Are you putting up barriers for yourself that don’t need to be there? Blocking your blessings, opportunities, gifts? Let’s find out! Whether it’s saying no to someone who offers the help you need, or finding all the reasons why you can’t take an opportunity in front of your face, we need to stop making it harder for ourselves.

As Black people we already have enough challenges and things in our way. We don’t need to add more. In this solo episode I discuss the ways you might be consciously or subconsciously blocking the very things you’ve been asking for, the oppressive conditionings that taught us to do this, and how to shift your mindset and actions to receive what’s there for you.

Please share this episode with others! Make sure you subscribe, rate and review the show to help others find it!

 Resources!!!

• Get Stepping Into Your Black Creative Power – FREE 4-Part Video Series at: www.kristiniris.com/oreoseries
• Learn more about my fall program From Oreo To Empowered at: www.kristiniris.com/oreo

Support this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

Connect with me at:

• www.instagram.com/kristiniris
• www.kristiniris.com

This week is loaded with powerful relationship knowledge bombs! We dive into narratives around Black love that are setting you up for failure. Getting clear on what monogamy and infidelity mean to you. And why you need to TALK because communication is key.

Joining the show this week is Renelle Nelson to discuss betrayal, healing after infidelity, communication, sex, and Black love. There are some powerful things here that will change the way you approach your partner, and even how you approach your healing.

Renelle E. Nelson is an engaging and charismatic clinician and a speaker that gives out hope and actionable steps to create change. She founded Kaleidoscope Services LLC to create a safe and non-judgmental space for clients who may not change their circumstances but can change their view.

Renelle uses her past experience with sexual disconnection and betrayal to show her scars to give hope on healing not just for survival but to thrive. She has assisted numerous couples and individuals through the sex love and chaos of their relationship to the renewal of love, reconnection, and healing. Renelle combined being a Licensed marriage and family therapist, and Certified sex therapist to brand herself as an Infidelity/intimacy recovery Strategist.  She creates a strategic plan to assist committed individuals with reconnecting back to themselves, life and relationships after betrayal.

Connect with Renelle at:

• https://kaleidoscopeservicesllc.org/
• www.affairaftercare.com
• www.instagram.com/noirsxtherapist
• www.instagram.com/affairaftercare

Please share this episode with others! Make sure you subscribe, rate and review the show to help others find it!

Enrollment is now open for my program From Oreo To Empowered – A 8-Week Small Group Program for Black creatives at: www.kristiniris.com/oreo

Support this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

Connect with Kristin at:

• www.instagram.com/kristiniris
• www.kristiniris.com

Today Kristin is going in on why we need to de-center whiteness and heteropatriarchy to thrive in our Blackness. There are many layers to de-centering from the more obvious whose gaze are you looking for? To the less obvious deconstructing and decolonizing of concepts and sneakily oppressive ideas you’ve been taught to live by.

We touch on everything from decentering whiteness in our creative work, to Law of Attraction, to the whole concept of “masculine-feminine energy” that so many have adopted. This episode will show you how to get more discerning about how you think and approach the world so you can de-center whiteness (and white supremacy) and expand your work, your impact, and your personal power as a Black person.

Please share this episode with others! Make sure you subscribe, rate and review the show to help others find it!

Enrollment is now open for my program From Oreo To Empowered – A 7-Week Small Group Program for Black creatives at: www.kristiniris.com/oreo

Support this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

Connect with me at:

• www.instagram.com/kristiniris
• www.kristiniris.com

In this episode, Miterrez Brown joins me to share their story of being harassed as a stud stripper after speaking up about an inappropriate incident, the sacrifice that came with telling the truth, and the power of learning you have a choice.

This conversation is an interesting and unexpected look at the depth of telling the truth, from the sacrifices and hardships you may have to endure to the changes you can create with the power of your voice.

Miterrez who also goes by Mighty. Pronouns: They/Them. They're 27 and a cancer but they're not too sensitive. Mighty is a lesbian who strips for women. "I just want to be a positive entertainer for women,” they say.

Connect with Miterrez at:

• Instagram: @miterrez @ayoitsmightyyyyy @mitexrated

Watch the Broadly documentary here

Please share this episode with others! Make sure you subscribe, and rate and review the show to help others find it!

Sign up for my Free workshop – Stepping Into Your Black Creative Power at: www.kristiniris.com/class

Support this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

Juneteenth just passed and we're talking Black Freedom! In the spirit of the date the last slaves in America were freed we are exploring what is Black freedom when we live in a world where we're only free-ish.

I'll take you through exploring how you are cultivating freedom and also how you may be blocking freedom in 3 big areas: with yourself, in how you show up, and in how you create change in the world. Each one has it's beauty, nuances, and challenges but all can lead you to more freedom!

Please share this episode with others! Make sure you subscribe, rate and review the show to help others find it!

Sign up for my free workshop for Black creatives "Breaking Through The Oreo Complex!" at: www.kristiniris.com/class

Support this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

Connect with me at: www.instagram.com/kristiniris

Dismantling racism and white supremacy is challenging work that is both external AND internal. We as Black people are not exempt from the work. We too have to look at ourselves and how we perpetuate the systems of racism and white supremacy.

Rachel Ricketts joins me for a powerful and in-depth conversation on Black joy, responding from survival, and doing the work to dismantle our own anti-Blackness and white supremacy to create a better world. This episode is packed with wisdom and insights that every Black and non-Black person needs to hear.

Rachel Ricketts is a thought leader + outspoken champion for Black and Indigenous womxn. As a racial justice activist, lawyer, healer, speaker + writer, she educates white folx on their role in perpetuating white supremacy, and helps folx of colour heal from internalized oppression. Rachel hosts online and in-person workshops including her renowned Spiritual Activism series which promotes racial justice and offers practical solutions for all hue-mans to dismantle racist heteropatriarchy. She is the co-founder of WOC (Women of Colour) Talks and has helped numerous global brands with anti-racism including Google, WeWork, CreativeLive, Lululemon and TELUS.

Rachel’s work has been featured in publications such as Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Mind Body Green 21Ninety, Black Girl in Om and Thrive, and she’s presented at international conferences including SXSW 2018 + 2019, me Convention in Stockholm and the Follow Black Women Conference. She loves donuts, dancing and all things metaphysical.

Connect with Rachel at:

• www.rachelricketts.com
• Instagram.com/iamrachelricketts

Please share this episode with others! Make sure you subscribe, rate and review the show to help others find it!

Sign up for Breaking Through The Oreo Complex – my upcoming free class for Black creatives at: www.kristiniris.com/class 

Support this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

It’s PRIDE month!! After sharing the real history behind Pride, I dive into the importance and challenges of claiming all the parts of yourself and showing up fully in those aspects. Recently I’ve been in a place of uniting parts of myself that I didn’t even realize were fragmented. In this episode I share what that unification has been like—most recently as it applies to my queerness—and the role of internalize oppression in the process.

I give you guidance on how you can start reclaiming all of who you are too, why this can be not only challenging but outright dangerous for Black people, and the power that opens up for you when you show up fully as yourself.

Please share this episode with others! Make sure you subscribe, rate and review the show to help others find it!

Get your Create Your Future Vision - Free Workbook for Black Creatives at: www.kristiniris.com/vision

Support this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

Connect with me at:

• www.instagram.com/kristiniris
• www.kristiniris.com

It’s time to get real about being a Black entrepreneur, especially in startup culture. Most entrepreneurial teachers (those who are white) do not speak to the experiences and challenges we face when adding race and gender to the mix. The old advice and the old paradigms don’t work for us. As Black people we typically enter entrepreneurship with less access, resources, and a smaller network than our white counterparts.

In this episode Cheryl Contee, author of the newly released book Mechanical Bull: How You Can Achieve Startup Success, joins me to discuss how to navigate startup culture as a Black or Black female entrepreneur. Learn what you need to be aware of, how to operate from OUR experiences and not the assumed white experience, and how to break old ways of approaching business that are ultimately holding us back!

Cheryl Contee is the award-winning CEO of the digital agency Do Big Things, a diverse team that is using a new narrative and new tech to create global change in a new era. Previously, Cheryl was CEO of Fission Strategy, which brought Silicon Valley startup culture to the world’s leading causes and campaigns. She’s the cofounder of Attentive.ly, the first tech startup with a black female founder to be acquired by a NASDAQ company; the national board chair for Netroots Nation, an affiliate of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society; and a proud cofounder of #YesWeCode.

Mechanical Bull by Cheryl Contee is available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback.

Connect with Cheryl at:

• DoBigThings.Today
• Instagram.com/cherylcontee
• Twitter.com/ch3ryl

Please share this episode with others! Make sure you subscribe, and rate and review the show to help others find it!

Get your Create Your Future Vision - Free Workbook for Black Creatives at: www.kristiniris.com/vision

Support the production of this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

Boundaries are an essential part to living healthy relationships and a healthy life. However, setting and enforcing boundaries with others can be unexpectedly difficult. Why? Why is it so hard to set and enforce boundaries? That's what we explore today.

In this episode I share my experience going from being a bad boundary enforcer to an impeccable one; why boundaries are important, and how they influence other areas of your life. I share why setting and enforcing boundaries can be such a challenge and the historical, and social/cultural influences that make this even more difficult for Black people, and HOW to set and enforce healthy boundaries with people in your life!

***Note: I discuss my experience in an emotionally abusive relationship and how I let my boundaries get crossed. I am in no way blaming myself, nor would I blame anyone else for their own abuse. I was, however, responsible for maintaining my own boundaries and that is what I discuss.

Make sure you subscribe, rate and review the show to help others find it!

Get your Create Your Future Vision - Free Workbook for Black Creatives at: www.kristiniris.com/vision

Support this podcast on my Patreon page at: www.patreon.com/melanatedrising

Connect with me at:

• www.instagram.com/kristiniris
• www.kristiniris.com

As Black people we have to navigate dangers, micro-aggressions, and violence from white people. There are so many sneaky ways that that violence comes up that we have to train ourselves to see for our own mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

In this week's episode Catrice M. Jackson joins me to discuss the ways the Beckys and Chads of the world launch their weapons against us, key things we can do to preserve our life force and energy against these covert and sneaky attacks, AND the ways we need to check our own privilege and anti-Blackness as well!

Catrice M. Jackson is the Global Visionary Leader of the Awakened Conscious Shift, the CEO of Catriceology Enterprises, an international speaker, and a best-selling author, is a straight up, on the rocks with no chaser voice for racial justice who is unapologetic and unflinching with her anti-racism message. She is the catalytic creator of SHETalks WETalk Race Talks for Women and WETalks for Women of Color.   Catrice is strong medicine and serves up hard truths necessary to eliminate the lethal infection of racism from humanity. She realizes that her approach may be rebuked and her flavor undesired. Catrice knows she is not for everyone and that everyone won’t like her, and she is unbothered by both. She is unmoved by naysayers and does her work authentically and unapologetically with a revolutionary spirit and believes that justice is love.   Connect with Catrice at:

• Instagram.com/catriceology
• Twitter.com/beckyologist
• Facebook.com/CatriceJacksonSpeaks
• Books available on Amazon

Visit the Patreon page for more episodes and to support this podcast at: Patreon.com/melanatedrising   Get your Create Your Future Vision - Free Workbook for Black Creatives at: www.kristiniris.com/vision