We recently connected with Jackie Hyman, Phd Jessica David, Phd and have shared our conversation below.
Jackie Hyman, PhD, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
As women of color, resilience is baked into the very fabric of our being because our journeys to present-day have been littered with adversity. Whether globally, regionally, locally, or even intrapersonally, there have been challenges around every corner. So how do we find opportunities to smile, connect, break bread, and laugh? How do we maintain our motivation and stay the course? We find resilience by knowing our ‘why’.
To know and understand your ‘why’ is to leverage a powerful tool to motivate, differentiate, empower, and embolden. During difficult times, remembering your deeper purpose can help you gain perspective, make decisions that are in alignment with your values, and feel a greater sense of agency and direction.
More specifically, our ‘why’ is our legacy. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and are committed to leveraging our gifts and our strengths to honor those before us and propel generations after us. By connecting to our past and our future, we gain perspective on the day-to-day problems that we face. We recognize that we are a part of a larger story to be told and, as such, we have a job to do. This gives us a sense of power, resolve, and perseverance no matter the obstacle.
Now, don’t get us wrong, it’s still incredibly important that we pause in those difficult moments to take care of ourselves and honor our emotional experience. What’s important, however, is that those moments never dissuade us from our end goal–our destination. Instead, we remind ourselves that we are a part of something bigger, and that “we didn’t come this far just to come this far.” With that in mind, we’re able to use setbacks as moments for reflection and growth. And front there, we continue on.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
We are both women of color and licensed psychologists who have a passion for helping our communities rediscover who they are outside of what they do and fully harness their power. After many years of clinical training and experience, we began asking ourselves, how can we expand our reach and share the knowledge that we’ve learned on a larger scale? How can we use our educational backgrounds and research to uplift our communities and create widespread change? Based on our own personal experiences, and the experiences of those around us (loved ones, friends, and clients), we realized how we could best serve our community with our gifts.
We founded Bmore Rooted with the mission to help professional women of color become more rooted in their personhood. We work alongside our clients to help them get back in touch with their inner selves, embrace their joy, and reclaim center stage in their lives. We emphasize radical self-authorship and self-compassion on the journey to balance, and our services focus on deepening self-awareness, challenging embedded narratives, and redefining one’s joy. Through our self-paced courses, coaching services, and membership, we provide women with the necessary tools, community, and unwavering support to confidently prioritize their personal needs, fostering a sense of self-empowerment. We aim to spark a cultural transformation where self-care, self-love, and self-fulfillment for women of color are celebrated and actively cultivated. Our vision is to create a world where women of color are unapologetically and relentlessly pursuing their holistic well-being, thereby reshaping societal norms for a more equitable future.
We are diligently working to update our business platform, and expect to relaunch in January 2025 with personal blogs, online courses, and group coaching services.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1) We are doing “the work” ourselves.
Despite what ads or influencers might tell you, finding balance and joy in life is not a quick or easy process. It takes intentionality, introspection, and values-aligned action on a daily basis. As entrepreneurs, we’re regularly negotiating ways to protect and prioritize ourselves despite the many demands on our time. Even though it can be extremely difficult, and we don’t always get it right, we know that it’s non-negotiable and critical to our health, well-being, and ultimately, success in whatever we do. Because it’s an ongoing negotiation that can be difficult to traverse alone, it’s important to find a community of like-minded individuals that can help you stay motivated, engaged, and accountable. This is what we’ve worked diligently to create at Bmore Rooted.
2) Enjoy the process, not just the product
This has been a hard one for us to internalize, and, arguably, we’re still working on it. Much of our society emphasizes the final product, where we’re evaluated on the end goal, what we can produce, instead of the path we took to get there. Did anyone else get some kind of praise or reward for good grades in school? Because of this, our process is often downplayed. It’s rushed, pressured, stressful, and unenjoyable- all in an effort to create something that’s bigger, better, and, well, perfect. Not only is this approach not sustainable, but at what point do we get to enjoy life? If we only live for the high points, the end goals, the products, we end up trading an enduring sense of joy and peace for fleeting moments of excitement and pride. We’re learning to slow down and capitalize on the space in-between, which isn’t easy. The accomplishments feel good and are worthy of praise, but with all the time it takes to get there? You’ve got to learn to love those moments too!
3) In everything we do, we seek (and find) community.
Becoming entrepreneurs has been a slow and arduous process, but it would have been much more difficult if it weren’t for community. It was through community that we were able to find mentorship and guidance from experts in business, marketing, and coaching. It was through community that we were able to maintain motivation, optimism, and hope for what we could do and what we could become. By leaning on others that had ‘been there’, by allowing ourselves to ask for help, and by recognizing that we can learn something from everyone, we’ve acquired essential skills and applied tried-and-true practices to expand our reach. Nothing is accomplished alone, and the process becomes much more rich when you include the insight, experience, and wisdom of those before you.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
For the most part, reaching our professional goals felt like a step-by-step process. You take these courses, then get that internship, earn those credentials, and then apply to these kinds of jobs. But once the dust had settled, and we achieved the careers that we had been working tirelessly to acquire, there was a nagging discontent. What came next? No one had ever mentioned what happened after you met your professional goals. Something was missing. We quickly realized that we had never been encouraged to explore what we wanted our lives to be outside of our profession. Beyond the title, the position, the paycheck, what did we want? What made us happy? We learned that we were the missing piece in our lives!
So how does this fit? Our ideal client is the professional woman who has spent years cultivating, planning, and working to achieve her professional dreams. On paper, particularly on her resume, there are no complaints. Internally, however, there is a quiet yearning for more. She is proud of what she has accomplished, but feels like she’s lost touch with herself along the way. Whether she wants to rediscover her passions, finds herself wondering, “Is this it?,” or feels called to a greater purpose, she knows that something just isn’t fitting. That’s where we come in because that’s exactly where we’ve been.
Our ideal client is the woman who is ready to rediscover her passion for life. She has the grit, the drive, and the motivation to move toward self-discovery, but simply needs help with the direction. She knows how she wants to feel, but isn’t quite sure how to get there. Our ideal client is ready to work one-on-one or in community with others to design and create the balanced life that she never knew she wanted, but deep down always knew she needed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bmorerootedllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmorerootedllc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088262567605
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
