Show notes –
Come Chat with Shannon & Christine about the 8 dimensions of Wellness.
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Stillpoint – https://www.amazon.com/Stillpoint-Self-Care-Playbook-Caregivers-Breathe/dp/1732370400
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This week’s resources and references:
Stillpoint – https://www.amazon.com/Stillpoint-Self-Care-Playbook-Caregivers-Breathe/dp/1732370400
Email “My Shearo” to shearo@shealoglo.com
This week we welcomed Dr. Melissa Bird
Find out more about Melissa here:
www.naturalbornrebel.com or connect with her here:
@birdgirl1001 on FB, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok
And find out about the
The Mermaid’s Garden:
https://www.themermaidsgardenoregon.com/
Connect & Like their Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/themermaidsgardenoregon
& Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mermaidsgardenoregon/
The truth about $$ – https://www.netflix.com/title/81345769
Articles we referenced:
https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/02/small-business-owner-gender-and-age-statistics.html
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2015/09/oregon_has_more_women_in_agric.html
Join us next week for our show on Intellectual Wellness with special guest Courtney Dorsey.
Show Transcript –
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
Christine Gautreaux 0:08
Let’s do this.
Shannon M. 0:08
Okay ladies, welcome to our podcast. I am Shannon Mitchell, a black female, millennial entrepreneur, the founder of shallow glow, a handmade shea butter company. I am a champion for your self care, business care and intentional wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:25
And I am Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, an international speaker, coach and published author who helps you upgrade yourself in community care.
Shannon M. 0:35
Yes. And together, we are women connected in wisdom, a podcast grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness. Welcome, welcome to our show.
Christine Gautreaux 0:44
We get together every week to have intentional conversations about how to be wise in relationships, in life in business, all of it, we try to cram it all into an hour, it often doesn’t
Shannon M. 0:59
spread the hours across the months, you know.
Christine Gautreaux 1:03
So what are we talking about today, my friend?
Shannon M. 1:05
Oh, today we are talking about environmental wellness. And this has become one of my favorite ones because it was the category I struggled with the most I said, Okay, outside of getting outside what else is environmental wellness. And the operation or the definition we operate off of? is environmental wellness is having good health by occupying pleasant stimulating environments that support well being. It promotes interaction with nature, and also creating an enjoyable personal environment, both in and out of your workplace. Right.
Christine Gautreaux 1:39
And we know it’s so much more than that to like, it’s all of that it’s where we live. It’s where we work. It’s where we play. There’s so many big things going on in the world today environmentally, yeah, water protectors for the fires that are going on across our country like the we’re going to talk today. I just, you know me, I get so excited about our guests, and the conversations we’re about to have. But we’re also going to talk about the impact in intersectionality. about environmental justice and racial justice and and all that like how does, how does this work? How does this work together for us to be? Well? Yeah. Yeah. So when you think, your environmental wellness this week, what are you thinking about my friend?
Shannon M. 2:26
Ooh, I’m definitely thinking about work. So our guests that we’re about, I know, we keep talking about it, we’re always excited about who’s coming on. But these articles and resources that she sent us with the statistics are so interesting. And when I think about environment, I definitely think about where I live and work and where I work in general. So with me just starting this new position, at Top Golf, I’ll go ahead and say it now, I’ve definitely been thinking about how to have fun at work, which is one of the big things that they stand for, and also doing a great job and making sure that there’s a healthy balance of everything that goes into both. And it relates to me and these articles that she sent us talking about how a lot of women start businesses because of the work environment. And I wouldn’t say that my last work environment drove me to it. But it definitely helped me be excited to be able to shape my own company and work environment for other people. And, you know, also control how much I make and be able to set a price and set hours. And that definitely is of course, occupational wellness, but also environmental wellness, you know, so we’re right on target with the list of things that we’re going to talk about today. What about you? Well,
Melissa Bird 3:41
you know, right now, I’m thinking a lot about inside my house, because my youngest is about to transition out and move out to go to college. And I think about our environment, you know, what we’re working towards is like, what is her environment going to be like when she gets to her dorm room, you know, and it’s exciting, and it’s fun, and I’m enjoying being intentional with it about this is going to be her environment, on the micro level for the next at least for the next year. Right? Because who knows where she’ll move after that. But you know, then I expand it to our neighborhood and our community and what’s going on. And I’ve been talking to our, our city council over the years about like protecting our trees and how do we how do we balance development with the earth and what needs to happen there and so in then I expanded out to like the rest of the nation and what is going on with the flooding and the fires. And you know, here in Georgia, we’ve been having a ton of rain like a ton and our rivers are swollen. We’re not flooding thank goodness, but we’ve got a ton of rain and I was on a call. This week on one of the classes I teach with folks In the desert, who would just give anything to have the last five days that we had? And it’s just such the extremes of what is happening on our planet right now due to climate change, and how, you know, I like to talk about politics. So like taking it from that world national bringing it down to local, what are the things we can do locally? And, and that’s part of the reason our upcoming guests like what her vision and her husband’s vision, they’re gonna she’s gonna explain to us about, like how we can make a difference locally. And what are some of the barriers to that? So, um, are you ready? I can’t wait. I can’t wait to tell her what I do. And so tell our listeners who’s coming on today. So y’all today we are so excited to have with us. Dr. Melissa bird. She is the co founder of the mermaids garden LLC. Based on the concept of radical welcome, the mermaids garden will give our guests the opportunity to engage in sacred connection with themselves with others and with the land. Guests can expect some exceptional intimate setting that includes forest farm and streams. Join them to experience join us is to experience grounding and healing at the garden. Dr. Bird creates the genius for a new brand of leadership and graceful revolution. Her unique life purpose is to use her talents as a healer, and a prophet to help others tap into their intuition so that they can harness their magic. Her words awakened revolutionaries, trailblazers and powerful innovators in the quest for justice. When she’s not building her business, she can be found reading trashy novels, drinking fine whiskey playing mom to three dilute delicious, I thought it said delusional at first, but they’re probably both at some points and delicious humans. And loving her punk rock scientist James Thomas Kelly. You can get her free book Natural Born rebel and learn how to awaken your inner revolutionary trailblazer and engage in the quest for justice. And you can also connect with her at Natural Born rebel calm. And we will put all those links in our show notes. But first, we’re going to welcome her onto our show for I’m so excited. You’re here.
Shannon M. 7:29
Welcome.
Melissa Bird 7:30
I mean, I’m excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Christine Gautreaux 7:34
Yes, yes. Yeah. Like, I love this line. Her words awaken revolutionaries, trailblazers and powerful innovators in the quest for justice. Yeah, you tell us more about that.
Melissa Bird 7:51
Yeah. Um, thank you so much, Christine. And Shannon for having me. I’m so happy to be here. I’m Dr. Melissa Bird. And I’m, you know, I have I started out my career as a social worker, seven master’s degree and a PhD in social work. I hated doing clinical work. I am, I’m a really great life coach, because I don’t have any rules. But I’m a really crappy clinician, because there’s too many rules. And so no know your strengths. Um, and so when I finished my PhD, I had worked as a lobbyist and an activist for years in Utah. So I worked for equality, Utah, and then Planned Parenthood of Utah and did a lot of work and activism. And when I was finishing my PhD in 2017, of course, the election had to happen in 2016. And I was like, I do not want to go live in the ivory tower, I don’t want to go get a tenure track position. Any university, I really want to use all the things I know about breaking down barriers and, and community organizing, and community building, and I want to do something different. And so I started my business. I had no business background, like I was like, Whatever, I’ll hire a coach and learn some things, and it’ll be awesome. And so I started my business doing coaching. And I’m was trying to really, I was really focused on helping women develop their voice and figure out what they’re passionate about to make a difference in their communities. Because so many of us, after the election, were like, I don’t know what to do, but I got to do something. And so I was really focused on helping women figure out what that was, and then a friend of mine, and amazing things happen when you go to the forest in Scotland. I’m just gonna say that, first of all, because I went on a retreat in 2017. And that was where I got the vision for the mermaid garden. And it was also where a friend of mine and her name is Suzy. She called me randomly in the beginning of 2019 and was like, Hey, I just had this vision for you. She had been in Scotland with me at the retreat, and she said you need this started this thing called Natural Born rebel. And you need to write this book called Natural Born rebel. And here’s all the stuff that you should put in it. And you need to teach this thing called Rebel school and here’s all the stuff that you should put in it. And I love you, but I got to go.
Christine Gautreaux 10:13
Okay, now that’s a good friend. Yeah, yeah. And
Melissa Bird 10:16
I wrote it all down, and I wrote the book. And long story short, that’s how natural born rebel was born. And at the same time, of course, I’d been had had this vision for the mermaids garden, for creating a space where people could come to reconnect to themselves into the land into their bodies, and also create food. Um, where people can eat safe and healthy fish because our fish, my husband’s, a marine biologist, and our fish are gross. Like, farm fish is nasty, so gross. And the antibiotics, y’all don’t even want to know. It’s so nasty, the antibiotics and all the mercury and all this stuff that’s in our fish. You know, one of our joking taglines was when we were first coming up with stuff was pregnant women eating fish again, because we want to grow fish that pregnant women can eat, cuz it’s a good, safe, healthy protein. And what happened was, I have this vision for the garden and and for creating spaces where people can come on retreat, and can heal and can have experiences like I had when I was at the retreat in Scotland, and at the same time, create regenerative and sustainable systems. And I’ll get into what those mean in a minute, because people think they know, but they don’t. For growing fish, and then taking the water from the fish and putting it on into a system on the farm. So we’re basically creating a system where the water gets cleaned out and reused. So it’s almost a completely closed system, which saves, you know, water. And because you just brought it up, Christine water is a problem, right? And it’s becoming more and more of a problem. And here in Oregon, where we live. You know, as you know, at the time of this recording, Oregon is burning, and we have the largest wildfire, it’s creating its own weather system. And fortunately, unlike last year, we’re not getting the smoke, because the winds are blowing to you all in the east.
Christine Gautreaux 12:25
Right? I was just on the phone with a client earlier today who said Illinois, and they’re getting the smoke. And you and I checked in before the show. And you said you’re okay,
Melissa Bird 12:36
because of where you’re at now. For now is our okay. Yeah, right. Yeah. So there’s like so many things that, you know, we we talk about running businesses, and I love this framework around these eight different things of wellness, because I think there’s so much of this intersectionality. And I think that people want to really address climate change, because we’re on fire, we’re flooding, like, all these things are happening. But what I’m really excited about today to talk with you all is really the gatekeeping and the lack of funding for visions like mine.
Christine Gautreaux 13:11
So you have encountered some obstacles.
Melissa Bird 13:14
Oh my gosh.
Christine Gautreaux 13:17
You know, when I heard about this project, I’m like, this is a fabulous project. Like this is what everybody’s talking about, like a way to, you know, growing food, a way to be healthy a way to do farm to table. You tell us like how you identify Melissa and how, why this shouldn’t be a barrier for you and talk about then what you’ve encountered. So
Melissa Bird 13:41
this is so fascinating, because I live in Oregon. I was born and raised in Utah. I got my PhD in Southern California. And now I live in Oregon. Right? i My husband is a disabled veteran with PTSD. So the first thing I thought was there’s money for veterans in agriculture, right? Like this is my first thought. So I was like, well go after that money. No problem. I am Native American. I’m Southern Paiute. I am bisexual. So I put the B back and LGBT. I am I’m a woman. I am you know, a business owner. I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve I’ve actually run three different businesses, which I don’t know what that makes me but there it is. I’m a glutton for punishment some days. But you know, I’m, I’m a mom, I’m a stepmom. Like I have all these magical, amazing things that are part of who I am. And I’m, and I thought, you know, we hear all the time there’s money for women of color, there’s money for LGBT people. There’s money for women in business. There’s money for small farmers. There’s money for disabled people, there’s money for veterans. And the bottom line at the end of the day is that when you start applying for that money, or looking into that money, the gatekeepers go, oh, no, no, no, that’s too big of a vision. And I’m like, well, it’s I didn’t come up with it on my own. Like, it was a thing. Like, it’s not like I woke up one day and I was like, I’m gonna run an ACO culture farm. What the hell is ACO culture? Like? I don’t even know what that is. Now I do, but you know, we tell our listeners what it is. Yes. So uh, what we are talking about doing is what’s called the recirculating aquaculture system. So there’s a thing called Aqua ponics, which is basically where you get small ponds, like that are about the size of maybe a little bit bigger than a kiddie pool. Right? They’re like the size of backyard pools, basically. And you grow fish and that thing, what we’re talking about is doing a recirculating aquaculture system, which they do in other countries, but they do not do them in the United States. So fish farming is not a system where you were circulate the water and clean up the water and bring it back in. And so what we’re talking about is creating a system that uses 95% less water than typical fish farms. And so, like the engineering firm was out of Canada, because they the designers are all in Canada. And so what we discovered was that Well, everybody, from from governors, all the way on down, and sometimes people in Congress, from the federal level, all the way on down to city and county level, say they want to do things to help the environment and save the Earth. They do not because there is no money available. And if there is money available, there’s no money for innovation. And I think because of my own experience as a lobbyist, I understand what’s happening. But I think for most people who really want to start small farms, especially and particularly women of color, and queer women, the opportunities to do those sorts of things are being held so tightly. One of my favorite examples of this is that everybody told me Well, you guys are the perfect project for the new and beginning farmer and rancher, USDA grant. So my sweet No, like the call is coming out, be on the call, Mike. Okay. So, Shannon and Christine, I got to get on this webinar. There are 356 Individual farmers on that webinar for $16 million. So they have cut that grant from $75 million to 16 for the entire country. So they were going to be giving, I think it was 12 people $200,000 a year. You can’t buy land for two, that you cannot buy land.
Christine Gautreaux 17:54
I was. I was just reading an article today. And it was about a young gentleman, and I think he was in he was either in Arkansas or he was in another Midwestern state. And a white young man has a degree and he has having to rent his land because he can’t afford to buy land. And so in Yeah, it’s incredible. So what do you think is the cause of that? And Shannon, did you have a question? Because you look like you’re about to say something?
Melissa Bird 18:27
Okay, so Well, I’ll tell you the the first cause is white supremacy, and legacy farming. So one of the things that we’ve discovered is the way you get a loan, even to qualify for a loan. There’s all these veterans loan programs for veterans who want to do agriculture, but you have to have three years of farming experience. So you have to have come from a family of farmers as a veteran because most veterans don’t go and serve our country and get farming experience while they’re gone. Because they’re serving our country. And so, Shannon, I love that look on your face right now. It just makes me so happy. So if you aren’t raised in a farm, you don’t have three years of farming experience. I don’t have a farm. I don’t have farming experience. That wasn’t how I was raised. I have a family like my great grandmother had a little small garden farm type thing and Idaho. Like my my grandpa, his family were farmers. But I wasn’t raised in farming. I was not raised in agriculture. And so if women, especially women of color, or people of color want to become farmers, were completely entirely locked out of the system. Which if we go back to the wellness platform, creates a whole nother set of mind you know mental health Crap, that levels on us and our spirits that keeps us from being able to live out these big dreams. And then people tell you to go to investors. Well, if you’ve got a vision of spiritual wellness, connection to the land decolonizing the land because when you talk about regenerative, sustainable agriculture, you’re talking about legitimately decolonizing land, and bringing it back to what it was like before white people came here. Then investors, they’re like, that is way too innovative, way too risky. And way too out of the box thinking and I’m going actually, it’s not innovative, because people have been doing it for like, 10s of 1000s of years. Yo. What blew my mind recently, just since we all talked before, in the last week, I have discovered that folks in England are facing the same exact barriers that my husband and I have identified here in the United States. And the very first thing I thought was, well, of course, it’s the colonizers, right, like, of course, they’re having the same barriers to farming in England, that they are that we are having here in the United States. And and what I really want people to learn and take away from this conversation is we can talk about climate change, we can talk about saving the planet, we can talk about changing farming practices. So people like companies, like Monsanto aren’t driving the rains, we can talk about food, and health, and all that stuff. But the bottom line at the end of the day, Shannon, and Christine, and all your listeners is that if we don’t put money and get rid of the gatekeepers, and put money into that conversation, we are never going to change the face of how we access food in this country. Ever. Well, and I
Christine Gautreaux 22:01
think that goes back to exactly what you’re saying about white supremacy, because who are the gatekeepers? That’s right, right. Yep. My guess would be the majority of them are white males. And they get to decide which direction?
Shannon M. 22:15
Yeah, right. And when you talk about mental and emotional well being, Melissa, I think about that psychology, you know, and what we know is that the environment, we’re talking about environmental wellness, but the environment of your digestive system is directly related to how you think. So if in color and bipoc population, we have nutritional deserts. If I’m going if I live by a gas station that has bars on the windows, and a sheet of Plexiglas before Coronavirus, I promise you, they don’t have fresh kale, celery, and beets and radishes in there. You know. So what is the access to fresh food, like we talked about that in our last conversation with our guests that was a non we had on and just the assumption that everybody has access to things like these. So we don’t have food that supports a healthy psychology for whole entire groups of people for generations. Of course, that’s going to affect the way they think the way they process everything in their life. And therefore all the other dimensions of wellness. Yeah,
Melissa Bird 23:23
Shannon, I’m so glad you said that. Because, um, when we talk about food deserts, and we talk about regionalizing our food, it goes so far beyond are we putting apples, bananas and oranges in the corner gas station. And to make sure that people have those types of things. It it’s not even about that. It’s about the will, of farmers to regionalize our food. So that, for example, all of the food here in the Pacific Northwest comes from farms in Washington and Oregon in Northern California. That’s how that’s how it should be. Because what we’ve learned in Corona in the land of COVID is that we have a supply chain problem. And so safe and healthy and well grown food. Well, it is a human right is not being grown as if it is a human right. And I think it’s such an important thing for people to start to be aware of. It’s not just about you know, should I wash these tomatoes? Or are their organic and am I okay, it’s about who’s sitting at the table, who’s making the decisions for our collective table, our collective farm table, and who’s being left out of the systems of farming and agriculture, who could be shifting the way we think about food, but we have to look at it in this intersectional way, and water is critical to the conversation and more One of the things, I’m so glad you, you’re continuing to have these conversations, Shannon, especially about food deserts, because a lot of the students I used to teach when I was down in Los Angeles would do a lot. They were social workers, and they would do a lot of research on food deserts, because where the university was located was in the middle of a giant food desert. Right? And so I just think we have to start thinking about how far do people have to go to get their food? And, and are we growing the food of the people? Right, because we all eat so differently, with because of who we are,
Christine Gautreaux 25:38
right, and the different cultures and health and everything it was, you know, this is also at the intersection of gender, because one of the articles that you send us that we were looking at was the one about the statistics about farmers and how many farmers are women, and how many farmers are men? And I think about that, because we all know on this call, and we’re women connected in wisdom. So women think about dead things often differently about how just what you said stuck out to me, Melissa, about what food are we growing? Like what food are we growing for? For which culture for which people not just making it one thing, or, you know, yeah,
Shannon M. 26:27
and what I think about too, and I know we keep talking about these articles, but this of course, the the title is supposed to grab the this 189 billion gender gap and startup funding, you know, it’s really easy to skate over, put your money where your mouth is. And people think that we’re just saying, Oh, just throw money at it. And it should be easy, like we don’t understand how it works. But I think that if we used agro aquaculture systems that recirculated water, that would probably save some money that we’re using to get water to the systems that we’re using. And then we could put some of that money for women and women of color to be farmers. And there’s ways to move stuff around. But because of the way we choose to spend the money, and the fact that there’s a gap when and the question is why that’s what I’m looking at, you know, and especially because, one, what we know is that because women usually are taught not to use their voices, often, we apply ourselves less. Right. So I love the other article that says that, even though women start businesses less often, they’re just as successful. Because guess what, to sign my name on a document, it doesn’t matter if I’m male or female, I can use my hand and make sure that my paperwork is taken care of. But if I as a woman and pay less than I have less personal capital to start the business, therefore I’m more likely to need funding. And then if there’s a gap of $189 billion, well, this, this is what we’re talking about. So I love that you send us these resources and how everything ties in.
Melissa Bird 28:09
And we assume that their startup funding for things like this, right, like we just make assumptions about when a woman wants to go into a business or disabled veteran wants to go into a business or a person of color wants to go into a business, that they can just apply for these small business loans. And then they get handed this magical amazing money. Oh, hell no, we had, I can’t tell you how many bankers have said to me, Well, you know, you, you know, honey, you, you just crap fun for that. And I’m No, give me a million dollar loan. Yo, I you know, well, have you worked with the Small Business Development Center? Yep, I have a mentor. Here’s my four year projections. I mean, we played all the games, we followed all the rules. And now I’m just like, forget about it. And if I, if I hear one more time, that I should just be able to go to an investor and get a 15% interest loan for what I want to do when I know full well, if I sent my white straight husband into the bank, looking a little more army than he usually does. He’d get alone in five seconds. And I gotta tell you, I’m actually thinking I might do that experiment coming up soon, because I’m just so sick and tired of hearing. Well, honey, you can just go crowdfund for all that money. No, I’m not going to crowd fund. I mean, I don’t mind crowdfunding. And we have a great shop on our website at mermaids garden dot, the mermaids got an oregon.com. You know, when we think about agriculture, and we think about farming, the average age in the United States of a farmers 70 years old, the average age of a farmer in Oregon is 60 years old. And they’re mostly men, like majority men. They’re getting old. But here’s something that just came into my head as I was, I was I was listening to you both. When we called Farm Aid because I was like, well, maybe Farm Aid will give us a grant, right? Like, maybe we can get some money from farming, the first thing on their recording, is if you are having suicidal thoughts, please hang up and call this number. And make sure to leave us a message so that we can get back to you as soon as possible. The numbers of suicides among farmers, because of the way we do lending in this country. And because of these big corporation, these big corporate farmers taking over, is it would horrify all, it should horrify all of us that the first thing you hear when you call Farm Aid, is this message about suicide. And if you’re in crisis, please leave a message and also call 911. We don’t think about farmers that way. But that is the reality of farming in the United States of America. And so, when we talk about environmental wellness, it goes so far beyond the flooding, and the fires and the hurricanes and the weather. This is about this disrupting and dismantling this entire system, so that we can start growing food, the way we were put here to grow food, and start distributing food, the way that makes sense regionally. Because I can tell you right now, you all don’t eat the same foods in your parts of the world that I do here in the Pacific Northwest. Everything, we have to start looking at this in such an intersectional way. And we have to stop assuming that the money is going to the people that we think are deserving of the money that are trying to help with climate change that are trying to help save our land that are trying to help create innovative ways for us to think about our food and where it comes from. And you know, you see those bougie farm to table pictures on Instagram, and you know, on Pinterest and think oh, I think it’s so lovely that that’s happening. That’s only happening if you have a boat ton of money.
Christine Gautreaux 32:26
Right? Right. I wanted to say to your thing about crowdfunding. Melissa, is that do you? Do you know that one of the number one trending articles right now on LinkedIn it’s about throwing a startup party instead of a baby shower party. Right? And it’s about it is about startup businesses and I’m sure it was for women guys I get it just made me think about it. When you were talking about Oh, honey crowdsource. And when they’re comparing throwing a startup party to throwing a baby shower party instead, like it just totally. And what that does in a system like this when people say, Oh, it’s not systemic? Well, yeah, it is when you put the onus on the the most disenfranchised groups that they’re responsible for at all.
Melissa Bird 33:18
You know, the other thing that I keep people keep saying to me is, well, why don’t you just start a nonprofit? Well, why can’t I just have a damn corporation like every other man in America, and how I don’t have to start no damn nonprofit, working in nonprofits for 27 years. I don’t need another nonprofit in my life, people. That’s a whole complex in and of itself. I want a corporation. I’m a business woman. I’ve been running a very successful business for the last four years and I don’t intend on stopping anytime soon. This is an expansion on my business. No man will go to another man and be like, Whoa, dude, that vision, yada break that up a little bit. That’s too big. I mean, it’s not like someone went up to Ford and was like, Dude, I don’t know about this automatic car thing. I think we should stick to horses and buggies. Nobody said that to him. Nobody says that to Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates and all I mean, nobody told Steve Jobs. Yo, that Apple thing. I don’t know what you’re thinking. I mean, someone did say What are you thinking? But once he got that thing off the ground, nobody said, Dude, your vision too big. No one’s gonna hold a computer in their hand. No, nobody said but we say it to women all the damn time. All the time. And when you’re a woman of color, you best believe you’re hearing that 10 times more. How dare you people have said to me, How dare you think this big? Oh, hello, American Dream. Right? I don’t get a piece of
Christine Gautreaux 34:56
I’m hearing I am so glad you are daring to dream that big, and share your vision with folks. Like, so how can people find you? How can they support you? How can they help you? Like,
Melissa Bird 35:14
Before I go there- Shannon, do you have something you wanted to add to that? Because I can tell you’re like-
Shannon M. 35:19
No, I was- So I guess I will say yes, actually, I love it. I love your your feistiness, and how you how you bring it out of people with all the amazing things we read in the bio, I can definitely see it. And I felt the energy when we first talked. But I think is really important. I think in when I say it, I mean, how we think about women, you know, I think that it’s a conversation I have with a lot of my guy friends, you know, reminding them about their privilege, we forget that we still treat women like children. I am not a child, I have a degree, I’m not stupid. And not that not having a degree means that you’re not stupid. And that having one means that you aren’t okay, is not what we’re saying. But I shouldn’t have to validate every statement that I make. And you know, even a few decades ago, women were unable to have credit. A few decades ago, if I wanted to start a business, I would have needed a man to co sign the papers for me to even be able to do this, you know. So it’s definitely trailblazing to be having these conversations. And I think that a lot of it goes to subconscious bias, they don’t realize that you don’t realize you think of me as a little child. I’m a very competent woman who can put a sentence together, you know, so I hear what you’re saying about continuing to hold space for yourself, even in the face of people telling you that you shouldn’t. And I was I was gonna bring that up the pigeonholing into nonprofit because to me, it reminds me of how we pigeonhole certain students and certain lanes into certain avenues and automatically assuming that they won’t pass the test, or that’s not where their life is going. I was just watching this Netflix series over the weekend about money and why things are the way that they are. And it was talking about the game of life and how in the game of life, you choose either start a career, or what is it to like start a family something like that. You got college or you have a career? Yes, thank you college or career was a two Cs. So what about the corporations? What about the business? And that’s exactly the same question. I was asking for Corona, you know, we’re talking about unemployment, how many people aren’t working jobs and how the how the workforce is going? What about the people who build the workforce? That is also information for the general public? Because small businesses makeup, so much of the market? But what is the market? What does that look like? What are the details of how to have a healthy market, and because women support the nation in the world in rearing children and managing the households, we are also a very integral part of that conversation, too. And if a few of us plan on being billionaires and taking up some of this 180 $9 billion gender gap, then so be it, you know?
Melissa Bird 38:13
Yeah. And and I want to, I want to say to Rebecca, who just posted that comment about being next to a land grant university, I live three blocks from Oregon State University, which is the largest land grant institution in the state of Oregon. And oh, their, their workshops for startup farmers are great. And their grants for farm to table are awesome. And the money is so limited, that there are people at the university who have said, That’s really great. Good luck. Good luck. So I’ve been to I mean, I have been part of every single thing that is offered in this country, when it comes to starting a farm. And if and it goes all the way back to the beginning of our conversation, if you do not have three years of experience, which translate to My great grandpa, My great grandpa, great, you know, my great, great grandpa, My great grandpa, my grandpa and my dad were all farmers. And I say that on purpose, because that is the history of farming in this country. And so and also the other little insidious layer to this when it comes to startup funding and funding for farming and retreats, like what what we are talking about doing is that in banking, to get a commercial loan for like a commercial firm, which is what we would be considered, you can’t live on the property. To get a VA home loan. You can’t have you have to have a house and have comps on the property. Well, if you’re talking about a 50 acre piece of farmland with a house that was built in 1862 When the land was acquired, you don’t have comps for a home loan. So we have to the way the system is set up. And I actually think this is why a lot of farmers are going bankrupt because you’re not allowed to live on the property. Well, what the hell are you supposed to do? Like leave the land your family’s on for 250 years, because they stole it from the Native Americans back when they came to Oregon, you’re not going to leave that property, you’re going to end up bankrupt because you can’t get a commercial loan for your farm, because you’re not supposed to live there. And so this whole thing is so much more insidious. And this is really why I wanted to talk about it with y’all. Because when we talk about women in business, and we talk about women’s wisdom in wellness, we have to talk about understanding the system within which we are playing. And Shannon, I’m so glad you brought up that 180 $2 billion deficit in startup funding that’s available to men versus women. I mean, this is such an a meaty onion to peel apart, right. And so when you are, what I really want to encourage listeners to understand is when we start talking about growing our own food, raising our own crops, knowing where our meat is coming from having an amazing vision to reconnect people to themselves into the land into their bodies. And I’m not just talking able people able bodied people, we our vision is to create a retreat space where people can, it’s based on the idea of universal design. So everybody, regardless of ability will be able to come and be at that space. So like the labyrinth is going to be wide enough for wheelchairs and walkers and have bumpers for blind people who use canes because right now most labyrinths are gravel, and they’re all natural. Well, that’s crap, because people won’t, people who have disabilities are unable to use them. The other thing to think about when we think about environmental wellness and farming and where our food comes from, is Crete. We’re talking about rural economic development. There’s a huge push right now in the country to engage in rural economic development. And there’s billions of dollars out there for that. But I can’t tell you how shocking it was to meet with our county elected officials and say, we want to do this, we want you to help us get this money from the USDA, and make this happen. Because we have to employ people on a 24 hour cycle. Because if you get one dead fish at three o’clock in the morning, all the fiscal way. And they were like, Whoa, you mean you’re going to be employing like dozens of people. And I was like, yeah, and my hope is that most of them are black, indigenous people of color, and disabled veterans. That’s really what we’re trying to do here is create opportunities, research opportunities with the land grant university, for first generation students to be able to come in and research, regenerative farming, and forestry.
We’ve connected with all the right people at the land grant university. And we need land. And we need infrastructure money. And if we looked traditional, we have that money. I guarantee. So you asked how people can find us and you’ve put our website up, which is awesome. We are on Instagram at mermaids garden, Oregon. Um, and we have a really great shop. We’ve partnered with a bunch of mom owned businesses. So we have candles and sweaters and T shirts and beeswax wraps for lunches and like food, so Oh my god, the beeswax traps are so amazing. They’re mermaids. And then we have an artist who is a Pacific Northwest artists who makes mermaids that you can hang in the in your windows that have pressed flowers in them. They’re so beautiful, y’all. And you could those are all on our website. And the other thing you can do and you can find me at bird girl 1001 on all the on all the socials and at national borders, calm me, here’s what I would really love for everyone to do. I would love for everyone. When your friends are talking about, oh, you know, everything’s on fire. Oh my god, we got to save the planet. I would love for all of you to ask people if they know where their food is coming from. And talk to people about if they do know where their food is coming from. How are those people who are growing that food and processing that food and putting that food in our grocery stores? How are they getting connected to the people in their communities? And so when you go to the farmers markets, go and find I am on Facebook we are on Facebook, at the mermaids garden Oregon and Go 1001 So yeah, absolutely, um, go to the farmers market and buy your food there, if you have them. And then if you live in a food desert, there is a lot of work being done to figure out how to bring food into those deserts, and do more research and have a greater understanding of what a food desert is, and why it exists. Racism and, and how we can start to work towards disrupting that system of keeping food from people.
Christine Gautreaux 45:34
Right, we do every week. I’m Melissa, Dr. Bird, we do a hashtag wisdom and action. We just gave folks about four wisdom. I love that. Because if you don’t know what a food desert is, is, this is the first time you’ve heard about it. Please go research that and understand what that’s about because it is about racism. And it’s about redistricting. It’s about all kinds of things where intersections converge. And, you know, Melissa, you and I share social work as our background. And I’m a firm believer, it’s about policy, it’s about policy change, because that’s what builds our systems. So also check with your local governments, like, what are their policies about farms and farmlets and growing your own food, or being allowed to have chickens in your yard, because so many places, you’re not allowed to have chickens in your yard. And so check that out, because it impacts all of us.
Melissa Bird 46:37
And remember, if you know people who are like, I just want to start a farm. So let me tell you, if you’re looking for land with water rights, that takes your ability, like we’re looking for 25 to 50 acres of lands. And so that takes us if and when in water rights. So that takes you from buying a $400,000 piece of land, with a well on it to one and a half to $2 million dollars for land, just for land. And so when we talk about and by the way that is recent, that’s that’s the same thing that’s happening to regular housing in urban areas, is happening in rural areas with lands. And so really being aware of the gatekeeping and the barriers to why these things, these problems aren’t being solved right away. And it is all about policy. It’s 100%, all about policy. And there are ways you can go to city and county governments to really help address those policies and make a difference in policy. I mean, that’s what I’ve been doing for a really long time. And it’s it’s finally starting to move and shift and make a difference. But it takes a long time. And I think some people get frustrated when they don’t have access to money. And they just give up.
Christine Gautreaux 47:59
understandable because they’re trying to feed their families and they’re trying to put gas in their car. And, Shannon, you What do you want to come on and talk about your wisdom in action this week? Because I know we’re out of time.
Shannon M. 48:12
Yes, my wisdom and action is looking at more on food deserts. When I think about food deserts, who does go to the gas stations, the neighborhoods who don’t have the food and what that what that menu looks like for the week for the month, you know, I do go to farmers markets, local farmers markets, but if I’m missing information on exactly the specifics of food deserts, and I’m off target, I look forward to you know, seeing what information comes up. So that could be better.
Christine Gautreaux 48:50
Yeah, my wisdom and action this week, I’m gonna check out with my local government and because you know, I like to write to my representatives or talk to them and find out policies that we need to really look at, through the through the lens of social justice, because I believe that if we start speaking out that we can all make a difference. But we have to know, like you said, Melissa about you can’t live on the land, like in all transparency like I come from farmers, but they’ve always lived on the land. They’re not commercial farmers, they’re more farmland, they’re more more. You know, my dad has, I think he’s it 12 acres or 14 our acre, you know, and he grows his own food and feeds the neighborhood and goes to the farmers market. And my grandfather comes from, I mean, he retired to farm 50 acres, right. So I would probably qualify for the grant because I would be third generation and I’m white. And so some of those barriers would be taken care of. But I would have to buy whole new land and not live on it. So that was fascinating to me to learn that and yeah,
Melissa Bird 49:59
if you want to come Marshall loan to run a business. If you want a business loan, right to run a business, you can’t live on the property. Right. And so some
Christine Gautreaux 50:09
of that we need shifts in culture around that. And we need to shift some policy. So thank you so much for your wisdom and for being to share with us your experience, because I see your strength, and your tenacity, and your all that it has taken to get you to this point so far. And I want to honor that. And I want to also just, I want to see this coming true for you. Because what’s coming, I would love to come to the mermaids garden and retreat there and have fresh fish that was grown on the property, and know that the land and the air and the water are being taken care of in a sustainable way. And that all are welcome. I have a labyrinth, our listeners hear me talk about it. It’s not accessible. Because we’re in the kind of foothills of the Appalachian, like, we’re, we’re not in the mountains, and we’re barely in the foothills, but we got a lot of hills. And it is it is natural, and it goes between the trees. And sometimes you gotta have gotten a handle and do treat and get up to. So yeah, I really, I hear you when you say that about making it accessible for all and I am so grateful for the work you do in the world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for being with us. We’re gonna pop you back in the green room. And we’re gonna wrap up the show. And we look forward to talking to you more. Thank you. Thank you, of course, who so much in that yummy conversation,
Shannon M. 51:43
I will I will start us off, I love the part. Part of what stood out to me, of course, is always all of it. But the reconnecting to your body. You know, that’s how I lost all this weight. It was actually me working on my spiritual wellness. I said, You know what, I’m committed to these businesses. I’m committed to these guys that I’ve dated people do what they want to do. So let me be committed to God because He is faithful. And I did the Daniels fast, which made me cut out a lot of food. And I had a accountability partner, one of my my kitchen managers that word shout out to Chiron. And he said my church challenged me to do 100 days, I said, I’m not doing 100 days. Daniels fast, okay, but I will do vegan. And it was so difficult to find food without meat, bread or cheese. And I get that some people eat that. But why does it have to be in everything, what is going on with what’s available, who eats what, and by me being more committed to myself being more committed to my body and what I chose to eat, it’s connected me to every other dimension of wellness in a real genuine way, in a way that can be balanced and healthy. And even if I got connected to another part first. If I’m not healthy, and I’m in the hospital, everything else deteriorates. You know. So I definitely heard her when she said come out here to nature and get reconnected. That’s where we come from.
Christine Gautreaux 53:13
Yeah, they so much of that conversation, the passion in the really the intersectionality and talking about how systems of oppression keep us from really healthy, amazing things. And, you know, I was struck by the Regional part of the growing because like I said, I was raised by farmers. And it is different because you know, I’m originally from Texas, and then we moved here to Georgia. And that was kind of one of the first things I noticed is like what was available and not at the farmers market. Because we grew up farm to table before that was even a term because we grew our own food. And that’s how we we went fishing for our, our meat or protein source for the six months or whatever. And so yeah, I think and the other thing that really stuck out to me is Dr. Bird saying, you know, get involved, let your voice be heard. We’ve got to change the policy. But first we have to know we have to educate ourselves. And that’s why I love this podcast, Shannon and that we have these guests on like, who I hadn’t thought about some of this stuff before.
Shannon M. 54:24
No, no, they are why and that’s that’s what I love about being connected. You know, I don’t know, I would be surprised if ever in my lifetime I found myself to be a farmer. I would be surprised I didn’t know I was gonna have a podcast so it might happen. Who knows? You know, maybe after I retired, like your dad, I’ll go do farming. Who knows maybe the three year be mandated time will be lifted by then but somebody has to do it because I shop at the farmers market strengths covering each other’s weaknesses or the areas that we’re not passionate about coming our purposes together. I love it. Yeah, I’ve definitely had a lot of enlightenment and perspective shifts that I wouldn’t have had we not talked to these wise women.
Christine Gautreaux 55:07
Right? I am so grateful. So grateful. So we should tell our listeners, what you’re up to over at Shiloh glow, what’s going on over there?
Shannon M. 55:18
Yes. So ladies, if you are avid listeners to our show, you know that shallow glow now has this subscription, right? We’re talking about what you put in your body, when we’re talking about environmental wellness, but it’s also about what you put on your body, your body is using your skin is the biggest organ on your body. So if you’re not protecting it, and not taking care of it, it’s just kind of letting all the dirt and different things that are out in the environment directly into your skin on top of not maintaining it, you know, when we talk about wellness, so that we know we have the information like we’re talking about specifically, but also to maintain it, there’s one thing to get there, but we have to maintain it. So if you are interested in a subscription go over to Shiloh glow.com, we have the Wi Fi for you ladies is only for our listeners. And gentlemen, if you’re on here, too, it’s not going to stop you from typing in the wives five. So you will get that for being our listeners shout out to Joe. He’s one of our avid listeners. And that way you can make sure that we’re staying on top of it as we think of the other categories of bonus. And if you’re that type of person that not only thinks about yourself, but also the other women in your community who make a difference in their life. In the life of those around you. We do give the gift of self care to Shay Rhodes. And again, that’s somebody in the community who’s making a difference. So if you know a person who might not always prioritize herself, you can nominate her through a free gift, I will take care of it for you. And you can do that by emailing my Shay row to shallow glow@gmail.com. And she will be in the nomination until the end of this month. It is the 21st until the end of the month, we have the nomination open and we will announce the next honoree at the end of the month.
Christine Gautreaux 57:06
I love it. Thank you so much. We love that Shayla glow is our sponsor and takes care of the women in our lives and the men because they love the product too. So it’s a good reminder. Well, my friends, that hour went by quick.
Shannon M. 57:26
We’re already at the end of the first show for season four who would expect
Christine Gautreaux 57:32
it all we have some great guests lined up for the season. So we look forward. We hope you will join us we go Live at Five every Wednesday, you can about 24 hours later our latest episode is up on all the platforms where you can find podcasts. We really would love it if you would like and subscribe because that helps us out and tell your friends about it.
Shannon M. 57:52
And don’t forget, be well be wise and we hope to see you next week when they are
Christine Gautreaux 58:00
looking forward to it.
Unknown Speaker 58:05
Thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on-air live on Wednesdays at 5 pm. Eastern via Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to like share and subscribe be part of the conversation and get connected at women connected in wisdom.com.
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