The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon Talks 'No One Is Self-Made,' Divine Alignment, State Of The People Power Tour + More

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon To Discuss 'No One Is Self-Made,' Divine Alignment, State Of The People Power Tour. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Yeah, it's the world's most dangerous morning show, The Breakfast Club. Charlamagne the God, Jess Hilarious, and Envy are out, but Lauren LaRosa is here. And we got a special guest in the building. Her name is Dr. LaKeisha Hallman.

She has a new book out now called No One Is Self Made. Build Your Village to Flourish in Business and Life. Good morning. How are you, doctor? I am wonderful. I'm happy to be here for a second time. morning, how are you, doctor? I am wonderful. I'm happy to be here for a second time. Yes. So thank you all for having me back.

I've been excited to have this conversation. I'm happy that you're here and I love the title of your book. This is what I be trying to tell people, man. We live in this era right now, thank you. We live in this, you got one, right? Yes, I have one. We live in this era right now

where everybody's always talking about, you know, I'm self-made, you know what I mean? I did it myself. Nobody put me on, nobody helped me. That's a lie, there's no such thing. That's why I wrote the book because it is profoundly untrue. All of us who sitting here today,

entrepreneurs across the country, anyone that we've lift up, even the people that we don't know, there have been a village of people that's supporting them. And so it was critical for me to write this book. But for me, it's a love letter to our community that we must return to community and also have the true stories of what success is

and how we got there. When you say return to community and have those stories, what do you mean by that? Yeah, I mean, one of the things that I write about in the book, particularly in chapter one, I write about individualism. I think individualism have been propped up in this country where we talk about the self-made woman, the self-made man, and the more that we lift up the individual it takes us back from that collective, the group, the village that I write about and talk

about and my companies are built around, it is time sensitive that we return and get back to our togetherness and figure out how to work together, how to be tethered, and to the place where we say that no one is going to separate us from our bigger purpose in doing good work together. I know exactly what you mean.

I think it's one of those things that you kinda gotta be spiritually in tune because it's like the ancestors are talking to us and telling us that. I've been, you know, I got the Black Effect Podcast Festival that we did this past weekend and that's what I said. I said, I feel like nowadays we have to have more community than we've ever had and we gotta create safe spaces

for each other. But I totally understand what you mean. You said something that I felt the ancestors talking to me, singing to me as I was writing this book. And not just in the book, but also in my businesses. They understood the collective. And I think what the whisper is to our generation is to not lose sight that we are meant to be together,

but not just meant we must be together. I think we're in a very critical time and that togetherness is what's going to help us survive, but also get us to a place of thriving. Now, when you moved to Atlanta in 2011? Yes, I think it was 2011, 2010 or 2011. And I was gonna ask you what brought you to Atlanta, but everything you're talking about,

Atlanta just feels like that the minute you land. Yes, Atlanta is so special. You were there this past weekend. I was. Yes, Atlanta is incredibly special. I remember when I first visited, I believe I was undergrad when I visited Atlanta, and I hadn't experienced anything like it.

It was a sea of black excellence. You all have had Killer Michael on your, and you lift him up. That's my brother, love him. And he often talks about the history of Atlanta. Coming there from Mississippi, I was blown away. I knew that it was upon my destiny to be in Atlanta, to grow in Atlanta.

And it was that deep history, but also that deep history, but also that deep communal sense. But I think it's the South period. Atlanta definitely, they lead the charge when it comes to black excellence, but when you talk about the heart and soul of black America, it is the South.

It is the Georgias, the Mississippi, the South Carolina is like where I'm from, the North Carolina is like those, 60, what is it, 60% of all black people in America live in the South? Live in the South, yes. Yeah, it is, the South is the heartbeat. My friend Charles Blow writes about this a lot,

about the power that we can have if more people move to the South, but also in the South if we use our collective power. But you're from South Carolina, so you understand. There is something, there's nothing like the small towns that we come from. It's nothing like the resiliency of the people from my hometown of Baseville, Mississippi,

or where my mother is from, Crowder, Mississippi, or my father, Marks, Mississippi. There's nothing like the resiliency of those people. Can we talk about the myth of being self-made, Sumo? I really just wanna expound on it. That's the first chapter in your book. What is the myth of being self-made, Sumo? I really just wanna expound on it. That's the first chapter in your book. What is the myth of being self-made? Yeah, it's, well number one is untrue.

I write about that for me to be able to sit here today, I am the product of my grandmother's prayers, their hard work, my grandfatherfathers, my parents, the team that I have running my companies, my friend group, and my extended family. I'm a product of all these people. So if I sit here and you all ask me about how my companies have been successful,

and if I'm only talking about myself, I'm lying to you. If the true story is that we're village made, and if we accept this title, we began to erase people that have been critical to us on our journeys. Even our first jobs, our first opportunities, they were building us to be who we are today. I look at these first opportunities as divine assignments. That we were planted in these experiences.

But to take on the title of self-made, we are erasing people, and then they become hidden figures. And when we sit for these interviews, we are telling a profound untruth, but we're also telling people, in order to make it, you need to do it by yourself. I wonder why we have that,

well, it's not that we, but there's a lot of people who have that issue. You know what I mean? Who just have that issue of not not we, but there's a lot of people who have that issue, you know what I mean? Who just have that issue of not wanting to give people credit. Like they wanna just be the, no, I did it myself. Nobody helped me do it. Like, huh, I love assistance.

Please help me. I do too. And I write about, you know, in the book that I believe how we got here, it's because it's been propped up that anytime we've seen people reach a level of success, the first thing that the media calls them is self-made. And then we've also shunned people who've had support

when they, you didn't work as hard because you didn't work as hard, somebody gave you something. But the reality is we should be proud that we have been able to attract people in our lives that want to assist us, that want to help us. And so it's just really training our mindsets to really look at success differently. But I think it has been sensationalized, this self-made notion, and what is deemed to be

successful, this has been largely overplayed in the media. Because if a person, I write about all the titans in the book, the Tyler Perrys of the world, but we often look at these people as self-made. They made it out of no way. But what I think is missing in the story is that what I believe the truth is that we are all self-determined people. Self-determination and self-made are different. Self-determination means all the work that you've done,

Lauren, to be where you are today, because I've been following your journey, you are divinely self-determined. You, Charlemagne, all the work that you've done to be who you are, you are self-determined. No one gave you that but God. And the stick-to-it-ness is the thing that I think lifts us up.

But what really propels us for is all the people that saw something in you, saw something in me, saw something in you, and they said, oh, it's something about them. I'm gonna do all that I can to make sure that they reach the pinnacle of their success. I was thinking about that this morning. All the people who are like that,

that just see something in you, how blessed you are to have that. But I think for us too, because when you talk about being self-made, I was gonna say maybe it's like a scarcity of resources and people feel like they have to do it on their own because a lot of times you're like the first through a door of first generation.

But when you talked about just your grandmother's prayers and how much that helped you, I'm like, we don't even look at little stuff like that as those that got me to the next point. It's like you do, but it takes you. I do. I feel like it takes a lot of maturity. When you young, you don't think about that.

You like, this person didn't give me a job, this person. It's like, no, something as simple as your mom teaching you how to wake up every day and make you bed before 9 a.m. got you. You know what I mean? That discipline, we don't think about stuff like that. I don't know why that is. I wrote about it in the book

because I want us to understand that we must think about it that way. if we if we shift in looking at these things as the people that pray for you When you have like what you feel like one of your worst days way that you can talk to your friends or people who really know you beyond all the Titles and they lift you up when all things are falling apart That is just more powerful as just's just as powerful as someone financially investing in your business. They're financially investing in your spirit.

And that is the true work of us. And why it was important for me to write about support in that way, because I think we always, and we can get to a place where we say, I don't have this, I don't have that, this person didn't look out for me, but you also have all these other things. So you do have a village.

You may not have the village where you have everything that you need, but you do have a village of people pouring into you, and that is what we need. We're talking to Dr. LaKesha Hallman. She has a new book out now, Knowing is Self-Made. I love what you said about people assisting you, and in chapter two of the book, you talk about discovering your purpose and getting into alignment. I feel like that's when the help comes.

The help comes when you've discovered your purpose and you're starting to get into alignment. So now God starts to bring people in your life that help you as you're getting into alignment. Yeah, and what I love about alignment is not forced. Relationships are not forced. Relationships are not forced. Opportunities are not forced. You get to the point where you calling the people you love,

I'm like, can you believe that this just happened to me? Can you believe I just met that person? Well, yeah, that, and I'm sorry to call you broke, but I just feel so like, yes, that's literally what I've been experiencing. Even at the festival, I was just like, I cannot believe that all, like, With all those studs that was how I learned to do? I mean, that happens all the festival, I was just like, I cannot believe that all, like. With all those studs that was how Leroy's doing?

I mean, that happens all the time, no. But just the people and how people receive certain things and how impactful things are. And then I had a moment where I was backstage and I jokingly said it to him, but I'm like, I was like, oh, you got money. But I was just looking around, I'm like, all of this, because Charlamagne decided to sit down

and talk on a microphone. And then so many people saw something through all of the crazy stuff he'd be doing, right? And he gets to that point and I'm like, man, I can't believe that this is happening. But everybody has shared that, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening. Yes, and that is divine alignment.

That's right. And how we operate in that space is saying yes to the things that we're meant to be, us accepting the path that we're on and deciding to work extremely hard in the space that we're in. And it becomes a domino effect. You begin to meet the people, people who can really, really look out for you. In these situations, I think how you know that you are in alignment is that it's truly not forced.

You're not contorting yourself to be anyone else. You don't have to go and put on your persona to be someone. Who you are is enough, and people want to do all that they can to see you be successful. No, go ahead. No, I remember when I was teaching in Jackson, Mississippi, and my colleague there, I wanted to move to Atlanta, didn't know a lot of people in Atlanta, but I wanted to move to Atlanta.

And we formed, my colleague, Ms. Etheridge and I formed a relationship where she would tell me to come over and tutor her students some days. And so Ms. E was like, she would call me Hallman. He was Hallman, I need you to come over and tutor. Miss E taught special education. I taught honors and AP English. And so Miss E, I would go over anytime she did. I'm from the South, so we respect people

that's older than us. So when they tell us to do something, we do it. But needless to say, there was one evening after we played tennis together, she was like, you need to take your certification exam. And I didn't see that for myself, but it stayed with me because she said I needed to do it. But when I say I did not see that for my own life,

but I went ahead, took the exam. I was in my early 20s, so I almost overslept that morning. But I took the exam, then studied. Finally got a call for a job in Cobb County at South Cobb High School with my now friend, Dr. Ashley Hosey. And I nailed the interview. I remember calling my mom and saying I know that I got this job. By the time I made it back to Mississippi the next day Dr. Hosey called and he was like you you did so well in your interview however a teacher with more seniority wants to come to my school and I cannot offer you a job.

And I was completely deflated because I knew I had it. Now he said, and of course he said he would refer me out. He was like, you know what? If you have your special education certification exam, I can offer you a job. And a week before, I got my test results and I passed the exam. Wow, wow, look at God.

Look at God, but look at divine assignment. Look at the people that's placed in your life, like Miss Etheridge, who saw something in me that I didn't see. Those are the people. The people that see things in you that you didn't see in yourself, those are the ones that keep you on the path

that you're supposed to be on. Yes, yes. Or get you on the path you're supposed to be on that keep you on the path that you're supposed to be on. Yes, yes. Or get you on the path you're supposed to be on. Get you on the path and I believe that God sends them and put them in a body that you will respect. Because I was raised to respect my elders and so God knew in order to get to me, it had to be someone I deeply respected, someone that I listened to. And so through Miss Etheridge, then I did that and I got the job in Cobb County.

And that's how you started building your village, which is chapter three in your book. Yes, yes, that's how I started to build my village. But really my village started to build before then, but when I started thinking about my companies, I didn't see myself being an entrepreneur. I didn't know that I was gonna be on that path. I thought I would be in education forever, ever.

You know, I had ambitions of opening schools, but I really got the vision of creating a village for entrepreneurs because what I kept hearing from my friends who were more entrepreneurial at that time is that they didn't have support. And where I didn't have the financial capital to invest in them, I knew that if I got people,

if I got them people, they can scale. And so got the vision of launching the Village Market and now I have my nonprofit, Our Village United. And what started as, I was an educator, but I've been able to support thousands of entrepreneurs and currently our program is reaching 33 different states. And we've been able to deploy thousands of entrepreneurs. And currently our program is reaching 33 different states. And we've been able to deploy about $800,000 in grants. Wow.

Yeah. That's fire. Well, how do you, because I know you said you respect your elders and this is someone that you knew, so you went along and did it. But you talked in this Essence article that I read about not saying yes to every invitation that you get as you're building community.

What's your, is it, I mean, for a lot of people it's spiritual discernment, but what's your breakdown of how you decide to say no to certain invitations? Yeah, it is spiritual discernment, it's maturity. It's also me operating in abundance rather than scarcity. I think when we're in a scarcity mindset, we believe that we have to be in every single room,

that we have to accept every invitation, that we must say yes to everything. Where I am in my life now, and what I'm hoping to empower other people, is that we don't want all the yeses, we want the right yeses. And how I discern when the yes is right, is it aligned with my values?

Is this opportunity aligned with the mission that I'm on? Will it take me off course? Will I have to divorce things that I believe in? Will I have to contour and change myself? If I'm saying yes to all those things it's not the yes that I should take and now I haven't always been at this place. I've had to grow to get here. My deep relationship with- Yo K-pop fans, it's your boy Bom Han and I'm bringing you something epic. Introducing the K-Factor.

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God has helped me be here, but I remember and I write about managing the hard stuff in the book. I remember saying yes because I was afraid that if I didn't say yes to this opportunity that I won't get it again. But the timing of the opportunity was so wrong. And so I needed to say no.

And so what I've learned about life is that sometimes the test and the assignment is will we say no to things when it's out of alignment? Will we have the discipline, the spiritual discipline to know that while this may sound good, but this is not what I should be doing. Will we be strong in our faith and our belief that our right yes is coming.

And when I have done that, and again, I wasn't, it's very important for me to share because it's different when you've done the work and we can talk about these things. But I do remember, what has awakened in me is more so a spirit of abundance. That I only want to be where I'm meant to grow. And I don't want to be in every room.

I only want to be in a room where I'm meant to be transformational, not just to sit at a table, just to sit there. I hate that we don't trust our instincts anymore. I hate that we don't trust God anymore because you can just feel it. Everything you're talking about, you can feel it. You can feel the people you're supposed to be around. You can feel where you're supposed feel it. You can feel the people you're supposed to be around.

You can feel where you're supposed to be. You can feel the things you're supposed to say yes to and supposed to say no to. But we let so much that's going on in the world cloud us and disconnect us from just that discernment and that instinct. Why do you think that is? I think it's distractions.

I think we're at a time in our society where everything takes us away from us in what I call profound stillness, the quiet. Because in our quiet times, in our still time, I believe that's when we can actually hear and feel the presence of God. But the more that we stay on apps, and I'm probably aging myself, but the more we stay on apps, the more we, and the videos are funny, but the more that we stand to these things it takes us more and more and more away from our internal

consciousness and I think the reason why we're here is because of these distractions and I look at the distractions as a ploy to keep us from our divine selves. And so we need to spend more time, enjoy the apps. But I think everything that we have need to be done in moderation. We must dedicate time to our stillness. We must dedicate times where we're nurturing our mind, bodies, and spirits in that, when that what you, I wrote about gut in the book as well,

how you know that you're in the room where the vibrations are off and the vibes are off, you have to be in tune with yourself to feel it. But if you're not in tune with yourself, you're gonna be in a room and you don't feel the difference. But doing that, doing our self work, committing to the stillness and quiet, and I'm a faith driven person,

committing to deepen our relationship with God will help us know when you walk in a room and the atmosphere is off, you need to get out that room. It's not the room for you. Or if you meet a person and you're getting ready to do a deal with, if something feels off, it is off. And to trust it. What do you tell people though,

because you talk about the scarcity mindset and how it's hard for you to make those decisions. What do you tell people who are in that talk about the scarcity mindset and how it's hard for you to make those decisions. What do you tell people who are in that scarcity place that just need to eat real quick? They can't walk away from that deal. They can't afford to. That is a very, very, very good question. Scarcity is a place of survival.

So what I do have is a profound respect for people who are simply striving to survive. But the question would be, do you wanna eat something that's poisonous to you? Do you wanna accept things that it's gonna actually change the makeup of who you are that may compromise you from your greatest self, where we know in our greatest selves

and we operate in our higher selves, more is there. And so this is a question that is less tangible, but it's truly operating in faith that if I just be consistent, I continue to work hard, I continue to show up for myself, I continue to operate with the spirit of discernment, then my opportunities will come. Will you have moments, will you have moments where you may take a smaller contract because you need to eat? I don't have kids to take care of.

And so I would never be in a place of saying that I fully, fully understand, but I'm in a place where I have a level of empathy. But I do know that while in a space of striving to survive, we can still be very selective with the things that we say yes to, right? I wanna talk about chapter eight, support is a verb. And in that chapter, you got a bunch of village verbs.

Explain what a village verb is. Yeah, this whole book is, and while I'm so excited about it, while I tell a bunch of entrepreneur stories, things that I've experienced, and I write about many luminaries from the past and people presently who's doing the work, the anchor piece of this book is all about the village, all about community.

In the village verbs, when people close this book, I want people to do something. So Village Verbs is making sure that we participate in the voting process. Village Verbs is making sure that we're buying local, that we're buying from black businesses. Village Verbs is making sure that we're showing up for one another.

If we do not have action behind the things that we believe, then I always ask people, do you really love it? Because if you love it, your actions should follow. You have on a black brand today. Oh, that's my sister, Marlon O'Dean-Royette, that's my sister. I've been wearing her for years and years and years. Yeah, but what you are doing today is love and action.

You support her in a real way. You're on a syndicated radio show, years and years and years. Yeah, but what you are doing today is love and action. You support her in a real way. You're on a syndicated radio show rocking her brand. That is what it's about. Charlamagne, I think about the number of things that I'm aware you probably do even more, but Black Effect Podcast, your imprint, all these things, you are putting people in rooms

and putting people in position, and it's because you want your actions to look like things that you care about. You want people's lives to change, and not just for this generation, but next generation and next generation. But you're not just saying these things, you are doing these things.

That final chapter of Village Verbs is all about us doing the things. That final chapter of Village Verbs is all about us doing the things that we say and getting put our action and love behind it. And our challenge, I always challenge our community that you may not be able to participate in 10 different things, but you need to find something that you're passionate about

and put your love and your action there and our communities will change. I love it, the village verbs, lock in, show up and connect, keep learning and hire, teach it, govern your words and listen intently, pivot, invest in your people and spend locally, wow. Yeah. Wow, that's a plan, all this is a plan,

that's a call to action and plan of action. Yes, and a lot of the things, even in the sense of governing our words, I don't think we spend enough time thinking about the power of our words. Words are prophetic. We have to be in a different relationship with each other, even in a place of disagreement, even in the place when things don't always feel good and look good within our community, but we have to govern the way that we speak to each other. We have to govern the way that we react

and interact with each other. And all of everything that I'm sharing requires discipline. You often talk about discipline. Having the discipline that the change begins with you. Now what about, you talk a bit about, well, I saw a statistic in the Essence article, that 72% of entrepreneurs struggle

with mental health issues, including burnout. And you talk about how being the individual who did it all by themselves leads to that. Even if you know you didn't do it by yourself, burnout still be real. Burnout is real. Yeah. Burnout is real even when you have a village. That's what I'm saying.

Yeah. It's, it's a real thing. You know what I've done, but number one, we do need to delegate more and it's hard to delegate when you're running things and trusting people with your baby, especially in the entrepreneurial world. Letting go is hard, but the more that we hold on and the more that we try to do all the things, be all the people for everybody, it's not just business, this is life. You're going to find yourself feeling depleted.

And so always trying to literally be there for everyone when you haven't quite been there for yourself. When you're there for yourself, you get to replenish yourself and you have something more to give. But this sense of burnout, imposter syndrome, decision fatigue, all of these things, we in my nonprofit, Our Village United, we did a poll for the entrepreneurs in the village and what they shared was that they were burnt out, decision fatigue, and completely overwhelmed,

and many of them experienced anxiety. And what I did was make sure that all our programming that we offer for entrepreneurs are holistic. And so we have therapists on board, we have coaches on board, to not just help these entrepreneurs with their businesses, but to help entrepreneurs with their psyche, with their mental health. Because that is the only way we're really going to be our,

who we're meant to be. Yeah, and I think that has to be, we, I talked about this when I was just last time. So much of business and scaling and wanna be successful is all about money. And we're spending less time talking about the soul, less time talking about why we're really here in this time. And it's really for us to illuminate light.

We will get to do a lot of things well, but even when the positions that you all are in right now, it's to illuminate light. And in that light, we can find each other when it's dark. I totally agree. I love, we talking about village and we're talking about community. I know that you're on the State of the People power talk

with my good sister, Angela Ry. Can we talk about that a little bit? Oh my goodness. I was, that's why I couldn't attend Black Effect podcast in Atlanta, but I got to be there last year and it was amazing. Thank you. But State of the People is so, it's powerful. I looked at what happened in Atlanta this weekend

and what's powerful about what Angela Anteam has done because she is adamant that this is just not about her. It's the village, absolutely. It's the village and that's the way that, you know, she was raised in coalition building. But in a few short weeks, intentional people decided that they were gonna do something.

We're at a time where people feel hopeless, scared, and a small but mighty group of people said, not on my watch, that I am going to gather the people, that I'm going to make sure that a room is comprised of people that can give resources, people that can give hope, people that can give direction, and when you look left or right, you see people that look like you.

That is what happened this weekend in Atlanta. Day one, there was a service project done where so many snack boxes were given to elders in the community. Why that is so profound is because elders often feel forgotten. And so for them to have a snack box with people convening from all over that say,

I see you, I love you, I wanna support you, that kicked everything off. And then to go into the workshops, action-oriented workshops that help people build in their community, and then Sunday is what I got an opportunity to participate in was the rally. It was absolutely powerful. You had my brother from another, Gary Chambers,

one of my dear friends. But Gary shut the house down. You had Pastor Dr. Jamal Bryant there and a number of others, Keisha Lance Bottoms, myself, many others. It was just such a beautiful response to this moment. And why I think, say to the people, it's so important as they go to other cities,

because history is determined by what you do. And when the history books are written, the history books are right, that a group of people decided to do something. And do I think people left state of the people feeling empowered? Absolutely. I remember walking to my car,

Gary was walking me to my car, and we could barely make it to the car of people saying thank you. Wow. It was, so I, and when state of the people comes to other cities, I'm really encouraging people to make sure they attend because it is absolutely special.

Absolutely. And I know you founded the Village Market, but you also have Our Village United. What are those two entities and how are they different from each other? Yeah, so I have a retail store at Ponce City Market and we have a pop-up at Google Visitor Center as well in California.

But when you all come back to Atlanta, make sure you come by the Village Retail at Ponce City Market, where we have about 37 different black brands in this beautiful retail store. We're going into our fifth year being open. It has been highly successful. But what I, the former teacher in me is that in order to make something real,

you have to make an experience of it. And so I had to build a retail store so entrepreneurs could see themselves on shelves. And so our community can also have a place where they can patronize. But the other part of educator inside of me is that I also wanted to make sure that entrepreneurs had the resources, technical assistance that they needed to grow. And so daily we work with entrepreneurs from our elevated cities

program, our Get Procured program, our Her Pro Bono program. We're working with entrepreneurs across the country to make sure that they have a village. So we have some of the top entrepreneurs coming to teach classes. We have some of the top corporations coming and talking about supplier diversity and how to get these government contracts and things like that. When I say I'm so proud of this work, I really feel very fortunate that God trusted me to do this. And I take it very seriously. It's much more than me building a business

or growing a nonprofit or me writing a book. I am being obedient to the call that's on my life. And so I've been able to work with so many entrepreneurs now and to see them go from early stage concept to growing, to opening their own locations to being in big box retail and to know that they are getting an education that is about the collective because we have a collective wealth building model so it's less about building more individual multi-millionaires it's more about when

you make your money what is your social impact focus? Right. What is the collective of that? Wow. Yeah. Well, keep doing the work, Dr. LaKeisha Hallman. We appreciate you. And your new book is out right now. Tell them where to find you, first of all. Yes. You can find me at Dr. Keith Hallman on social platforms. You can get the book at nooneisselfmade.com, but from all major retailers, entrepreneurs, you will most definitely love this book.

Leaders in the communities, you will love this book. It is very practical and prescriptive. What, I didn't say this, but what's special about the way the chapters end, I have reflection questions. And those reflection questions, by the time you finish the book, you have a whole plan on how to map out and build community.

In true teacher format. In true teacher format, you're right, Lauren. The funny thing is, I think that you'll also realize you already have that community. Yes. You just haven't acknowledged them as such. That's what I think. That's good.

But Dr. LaKeisha Hallman, her new book, Knowing Itself, made Build Your Village to flourish in business and life. Go get that right now. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. It's The Breakfast Club.

Wake that ass up. Early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.