faafo with courtney

courtney - sisi in brazil

code talker – Courtney, also known as Sisi in Brasil, is a psychic, catalyst, speaker, podcast host, and multipotentialite living in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She has spent over 20 years self-employed across industries --- digital strategy, app development, event production, community building, and energetic activation work --- without a safety net and without asking permission. Her path has moved through Brooklyn, Detroit, rural Oklahoma, a church in Florida, and now a curved glass balcony overlooking the Atlantic in Bahia. She didn't move around because she couldn't settle. She followed what was alive. Courtney is the granddaughter of Manley Ray "Bubba" Bell of Weatherford, Oklahoma, and the great-great-granddaughter of Buck Colbert Franklin --- the attorney who set up a law office in a canvas tent in the rubble of Greenwood after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, sued the city, and won. Her cousin is John Hope Franklin, one of America's most important historians and author of From Slavery to Freedom. Her documented family tree spans 500 years and six continents of ancestry --- Powhatan, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Yoruba, Acadian, and Scottish lineage, DNA confirmed. She now lives in Salvador --- the largest African-descended city outside of Africa --- where her Yoruba ancestors' cousins were brought on a different ship 230 years ago. She didn't plan it. The blood found its way home. As a catalyst, Courtney does not operate from the assumption that anyone is broken. She translates energy into language, names what sits just under the surface, and gives people enough of a spark to set everything else in motion. Her clients have launched businesses, booked out their calendars, left relationships that were killing them slowly, and finally stopped circling their lives and started living them. She is the creator of faafo.app, the founder of Lingua by Sisi (a music-based language learning method), the host of Move to Bahia Brasil with Sisi, and the architect behind a seven-show podcast network, a relocation service for Americans moving to Bahia, and the Vanguard Mystery School. She is currently writing her first book and building toward a speaking tour. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, broadcast news coverage, and professional stages across the United States. She has received a President's Administrative Award from the Community Healing Network for over 15 years of service as webmaster, community organizer, and summit coordinator. Courtney speaks to audiences about ancestry, sovereignty, identity, relocation, and what becomes possible when you stop performing your life and start living it. She delivers the truth with warmth, dry humor, and the kind of directness that only someone with 500 years of documented audacity in her bloodline can carry. 👇 RESOURCES FOR YOUR MOVE TO BRAZIL 👇 Join Oi Bahia! the Community HubThe MothershipI Don’t Believe In BordersYouTube Move to Brazil with Sisi

Episodes

  1. Sep 12

    don't waste my time: earth angels, dharma, karma, and sabotage

    from the episode “it becomes very frustrating at some point also because they are interrupting our ability to help the people who actually f*****g deserve it.”“what i find very sad about humanity is the fact that there are a lot of people who have never had anyone be kind to them.”“i think it's sad that we live in a world as human beings where so few people have had someone show them grace and true kindness.”this episode of faafo with courtney, hosted by courtney crosslin, known as sisi in brasil, comes from a live youtube video i recorded on friday, september 11, 2026. i had already been thinking and talking about timing, karma, dharma, sabotage, and what happens when people decide it is somehow their job to interfere with somebody else's life. then i opened facebook and saw a post that hit directly on something else that has been bothering me: how difficult it is for some people to believe that genuinely good people exist. the facebook post is Humans of St. Louis's Post - Cameron Djruaezsol Jamarr, actor, writer, founder, Soul Siren Playhouse - St. Louis - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HcXYs6mtu/ there are people walking around with no clear purpose of their own, no direction, and no real understanding of what they are supposed to be doing, yet somehow they find plenty of energy to interfere with people who do know where they are going. that frustrates me, especially when the interference doesn't just affect me. sometimes you're delaying work, opportunities, resources, connections, or help that was intended to reach somebody else. but there is another part of this conversation that makes me more sad than angry. some people have experienced so little genuine kindness and grace that they don't even know how to recognize it when it shows up. kindness becomes suspicious. generosity gets mistaken for stupidity. grace gets interpreted as weakness. and sometimes, when a person realizes that someone is willing to be kind to them, they assume the kind person must be ignorant, naive, easy to manipulate, or unaware of what is happening. that is a dangerous assumption. sometimes a person sees exactly what you're doing and simply decides that confronting you is not worth their time or energy. sometimes the grace you are receiving is intentional. sometimes somebody is helping because helping people is simply part of who they are. and if you have never experienced that before, you can sabotage something valuable because you don't understand what you're looking at. this conversation also gets into my own history of helping people, working with underdogs, volunteering, organizing, creating opportunities, and living through circumstances that people looking at me today might never imagine. people make assumptions based on what they see now without knowing what it took to get here or how many people have also shown up in my own life with unexpected kindness, generosity, and support. in this episode why people with no clear direction of their own sometimes interfere with people who have purposethe difference between being kind and being naivewhy choosing not to confront someone does not mean you don't see what they're doingwhat happens when someone has experienced so little grace that they don't know how to receive itjealousy, entitlement, self-sabotage, integrity, and the people who unexpectedly show up in our lives to help us move forwardlisten to more of my podcasts at faafo.app/radio

    don't waste my time: earth angels, dharma, karma, and sabotage
  2. May 19

    reconsider “like minded people” and diversify your portfolio

    original video date: june 8, 2022 -- this episode started as a video on june 8, 2022, titled reconsider “like minded people” and diversify your portfolio. so much has changed since then --- i was in rural america in the middle of nowhere. now i am in bahia, brazil. but the message still hits. especially for people who are looking for answers from a spiritual perspective and have been stuck for a while. sometimes “like-minded” does not mean same personality, same interests, same lifestyle, same strengths, or same language for every part of life. sometimes it means the same larger direction. freedom. harmony. the willingness to move differently. the ability to build with people who do not mirror you, but are still pointed toward something aligned. that matters for relationships. that matters for community. that matters for business. that matters for relocation. because if you are trying to move somewhere new, especially outside the u.s., how you define community matters. if you think community means everyone thinks like you, lives like you, believes like you, earns like you, and wants the same things in the same way, you may keep missing the people who are actually aligned with your freedom. relative points from the transcript: “like-minded” may not mean having the same strengths or interests.the deeper question is whether the bigger picture or end goal is similar.freedom can mean different things to different people.some people want freedom in relationships, jobs, movement, travel, identity, or daily life.harmony can matter more than material success.sometimes the work is learning how to find peace in situations you do not like.sometimes the work is realizing a situation cannot give you the harmony you need.community works better when people bring different strengths.building with others does not require sameness.shared direction matters more than matching personalities.being intentional with words, choices, actions, and decisions changes who you attract.too smart to be boring. too alive for cookie-cutter marketing. i help wildcards, second-act professionals, and brands with edge turn attention into income without sanding off what makes them interesting. listen here: [insert podcast link] more at faafo.app get free at https://getfree.faafo.app/

    reconsider “like minded people” and diversify your portfolio
  3. May 11

    reminder: not all skinfolk are kinfolk

    "All my skinfolk ain't kinfolk" is a famous quote attributed to author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston -- ------ you probably have somebody in your ancestral line who sold out a revolution or a f*****g rebellion. let's be f*****g honest about this right now. not all skinfolk are kinfolk. people use a color for a cover. and some of your ancestors were cowards. sisi breaks down traitor energy, ancestral accountability, shadow work as a moneymaker, and why she will always sacrifice one for the whole. recorded live at 5:30am from bahia, brazil. read the blog post at faafo.app ------ and while you are here -- check out this blog post "Some Of Us Are Brave: The Archive" by https://www.theblackfoxes.com/stories/skin-folk-vs-kinfolk-- which I will copy below in the event you can access or it's removed. "...Black people who are only Skin-folk will quickly sign up to be poster child for initiatives and the like, contempt on their throne. They’ll become the faces of copy-n-paste foundations, or join DEI panels that don’t actually do anything. Kinfolk are in the trenches, less glamorous of course but they’re often the ones makings sure we get what we need. Kinfolk are a thankless few who without nearly half the resources, make it happen. Perhaps most iconically, you had skin-folk who maintained and played by massa’s rules. Kinfolk fought for freedom and had no qualms burning it all down. What would make a person go against their own people, seemingly shared best interests. Honestly that answer takes more time to go over than I could ever manage. Personally, one of the biggest reasons today I feel this happens is due to the “pie mentality”. Well what’s the pie mentality? In short, the idea that there is a finite amount of success or satisfaction in the world. Someone who does well is getting your slice of success or satisfaction. This is clearly toxic, and prevents collaboration at times you’d expect unity/solidarity. The pie mentality is a product of white supremacy, and the colonial foundations our society protects. This same pie mentality will lead skin-folk to believe they need only worry about themselves and getting theirs...."

    reminder: not all skinfolk are kinfolk

Trailers

About

code talker – Courtney, also known as Sisi in Brasil, is a psychic, catalyst, speaker, podcast host, and multipotentialite living in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She has spent over 20 years self-employed across industries --- digital strategy, app development, event production, community building, and energetic activation work --- without a safety net and without asking permission. Her path has moved through Brooklyn, Detroit, rural Oklahoma, a church in Florida, and now a curved glass balcony overlooking the Atlantic in Bahia. She didn't move around because she couldn't settle. She followed what was alive. Courtney is the granddaughter of Manley Ray "Bubba" Bell of Weatherford, Oklahoma, and the great-great-granddaughter of Buck Colbert Franklin --- the attorney who set up a law office in a canvas tent in the rubble of Greenwood after the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, sued the city, and won. Her cousin is John Hope Franklin, one of America's most important historians and author of From Slavery to Freedom. Her documented family tree spans 500 years and six continents of ancestry --- Powhatan, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Yoruba, Acadian, and Scottish lineage, DNA confirmed. She now lives in Salvador --- the largest African-descended city outside of Africa --- where her Yoruba ancestors' cousins were brought on a different ship 230 years ago. She didn't plan it. The blood found its way home. As a catalyst, Courtney does not operate from the assumption that anyone is broken. She translates energy into language, names what sits just under the surface, and gives people enough of a spark to set everything else in motion. Her clients have launched businesses, booked out their calendars, left relationships that were killing them slowly, and finally stopped circling their lives and started living them. She is the creator of faafo.app, the founder of Lingua by Sisi (a music-based language learning method), the host of Move to Bahia Brasil with Sisi, and the architect behind a seven-show podcast network, a relocation service for Americans moving to Bahia, and the Vanguard Mystery School. She is currently writing her first book and building toward a speaking tour. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, broadcast news coverage, and professional stages across the United States. She has received a President's Administrative Award from the Community Healing Network for over 15 years of service as webmaster, community organizer, and summit coordinator. Courtney speaks to audiences about ancestry, sovereignty, identity, relocation, and what becomes possible when you stop performing your life and start living it. She delivers the truth with warmth, dry humor, and the kind of directness that only someone with 500 years of documented audacity in her bloodline can carry. 👇 RESOURCES FOR YOUR MOVE TO BRAZIL 👇 Join Oi Bahia! the Community HubThe MothershipI Don’t Believe In BordersYouTube Move to Brazil with Sisi