Ten years ago, I pressed record without knowing where any of this would take me.

And baby…this is NOT how I thought my life would turn out. 😂

After 10 years of podcasting, a million's worth of downloads, listeners around the world, career changes, relationships, losses, wins, pivots, becoming a wife, becoming a mother, and becoming several different versions of myself along the way, I wanted to sit down and talk about it.

This isn't your typical “10 lessons from 10 years" episode. No "secrets from a master plan", either. Just an honest conversation about who I was when I started, what this podcast gave me, what these years taught me, and the woman behind the microphone today.

In this 10-year anniversary episode, I’m talking about the things I couldn't have known when I started, the parts of myself I've outgrown, what I believe now, and what I want to carry into the next decade. Some answers came directly from your questions!

Because apparently, A LOT can happen in ten years!

And by the grace of God… we're still here.

Thank you for listening, sharing, growing, laughing, healing, and evolving with me.

Happy 10 years to us. 🥂

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Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and are not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor for legal, financial, or other professional services. Listening to this podcast does not create a professional-client relationship. Always consult a qualified professional regarding your individual circumstances.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Spiritual Homegirl
• Heal Center Atlanta
• Complex News
• Mogul Motivation
• Whole Foods Market
• H Mart
• University of Southern California (USC)
• Southern California Counseling Center
• Threads
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Rashan Ali

Hey, y'.

All.

You were listening to another episode of the Spiritual Homegirl podcast where we better self in spirit and make peace with the day through wisdom, education and practical, easy to follow tips.

I am your host, Maria, your spiritual homegirl, who's also a mental professional.

And I have been thinking about this this whole year.

How am I going to celebrate my 10 year?

And I was thinking maybe I'll do a week of free programming like I did for year five.

And if you remember, Homegirl Week, that was awesome.

It was a bunch of.

It was an event every night, like, every night, like seven o'.

Clock.

We were doing something which was, man, we had guest speakers and everything.

It was so fly.

And I said, I'm going to do something big and extravagant for my 10 year.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't want to do a performance this year.

I want to go back to basics.

I just want to talk.

So if you got about half an hour, because it's feeling like a half an hour episode.

Normally my episodes are shorter, but we're going to go back to basics and just talk.

So if you got a snack, you know, go ahead, open it up.

If you got some tea, go ahead and take a sip.

If you don't have either, go make some strap in if you want to drive.

Perfect.

Maybe I'll help you get to your destination today.

But there's so it's so much to say.

Where do I start?

Let's start at the beginning.

What did I think this podcast was going to become when I started?

I didn't.

Honestly, when I first started this podcast, I was on a big.

I honestly let me go backwards.

I wanted to start the podcast right.

And the reason why I wanted to start it is because I was going through a life transition where I was questioning every single part of life, who I was, what I was believing in, my programming, where that programming came from, family of origin, experiences, environment, what have you.

And I was just in a big assessment phase of every single thing I had lived throughout my life thus far and what I wasn't hearing from a lot of podcasts.

And if we go, let's keep it all the way real.

Nobody was kicking it like I was.

Everybody was curated, nobody was talking about the bad days or the mistakes they made or the lessons they learned, everybody was an expert.

Some of them are also in jail for doing so.

So it was a lot of image over substance.

So I was like, I want to be a person of substance, but what I didn't want to do is lock in to a particular ideology spiritually.

So let's go ahead and clear that up now.

Maria, why are you calling yourself the spiritual home girl if you're spiritual?

Why aren't you talking about certain types of spiritual stuff?

Why aren't you giving us banishing spells?

Why aren't you telling us how to protect ourselves spiritually?

Why aren't you talking about the ancestors?

Why aren't you talking about ways that you could use stuff in your kitchen to do things?

Why aren't you talking about the woo woo stuff?

And there's no shade to anybody that has a podcast about that.

I just didn't want my podcast to be that way because when you say spiritual, for me, it's the spirit of the will.

It's what gets you up in the morning.

It's what keeps you going through a bad day.

It's what makes you feel happy inside.

I always said if you could break the spirit, everything else will follow.

So for me, I always wanted to do a podcast that help people fortify themselves and help them keep going, or to help them realize that even though your spirit might be broken, you rebuild it.

You can keep going.

You have the right to change your mind.

You have the right to question your programming like I was doing before I started my podcast.

You have the right to tell people no, you have the right to reinvent yourself.

You have the right to do these things.

You have the right to learn from your lessons and give yourself permission to keep going.

You have the rights.

That's the bottom line.

So I always wanted to focus on that.

Now, granted, you know, obviously what spiritually, I believe if you've listened hard enough, but.

But I've also wanted to make this a spiritual podcast, like Spirit being Love.

I've also wanted love to be the message under everything.

So that is why I've always been inclusive with my podcast to have people of different faiths that will come on and talk about things, whether they were Muslim, whether they were Baptist.

I'm talking about old school Christian Baptists, whether they were people that were deconstructing Christianity.

Like, you know, Major Woodall, like, you know, like, it was just so many different people.

Rastafarians, people that talk about astrology, but were Muslims, like Sam Reynolds.

Shout out to Sam.

He's my brother.

Greek now.

Feels good to say, but, you know, like, I've had all kind of folks on here, people that are just strictly spiritual, people that talked about crystals, not so I could push an agenda, but the same way that we want to give ourselves permission, I wanted to present different perspectives that allow people to think.

Think about different perspectives and do what they will with that.

I've never been a person to want to shun somebody for how they believe in terms of what their higher power is.

That's not for me to do, unfortunately.

We live in a society where people feel like they have the right to be God and to judge others for their differences, especially religious differences.

That's just not how I get down.

Everybody has to find their stability and their strength the way they do it.

So it's not my place to.

To tell people how to believe or what to believe.

So that is why spiritual Homegirl never pushed a particular agenda.

But I will say also, I had somebody that practiced Eileen there, too.

So I've had all kind of folks on my podcast for a reason.

Because, again, you have the rights to choose what works for you.

And you have the right to also question what it is that you choose to do.

Not just believe, but you have the right to even do that.

How you label yourself outside of religion, spirituality, you have the right to break free from that as well.

Sometimes we place labels on ourselves and we realize over time and growth and wisdom, those don't fit anymore.

I wanted this to always be a place where you can come and feel okay with growth and change.

A lot of people have hit me up.

The most common thing that I've loved out of the feedback that I've gotten from people that have listened all over the world has been my podcast, helping them realize that they have the right to stand up for themselves.

I've never liked bullies.

I've never liked mean people.

I've never liked folks that are hateful.

And it's always been a blessing to hear people reach out and say, you know what?

Your podcast gave me closure with a decision I made to distance myself from a toxic family member or a toxic relationship or even a toxic relationship with food or even how I addressed and talked about myself.

Like, I love hearing those type of things.

And that's one thing I never knew the podcast would go when I first started.

I always said then, I'll even say now, if I could reach one person that feels what I'm saying, job done.

And I still feel that way even now.

Back then when the podcast game was booming when we started and when I say we, I mean it was a lot of us out here and there in life has taken people off the airwaves and, you know, it is what it is and I'm not judging them for that.

But the person that has been podcasting the same amount of time as me, if not longer, I believe he's been podcasting longer than me actually, is Twiz Taylor.

I know he started before me, though.

Shout out to Twiz Taylor.

Mogul Motivation is the name of his podcast.

He's actually a writer.

He's coming on the show very soon.

He will be talking about his journey, what got him through, as well as sociology, a book that he's writing, a sci fi book that is set in Chicago and has some great references to Chicago history and Chicago black history.

So.

So it's not many people that's here now, but I had no idea it would morph into what it has.

I've been able to sell products.

I end up getting my aromatherapy certification over at Heal Center Atlanta, and I was able to sell aromatherapy inhalers, and I'm about to bring those back.

I was able to sell merchandise, T shirts, puzzle books, activity books.

I was able to speak.

I. I'm able to speak to corporate folks too.

Like, I've done mindset talks for corporations and it's been really cool.

I've done it at schools.

I've done anti bullying workshops at schools.

I've also, I've done a lot.

I've done suicide prevention workshops.

I've done.

I've done all kind of stuff.

It's been, I've been thinking about all this.

I've been featured in different platforms too.

Like, it's been.

Even with the, the book club I was doing for in honor of Nipsey Hussle.

Like, that was a complex news feature.

Now this news feature, those are huge platforms.

Even with some of the writings I've done, I've been published about that too.

So it's just been so many awesome things.

Events.

I did events for a short spell.

Like, you know, like, it's been, it's been, it's been so much.

It is really cool.

Like, even with my homegirl supper Club.

Like, I had two homies that met and got married.

Like, it's.

I just knew, I never knew that it would start from that podcast, shout out to Ivana and Brandon, the motherhood healer and BE mash.

Now they're a husband and wife duo that does creative works.

And Ivana is a doula and she's an educator.

She got a team of doulas underneath her and she has a motherhood healing festival.

Like, it's just really cool to see, like, how God puts you in position to meet certain people that are doing things on their mission based on what God is assigning them to do while you're doing your own God given assignment.

It's been really cool.

What I was afraid of when I first started.

I don't know if I would say afraid.

I knew I had to be very mindful with how I, what I shared because I had a weirdo experience with somebody that was low key, kind of like Internet stalking me.

I had a couple of those and I didn't like how that went down.

And unfortunately, no, I'm not gonna do that.

I'm not gonna do that.

Oh, I'm not gonna do that.

I will say this because I don't want to put nobody out there.

When you're a woman, a single woman.

When I say single, I mean I'm married.

When you're a single woman doing your work, whatever it is, that kind of puts you in a position to receive attention that you don't want.

And you'll entertain what appears to be business, but you later find out the motive is pleasure.

And that starts to make you a little more discerning of people that claim they want to help you or claim they have ideas or claim that they want to collaborate.

You start realizing, oh, you, you trying to get a date.

You trying to.

You trying to kick it like that.

You're not trying to, like, you're not trying to just talk to me or you're not trying to just supposedly help my business.

You know, you're using this as an in.

So that was the only thing that I can say besides people copying my, my name and trying to steal it from me, all 16 of them.

Besides that, that was probably the, the most cringy thing I've had to encounter.

And also kind of being mindful of the image of people that are influential in this space.

You realize you get to know them and they're actually mean people.

They're mean and they actually don't care about the people they serve.

And they talk like they talk about, like, dogs.

And when you realize that you don't want your name associated with those folks, you kind of distance yourself, and it just is what it is.

But what I know then, I know now, is that you could think that you're on one path, not realizing that your path is about to open up.

Several different paths that you can take.

Yeah, I think I've taken, like, like, six of them.

You think you're on a road.

It's like playing a video game.

Like, you think you're at a level, and then there's, like, this little secret level, and you're like, oh, snap, that was a cool little side quest.

Then you're back on the main road again.

And then you take another level.

You're like, oh, that was amazing.

Okay, cool.

And next thing you know, you start walking all these different paths, not realizing the path you thought you were on was actually a segue to a highway.

You think you're on, like, a.

A main road, but you're really on the arm ramp.

You about to really get into some lanes, you know, if you allow yourself to do so.

And that's been such a listen.

What I completely misunderstood about podcasting is that everybody is going to be your listener.

And what I mean by that is you're wanting to reach everybody, not realizing you want to reach everybody aligned.

So that was something I had to learn because I'm not a fit for everybody off app and off mic.

So I know that I'm not going to be a fit for anybody on mic either.

There are some folks who don't like my tone.

Again, off the mic and on the mic, because my tone might remind them of something or they're used to people talking like this.

And no shade, if you do.

Okay, I'm not talking about you.

I'm just giving an example, like, peace, love, and light.

My name is so and so.

And you.

I don't.

I don't go like that at all.

I don't move like that.

I never have.

It just.

It just is what it is.

I mean, I've just never been that kind of person.

I never wanted to present myself anything other than who I am.

I never wanted this to be a spiritual homegirl had.

I put on for an hour, and then I take it off, and I'm a whole different person behind the scenes.

I was just telling a loved one, you know, the other day, what you've seen is what you got.

I've never promoted myself to be anything different than what I've been.

I'm a person that's learned I've lived.

I've never been a person that has.

That's misrepresented like.

Like where I'm from and things of that nature and who I am.

There's plenty of my homies that follow me that could vouch for a lot of stuff I say and a lot of the names that I don't tell y' all on these.

On these podcasts, streets about things that have happened in the stories.

They know who they are.

So it's always just been like a.

What you see is what you get.

And I've always prided myself on that.

And I think, you know, Martin actually, actually inspired that.

Do y' all remember the episode of Martin?

Regina's homegirl from college came into town.

She had all that weave, and she said she was like a vegetarian, and she was supposed to be a guest on Martin's show when he had the talk show, and he.

She was acting all uppity and Loki was dissing Martin and his friends and things like that.

So when Martin put her on the show, he had pictures of her eating ribs and stuff.

And then ultimately her weave got pulled out of hair.

I think Gina pulled the weed out on accident and it realized that she was a big phony.

Just fronting for the image and the lifestyle.

I knew even then as a little girl watching that, oh, wow, be yourself.

I mean, I already knew that, but it's different when you see it in an artful way.

It's like, oh, wow.

This is what happens when you present to be somebody else that you're not.

And I just always remember if I ever decided to do something, I would not do that.

Even with pageantry, like, I mean, quiet is kept.

I was a pageant girl, low key, growing up.

Like, I love doing pageants.

I think from age.

Let me think.

From 7 to 12, I did pageants.

Not all year round because, you know, pageants have cycles.

But I always love to just tell people who I was.

And I was very much the same way again.

On stage, off stage, very much.

So much so that I remember getting like this Miss Congeniality award for one of my pageants.

And I thought that was.

That was quite.

They was like, girl, you crazy.

You so funny.

You should have your own show.

And I wish I knew who said that, because 20 plus years ago somebody told me that.

I was like, oh, man, really cool.

What do I miss about the Woman who started this.

I miss kind of being out the way.

That's the only thing.

And that was something I really struggled with before I started because I wasn't sure if I wanted to be out front.

I had did a great job minding my business and being out the mix.

And I just.

I mean, the most I had been out front at that time was probably calling up to the radio station and bothering DJ Nash whenever I feel lucky because he was the homie and.

And I say who I was.

This is Maria shouting from Stone Mountain from the east side.

I want to hear blah, blah, blah, blah.

So I would book.

I'm a bug Nas on the radio.

That was pretty much as much as he'd gotten shout out to DJ Nevs.

But other than that, like, I really wasn't really doing anything out front like that.

So, you know, but that's the only thing that I missed.

But the beautiful thing is that I think now we are moving toward as a society, we're moving towards a society that doesn't overshare as much.

There's a lot of risks that come with over sharing.

And I'm not saying to be fearful.

I'm just saying that to be mindful.

And a lot of people are realizing that the way they were sharing 10 years ago, 15 years ago, even five years ago, might not be the safest thing to do.

So I think people are taking their privacy back, and they should.

Let's see what else I want to talk about.

You know what?

When I realized that this podcast was going somewhere, it was somebody in a different state that hit me up on Instagram was like, girl, I love your podcast.

And I said, you like, you listen.

You're listening from where?

Oh, that's really cool.

And then I ended up getting cool with certain people that were listening to the podcast.

Now, everybody's not a good fit because there are some people that I was friendly with.

Then when I say friendly, we weren't necessarily friends, but it was cool, but.

But we're not.

We don't talk at all now.

And I'm pretty sure everybody's allowed to grow.

So I'm not gonna say anything bad about these people, but it was.

I had some weird moments.

Like, there was one weird moment where this lady, I didn't know that her and her friend or her friend of me were following me and were listening to the podcast.

I didn't know again, because I don't be involved in people's lives like that with the mess.

I had no idea.

So the girl, one of the women reached out to me and tells me, hey, I want to tell you about my friend or my friend of me that does xyz, you know, and she's coming to me for advice in my DMs.

I didn't know that it was about this girl, the other girl.

So I'm telling her, hey, if you feel like she's fake, don't talk to her anymore.

You know, distance yourself.

You know, you don't have to be uncomfortable with somebody that is disrespecting you or being passive aggressive or throwing on.

You don't have to do that.

You don't take that from a friend.

And I think you should talk to her about it.

But if you don't want to talk to everybody, take your distance and explain why.

So she's thinking, okay, homegirl, and gave me some advice.

I end up following her friend.

No, I don't even know if I follow her friend.

Her friend of me.

But her friendly responded to one of my tweets at the time because I was on Twitter and this thing.

I knew the girl had blocked me.

She was like, oh, you fake.

She blocked me.

I said, first of all, since I didn't even know y' all was beefing, don't get me involved with y' all little beef.

I had no idea.

I had no idea.

I thought that was so weird.

What's another weird moment?

Oh, yeah, another weird moment.

Somebody got mad at me because.

So there was this guy that used to be in my comments, and he never tried to holl at me at all.

This is in the very beginning of the homegirl years, too.

So he was always in my comments, though, and he would DM me stuff, but it was never anything romantic or of interest.

And I remember being put in a group chat with, like, at least 13 other women.

At least 12 or 13 other women.

And this one woman that's over the group chats, like, oh, if y' all want to be with so and so, so and so, he's a bum.

He do.

He don't have a place to stay, and I've been giving him money, and I'm just letting y' all know he a brokey and all other stuff.

And I was like a. I was like, no, it's not like that.

It's not like that at all.

Like, it's, you know, like, I'm.

I don't have time for the drama, but, nah, it's not like that.

And I removed myself from the group chat.

It was just weird.

Like, I just.

One thing.

I didn't expect about podcasting is how weird things are.

And I also had somebody.

And another thing that's tricky with social media, too, is sometimes your content can rub somebody the wrong way so bad that they think that you're talking about them directly, even though you don't know them.

That's only happened like two or three times.

And there was a time like this random lady in New York, I think in Brooklyn, if I remember correctly.

She somehow took my post that was about a general topic, and she accused me and two other creators, I don't know, conspiring, like, to conspire with her homegirls or co workers or something.

She accused us of conspiring with her co workers and spying on her and trying to harm her spiritually.

It was really wild.

Like, it was.

It was.

I was like, whoa.

Like, that's when you start realizing everybody engages with social media from different levels of wellness.

And I'm not saying that to be a smart alec.

I'm saying that to be for real.

You cannot engage with every single person that wants to engage with you.

You can't.

And some of your content, what they say, your light can shine the demons on other people or whatever it is.

Sometimes you might end up coming across somebody who is going through the worst of the worst, who will somehow think that a stranger like yourself is talking about them.

They will react based on that.

Parasocial relationships are tricky.

They're tricky at at best, dangerous at worst, tricky at best, dangerous at worst.

And I wish I would have known that prior to starting because I didn't realize that the few times that somebody will get kind of weird was a possibility.

I thought everybody was kind of moving a little bit differently.

I got more stories than that, but for the sake of time, let's just keep going.

So the episode that changed the trajectory of the spiritual Homegirl podcast, I would say, hands down, would be the episode with Dick Gregory.

That episode changed my life.

It didn't just change the podcast, it changed my life.

Around that time, I was a year in with the podcast.

And I was really.

Well, not even a year in, actually.

I think I was maybe like six months in.

And I end up meeting this wonderful man and shout out to Zoe, his manager.

His manager at the time, she gave me a once in a lifetime opportunity.

And on my birthday, like, around that time from, I think it was the 13th or 14th, I met with him in this lobby of A hotel.

And, baby, I was not prepared.

I did not realize that I was meeting him in the lobby of a hotel to talk to him.

And this lobby was very busy, so the sound was not where it needed to be.

And I was stressed out because I had talked to Dick Gregory for, like, six to seven hours, and we had hours and hours of footage.

And maybe I'll go back through it and I will kind of listen to it again and see what needs to be said.

But I remember thinking, like, this man is awesome.

Like, I just know that, like, I'm gonna have another grandfather.

Like, I always love elders.

And I just knew at this point that he was special.

And I didn't want anything from him, so to speak.

But I knew that he had a lot to share, and I just wanted to hang around him as much as I could.

And he was like, hey, my sister.

My little sister was with me at the time.

And he was like, y' all my girls.

He says, you know, you can always call.

Call my home.

You know, you call me at home.

If my wife answers, let us know.

Hey, you know, I met Mr. Gregory in Atlanta, and, you know, he.

You know, he wants to stay in touch.

And I was like, cool.

And I think he did one more interview.

He invited us to his show and made up me and my family.

Special guest.

It was really awesome in my.

It was really cool, and it was a night to remember.

And I think he did one more interview.

And then he passed.

And I was sad.

And then after he passed, my grandfather passed.

My maternal grandfather, he passed in November.

And then after he passed, my paternal grandfather passed.

And I think that was March of 18.

So at this point, I'm losing a elder that I'm building a relationship with in August.

I lose my granddaddy in November, and then I lose my other granddaddy in March.

So I said, oh, man, this is a lot.

Like, this is a lot.

And there is a Lost marathon where I was going through the grief so much that I podcasted through it.

Not to cry and be sad, but to see the blessing and celebrating the.

The life of people that positively impacted mine and the lessons I learned.

And I wish that I had not privated those episodes because I think those 15 plus episodes were really poignant.

Y' all know, Covet was covered in.

And it was a lot of loss.

I lost Like a great aunt.

I lost my paternal grandmother.

I lost a lot of people during that time in a short amount of time.

And I was just over it.

I was like, nope.

So I start.

End up, I end up planning an ancestor garden.

And what that is is that I planted every seed in honor of them.

I prayed over everything.

I cried.

I just, you know, and plus it was coveted too.

And stuff was weird outside, as we know.

And I just planted so much stuff.

And I remember out of the 10 years I had been gardening, that was the most successful, most harvesting garden I ever had.

I don't have the most harvesting is a word, but I, I had so much.

It was to the point where if I wanted food, I would just go out back and go get it.

And I, you know, all I do is just go get some mushrooms from like, you know, the Asian market or.

Because Whole Foods was too expensive child.

But, you know, like, I would go, you know, to H Mart and go get a whole bunch of mushrooms.

And if I wanted something for a salad, I go out back.

If I need cilantro or something, I go take out back.

Or if I wanted some lemon mint or chocolate mint tea, I would go out back.

If I want some lemongrass, I go out back.

Nazirdiums for tea, edible flowers, go out back.

I had so much stuff.

I grew everything.

And that was really cool.

And just talking to people about gardening, not from a fear mongering perspective like we see now.

Oh, start your gardens.

But just how honorable it is to just do things that are ancestrally artful, you know, So I thought that was cool.

The hardest season I had creatively was probably this most recent one.

Well, I wouldn't even say it's hard.

I just took a break.

I don't think I took a six month break from the podcast like that this year like I did, but I was pregnant and it was difficult because I preferred to prioritize my pregnancy and just take in everything, all the changes, all the things that, that spiritually happen when you're pregnant.

Being pregnant is a deeply, deeply spiritual experience.

I don't care what nobody say.

I've been through it for myself.

Pregnancy and childbirth is transformative.

It's.

You think you walk in different realms.

No.

When you.

At least for me, no.

Being pregnant and giving birth, that is the true definition for me so far of what it means to feel like you are walking in different realms at the same time.

It is otherworldly, otherworldly, life changing.

Like I wish I had the proper verbiage to tell y' all.

And maybe one day I will, but because I'm still freshly off of.

It ain't even a year yet, you know, I'm still.

Still processing the wonderful things like that.

Like, even with me walking and running with the wolves five years ago, I'm still.

I finally processed that.

It took me five years to really fully process the meaning, spiritually and physically, of what it means to hang out with those wolves for those, what, six hours or whatever it was.

I was there.

Like, it was a blessing.

Even with the owls and, you know, butterfly experiences, animal experiences, those things are so awesome.

And there's been things I've wanted to say, but going back to things that you learn when you podcast, you gotta be careful what you say sometimes, how you feel about things.

You might not feel about it in a couple years, and you have the right to change your mind on that.

But some.

There's been some times where I wanted to say things, but I felt like spirit did not give me the right words.

I prayed over my mouth all the time, like, hey, help me have the right words to say.

And sometimes I have the right words, you know, for the most part.

And then other times I wouldn't.

So, you know, you have the right to change your mind.

You have the right to grow and evolve.

I think some things that people ask me in terms of how do I start a podcast, or, you know, how you.

How do you podcast for as long as you have, and you just do it.

That's really all you do.

It reminds me of me meeting Rasha Ali.

Shout out to her.

And if you're from Atlanta, you love Rashaun Ali.

Like, she's everybody's homegirl.

That's not a hashtag, that's real life.

Like, she's very relatable.

And whether you're hearing her on the radio or seeing her on TV or you see her on stage emceeing something, she's very relatable, very down to earth, very Decatur Eastside with a lot of class.

And I remember I met her and I was like, oh, my God, Rashad Ali, I respect everything you've done.

I've been listening to you since I was growing up on the radio, things like that.

You know, how can I do what you're doing?

And I told her about Spiritual Homegirl.

And I remember she said, you're already doing it.

Just keep doing it.

And I was like.

At first, I was like, okay.

But she's right.

You just keep doing it and you just keep growing and you just keep taking the opportunities as they come to you.

So I actually.

I get it.

I totally get it.

So thank you, sir.

Michelle Ali, shout out to you, because that was one of the greatest pieces of advice she could have ever gave me.

And also sending love and condolences to her family, her father, if y' all don't know, if y' all not from Atlanta is the legendary coach, Coach Godfrey.

He passed away, and they're actually doing a celebration of life very soon in the city.

So I hope everybody shows up for him because he definitely made a big impact in football in.

In our area.

Well, the city.

The whole city, not just Metro.

But everything what this podcast has taught me about people is that we're all connected, even if we're not compatible.

We all go through a lot of things that are similar, even if they're on varying scales.

And that's the blessing of this kind of podcast, because people that might not go through the experience the exact same way I did can know what it feels like in either direction.

And that's been cool.

And I've even thought about how I've changed through my own solidities of life.

When I first started, I was unmarried.

I didn't have no kids.

I was very much living for me.

I was in a different career field.

I hadn't gotten my masters.

I was just, you know, I love people and I loved community, and that's how I served through Spiritual Homegirl.

And then with some of the events and things like that.

Now I'm a person that has her masters.

You know, I have, you know, a different career.

I work in mental health, even though I don't like to talk about a lot of the clinical stuff online, because I don't want to present myself as a therapist, because we see how people do.

People do not do mental health professionals or service providers right on social media.

They hold them to their profession and they forget that they're humans.

And then they try to act like they're not allowed to have opinions on certain things, and they try to govern them as such, which is not fair.

So I never wanted to present that way.

Not to mention I didn't start that way.

So I didn't want to just rebrand and be like, oh, I'm this super duper arms cross picture type.

I don't want to be that.

I want to be me.

I want to be me first before anything else, because I don't know what these next five years or 10 years will take me.

I might not even be in this field doing What I'm doing, you just never know.

The journey is fluid.

What I've learned about grief is that grief can really, at least with the losses that I had, it wasn't just loss of people, it was loss of certain experiences that I wanted to have, loss of what I was building in Atlanta before I moved to la because I was really building something special back home.

And then I dropped off immediately and started over 2,000 miles away.

And in hindsight I see a lesson in that maybe I could have stayed, but if I stayed in Atlanta and I built, it probably could have been something different.

I probably would not have gotten my masters at usc.

I probably would not have gotten with the Southern California Counseling center to even transition careers and ultimately go to usc.

So it's just a lot of things you think about where just one decision can project, you know, change the trajectory, excuse me, of your entire life.

That being said, I have no regrets.

I do believe everything happens for a reason with things like this.

And I chose the road that has the, that had the most wisdom apparently.

So sometimes you got to get out your comfort zone.

It's very easy to do things here at home.

But I wanted to do something different.

And if you can make it in la, you could really make it anywhere.

I, I stand on that.

Everybody says, oh, you can go to New York in LA and make it, you can make it anywhere.

At first I thought it was just bragging on your city, like oh, they just saying that cuz they from here.

No, no, no, no, no.

Huge markets, everybody's doing something and if you can make it there and make it shake there, you can make it anywhere.

I definitely believe that.

So I do think LA toughen me up in a lot of ways that I did not know that I need to be tough enough.

I thought I was tough enough, but it's also gave me a lot of persp on just life, life and the type of work that I do, who I wanted to serve, like it's been a blessing to be able to serve the folks that I served in la and I was able to take that back to Atlanta and you know, do some great stuff with it.

When I stopped caring about, and I don't even think I really cared about this, but numbers I like to know where people are listening from because I think that's cool.

And I've had people listening to the podcast all over the world, whether it's Japan or Hong Kong, India or Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, France especially shout out to London, especially Italy, some countries in Africa.

It's been pretty cool to travel all over the world with the sound of my voice.

It's been really cool.

But I stopped caring about numbers because I've always said from the beginning, and I'll still say it now.

If one person feels what I'm saying, then I'm.

Then I'm cool.

If one person can just share the work, then I'm good.

And I stand by that.

When you're on a mission that is assigned to you by something greater than you, you just do what you're told.

You don't worry about the who you want to sometimes, but it takes away from your mission.

It does.

If you worry about how many people are into you, how many people validate you, even down to the numbers.

I don't know if y' all notice, but on Instagram, I don't hide my likes.

Why?

Because I don't care.

I don't care if a hundred people liked it.

I don't care if a thousand people saw it.

I posted it for a reason.

It'll get to where it needs to go.

And the way these algorithms have been working, I've been seeing some weird stuff.

Not weird in a bad way, but just interesting.

And people are liking stuff.

Like, that stuff is interesting.

And when you have catalog, you know, that's actually, you know, that's not bad at all.

Matter of fact, there's somebody that that was in my comments, and I really want to know who it was.

I'm about to look for it right now.

Somebody said that they still listen to an episode that I did a long time ago.

And I know it's a long time ago because I have 600 plus episodes.

Here we go.

It's me, Jessica.

Jessica Carpenter.

Shout out to you, Jessica.

Jessica said a month ago that she listens to episode 81 at least once a quarter per.

And no fail, I always feel like I'm aligned again by the end of it.

Maria is the spiritual homegirl.

That is why I do it.

One person, one person out there, Jessica in this case, feels what I'm doing to where she's like, yo, this episode stuck with me.

I still tap in and I still get value from that.

That is why I do what I do.

I don't do it.

So I can say, oh, I had 10,000 listeners last month, even though I don't knock that.

But my thing is, I really want.

I want something beneath the vanity metrics.

I just always wanted something of substance.

In 10 years in the game, I believe that I've created that.

What I care about more though is making sure I continue the mission throughout.

The growth that I've done as a woman, the wisdom that I've had, the lessons I've learned.

Because everything had been perfect, I'd have gone through some things too off the podcast.

But the beautiful thing is I'm able to convert them in the lesson so I can share with people.

I might not necessarily give you all the details, but I'll give you enough to where somebody could learn from it.

The thing that's pissed me off over these last 10 years, it don't piss me off anymore because I've gone through it so much, was people trying to copy.

And you know, you don't, you don't have to have a trademark or a copyright on certain topics because no, those topics don't belong to you unless you create some random framework or something that's super duper special, then that's different.

But it was so many imposters trying to be spiritual homegirl.

Like I literally inspired like a two part podcast and they wanted me to come on and tell my side of the story, which ain't no side, because if I own it, I own it.

It is what it is.

But I inspired people to be upset.

I've inspired people to do witchcraft on me because they were upset that I told them that my name belonged to me.

I've had people lie in my face and tell me they're going to create things and build and own my name because they like what they're doing and they're not going to change the name because they don't.

They didn't come up with it eight years prior.

Like I thought people play in my face over 10 years about my name and the beauty of me being in this place than what I was before I started this podcast is I can't say that I would have handled it in this age the way I would have back in the day.

I've grown from a lot and I just don't play that.

And those that know me off Mike know that I've never played ever.

So I'm very glad that I was actually starting this podcast in the much evolved or the more evolved place that I was in, because I did not.

I can't guarantee that I would have handled the way I would have with grace to a degree.

What I mean by that is, you know, I'm not gonna argue and go back and forth with you.

The Maria of years past, decades past, probably wouldn't have did that.

We'll just call the attorney and get your whole stuff shut down.

That's what we'll do.

Or we'll just contact the app that you're on and we'll just shut you down.

We won't even give you any warnings now.

So that's how I stopped caring.

I was like, you know what?

Google's free.

If it's there and you see it, you still want to build, then you assume the risk of getting it snatched.

So I learned that I'm just not gonna, you know, play with people anymore.

The thing that I want people that are listening to know whether you listened from year one or year ten is that.

You always have the right.

You always have the rights.

You always have the right to be who you want to be.

You have the right to own your mistakes.

You have the right to break free of the programming that you were given from your family of origin or from your environment or even from your experiences.

You're free to have the right to take the labels off of you that you out of place on yourself or others have placed on you.

You have the right to change your mind on things that you thought were cool that are no longer cool.

You have the right to change your behaviors.

You have the right to change the people you're around.

You have the right to change your boundaries and set them firmer if you want.

You have the right to take people to accountability land for things that they act like they don't do and do.

You have the right to stand up for yourself.

You have the right to be happy.

You have the right to find joy.

You have the right.

You deserve.

You deserve.

Life is very short in the grand scheme of things.

Time goes by very fast.

I blinked my eye and it's been 10 years.

Life is too short to be unhappy.

Go get your happy, however that looks, and know that no matter what, you always have a homegirl who loves you and wants to see you win on these podcast streets that will always encourage you and root for you to get your happy and to live your best life.

And I hope that people feel that when they hear my voice.

Sometimes I may tell y' all stuff that y' all don't want to hear.

Sometimes you might be going through something I might be talking about whether I know about it or not.

And 99.9 of the time, I probably don't.

It's just that Sometimes things and messages come to us at times that we need to hear it.

And sometimes the messenger might be unlikely or might not even be somebody that we actually know in real life.

When I say real life, I mean life off these Internet streets or off the apps or off the phone or off the podcast streets.

It might be somebody that you don't know that's telling you something that might force you to look in the mirror and say, I don't like how I'm moving.

I need to change some things.

It's okay.

We live in a society now where people like to look at the messenger and not the message.

People like to deflect from the accountability and say, oh, well, I didn't like it.

No.

Sometimes we gotta be told things that we don't like to hear so that we can change into who we want to be.

Being uncomfortable always leads to change, at least in my experience.

When I'm uncomfortable, I adjust because I'm not gonna walk through life being uncomfortable.

I'm not gonna let nobody make me walk through life uncomfortable.

I'll adjust and move all the way around.

I'm either gonna move around you or I'm gonna move through you.

It's either or.

And that's not even necessarily from a physical standpoint, but that's mentally, emotionally, spiritually as well.

A lot of times I talk to people that have issues with people playing with them.

And I've always said, don't let people play with you.

Now, of course, don't crash out.

Be careful, because everything has a cost.

But, you know, you have the right to stand up for yourself.

You just have the right.

You always have the right.

So the next 10 years, I really want to do more.

I don't want to necessarily share all the stuff that I want to do yet, because I'm a person that likes to build first.

But making my project with my grandparents is very important to me, and I'm still wrapping that up.

Actually, at first it was supposed to be with my grandmother, and then I sat with it and I said, well, I have some wisdom that's come from my grandfather as well.

So I'm incorporating that right now.

I'm making some adjustments.

I want to continue talking to people at their schools, their universities, at their workplaces, corporate folks, mindset talks, the whole nine.

I love doing that.

That's one of my favorite things to do off app.

The, like the anti bullying workshops and the mindset talks and the meditations and all that stuff.

I've loved doing those.

So if you want me to Come speak at your school or speak at your meeting or speak at your job or your university.

Let me know.

Okay.

Mariapiritualhomegirl.com and let's talk about what you want to create.

Let's, you know, run the budget and see what's going on.

Also, I want to interview more people.

I took a break from interviewing.

I had a real long interview run in, like, 20, 21ish.

And now I want to share stories of other people.

So I want the next 10 years to be sharing more stories of wonderful people that have something of value to share, not just somebody that's promoting a product or a book.

Now, there might be some folks that happen to have products for sale, but what I don't want to do is I don't want to be a person that is putting on random people just to leverage their audiences.

I want to have people with real stories, whether they're known or unknown.

Like, there's all kind of people I want to interview.

Again, known and unknown, not because of the clout, but because they have a story to tell.

Underneath the glitz, underneath the glamour, underneath the fame, underneath the product, underneath the book, who are you?

What do you have to share with us?

And sometimes there might be some authors.

So if you're an author, you know, don't.

Don't feel like you can't, you know, But I want to read your book.

I want to be able to confidently say, like, hey, I got some value out of this.

So I just wanted to put that out there, too.

That's what I want to do.

What scares me?

Somebody asked me, what scares me or scared you about the next 10 years?

I said, nothing.

Nothing scares me about the next 10 years.

I'm blessed to be here, and we'll take it hour by hour if necessary.

I'm really happy to be here, and that's the blessing of it all, because the next question was, what excites you the next 10 years?

That excites me.

It's not scary at all.

I've.

Imagine what I can do in who I can reach out there in podcast land in, you know, 10 through 20 years, because now we on this, the second decade.

Wow, that's crazy to say.

That is crazy to say.

Wow.

First decade ended today.

And now we begin the.

Oh, that's so crazy.

Okay, what I want my legacy to be.

Somebody asked me this too.

I want my legacy to be one where I was able to to make a positive impact on whoever engaged with the spiritual homegirl platform.

As long as I positively impacted you in any way, shape or form, that is good enough for me.

And what was the last.

Oh, there's two last questions.

A question or a second to last question.

I was asked if I could talk to myself on day one, what would I say?

Strap in, girl.

It's gonna be a hell of a ride.

That's what I would have told myself.

Strap in.

It's gonna be a hell of a ride.

It's gonna take you all kind of places and you're gon.

Sometimes you're gonna be like, wow, wow.

And then wow in either direction.

So just strap in and take the lesson and enjoy the ride.

It's gonna be fun, I promise.

And then the last question is, after everything, why are you still here?

It's been 10 years.

Like, if you've done everything that you want to do, why are you still here?

It's been 10 young, 10 long years.

You know your podcast.

Older than some people's kids, older than some people's marriages.

And I think it's a funny question.

I'm here because I want to be.

That's why I have a lot more to do.

And when you begin a mission that consists of your blood, sweat, tears and ancestral guidance, God wisdom as well, and guidance, you're not done until they say you're done.

And I still want to be here too.

But I know that there's something bigger to do.

There's something more to do.

And even if that bigger is just podcasting for another 10 years and not doing nothing else, I'm fine with that.

I will be here until I am guided by them, nobody else, not a human on this earth, and whatever spiritual scene they got, I am not going anywhere until my folks say so.

And that's on.

Period.

So with that being said, y', all, it's been a wonderful 10 year chat.

I hope y' all enjoyed it.

It's been a pleasure and an honor to be able to sit here for another 600 plus episode on the 10 year anniversary of this launch and just talk with y'.

All.

And y' all know I can't do any podcast episode without thanking you all for listening.

So thank you for listening, Boo.

Friends.

Oh, no, I'm getting choked up.

I know you lie.

Hold on.

Oh, I'm not gonna cry on this.

I'm not crying on this mic.

I'm not.

Thank you for listening, Boo.

You have lent me your ears whenever you felt like tapping in with your girl, and I appreciate that more than you know, from the bottom, bottom of my heart.

Please sign up for the email list.

Stay in touch.

I want to do some emails a little more just to kind of tap in with y' all and remind y' all of what I'm doing.

So if you got me in your spam folder, take me out.

Okay.

Search Spiritual Homegirl, your spam folder, if you already signed up.

Okay.

If you're like, oh, she sent me some emails.

I didn't get them.

Take me out of your spam folder so we can stay in touch.

And, yeah, I think that's everything.

Yeah.

If you haven't signed up for the.

For the email list, you'll get a free gift for joining.

So tap in.

So this has been another episode of the Spiritual Homegirl podcast.

My name is Maria, your spiritual homegirl.

And remember, boo, friends, trust the journey, trust yourself, and whatever you do, do it with love, even if it's 10 years long.

Okay?

Love y'.

All.

Peace.