Real Talk with Tamera Tamera Darden

Hello Folks!

It’s time for another month in Review and while I did share my 6 month assessment last episode, this episode I’m sharing a few feelings around what went down this month.

During this episode I talk about:

How prioritizing effectively leads to saving more time & energy

How the Elegant Excellence Journal was an amazing resource for accomplishing my main goals for the first 6 months of the year

My frustration around being considered an Anti-Racism resource on several lists!

My thoughts on the sudden swell of white followers… keeping it brief.

My lessons from one of the biggest shoots of my career to date.

Enjoy this episode!

Much Love,

P.S. I’m taking a break for the month of July and New Episodes will begin in August! July will be a podcast rewind where I’m sharing some of my favorites!

Catch you in the Fall!

Much Love,

Tamera

Hey Hey.

It’s time for a new episode of Real Talk with Tamera and I’m covering a few topics.

If you’ve lost track of time it is Tuesday, 16th… My initial post was going to be how to rest + recharge during times of chaos, but that wouldn’t have been honest + genuine. To be honest, I’m exhausted mentally and emotionally.

I’ve been finding ways to find peace + happiness and work has been one way to find a sense of joy and control. Work is certainly a coping mechanism and so my work output will certainly look different than most LOL.

Instead, I wanted to take this episode to share how I’m feeling, along with the importance of establishing boundaries and the power of pressing forward.

Also, while shit is crazy, we are still at the 6 month mark. This is a great time to assess what is working and not working in your business + personal life and I have some lessons to share.

Once you’ve listened, I’d love to hear your thoughts or share what you’re proud these past 6 months. It can still be our year!

What is authentic? Authentic is certainly a buzz word nowadays. While it can certainly be thrown around, today I’m having an open + honest conversation with Lauren McPhillips, the founder of This Renegade Love who has built a following of over 39,000 on Instagram. She’s been able to build this audience organically, being herself while dishing out open + honest opinions & stories of vulnerability.

During this conversation we covered how to just not give a *beep*, how being vulnerable & showing our failures is just as important as sharing your wins when building your community and what happens when we get some not so nice or unsolicited  feedback or opinions from the peanut gallery.

This is certainly a conversation worth having and I’m so happy to have it with Lauren. Before getting more into this episode, here is more about Lauren:

Lauren McPhillips is the founder of This Renegade Love, serving up positive, purpose-driven content that teaches women to ‘influence with intention’. With a career background in magazine editorial and travel PR, Lauren has since spent the past five years growing a loyal following on This Renegade Love L through her no-BS approach to the influencer industry, and has worked with brands like Google, Indigo, Air Transat and Wealthsimple to share authentic, original content with her online community. In 2018, Lauren moved from online to offline to launch The Renegade Sessions, a series of intimate workshops for female entrepreneurs and did a TEDxTalk on 'The Power of Personal Storytelling', highlighting the ways in which we can use our voices and stories to bring people together and impact change. This year brings an exciting new direction for This Renegade Love as Lauren is set to launch consulting programs for both influencers and brands on how to navigate the industry with more intention and authenticity.

Without further adieu, let’s get into this episode! 

Whew. What a week in Black America. What this week and really any week reminds me of a quote from Will Smith “Racism never went away, it’s simply being recorded.” 

The reality is as a nation cannot move forward we cannot truly heal until racist systems + white supremacy is dismantled.

Today is a special episode with Monique Melton, a friend and amazing woman who is an anti-racism educator…..

We discussed so many things within this 60 minute episode. Topics touched included the practice of anti-racism, the assumptions around participating in this work, how anti-blackness materializes in our own communities, self care + what that looks like and how white women can begin using their privilege to begin dismantling oppressive systems especially in the digital space. 

Here is a little bit more about Monique

Monique Melton is an anti-racism educator, published author, international speaker, and host of the Shine Brighter Together podcast. She is also the founder of Shine Brighter Together, which is a community dedicated to healthy relationships & diverse unity.

She travels the world speaking at conferences and events on topics related to anti-racism, personal growth, diversity, and relationships. She’s been published in magazines, featured in blogs and podcasts, and has touched the lives of people all over the world.

She is a natural big-bold dreamer and a deeply rooted woman of faith.

She is a proud Navy wife to her high-school sweetheart, and she is a loving mother to two little ones.

She has a BA in social science with an emphasis in sociology & psychology and two years of graduate school education in Clinical Counseling from Johns Hopkins University. 

She believes it's not all about your comfort, but it's about your growth.

I hope this episode brings about healing, awareness + change within all who hear it. 

Let’s get into this episode.

I am back for another Month in Review, chatting about May… Is it just me or are the months just blending together? Like how are we already in June, almost 6 months into the year of our Lord 2020?

While time definitely feels somewhat disjointed, I think we can all agree that time is still moving and is waiting for no one.

This time, while completely jarring + unwelcome, has been a rather unexpected blessing. 

I’ve seen more Black people launch businesses, reclaim autonomy, pivot, collaborate and change the game so much, you’d be really hard pressed not to be inspired yourself and make some changes in your own life. Black people are amazing and I’m happy to be alive at a time to see all of the amazing developments + strides we are making in our culture. 

With that being said, if you’re not using this time…to dismantle personal negative beliefs, to launch something placed on your heart, to reconnect to yourself, to let old habits die… I’m going to ask you a question… what is at risk for you if you stay the same? 

Could you live with how your life will look a year from now, doing the same shit you’re doing today? 

During this episode I discuss

why you should stop blaming & using your loved ones for not sharing in your vision as an excuse to not pursue your own dreams + desires

how you can begin curating your own environment to work for your needs

how I quick lesson in disobedience caused me to actually pivot & do what God called me to do when I launched my membership for Product Photographers.

Take a listen and let me know your thoughts!

Books Mentioned During the Episode?

It’s About Damn Time by Arlan Hamilton

You Are A Badass + You Are A Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero

Girl, Stop Apologizing + Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Hello & Welcome to another Real Talk with Tamera episode! This one is really special, not to say any previous or following are not, but this was my first time hosting a live recording of the real talk with Tamera episode!

This was a really great way to connect with listeners but also celebrate 6 months of the podcast, which is hard to believe it’s already been 6 months, but here we are. 

My guest for this special episode was my friend and fellow boss in charge, Sakita Holley. Sakita is an award winning publicist + the Founder/CEO of House of Success PR, an award winning firm that launched 9 years ago.

The topic was increasing your visibility and how to thrive + build resilience in an unpredictable environment and this is totally something me + Sakita are pretty familiar with. 

Here is a little bit more about Sakita…

Sakita Holley is an award winning publicist and the Founder/CEO of House of Success PR.The nine year old firm has worked with a wide array of clients that include Luster's Pink, African Pride, Lottabody, KinkyCurlyYaki, Harlem Arts Festival, Heat Free Hair and more. In addition to her PR work, she also hosts a popular business podcast called Hashtags and Stilettos, which is designed to help millennial women win at work, in business and everywhere in between. Sakita has been featured by Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise, Women's Biz Journals, xoNecole and more for her PR and business expertise. 

In 2017, Sakita was named as one of PRWeek's 40 Under 40 honorees and she is a proud graduate of Howard University. You can find and follow her on social media @MissSuccess

What’s really special is we’ve seen each other grow up and build our businesses since the beginning. We graduated a year a part from Howard University and we’ve been in the thick of building our businesses, dismantling our own limiting beliefs and growing together. 

We talked for about 90 minutes, but I edited it down to about 70 or so and honestly, we could have gone longer. 

We covered how it was in the very beginning, how done is better than perfect, why it’s important to give someone their flowers, while they’re still here, the importance of networking laterally, actually building with people you like, some relationship advice and so so so much more. 

So grab your favorite drink or cocktail and settle in for what was an amazing conversation. So without further adieu, let’s get into this conversation.

P.S. Towards the end of the conversation, a listener asked for our book recommendations for entrepreneurship and here they are!

Sakita’s Picks

The 50th Law by 50 Cent & Robert Greene

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

The Dip by Seth Godin

Tamera’s Picks

The One Thing by Gary Keller

You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero

My So Called Freelance Life by Michelle Goodman

New Favorite The Dip by Seth Godin

New Favorite Building a Brand Story (one of my favorites to date!)