Navigating Leadership and Empowerment  – ep.163

C.G. Lewis—business leader, inspirational speaker, and author. This episode focuses on leadership, self-empowerment, and intentional living, particularly aimed at women navigating career transitions and economic uncertainties. C.G. Lewis shares essential tools and strategies for fostering values-driven leadership and achieving genuine self-realization. Discussing her newly released book, “Brown Sugar Goals: Sweet Success,” she provides insightful methods for setting impactful goals. This episode is perfect for anyone looking to thrive in their personal and professional life. Listen now for free on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred streaming service.

Melyssa Barrett:  Welcome to the Jali Podcast. I’m your host, Melyssa Barrett. This podcast is for those who are interested in the conversation around equity, diversity, and inclusion. Each week I’ll be interviewing a guest who has something special to share or is actively part of building solutions in the space. Let’s get started. Welcome back to the Jolly Podcast, where we are exploring the power of storytelling, culture and leadership to inspire meaningful change. Today we’re diving into a conversation that I think couldn’t be more timely. The world is shifting, whether we’re talking about economic uncertainty, corporate layoffs, career transitions, or the ever-evolving demands placed on women who lead, many of us are asking, what’s next? What do I do now? How do I heal from disappointment, rediscover my power, and step into the next chapter with clarity and confidence. Our guest today, CG Lewis, is here to help us answer some of those questions.

CG Lewis is a seasoned business leader, inspirational author, and sought after speaker who empowers women to turn their vision into action. Through her guided journals, planners and immersive retreats, she provides the tools and mindset shifts needed to cultivate intentional living, values-driven leadership and sustainable success. Her upcoming book, brown Sugar Goals Sweet Success offers a refreshing, culturally grounded approach to goal setting, one that aligns with authenticity, passion, and purpose. One of the things I love about her books are that they are a guided reflection in many instances, so that you actually get to know yourself, you get to understand what it means to lead by design, by understanding your own unique leadership style and using it to create a lasting influence. So if you’re ready to reclaim your power, step into your purpose and lead with confidence. This episode is for you. Let’s get into it. This week I am excited again. I’m always excited, but this week I’m super excited to have my friend, my friend, the author of multiple books. But you are going to just enjoy this conversation. I know. So CG Lewis is her name, so if you are looking her up online and you are in need of a book that you want, and we’re going to talk about what that is, look up CG Lewis. So let me first welcome you to the Jolly Podcast.

C.G. Lewis:  Thank you. Thank you. I am honored to be here. I love the work that you do here.

Melyssa Barrett:  Well, and it’s so interesting because you and I have known each other. I was trying to think of how long, I think it’s been maybe 20 years,

C.G. Lewis:  At least 15.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, it’s been a while.

And I met Christina on Hilton Higher Education Worldwide. We were really a think tank that spent a lot of time talking about issues, not unlike some of the issues we’re seeing today, but we both had very corporate careers and I think are in a new phase. I’ll put it to really kind of own where we are. So I usually do like to start out Christina, with how did you get here and what was your life like? How did you become this person you are today that had, I don’t even know how many books. I think I have six or seven on my desk.

C.G. Lewis:  25.

Melyssa Barrett:  25 books. Oh my gosh.

C.G. Lewis:  Yeah.

Melyssa Barrett:  Well, I need to catch up.

C.G. Lewis:  So I spent 20 plus years in corporate, and I’m just going to leave it at 20 because we’re not sharing my age on this podcast today. So I spent 20 plus years in corporate. I started out doing regular GL accountant, a regular accountant, moved my way up, supervisor, manager, director, senior director over the years. So I switched from being an accounting to corporate finance, which gave me a deeper insight into the business, which was wonderful. I was always in a leadership role, and I tended to lean heavier into the leadership side, making sure that I was providing a holistic experience for my business partners and also for the teams that I led as well. And so with that, I would take different opportunities to speak and to lead various organizations, whether it was N, which was National Association of Black Accountants, or it was nonprofit roles or any other type of projects that are in the organization, whether it’s working on agile projects and things like that.

Over the years, as I would give talks and teach different workshops, I was advised to write these things down. Now, I always had a goal to one day be an author. This is the way I envisioned it. Someone would pay me a butt load of money to go to an island and do nothing, but right. That’s the way I thought it would be, right, just someday. And so over the years, I would just keep folders of notes and folders of scripts and manuscripts from these talks. And as I had ideas, I just jotted down in my notes app or in a notebook or whatever. And then a couple of years ago, I ran into someone that was on Instagram. She was doing a five day journal challenge. I’d never thought about doing a journal before. And I said, you know what? I have plenty of content.

So I went with what I felt in my spirit. I had done a lot of work around intention and setting intentions, but I hadn’t really shared that a lot. And so I took that plotted into a journal and said, huh, this is a good way to get the word out there and to actually help people to work through it. And so that’s how my journey started, was taking all the content that I had that I talked about and shared and putting it into something that’s digestible for people, really creating a tool that people could use to impart these things in their life.

Melyssa Barrett:  Well, and I think what’s unique about it is I think everybody’s used to picking up a book and reading it, whether it be cover to cover or chapters or whatever. You have this way of infusing content into my own personal growth journey, which I think is fabulous because to me, the hard work is the work we do on ourselves.

It’s easy to run the race and sit there in the hamster wheel and have all this activity in your life, but is it meaningful? What is meaningful for me? And your books have this sense of, yes, there’s leadership, but you have to be really self-aware of your own leadership journey. And I think, I don’t even know, I was trying to remember which book, whether it be the Gratitude Shift or Ignite Your Soul. I mean, the Brown Sugar Goals is awesome in terms of the affirmations. And I may as well tell the other ones I have on my desk right now, upgrade as well as Leadership by Design and the Mindful Leaders Path. Those are just the ones on my desk, but obviously I need to buy more. You got a ton more to go. And then I forgot you have one that’s called What now, which I think is interesting. And that one is all about healing and empowerment after disappointment. And let’s just hone in on that for a minute.

C.G. Lewis:  So I have a list of photos on my laptop. So I am corporate finance. I’m a finance girl, finance analyst, through and through, right? Yes, I’m a leader, but I still love my pivots and my charts and everything. So I keep folders and I keep concepts in worksheets. And so as I went through what to publish in a series of journals, I left some things out. I had five more ideas. One of them is self-care, right? And like you said, I tend to have some exposition in there. So when you look at that first series, I’ll have an exposition. This is what this concept is, here are some steps. So I’ll talk about it and then let’s walk through some prompts and then we’ll talk about the next step and walk through. So with what now? It started as a self-care journal. I believe in self-care and deep soul care, really what makes us tick, not just tick is the wrong word, really, what allows us space to exhale, what energizes us, what’s our traumas and triggers, pulling that into the self-care piece.

And I went through a series of things with myself personally. I was in a corporate job. There was a ton of trauma that was happening there. And so I began to walk through my own journal myself. I knew it wasn’t published, but I began to do the work on myself, for myself. And then with that, a series of things were happening to me personally. And also then when the election happened, I said, you know what? This should be published. And thankfully, because I did the work, I’d already written it, and then I was working through it. I was like, let’s see what we can do to get this out. So immediately after the election, within a week I had it published because it was already done. So people would look at me and say, how are you writing things so quickly? It’s not quick. It’s already done.

Melyssa Barrett:  You have premonition. It’s a premonition that you already knew what now we going to need healing and empowerment.

C.G. Lewis:  And Melissa, things are related, right? Experiences are related. And so sometimes that’s what makes it so powerful because you go through something once when something else comes up, even though it may be different, there are key components that are related to things like disappointment and rejection and all of that. And so once you understand healing for some of those key principles, it helps you for the next thing.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah. Well, and so give us some thoughts about your focus on, because I mean, especially when you talk about healing and empowerment after disappointment, I mean, I think there’s a lot of people that are very disappointed right now in lots of ways. And so what would you say, I mean, I think this one is specifically a journal, but give us some tips and tools in terms of how do we manage through the turbulence of what’s going on today? Because I mean, a lot of your books are gratitude, mindfulness. What are some things that we should be thinking about?

C.G. Lewis:  Well, the first thing is to just acknowledge that you are disappointed. Acknowledge that some things just suck. So many times, as we, especially in our culture, we are taught to be the strong woman, and we’ve had to do that to survive. So I’m not knocking that at all, but it’s time for us to give ourselves space to acknowledge that hurt, to acknowledge that we are human and we can do that. And so acknowledging it is one thing. The next thing is to create safe spaces for ourselves, because sometimes in a space and we need to express it, Hey, I am disappointed, but every place is not a safe space.

People will tell you, especially in corporate all the time, bring your full self to work. We want your full self. First of all, no, and this is not about being inauthentic. This is about allowing yourself safety. Anxiety isn’t just you need to calm down. Anxiety is because you have a lack of safety. There is a lack of a sense of safety. And so you want to lean into the safe spaces and find places where you can be safe in your family and your community. We do things for other people all the time. It’s time to start creating safe spaces for ourself. So once you acknowledge it, you create a safe space, and then you have a plan. You understand? Sometimes we have to grieve and grow at the same time. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes we have to grieve and grow at the same time. So when you’re creating the safe space, you’re creating a plan to, I need to rest in this moment, and that sometimes it’s active rest, and sometimes it’s just sitting and looking at the wall,

Melyssa Barrett:  And

C.G. Lewis:  That’s okay, right?

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah.

C.G. Lewis:  Deal. As grieving and growing, we are giving ourselves grace. We are leaning in that rest and then adjusting to what our new normal is. And sometimes it requires, I sometimes do a release ceremony and where I acknowledge a bunch of stuff and I list all the things that are no longer serving me and I release it. And so sometimes we have to release our attachment to what we thought normal would be, and then you can be open to what’s coming next and how success and love and life is going to look for you in the

Melyssa Barrett:  Future. I love it. So as we think about leadership, because hopefully everyone can find safe spaces, and now we talk about leadership in terms of how do we accept where we are, acknowledge the disappointment and kind of move into that leadership position. Many of us sit in leadership positions and we’re in turmoil. I mean, leaders don’t always know the right direction to go, but it’s about how do we bring in the information we want, especially when the information isn’t always true to make the best decisions. So the book, you have the Mindful Leader’s Path, and it’s a guided reflection on leading with presence and resilience, which I love the fact that you bring in this whole focus on presence, awareness, introspection. I mean, there’s just so many different things. I love, of course, I’m a quote girl. So there’s all these wonderful quotes in here, but you talk about sharpening focus and emotional intelligence. So when you think about leadership, what are some of the things that you think people should be focusing on, whether they’re in a leadership position or whether they’re just trying to make sure that they’re leading?

C.G. Lewis:  One of the things that’s really big for me is intention, and people talk about intention in several ways, but a few years ago, I was able to do some academic research around what intention is. So intention is essentially how you choose to participate in your own life, okay? It’s going to be different from goals. You set a goal and it’s finite. I want to go to New Zealand, I’ve not been to New Zealand. Once I go to New Zealand, that goal is done, but if I set an intention of how I want to engage in my life, I want to live a life of travel, there’s far more openness there. As a leader, we need to learn how to set intentions. And so many times we can’t do that because we’re just focused on the end goal. We’re focused on meeting the numbers, but you have to learn how to live life and how to lead intentionally.

And part of that means going back to yourself, understanding, okay, what are my values? What do I really, really value? And some of the things we value 20 years ago might be different now, and that’s okay. When you understand your values, it’s much easier for you to set a vision for your team, for the organization, for your life. Once you understand those things, then you can start to set intentions. Okay, here’s a vision, but how do I want to participate in that vision? How am I going to show up? Once you do that, it’s going to be much easier to create safe spaces for your team, because safety is what’s really needed today. Safety is really needed so that people will bring the ideas. You need diversity on the team. You need diversity of thought, of background of experiences. People aren’t going to bring that when they don’t feel safe. And if you are not intentional about creating safe spaces, you’re going to be limited in your outcome. You’re going to be limited in your growth. You might hit the number, but you’re not going to do what you could potentially do because you’re going to be limited. You’re not intentional.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, no, that’s so true. And I think what’s interesting about the way you’ve written your books is that if I do them now and then I come back to them five years from now and do them again, I’m in a different place, a different space. My head is different. I mean, it’s like, wow, these are really things that can come with me all along my journey wherever I am, which is pretty cool.

C.G. Lewis:  Yeah. One of the things that I try to do is focus on principles that are consistent across the board. And that’s important because when I was working on some doctoral research, I came across this term, and it’s a way to research. It’s called Phenomenography. And in essence what it is, it is the variation of ways in which people experience something. So for example, I have two younger sisters, and if you ask me what music I was raised on, I’ll tell you country music, because there was a station we listened to Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. I know I’m aging myself, but I say country. My middle sister remembers r and b. She remembers Diana Ross and Whitney when Whitney was younger and all the things. But my baby sister will say, you all are heathens. We were raised on gospel music. We were in the same house with the same parents, and we had different experiences. How much more. So as a leader in an organization, everyone on your team has a different experience, and that’s why they’re going to see things differently. You need to be able to provide a safe space so you can understand those different viewpoints.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it.

C.G. Lewis:  And that’s where the mindfulness and the presence and everything comes in. These are things you can apply to all situations.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. Well, and I love the fact that in Brown Sugar Goals, the affirmations book, you actually have a workbook with this as well.

C.G. Lewis:  So Brown Sugar Goals is, it started as a planner for women, and then people were saying, I want to buy one for my husband. What about my kids? So there’s some variation in there based on the affirmations for kids are a little different than for adults. But then when I started looking at some people are not going to actually do a full planner, and some of us do need to work on what those affirmations are. When you’re setting affirmations, there’s those three P’s. It should be present, meaning now, it should be personal, meaning you not other people, and it should be positive, but sometimes we need help with what affirmations can be for ourselves. And so when I set up the affirmations book, at first it was going to be a ebook, and then I kept thinking, but yeah, but you should do this with it, but you should do this with it. So now the affirmation book is 52 weeks is four pages for each week there is an affirmation and there is some intentional action. So you actually put action to the affirmation. Affirmations should not be treated like Ruby Red slippers in the Wizard of Oz. You don’t click your heels three times and then it just comes. You have to do some action. You have to do some work. So it’s the affirmation and the action, and then a bit of reflection. How was that? That’s where the mindfulness comes in. And then meditation

To steal your mind as you are, because we have so many things going on and it’s good to ground ourselves sometimes.

Melyssa Barrett:  Well, and it’s funny to me because you talk about your thoughts in spreadsheets because you’re a financial person, but you’re also, I mean, the way we met, we were doing marketing,

C.G. Lewis:  We were,

Melyssa Barrett:  A lot of people who have used their mind on the financial side don’t necessarily have a marketing mind either. So I mean, how did this all come about? Because it’s almost such a blend of you, but it’s transformative, and I feel like transformation that has taken place in your own life.

C.G. Lewis:  Absolutely. And I would say that for me, my goal right now is to help women leaders to manifest their dreams, to maximize their impact and to live and lead with intention and purpose. So that’s it. That’s what my mission is as such. It is important that I understand that we all have different experiences. And so when I was working on my MBAI, my first marketing class I took, I loved it because we were talking about marking, and then I was trying to concentrate in branding because you want to help create the experience for people. So right now I’m teaching a cohort of people that are publishing workbooks and journals for their businesses. And so this is what I tell them, you want to make sure you have a point of view and you have a message, but you need to also focus on the experience.

And so the reason that I’ve published journals and planners and some more workbook that are coming is because I’m focused on the experience. People learn differently, they consume differently, and it might be the same message, but maybe they don’t have time for this and maybe they’ll be able to do this. So for me, it’s all about the experience and acknowledging that people consume things differently. Now, I can teach these as I do teach these as workshops and classes, but in terms of something you can take home to help provide additional structure to your thoughts and your transformation in my journals and workbooks.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah. Well, and I love the fact that you are unapologetic about them being it’s a black woman’s journal, black sugar goals. You kind of have this focus on let’s focus on my people to make sure they’re okay, and I know how important self-care has been in your journey. I think in some ways we start to overuse the term and we think we’re just supposed to go sit in a corner or something. So there are so many different components to your self-care focus. Do you want to kind of talk a little bit about some of those things like ignite your soul and I mean intentions and purpose and I mean, there’s so many things here.

C.G. Lewis:  Well, it’s about giving ourselves grace for our full self, not just a part of me. So don’t get me wrong. I love a good massage and manicured just like the Nets girl. I also need more than just the body work and the outward stuff. I need to take care of the parts that people don’t see. And a lot of times I like to say soul care. So in one of my workbooks for one of my retreats, I had this whole section on soul care, taking care of what really brings you joy, what really nourishes your soul. And that could be your favorite things. It could be a place, it could be a person, a space, or it could just be you. Being able to on a regular basis, reconnect with you and who you are is really essential. It’s just like me and my plants.

I have not always been a good plant mom. I try to grow kale and later I’m thinking, I’m growing kale. It’s just Wes, right? Because I’m not giving it the same nurture that it needs. I need to spend time with it. I need to make sure the nutrients are right. It’s not over watered in this area or the other. But a lot of it is also, I used to believe that I had to fill my cup to help other people, and then I give some, but then I fill it back up Now with just my experience and with therapy, because I recommend therapy for everybody that can get it right. I’ve come to embrace the idea of giving from the overflow. And my existence doesn’t always have to be solely for someone else. I believe I was created for me too. And that’s okay. It’s allowing ourselves to be okay with doing stuff for us. We are inherently in our culture. We are going to take care of people in the community and all the stuff, but when it comes to taking care of ourselves, look, especially in this environment, we are all we got. So we need to take care of us

Melyssa Barrett:  Well, and you can’t take care of anybody else if you’re sick or unhealthy. So I think the priority of it, sometimes we don’t, and I know I’m guilty of you want to be disciplined to make sure that you give yourself that time, but it’s real easy for you to go, oh, I have a priority over here, or I have a meeting I need to be at, or whatever. But taking care of you is just as important as that meeting, if not more. So it’s like constantly I’m telling myself, you are a priority. You matter. You matter.

C.G. Lewis:  We do. And that’s why intentions are so important. So every year, I usually use around my birthday to be my own personal fiscal year, and I re-look at my intentions. Sometimes I do at the beginning of the calendar year too. But I take a look at my intentions. One of my number one intentions is to protect my heart and energy. So I’m a person of faith. Proverbs 4 23 says, guard your heart with all diligence because out of it flows the issue of life. And I truly believe that we should be protecting ourselves and prioritizing ourselves. And we think about our heart. I’m tying it in with energy. A lot of times we talk about balancing our money, managing our money, budgeting our time. We have 168 hours every week. You got to budget that time just like you do your money. I’m telling people, learn to budget your energy. And it seems harder because it’s not a tangible thing, but we have to get better at prioritizing ourselves and budgeting our energy.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, absolutely. It’s funny because the more CEOs I talk to, they’re all either talking about increasing their revenue or their time, and I’m like, it’s not just about time. Everybody. My dad used to tell me all the time, everybody has the same 24 hours in a day.

C.G. Lewis:  Absolutely. Absolutely.

Melyssa Barrett:  You and the president, whoever that may be, but I mean the president has these team of people that are working on this schedule all the time. Absolutely. And of course my dad, I mean, he told me this, I think I was nine years old, so I mean it was very intimidating, but he felt like if you were sitting on the couch, you better be productive.

C.G. Lewis:  Yeah, I get that.

Melyssa Barrett:  What are you doing? So I love the fact that you’re doing so much. What’s coming up next? Where are you focused and where can we follow you and engage?

C.G. Lewis:  Absolutely. So I am currently leaning into my author coach journey, and later this year I will be launching a publishing agency, and it’s going to be focused on helping entrepreneurs and leaders that want to write books that supplement their business. And so that’s something that I’m doing as part of my Author Coach journey. I have two books coming out this year. One is Brown Sugar Goals, it’s a goals guide, and that’s coming out the end of next month. Then one later this spring is called The Sweet Spot, understanding What Our Sweet Spot is. It’s an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, exhale, energy and Traumas and Threats. Just a little preview. So the Sweet Spot is coming out later this spring, as is my next retreat, which is called the Authentic Power Experience.

Melyssa Barrett:  Oh, wow. Okay. So not like you don’t have anything to do, but so tell me a little bit more about the experience that you cultivate.

C.G. Lewis:  Yeah, so this retreat is, I launched it last year. It’s a series of retreats and it’s called The Intentional Woman. And the whole point is to provide, I say this all the time, safe spaces for us to lean into ourselves, giving ourselves space and grace to be intentional and to lead with purpose. And so the first one was last year. It was the renewal experience. We leaned deep into self-care and what that meant, again, beyond the spa and the massages and things, which are still good. This one is called the Authentic Power Experience. It’s a two day event is happening here in the Bay Area, and the first day is going to be all about leaning into our sweet spot. So we’re going to go through our values, reconnecting with that and our visions, learning how to set intentions, and then we’re going to understand really what our goals and our vision is for our life, how we tie those together.

But we’re also going to be dropping stuff. So at the end of the first day, we’re going to have a release ceremony. We’re releasing everything that no longer serves us on the second day. It’s really leaning into our power plan. We’re going to be talking about how we brand ourselves, our branding for other people before ourselves, prioritizing what our goals are and leaning into what our power is. And then we’re going to have a power ceremony at the end of day too. So we are really looking forward to that. The whole goal is to teach people how to walk in their authentic power.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it. That’s fantastic. I have to say, I’m just so excited for you because having, knowing the corporate path that we have come from with the level of activity demand and just the presence that you have to have just to be in a dynamically charged space like that, and to have you kind of jump off and say, you know what? I want to help people and create those safe spaces is phenomenal, especially at such turbulent times. So it holds a special place for me because you have always been such an inspiration to me personally. And so I just wanted to say that publicly because you are an amazing, amazing person, and I just love that you’re giving gifts like this to the world because I truly believe that it’s like we all go through a journey for different reasons, but it’s so wonderful to see you sit in your own purpose and deliver that gift to others.

C.G. Lewis:  Melissa, thank you so, so much. I feel very honored to be on your wonderful podcast that you’ve had going for a while now. It is amazing, and I love the thought leadership that you bring to the front through the work that you do on screen or on the podcast and off. You do a lot of amazing work off. So I feel like I am in good company.

Melyssa Barrett:  I appreciate it. I appreciate it, the fest. So now what other things can we talk about that, I mean, I feel like if people don’t know you, this is really kind of just a scratch of the surface of Christina CG Lewis. The real CG Lewis is like, I mean, there’s so much depth to all of the things that you do, whether you’re talking about finance or otherwise. I mean, you really have had this illustrious career in technology working on the finance side, and then you brought all this leadership and you’ve always had this leadership kind of at the forefront. And so I’m trying to figure out are there other things that you want to highlight with respect to leadership that we can hang off of as we wrap?

C.G. Lewis:  I think it’s important for us to, one, understand that many of us are leaders even without the title. But what I’ve learned in leadership is that you do have to own it. You do have to not let things break your confidence. I mean, I’m going to pause for a moment just so you can cut this out if you want to, but I heard Lovey and Jay say that sometimes we are so scared to be our full selves when you got mediocre people out here in power who are mediocre at best. So this is a perfect time. If you ever need a confirmation, good. And well, if mediocre can do this, what can you do? So this year, one of the phrases that I’m adopting is what is the best that can happen? I love it because you think about, Hey, what’s the worst that can happen? I have to plan for this, I have to plan for that. Let’s be a little bit more positive with it. And it’s is okay to have these thoughts. So I’m not being dismissive of what’s happening. What I am saying is every day we should ask ourselves what is the best that can happen?

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it. Well, and with that, I’m going to ask you another question because a lot of the stuff that we talk about is diversity, equity of inclusion, and we all know that there’s a lot going on with respect to that. So do you have any thoughts on DEI that you want to share?

C.G. Lewis:  So a couple of things. One, there are some things that are being done, and some of it is for shock value for sure. It’s hard not to respond. It is good to remember that in some instances, people are just showing you who they really are, period. Somebody shows you who you are, believe them. And in some instances, just like in regular relationships and friendships, and sometimes we need to lower the level of our expectations so we can stop getting disappointed and just accept that some people are who they are, people, organizations, spaces, some people are, and once you that, then you can move forward. We keep getting disappointed because we have our expectations this high, so we can raise expectations for ourselves and our communities, but don’t expect other people to be something other than who we are. We can’t change other people. That’s first. Second, understand that some of these things, movements that are made, we see, hey, they’re dropping, DEI, they’re doing this. Some are just dropping it all together. There are some people that are renaming it so they can better navigate the system.

So instead of panicking immediately, it is that, and then also understand that some people weren’t doing it right anyway. They weren’t doing it right anyway. It wasn’t working for them anyway, for anybody. And I tell people so many times, diversity doesn’t work because I give this example, which I was going to write about, but I’m just going to give it here, my perfect sweet tea example, right? Christina’s originally, that’s me. I’m originally from the south. I love sweet tea. But being in the Bay area, traveling other places, they look at you like you’re crazy. When you ask for sweet tea, they’ll give you this cold iced tea and a pack of sugar or Splenda because they say it melts back. But you know what? The way physics works, sugar does not dissolve. And cold liquids easy. You stir, stir, stir, and you hope you get enough friction. So that stuff starts to dissolve a little bit. But at the end of the day, you just have crystals in the bottom of the glass, right?

Melyssa Barrett:  Correct.

C.G. Lewis:  That’s what we’ve been doing with some of these diversity programs. We keep adding people in, let’s just put that person there and put that person there. Stir, stir, stir. And we say, why isn’t it working? Because these environments have not been heated up enough for the sugar to melt. The tea is not getting sweet because the environment is still too cold. We put people in these cold environments and expect it to work and say, oops, it didn’t work, but it was never warmed up in the first place.

Melyssa Barrett:  Right. Oh, I love it. I love that analogy. That’s awesome. Love it. Love it. All right, well tell folks how they can get ahold of you.

C.G. Lewis:  Absolutely. So I am always on Instagram. Most of my handles on Instagram thread, even TikTok, which I’m on there, sparsely is VCG Lewis, T-H-E-C-G-L-E-W-I-S. That is my handle for everything. You can also find my YouTube channel. I do have a site that’s in the process of getting updated now. It’s called VCG Lewis, so you can always contact me and you’ll see there, even if you go to my Lincoln Bio for anything, it lists all of the projects that I’m working on now, any programs. I started a new community called the Authentic Power Society if somebody wants to join a Safe Space. So all those things you can find at VCG Lewis on any of my social media platforms.

Melyssa Barrett:  Tell me more about, it’s the Authentic Power Society you’re talking about,

C.G. Lewis:  Correct? Correct. I’ve created a community, it’s called the Authentic Power Society. It is a paid membership, and this is what people get when you sign up with the society, especially through February, you get one individual coaching session with me a month. There is one group coaching session with the community. We also get one resource a month related to that. So it’s like a deeper workbook for you to do the work that we’re talking about, whatever the topic of the month is. And then there’s also, I’ve added something because people were asking for it, we’re going to do one quarterly in-person event.

Melyssa Barrett:  Nice.

C.G. Lewis:  So it’s creating a safe space in a community, but also adding some structure for people to get those goals done, to learn how to walk in their authentic power. And so we have a course outline every month. We’re talking about different things. Our first two months are already scheduled. We will be talking about goals in the first month, and so people are going to get a preview to my book, brown Sugar Goals that’s coming out next month, but we’re actually going to walk through that, so you’ll do it in a group session. You have this community to lean into, and then I help you walk through things, and so I’ve seen that it works. I’ve done a couple of online challenges called Five Day Reset, and I walk people through similar things, and it always works when they’re in community and then they have a follow-up because a lot of us just need a coach to help us through, and I’m coaching coaches, which is great because we do things for other people, but we need help ourselves. So that’s what I’m creating for people. It’s just this community and walking in your authentic power can sound like this brand, this brand new thing, or just this massive thing. It can be a bit intimidating, but when you do it in community, when you do it in safety, it is an absolute achievable thing.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. I love that you’re doing that. I mean, the Authentic Power Society, this takes me back. I feel like I’m back when the N-A-A-C-P was founded, the Founder’s Day for N-A-A-C-P is coming, and that’s what it feels like. It’s that kind of energy where it’s like we are grabbing the power that we have to be able to direct it appropriately.

C.G. Lewis:  Absolutely. Because in times now it can seem like we don’t have power. It can seem daunting and overwhelming. I know a lot of us are saying, Hey, I’m sitting out for the next four years, but we also realize that we say that because we’re tired. We also realize we can’t do that.

Melyssa Barrett:  We can’t say that. You

C.G. Lewis:  Know what I mean? And so that’s why community is good. Our culture, when you go back to African countries and cultures, we are different. It’s not just individual based. It’s really about community, and we are stronger together, and that’s what this space is about.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. Here’s the drumbeat. Y’all absolutely come out and join the drum circle. I’m going to want you to get to a drum circle at one of your events. I need to infuse the jolly in there somewhere.

C.G. Lewis:  Let’s talk, because let’s talk about availability that you may have because we can incorporate that at the Authentic Power Retreat that’s happening in April.

Melyssa Barrett:  Oh, that’s awesome. I don’t play the drums. I just want to infuse the drums. Absolutely.

C.G. Lewis:  Look, we can work on that together, but I mean, absolutely. It is all about community, and that’s how we sustain it, right? I’m giving you all these tools, but how do you sustain it and you sustain it with community.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it. I love it. Thank you. The real CG Lewis for joining me again. I had to come back on because I was like, wait a second. We got to talk more about this authentic power Society. So y’all reach out to her, make sure that you know how you can reach her. Check the podcast episode description if you need a publishing agency, if you want to get into her experiences, her workshops, this girl is doing it, so love my girl. Love my girl, giving her high praise. Thank you so much for joining me.

C.G. Lewis:  Thanks, Melissa.

Melyssa Barrett:  Thanks for joining me on the Jali Podcast. Please subscribe so you won’t miss an episode. See you next week.