We’re excited to have Hayley Lewis, the beautiful sports anchor for the 41 Action News sports team, joining us as our guest for today’s podcast! 

Hayley has an incredible job, and she has an inspiring story to tell. In today’s show, she shares her story, talks about what she stands for, tells us what it’s like to do what she does for a living, and discusses what a privilege it was for her to grow up in a wonderful family, with dynamic and supportive parents.

Making sacrifices to assist the children

Hayley’s grandparents raised their children so that they could have far more than their parents ever had, and to be far more successful than their parents ever were. Their point was to sacrifice everything so that they could give it all to their children, and Hayley hopes to do the same one day for her children.

 About Hayley

Hayley was born and raised in Kansas City. Her mother was a school counselor, her father was a head football coach, and her brother was in D1 football. Talking about sports was in her blood, and it came easily to her. 

While attending college in Nashville, Hayley competed for Miss America, and she got placed in the top ten out of 53 competitors. In 2014, she won the Miss Tennessee title. As Miss Tennessee, Hayley served as the governor’s Official Spokesperson for Character Education, so she traveled a lot, and spoke to thousands of school children about character and respect. She also played several spokesperson roles, and she had numerous TV appearances, which all contributed towards preparing her for her current career.

In 2019, Hayley joined the 41 Action News sports team when she moved back to her hometown of Kansas City from Eugene, Oregon, where she was a sports reporter and anchor for ABC KEZI 9.

What Hayley’s job is like for her

Even though her job can be tiresome at times, it is also a lot of fun. And Hayley knows that many people are envious of the role she plays because she gets to talk directly to so many great sporting personalities. 

Doing something phenomenal

What Hayley does is quite phenomenal because she gets to develop relationships and build chemistry with some great sportspeople. She gets the opportunity to speak to them about anything, learn about their families, their backgrounds, and stories, and find out how much more there is to them than being just players. 

A high-pressure job

Hayley’s job is high-pressure because she is always on a time-crunch. And although she is running around, doing her best to get things done, and trying to look decent on TV, she says she would not trade it for the world!

What high school was like

Hayley had a lot of fun growing up, but having her dad as the head coach of the school meant that she never got a date in high school because nobody wanted to date the coach’s daughter! So she only started dating in college. 

A big reason for Hayley becoming a sports broadcaster

People get into sports broadcasting for many different reasons. One of the big reasons Hayley got into it was because while she was growing up, sports had always been the main topic around their dinner table, and her family spoke about it all the time. 

All the ins and outs of the industry

By following her dad’s career, watching him as a football player, and seeing her younger brother develop as a football player, Hayley got to know all the ins and outs of the sporting industry.

A father-figure to his players

Hayley’s parents had a special dynamic within the sporting industry, and her family would travel all over the country to watch her dad playing football. Her dad was all about being a father figure to his players because many of them did not have that kind of guidance and influence at home.

Hayley’s dad was a devoted leader, and her mom cared a lot

Hayley loved the way her father devoted himself to his players as well as to the game. Her mom used to go alongside him, try to work at the same high schools as he did, and do her best to help the kids and guide them. 

Amazing parents

Hayley’s parents were both talented people. They had master’s degrees, and they were passionate about giving back, educating children, and creating opportunities for them.

A rock for so many people

Over the years, Hayley has put out a lot of information about her dad on social media. So, people keep on reaching out to her and explaining how much of an influence he was to them. 

A moving realization

It was very moving for Hayley to realize that her dad was not only a rock for her family, but he was also for a dad for so many other kids. 

Links and resources:

Hayley on Twitter 

Hayley on Instagram

We’re excited and honored to have Chandra Clark joining us as our guest for today’s podcast.

Chandra knows how to keep the momentum going! She is a passionate advocate for young people, women who are facing adverse circumstances, and adult survivors of childhood abuse and trauma. She is joining us today to talk about her journey up to now, spending more time on self-reflection and personal growth, race, motherhood, faith, and forgiveness.

About Chandra

Chandra Clark is a non-profit executive, a model, a speaker, and an author, and she is also the founder of the lifestyle brand, Be Loved. She is currently serving as the Director of Community Outreach for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Kansas City.

Through Be Loved, Chandra can inspire people seeking emotional healing and restoration, and she can encourage them as they embark on their paths of personal transformation and finding freedom. 

For the last fifteen years, Chandra has served in non-profit leadership by developing innovative programs and creating opportunities in the community to support and advance the lives of youth and women. She has led several workshops and seminars focused on faith, self-esteem, and professional development.

Chandra was honored to receive numerous awards and recognitions like the ATHENA Leadership Award, from the Kansas City Chamber, The Top Connector in Education and Entrepreneurship from the Kauffman Foundation, and The Most Influential Women in Kansas City Business, from the Kansas City Business Journal.

Some cool news

At the time of the recording of this podcast, Chandra had just received the awesome news that the Kansas City Business Journal featured an article about the Access Internship Program that she created for Big Brothers Big Sisters. The Access Internship Program supports female and minority-owned small businesses, while also helping to prepare the youth in Kansas City for the workforce.

The driving force behind Chandra’s work in non-profits

The driving force behind all the work that Chandra does in non-profit organizations is her desire to do good things for others, to be a servant leader, and to give a voice to those who don’t have a voice for themselves. 

How it all started

Chandra explains that many of the people who work in positions of service do so because they have a story to tell. And her passion for working with non-profits started with her journey towards understanding and healing herself. 

Chandra is mission-based

Chandra is very mission-based. And although she works from her heart in everything that she does, her work can be very taxing.

A space of transformation

Currently, Chandra finds herself in a transformational space. Ever since she started her career, she has devoted all her time to being of service and doing good work for other people. But she has begun feeling a little stuck lately, so she has now decided to transition towards space where she can spend more time focusing on her life and exploring different aspects of herself.

Putting herself first

Chandra has learned that if you keep on denying parts of yourself, you will not be able to thrive, and a part of her is crying out to be heard and telling her that now is the time to start putting herself first. 

Suffering

Even though people get recognition for what they do and their bios look impressive, there’s still a tremendous amount of suffering that goes into advocating and being a voice for other people. 

Becoming an advocate

Chandra explains that she grew up in a traumatic environment that was fraught with abuse, and at an early age, she became an advocate for her mom. Unfortunately, in doing that, she learned to self-sacrifice. She later transitioned her self-sacrificing to the non-profit, and as a result, she remained unaware that she was the number one person in need, and her needs have not always been met.

An interesting time of transition

Now, Chandra is going through an interesting transition. She has realized that she must have decided, as a very young child, that she didn’t matter, so she began to focus solely on other people. 

Finally facing herself

Now, she is forcing herself to say “no”. And she is learning how to sit with herself, unpack all the layers, and finally face how she truly feels about herself and her life.

Chandra’s vision

Chandra ultimately wants to be loved for becoming the very best version of herself, sharing that openly, and creating a platform for other women to share their stories about how they are overcoming adversity and owning their truth. 

Links and resources:

Chandra on Instagram

Be Loved website

Today, we’re happy to welcome Celeste Ellis and Elektra Hendrickson as our guests for the podcast.

Celeste and Elektra are powerhouse women! They are both yogis, and today they are with us to talk about yoga, coping with trauma, waking up, and learning to listen to what others have to say.

Elektra’s story

Elektra teaches yoga, breathwork, and embodiment. She also educates people about the subtle art of feeling and becoming aware of the sensations in their bodies that most of us tend to bypass. She has done that for quite some time now, along with her exploration of how and why yoga does what it does for her body, and how yoga brings her into places where she may not want to go. 

Electra is the mom of three teenagers, aged thirteen, fifteen, and seventeen.  

About Celeste 

Celeste has been in the yoga space for the last ten years. She grew up surrounded by western medicine, in a family of surgeons, so, when she first discovered yoga and meditation, she went all-in, and she became very raw and real. 

Her specialty within the yoga space is as a seeker of meaning, so she uses yoga as a way to discover who she is and what she wants to be. And also to find out where she can lean into an edge, get uncomfortable, learn to walk with her sadness, and crawl through the caves of her heart. She also enjoys learning more about Eastern philosophy than one usually learns from the way that yoga gets taught currently in the fitness and exercise world.

Diving deeper into yoga training 

Most basic yoga teacher training takes place in a two-hundred- hour program, which is usually pretty intense. 

The three-hundred-hour yoga teacher training program is even more intense. It is about diving deeper, going into the mythology, the reiki, and the layers of the Sutras, and then bringing all of that into teaching others how to be yoga teachers.  

What’s changed for Celeste since COVID

Celeste used to be in a rhythmic pattern before, where everything in her life was regular and routine. Then the great pause happened, brought on by COVID, and that allowed her to reflect on her life and question why she was doing things in the way that she was. 

How things have changed for Elektra since COVID

Elektra was thrilled to take a moment to do nothing when COVID happened. Having gone through trauma in her own life, she was aware of how traumatic the global pandemic was for everyone living in it. And even though she knew how hard it was for most people to feel normal, she found herself feeling elated and free. 

Yoga For First Responders

After experiencing the trauma in her life, Elektra did some training with Olivia, the founder of Yoga for First Responders. She learned about trauma, and about how our bodies store all our experiences like video recordings in our DNA.

A new awareness

COVID is bringing about a new awareness in people. Celeste explains that now, you need to understand how important it is to check yourself before speaking, to be sure that you need to be speaking rather than listening. And if you say anything, you need to be sure that what you have to say is coming from your raw truth.

Shut up and listen

Celeste was teaching in a community, five or six years ago, where she looked different from everyone else. It was an eye-opening experience for her, and she went through a lot. She even saw a child getting shot in front of her. It was there that she started learning about how to humble herself and how to shut up and listen.

Doing the work 

We’re living in difficult times right now, so we need to do the work. 

To do the work, you need to learn to question what you’re doing in everything that you do. You need to find out if you’re doing it because you got taught to do it, and everyone else is doing it, or because it is something that you honestly feel that you should be doing. 

Links and resources:

YogaWithElektra

Celeste’s website

Seekers of Meaning Facebook group

Yoga For First Responders

Books mentioned:

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

We are very happy to have Mallory Janson and Aja James, the co-founders of Flexy, joining us on the podcast today. 

Mal and Aja will be talking about Flexy, about their unique approach to personal fitness training, and about the racial awakening that is taking place across the country right now.

About Flexy

Flexy is a fitness company. Mallory and Aja travel to different locations, like people’s offices, or their apartment complexes, and they staff the trainers and yoga instructors there, providing for any fitness needs that the people may have.

The team at Flexy

Although they haven’t yet nailed down exactly how to go about finding people to join their team, they feel confident that the right people will find them. Their classes are hard, so they look for great fitness trainers who want to work with people in a caring way that will motivate and inspire them.

Currently, they have a fantastic team of ten people, in Springfield Missouri, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Kansas City. 

It’s all about empowering people

Mallory explains that their approach to fitness training is not just about sweat. It’s more about empowering people to help them find the energy within themselves. 

Current times require a more considerate approach

We’re living in very stressful times right now, and the Flexy trainers are sensitive to whatever people are going through. They start each session with a sincere question about how the client is doing that day, and the workout is based on that response. 

Checking in with people

Their approach to fitness is all about the client. It’s about checking in with them, finding out how they are doing, and then taking things further from there, rather than having a rigid approach to helping people keep fit. The way the client feels is allowed to be the focus of the session, without creating any stress around it.

Making a great connection with clients

For Aja, making a connection with her clients makes all the difference. Her clients care about her, and if she’s feeling defeated, it matters to them. So she is always aware of her feelings and of how she is coming across to her clients.

Something interesting

The majority of Aja’s clients are white. One of them is bi-racial like she is, and they often talk about what it was like growing up as a bi-racial kid, and about what it is like now, as a bi-racial adult. 

People were not having this kind of conversation before, and opening up on this level is allowing people to get to know a lot more about each other.

An issue of human rights

Aja is not very clued up about politics, and she doesn’t particularly enjoy talking about it because those conversations often end up making her feel sad. However, speaking out, and allowing herself to be vulnerable, on social media, has made her realize that she’s not dealing with a political issue. What she is dealing with is an issue of human rights, and she felt she needed to speak about it because she has had her own experiences.

Why Aja chose to speak out on social media

Aja feels that it is important for her to share her feelings on social media. She thinks that if she remains silent, it could have given people the impression that she has no problem with the way things are, and that she is not invested in making a change. She hopes that sharing her feelings will help some people change their stance.

Black lives matter

The truth is that Aja doesn’t want to be followed or to be surrounded by anyone who feels that black lives don’t matter. 

Giving children the security they need

Mallory has a bi-racial child, and she wants to ensure that he never has to question where she stands. 

There’s no going back now

Mallory points out that the whole world is erupting right now because everyone has had enough, and we need to express that in a very definitive way. 

There’s no backtracking now or reverting to where we were. And people want to know how to move forward. So it’s up to white people to do the work because black people cannot do it on their own. 

Educate yourself, and speak up!!

Links and resources:

Instagram - @its.flexy

Flexy’s website 

Books mentioned:

Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad

We are excited to welcome Dr. Auburn Ellis as our very first guest on the Seraphiend podcast.

Dr. Auburn is joining us today to have a real and vulnerable conversation about the current state of the world. She will be talking about how that is affecting all of us, and about its impact on our friendships, our work, and our lives as a whole.

Where Dr. Auburn was educated

Dr. Auburn was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She started her undergraduate studies at Mizzou in 2002, knowing that she wanted to be an artist. After completing her undergrad, she got her Master’s degree in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute in Illinois, and she did her Doctorate in Education at the National Louis University in Chicago. 

Working at the Nelson-Atkins Museum

Dr. Auburn worked at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art throughout high school and that had a big impact on her life. Working there, she experienced working with clay for the first time, and she also had her first opportunity to work with students. She feels that spending time in a museum environment was a vital part of her upbringing.

Having no awareness of any great artists of color

In all the time she spent studying art history at Mizzou, nobody ever taught her anything about any of the great artists of color. And not seeing any reflections of herself made it very hard for her to find the necessary motivation to keep moving forward as an artist. 

That was where things started for her.

Learning about great African artists

Dr. Auburn had an African American professor who made an impact on her life, and that professor is still her advisor to this day. She introduced Dr. Auburn to some great African American artists, and to some great African artists too. That allowed Dr. Auburn to broaden her perspective and look at art not only from an American point of view but also from a global perspective.

Looking at art from a global perspective is important

It is super important to look at art from a global perspective because art is very much a global language. 

Art from African descent

Any time that Dr. Auburn could choose her research subject, in any of her classes, she would always select something of African descent. That eventually became her trademark. Making art relative to her experiences also became a big part of what she was known for. 

Students asking her questions

Students used to ask her questions about her art because they wanted to know why she was making it in the way that she was. 

She was portraying what she was seeing from her perspective as a person of color, and she had to explain that to them and tell them that she was using her art to describe her experience. 

Fighting against different things

Dr. Auburn was one of only two black people in the entire art department. That was problematic for her. She always had to fight against things and strive to find a balance between her happiness and what would be good for her future.

Being an ally is where it all starts 

Having uncomfortable conversations, being humble, being willing to learn, and doing the work, are all essential for the kind of awakening that is happening right now. And it all starts with being an ally. That means you have to find the right information, apply it, and then dive deep within yourself to find the answers.  

What people of color are asking for 

People of color are asking to tell their stories. And to feel a sense of agency or representation wherever they go.

Cultural grounding is important 

Approaching every project from the perspective of cultural grounding is very important for Dr. Auburn. She explains that that’s an African-centered framework, and it requires a shift in paradigm. 

That means you have to look at everything through a different lens and make people of color the subject rather than the object of your research. And you need to listen carefully and empathize with different experiences.

Dr. Auburn’s dissertation

Dr. Auburn’s dissertation was about the diaspora, which means displacement, and about what she calls cultural artifacts. Those are the things that are inherent in people of color that eventually emerge as dance, music, and even religion. Those are also the things that form new patterns of practice

Exploring the roots of Kemetic Yoga

Kemetic Yoga is the cultural framework of yoga that originated in Egypt. It is based on the principle of bringing back the ancient Egyptian patterns of practice.

Creating a new action plan and a system for change

All the stress that we store in our bodies contributes to our mental state. 

Dr. Auburn realized that when she felt refreshed after pausing academia. So she decided to put together something to help the yoga community unlearn their plans of practice and, at the same time, create a new action plan and a system for change.

Anti-racism training

Dr. Auburn is now doing an online anti-racism training program that will be available for the next three months, with fresh content every month. It involves a dialogue to assist with unpacking and having difficult conversations, to come up with an action plan. 

Links and resources:

Follow Dr. Auburn on Instagram – dr_auburn

Dr. Auburn on Facebook – Studio 5400 or Auburn Aesthetic