In the most recent episode of the CultureRoad Podcast, we feature Asha Walker, a renowned holistic health coach and the CEO & Founder of Health in the Hood. Joined by DeEtta, they delve into the significance of distinguishing between real and processed foods, explain the concept of food deserts, and explore why your zip code can profoundly impact your health more than your genetic makeup. This episode is a must-listen for anyone embarking on a transformative path toward a healthier lifestyle but needing guidance on where to begin.

CR Podcast EP 13

U1

0:03

Welcome, welcome. Asha Walker. I'm so happy you're here. So happy to be here. Welcome to the Culture Road podcast. We've been waiting for you to be here. I'm such a special day. This is a delightful experience for us.

U2

0:15

Amazing. I'm so happy to be here. It's such a vibe. It's really what you've built is just so beautiful. I'm just thrilled to be part of it.

U1

0:20

Well, what we're building, right? I think we're all building. Yeah. And so one of the things that I want to do is just to kind of give us some context. The Culture Road is really about the idea that we are all transforming, and that culture is transforming, and it's transforming in all sorts of ways, right? The way that we connect to each other in the world, the way that we are expressing our identities, the way that the whole world has this kind of call for equity and really looking for ways to create more equity in our systems and our structures, the way that we're communicating with each other, all of it is transforming and it's all cultural. And so Culture Road is really just a place for us to say, if our culture is transforming, then we're all on this big collective journey. And as we're on this collective journey, let's find places where our paths can come together and when we can celebrate each other and when we can support each other, and also where we can give some recognition for the distinctive experiences and lived experiences and voices that we all bring.

U2

1:28

That is so beautiful.

U1

1:30

Well, it is beautiful. And with that, we want you to help contribute to that. I'm

U2

1:34

honored, honored with that

U1

1:36

contribution. So the assumption is that you for the number of years that you've been on this planet and all the amazing work that you've been doing, you have a pretty amazing journey. Would you share with us how you came to be? Asha Walker, founder and CEO of Health in the Hood. Who you are and where you come from? What's your journey? Whoo.

U2

1:56

Well, taken me 39 years to figure that out, and I'm still figuring it out every day. But thank you so much for having me and giving me a chance to be part of this beautiful culture. I'm just so, so honored and thrilled. But I am. I'm Ashley Walker. I am the CEO and founder of Health in the Hood. It's a not for profit in South Florida. We build urban farms and alleviate food insecurity. But I am a local girl. I am born and raised in the county of Dade. I have watched my city change and evolve over the years. So I know this city. It's in my roots, in my DNA. I am a theater kid turned nonprofit professional. It still serves me like a theater kid. Like you had to learn how to think on your feet and improv and so still use a lot of those skills. But parlayed that into a career in the not for profit world in South Florida and then parlayed that into my own not for profit. And now, ten years later, we are still thriving and growing beautiful urban farms across South Florida and feeding families. And then I parlayed that into a holistic health coaching program. So now I'm also building out a wellness platform that is a little more expansive and covers sort of all the areas of holistic health, so really creating an all encompassing for everyone health

U1

3:07

platform. Love it. I absolutely love it. Tell me what point. It's so interesting, the stuff that you're doing, and it's.

U2

3:15

It's so amazing that here we are at this point in time, and all of a sudden wellness and eating food that comes from the ground right below our feet, like, local

U1

3:28

food is all of a sudden so in style.

U2

3:31

We are on trend right now. Right.

U1

3:33

But what happened? Like, at what point did we lose our ability or our right to eat healthy? What happened? How did we get to this place?

U2

3:40

I think it was a couple of factors. I think it didn't just happen overnight, but in some ways, it did. It's when things started to really be industrialized and made really convenient. Right. Like, we grew our own food not that many decades ago, victory Gardens. We were encouraged by the government to grow our own food, and now things have shifted. Money makes a big difference. Your zip code makes a big difference to indicate what you have access to. Really, I think it was the convenience that made the biggest shift that separated us from, oh, this food takes a little while to go out of the ground, but this food's sitting right here, and I can pop it in the microwave, and we'll be ready in 90 seconds. And not asking the questions about what's actually in it and how it's serving us, and it's taken us all this time to sort of wake up. It was one of the silver linings of the pandemic, I say that. That was really, I think, the first time people started to actually click into, well, wait, if my immune system is stronger, then maybe I won't get this virus and maybe I'll be healthier. And that, I think, really kicked off a lot of what we're seeing now, which is this sort of awakening. And now people are like, oh, growing your own food. That's really neat. I'm like, yeah, we've been doing this for a decade. Welcome to the party. Welcome. Yeah.

U1

4:46

I love it in your Ted Talk, which is phenomenal, by the way. I encourage everyone to watch it. Thank you so much. I love how you just came out on stage and handed out food to people. I'm like welcome.

U2

4:56

How do you make this different? I got to make the intro a little different. That's the theater kid part. You did a good job. It

U1

5:01

worked. And people were, like, standing there in line. I loved it. But you said that your zip code has more to do with your health and then your genetic code. Yeah, that was it's pretty it. I know that because of the work that I do over time, and I also know because I do so much work in places where there's significant kind of food poverty and just poverty, generally speaking. But to to be able to have such a poignant kind of fact that you can state tell us a little bit about yeah, about that. Like, it's a

U2

5:31

potent statement. That's why I repeated I've been saying it for almost ten years now, that it really gives you a visceral picture of what food insecurity looks, what a food desert is. Whenever I do a talk, I say, who in the room knows what a food desert is? And most people are like cricket. Cricket. When you really piece it together and talk about what kind of lines are literally drawn in the concrete, in the sand, when you're talking about a neighborhood that has access to every kind of leafy green you could want, and a neighborhood just in Miami with gentrification, we're just windwoods butted right up to overtown. People don't know when they're sitting at Cush Ham Burger bar that they are just a stone's throw away from people who can't one financially afford to be in Winwood paying those prices or just transportation wise can't leave their communities. So there's a lot of different barriers that make that the reality, but it truly is a visceral way to understand that where you live completely dictates the food that you have access to.

U1

6:24

Okay, let me ask another question. This is. 1s This is complicated. It's a complicated topic because I absolutely am a person who grew up eating. You know, I was on WIC when I grew up. We were on food stamps. There were times when I remember going to the cashier with some really high quality something or another because it was a special occasion, and then busting out my food stamps and be turned away. I wasn't allowed to use them. Like, that's too fancy. If you're using food stamps, you shouldn't be getting food that's that fancy. So we stuck to those inside of the grocery store aisles where all of the canned goods are and all of the stuff where it's highly processed lives. And I grew up eating that way for most of my life and also generationally. I was one of the kids that microwaves where all the rage and everything was fast and easy. My mother worked three jobs. So growing up in that experience, somehow or another, I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but at some point in my life, I really got into healthy eating and I really got very conscientious about food and about exercise. But a lot of people don't make that shift. Like, I think about even my parents or my aunts and uncles who just refuse to shift their relationship.

U2

7:32

Generational, too.

U1

7:36

How do we do that shift?

U2

7:38

Yeah. I'll tell you what makes a big difference. Growing greens, literally in people's backyards. So the very first donor I sat down with was someone I'd worked with for years. My other not for profit work. And I won't name him, he's a wonderful person, but he said, this isn't going to work. He was like, you can write a grant, but people are not going to people want their doritos. They want their sake. They're not going to be interested in needing kale. And I was like, I think you're wrong. I'm like I'm being guided. You're not right. And I'm going to try it anyway. Mike buyers are telling me to go, so I'm going to go. And when I tell you, no one has ever said, I don't want that collard green or I'm not interested in that cherry tomato. When you see food growing, it is such an instant, innate connection to where our food comes from, to being connected to that we need to eat, that you just innately know that that is what you should be having in your body. So it's just this really simple, beautiful solution that we've added the education component to it. But really, the farms are the teaching tools. They are really how we get people to get back to their roots. And so even though people do have these generational patterns of processed food and foods that are directly tied into preventable diseases, when you grow some greens up in people's backyard, it's like, oh, yeah, that works. I could do that.

U1

8:49

Yeah, that also is good for generational. I'm thinking about my father and his generation. They grew up actually growing their food. At some point, they shifted. Yeah. But they absolutely I think if it was growing in their yard, they would kind of reorient. Yeah,

U2

9:03

sure. And it's just like, re. 2s Teaching shifting attitudes, and it's like just getting us literally back to our roots, breaking that cycle of, like, well, doesn't have to be coming out of the box. It's like, this serves me so much better. And then as soon as you eat it and you feel so much better and you're eating living food, then it's like the shift is done. It's a pretty quick shift that happens.

U1

9:23

So this is not the same as what you do. Exactly. But what is the deal with animals? How does that come into play when we think about food? When you mean animal versus plant? Yeah. It's a real big conversation that I'm so engaged in. I've read and seen all of the documentaries about being vegan for many years. I was vegetarian during pandemic, I was vegan. Now I try to eat really healthy organic food, but I also am not sure because there's so many differences of opinion about

U2

9:54

animal on everything. I read the other day eat sweet apples. Don't eat sweet apples. Like one's good for you. Good it's not good for you. So we're so bio individual, and it's figuring out what works best for you. And I have made myself really break away from putting myself into a label or a bracket of like, am I vegan? I'm a qualitarian. Whatever I eat, I'm going to eat the highest quality of. If I eat it a lot or drink it a lot, it's going to be something that I really make sure I'm investing time and research and make sure it's the best quality of what I'm having. 2s But I think there's an argument for both sides. Like, some people say eating too many animals is terrible for the planet, which it is. But then there's also, like, if you eat too much nut milk and have too many almonds, that's also terrible for the environment too. So, you know, I think it's all about balance. It's finding homeostasis and balance in the body and balance in your life externally of what you're putting in. So I would say find the highest quality of whatever you're gonna eat and listen to your body and listen to what makes you feel good. Like, I did vegan for a while. I was kind of bloated and hungry most of the time, and now I have chicken and fish and meat occasionally and still love tofu and tempeh, but I just mix it up. I just keep it kind of diverse.

U1

Yeah, I think I've landed in that same place, but I love the pushback against labels. But qualitarian, I can handle that. Right.

U2

I heard that somewhere. I was like, oh, that is totally stealing. That yeah, that's a good one.

U1

That's a good one. So how do we do qualitarian living for those people who subscribe to this idea on a budget? Yeah. If you were going to go to the store with $100, what would you spend it

U2

on? Yeah, well, now it won't get you that. $100 doesn't get you that far. I just ordered groceries this year. I was like, oh, my. It's just insane. I know I'm really scary, but that's why it's also almost a blessing in disguise, because we're going to get back to our roots. Maybe people start growing some microgreens on their kitchen counter when they see how expensive they are at the grocery store and you grow them for free. So I think the biggest thing I always tell people, I just did a reel about seven tips of how to eat healthy on a budget. It's planning. It takes just a tiny bit of creativity and planning. Cook once, eat twice, sometimes three times, four times. I'll try scratch it as long as I can. Meal prepping goes a long way. It doesn't have to be like a bodybuilder packaging it perfectly, just like having a bunch of colorful fruits and vegetables roasted up, steamed up in your fridge, ready to go into the air fryer or the microwave, whether you use microwave or not. But for me, that really is how I'm able to make things last longer. And then with groceries being so expensive, it's almost like you have to eat it so you feel much more, I think, devoted to the cause. And you're not going to let things spoil in your fridge and you spend money on them. But if you plan a little bit, have a couple of staple things that you make, have a few staple dishes, that really, I think, is the key. And then staying on the periphery of the grocery store, because on the inside is usually more expensive and more toxic.

U1

Amen. I do this? I usually talk to people about this. People are like, well, why don't you go up and down every aisle? And I'm like, Because that's the

U2

stuff that's going to kill you. Ain't none good happens. 2s It's not good. Even in Whole Foods, it's not really that great. So staying on the periphery, or if you're going to venture into the middle, knowing what you're getting into and making sure you're intentional about your choices. Totally.

U1

Like, I know I'm going for this specific thing, and then I'm back on the periphery and I spend a lot of money on the periphery,

U2

but that's where it should be spent. As long as we freeze it, juice it. My freezer always has plenty of frozen vegetables. That's another one. Frozen veggies, big one. We spend all this money on fresh vegetables, which is great, but frozen vegetables, I have my fridge stocked all the time with some frozen broccoli, frozen carrots. You fill those in the air, fryer, it's like.

U1

Yes. Delicious. Yes. So if I don't have the ability to grow something, for example, I don't have a plot of land or a community I grow in my house. Is there something that I can grow on my balcony or in my kitchen window? Totally

U2

started. Totally. So I always suggest people start with microgreens because they are incredibly nutrient dense. They grow in, like, six days. So, like, the benefit of, like, six days yeah. Is you throw some seeds in some soil, and you literally have something you can eat in literally a week. Yeah. You can let them go a little bit longer. You can do two weeks, but really, by that time, they're turning into, like, little plants at that point. But when you want to get them is when they're just shooting up out of your soil or whatever your medium that you're growing is. We're actually working on some microgreen growing kits at Health in the Hood, so stay tuned

U1

there. Yeah, I always buy that at the farmers market, but I didn't realize I could just go home. Oh, my God,

U2

they're so easy. I can send you the materials that we use. They're on Amazon. You just get a little growing container, a little growing medium, some water, some seeds, broccoli, sprouts, and you're done. And you've got the Healthiest sprouts right on your kitchen counter. And then we also have a grow kit that's kind of cool. We've developed over the last couple of years at Health in the Hood that's kind of transferable. So you can start it on your kitchen counter. It's a Mason jar, and then it's got a little basket. So once you grow your starter, your plant, you can either leave it there, or you can put it into, like, a planter on your balcony. Then if it grows outside of that, it'll grow even more of them. You could put it in a garden in your backyard. So you can really kind of transfer them into their growth phases.

U1

Love it. Oh, my goodness. This is still making me think back to my great grandmother. Literally, I'm having a vision right now of my great grandmother who had this little yard, and she was growing all these vegetables. And I'd go in and she'd have all these cans, mason jars, and beets pointed. She had beets everywhere, and it's like, it's it. But the food was amazing. It was always so fresh. She lived to be like 100 years old. There you go. And I'm pretty sure that there was a relationship there. And also the activity just pouring love into something that's growing I also think is really healthy from a mental health and a physical health point of view, as well as what you're eating. Yeah, I

U2

love this. Plants are high vibrational. So you spend time around plants, it literally raises the frequency. I know I can talk to you about this. I can't talk about frequency with everybody. No, but it raises the frequency of a neighborhood, too. So when we go in and we convert a vacant lot that was just kind of a breeding ground for mattresses and trash and crime, and we don't look at it as a deficit. We go in and we're like, that is a community asset. And we convert it into this beautiful garden, have vibrant vegetables growing, and it just changes the whole literal feel and vibration of that community.

U1

How does that work? Tell me practically how does that work? If you go in and you see a plot of land, I'm thinking about people who are watching the podcast who say, you know what? I don't live in Miami and can't visit Health in the Hood specifically. But I have a plot of land that's near my house or in my neighborhood, and I'd love to be able to imagine some of this. How do you do that? You just find a plot and then see about coming up with people who are willing to kind of be cooperatively, responsible for it. Or do you need funding? Yeah,

U2

well, a little bit of all those, yes, funding, for sure. People are like, well, how do you maintain the farms? I'm like, I write grants and grant reports and go to dinner with my donors all day long. That's why I am always in fundraising mode. Then I have an amazing board that helps us fundraise, but it takes a little bit of all those components. So for us, we are community engagement is in the DNA of our program. So we go in and we make sure we've got all the key players. We've got the schools, the municipalities, the community leaders, the churches, the pastors, after school programs, the teachers, the principals. So all those are our most important players. Then we get the corporations or the foundations or the donors to help us fund it. Um, but all of our land is donated, which is a unique part of our model. That's amazing. So it's a burden of blessing because the city could say, you've been growing here for ten years, and now we're going to sell the land. You got to move. Hasn't happened yet, knock on wood. But it's a risk that we take. But having that line item be $0 to use land that is not being used for anything productive is kind of where we've hit our sweet spot. So anybody that wanted to start a site, which we are actually moving into new communities, going to Chicago, that's our next community. Oh,

U1

thank you so much. I mean, so excited to help with that connection. Oh,

U2

yes, I love it. I love it. And so we're doing just that now, building out those connections. And we've got a great partner there and just really figuring out what it looks like and what it's going to be. But those are the main components that you need to have. You need to have your funding, you got to have your land, and you got to have your community players. And from there, it's really the logistics. It's learning how to build farm, which is really that's what Google's for. Or we have an amazing garden director now, but for the first ten years, I'm not a farmer in my DNA, but it's really not that complicated. We overcomplicate things. You get some good soil, you get a planter, you put some stuff on the ground, you're going to yield some stuff. I mean, you can do even better. 1s In the last two years, we've had an amazing garden director, so now we have even more beautiful crops. But it's not as complicated as I think we make it. And so it's just a matter of pulling those pieces together. And then if anybody is looking for advice, call us. We always got stuff that we're posting and sharing and looking to really sort of franchise out this model where we say we're not for profit, of course, but looking to expand into new communities. I'm thrilled. I'm so excited that that's something that's a possibility for people to just call you and you say, yes, let's help you figure this out. Yeah, we have an allocation.

U1

Okay. Yeah. So

U2

anybody who wants to start a farm in South Florida, we've got a pretty long wait list, but we keep a running tally of schools and churches and community members that want us to become and develop a farm for them. And as soon as we get a grant for it, then we chip them off as we get funding.

U1

Awesome. Amazing. Well, I know that you have another volunteer who's just signing up right now. I am excited to come. Anything that I can do. I was like, talking to my son about it and my partner. I'm like, oh my God, I'm about to have this amazing podcast. I can't tell you how excited I am. I want to still go volunteer. Yeah. Because I agree the high vibration is real. It's real. You leave dirty, like literally dirty and thrilled and happy and fulfilled. It's like the best shower you ever had and you just feel so, so full. Can't wait to be

U2

there with you. Yeah, come anytime. We've got a lot of different opportunities to volunteer. I

U1

said with you, you're going to be fundraising. I'll be in the dirt. I

U2

used to be in the dirt a lot more and now I'm just behind my desk. Most days I just watch on Instagram while my team is all out there just killing it. I'm like, you guys go. I'll just keep right in this ground with the mosquito bites.

U1

Tell us a success story. Like, I can only imagine as a person who also has been spending my life doing a lot of work in communities, just the amount of fulfillment. Like, I feel so filled up when I'm sitting side by side with people who are and having a positive impact on people's lives and on my own because I'm doing meaningful work. Tell us that success story. What's one story? That either was something about somebody's health being significantly impacted because the way that they changed their eating habits or a community coming together or something that's just really powerful.

U2

All of those things happen kind of on a daily basis in our farms. It's really kind of overwhelmingly profound how much of a difference giving people access to fresh food makes. We've been doing this for ten years, so the longevity is there. We've seen families that they are transient communities, so people are not always there for the full run. But you definitely have people that have been visiting for years on end, who have been battling cancers and different and illnesses that attribute their wellness to being able to access fresh food or any of their healthy improvements to being able to access fresh food. Um, a lot of those stories we capture at our food drive, which was not what we started ten years ago. We were an urban farming organization. But when the pandemic hit, we mobilized. Some of our incredible donors came together and we're like, how can we get healthy food to people as quickly as possible? I never forget I was sitting on my exercise ball in my living room, writing out this program and figuring out who we needed to have at the table, how to get food from these local food banks. And now, years later, we're still operating a drive through pantry that serves about 200 families a week. We put together healthy grocery boxes. It's another great volunteer opportunity if you wanted to come out and do that. Every Tuesday and every Thursday at 930, we feed 150 to 200 families and they have become completely reliant on us. We keep saying, okay, we got to figure out if we can do this, sustain this for another year. But we're like, we can't take this resource away. It's across the street from a senior center. So we've gotten groceries, carts donated from Amazon, and folks just come over, bring their grocery carts, and we're able to send them home with healthy food. So it's an endless cycle of beautiful stories of people who anytime you connect someone to healthy food wellness resources, it's just this gorgeous story that we're able to see and share over and over

U1

and love it. How about the volunteers? The kind of people who come and volunteer, are they people who live in the actual

U2

community? It's both. We have everybody. We've got incredible corporate groups, high school students, individuals that want to come out. And then certainly when we are building a farm, like these huge truckloads of soil are getting delivered and there's all these people and we're knocking on doors saying, we're going to grow some kale. You want some collars? What? Are you interested? Is Ochre on your list? So, yeah, people get really interested. And when we tell people, give us your kids for half an hour, we're going to do a teaching activity on how to grow green beans. You're like, fantastic. Goodbye. Just like this perfect after school activity for kids to have because we have this education component woven in as well. So not only do we grow the food, we also teach nutrition, fitness and urban farming workshops. So at health fairs and in the community and in our garden. So, yeah, I mean, people definitely get excited and involved pretty immediately.

U1

You know, one of the things that I, you know, and I've talked to so many people all the time about the topic of equity yeah. And how, you know, the whole world, especially over the last year has really last couple of years has come together just demanding equity. And people are like, well, how is equity different from and I'm like, no, it's it's us. You know, everybody and across the entire world saying we want something different than what exists and what has exist. And we need disruption in the systems and the way that we're kind of living fast and taking what comes and living kind of miserable lives. People are unhealthy. They're unhappy. They don't know why.

U2

They're not addressing the root cause. They don't just put bandaids on everything and just here as a pill. How's your sleep? How's your stress? What are

U1

you eating? Yeah. And sometimes it's just so foundational. So I sit and I have conversations, and I'm like, yes, but what's the root cause? Not the symptom. What's the root cause? What's the root? And if we keep going down far enough, food is always the place that we get to, right? And it could be job, it could be family, it could be social media. But we always get down to the fundamental. And the fundamental is food. Health care, even below health care, is food.

U2

It's first. It's the food. It's the first thing. And

U1

it's the thing we need the most of like, every single day.

U2

We need food. Everybody needs

U1

it. And every single equitable piece, that's where it gets into like, oh, well, you need these foods to help support your gut. So your gut can make the hormones make your body work optimally, so your organs can do what they need to do, so your blood can pump the way it needs to pump. But if you're eating. Dead food, or what I call food, which is not really food that's in the middle of the grocery stores, all this process, ultra processed stuff that you really can't even call food. Of course you're gonna feel bad. Yeah. Of course you're gonna be inflamed of course you're gonna get chronic illness and diseases. Yeah. And that's and that's not the

U2

only way. Of course there are there are things that are unavoidable and people who have illnesses that are not associated with what they eat, but but there is a massive population, but that is that is suffering that I think doesn't need to be.

U1

Absolutely. And also for people who are dealing with illness to Confede themselves with bad food is absolutely not helping. Right. And then constantly all the medication and so just changing that relationship. So the idea of being able to actually help the world create more equity by addressing how it is that we approach our relationship with food and then creating experiences that actually start to change culture, where culture lives like people's hands in the dirt, doing the thing

U2

more real. Yeah. Food justice is social justice. They're one and the same. Absolutely. We've just sort of separated them, siloed them out, but they're the same thing. Yeah. It's right there. I love it. I absolutely love it. If you were going to I have a couple of rapid fire questions. We always do this. I'm going to ask you. So one of them is, I'm imagining, especially as a founder and a CEO, that you have tremendous responsibility as a leader. And a lot of the people that I work with specifically and that we work with in my firm, deanna Jones and Associates, are people who have executive leadership roles or managers, people who have responsibility for kind of all of the stuff that you just said, for kind of helping people get through kind of the wellness parts of their lives. But in the context of work. And so what I'd like to do is ask you a leadership question. Can you give us an example of a time when you had a particularly complicated kind of leadership challenge? Right. Something came to you from like, maybe your employees, and you had to say you had to make a tough call, but you just said, you know what, I need to I need to let my values anchor on how it is that you were going to make a decision about moving it. Moving through it. Yeah. What was one of your kind of really tough leadership challenges is nothing that's confidential. No,

U1

but a leadership challenge. And then how it is that you decided to move through it? What is it that you called upon? I think the most challenging thing that I've come across leading any organization, whether it's not for profit or the other, is the human element. It's really challenging and it's out of your control. Like, humans are humans and they're going to have issues and they're going to have personalities. And I think it was probably the only thing I didn't account for when I started this. I was like, I'm just going to because I could just roll through. I can cry when I get home. But there's definitely that human. And one of our values is human first as an organization. So we really balance that. And so we're really intentional about how we care for our team and our family environment that we create. But yeah, the human element is definitely one that takes extra time, and it's a balance between making sure you're staying productive and still nurturing employees and nurturing your team and nurturing that relationship. And I have probably another entire podcast of examples of where that is complicated. It's very complicated. Turnover is one piece, but really the beautiful thing about for us is that people who work with us are so dedicated, and so the issues that we have are not because they aren't into the cause. It's just people have life and there's just things and you can get wrapped up. And so it's supporting that. But for the most part, we just have incredibly dedicated people that come to our organizations. We've been very lucky in that way, but even dedicated people have issues. So definitely dealing with people stuff is definitely probably the most challenging part. Yeah. And

U2

funding, every time that payroll goes through, you're like, oh my God, I got to get another grant.

U1

And grants are so hard. I mean, the tricky part about grants is that they often require, like, matching funds or they require all these or they require this amount of administration, a lot of administration,

U2

but we can't do it without them. So we're just beyond grateful for our founders and funders and foundations that support our work. But, yeah, it's a full time gig, but I've got an amazing team now. Executive team is growing, so I'm getting more and more out of the day today. I don't really get to be in the dirt as much anymore, but I'm able to really focus on our strategic planning, our ten year plan, our fundraising, all the pieces that my brain has been like, trying to have the only thing to focus on. And now we're really able to move in that direction and really grow. That's

U1

a really amazing and important point, especially for people who are entrepreneurs, to be able to do what you're talking about you're able to do right now is to be able to kind of get out of the business, like to stop working in the business and focus on working on the business. And it's, I think, one of the biggest challenges. It's really hard for entrepreneurs. Yeah. Because who's going to do all this stuff and who has same amount of passion and other people are going to have real lives and you have to. Know that that's going to happen, but this business ain't going to run itself. Right? And so to be able to actually give yourself the space to get out of the business so that you can help grow the business totally is a real challenge.

U2

I'm going to use that one. Get out of the business. To grow the business. It's really hard. Yeah, it's really hard. I have an incredible team. Our executive leadership, everybody are just that's one thing I don't have to worry about. I can really hone in on something and use all my critical thinking skills and like, they handle all the stuff.

U1

That's it. That's it. For all the entrepreneurs out there. Get good senior

U2

team, get people who are better than you at what you're not good at.

U1

Absolutely. And then you go out there and make the magic happen.

U2

I'm not really great at HR. My COO lives and breathes it. And there is not a mileage scent that is not accounted for. And I'm like, Go, girl, I'm a regular Grant. I mean, not a scent. She's like, you drove an extra quarter of a mile. I want to make sure you don't make it. I mean, it's just like how we got to be. That's how you

U1

got to be. You need somebody you need someone

U2

like that. Exactly. If you don't if you don't

U1

even if you do, if you're a CEO, you have other stuff to do. Exactly. Okay, so one more question. Yeah. This is a question we've been asking all our guests, and so I'm just going to ask you to think about this. It's a soundtrack question. If you were going to name the soundtrack that you think kind of represents where you are right now in your life, the song that's just really vibing with right now, what is

U2

it? This is so hokey. I started thinking a lot about being more intentional about the music that I'm consuming. And I love a good hype up song, and I definitely have my hype up music, but I have been listening to these really beautiful mantras in the form of music to just keep my frequency and my nervous system sort of regulated. And there's one, I'm going to mess it up. It's OmNamo. And it's just this beautiful mantra that reminds us about the kindness that's in all. And it just has a beautiful message. I mean, you just listen to it over and over. There's another group called the Beautiful Chorus. Cannot recommend them enough. They're just these gorgeous that one's in English, so really you can connect to it even more. But these beautiful mantras that just repeat in this gorgeous tone, that that's to my soundtrack right now. Yeah, I'd

U1

love it. Well, it's a great example of I listen to mantras a lot. I absolutely love it. And I go on like, meditation retreats and listen, but it's like, how do you ingest things that are positive and healthy and it's kind of the same as food. It's about what we ingest,

U2

what you're consuming.

U1

It has such a powerful impact on us, and it could be positive, or it could be negative. You got it right. And so to intentionally kind of pour in the things that are kind of positively affecting us, our nervous system and all of it yeah, I'm

U2

trying to get my husband to, like, honey, your nervous system. He's just working so hard and says, I'm like, honey, your nervous system, we got to regulate you. You got to sit down for five minutes. It's so important to, like, keep that thing in balance and regulate it. And imagine if everybody regulated their nervous systems. It'd be so. A better world. Oh,

U1

my God. I spent so much time talking about this with my clients, and I'd talk to my son about it. He's 15, but since his since he was a little kid, he'd get all worked up, I'd say. And I described to him how, like, the neurology works in our brains and our physiology and how it is when we get cortisol releases, it activates our fight and flight tendencies. And I was

U2

now he's got that woven, and he's like, oh, I better calm down. So

U1

I'm like, Babe, you're all cortisol duh. He's like, Tommy. Mom, I'm 15. You don't have to say that anymore. And I'm like, it's kind of what's happening.

U2

You're really on cortisol right now. Ten.

U1

But to get ourselves to a place where that cortisol is kind of regulated, it takes time. It's not like it just snaps our fingers or we just have a cup of matcha and all of a sudden we're back to a better place. So we actually have to build an important

U2

practice series of tools and practices to come back to. Trying to get my husband to not have coffee first thing in the morning. It's a hard one. You got to eat before your coffee. Otherwise your cortisol is going through the roof.

U1

Oh, that's a good one. That's a

U2

hard one, but that's a good one. That's a good one. Make a way. Really important one, though. That's a big one. That's an easy way to wreck your hormones. Just starting with that cup of coffee before you have someplace for it to land, like it needs food to land.

U1

Oh, I'm going to have to really think about this one. This is a

U2

new one. If we're talking about cortisol, that'd be my one cortisol foundational tip. Okay, I'm going to really take that. I'm taking everyone. 1s I'm

U1

still out for deliberation on

U2

that last one. I believe you. I'm not ready to put it into practice yet. Totally fair.

U1

It has been delightful talking to you. How do we learn more about you? So go to your website. Yes.

U2

So you can go to Healthinthood.org. If you want to learn more about health in the hood, if you want to hear more about nervous system regulation and cortisol, you can go to Asherworkerwellness.com. But both platforms are here to serve and to share health and wellness with the world.

U1

We are so excited, and I definitely am going to be out there in the dirt with you and your colleagues, or at least your colleagues. I cannot wait to contribute and to also consume and to start growing. I'm going to start growing. And I think that this podcast has also left all of our listeners and our watchers with real takeaways like things that we can actually incorporate into our day to day lives. And so thank you so much for leaving us with these important tips.

U2

Thank you for doing this. Thank you for creating this space. Oh, it's

U1

been such a gift. Thank you. Thank you.