and remedies she was using to build her own immunity. She started making sea moss for her customers by request to help them build their immunities in the pandemic as well. Dr Bates then discovered that many of her clients were coming to her because they wanted to use the pandemic to leave their 9-5 jobs and start a business. They began to inquire about who is her image consultant for her Photoshoots, branding and marketing materials and she stated she did it herself. . This organically led to a new business venture under her I Am Dr Bates Brand called “Get Fitted By Dr Bates” she started getting referrals for creating images and looks for her clients as well as on set/production and props work for the photoshoots. Pivoting during a time when so many businesses were struggling to stay a float led to new business lines and new streams of income for Dr Bates and her businesses.
Contact Info:
Instagram: http://www.Instagram.com/iamdrbates
Facebook: http://Facebook.com/projectresiliencymovement
Linkedin: Www.LinkedIn.com/draltheawebberbates
Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/projresmovement
Youtube: https://YouTube.com/channel/projectresiliencymovement
Other: http://Facebook.com/IamDrBates http://Facebook.com/DrAltheaWebberBates
Image Credits
George Lee LMG Photography
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Althea is a leader in mental health and social services, working primarily with women of color to enhance their resilience to overcome personal and professional obstacles. The qualities that make Althea a profound leader are shared. She has an innate service- based leadership style that highlights and guides her theoretical leadership model. She believes that she carries influence as a leader and role model and she believes strongly that her leadership approach affects her practice working with minority women and girls, the core mission of Project Resiliency Movement her nonprofit.
Another key component to who Althea is, she was born in Jamaica and is a woman of color. These are shared demographics for the targeted population of women Althea serves. Her identity as a woman of color and immigrant provides an unspoken confirmation that she understands the struggle and has the qualification to give advice. Northouse (2019) identifies how the experiences of black women differ from those of white women and black men. As a woman of color, leadership offers an opportunity to personally address the oppression and inequality among this group. This quality allows followers to perceive Althea as more authentic and influences motivation. The authentic leadership approach entails the interpersonal processes between the leader and follower, their shared life experiences, and developmental process (2019). Althea’s story provides hope. It aligns with the common phrase “if she can do it, I can do it.”
Transformational leaders lead by example (Northouse, 2019). The premise of this leadership approach includes utilizing the relationship between the leader and followers to improve the performance of followers (2019). Leaders are described as visionary or charismatic, having the ability to intrinsically motivate others to follow them (2019). Despite Althea’s failures, she persevered to become the CEO and Founder of A.Bates Consulting, Founder of The Project Resilency Movement, a professor, motivational speaker, author, a doctorate at Capella University and Heart Bible Institute, as well as mother to her two children. Althea strives to help other women do exactly what she did, push to live to their fullest potential despite their circumstances.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
Since the pandemic We are having to redefine what it means to REST. Since COVID we have been forced to review our quality of life; its role, value, and importance in relation to our overall physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health and well-being. I was first introduced to REST through two broken legs in 2009. God allowed me to break both legs five months apart. After a year of broken legs. I thought I had learned all the lessons God had to teach me about REST but I was sadly mistaken. So many things happened, so many lessons learned but REST still evaded me.
I don’t know about you but when God makes major shifts in my life it’s always every ten years with the year ending in the number nine. Fast forward ten years after my first encounter with REST, some major life was happening that required REST but my drive and focus outweighed my value of REST. My best friend died of cancer in January 2019 and I didnt REST, my then father-in-law passed away in May 2017. I didn’t even REST when my marriage was falling apart at the seams. Instead, I created my campaign “Strong Women Need Support the Most” as a way to bring attention to the need for strong women such as myself to have outlets to be poured into. I was giving from fumes instead of fuel, and no one noticed except for my kids seeing me struggling from mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. I lived on my couch for all of 2019, reflecting on how I got there, I was supposed to have it together. I was supposed to be inspiring all the women I waspouring into with my nonprofit Project Resiliency Movement. I was on that couch grappling with who everyone expected me to show up as vs. how I actually felt from moment to moment overwhelmed, overextended, and just over it.
The “it” in my life wasn’t minimized to just one thing. “It” was a combination of things: hurts, disappointments, losses, pain, anger, frustration, and anxiety all bottled up in my mind while on the couch. The couch became a lifeboat, my survival mechanism when my whole life was imploding around me. I kept pushing, pressing, planning, preparing, and pouring. I felt like a complete hypocrite. Here I was motivating and inspiring women to share their truth, let go of baggage and brokenness, and I was chock full of it and hadn’t even processed through any of it. I kept processing pain through helping others to do so for themselves, which was in fact the ultimate distraction for ignoring my own pain. I was productively packing away my pain for a time when I had time to unpack it.
REST was trying to chase me down, but I had no time to make it a priority due to too many opportunities chasing after me. Then COVID hit in 2020, I got sick a couple weeks (not from Covid) but it was the beginning of the need for me to shift and rethink my priorities. I started caring for my health intentionally with herbs , natural supplements, and even making sea moss gel. I started to be more conscious of the way I took care of my body. I began to recognize the importance and value of me again from the inside out. I started feeling more like me, gaining ownership of my identity again, empowered to be comfortable in my own skin, I started reflecting on what was important to me, who was important to me, and what I needed, wanted and required.
By 2021, it became all about manifesting the life I wanted but was too scared to go after. I knew I needed REST and to step away from the world in order to be actively engaged in the pursuit of my own happiness. Again the distraction of showing up for others trying to make it through quarantine became a priority. I started a weekly Facebook Segment called “Quarantine Fridays” to share my tips, strategies and tools for surviving the pandemic physically, mentally and emotionally.
I remember being intentional about what I truly wanted to manifest. I realized the pattern that was woven through my manifestations would require REST. I started to say no to others more and yes more consistently to myself. I initiated what I refer to as the BBB Method as my strategy to evoke my rest. First B: Blocking energy and individuals that didn’t serve me while creating healthy and strong Boundaries (second B). In this phase boundaries were necessary with energy and accessibility to myself as well as gauging consistently my Bandwidth (Third B) and tolerance which became less as I went inward more. Less space and real estate developed for negative energy, people and things.
By summer of 2021, I was in celebration mode preparing for the 5 Year Anniversary of Project Resiliency Movement (my nonprofit for women of color focused on areas of resiliency, self-care, holistic healing and wellness). We had done so much to pour into the lives of women that we had to make time to celebrate all we had done and accomplished together as a movement. As I prayed and fasted that summer going into the fall of 2021 off the high of an amazing anniversary celebration I began to wonder… What’s next? God, what do you have next for me? What do you have next for this movement you assigned me to create? I began to go more inward with intimate conversations with myself and God, ultimately being honest about how tired I was and exhausted.
I was going into 2022 with many intentions and was prepared to not do one more project or activity until I knew how God wanted me to move. By December of 2021 I decided to break down and take my first COVID shot, which dismantled my body, breathing and immune system and left me with a TIA mIni stroke and nerve damage on my left side. I know God was speaking loudly and telling me it was my time and opportunity to STOP, BE STILL and to REST. After my two-week stay in the hospital, I decided to make my rest intentional. I had definitely learned from my encounter with rest in 2009 and I knew it was better to surrender and be obedient this time to REST rather than be forced and fight it all the way through. For the first time in my life I decided to be all in, unapologetically, radically completely surrendered to REST. I knew my obedience would require a complete dismantling of life as I had known it. God was setting me apart to rest for purpose. I knew it would require my mind, body, soul, and spirit to be still. I knew it would require another level of BBB: Blocking , Boundaries, and Bandwidth that I had never tapped into before. So excited to dive into all the teachings, lessons, transformations, learnings, revelations, truths that came from REST (Relinquishing control, Executing God’s plan, State of mind focused on solitude, and Taking the necessary precautions to protect your peace, energy and boundaries).
I am currently publishing a book with TBN Trilogy Publishing about my journey and sabbatical of rest to be release for Winter 2024.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: http://www.Instagram.com/iamdrbates
- Facebook: http://Facebook.com/iamdrbates
- Linkedin: www.LinkedIn.com/draltheawebberbates
- Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/projresmovement
- Youtube: https://YouTube.com/channel/projectresiliencymovement
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/dr.altheawebberbates
Image Credits
Goerge Lee
