A speaker recalls being unable to afford diapers for her son Jelani, wrapping him in towels instead. That moment of crisis became her turning point, pushing her to shed limiting labels and rebuild her life. She argues your hardest story is often your strongest business asset.
Chapters
I ran out of Pampers and I went to the ATM to get $20 out and it said insufficient funds, uh, balance $11.42. And, uh, in that moment I realized that I had a problem. My son was out of Pampers and I didn't have the money to get him Pampers. Uh, I went to 7-Eleven and I asked Can I buy 4 Pampers and not the box? Hoping that the limited funds that I had— I think I had probably about $15 on me, $14 on me— could get a few Pampers, and versus the box that was $21 that I didn't have enough for. And I remember going home, because they wouldn't sell me the Pampers individually. I wrapped my son Jelani in a series of towels. And I felt like at the moment, at that moment, Dr. Fleet, that that was my rock bottom. And I cried for day 1. And on day 2, I remember putting my stomach on— my hand on Jelani's little stomach, laying on his back. And while I knew he couldn't understand me, I needed him to hear me. And more than that, I needed to hear myself tell my son, Mommy will never be this broke or broken again. Something happened in that moment. I was willing to confront my fears, my hesitations, my judgments, my traditional limitations that were attached to my faith, to my culture, or to my gender. In that moment, please, I was willing to forfeit everything that I've ever learned that stood in the way of who I could become. I was willing to confront anything that would cause me to be here at this uncomfortable moment, this broke and this broken again. And so that was the moment when I wasn't attached to anything that was formerly Lisa. And as a woman, as a Black woman, as a Christian woman, as a single mom, as a whatever label you want to put me on, I wasn't attached to it. I was willing to forfeit any label and what that label caused me to not be in order to become.
