Don't Let Terminal Diagnosis Stop You From Living with Keisha Hickson

Join us this week on Women in the Arena as we dive into the inspiring story of Keisha Hickson. With a 25-year career in the financial sector, Keisha's life took an unexpected turn in 2016 when she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. What seemed like a devastating blow became the catalyst for a remarkable transformation. Keisha’s journey is a testament to resilience, redefining one’s path, and the power of chasing dreams.

🌟 Keisha’s Transformation: Discover how her diagnosis led her to reassess her life’s priorities, ultimately guiding her towards empowering women to pursue their passions.

🩺 Advancements in Treatment: Learn about the crucial advancements in multiple myeloma treatments and the profound impact of sharing personal experiences to offer hope and inspiration.

👩‍👧‍👦 Balancing Ambition and Family: Uncover the unique challenges women face in balancing ambition with family responsibilities and societal pressures, especially for mothers.

💪 Overcoming Limitations: Keisha shares her strategies for overcoming self-imposed limitations and setting actionable goals.

🗝️ Innovative Concepts: Explore her “nine-day week” concept and advice on breaking free from metaphorical cages.

This episode is a powerful reminder of the importance of resilience, personal growth, and embracing life’s challenges. Tune in for a deeply moving conversation that encourages us all to live with purpose and passion. Don’t miss this episode!

🎧 Listen now to be inspired by Keisha Hickson's incredible journey and learn how to empower yourself to chase your dreams. Subscribe, rate, and review the podcast to help us continue sharing these empowering stories.

https://keishahickson.com/

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***Last thing- This is my WISH LIST of interviews:

• Joan Jett
• Dolly Parton
• Viola Davis
• Ina Garten

Maybe you can help a girl out...***

Go check out all of our episodes on our website at: https://womeninthearena.net/

If you'd like to connect, reach out to me at audra@womeninthearena.net

***One last thing...I have an interview wish list because a girl's gotta dream

• Viola Davis
• Dolly Parton
• Ina Garten
• Joan Jett

Maybe one of you can help me out!

Thank you all for supporting this show and all Women in the Arena!

Transcript

Audra : 0:31

Welcome in everyone and thank you so much for joining me again this week. This week I have such a treat for you this week. I have such a beautiful woman with me and she's beautiful inside and out. My guest this week is Keisha Hickson, and she and I met by happenstance, but we met for a reason, but we met for a reason. Keisha has 25 years experience in the financial industry and had a moment of reflection when her life changed and she made a decision that she was not going to waste a moment of her life and decided to dedicate her life and her passion to creating spaces and opportunities for women to chase their passion. It is my pleasure and my honor to introduce to you.

Keisha : 1:27

Keisha Keisha, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure to be here with you today. Thank you for that beautiful introduction.

Audra : 1:36

I'm so happy for you to be here. As I said in the beginning, you and I met by happenstance. I got an email from your admin assistant and for some reason I was like I must meet this woman and, as it turned out, you and I have very similar backgrounds, both professionally and personally. We have very similar careers. We have very similar industries. We actually work in the same industry.

Audra : 2:06

We've never met and we have very similar personal backgrounds, and it was just we decided it was meant to be and we needed to speak. And I don't want to steal anybody's thunder, I certainly don't want to steal yours. So, keisha, tell the audience a little bit about yourself, tell us a little bit about your career and what was that moment that you changed everything and decided life is too short to chase or not chase your passion.

Keisha : 2:41

So I'll begin here. In 1997, I took a part-time job as a bank teller, which was supposed to be a brief detour on my way to law school between my undergrad degree and studying for the LSATs. This brief detour somehow turned into 26 years in banking, and that's the industry that you and I both share. It was very rewarding. It was empowering. It gave me a life of leisure. I was living the American dream. But I kind of put my law school ambitions to side because I was making money at the time. I found myself in a sales role. Eventually I became a vice president of retail banking, but in between that I was a killer salesperson. Life went on. I got married, I had a child. I just stayed at the bank for 26 years in retail banking and kind of like put my dreams of law school to the side.

Keisha : 3:42

Fast forward in 2016, I injured myself at home one weekend just doing some housework. I injured myself and my elbow. I had a pain. I was like, oh, this is weird, like why my elbow is hurting. So I went to the doctor and they took an x-ray and the panic on this doctor's face was incredible. I was like calm down, like calm down. She was like, oh my God, you have to go see an orthopedic doctor. I was like, okay, she says I found one for you.

Keisha : 4:16

The next day was Martha King's day, so the banks were closed and most people are off. She was like I found one for you tomorrow and you have to go. I said okay. So I called to confirm the appointment and I went. The doctor said Keisha, it could be two things. I'm going to send you for MRI and um. I will follow up. Okay, I'm no big deal going by my day. He gave me a sling. I have to probably have surgery to repair the elbow, whatever.

Keisha : 4:44

Two days later he calls me at work. He says Keisha, I don't know you, but I know you're a street shooter. He said you have a multiple myeloma. I was like okay, what is that? Not even thinking it was going to be that devastating of a diagnosis Multiple myeloma. I turned to my office computer. I look it up. It says a rare, incurable cancer of the plasma cells. Life expectancy three to five years. I was like what? This can't be it, no way. I was like this really can't be it. What are you saying? He goes I'm sorry, you have multiple myeloma. He tells me a bunch of stuff that all of a sudden, I feel like I'm underwater. I can't hear properly. I was like, okay, just tell me where to go and I'll make the appointment. So I hung up the phone and I remember like the room just started spinning. I was like I'm 38 and I'm not going to live to see my 44th birthday and my daughter is eight years old. I was like, oh, absolutely, this could not be it.

Keisha : 5:51

So that was the critical moment for me in my life where I felt like time was running out. I was in the ultimate fight for my life and I had to make a change. I had to do all the things that I've been putting off, whether it was starting a business, learning how to crochet, whatever it is I'm doing it right now. There's no more time to say one day or next day or next week. Right now, like there's no more time to say one day or next day or next week. So that was my pivotal moment that started me on this journey of realizing how complacent and comfortable we become until something critical happens and time becomes of the essence and you feel like what did I really do? So that was my moment in January 2016, when I realized that I have to make a shift.

Audra : 6:41

This is the moment that took your breath away, where you thought if I only have five years, I better make that those five years count.

Keisha : 6:50

Right, if I only have five years, I better make those five years count. And in five years, my daughter only would have been 13. So if it's not for her, I had to fight a little bit harder. I couldn't give up. I read one of the.

Keisha : 7:05

I was interviewed in a magazine when I started my first business in 2018. And in the magazine I've said I couldn't fold. It was no time to fold. I had to play the handout because, you don't, I didn't know what was going to happen, how I was going to respond to treatment. And then, you know, I became a doctor overnight. I am a multiple myeloma doctor specialist. If you didn't know, I could add that to my resume. You read all these cases about, you know, patients becoming refractory to the medication, all these complications, and you're like, oh my God, this can't happen to me, like I'm perfectly fine right now because I didn't have any symptoms leading up to this. It was just, I was going low with my life, like everything was just fine. I was living the status quo. It was, everything was good. So that was my pivotal moment, where things changed for me and my outlook on life and how I want to use my voice and my professional experience and my personal experience to let women know you can have it all. Wouldn't stop you if you can.

Audra : 8:14

Before we continue with what Keisha is doing, I told you that our lives, unbeknownst to ourselves, where they had been running parallel and intersecting, where we did not realize until we met two weeks ago. My mother also has multiple myeloma, but she was diagnosed a couple of years before Keisha and she had a experimental treatment. That she is still living with multiple myeloma today, but she had an experimental treatment that actually led to the treatment that is much less overwhelming that Keisha has today. So it's very interesting how the dominoes fall that a woman in her 60s had the very first treatment that improved over a couple of years. That led to a woman in her 30s in New York that got to have it a couple years later with much less effects and much more improvement. I make that comment because you never know who you might meet and if you think that one life can't change the world or can't change yours, you're wrong.

Keisha : 9:38

Correct 100%.

Audra : 9:40

So I say that right now, because Keisha is on a crusade to change yours 100%.

Keisha : 9:50

One's personal story can definitely give you a different perspective on life and help you see things a little bit easier than you once thought. As rare as multiple myeloma is or they say it is the amount of people I have met in the past eight years who have been impacted, or they know someone or someone in their family got diagnosed after they heard my story that reached out to me on through social media. There's power in sharing your story. There is power in being kind to someone, sharing your story just to say you know what. We all have a path to go down, but it's a way to be resilient and to accept that things happen and how to still live your life. There's power in that right. But eight years ago when I was diagnosed, any kind of research study I participated in because if it didn't save me, it will save someone else, right? And I remember when I was first diagnosed they were talking about the T cell therapy, which is similar to the stem cell transplant that was in clinical trials eight years ago. Now it is one of the approved treatment plans by the FDA.

Keisha : 11:11

I'm kind of going off course. I'm sorry, but in the past eight years at least six to seven drugs have been approved for multiple myeloma. So the outlook for multiple myeloma patients is still not curable, but it's highly treatable and patients have more drugs to choose from in the marketplace to live that fulfilled life, because to hear that your cancer is not treatable it's paralyzing. If you let it Right Exactly, you just bypass it's treatable, I mean curable. When you hear the word it's not curable, everything else doesn't matter. What you know is it can't be fixed Exactly. It cannot be fixed, but there are treatment options available.

Audra : 11:57

And at the time that my mother was diagnosed, which was before Keisha, the only option was this stem cell transplant. That was the only option Correct, further treatments which more people can now have even better results.

Keisha : 12:19

Right.

Audra : 12:20

These earlier therapies. And this is all leading to say that Keisha has made it her life's purpose to have women, to have women where her heart lives is for women to live their passion, because she has this phrase that when I read about her, it leapt off the page to me and I wrote it down because I thought you all need to hear this, because I felt this in my soul and I want you all to hear this and write it down, write it on your mirror, write it on your notebook, put it in your phone, whatever it is. You need to hear this and really meditate on this, because it really meant a lot to me. And it is complacency, is the anchor that keeps your dream from sailing, kisho. The imagery of that takes my breath away.

Keisha : 13:20

So complacency is the anchor that keeps your dreams from sailing right. And when I think back from my early days of when I was in college, 20 years old, we all seek this comfort that we're looking for, right. What is that? It is the ability to live your life with stability and contentment, with little hiccups, right, just to be comfortable here. You finish your degree, you got married, you bought a home. I just want to be comfortable, make enough money that I could just be comfortable. But what it does, it puts you in a sense of once you get comfortable or you feel that you're comfortable, you just sit still and you keep doing the same things. And that makes you complacent. Because now the fear of if I move a little bit to the left, I might be a little bit uncomfortable. I mean, I like it, but I like it right here where I'm comfortable. But nothing grows in comfort, nothing. You're not growing personal experiences, your professional experiences, you're just not growing. You're at a standstill. And then one day you wake up and something happens.

Keisha : 14:30

It doesn't have to be as critical as a cancer diagnosis, but before my diagnosis it was other things that happened to me in my life, like for some women it could be. They're getting separated from their spouse, the job that they thought they were going to retire from. Now they got laid off and you think about, especially as women, all the sacrifices you make for your families, for your jobs. You sacrifice yourself, your self-care because you're trying to nurture everybody else. Women especially, I feel like they put their dreams on the back burner a lot. Right, our counterparts, they go for it, no matter what. I remember I was in the gym a few months ago. This guy's on the treadmill, running and reading his cue cards, like he's figuring out whatever project he's on, whatever test he's trying to take. He's working out and doing that at the same time. They do a better job at keep themselves moving, keep being relevant. Sometimes we just sit here, right, we want to raise our kids, we want to be here for every milestone, and that's very important. But what I like to instill in the women that I work with that you can still work on your passions and your dreams every day. Right, it doesn't have to be something as ambitious as I'm going to quit my job and start my own business. No, it could be. You just want to learn a second language, you want to learn photography, you want to go to that gym class or exercise four days a week, like whatever your desire is, you can do it. You just got to factor it into your everyday life.

Keisha : 16:07

And that's a hard lesson I had to learn because, managing a critical illness, I go to the doctor a lot. I don't look like it, but I go to the doctor a lot. I don't look like it, but I go to the doctor a lot. So between my career, managing this critical illness I have a young child and I still have a personal life as well I had to learn how to like navigate my own world right. If I had a conference to go to or I had to travel, I had to like move my doctor's appointment around. Right now, I go to the doctor every other Monday. There was a time when I was going to the doctor twice a week Monday and Wednesday and then it went to every two weeks and then one time I was going every week.

Keisha : 16:51

So that has become a critical part of my life. This is not like insulin or blood pressure medication you take at home. This is actually a chemo shot sub-Q that I have to go to the doctor's office for. So I had to learn how to manage my fears right and fear is a big thing that stops a lot of women from pursuing their dreams how to manage my fear of my own mortality, schedule my life to do all the things that's important to me and still do all the things that I had put off. Now that I'm diagnosed, I have to fit that in, because I got to figure out how to get all of that done. So I kind of learned how I had to learn. I had to learn how to manage what I call like my GPS, like my end game, but with all the pitfalls and stops and detours along the way.

Keisha : 17:41

Yes, that's why it's as important for me to really speak to women, because, as a mother, society also, I think, puts pressure on us as women that we have to maintain certain roles, to maintain certain roles, and if we don't, we seem as maybe less than or we don't prioritize what our family lives, or we rather pursue our career and then go after our family. You know we still live with some of these stigmas, these little stereotypes, and I think it's not fair. I think people should, especially women should, be able to do what they want, to do like write your own narrative, live the life that you desire, but we all do seek that comfort. Like you may want to go to beauty school, but your family's telling you you should be a nurse right, because being a nurse is going to give you that comfortable, steady lifestyle that you're looking for, right. So that's why, um, my passion is really to talk to women. Like you can do it all. Do it all Cause I definitely put off a few things that I wanted to do.

Keisha : 18:42

I thought I had time. I was only 38. I thought I had time, but I do have time, luckily, right, cause it's been eight years, so I'm not even going to say that like I'm living well under treatment. It's been eight years, it's been a bumpy road, but I'm still here and thriving, and that I'm grateful for, and grateful to be able to share my story with others as well.

Audra : 19:05

And the only the only commodity that we have that we can't make more of is time. That's the only thing we can't make more of, and, let's face it, women are experts at managing everything, and I'll share with you something that and I don't know that I've actually spoken about it publicly to anybody, so this might be the first time that I'm speaking about it out loud is that I've been I'm an expert life manager, managing my career, managing my family, making sure that all the chess pieces on the chessboard are all in the right place at the right time and are all moving in perfect motion, all at the same time. And then my kids graduated. They got them through high school, I got them through college, I, and then they left, and then, all of a sudden, the chess pieces went back in the box. And so all of that expertise of managing all those years of all of the chaos, suddenly the chaos was gone and I forgot. I forgot how to talk to me.

Audra : 20:41

I spent the last four years talking to other women, and then I realized I've, especially over the last six months, I realized I have forgotten how to talk to me, and so that's why, talking to you, meeting you and knowing that you are trying to ignite other women's passions somewhere, and I don't even know where I put it, and what I know is that I'm not by myself in this, because we are experts at this, so I've not even said this out loud. But I'm saying this out loud now because we don't talk about this enough and there's a little bit of loneliness to this. There's also a little bit of shame and confusion, because certainly we should be able to understand our own feelings and our own minds, but we get busy and we forget, and that's why this, what you do, this ignition, is so important, because I know I have lots of company.

Keisha : 21:59

Oh, tons of company. What you described is the role of a mother running a household. Right, everybody else matters, but you don't right. The soccer games, the plays, the homeworks, the projects, they have to eat, I have to do the laundry. You just get yourself into this routine to make sure your family is taken care of and then you become last. Right, you go to work every day, but it's all on autopilot, right? I call it living your life on the factory setting it right. I call it living your life on the factory setting right. That's what it is. Instead of taking the time and maybe when they were like 10, 11, to be like hold on, let me reset and customize the factory setting.

Keisha : 22:45

Your main goal was your kids were fed, educated and they could live for themselves as they get older. Right, you set them up for success, and we all do that. So I do have a daughter. As I mentioned, she is going to be a senior this September.

Keisha : 23:03

I only have one child, so people often ask me what am I going to do when she goes away to college? I'm going to live, because I was a mother, I was here for her and I did everything possible to get her to a point where she would go to some type of higher education and be self-sufficient, and that is my goal, and especially after I was diagnosed and the possibility of her mother not being here. Yes, her dad is a great part of her life and my mother and I have other friends that will step in, but it was important for me for her to understand you have to figure out how to take care of yourself. Get a job, a career, do what makes you happy. She wants to be a psychologist.

Keisha : 23:51

Everybody's up in arms that they don't make enough money. Why would I let her pick that? Because I want her to feel content. So many of us get caught up in a career because of the money, the opportunity, and we always say we're going to get. To go back to the thing that we were most passionate about Did you plan to be in banking?

Audra : 24:09

No way, it's just me. I didn't pick it Right.

Keisha : 24:16

So I don't want for her to go into a career to chase the money, not live her passion, and get stuck in a situation that, when she looks back 10 years later, I should have picked something else. She's a nurturer, she's a sweet child. She's's like let me hug a tree. She's so compassionate about other people's feelings and protecting other people. She wants to be a psychologist. Have at it. I'm not going to try to convince her otherwise, because we all chase the money and when you do something you're passionate about, the money will come. You will find other ways. She'll write a book, she'll teach a class, whatever she thinks she needs to do to make the money she needs. She'll figure it out, but at least it's something that she's passionate about. So when I'm asking that question, I'm going to live. I'm going to be here for her, but I'm going to live.

Keisha : 25:12

I was diagnosed, my mother up and retired from her job and I'm like why are you doing that? I'm going to work every day. I was driving myself to treatment. The only time I was hospitalized is when I had the stem cell transplant. For the most part I've been able to manage my disease at home, like if I got sick, I just stayed home, went to the doctor, came home, she up and retired. Oh, I want to be. I just stayed home, went to the doctor, came home, she up and retired. Oh, I want to be here for Maddie. That's how.

Keisha : 25:39

Maddie was eight years old. I was like mom, let me tell you something Maddie's going to grow up and she's going to find her own life when she gets to her teen years. She's going to have her own life and she goes. Well, I'm going to do it anyway because I want to make sure I'm here for her. Okay, eight years later she retired a little bit too soon because fear of something happening to me.

Keisha : 25:58

No one said, like it's six months, she's going to the hospice. No one said that, at no point. But she said I don't want to be here for my granddaughter. Your granddaughter is out here living her life and she wants to go into school. So that's what I'm promoting, like I want her to be able to choose to go to school full-time and choose her career. That's important to me and that's one thing I hope that she remembers when she looks back on her mother's journey with multiple myeloma because I'm going to be here that she remembers as grim as it was at one time. My mother pressed forward. So, no matter what happens in her life because, trust me, we all gonna turn something is gonna happen. I have to press for it, and that is something I want to instill in other women as well, like it's good, things are gonna happen, but you got to pull yourself up and move forward.

Audra : 26:47

So when you, when you meet with other women and they're like Keisha. I want to how? And because you know there are moments where the world is spinning. You experienced it when the room starts spinning and everything seems overwhelming and you're like I want to push forward, but I can't even feel the ground. The ground feels like it's falling out from underneath me. Where did you find your footing?

Keisha : 27:16

So what I do? I just fall rock bottom. I just take the fall, take it fast, just take it. And then I just pull myself together, right, pull myself together, acknowledge what is happening, why it's happening, can I fix it right now? Or what is happening, why is happening, can I fix it right now? Or what is the plan to fix it. And I just put a plan in place and I just get up and I just start going, like I just keep going One foot in front of the other. Yes, you have moments where you step back and be like I can't believe I'm going through this, like why is this happening to me? But I just think you can ask why? A million times it happened already. What are you going to do to fix it and make it better?

Keisha : 28:00

I'm also a multiple myeloma coach and some of the patients that I talk to they want to know why this happened to me. First of all, you don't even know where you got it from. It's environmental. It has a smoldering stage. You could be smoldering for 15 years and you could not pinpoint where you was exposed to that chemical, whatever it is. So it's kind of pointless to figure out why or how, because no one can trace it at that point. All right. It's not something that happens instantaneously, because there's a part of the population that only smolers and never go to full blown myeloma, right. So it's pointless. It happened. It's not like you miss your mammogram, it's none of that. So stop blaming yourself Like it happened. We have to move forward. There's treatment options. Let's try to move forward and that's how I deal with it. I just hit the floor, fast. Just hit the floor and I cry a little bit. I think about it.

Keisha : 29:04

Worked in retail banking, right. So whether or not I felt like working that day, I had to work because I'm customer facing, my team is customer facing, right. I can't go hide in a cubicle, it's none of that. So I think part of that career has taught me how to pivot in a situation real fast, because you still have to service the customers. I still have to open the doors at 830. I can't call district and say, oh, I can't open today because X, y and Z, no, can't happen. So I kind of live my life the same way. I just realized that that's what he did. I live my life the same way, like okay, this happened today, we'll deal with it at five o'clock with the doorstep. We got to help the customers. I mean I have a million stories about reason of banking the vault doesn't open because we overwhelmed the clock. I have to go take money out the ATM to help the customers. I have a million stories but I mean that's just kind of how I do it right.

Keisha : 30:15

Anything, everything could be fixed and everything is temporary. I have a good friend he was a business client of mine and he always says to me Keisha, it could be worse, right, as grim as not curable sounds. There are other cancers and other diseases where you literally have no treatment plan, there's no treatment options, and they tell you have three to six months to live. There is right, there is your mother. She's a nurse, she is.

Keisha : 30:47

When COVID hit, I remember thinking like somebody in my family wasn't going to make it Because in New York a thousand people a day were dying at one point 999. And we watch perfectly healthy people that are not here. When COVID hit, my entire medical team called and was like do not come back outside. They suspended my treatment plan. They was like do not back outside. They suspended my treatment plan. They was like do not, I'm immunocompromised from the chemotherapy. I'm slightly chubby, a little overweight, and all the things that they say like if you get COVID, you're not making it. They were like do not come back outside. And I watched on the news and some of my close friends lost their family members and these were perfectly healthy people, athletes and at that moment is another moment that just solidified for me like God has a last say. As unfortunate as it is, we all have something great in us, but we have to take action. We only get to see it when we take action, because we all have it. So that was.

Keisha : 32:01

Covid was a rough time for me also. It was a critical time as well as far as my mortality, my family like for me to survive multiple myeloma this long and this virus comes out the blue and just kills me. You're like this isn't happening. So to add to that, in February, before New York got shut down, I went to treatment one day and I was like I don't feel good, I feel like I can't breathe. Can I have a Z-Pak? Because I think a Z-Pak solves everything which is a five day antibiotic, right? My oncologist was like I'm not giving you a Z-Pak Because I think a Z-Pak solves everything which is a five-day antibiotic right. My oncologist was like I'm not giving you a Z-Pak. She said but I'm going to send you to get a CT scan because when you're on certain chemo at that time I was on an oral chemo you are susceptible to blood clots and I also had blood clots three times in my lifetime bilateral pulmonary embolisms. It wasn't a blood clot so I went home. I slept the whole weekend.

Keisha : 32:55

The next few weeks later we were shut down. They suspended my treatment. It was like you're stable for right now Only critical patients are coming outside May. She calls me. She said Keisha, I want to test you for COVID. She says I think in February you had COVID. Yeah, this is before the vaccine. So when I go back to treatment they test me for the antibodies. She calls me. She says you have a tremendous amount of antibodies.

Keisha : 33:30

So she says in February you had COVID. She said it took my breath away. Because I was this close to you, because she was listening to my chest, I was like I feel like I can't breathe, like I'm getting a cold. I need a Z-Pak. I don't feel good. I didn't have a fever or anything, I just felt very congested. She said Akisha, I had to take a moment. She said because I was this close to you, because my medical team was like part of my extended family, like I see them so much. She was like I was like I don't know, and I had COVID in February. It was just, it was just a time, just to re-solidify what your purpose is, why you're here, and you have to pay it forward. Right, we have to pay it forward.

Keisha : 34:08

At that time I was managing a branch in Brooklyn and one of my employees' family was from Wuhan and like December, january, january, he was coming to work with gloves, a mask. He'll come to work, roll his coat up and put it in a plastic bag. I'm like what are you doing? He says, keisha, I'm telling you, stop playing, start wearing a mask. You're already, you know you're sick, stop. I was like, oh, stop it, because you know he was watching the news in Wuhan. You're like you, most people from Italy, they watch Italian news. We're Guyanese, we watch the Guyanese news. He was watching the news in Wuhan. He was like I'm telling you, protect yourself. So he was watching people get sick back in China and he was taking precaution from then I mean gloves, mask. He comes to work, rolls his coat up and put it in a plastic bag. I used to be like stop it, but he was on to something. He was on to something and you gotta use your gifts. You have to use your gifts and that's your own narrative.

Audra : 35:10

You clearly are here for a purpose.

Keisha : 35:15

Oh, thank you.

Audra : 35:18

How are you using your unique gifts to spread this message of hope and ignition? And women like me that have been in this mode of I've got to get things done, or other women that have put their have know exactly what their passions are, but they put them on the shelf and I have been looking at it going. You know, someday, someday but that is your gift is to help take them off the shelf or ignite a passion that they don't even know exists. Ignite a passion that they don't even know exists. How are you using that gift to make them put those things into action and put them out into the universe?

Keisha : 36:01

So very recently, in the past 18 months or so, I really started to take a shift in what I wanted to do professionally outside of being a full-time entrepreneur, right. So prior to that, I've always shared my story of multiple myeloma and I just remembered I had blood clots three times. I actually had a blood clot during COVID. I've always shared my story and if you told me that you want to start a business or you want to do something, I would give you whatever knowledge I have on it and encourage you to do so. But over the past 18 months I kind of really decided to drill down on my professional experience and my personal experience, to get on this platform now and formally really talk about it, not so much to share my story but to be a transformative tool Like this happened to me, but I used it to change.

Keisha : 36:50

Yours might be divorce, yours might be you know what I'm about to retire at 62. What am I going to do now? Because I've been working for 50 years, I just don't want to come home and just like wither away. I had so many dreams and so many passions, I just didn't get to it. Well, let's talk about it Right, let's talk about something very short term. It could be installing a closet, a system in a closet. It could be something as far as going back to school, taking a few classes, or a longer term goal, like you have to set your eyes on the prize and maybe just start off with something small and once you start, you see how much better you feel because you're actually doing something for yourself.

Keisha : 37:37

Right, you're going to retire, you have money, you have a house, your kids went to school. Now, what? Now, what, right? So during my talk I kind of open up a couple of different ways, but the last talk I did I coined the nine day week. So if I asked you how many days in the week, what are you going to say? Seven, okay. What would you say are the most important days of the week for you?

Audra : 38:07

Saturday and Sunday. This is more than likely, that's what people say?

Keisha : 38:11

right, but what if I told you there were nine days in the week?

Audra : 38:17

I'd say I have the wrong calendar.

Keisha : 38:21

So I want to break it down for you. There's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Then there's one day and Sunday Sunday. Then there's a one day in Sunday. So I do an exercise during my talks and workshops where I give you sticky notes and I divide the room for a list of one days and the list of some days. So when we finish this little call, think about it how many things over the past, just over the past 10 years that you said one day I'm going to do this or someday I'm going to do this right, and you can call me or text me a list or tell me how many things are on each list. It could be something very simple, as you know what I like that haircut, Maybe someday I'll try it. It could be something so basic as that. The nine day week.

Audra : 39:28

Oh Keisha, that is mind blowing actually.

Keisha : 39:33

And I trademarked it. It's in the process of being a trademark, so no one takes it. That is smart.

Audra : 39:40

I trademarked it. That is really smart, but that is mind blowing. Think about it.

Keisha : 39:46

So I even find myself doing it. Now I'm not going to say like I have everything figured out, that'd be a fallacy, right? Even sometimes not find myself saying I'm going to get to, I'm going to get to it. But you have to identify what's most important at this moment, what's going to make you feel the most fulfilled at this moment. So for me was I need to work out every day, right? Don't matter what is happening, right, just for my own mental, physical state. You know, multiple myeloma also makes your bones weak and menopause all the things that happens when you're almost 50 years old. So last Labor Day I made the commitment just to work out six days a week and that's how I started working out five o'clock in the morning, because there's nothing to distract me. Even if I have somewhere to be later on in the day or in the morning an appointment, nothing is happening. At five o'clock in the morning, you saw, the gym is open. So I've been working up at four o'clock since Labor Day. I drive to the gym and I come back and it's one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time.

Keisha : 40:58

One the guilt you get rid of, the guilt and the regret of. I didn't work out today. It just helps your mind. Is my meditation time. I think about a lot of things while I'm working out. I even practice my talk while I'm working out, or if I have a presentation or whatever, while I'm working out, the phone is not ringing. My daughter is still sleeping. That is the time I carve out for myself, right, and that's part of my program of you.

Keisha : 41:27

Have to do the things that you want to change every day. You got to find a way where it becomes routine. The same way how we go to Starbucks every morning, right. We're annoyed if we're five minutes late and we possibly can't stop at Starbucks because we may be late for that meeting, but we figured out anyway. We wiggle our way over to Starbucks, right. We wiggle our way over to Starbucks, right. So all the things that are important to us I've learned it's all about habits, and these are things that we've heard throughout the year from all these gurus. You have to start making things a habit, and it's the truth. There's no way around it. Taco Tuesday became a habit. Now half America is eating tacos on Tuesdays.

Audra : 42:12

True, there was never a thing. Never a thing when I was a kid. But now somebody was cute and coined the phrase and now everybody's like oh well, it's Tuesday, we gotta have tacos right, so you just gotta start it.

Keisha : 42:29

you know what I mean. You have to just start your own mantra and do it, because time goes Like it's amazing to me that I'm closer to 50 and I remember when I was in my 20s.

Audra : 42:43

That's the weird thing about age is that they don't tell you that your brain still thinks that you are in your 20s. The body, sometimes you like uh yeah, your body's like, oh, oh, girl, you are definitely free. And in the middle of menopause, your brain's like, what are you talking about? Let's go. But your body's like, no, this is going to hurt Right.

Keisha : 43:17

Don't do it, but that's the thing. I'm grateful for it. So I don't make no qualms about getting older. My birthday is next month.

Audra : 43:26

Mine too, really. Yes, what day June 14th. I'm 10 days later, I'm june 24th.

Keisha : 43:34

okay, see we have more in common than we think. Yes, exactly. Um, yeah, I'm grateful for. I'm grateful all the lessons, as hard as it was or hard as it is going to be, because I'm sure I'm going to get another go around somewhere along the line. But to understand yourself and how to put a plan in place, to come out resilient on the other side is the real name of the game for anyone listening.

Audra : 44:02

I'm going to challenge everybody because I'm going to do it myself, because Keisha has thrown down the gauntlet and so I'm gonna do it, do it, I'm gonna write a list of one day and someday and I'm gonna tell her and then I want everybody to do the same and you guys can tell me and may and look at your list, and it's for nobody but yourself no, and after you write the list, I'm gonna give you one more challenge dare to change.

Keisha : 44:34

Dare to change right. What's on the other side of trying, the reward. What's on the other side of the fear, the victory. Dare to change. Pick something that's going to take you four weeks, a small project. Put a plan in place and do it. You feel so much better Now. I did that today, instead of saying one day and someday. Oh, I did it today. I completed it.

Audra : 45:04

What's the worst that could happen? Right, what is the worst that can happen, because it can always be worse. Correct.

Keisha : 45:12

Always be worse Always.

Audra : 45:16

Keisha, I first of all, I am so happy that our paths crossed, that somehow, some way, the universe brought us together because we were supposed to meet. I agree, I'm so excited that we will be able to meet and I'm just so excited that you're here to share your story. And, for those who have been listening for a while, you know that this part of the show is my favorite part. No-transcript.

Keisha : 46:11

Thank you so much. First off, I want to say it was an absolute pleasure to be on with you today. I enjoyed our conversation two weeks ago. I enjoyed it today. I hope this is not the end of our long distance relationship, because you're in Vegas and I'm in New York, because you're in Vegas and I'm in New York that our paths will cross again. So you know, my quote is complacency is the anchor that keeps our dreams from sailing, right. That's just. I want you guys to think about that. Also, I want you to think about according to recent data, in 2022, the average American life expectancy is now 78.

Keisha : 46:57

So, for some of us who are listening on this call, we have more years behind us than in front of us, right? So what are you going to do? Tell me. So what are you going to do? Tell me? What are you going to do to live the life that you desire? Write your own narrative and leave the legacy that you want to leave. What do you want your kids, your friends, your coworkers to say about you? And it could be something as and we hear it all the time my mother didn't have a lot of money, but my home was filled with love.

Keisha : 47:40

Because we become complacent in different parts of our lives, not only our careers. We tend to think about that mostly our careers. When we become complacent in our relationships, we become we tend to think about that mostly our careers. Where we become complacent in our relationships, we become complacent with our health, become complacent with ourselves. So I want you to look at the step out of your comfort zone and try something new and see how it makes you feel. I know you're going to feel great. Just try, dare to change.

Audra : 48:25

That is my message, keisha. Thank you for that, because I've often said that comfort zones are cages and we don't always realize that we've built our own cage until we feel stuck Because it feels good right here, comfort feels great, it feels good until you start to feel uncomfortable and you realize that you've created your own discomfort. Because you've looked around, you realize something feels wrong, something feels off, something feels missing and that's because you created your own cage.

Keisha : 49:01

And you know, yes, we create our own cage, but also we do not develop mechanisms to really help us. But life forces us to become uncomfortable when the AC stops working. And now we're in a furnace and we got to figure something out real quick. Right Now we can't think because we're just so used to. The AC's been working for 20 years. Why did it stop working? All right, so yeah, that's very true.

Audra : 49:32

So unlock your own cage. You've created your own cage, Unlock it.

Keisha : 49:36

Unlock it, step out, let the wind hit your face. Yes, let the wind hit your face, but it has been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Audra : 49:47

Keisha, thank you so much for being here and thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being very vulnerable with me and with the audience, and I can't wait to talk to you again and share with you what I come up with. It'll be interesting for both of us and I want to thank all of you for listening and we'll see you again next time. Take care.