Why The Well

I get asked this A LOT.

Each time I dig a little deeper.

In preparation for my Okiki Podcast interview today, I dove a little deeper and wanted to share it with you.

The Well always existed, it just didn’t have a formal name.

It was how I lived my life. I was always reaching out to my community for help. If I didn’t know how to do something, or was scared, or needed advice, I reached out. It was vulnerable and humbling, but not paralyzing. I was very willing to ask for help.
I would ask strangers, people I knew, family and friends. Every person has life experience and wisdom from their own personal experiences and so much of it is untapped.

Untapped wisdom needed a platform. Even today, as I think about why I was asked to speak on this podcast, it’s because I’ve done work to create a platform. I’m an extrovert, confident, privileged, it’s easy for me.

What about all the women who don’t have a platform?
The ones that don’t come from the same privilege as i?Could I make one to share?
What if I made the community, in order to make all the wisdom attainable?

The

So when asked ‘ why did I create the well ‘ I guess I wanted to share my resources with as many women as I could.

I saw women keeping everything inside themselves, too scared of what people would think to reach out. I saw their bodies deteriorate, dis-ease set in, and sometime it got so bad that they would have to quit their jobs. I watched women be so tightly wound and hold onto their secrets and problems like somehow this approach would save them. It is only in bringing our wounds, mistakes, pasts into the light that we can be healed, and community is the best way.

Community says ‘me too’, it says ‘you are not alone’, but it also asks for incredible vulnerability.  Nothing brings about humility like community. 

Why The Well?

Because I was living openly, freely, taking risks, asking for help, and seeing other women so afraid to do that too. I got curious, what makes me different and willing to reach out? I realized much of it boils down to a stubborn belief that I can achieve whatever I want. So if I am coming up against roadblocks, then there must be a solution. If I don’t know the solution, that someone else might, so I’d better ask as many people as I can until I understand.

I am a fierce ‘figure it outer’. I drive my family crazy, every time they have a problem I’m like ‘let’s dig a little deeper, what’s really going on?’, so much so that now they throw it in my face! 

So why The Well? 

Because this communal vulnerable life approach worked for me, so I knew it would work for others.