Speak to the Soul | 2

What is Speak to the Soul ?

The Speak to the Soul™ Podcast is a weekly-ish conversation with Dr. Dominique Pritchett—organizational wellness consultant, speaker, trainer and therapist—and her guests. We explore all things related to using evolving mental capacity through soulful storytelling and solutions in a world full of demands.

Speaker 1: 00:02

Hello. Hello. Hello. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Speaker 1: 00:19

What if the moment that saved your life didn't feel brave, but it felt necessary? I wanna share a recent reflection and a full circle moment about a bus ride that became a blueprint for my life, my leadership, and how I began to liberate my wellness. And that's the tagline, part of the tagline for my upcoming book. So I wanna title this live, the bus ride that taught me to live, lead, live, and liberate my wellness. So about twenty five years ago, I was, I wanted to go on a college tour, a historical black college and university college tour.

Speaker 1: 01:00

Let's just say this college tour saved my life. I was 15 years old. I was transient, and in between homelessness, and I was staying with a friend and her mother and her mom's name is Minnie. And so Minnie knew about my situation, but I kept a lot from her because it just wasn't, you know, something I was proud of, of my upbringing. And so I heard about this college tour and my friend who I was living with, she was going.

Speaker 1: 01:33

And so recently being homeless and I didn't have the best clothes. So I went to the Salvation Army and I stole some clothes. And so, because my, weren't cool. And I knew I was standing up like a sore thumb and I had $25 to my name. And before I got on that bus, I had that $25 a small bag of clothes, some basic toiletries.

Speaker 1: 01:59

I had one mission in life, get on that bus, get out of Kenosha, get out of shame. Okay. So I didn't tell people a lot of things. And in that moment, I didn't know it at the time, but I was choosing life before I understood what truly living for me could really mean. You see, I was a parentified child, meaning in the most simple terms, I had my childhood stolen even before I was a little girl.

Speaker 1: 02:29

You know, I was expected to be adult members caretakers. I was expected to raise my siblings at a young age. I had all of these expectations and demands on me is that, you know, as a person that talks about burnout prevention and evolving capacity, shoot, I probably burnt out earlier in my life because I was doing, doing, doing all in the effort to be seen. So in that full circle moment, my mission was to get on that bus. So the day they were going to leave, it was a Sunday and the college tour typically leaves on Easter Sunday.

Speaker 1: 03:06

And I'll get to that point. So it was Easter Sunday. I had just gone to church with Minnie. I knew my friend at that time was going and I just didn't think it was possible for me. So I went up to the director of the college tour, who is one of my closest friends to this day, Alvin.

Speaker 1: 03:26

And I said, and I'm summarizing, and I said, if I don't go on this tour, I might not see me turn 18. I said everything in my life feels broken, me, my environment. But one thing that is true is track and field. So I said I asked, can you make space for me? I won't be any trouble.

Speaker 1: 03:53

He said, yes. Get the permission form signed really fast. He said, don't worry about the money. Don't worry about your registration fee. Just get the permission form.

Speaker 1: 04:02

And so I went to Minnie, and I said my mom said I could go. And she was like, okay. So she signed it, but I but I couldn't find her. So she signed it. And she was like, well, do you have money?

Speaker 1: 04:14

I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. My mama gave me money. Okay. And so she signed my permission form. And in that moment, I had my ticket to what I couldn't have imagined was my biggest opportunity.

Speaker 1: 04:26

So when I reflect on just that moment in itself, leadership isn't always about titles. Sometime it's recognizing someone's silent screams and making space for them anyways. And so just Alvin could have said, no. I'm sorry. The bus is full.

Speaker 1: 04:45

But he said, yes. We'll make it happen. And so as we get on the bus, mind you, I got my stolen clothes, and they were they were okay. They weren't name brand or anything like that. And so I wanted to just fade into the background.

Speaker 1: 04:59

I really didn't wanna stand out like a sore thumb because I had been bullied most of my life. And so we're on the bus. I got this $25 I have to stretch over the course of seven days on this college tour. Okay. Remind you, I told people, I don't got money.

Speaker 1: 05:16

Oh, yeah. My mama, she sent me money, you know, just protecting and fibbing to protect. So I got to stretch this twenty five hours for over seven days, and I told no one I was hungry. Hunger wasn't unfamiliar to me. Okay?

Speaker 1: 05:30

I spent many times being hungry. I spent many times giving my siblings my last piece of chicken or rice or whatever. I would be okay because I could eat at school the next day. And so Arlen, Alvin's brother, he noticed that I wasn't eating. And I was like, oh, I'm not hungry.

Speaker 1: 05:49

He said he said, look now. You know, real country. Now look now. And he said, and I started crying. He said, stop crying.

Speaker 1: 06:01

We got you. Let's get you some food. And so I'm kind of like, okay, what does he want? Does he want something from me? And again, to this day, these men have been intercessory fathers figures to me, intercessory brothers, community protectors, mentors to this day, those relationships are valuable to me.

Speaker 1: 06:26

And so when I think about that moment, the unspoken hunger, it is a reminder that wellness, it comes in many packages. And sometimes, again, it's about being seen and fed when silence feels safer than shame. That's what that moment means to me. So we're on the college tour, the longest ride ever to Atlanta. K?

Speaker 1: 06:53

We make it to doctor Martin Luther King's burial site. And here's the interesting thing about that. Doctor MLK and I, we share the same birthday, January 15. Of course, I learned about him in school. I learned the version that schools wanted us to know about my history.

Speaker 1: 07:10

And so at that gravesite, it was right across from the museum. And I was like, I didn't know if this man did all this. And so he has his eternal flame that never goes out. His gravesite is surrounded by water and it's above the water. And I believe his wife is buried with him too nowadays.

Speaker 1: 07:33

And so one of the traditions on the college tour, we circle the eternal flame of MLK and reflect on culture, community, consciousness. And I'm listening. And in that moment I felt something in my spirit say speak. So I was compelled to share, you know, I just shared, oh, you know, my life is hard, but I heard speak. That moment, I released secrets that I had never told anyone.

Speaker 1: 08:08

And probably there was like a hundred kids, chaperones, adults. I told other people parts of my story, and I'm crying. I'm crying from my belly. And in that moment, my true attempt towards liberation, it began with the truth because it became louder than my fears that I will be hurt and judged because of my story. And so after I kind of gathered myself, I'm getting hugs and, you know, Alvin and Art, they're just balling.

Speaker 1: 08:44

And other youth, kids I grew up with, some of the same ones that bullied me, they began sharing their stories. And guess what? They shared the nightmares I was going through as well. Who would have thought? So young people are sharing their stories.

Speaker 1: 09:02

Some young people share, this is their first time out of the Kenosha Racine area from Wisconsin. Some people share that their daddies are not there. Some people share their cousins got unalived recently. It was pouring after pouring. You started to see a spiritual and literal shift in young people who came uncertain, who came with the fear and the goofing off to hide whatever they were going through.

Speaker 1: 09:29

You saw a shift towards wanting more. And I just happened to be one of those people. So as that shift is taking place, there was a shedding that was happening. And so I like to think that release was my breakthrough and a start towards liberating what I consider wellness today. So I went from holding all that pain in to discovering, is this my purpose?

Speaker 1: 10:01

To share my story, to help other people navigate their stories and know their condition is not their conclusion, or at least it may not be. So I went from pain to purpose, to having a platform that I love, respect, and don't take for granted. So after that, I was like, I can go to college. Nobody talked about college. I watched A Different World on TV, and I saw it when the TV worked.

Speaker 1: 10:29

But nobody talked about college. No one talked about starting a business. Nobody talked about mental health and therapy. And so I started applying to schools. By the towards the end of my senior year, remember I was only 15, so I was likely a freshman.

Speaker 1: 10:44

And so I went on another college tour. Years later, I went on another one. Towards the end of my senior year, I'm like, how am I gonna pay for school? So I started applying and I received an abundance of offers, quite lucrative offers. But guess what?

Speaker 1: 11:01

I chose to stay in Kenosha for the sake of my sisters. Over time, the streets claimed them, but our closeness drifted away. So I would try to, once I made it to college, I would try to bring them on campus to feed them, do their laundry, take them to family fun nights and just expose them to a world that we were never privy to. And so I began to advocate for myself. And so I reached out again to local organizations to share my story.

Speaker 1: 11:32

And by the way, when I started sharing at the MLK site during that year, the story got picked up by a local reporter, Terry, who was on the tour just capturing historical moment, the story made it back to Kenosha and it spread like a wildfire. So when I got to college, still didn't have much. And ironically showed up to Carthage's campus with a black garbage bag full of my most basic belongings because I was coming out of an unhealthy relationship and I had left home before right at 18, but officially left home. So when I think about advocating, I do believe there is power in sharing your story because an education can expand minds beyond our wildest imaginations. So what did this journey teach me and how can it help you?

Speaker 1: 12:27

How can it help the people within your organization? How can you be a better leader? This wasn't just a trip. It was a spiritual and relational shift. I didn't just get on that bus, I crossed a threshold from invisible to seen, from surviving to sustaining, from silence to speaking life.

Speaker 1: 12:56

When I think about living, it became less about check boxes and more about choosing alignment. What nourishes me? What heals me? What challenges me. And now as a leader in many people's lives and a person that goes into organizations all the way from corporate all the way down to colleges and community agencies, leadership reveals itself in a form of intercession.

Speaker 1: 13:22

What happens when no one is watching? What happens in between time? Not the loudest voice in the room, but the one who says, I see you and I got you. And on the notion of liberating wellness, now it's not so much about fixing brokenness. It's about refusing to be reduced by my circumstances.

Speaker 1: 13:44

That's what I share with other people. It's reclaiming your story, your breath, even in systems designed to suffocate you. You can learn what resistance can look like. You can learn that being whole is a radical movement, not pieces, not shambles. You can learn that being here is a miracle.

Speaker 1: 14:08

My journey taught me to stop chasing belonging and to start building it, to speak even when it's risky, to rest because it's a righteous move. And above all, remember that the most powerful kind of wellness is one that you can use to help other people set themselves free too. That college tour didn't just save my life. It planted a seed that I now call Speak to the Soul, one of my businesses. I don't know about you, but we're not designed just to make it.

Speaker 1: 14:46

We are meant to rise and reclaim and reroute if we got off track. Reimagine possibilities. Live out loud, lead with your heart. So to all of you who are wondering and maybe questioning, can this work for me? From your children all the way up to you who might be in a shifts, who might be taking risks, figuring out what's next.

Speaker 1: 15:14

You don't have to have it all together to begin. Sometimes all it takes is one bus ride. Sometimes all it takes is one ask. Sometimes it takes one conversation to move you forward. Yesterday was Easter Sunday, and we sent a bus of kids off on another college tour.

Speaker 1: 15:36

And to the founder, Alvin, he somewhat retired. I don't think he's officially retired, but he turned over the reins. What an emotional experience it was. We cried like it was an ugly cry. We cried at breakfast when after we sent the kids off, we cried because we know that every year it's a matter of, is it going to happen?

Speaker 1: 16:00

Who's going to show up? The mission is there. The vision is playing. So, Alvin, thank you for twenty six years of helping us discover possibilities. So if you feel so inclined to not just applaud this, consider making a donation beyond college.net.

Speaker 1: 16:22

Go to college tours and click that yellow donation button. That is my story of how one bus ride gave me a launch pad or became my launch pad to live my life. And so when people ask me, when did you start speaking? I say, I've always been speaking, but not everyone was listening or hearing me. And so nowadays, as I travel from, like I said, from corporate college to community organizations, as I travel around the world speaking about evolving our capacity versus expanding it, preventing burnout, recovering from burnout, leading with compassion.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Those are the things I speak about. And so some of the upcoming events that I have are, this, Thursday no. This Friday, I'll be in Madison, Wisconsin speaking at the NAMI conference, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I will be speaking on a breakout session about self advocacy, and it's called talk too much. K?

Speaker 1: 17:26

You still can register. I will be speaking as a fireside chat conversation or and a panelist starting next Monday, the twenty eighth, for the Therapy Intensive Summit. It's free to register y'all, but you can upgrade using my affiliate link. And, actually, let me go ahead and drop this here. So that is the NAMI conference, and you can register at NAMIWisconsin.org.

Speaker 1: 17:49

And for the oh, let me take a step back. So that NAMI is happening Friday. And then on Saturday, I will be the keynote for the second year in a row at the Generation Wealth Conference, and that is happening in Chicago. You can go to generational wealth conference, or generationwealth.com to get all the information. That's this Saturday.

Speaker 1: 18:09

K? Third, this summer, I'm taking a little break over the next few months, but this summer in July, I will be speaking at, Doubt Yourself, Do It Anyway Summit for mental health therapists. This is in Scotland. I'm so excited about that. It will be in Scotland.

Speaker 1: 18:27

So if you're a therapist, please consider joining. If you are wondering, well, will I fit there? I always say, well, why wouldn't you fit? You have a vision. You have community.

Speaker 1: 18:40

And come see the beautiful Scotland. This is actually my first time being there, so I'm excited about that. Alright. We covered that one. And, in September, I will be speaking in Canada.

Speaker 1: 18:53

This is at the Canada Therapist Conference, and I'm super excited because I've never been to Alberta, Canada, but I know it is beautiful. And this is September 4 through the sixth. I'll be facilitating a breakout session where you'll be able to break down, plan and take action on your next steps to grow strategies and get more security in planning and, building your private practice. In the September, I will be in Spain. I'll be speaking at Diversify Your Income retreat where you will be able to understand how to leverage your clinical gifts for more impact, influence, and income that makes sense for your lifestyle without the guilt.

Speaker 1: 19:34

I will be doing a breakout session from September, thirteenth through the eighteenth. My session will be at some time in between there, but the retreat is, that time frame. And then I will be speaking at the September to August 1. I will be a keynote at the Next Level Private Practice Summit that is in Michigan. So if you are thinking like, oh, you know, I really wanna try something stateside, this one is for you.

Speaker 1: 20:00

If you're looking for an experience, in The States and you wanna move your mission forward, join us. Rachel, the host, often asks, wherever she goes, is this place and is this space safe? So come where you are welcomed. And I believe I have one more. Let me pull that one up.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Nope. Here it is. So going back to, in a few weeks, May. In May, I will be speaking at, the Women's Entrepreneurs event, hosted by She Stands Tall, MKE. So I'll be, again, speaking on talking too much in the sense of using your voice for good as you self advocate, support your people, and serve in your business.

Speaker 1: 20:46

So those are some of the events I have coming up. So if you are an organization that is looking for a dynamic speaker that can help you bring your vision forward, impact your people with actionable takeaways, let's chat today. So I wanna leave you with this. Going back to that bus ride. The bus ride didn't just take me to college.

Speaker 1: 21:08

It took me toward a life I was meant to live. And now my mission is to value myself and people as souls, not just statistics. So choose to evolve capacity over chaos, which is the official name of my forthcoming book. So if you're interested in working with me, you can check out the link below, and go to my website, dominiqueprichitt.com. Thank you all so much.

Speaker 1: 21:34

Remember, choose to get on that bus literally literally and figuratively. Have a great day.