A Lesson on Showing Up for Yourself with Trey Anthony

Voice Lessons Podcast

Why is it still so difficult for women who lead to ask for help, especially when it comes to their mental health? And, why are Black women even less likely to ask for it? In our special SEASON 2 launch on INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, Kim speaks to award-winning producer, writer, and speaker Trey Anthony, best known for her work “Da Kink in My Hair” and most recently, her new book “Black Girl In Love (with Herself).” In this lesson on showing up for yourself, Trey speaks openly and honestly about coming to terms with her own depression, and how we as women can find freedom in expressing the truths about our daily struggles and fall back in love... with ourselves. (This episode includes colorful language). TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• How Trey’s grandmother influenced her creativity, career, and eventually her voice.
• Why Trey started her first piece “Da Kink in My Hair” and what the show represents in regards to issues Black women face in their daily lives.
• How “Da Kink in My Hair” became an overnight sensation.
• Trey is the first Black woman in Canada to ever have a television show on a major prime-time Canadian network.
• Black Culture in Canada vs. the United States.
• How Trey made space for Black women in the self-help market.
• Black Girl in Love (with Herself) addresses the real things that occur to Black women as they move through spaces.
• There's a stigma in the Black community around depression and mental health issues that we do not talk about, and yet it's happening.
• How do we create a safe space for Black women to fall apart if they need to?
• If you look at so many of the movements of social change that are happening, Black women are at the forefront.
• When you are not recognized, you have nothing to lose.
• Many women leaders are viewed as the strong ones and have a hard time admitting when they are struggling, and how Trey navigated this personally.
• By the time Black women actually seek health for mental health issues, their symptoms are 5X more severe than white women.
• As women, we think we can handle more than we actually can and it’s ok to ask for help.
• There is a common misconception among women that receiving comes with strings attached.
• Asking for that support and being carried is part of the modeling of what the new success means.
• How mothering changed Trey and her journey as a solo parent.
• The rules that are written in the culture for the way we do things don’t actually make sense for busy women.
• Feminine leadership looks like in today’s society looks like so many different things, because we are doing it all.