The Sustainable CEO: Unlocking Alignment, Legacy & Divine Overflow with Benita Williams – ep.176

In this transformational episode of The Jali Podcast, host Melyssa Barrett is joined by leadership strategist, speaker, and author Benita Williams, whose new book Sustainable CEO introduces the Divine Overflow Sequence—a framework for leading with alignment, purpose, and legacy.

Benita shares her journey of guiding CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs to move beyond burnout and into sustainable leadership that integrates faith, alignment, and impact. Her message is not just for leaders of corporations, but for anyone seeking to build a meaningful life where success and sustainability coexist.

Together, Melyssa and Benita explore how to:

  •  Unlock the Divine Overflow Sequence for personal and professional alignment

  •  Avoid common traps that derail leaders and organizations

  •  Embed diversity, equity, and inclusion into leadership DNA

  •  Build a legacy that matters—starting now, not later

  •  Practice daily habits that keep you spiritually, emotionally, and mentally grounded

Whether you’re a CEO, emerging leader, or purpose-driven entrepreneur, this conversation will inspire you to lead with authenticity and build a legacy that endures.

If you are looking for a signed copy of her book, see link here: PayPal.Me (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/benit…)

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. I’m excited this week. Again, Benita is here with me, and many of you know she’s come to the Jali podcast before she has an episode. We will link that episode as well because we’ve talked a lot about overwhelm and how to kind of get back on track and eliminate that burnout from your life. Not only eliminate it, but really recognize it before you get to it. But today, I’m excited to talk to her about her new book called The Sustainable CEO. And I love how you have really focused on unlocking the divine overflow sequence, which is amazing to me because I think as you go through, especially as a founder and CEO, you start to realize how much control you have of designing the life that you want. And I hope that many people, especially CEOs, become more spiritual in their journey so that they’re fully aligned with their purpose. And so I love the book and what you’re doing here. I know, I think the cover is showing you’re pouring into something else for sure.

And so you want to keep your cup full. Absolutely. So welcome, welcome.

Benita Williams: Thank you. Thank you, Melyssa. It’s always a joy, a pleasure to be with you. Thank you so much for the invitation back. Absolutely. So I’m so grateful, so grateful for you and for sharing your platform with me to allow me to talk about, yes, this latest project of the sustainable CEO, which is, it’s something that I’m still unpacking myself to be honest with you. So we’re kind of unpacking together here. So I just thank you for the opportunity for this dialogue.

Melyssa Barrett: Oh, it’s my pleasure, especially, and I think specifically for people of color, and I’ll say it this way, I mean, since the beginning of the year, I’ve had so many friends come up to me and just they are, I mean, the level of discouragement, depression, mental health, I mean, all of those kind of huge things that weigh on you to figure out how do I continue to move forward? Whether you’re a CEO or not, you’re trying to make sure that you have the life that you want.

Benita Williams: Absolutely.

Melyssa Barrett: So I’m excited for you to talk a little bit about maybe your own story on what inspired you to write sustainable CEO and why you think right now is the right message.

Benita Williams: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes. I will say there’s a saying out here now that everybody’s using life, be life and life, be life and right. And I’m sure, like you said, CEOs, founders, leaders, entrepreneurs, moms, dads, you name it, everybody feels that the tension and the frustration, the friction, when life is lifeing, right? And I think that’s just something that we all, no matter what level of leadership we’re in, we’re all feeling it right now. We’re feeling the crunch, the pinch, if you will, the strain, the heaviness. I don’t know about your 2025, but my 2025 was just almost like a sequel to 2024, so to speak. It was like one continuum. There was a lot that went on in my life in 2024. A lot of things that I went through personally, and it’s just weighty. It was very weighty, very weighty, very stressful.

And I believe the economy in general just felt really weighty. A lot of things, a lot of things changed, a lot of political agendas and things like that changed. And so we just found ourselves kind of being tossed to and fro, if you will. And so I just feel like that’s a part of probably why God allowed this release. This was really a divine download for me. It wasn’t something that I had planned to release or anything. It wasn’t even created. It wasn’t even something that I was thought about to do. However, I’m in this work of self-care. And so being in the work of self-care, I’m always looking for ways that we can better ourselves, ways that we can help reduce the anxiety and the stresses of life, the burnout and the exhaustion and the fatigue and things like that. We see it from athletes all the way to doctors all the way, it doesn’t matter, your profession doesn’t matter if you’re homeschooling mom, things like that. We all feel a certain level and degree of pressure and stressors and things like that. And so how we go through life and we kind of challenge those things and be able to mitigate ’em is important. And so I’m always open to just tapping in and really hearing from God about ways that we can hopefully combat some of the things that are going on. And so

When I wrote the, I had some notes, really, it was just started as a notebook. I’m always journaling. I’m always writing things down. That’s just one of my ways that I’m able to relieve stress and things like that, get things off of my mind. It’s just to jot ’em down on paper. So here’s a tip. If you’re not journaling, you’re missing out.

Melyssa Barrett: Yes. No, it’s powerful.

Benita Williams: If you’re not journaling, you’re missing out, please, please grab a pen, grab a notepad, grab your iPad, whatever, your phone, and texting your phone, whatever you need to do, because mental load is a lot. It’s a real thing, the mental,

Melyssa Barrett: I feel like it takes the noise out of your head.

Benita Williams: Oh, yes, absolutely. It does. It does. And it brings a lot of clarity just to be able to see something written down on paper. And so that’s kind of how it started. I just wasn’t taking, really, there was some things that had popped up in my spirit really about stewardship, to be honest with you. That was the word, that was a buzzword that came in. You’ll see that interwoven in throughout the book. It was really about stewardship, and God was really challenging me on what it means to be a good steward.

Melyssa Barrett: Okay. That’s fantastic.

Benita Williams: Yeah. Wasn’t that, it’s a different angle, like you said, different angle, different approach, but it’s like what does it really mean to be a good steward over what God has given? And then it went a little bit deeper, and it was like, because we don’t own anything. We don’t own it. We are all here working as us to die. We don’t own it. And so it’s not ours to control. And then the word control came up. So I’m starting to draw all these things and make the connections. And so I really felt in my spirit that God was saying that he wanted us, especially those that are in kingdom businesses, leadership, things like that marketplace, kingdom marketplace. He wanted us to really embody or understand the difference between ownership and stewardship, and that a lot of us have been owning what we should be stewarding. A lot of us have been trying to control or feeling like we’re controlling things, that it’s really not up to us to control, but more of it’s up to us to manage

Melyssa Barrett: And

Benita Williams: Manage, not to really control, but to manage what we have. And then that’s the foundation of being a good steward. So that’s kind of how it all began, really.

Melyssa Barrett: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, and the title alone is intriguing. So maybe talk a little bit about, when you say unlocking the divine overflow sequence, what does that mean?

Benita Williams: Yes, all of it, again, was just a download. Even the sustainable CEO, which just named it kind of resonated and popped in my spirit. But the Divine overflow sequence is really a blueprint for receiving overflow. A lot of us may be operating on or seeing diminishing returns in business and can’t figure out why. Or you may be experiencing a lot of bottlenecks in business, things like that. And you can’t quite figure out what’s going on. You do the three year and the five year financial plan forecasting and things like that. We have it all. We’ve got our p and l statements, and we’ve got all these things. But when it comes down to it, you may be experiencing diminishing returns, and you don’t understand why that is. And it’s really because of this tug of war between ownership and stewardship.

Melyssa Barrett: And

Benita Williams: So God revealed that there is a way, there’s a more excellent way for us to really sustain the flow of resources, sustain the flow of profitability, sustain the flow of increase in your business. How I envision that is that when you tap into a flow, you think about a river or something like that, that’s always flowing, a stream that’s always flowing, that’s just it. It’s always flowing. There’s never a point in time where that river is not flowing, right? There’s never a point in time where that stream is not flowing. So the idea is to tap into a rhythm of resources and divine overflow so that you never have to run out.

Melyssa Barrett: I love

Benita Williams: It. And that’s what the sustainable CEO is really all about. It’s coming from this piece where the resources and the contacts and the networks and the profit margins and things like that never run out. Imagine that. Yes, I can imagine the world. Exactly. But it is, it’s a real thing. So the Bible speaks about it often that in times of famine, there were certain ones that were able to go through that process without so much as even an issue because they were so well sustained during that time of famine. So no matter what’s going on in the world, no matter what’s happening, we hear it in the economy, loss of this, loss of that, all the losses and stuff. But that for the sustainable CEO, that does not have to be your case.

Melyssa Barrett: And

Benita Williams: So that’s what this book is really, it’s a reveal of how to tap into that flow. And there is a blueprint called the Divine Overflow sequence, and it’s like a seven step process that will help lead anyone really who takes advantage of it, to tap into the defined flow of Kevin’s resources.

Melyssa Barrett: Well, and I want to ask you about that framework in just a second, but I wanted to maybe, I mean, one of the things I loved is that you talk about kind of a alignment as the foundation for leadership. And so what does true alignment look like for a CEO or a leader, and how do they know when they’ve lost it?

Benita Williams: Very good question. Very good. And I believe this, I really do. I believe that every leader starts off in alignment. I truly believe that. I believe when you have that vision and you’ve got that mandate or that sense of responsibility, every leader starts off in alignment. You’re clear on your goals, you’re clear on your vision. You know what it is that you’ve been shown, and you know what you’re going for. But somewhere along the lines, somewhere along the way, life happens. Things start to the hustle and bust. Love it. All right. Exactly. And I believe that’s what happens. And so leaders get out of alignment. There’s a misalignment that occurred somewhere along the way, and it’s starting to impact what’s going on in your company or structural, whatever the case may be. But true alignment is really that heart posture. It’s really why you got in it in the first place, right?

It’s going back to the true calling, the true nature, if you will, of anyone, especially kingdom or faith-driven businesses. What was the real reason why you started that business or that company, or you took that position in the first place? And getting back to that, because true alignment is about having that perspective and knowing your why and only your why, and getting back to that if you’ve somehow are misaligned at this point in time. And so alignment is key in order to tap into the overflow and sustain, right? It’s what we’re talking about, being able to sustain no matter what’s going on. Well, no matter what’s happening in the world, it’s all about alignment. That is the first step. Is that that heart posture?

Melyssa Barrett: Yeah. Oh, of the heart posture. Yes. I love that term as you were talking through it. So maybe can you walk us through the core pillars of sustainable CEO framework?

Benita Williams: Yeah, absolutely. So in the beginning of the book, you’ll see that we’re really focusing on three things. And one of them happens to be alignment. It’s alignment before acceleration. You’re not in it for the money and the riches and all these things like that. That is a nice byproduct, if you will. But it comes from you being intentional about your why and being intentional about you aligning with God’s vision and your identity in Christ. What does that really mean? And why are you here? What is the work that you put here to do? What is your purpose? And things like that. So really it’s alignment, and we talk about identity in the book and things like that. And then it’s also from there, it talks about provision, but really provision as an act of obedience. So not just provision just for the sake of being provided for and things like that, but really it comes from being positioned in obedience, understanding that obedience precedes provision, if you will.

And so going back to what did God tell you? Why are you doing it? What did he tell you? And following through on the instructions, what he told you and out of obedience. And then that’s where the provision comes in. And then it’s about really having strategy, but getting it through divine revelation. So aside from the strategic business plans, and aside from the forecasting and all the things that we do in business, what are the heaven downloads that you’re getting? What are the divine insights that you’re getting? Sometimes the market may tell you to do something this way, but it’s totally not the way that God is paying for you to go. And so there may be you having to go against the grain a little bit of what may seem rational, what may seem logical to do, but that divine strategy will give you exactly what to do. And it just may be unorthodox. It may be unorthodox. And so is that a part of your team building strategy, right? To know or have that awareness, that knowing when you need to do something that may seem a little bit unorthodox. So yeah.

Melyssa Barrett: Yeah. That’s really good. That’s really good. I think. Yeah, go. Keep going.

Benita Williams: No, I was just going to say that is really kind of laying the foundation for how you align. It’s about alignment. I think it’s on the book there, it’s about alignment, it’s about leadership, and it’s about, so those three things.

Melyssa Barrett: I love that. Well, and it’s so nice to see a book that weaves in that spiritual framework with the business aspects. And so, I mean, I really appreciated all of the research that you did to provide real life examples of businesses that really unlocked that overflow.

Benita Williams: Absolutely.

Melyssa Barrett: Which I thought was really awesome. So one of the questions I wanted to ask you though, is having said all of that, what role do you think self-awareness plays in unlocking this divine overflow sequence?

Benita Williams: There’s a saying that my husband, and I’m just going back to a saying that mys husband and I say, you can’t be defeated in what you understand. You cannot be defeated in what you understand. And so I think a part of that understanding is really about the

Melyssa Barrett: Self-awareness.

Benita Williams: It’s really about the self-awareness. And so when you notice that there are things going on in your leadership, it may be personal leadership, or it may be with your executive teams or what have you, but you just know that things are just not, they’re just off. There’s certain things that aren’t flowing the way they used to. Or you start to notice, like I said, diminishing returns in some sense. Or it may be bottlenecks in the company. It may be employee turnover, like dissatisfaction, disgruntlement, whatever the case may be. Burnout is a huge one.

All of these things, and I talked about this in a previous podcast, all of these things are warning signs. Really, there are clues to let you know that you’re not in alignment. That’s really what it is, that there’s a misalignment that is happening. There’s a breach of whatever the covenant is. There’s a breach somewhere in that covenant alignment agreement that you have to really become aware of. And so whether it be, like I said, on a personal scale where you, you’re having symptoms of high blood pressure, or you may be having symptoms of heart palpitations or what have you notice physical changes in your body, your mental fog has gotten really, really, really, really crazy off the charts, things like that on a personal scale. But then in the business, again, because it’s all about our operating systems,

Our bodies, our operating systems, internal operating systems, and then we have our businesses that have external operating systems, and that we were checking the health grade, if you will, about operating systems. And if you notice that there are things that are just not quite right, well, you need to really do a self-check and have that. So one of the things that I outlined in the book, and hopefully people who purchase will see that there are many questions that cause you to kind of pause and think, are you doing things in and of your own strength? Are you taking on things that God never told you to take on? Are you trying to control everything instead of praying? When was the last time you gathered together and had a boardroom prayer, prayer meeting? Right? Things like that. And so it challenges both on a personal and in a professional level to do a self-check and see where there may be some areas where you can identify misalignment. And

Melyssa Barrett: That’s great. So when we talk about leadership sustainability, which some people may think it looks different depending on context, and I’m all about inclusion. So I want to talk a little bit about how does this approach really address some of the unique challenges that people of color women leaders, underrepresented executives face?

Benita Williams: Yes, yes. That’s a great question. I believe that the sustainable CEO is a universal language. I believe that it will touch and it will sort of give insight to anything, any situation that you may be dealing with, especially in the arena of mistreatment, unfair practices, things like that, that we deal with in the workplace. Because the heartbeat of the sustainable CEO is really about compassion, if you think about it. And compassion is a universal language, right? It’s like we hope, well, it should be, right, exactly. Not, yeah, not everybody speaks that same language. But no, it is something that if you think about it, just breaking it all the way down, it’s having a level of self-compassion. And then it’s also having a level of compassion for others as well. So if we look at it through that lens, then you’ll see mannerisms. You’ll see cultural ways that you can culturally align no matter what the cultural differences is, things like that. You’ll start to see ways that you can align with the underlying message of it all, which goes back to compassion.

Melyssa Barrett: I think a lot of times that’s how you end up being more connected, right? Because you’re able to connect on a different level.

Benita Williams: Absolutely. Your values, your morals, things like that. Things that we can all agree on and connect together and be sensitive to together. And that’s what helps to change the culture, the leadership culture really in the organization. If you focus on things like that, more of what we have in common, more of the same versus the differences, then I think that is the way that, well, at least in the book, I believe you’ll see a lot of that compassion come through, and that’s the way to address even those tough issues.

Melyssa Barrett: For sure. Let’s pause for a moment. We’ll be right back. You talk a lot about legacy as part of this model, to be clear. So how do you define legacy and how can leaders really be intentional about it now, not just later in life? I literally have a book my daughter brought home that says, I’m dead now. What? Oh my goodness.

Melyssa Barrett: Wow.

Melyssa Barrett: I think it’s supposed to help you prepare for your afterwards, but I think a lot of times people think of legacy and they just realize and they’re like, oh, okay, I’m preparing to die. But legacy means so much more than that.

Benita Williams: Oh, absolutely. And I believe one of the ways that we’re really addressing legacy is what do you want to be known for? What is the mantra, if you will, what is the thing that you want to be most known for? We talk about impact and influence a lot, and that all ties into legacy and legacy building. How well you really are as a leader has a lot to do with how well off your company and team thrives without you, if you think about it. For sure. My dad

Melyssa Barrett: Used to always tell me, he says, you’re always preparing a successor.

Benita Williams: There you

Melyssa Barrett: Go. And in your own business, if you are not prepared as a successor, then there’s really nothing. I mean, the business dies. Right? Exactly.

Benita Williams: Absolutely.

Melyssa Barrett: So you’re working in your business and not on your business as my coach tells me. Yes, very much so. Love that. And it’s interesting because I even think about it in smaller chunks where I had this 30 year career in payment technology. And what’s interesting to me is when you see people who you’ve interacted with, it could have been 10 years ago, 15 years ago, there is a legacy of how they remember you. There

Benita Williams: You go. Absolutely.

Melyssa Barrett: Absolutely. And I never really thought about it that much, but then you start to go, oh, wow, how could I have changed that relationship? Or maybe it’s a good one and you’re excited about it, but there’s so many different ways that we think about legacy, and we often forget that we’re literally leaving a footprint of legacy every single day.

Benita Williams: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it goes back to, I believe at the end of it all, because again, the divine overflow sequence is really a blueprint. A blueprint to help you leave your mark. It’s how you went through or how you were able to go through and sustain through whatever those hard times and those difficult situations, and the change management issues and all the risks that you had, all the things that we go through. But your ability to sustain through that is legacy. It’s

Melyssa Barrett: Legacy. So maybe can you talk a little bit about some of the legacy mistakes you see leaders make?

Benita Williams: Oh, wow.

Melyssa Barrett: Maybe we can avoid some of those.

Benita Williams: Absolutely. I think one of the biggest ones that comes up is the idea, like you said, that they don’t plan for a sensor. They think that they’re going to be there forever and don’t prepare the next generation. And we see what happens when there’s generations that are ill prepared. Everybody suffers. People suffer because of that. On a large scale and a small scale, it happens. And so I think what I tried to illustrate in the book is that when you, again, it’s all about a continuum.

Melyssa Barrett: Think

Benita Williams: About, just keep going back to that. It’s all about a continuum. So never, the river should never run dry. It’s always flowing. And so that business, that company, that legacy should always flow. There should be a seamless transition of power. Everything should just be this continuum of flow. That’s really the divine overflow sequence. I look at companies that are in business and have been in business like 40, 50, 70 years plus or whatever the case a hundred years. How does that happen if there’s not this continuum of flow, if they haven’t been able to sustain through all of the ups and downs and things of life? So it’s really about understanding that, again, we own nothing. God is in control of everything. We are here to steward well, what he has given us. And as long as we stay in alignment with that, and the divine little sequence that blueprint helps us to basically is the guardrails to keep us in alignment, really, then we will see alignment, leadership, and legacy continue to play out, continue to sustain throughout generations.

Melyssa Barrett: Yeah, I love that. So any daily or weekly practices that you want to share that maybe you use personally to stay aligned and Oh my goodness, from that place of overflow?

Benita Williams: Absolutely. Absolutely. So real quickly, just kind of run down the sequence, this seven steps, and the first step has to deal with, again, posture. And we’re talking about a heart posture of surrender, a heart posture of surrender. And with me personally, it is something that I’m constantly doing. I feel a closeness. I feel refreshed. I feel rejuvenated when I’m able to have that time alone with God and connect to reconnect to source, to reconnect to what grounds me and keeps me grounded and heart posture. Recently for me, I discovered that there were some things that I was dealing with that probably many people deal with, but go unresolved because you’re not aware of it. And so that awareness that we were talking about earlier is huge. I was grieving. I was grieving loss and didn’t realize that I was grieving loss. I thought there were things that I had long gotten over, long dealt with, gotten over those situations or whatever the case. But no, it came up in that time that there was still some unresolved grieving associated with loss that I needed to go in and be healed of and purged of. So that heart, posture, surrender, it’s first and foremost if you’re going to talk about alignment and being in alignment with overflow, I know that.

And so that’s just something that I am always checking in with myself to do. And so I say to any leader, always check in with yourself and see if there’s some unresolved things that may be blocking the flow. Again, the key is sustainable overflow.

Melyssa Barrett: And

Benita Williams: So the second is dealing with provision. Provision. We use the word all the time. It’s associated with riches and money and wealth and resources and just having access and all these things. But what I come to realize about provision is really it’s about pro vision. It’s almost like you have your ideas about your company and where it’s going and what kind of year you could have and that kind of thing. But then when you have provision, it’s really like a magnifying glass. You see things crystal clear in detail, and it’s more than what you thought. That’s what I associate with provision. So being open to, well, the company’s just done this. We’ve done this way for this long, whatever. No, be open to God blowing your mind in business. Think about that, right? Be open to new relationships and new ventures, or whatever the case may be, new partnerships. Be open to those things because you’d be surprised how many businesses are their own worst bottleneck, the leader, because he’s unwilling to be open and changed. So yeah,

Melyssa Barrett: For sure.

Benita Williams: Yeah. So that’s looking just be pliable to that. Again, surrendering control and saying, you know what? I’m just here managing, so I’m open to new ideas and new strategies and things like that. The third step is really about prophetic instruction, and that’s literally doing whatever that last instruction was, whatever that instruction is that you haven’t done yet, making sure you go back and tie up loose ends and do it. But you’ve got to be able to hear what that instruction is and seek wisdom on that. Seek wise counsel on that as

Melyssa Barrett: Well.

Benita Williams: And so I’m always, again, meeting with my support group and my husband and I go back and forth a lot with things. I bounce ideas off. So just because you want that wise counsel and make sure that you’re not missing out on any instruction that will take you and move you forward. And then after that, you really want to tap into the pattern. The Bible is full of patterns. God gives us patterns. It’s a rhythm, if you will, of how he flows in and out of seasons. You think about the four Seasons, there’s a time and place for everything. You see the seasons play out. We see the days of the week, we see the months of the year, things like that. Those are all patterns. It’s all of change and process. And so that there is a spiritual pattern that you and your company can actually tap into.

It’s a rhythm, a rhythm of God that will assure that you meet every season of your business with success. And so you want to tap into that and learn what that rhythm is for your business. And so yeah, that’s really key as well. And something that I try to implement, exercise in the book, a way to do that in the book. And then you look at why do you have a platform? What is it really for? Is it to boost your ego? Is it to help you with your likes, your hearts and your likes and things like that, your social influence or what have you? Or is your platform really about a place in a space to release what God has for you to be able to share what God has and what he’s saying? Using the platform for the kingdom and being able to push the agenda of the kingdom forward and not your own specific agenda is really what that’s about. Yeah.

Melyssa Barrett: Awesome.

Benita Williams: Yeah. And then from that, there is poured out, poured out, and you cannot be poured out from an empty

Melyssa Barrett: Cup.

Benita Williams: You cannot pour from an empty cup. So that means you have to be filled up before and really overflowing, which is what you see happening with the sustainable CEO. God revealed to me that many of us in kingdom leadership and business, we are like containers, and containers only have a certain capacity to hold things. God is saying in the divine overflow, it’s really more about not being a container, but being a conduit conduit.

We as kingdom faith-driven leaders, we are to be conduits in the marketplace in business. And you think about a conduit. A conduit is just simply a structure with two open ends to basically guide the flow of something, right? To guide the flow of something. And so if we think about your business, your company as simply a pass through a pass, through a pass through of resources and services and products and goods, you’re a pass through to get to who it’s supposed to for, then you’re not so much containing things for yourself. The decisions will be much clearer, right?

Melyssa Barrett: Yes.

Benita Williams: It’ll be much easier. You won’t have all these constraints. You won’t have all these, the tight fist, closed fist and things like that. You’ll be more generous, things like that because you realize that you’re put here to really blow the resources through a pass through. And in that way, you can’t really have control. You don’t really have that control. You don’t control the conduits containers. It’s like capacity limits and things like that that can be controlled, but not with a conduits, just a continual flow. And so we in our lives, examine our lives both personally and professionally and see, are we being containers or are we being conduits? You can only pour out and through if you’re conduit. So that’s a big one. Yeah, that was a big one.

Melyssa Barrett: Yeah. I love that.

Benita Williams: And then lastly, but not least of course, is praise. Praise. You think about praise. It’s the beginning and the end, right? We start in praise and worship in a surrender posture of praise and worship, and we end there as well. Praise is definitely, it’s a weapon of sustainability because with everything going on in the world right now, we could smile, right? Because there’s a joy on the inside of us some days, not

Melyssa Barrett: Some

Benita Williams: Days. Well, yes. Right? Exactly. Most days. Most days,

Melyssa Barrett: Right? Yes.

Benita Williams: It depends on you. It is our choice. Yes, it is. Its exactly. We do get the right to choose that, right? That we can go through how we go through everything, what we go through. Some things are out of our hands, but how we choose to experience it and go through it, that is up to us. And so we can go through it with a level of gratitude, servanthood and joy, and peace in those things that come through. Praise come through praise. So that’s the sequence. That is the flow. That’s how we sustain. This is, again, for leaders. It could be for that personal realignment, if you will, or it could be for your business and company realignment. So it’s the sustainable CEO. It is how to sustain in the divine overflow that God desires for all of us to be able to tap into and have.

Melyssa Barrett: I feel like you could replace CEO with about anything like the sustainable minister or

Benita Williams: That part.

Melyssa Barrett: Yeah. I mean the sustainable mom. The sustainable, yeah, exactly. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I love that you have kind of really woven the business angle, because really anytime we’re connecting with an organization, a lot of times I feel like people feel like they have to leave their faith at the door, and it’s so amazing when as a CEO, you can provide that level of space, that level of connection to our infinite source, and really listen to what God is telling us. And really then it becomes kind of like, are you trusting what he’s, and kind of moving in the direction and the path that he wants you to move?

Benita Williams: Totally. That’s really what it’s about, because we have work to do and how we go about it, especially for the faith-driven business and CEO and entrepreneur, it’s different. It’s different. We have vantage points and advantages and things that if we knew how to really, like you said, weave them into our work life, then we would see prosperity on a whole new level. We really would. And I think that’s kind of what God’s heart is about in writing. The sustainable CEO is really, he’s intentional about us understanding that there’s so much more, there’s so much more that we can be managing and should be managing, but we have to align and get ourselves and our businesses back in alignment with the defined plan that he has.

Melyssa Barrett: I love it. I love it. What a great way to wrap it up. But I do want to make sure that our listeners know how to connect with you, learn more about your work, get a copy of your book. Yes, yes. Please let us know how to do that.

Benita Williams: Okay. Thank you. Well, I’ll say I’m actually going through a rebrand right now with my company, but if you want, they can always reach out to me. They can email me, they can at contact@bonitawilliams.com. That’s contact@bonitawilliams.com. And I would love to provide a link that you can post to this episode, and that way they can obtain a copy of the book.

Melyssa Barrett: Absolutely. Absolutely. Would love to do that. Perfect. Yes. Well, and everybody definitely reach out to Benita Williams. She has lots more to say. I know, but it’s been such a pleasure to know you. I mean it, I don’t even know. I think you reached out to me first.

Benita Williams: Yes.

Melyssa Barrett: And we just been fast friends ever since. Yes,

Benita Williams: We have

Melyssa Barrett: Divine, right. Yes, divine. So I have just really enjoyed it and look forward to, I mean, I’m sure there’s going to be another book coming out,

Melyssa Barrett: I’m

Benita Williams: Sure I’m working on. I am working on a training series, a series of trainings, because it’s a lot to unpack. Like I said, there’s so much more to unpack, and so I’m going to be releasing a series of trainings and stuff like that just to kind of keep the sustainable CEO flowing.

Melyssa Barrett: Yes. Well, keep us posted. Come back and talk to us again, and blessings to you. Wishing you all the best as you continue to move forward. And these days, I’m all about more business and more life, and the sustainable CEO is definitely on my list. I enjoyed reading it and really hearing, because it’s one of those reads that’s not a traditional read. There’s so many different things in there where you can almost pick it up in any chapter. Any chapter. Right,

Benita Williams: Exactly. Go back to it as a

Melyssa Barrett: Reference. Yeah, for sure. You’ve written it in such a way that it’s like, wow, you can really pass it out to people, give it as a gift for the holidays. You could do all sorts of things.

Benita Williams: Absolutely. I believe it would truly bless not just your personal, but also your business life, your friends and family, but also your partners, your business partners and teams as well.

Melyssa Barrett: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for stopping by and talking about it, and hopefully folks will pick it up and check it out.

Benita Williams: Thank you

Melyssa Barrett: So much. Yes, and I look forward to our next conversation. Same here, sister. Thank you so

Benita Williams: Much

Melyssa Barrett: Again. All right, take care.

Benita Williams: Always a joy. Alright, you too. All right.

Melyssa Barrett: Thanks for joining me on the Jali Podcast. Please subscribe so you won’t miss an episode. See you next week.mazing guy. You do not want to miss this. He has created and shared his story on stages across the country, including ESPN, college Game Day, countless schools and communities. And he is such a man of focus on intersectional representation. We are not a monolith. He is an advocate for accessibility and clearly he speaks candidly about so many things with respect to systemic barriers, diversity, leadership. It is a session, an event that you do not want to miss. So come on out and join us and we look forward to seeing everybody. So stay tuned for all the details. Thanks for joining me on the Jali Podcast. Please subscribe so you won’t miss an episode. See you next week.