Ep. 59

Why Listening to Your Mind and Body is the Key to Self-care with Sierra Brown

Growing up, Sierra Brown was the oldest of six, being raised by her father as a single parent. From the very beginning, her father had a plan—a plan for them to all become outstanding basketball players. Basketball players that got scholarships, went to college, and that was it.

So from a very young, tender age, that’s who Sierra was…a basketball player. When she made it to college and it was time to pick a major, she picked something that would make money. Nobody told her that apparently, you were supposed to choose something you were good at.

Today, Sierra is a health and wellness coach who helps black women unlearn diet culture misconceptions and implement the necessary nutrition, movement, and mindset practices required for sustainable wellness while keeping God at the center of the journey. She’s transformed herself and built a business helping other women find freedom in their own revised version of health and wellness.

Sierra’s website: https://www.melaninwell.com

Jessmyn:

Welcome to Interact’s Creator Stories Podcast. Interact is the easiest way to convert curious people into loyal and happy customers by using a lead generating quiz. On Creator Stories, we get to hear the entrepreneur’s journey. This is a podcast about how those creators took their knowledge and experiences to carve out a place in the world, owned what they know is special about themselves and turned it into a successful company. Today, we get to hear from Sierra Brown, a wellness coach who helps black women unlearn diet culture and misconceptions, and implement the necessary nutrition movement and mindset practices required for sustainable wellness while keeping God at the center of the journey. Sierra does this through her transformational coaching program, Melanin Well Academy. All right. Let’s get started.

Hi guys, and welcome back to Interact’s Creator Stories Podcast. So excited to be with you as always. Today, I have the amazing Sierra Brown. Sierra, thank you so much for hopping on with us today.

Sierra:

Thank you for having me. I’m really excited to sit down and chat with you today.

Jessmyn:

Of course. And you’re on some of our other stuff and you’re kind of everywhere on Interact right now. So I can’t wait to actually kind get the sort backstory of how you got started in all your business. If you guys want to check out Sierra in the [inaudible 00:01:29] series, you could check that out on our site and you could hear more about her actual quiz story using our product. But besides that, can you tell us a little bit more about you, your business, who are the people that you serve and then take us back to the beginning. How did you get started in all of it?

Sierra:

Perfect. Yeah. So I am a wellness coach. In particular, I serve black women who in the past have struggled with a lot of diet culture beliefs. So I’m really helping them unlearn a lot of the crazy diet culture BS that just idolizes thinness and switch them to a place of nourishment and sustainable wellness, all the while, teaching them how to let God lead that and keep God at the center. And I love it. I love it, I love it. Has not always been the demographic I have served. It has not always been how done it. So I’m actually really excited to go deeper into this. So you want me to go ahead and give how I started into this, right?

Jessmyn:

Yeah. Yeah.

Sierra:

Okay. Okay. So growing up, I am the oldest of six kids. When I was a kid, just five. And I said just five like that’s two, but my dad was a single parent and while my dad meant the best, his mentality was we become outstanding basketball players so that we can get a scholarship, and that’s the plan. There’s nothing after that. That’s it. We don’t need to know what your gifts are in life, okay? We just get really good at basketball. So from a very young tender age, that’s who I was. I was a basketball player. So growing up, I never really knew what I was good at other than basketball. So when I did go to college, I just picked a major because I was like, okay, you go to college so you can make money, okay? Nobody told me that apparently, you’re supposed to choose is what you’re good at. You go and you choose something for money. So a lot of people don’t know this about me, but I was pre-med when I first went to college in biology.

That lasted for a semester, honey. It lasted for a whole semester because I wanted to be a dentist originally and I quickly figured out that, no, this is not Sierra’s jam. When I started to think about having my hands in people’s mouths for the rest of my life, I was just like, I have no idea. So I was still taking general studies and I took my very first sociology class and I was like, wow, I kind of like learning about people’s behavior. That’s kind of cool. There’s a reason why we all are the way that we are and we interact with each other the way that we interact. Thought it was mad cool. So after that, I switched my major to sociology and I still wasn’t doing it because I knew what I wanted to be. It was like in order to play basketball and keep your scholarship, you have to keep a certain grade point average. So that’s really what I was worried about, but I was also kind of enjoying it at the same time.

So I eventually also got a modern and social work and I spent eight years post-grad in the social work field serving lots of different types of demographics, substance abuse, outpatient mental health, juvenile justice. I worked with lots of different types of people. And I knew I liked it. I felt like I was doing God’s work because I was helping people, but eventually I was just like, I don’t think this is how I want to help people. And one thing that I kind of noticed about myself is I also always had an issue with how things were structured. I was just like, this business could run better. A lot of this stuff that I’m doing all the time doesn’t make sense and I always wanted to be the leader of everything. And I thought to myself at one point, I was just like, why don’t I just do my own stuff on the side? And at that point, I was post 50 pounds weight gain, then 50 pounds weight loss.

And I had also begun to become really obsessed with health. Even though I’m a wellness coach right now, back then it was fitness and weight loss, all of that stuff. I was crazy paleo Crossfitter girl. So I started a little blog. And at that time when I started the blog, I was technically in my dream job. I was working for the Department of Juvenile Justice. It was the job that I aspired to have. It was like that thing that I thought that once I got it, I would be really happy, and I wasn’t. And I was like, this is not supposed to feel like this. There has to be something more. So the blog, there was not this moment. I know you probably talk to people and they’re like, and it just blew up. It wasn’t that. I had this moment where I was like, I like this. It’s cool sharing my life. It’s cool sharing how I feel. It’s cool helping people with food, like in their nutrition. It’s cool to teach somebody something and it benefits their health.

It was doing something for my spirit. So I eventually started a coaching business and back then, it was called [inaudible 00:06:58] coaching. And I taught people how, for the most part, to count macros and how to meal prep. And if you are only a Melanin Well follower, you probably think that’s insane because the person that I am today could not be more opposite of that. I teach intuitive eating now and I teach people how to do minimal meal prep and a completely different approach. But that came because I started to struggle and I started to realize I’m developing a lot of disorder eating behaviors. I am miserable. I am exhausted. I’m literally having anxiety about taking one day off at the gym a week. I literally am using my sick time and my leave at work so I can leave 30 minutes early so I can get to the gym and get the rack I want at the gym. We’ve taken this far and we are teaching of people how to also take it this far.

And I had this like aha moment where I was just like, there has to be more. There has to be something better. I know that I love the coach. I know that this interaction is giving me life. I know that I love to be a part of that part of people’s lives. I’m like, but something is missing. So I dove into food psychology. I dove into intuitive eating. I started to figure out what joyful movement felt like and change my own life and found sustainable wellness for myself. And around the same time, I also figured out, you know what? Everybody that I’m learning this from is white, very white. And not just white, but like my second grade teacher white. And I was like, I think I only want to serve black women. I think that I want to interact and reach people who look like me because I think I probably would have taken this step in my life earlier if I saw somebody who looked like me who was doing it this way.

So we rebranded to focus more on sustainable wellness and to serve black women. And we ran into Melanin Well and it’s literally been the best three years of my life since the rebrand. And yeah, that’s how we got started.

Jessmyn:

Wow. I love that. I love that. So a couple things that really stuck out to me was sort of using your own journey in order to figure out what you really wanted to do in your business and in your life, but then also finding a gap in the market, which not everybody really thinks about, right? Of course, I think it’s something that we think about, but it’s not really to off of mind. It’s like, okay, how can we make the most money? How can we get the most people? But the market gap that you found is something deeper than that, right? And it’s more than that. And I think we talked about this before too where representation really matters. I mean, not just in terms of, I think, there wasn’t anyone that looked like you in this space, but also things like the algorithm doesn’t always show you people in that space that look like you. It’s always going to be sort of what you see as the norm.

And so anyway, my question from this really is just, when you tell your story, I love how it sort of flows together, but how did that actually happen in terms of like, okay, I want to serve black women because I don’t see it. This is how it is. What was that transition like and that decision like?

Sierra:

Okay. So I made it sound good because I was doing like a condensed version, but it was one of the scariest moments of my life. Just to be real and just to be honest, if you follow me, then you know that I am a very spiritual person, you know that I am Christian and a big part of Christianity is your relationship with God. And a big part of your relationship with God is being obedient to what he’s asking you to do and following in purpose. And I had a moment where I knew that the food psychology aspect transition had to happen, but when I prayed about it, he was just like, Sierra, I also want you to only do this for black women. And I was like, but God, people are going to think that’s racist. And he was like, don’t talk back to me, Sierra. Just do what I say, literally basically. So I was just like, okay. So it was really scary for me for a lot of reasons.

And one of the main reasons was because up until that point, and it’s crazy to think about and almost embarrassing to say, all of my clients were white, all of them, every single one of them, and this is why. It’s because I am from West Virginia who has like a single digit population of black people. And not only am I from West Virginia, but I’m from a very, very small town in West Virginia. So the majority of my clients were people who knew me from back home, were people who watched me play basketball. They were people from back home. I had not mastered social media marketing to where I was reaching people that were outside of my friend group. At that time, I was still serving my friend group. So yeah. So at that point, I had got a few consultations with a business coach who was black. And I told her my idea and I said it, like I whispered it and I was just like, “Hey, God had put it on my heart or whatever to serve black women. I know I can’t do that.”

I followed it up, I can hear it in my head. I was like, “I know I’m not allowed to do that, but…” And she was like, “No, no, no.” She like freaked out and she was like, “Yes, yes, yes.” She was like, “I love it. I love it.” And I was like, really? Okay. So that was very helpful to me because I don’t know if I would have obeyed in that moment if I hadn’t had a black business coach and also a fitness coach that I looked up to that was like, you are needed, you can do it. So it was scary. And I didn’t know how I was going to do it because all the success that I had up to that point was not with that demographic. And also what made it very difficult and something that I don’t get to talk a lot about in these podcast interviews is that me being from West Virginia, I don’t have stereotypical black interests. As I’ve grown up, I have adopted a lot more of my culture because I moved to Charlotte around like age 25 and I threw myself into black culture.

It was wonderful. It was the best thing that happened to me. But I’m what I call, I use this term a lot, I’m alternatively black. Paramore is my favorite band. You know what I’m saying? I watch Paramore. Every tour Paramore has ever been on, Sierra has been in the pit. You feel me? So I was nervous because I had this wound where growing up, I was told that I was like white. I acted white, I liked white stuff. So I was like, will black women even listen to me? Will black women even care about my story? How many black women do I even know? Not that many. So I know that the people that I am going to work with are going to be internet strangers. And up to that point, I hadn’t worked with a lot of internet strangers yet. It was referrals, it was people I knew or people [inaudible 00:15:07]. And it was terrifying, but it was literally the best decision that I ever made in my life.

Jessmyn:

I love that. I love that. What were some of the challenges sort of going into niching down into a specific group of people?

Sierra:

Okay. I’m going to talk about niching down into the food I ecology aspect of it too because it’s still to this day like battle. I think you have to stay really connected to your purpose and remind yourself of that daily because if you don’t, the content that you consume is going to want to make you give people what other people are giving them. And in order for me to niche down to black women and also away from like the very niche weight loss through macros and all of that good stuff, in order for me to do that, I had to start talking to people about what they really had never been talked to about before. I had to figure out what my voice was. It took me a really long time to figure out what their pain points were. Because I was kind of newer to it myself personally, I hardly could even identify my pain points. So I think that that was probably my biggest struggle making that transition, was really figuring out what pain points look to people that just don’t want to lose weight, but also don’t hate themselves.

I think that we see all the time people exploiting people’s self hatred. And I hate to say it like that, but literally that’s what I did for the first couple of years. I exploited the fact that people hated their bodies. I exploited the fact that people, they would literally rather starve themselves than buy bigger jeans. And that’s what we see people do. And to flip it on the other side and get people to pull from their light, it was hard to create content like that at first because in my mind, I hadn’t been completely deprogrammed. So I was like, nobody’s going to care about this. Nobody’s going to care about it. But they did. Another reason it was so great for me personally because I found my voice. I thought I had it before, you know what I’m saying? Because I was able to create content. I was able to build like a little baby following, but especially now. I know we’re talking about beginning, but moving all the way to now, honey, because the beginning of Melanin Well was nothing but sustainable wellness aspects.

There wasn’t much spirituality elements of it all the way until now three years later where there’s just as much spiritual as there is the nutrition, movement, mindset aspect of this. I have found my light. And I know I’m rambling, but I want that for everybody because I think that a lot of us really struggle to stay consistent on the internet. And not to say I’m consistent all the time, honey, because I be tired. But especially with the algorithm these days, it’s hard to stay consistent on the internet when you’re trying to be like everybody else and you haven’t found your voice. And I recently have made a decision and I’m giving advice right now. I know we are not at that point in the story, but my biggest advice to every creator out there that’s niching down, don’t follow the trends. This whole transition to reels has been very difficult for me. And I know that a lot of people who are watching this feel the same way. I have cried, I have kicked, I have screamed because I am not a [inaudible 00:19:26] kind of like content person.

And it’s been very difficult to know that in order for me to stay relevant on social media, I have to look at people’s trendy videos and remake them into my niche. I can admit that it’s been kind of fun at points, but to say that I have to do that four or five, six days a week, I made a decision a couple weeks ago that I’m not that girl and I’m not doing that and Instagram’s going to change the algorithm eventually anyway, so do what lights you up, man. And this is my first week actually of doing that. I’ve only posted one reel this week and I’ve gotten more engagement for just really just avoiding feeling that pressure to perform in whatever way everybody… Do what lights you the frick up. Find your thing and do it. And don’t forget about stories. Don’t forget about stories. I think we get so caught up in this reel hysteria.

A lot of my engagement that I get on this alternative type of content, I hate to call it that, but going live, posting pictures, posting graphics. A lot of the engagement that I’ve gotten has come because of what I do in my story.

Jessmyn:

I love that. I love that. I love that a lot. And what I hear you talk about a lot is sort of the spiritual side and how that plays a big part in your business, which I think is great because I’m sure it also helps with a lot of the mindset challenges that come with being an entrepreneur, having your own business, trying to grow and all that stuff. So I guess, how did you kind of connect the two and how did you sort of build up the courage to be like, this is my business, there is a spiritual aspect to it. I know that’s not really the popular idea out there, but I’m doing it?

Sierra:

I’m already about to cry. I did not think that this was going to happen at this point in all of this. There is no melding of the two. My spirituality and God and my relationship with God is everything. And I had to complete surrender my business, the outcome, what I wanted. I had to completely surrender it all to be able to even find my light. So a lot of the things that I’m talking about, I’m saying I found my light, but that has come because I surrendered it and I let God make whatever he wanted to make out of it. And I’m still making that sound pretty, but it actually can be pretty gruesome at some points. And I went to Maverick City Music concert this past weekend and it was like literally the best day of my life. And the main singer who was like really, really popular, Chandler Moore, friends with Justin Bieber, goes on tour with Justin Bieber, it’s so weird because you hardly ever see that crossover between Christian music and popular music.

And he posted a video after the concert and said something like, “A lot of you guys don’t know this, but this isn’t fun for me.” Because Atlanta is where they’re from. So I expected it to be like the best day of their lives and he was like, it wasn’t like this super fun, exciting moment. It’s hard. And at first, it kind of hurt my feelings because I was like, but I was excited for you to come in Atlanta. I was taking it personally, but then it clicked and I got it and I was like, I’m over here terrified half the time because God is asking me to do something for a platform of, well, 3,000, 4,000 people. And sometimes what he asks me to do is not what’s trending on Instagram. It’s not what’s popular. Sometimes I’m quote scripture on my Instagram. It’s not what’s popular, but Chandler’s platform is like a million people. And so I cannot imagine, but it feels like this God sized place in your heart and it’s like indescribable.

And if I didn’t know that and I didn’t recognize that all of this is for the glory of God and for his kingdom and that he was with me and he was faithful and he’s already gone ahead of me and he’s taking care of all of it, I wouldn’t do it. I would’ve got a 9:00 to 5:00 again, seriously. So I think a lot of people talk a lot about their routines. I talk about routines all the time on Instagram. I think a lot of business owners talk a lot about routines and joining masterminds and doing all these things. Not to say I’ve never had a coach, but the single most important thing that I’ve done to be able to help me stay in this thing, which we know ain’t easy to stay in is being very, very committed to my relationship with God. So I had a three day challenge this week that I have a lot of West Coast people somehow so I had to schedule it for super late.

So I literally have been waking up at 5:30 all week and then not getting done with work until after 9:15, 9:30 for the past three days. So once I got done last night and I woke up this morning, I was like, woo. And if I had not taken that moment to go out on my deck, sit with God, read the word, pray over this new day, thank him for all that he did during this challenge and ask for revelation, okay, what’s next? What are we doing now, God? What are we doing now? Then I probably would’ve just slept until it was time for us to meet and I would have missed out on a lot of revelation that he gave me about what we’re doing next week. I wouldn’t have had anything whenever I got on the phone with my community manager. We had a meeting before this. I wouldn’t have had anything. A lot of the great things I talked to her about came from my prayer this morning.

If I had not had made that time, I would’ve come, we would’ve stuck on the agenda and we would’ve finished the meeting, but instead we came out of it like, yes, next week is going to be fun. That came from prayer. Now, I will say I do have another cheat code. God is first, but my wellness is second. Whatever my purpose and what God has asked me to do in this season is at the tippy, tippy top, but then whatever I need to do wellness-wise to keep that going and keep myself living and thriving every day is second. So I will change my schedule in a heartbeat. For example, like I said, I have been waking up at 5:30 every day. I’ve loved it, but past three days doing this challenge, I woke up at eight o’clock today. I will change it. I had a couple little things, tasks that I was supposed to do from 11:00 to 12:00, but I wanted to go run. I went and ran and I’m really glad I did because it rejuvenated me.

And I ran in the woods and I got to listen to worship music and it hit a reset button for me. I’m not even tired anymore from these past three days. So yeah, I would say those are my cheat codes.

Jessmyn:

I love that. And something that comes to mind in terms of taking care of your wellness is being in the wellness space. Do you ever have moments where you’re like, I’m promoting taking care of yourself, I’m promoting being in tune with yourself, but I’m not doing it and I’m kind of struggling right now, and what do you do in those moments?

Sierra:

Okay. So we’re probably going to cry again. And this is going to be the first time-

Jessmyn:

I’m sorry.

Sierra:

This is going to be the first time I ever talked about this on a podcast interview, but I need to openly talk about it. So if you follow me, then you know that my brother was murdered. It’s been about a year and a half ago.

Jessmyn:

I’m so sorry.

Sierra:

Which sounds like a long time ago, but it literally feels like two seconds ago. And when that happened, I was also in a season of my life where I had just created a new program that I was getting ready to launch. It was like peak business time. And when it happened, instead of taking care of myself and taking time I needed and taking time off, I took one day off from work after my brother died. I did groups the following week. And I felt guilty about it. I literally bought everybody, all of my clients journals, like [inaudible 00:28:14] journals because I felt guilty about taking that day off. That was insane. And so eventually it came to a head where I was just like, I’m literally throwing myself into work like this because I am avoiding grief. I’m trying my best to run away from the fact that my 23 year old brother is gone. And I’m thinking in myself, if I can just work and work and work, number one, I’m going to make him proud.

That was like a big thought in my head. But number two, I don’t have to think about it. I don’t have to address it. I don’t have to face it. But eventually, it becomes unavoidable. You can’t avoid the emotions. And for me, once I got to that point, I went to a really low, deep depression place. And that for me looked like having a really difficult time getting out of bed, doing everyday tasks, cooking for myself. I literally was going days at a time without leaving my bedroom, which means I was having to order DoorDash. And I was literally running to the door, grab my DoorDash and running and get back into bed. And at that point in my life, to be honest with you, that was wellness for me and I gave myself permission to do whatever I had to do. At one point, I literally took my desk and I pushed it all the way against my bed and I literally made it to where I could like lay back on my pillow and work. And that was wellness for me in that season of my life.

My little brother was like my little workout partner. Even when we lived in different cities, we would still send each other workout videos. I took him to his first CrossFit class as like a high schooler. And so the gym was triggering for me. Initially, I tried really hard to stay consistent with the gym, but I would go in the gym and I would sometimes feel like I saw him. I would see somebody who looked like him and it would make me like [inaudible 00:30:31]. It would really freak me out so I stopped going to the gym. And all of these things sound like unhealthy things, but they were healthy for me in that season of my life. And it’s probably been a year of me turning. And if a client is listening to this, then you know, your health and wellness is a dial, it’s not a switch. We turn it up and down. And for me, the past year of my life, the best that I could do was turning my dial down to like a two. That’s all that I had in me.

That’s all the space that I had in me. My body, my mind, my spirit needed the rest of me to grieve. And as a result, I gained a good bit of weight in the past year. And it was really difficult for me because there was some imposter syndrome there where I was like, Sierra, how are you a wellness coach, but you don’t look like a wellness coach? I had to go through that. But then I was just like, Sierra, you also teach people how not to make thinness an idol. You also teach people that weight loss doesn’t equate health. So let’s lean into those truths, Sierra, because if those things are true, then what you are saying about yourself, not looking like a wellness coach, that can’t be true. That has to be a lie. That has to be Satan putting that thought into your head. And I’ve just honestly really in the past couple of months just gotten to a place where I really believe that in my heart.

I’ve finally gotten to a place where, it’s going to sound cocky, I’m really good at what I do and what I do has nothing to do with what I look like. And the most radical decision I have ever made for my health and wellness was turning my dial down to a two and letting my body do whatever it wanted to do last year. And I did a series on my Instagram called grief and grace, giving myself the grace to do that. If I hadn’t, there would be no Melanin Well. There would be no Melanin Well because I would have had to give in something else up in order to create space for, and it would’ve had to have been Melanin Well. But in this season of my life, we’ve turned our dial from a two or a three. We’re operating at about like a five, a six right now, okay? I’ve taken up running again and I’m enjoying it. And if any of my clients are listening to this, they’re going to be like, what? Sierra hates running. Sierra hates running.

But I found this park that’s three minutes away from my house and like it gives me so much joy and it’s changed the way that I feel about running. So yeah. Yeah. It’s tough because to be honest with you, and this is also something I’ve never said on a podcast, but a lot of my initial following came from the fact that people thought that I was physically attractive. And some people are going to hear me say that and they’re going to be like, [inaudible 00:34:02], that sounds cocky. That sounds conceded. But you have to think about the fact, why do you follow a lot of the people that you follow? You have to be real with yourself. Whether it’s you like their body, or you think they’re pretty, or you think they’re handsome and fine like Kofi Siriboe, whatever the case may be, a lot of it does have to do with physical attraction. And I’m not saying that I’m the cutest thing on the internet. What I’m saying is, is that people got to watch me get really sick, have a blood clot in my kidney, gain 50 pounds.

They got to see me lose it and they got to see me build this super lean body that is what a lot of people view as unattainable for themselves. At one point, I was maybe like 12% body fat, like visible abs area, like huge traps area. Everything that I wore, I looked like I had just got done lifting. And that’s why a lot of people follow me because they got to see my body change. I’ve posted a lot of workout videos. So they also got to see me like do a lot of things that they didn’t think that they could do, whether it was like lift really heavy weights or do muscle ups or do all of these different things. And that’s not why I want people to follow me. Listen, if you’re not trying to change your spirits, okay? If you’re not trying to get closer to God, I want you to unfollow me because that’s what we’re doing around here. That’s why we’re doing all of this stuff. And I thank God for not making me deformed or something.

I’m glad I’m not deformed, God, but it doesn’t have anything to do with my mission and my purpose. And I also had to let that go because as much as I’m saying that’s why other people follow me, that’s also what I believed about myself. So I also had to unlearn that in order to get to a place where I was like, wow, people actually really do care about my story. They really actually care about what I have to say in my life. What is this? Yeah.

Jessmyn:

Wow. I love that. That was beautiful. Thank you also for sharing that. I know that was really hard and I’m so sorry for your loss, but it sounds like a really crazy journey that got you to a good place and in your business and you’re able to also share that with the world, which it does sound like you’re fulfilling your purpose and I love that. I love that a lot.

Sierra:

And I know my brother is proud. I thought that he would be proud if I worked my butt off every single day and just like, oh, look at me. My brother died and I’m still doing all the things, but I think more than anything, my brother would want me to be really happy. And I think that he’s in heaven right now chilling with Jesus lifting weights. He’s like, look at Sierra down there doing her thing, being and happy. And so he’s proud. He is.

Jessmyn:

I love that. I love that. And I think it just sort of also calls to kind of take a step back and with anything, in your business or in life to kind of really pick out, what am I doing this for? Am I happy? Do I enjoy it? And I love the analogy of your wellness being a dial rather than this or that, or black and white. It’s not one or the other. I love that a lot.

Sierra:

And I think that a lot of people also think about purpose versus potential. And I think that a lot of people are really struggling because they think about what their potential is, everything that they’re good at. They think about what everybody tells them that they are good at. All the potential that you have, oh, but you could do this and this and this and you can make this amount of money. And I think that people are chasing potential, but I’m telling you, chasing purpose instead of potential, and I’m also pretty sure I might have heard this on a sermon a couple of weeks. Pastor Mike Todd probably said it so I’m not trying to plagiarize, but chasing purpose instead of potential literally changes the game for you. And it’s very similar to when people talk about being a master of none. When you chase purpose, you’re typically chasing this one thing at a time. You’re using all of your gifts, but it’s like this one assignment at a time and you master it and it’s beautiful.

And God puts his little stank on it too. Compared to the person who’s chasing potential, their business model changes all the time. They’re constantly changing things. They have three, four, five, six, seven businesses at a time. So yeah. Purpose also helps you focus in business. So I think a lot of times people think that focusing on purpose holds you back in business, but that is not the truth at all. Purpose helps you create a business that is you, that you operate naturally in. Like I told my community manager last night after we finished that challenge, I was like, I am in my bag. What I’m talking about right now is my jam. But if I only thought about what I was good at or what other people were doing or what other people wanted me to do, the challenge that I created and I did this past week, I wouldn’t never even thought about it because I would think that it would hurt my business, but I know it’s not because God told me to do it.

Jessmyn:

I love it. I love it. That was very well said. So we are closing out and we’re coming up on time, but I know it feels so quick, doesn’t it? Before we do hop off though, I have two last questions for you if you’re up for it. Second last question for you, what are three things most people would not know about you?

Sierra:

Okay. So number one is that, and I said it in the interview, but I’m from West Virginia. When people hear me say that, they’re like, I didn’t know black people lived in West Virginia. Black people don’t live in West Virginia. I literally went to school with like three other black people. One of them was my cousin. There aren’t a lot of people who look like me in West Virginia, but I literally was born there. I grew up there and I wouldn’t be me without that wild and crazy upbringing. The second thing probably would be that I am, I’m not just a BTS fan. I am like a part fully, a part of the BTS army. I’m talking like the people who stay up until midnight to watch the music video premier and then comment and do everything we have to do to get us number one on the billboard charts, I’m that type of a BTS fan. And quite literally, you can’t see, but I’m surrounded by a BTS stuff right now. Lots of BTS stuff. So that is the second thing. I’m like absolutely obsessed with BTS.

And the third thing, and I had the third thing before we got on here. The third thing I’m going to go with… I had another thing, had another thing, had another thing. That I really like to write, okay? And that’s what the third thing is going to be. I really love to write and I really love to speak. And actually, oh, I’m so glad I forgot my third thing because this is a good one. I think that a lot of times when people see people as coaches on the internet and people who create content, they think that that’s what we like to do. And I do like to create content. More than anything, I like to serve you guys. I like to connect with you guys. I like to see you guys get quick wins. And fortunately, I have this avenue to do that through social media. It makes it easy to reach people all over the world. But the reality is, is that one day somebody else is going to run my social media.

I am not the person that loves Instagram. I think that the hardest part of my job is posting five to six days a week, showing up on my story every single day. I love you guys, but I don’t like to scroll through Instagram that much. I get very disappointed by every thing I see on Instagram every single day. So for me, this is really just like an avenue for me to eventually do what I want to do, which is I want to be like a best selling author. I want to write books about what I talk about on social media every day. I want to do Ted talks, plural. Okay. Those are the things I like to do. So like when I was a kid, I would win like poetry contests. And I did public speaking. And I just thought that I did those things for fun. I never thought I’d actually use them in my job. But now I use them on Instagram and it’s a very weird thing to say out loud, considering that I didn’t even have Instagram as a kid.

But yeah, actually the third thing is, is that I do not like Instagram and I will not be there forever. One day you’re going to see me giving a Ted talk and going on a book tour and you’ll see me on social media, but somebody else is running the account. You feel me?

Jessmyn:

I love that. I love that. I love that last question for you is if you could give yourself a single piece of advice at the start of it all, what would it be?

Sierra:

Be your freaking self, bro. And I would’ve said it exactly like that. Be yourself. Anybody who is my into be in your life is going to dig it. They are going to love it. They are going to like feel your authentic and genuine light and they’re not going to be able to get enough of it. They’re going to want to be in your space. Anybody who is not with that is not meant to be around you. Be yourself. Figure out what that means. I spent my entire childhood trying to be whoever was around me. And I’m going to go ahead and say adulthood too. I’m like a reformed people pleaser, like chameleon. Be yourself. You will be your happiest that way, you will be your most successful that way, and stop trying so hard. Stop trying so hard.

Jessmyn:

I love that. I love that. Well, Sierra, thank you so much for being with us today and telling us your story. Before we do hop off, can you let people know where they can find you online?

Sierra:

Yes. Okay. I know. I just talk about the smack about Instagram, but in this season of my life, Instagram is the best place. Even though I don’t always like it, it is my jam. I am good at it. I love talking to you guys there. So you can find me at @iamMelaninwell, okay? iamMelaninwell. That’s the easiest place. Click the link in my bio. You can find programs, discovery calls, all that other good stuff. But the juice is on the Gram. For sure.

Jessmyn:

Love it. Love it. All right. Well guys, we will link that at the bottom for you in the show notes and we’ll see you next time. Bye.

Sierra:

Bye guys.

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Jessmyn Solana

Jessmyn Solana is the Partner Program Manager of Interact, a place for creating beautiful and engaging quizzes that generate email leads. Outside of Interact Jessmyn loves binge watching thriller and sci-fi shows, cuddling with her fluffy dog, and traveling to places she's never been before.