Welcome and thank you for tuning in to Black Women Amplified, the podcast.

Your host, Monica Wisdom Tyson, brings you downloadable conversations that matter to women around the globe.

We discuss all things Black girl magic, amplify our voices, and transform our challenges into triumphs.

Monica calls on her league of extraordinary women to push our boundaries, share their expertise and stories of personal transformation.

Welcome your host of Black Women Amplified, Monica Wisdom Tyson.

Hello, Black Women Amplified family.

This is your girl, Monica Wisdom.

And you know, I'm excited, excited that you're here.

Thank you so much for supporting the podcast.

Make sure you tell a friend, tweet a friend, text a friend, email a friend and let them know that we have a new episode available.

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Let me get my words together.

Y'all know, speaking is my second language.

Writing is my first language.

So make sure you check out the blog on the Black Woman Amplified podcast.

Listen, today is going to be an amazing show, so I want to get right into a proper introduction of our guest.

I'm beyond excited to bring you an extraordinary conversation with Lisa Basiat.

She is the epitome of what it means to move through life with purpose, power and grace.

Like so many, she followed that blueprint.

You know, the one where you go to college, corporate life, marriage.

But when life threw her challenges, she did what a true leader would do.

She redefined life on her own terms.

Not only did she create a path for herself, she expanded it to open up pathways for other people with two incredible business, including Shaping Freedom, as well as the Shaping Freedom podcast where she drops knowledge and gems about purpose and transformation and has incredible interviews with extraordinary people that I can't wait for you to hear.

So make sure that you follow her over there.

Now, let me tell you what else she does if that's not enough.

She, alongside her sister, managed the estate of her beloved brother, Jean Michel Basquiat.

They ensure that his vision stays true and his legacy is intact.

So today, ladies and gentlemen, I can't wait for you to meet this incredible, extraordinary person who is a kindred spirit.

And I'm so honored that she carved out the time to talk to us about her life, her journey from Brooklyn girl to award winning entrepreneur.

Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm Black Woman Amplified welcome to Lisan Basquiat.

Hello, Black Women Amplified family.

We are here with a very special guest today, and I cannot wait for you to meet her.

She is our people.

And you heard her amazing introduction and all the work that she's doing in the world.

And we have her with us today.

And I'm very, very excited about this conversation.

Luziane, how are you today?

Monica?

I am doing really, really well, thank you.

And thank you so much for inviting me to have this conversation because you all are my people too.

So I'm looking forward to what we create in this space.

Thank you for saying.

I know that you are busy and you have lots of capes on and lots of things that you're doing.

So I'm grateful that you took the time to be with us today.

Now, one of the many roles that you have is executor of an estate, but more importantly, your sister.

You're the sister of one of the most prolific artists whose work continues to inspire how we see ourselves and inspire how we experience humanity.

But before the world knew who he was, he was your brother.

What does that mean to you when you say his name?

And what kind of big brother was he?

Ooh, okay, you just diving right into the questions, Monica, you know, it's interesting, while you were asking the question and you mentioned being a sister, I'm a middle child.

And so I am Jean Michel Basquiat's sister, his younger sister.

And then my.

Our sister Janine is three years younger than me.

And my sister and I are the co administrators of Jean Michel's estate.

We manage his legacy and just ensure that his voice is heard clearly without a lot of edit and filter.

And when I think about my brother Jamichel, I think about love.

I think about our childhood.

I think about how proud and happy I am for him, for all of the incredible work that he's done and what he did during his lifetime and left for our family and for the world.

And I also think about creativity, I think about expression.

Someone who very boldly and courageously said what they had to say with clarity, with direct communication, and without filter or fear.

That's beautiful.

That's beautiful.

And it shows in everything that you do as well.

Now, what was it like growing up in the Basquiat household?

People always ask that, and they ask, I don't know if people have this idea that, like, we were all walking around like Jean Michel Basquiat or like he was like, painting the kitchen table or something.

It was a very interesting and I thought a very unique upbringing that we had.

We grew up in Boreham Hill, Brooklyn.

We are the children of a Haitian immigrant, Gerard Basquiat, and Puerto Rican, Afro, Latina, mother, Matilda Basquiat.

And our parents broke up, divorced when we were very young.

Jean Michel was 8, I was 4, and I think my sister Janine was about a year old.

And we, for a variety of reasons, wound up living with our dad, Gerard.

And he was.

My father had come from Haiti in the mid-50s out of the devastation and chaos that was going on in Haiti at the time, through Du Valle.

And he was an immigrant in New York trying to.

And working toward achieving the American dream and all the things that he had hoped for himself and for his family that led him to leave Haiti and to come to this country.

And so we grew up in this household, where at first we lived in Flatbush, which was a very.

At the time, not very diverse.

I think we were one of the first few families of color to live on that block on 35th street in Brooklyn.

And it was very kind of Brooklyn, right there was like, stickball and kids playing hopscotch and freeze tag and those kind of things.

And later.

It was a Spike Lee movie.

It was like a Spike Lee movie, I'm telling you.

It just wasn't in Bed Stuy.

Right?

It was exactly like, yes, thank you, that helps.

It was a slightly less black Spike Lee movie, for sure.

But definitely these homes with working families and bake sales and all of those kind of things going on, and block parties and parents, mothers mostly, coming out at about 5 or 6 and telling the kids to come on in and have dinner and that kind of thing.

And then later, after our parents broke up, we moved with our dad to Boreham Hill and lived in a brownstone.

And Boreham Hill at the time was.

It was an area that was transforming into something else.

It was very.

They, meaning my father and the neighbors had moved into that area early on.

And so it was very interesting for us.

It was like watching a movie because we'd sit in the house and they would get together as, like, the neighborhood, and there were, like, hookers outside and all kinds of things going on out there.

Everybody had to make a living.

Everybody had to make a living, right?

And so they had this whole thing where all these new homeowners got together and they would be, like, taking pictures of John's cars and, you know, taking photos and say, we're going to tell your wife, you know, whatever.

And so that was what.

That was kind of like the TV screen for us of what was happening in the world.

And what was happening inside was really a father who was acclimating to this country and building a career for himself and figuring out what and how to be a single parent to three Brooklyn kids, you know, who were very American and kind of that, you know, juxtaposition.

Rebellious in a way, but very respectful.

We were good kids.

We really were, but rebellious we were.

And the rebellion was like, I don't know.

For those who know of Haitian parents or who are Haitian themselves, my father was really strict.

We had to be home right from school, and we were allowed to go out and we played a lot.

My sister, brother, and I, we would bike ride, and we'd be in the city and all the way on the other side of Brooklyn.

And our father didn't know that.

He thought we were out playing and we'd be, like, riding over the Brooklyn Bridge, riding around or trying to ride our bikes to Coney Island.

It was far, right?

But we just really had a lot of fun, honestly.

We were just, like, playing and playing hopscotch and double Dutch and all kinds of fun that we would have playing outside and then having this father who was very kind of debonair, and that was where kind of the difference was.

So we, as these kids, grew up in this house, and I didn't know of anyone else who was raised by their dad.

I went to public school.

We went to public school and went to school with kids from all kinds of different walks of life.

But I always felt a little different, just a little bit different than other kids.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

But being that you grew up with your father, primarily, did you find yourself seeking female friendships or the motherish people around you?

Not as a child, but just as you've grown up, have you found yourself, like, trying to get that feminine energy in your space?

Because you do grow up with a dad.

That's a great question.

I grew up with my dad.

I knew my mom.

We saw our mother every weekend.

Our mother struggled with mental illness, and so she lived with her parents because that's what good Puerto Rican women did back then.

When you broke up, you know, you go home, and so that's what she did.

But I did find myself gravitating toward older women or adult women.

And looking back, that's actually an amazing question.

Thank you.

Looking back on it, I've always had older female friends.

I can only call them friends.

Right.

And people who helped me to kind of navigate what the world looks like when you are not living with your mom and kind of navigating this world and seeing other friends who.

I didn't have any other friends who didn't Have a mother.

And I certainly didn't have other friends who have.

I certainly didn't have any friends who had mothers who were struggling with mental illness that I was aware of.

And so, yes, I did find myself gravitating.

I also had a lot of male friends in school, a ton of male friends, and I kind of gravitated toward them.

And I think that a lot of that was because I felt comfortable with male energy.

And that caused some problems for me as well, because I'd be in school and some girl would be all like, blah, blah, blah.

Why are you talking about I don't like him?

Girl, be my friend so I can tell you how to get with him.

Get out of my face.

Be nice to me.

Be nice to me.

Come on now.

What are we doing.

Now?

You talked about your mother's Puerto Rican and your father is Haitian.

And you were born into two incredibly proud and resilient cultures.

Please tell us about the beauty of those cultures and how it has shaped you throughout the years.

Oh, my goodness.

Thank you.

As a child, I remember being in my.

And this is on my maternal side, being at my grandparents house, and our grandfather and his friends would be down in the basement and they had a band and so they'd be playing the conga drums and there'd be food.

Everything about both cultures is food and music.

Food, music.

And a lot of passion.

Okay?

A ton of passion.

And so my recollection of my childhood on the Puerto Rican side was again, music, great food, lots of talk, lots of adults talking very passionately about things and a lot of love.

On the Haitian side, we did not spend as much time with my Haitian cousins when we were very young.

And some of that was because they came over later.

So my father came over.

He was the first one who came over after our grandfather and an uncle passed away as part of kind of what was happening in Haiti at the time.

And so my father wound up sponsoring his sister, mother, and his other brother to this country.

And they lived in Queens, and we didn't spend quite as much time with them.

But as.

But the Haitian culture was very prominent with our household.

And it was music, lots of music.

We listen to music all the time.

And again, as I said, our dad was kind of like debonair.

We called him Papa.

He was like making brunch for us.

And he and my then stepmom, they would be drinking Bloody Marys and he'd.

Make these fancy family.

Very fancy.

Super fancy, I'm telling you.

He'd be making, like, bouff bourguignon, which is like a very fancy kind of like beef stew with Brussels sprouts and things in it.

And.

Yeah.

And then I'd go around my friends and like, what'd you have for dinner last night?

And they're all like chicken and rice and whatever.

Or whatever.

Right.

I'd be like, bou bougienho.

And they'd be like, what?

What?

What is that?

But a lot of rice and beans and all of that.

But I'm very proud of and very happy about the opportunity that I've had to have a Caribbean background and also to be a Brooklyn girl.

I just feel like those are just.

It's just a beautiful medley of soup that has created this woman who's sitting in front of you today.

I love it.

I love Puerto Rico and I love Brooklyn.

Brooklyn is.

I always said my husband is in Brooklyn.

I've met him.

We just haven't met each other yet because Brooklyn men are just.

We haven't found.

Brooklyn men are fantastic.

Brooklyn men are different.

They are different.

Okay.

They are different.

And I.

Like I said, I live in San Diego and also in the Northeast, and I have found myself explaining to people here in Southern California the difference between men, Brooklyn guys and guys that are here.

It's a whole different story.

You feel loved and hugged up all the time.

And it doesn't have to be even a guy that you're with or that there's any.

A man can be with his wife, and he's going to hold the door open for me.

They take care of all women.

That's right.

They're protectors.

And you.

That's right.

Safe.

You know, you can step back into your feminine and be like, okay.

It'S a thing.

Oh, wow.

I don't often get to talk to people about that, other than those who live there who know and understand, but.

And they don't know anything different.

But when I come to other parts of the country and look and observe kind of how things are.

Yeah, Brooklyn guys, y'all got it.

Every time I went to New York, people are like, where are you going?

I have to go to Brooklyn today.

Just to get a day of.

Just fill yourself on up.

Yes.

You know, and it's never disrespectful.

It's loud and it's assertive, but it's never disrespectful.

Yeah.

That's what I mean by it doesn't matter.

Like, the man can be with his woman if he sees a sister walking down the street or if he sees a sister coming through a door, he's going to hold that door.

He'll hold the door open for his woman first, of course, but he's going to make sure that you get through that door, too.

And that's very different from what I.

I've had do I slammed in my face.

That's a whole nother podcast.

Come on.

All right, we'll talk about that later.

You brought us there, Monica.

I know, but listen, I have to let people know there's some good men out there, and I think they're all in Brooklyn.

I hope not.

I mean, Brooklyn guys travel, so.

I know, I know, but it's that energy.

That's the energy that we appreciate as women.

That really is the energy.

I remember I was at a store one time, and this guy walked in, and I was just watching him.

I said, excuse me, are you from Brooklyn?

He's like, yes.

How did you know?

I said, I can just tell a Brooklyn man.

It's just a thing.

It's just a thing.

Now, growing up in Brooklyn, although your brother was in the art world, he's an older brother.

What were your dreams growing up?

What did you see yourself doing?

I wanted to be a writer.

I wanted to write.

And if you'd asked me what I wanted to be when I was 11, which typically gives people insight into who they are and where their interests are.

So if you're listening and if you're doing something and not clear about what you're doing, think about what you wanted to do when you were 11.

When I was 11, I wanted to be a teacher, a writer, and a social worker.

And then later on, when I went to school, I started thinking about studying social psychology, but I did not want to go and get a.

At the time, I wasn't interested in getting a graduate degree.

And then I wound up finding this professor in cultural anthropology, and I ate that up.

And if I look now at what I do, social work, at the time, I didn't know what it meant, but what I meant by social work is what I'm doing today.

It's like, what's happening in this world?

And yes, there's kind of the one on one situation, but what can we do to think more about what we're doing as a culture, as a people, as a community?

So the social work part of it, I absolutely continue to be tied into the writing.

I love to write.

I'm Actually working on a book proposal right now that I'm months behind because I've been so busy.

But I'm going to get that that book's coming out.

And then the teacher part of it is I really enjoy watching and supporting people in discovering who they are and what's standing in their way and what it is that gets in the way of them having the life that they want to live.

So I feel pretty good that what I wanted to do while I didn't, I wasn't clear about career pathing, but the activities that I wanted to be involved in are pretty much what I'm doing right now.

I always believe that we are born with our purpose.

It's not something that we find that it reveals itself to us.

And so if that was in you at 11, then this.

You're doing the work that you were born to do.

I believe that, yeah.

So speaking of the work you're born to do, freedom and legacy are big themes in the work that you do.

What does freedom look like to you?

Freedom is what happens when you take a moment in this busy world that we live in.

And it's what happens when you take a moment to clear any clutter that might be happening, either emotionally or mentally or even physically, that stands in the way of you understanding and being able to hear your path, your purpose, your truth, when it starts to come up and present itself to you.

Freedom looks like being clear about what your boundaries are, meaning what your yeses are and what your nos are.

Having cleared and completed all conversations that need to happen, the conversations with other people, with your family, and the conversations that you need to have with yourself.

It looks like being courageous enough to tap into who you are so that you are involved in activities and living a life that is in alignment with who you know you truly, truly are.

Freedom looks like trusting yourself to make the right decisions for your life, for the relationships you're going to get in, the career path you're going to take, the endeavors, your friendship, communities.

Freedom, to me, looks like just being clear.

And it's not easy.

It's pretty simple, but not easy.

And once you're willing to do that, to really unpack and to be 100% accountable for your life and for what's happening in your life.

That is.

It's a feeling that is unlike no other, because it's that feeling that you have when you look in the mirror and you say, I got you, I got you and I trust you.

Bondage, on the flip side, looks like having a bunch of incomplete Conversations, having a lot of conflict going on and not dealing with those things.

It looks like living a life where resentment and anger and frustration are your home emotions.

Bondage is what happens when you don't have clear boundaries and when you walk around feeling like an overburdened, burdened shiro, as so many of us women do.

When you're tired and exhausted and unclear about who you are, what you want and where you want to be, it's heavy.

It's very heavy.

It's incredibly.

And I have been there at times in my life.

There have been times in my life where I looked in the mirror and I did not recognize who I was and I was unclear about why I was here and what it was that I was supposed to be doing.

What did that look like for you?

And then how did you unravel that emotion to find your freedom?

This is a story that I'll try to be very succinct about.

I was working for.

I worked in corporate for a long time and I was an executive working with organizational effectiveness and organizational change management.

And I would do these huge corporate wide projects for technology and process and that kind of thing.

And I remember being on a call once, I was in a meeting on a webex, which is like Zoom, similar to Zoom, and I was on a webex.

I was chatting with a bunch of friends that I worked with because we had like a work chat thing.

And I remember having this nagging feeling that I had had for most of the day and I heard myself kind of push the feeling away, like, we don't have time for that.

I gotta focus and be here doing this thing.

And then I heard very quietly, because that's typically when the truth of God and the truth of who we are speaks very softly.

And I heard, well, this is interesting because if any friend had called you to ask you to talk them off a ledge or for help, you would throw your cape on and go running.

You would figure out a way to disengage from what's going on, to go and focus on that person 100%.

And in doing so, you would make sure that that person felt and knew that you were there for them and that they weren't alone.

How interesting is it that you're not willing to do that for yourself And Monica.

It was this moment where everything was clear and I didn't like what I saw and what I realized.

That was when I started to.

Or that was my first understanding that there was the me who interacted with people, circumstances, decisions, my children, my then Husband, my parents, that that was all happening, but that there was also a communication happening within myself, with myself, that in many ways at that point, up until that point, I had been separate and disconnected from.

And it was then and at the time I actually was in the process.

I think it was before I became a coach.

No, I think it was before I became a coach.

It was then that I started the process of unraveling that and unpacking that and really engaging in correspondence and relationship with myself.

Because I realized that while I had a marriage that wasn't quite working for me at the time, while I had relationships and friends and all of that, that I was not a very good friend to myself and did not have a very healthy relationship with myself.

How did you begin building that relationship with yourself?

What was in your self care toolkit and what did you learn along that journey?

Well, when you start to listen yourself, kind of tells yourself, yourself kind of tells yourself that you said that, oh, you're really mad and you're angry at this person for not listening to you.

And guess what, honey, you're not listening to yourself.

I started to observe how I having been programmed this way because the other thing about being a child of Caribbean parents is the work ethic was like on point.

So you work and you don't stop to consider yourself really.

It's really more about getting the thing done.

And so I started to really look at and assess and really took a lot of the tools that I was using.

That's what's so interesting about life, right?

I did these large scale projects and a lot of the work that I did around organizational change management really was about three paths.

First of all, you decide where you want to go.

Then you take a look at where you are, you take an assessment of where you are, and then that middle ground is how you get from where you are to where you want to be.

That's where you play the game.

And I started to really take an assessment of the relationships I was in and how happy I was and whether or not these were the right relationships for me.

I started to take a look at the fact that I would push myself physically beyond where it made sense for me.

And then in my head I believe that there was some kind of honor in that or that it made me a great person, when in fact it just made me really tired person.

I realized that I felt guilty about taking a nap and that I like wore this badge of honor because like I was just working so hard, doing so many things.

I started to see that My children were experiencing a mother who was quite frankly burnt out most of the time.

And I was a great mom in that.

I mean, I showed up, I took care of them and all of that.

And I also wasn't as present as I became once I started to take care of myself.

I at the time was using food as a way to soothe myself.

I had a lot of behaviors that quite frankly were not loving toward myself, I was not taking care of myself.

And that was where I started.

It was like, where's the low hanging?

And I used like all my corporate lingo and all these corporate things that I knew, right, what's the low hanging fruit?

What could I take care of right now?

So handled all the low hanging fruit and then kind of worked my way up through the fruit, through the branches, through the trunk, into the root and cleaning things up along the way.

And it was a process to have.

Those conversations that you.

That were not complete.

They were absolutely not complete.

Yeah.

So in this building up process, is that what inspired you to start your company?

Shaping freedom?

Yeah.

And that's what I meant by it's funny how life takes you places.

I was working in corporate and we had like a leadership off site and this woman showed up and the leader of the organization introduced her as his coach.

And I was like, what is that?

What is that?

And I was like, oh, that's what I want to do.

Her name was Joanne.

That's what I want to do.

I want to do what this lady does.

And so I connected with her and asked her what this career path was like and how she did it.

I went and got certified as a coach and I started coaching in parallel with the work I was doing for within financial Services at the time.

My first 50 clients were people over the course of a few years were people who were in corporate.

I knew the game, I knew that world.

So it was fun and easy for me to work with them.

I worked with them evenings and weekends.

And then eventually I decided to leave corporate and decided I wanted to do that full time, which I did.

Which also happened to have been the year when my mother passed away and I got divorced and my father and stepmother had some health issues for the first time ever.

And so it was a really interesting time for me.

And it was really a time where everything kind of broke down for me.

I became very.

It was very raw time for me.

You know, I was going through a divorce, my mother passed away, I had a hysterectomy, you know, and other health issues.

Like all it's like everything came together in this perfect storm that left me standing there feeling very vulnerable, very uncertain, very unclear.

I had been very accustomed to having that cloud, to following that cloud, and to knowing the doorway to walk through.

And I felt like I was out in a hallway with a bunch of closed doors and with no clarity about what to do next.

But I also knew that I needed to walk, but I didn't know.

I felt alone.

How did you fight that inner dialogue to walking into your business and creating such a phenomenal company that you have now?

It's funny.

I told the story to someone else yesterday at Harab.

Every once in a while, I felt really afraid because I was earning six figures in corporate.

I knew my life.

I was very clear.

I owned a home, I had children, and I was accustomed to a certain income.

And here I was trying to figure it all out on my own.

And I got to a point where I was struggling.

I was struggling financially.

I was struggling with what to do and how to market and that kind of thing.

And I remember going down the path of trying to look for a job.

And so I decided, you know, I'm going to go look for a job.

I can consult.

And I had, like, two or three interviews.

And I have to tell you, those interviews were tough because I had zero interest in doing that work again.

And I was very good at it.

Like, I was the person they would call in to, like, transform an organization.

And it's my.

It was my jam.

And the time for it had passed for me.

And so my barometer is always, am I clear about why I'm doing something and do I feel is my heart in this thing?

And so I think this answers both this question and the question you asked me a little bit earlier.

Whether or not my heart is in something is always my compass.

And that's friendships, relationships, decisions, work, all of that.

If my heart's not in it, I'm not doing it.

People always talk about mindset.

I said, no, we need to focus on the heart.

Absolutely.

Because that's where the true voice is, and that's where your connection is to the divine.

And that is really where our GPS system is.

The mind will talk you out of, talk you over the ledge.

Just go over to the other.

Just go head on.

You'll be fine.

You don't need this.

You don't need them in your life.

I'm gonna set a boundary.

I'm never gonna speak to that person again.

Handled.

Done.

It's like, all right, sister, but you're harder.

You go, let's look at this.

Yes.

Yeah.

It may be a little bit uncomfortable, a feeling, but let's go in here.

And I think that when you connect to your heart and when you allow your heart to lead, your heart leads.

And so then your mindset shifts because it's coming, it's taking its direction from a more solid place.

Beautiful.

Hello, everyone.

Monica Wisdom here.

I am the host and the producer of the Black Women Amplified podcast.

But what you might not know is that I'm also a consultant for women entrepreneurs.

I help women entrepreneurs develop their ideas, their brand, and their overall business strategy.

Are you developing a groundbreaking idea or have a wealth of knowledge that could impact the world, but unsure where to go next?

Business is good, but you're ready for it to be great.

With countless ideas racing through your mind, it's challenging to figure out what's next.

I understand you have excelled with top companies, but entrepreneurship feels like a new language.

The truth is, you can do this.

You've achieved great success for others, and now it's time to achieve it for yourself.

At Monaco Wisdom Consulting, we focus on your vision and crafting a clear, concise strategic plan.

Your dreams are within reach.

You simply need a powerful roadmap to get you there.

Are you ready to take the next step?

Book a call and let's discuss your vision and future.

You can reach me at www.monica wisdom hq.com.

Now that you are in a much better space and you're clear on your path.

I am what inspires you and what brings you joy.

Ooh, Ooh.

I love joy.

I love joy.

I love joy.

And joy is different from happy.

Happy is like hanging out at a club and dancing and be laughing with friends.

That's happy.

It's fleeting.

We are blessed with happy moments.

Joy is something different.

Joy is a way of being.

Joy is trusting and having faith in myself and having faith in the divine and in the.

In my life, that my life matters.

I think joy is also what happens when you discover different parts of yourself and you discover kind of the treasure trove of what makes you up and who you are.

I feel joy when.

And this is going to sound kind of weird, but I feel joy when, like, something trigger.

When I feel triggered by something and I'm like, ooh, what is that?

Oh, I don't like this.

I feel like a deer in the headlights right now.

And I got a lot more happening in here than I'm able to put into words.

What is this?

And digging into that or diving into that and then discovering like, oh, wow, that's what this is.

There's something I need to or that I want to handle and confront.

That's joy to me.

Because once those things are confronted, what happens is you pull it out by the root.

So everything that was tied to that thing also falls away.

Like if you're making decisions that are not in your best interest romantically, and you're on a cycle of different face, different name, same, same person, and then you get to number 10 of those jokers and you're like, wait a minute, hold on a minute, Lisa, what's happening here?

Like, what's happening?

What's going on here?

Are you choosing from a place of what you don't want or are you choosing from a place of what you want?

And what I mean by that is I don't want a guy who wears purple pants.

So the next guy doesn't wear purple pants, but he wears red pants.

And I don't like red pants either.

So the next guy, and so on and so forth.

But when you get down to the root of it and you pluck that out, that entire decision making, the toxicity in that decision making dissolves and goes away.

And you heal it up, not just for yourself, but you heal it up for anyone in your family line who has poured that decision making into you.

And you heal it up for anyone that's coming after you.

That's joy.

I learned that it's like we are multidimensional beings, that when we heal, it does heal.

Absolutely.

All around us.

That's beautiful.

Now, you have had such a dynamic life, an amazing life, the good and the bad.

It's all been amazing because you've learned and you've loved and you've lived and you've lost.

If you could relive of the most remarkable moments in your life, if you could relive one moment, what would that be?

Ooh, this is a very recent moment, very recent that I'm still vibing off of.

So if I could relive that one, that'd be fun.

I had a milestone birthday a few weeks ago.

I turned 60.

Happy birthday.

And my.

Thank you.

I'm a Virgo.

September 3rd.

And my daughter told my daughter Jessica, who is 31 and she has.

My granddaughter Emma is 7.

And I have a son, Joseph, who will be 43 on Saturday.

And I have a 17 year old grandson, Xavier.

So Jessica says to me, we're going to do something for your birthday and I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's going to be fun.

Just hold this weekend.

So I'm like, okay, cool.

That done.

So that Friday, I'm like, okay, so I'm packing.

What am I packing?

She's like, just a couple of bathing suits and blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, okay, cool.

And I didn't even do any of, like, the exploration that I would have done at other times in my life to try to figure out what was going on.

I was like, I'm gonna let this surprise happen.

So we get in the car, she comes, she picks me up.

She's rented a car.

She has a car.

She rented a car.

And I'm like, okay.

And so long story short, the surprise was that she rented a house in Palm Springs and my son showed up late.

Well, my Virgo sisters, I have two friends, Nicole and Amy, who are my Virgo sister friends.

If anyone ever found our text thread, it'd be crazy.

Okay?

It's insanity.

But so they show up.

And then later on that night, that Friday night, my son and my cousin nephew, my son Joseph and my cousin nephew Tyrone shows up, whom I love, love, love.

So I'm thinking, okay, we're in this house.

My granddaughter Emma's there.

Joseph, Tyrone, Nicole, Amy and Jessica.

I'm thinking that's the weekend.

We're going to hang out for the weekend in Palm Springs.

Well, starting the following morning.

And I had stayed.

We had stayed up to like 4:00 in the morning because it's hot.

So we were in the pool until like 4 in the morning.

Starting the following morning, they had people stagger in one by one to wish me happy birthday.

I was laying in bed.

I was like, I'm so tired.

And they were downstairs, like, barbecuing and stuff.

And I'm like, okay, we're gonna have a barbecue.

They just let me lay down.

And they're all downstairs and I don't know what's going on upstairs.

And I can like hear them talking and all that.

And then she'd come to the door and say, oh, look what I.

And I like, pick my head up and look, and my friend Elaine is like leaping across the room onto the bed like, happy birthday.

And then a few minutes later, someone else would come in.

My friend Hyatt from New Jersey and my friend Sharon from New York.

And then I looked up at one point and my sister Shawneen is there.

And it was just this beautiful, beautiful.

My friend Lance, my brother friend lance came from St.

Lucia.

And people just came from all over, from wherever they were to share in this beautiful weekend.

And we just all hung out, all by the pool.

And it was like there was this one moment where I was in the hot tub, even though it was 115 degrees, didn't make sense, but I was in the hot tub with my.

With my granddaughter Emma.

And from the hot tub, I could see the pool and the back of the house.

And I'm looking and there's like a crowd of my friends here, a group of my friends at the table, people at the barbecue grill.

And it was just this beautiful moment of love and community.

Yeah.

So that's what popped up for me.

Girl, that's your book.

That weekend.

It was.

Oh, my gosh.

It was so beautiful.

It was so beautiful.

Thank you for sharing that memory.

That is beautiful.

That's the perfect.

For me.

That would be the perfect way to spend my birthday.

It was the perfect way.

Yes.

And what I loved was also the attention to the little detail that sometimes, especially like when we're doing events having to do with my brother, it can be very overwhelming to have a group of people and then have them all kind of come up to speak with you.

This was a different situation.

This was personal.

And I really appreciated that.

Instead of creating a situation where it was like, surprise and everyone, you know, having that, this is kind of eased in, she created a way to ease in and for me to truly have a moment of connection with each one of the people who came.

So if y'all planning a surprise, that was brilliant.

That was a brilliant way of doing it.

Because I know if a bunch of people came at me with surprise, I would like.

I'll be right back.

Yeah.

And then how do you talk to all the people?

Because they're all going to be coming up to try to have their moment and you're overwhelmed.

This was a way to actually take each one of those seeds of a moment, to really plant them deep.

It was beautiful.

It was beautiful.

All thanks to my daughter Jessica.

All thanks to that legacy that runs through your family about building community and generosity and expressing love in the moment.

So all of that is absolutely gorgeous.

Yes.

So anybody listening?

When I turn 60, this is what I want, but not a need.

Do it.

Do not need.

Do it for her.

Do it for her.

Make sure this, that it's a little cooler than 100 degrees at 11 o'clock at night, but do it.

Yes.

Now, your brother's legacy is a powerful legacy to carry.

How do you navigate the emotions when there are people that are pulling at you for him and you're like, I just need to be with this right now, you know, I just need to.

We're not doing this right now.

We just need to be ourselves and be a family.

And then when we're ready, we'll share this with you.

How do you navigate all of that?

Wow.

Thank you for asking that, because that has been.

I don't feel that my sister and I carry his legacy.

And our dad, who really created the estate and ensured that Shamichel's legacy is being respected and all of that.

Boundaries, boundaries and clarity.

I have had times where my sister and I both.

But I've had times where people sometimes are not always as sensitive as you even are in your asking of the question.

It's like they see myself and my sister and our family, but it's almost like they see Jean Michel and they don't understand that there's the Jean Michel who's the public Persona and the artist, and then there's the Jean Michel that is my brother who's passed away.

And so as we're having these conversations, people aren't always sensitive to that.

And so what it has done for me is it has taught me how to be clearer about my boundaries and not in a way that's nasty or aggressive, because I know that people are doing that out of love and appreciation and care for Jamie Shell and for his legacy.

You know, he's an amazing artist.

He's been an amazing being for the world and for our culture specifically.

But it really is letting people, like being very honest with people.

So when people say things like, did you know he was an artist when you were seven?

Or, how do you feel about your brother not being here?

I often push back on them to say, how would you feel if your brother had passed away and we were in this moment?

What kind of relationship did you have with your brother?

How would you feel if somebody were to pick a snapshot in time when you were 17 years old in high school and whatever, and.

Or if a friend from high school came forward and claimed themselves to be an expert about your brother, your sister, your mother, your aunt's life?

How would that feel for you?

So I think a lot of times it's really holding up a mirror is the way I navigate it, and also being very authentic and saying, I need a minute.

This is hard.

I do a lounging with Lisa, and it's a free hour on Mondays, and it's an online thing.

And this past Monday, I decided finally that I was going to do this lounging with Lisan about the loss of a sibling because it's a very unique place to be.

Because it is.

Yeah.

It's about watching your parents process their loss and their grief.

And sometimes as a sibling.

Have you lost a sibling?

Mm.

I'm so sorry.

I tell everybody it's.

I've lost my mom, my dad, and my brother.

And here you go.

Me too.

I lost my parents before I lost my brother.

But I tell people that there's such a special language between siblings and a special understanding that people say, well, it's not a child, but it's just something about your brother or your sister.

Absolutely.

Do you have other siblings?

Yeah, I do.

Well, I have sibling cousins.

Okay, I understand.

I understand.

My cousin, nephew.

I told you, that's my cousin nephew.

Okay.

Yeah.

But the nuclear family, I don't.

So it's one of those things.

And not here to talk about me, but it's such a special relationship that a lot of people don't understand, especially when you're close.

I can't imagine what it's like when the world is.

When the world wants your brother and he's not here.

Right.

I don't know that story, but I do know what it feels like when you want your brother and he's not here.

Absolutely right.

And for us, there were three.

So if you think about a stool with three legs, there were three, and now there were two.

And both Janine and myself were very close to Jean Michel, and each had our own relationship with Jean Michel and had our own relationship with each other within the context of being three.

And so when one of those stool legs goes away, the other two have to now renegotiate renavigate and reground in a way to hold each other up and to hold the sibling trio up.

Having lost Jean Michel before both of our parents passed away put us in a situation where we watched what happened to our parents having lost a child and how that changed their lives forever in so many different ways.

It's unique.

It's a unique thing.

And so again, last Monday, I was.

I'd heard, like over the course of a week and a half, I spoke with maybe five or six people who had all experienced having lost a sibling.

And that's typically how I decide what the topic is going to be for a lounging.

And.

And so that was what it was about.

And so we meditated together.

We did a forgiveness exercise, a forgiveness medit that I lead, and we just talked about it.

And there were no answers necessarily, but it was a safe space where people who had all experienced a similar thing could talk about it and vent it out without having to use all the words that you sometimes have to use when you're talking to someone who hasn't experienced it.

I often tell people, if somebody hasn't been through it, don't ever expect that they have the language to have a conversation with you.

Because unless you've experienced it, there's no language until you experience it.

Exactly.

So it's beautiful.

Yeah.

And it's not something where two weeks later, it goes on for years and it pops up in different ways.

It's a scent of something, It's a song.

It's a moment where those folks, your ancestors, you remember them.

Yeah, yeah.

And you have.

Like I said, you have to be reminded of it because you are the executor of the.

An estate of one of the most prolific artists ever.

And I can't imagine what you go through, but from what I can tell you, you are handling it well.

Thank you.

I'm trying.

And the way that you all honor your brother's legacy is beautiful, what you're putting out into the world.

And your father did a great job ensuring that he would be remembered.

Well, that's right.

He sure did.

Are there any things about your brother that you want the world to know?

I would love for the world to take a page from Jean Michel's book.

That's what I would want the world to know.

That what.

One of the things that made.

That makes Jean Michel who he is to the world and to the culture is that he was not just a brilliant artist, but fearless in his expression of his art, that he allowed it to come up through and out of him.

And I.

What I would love folks to know, because Jean Michel left a lot.

He left a lot of work.

He left a lot of his voice.

You know, you can look at his artwork.

That's his journal.

So if you want to know about him, do that.

And something to take to pour into yourself is to really consider and contemplate what your life and your world can look like if.

When you really tap into the person that you are and why you're here and what it looks like when you have direct communication.

So often we communicate more in our minds than we do with the very person that we're having the exchange with.

So know that it is possible to live a life where you are free and where you are authentically showing up as yourself without worrying about how people are going to judge it or what other people think about it.

Give yourself a chance to Allow the full expression of who you are to come out.

And I think a lot of times we start that process and then we cut it short.

So we never know what the end of the story could be or is.

Invest in allowing it to come out of you and then see what your life can actually be.

Girl, you are preaching today.

Before we pass this plate.

Red, before.

The choir begins.

That wafer, before I pull out this tambourine.

That's the word.

That's a word.

Yes.

Stop.

Stopping.

Stop stopping.

Just don't stop.

Yeah, stop stopping.

Yeah, that's it.

Well, now, we've talked about your brother, we've talked about your family, we talked about your challenges.

Let's talk about your legacy, the legacy you're building.

You have an amazing podcast.

You have a couple of incredible companies.

One where you help people navigate lives and rewrite their narratives, and then you have another where you're helping women build their.

Their own legacies through entrepreneurship.

So tell us about your two amazing companies.

Hera Hub is a national company that is supportive of, that is inclusive.

I need to be clear about that.

And supportive of primarily female entrepreneurs.

But it is a.

It's open to anyone, quite frankly.

But you're going to feel almost like if you came to my home or to your home, I'm sure, like it'd be the home of a woman.

Like you're going to feel that.

And if that feels right to you, it's the place for you.

I own Hero Hub Carlsbad here in San Diego, and Hero Hub Carlsbad is a co working space business accelerator.

We have programs, we have workshops.

We.

Our goal and our intention and mission is to support female entrepreneurs to grow and scale their business and to give them that support.

We talked a little while ago ago about the experience of having lost a sibling and how unique that is.

And there's a conversation that you can have with an entrepreneur that is very different from the conversation that you may be having with friends or with other people.

A lot of times people take their dream of starting a business and they go and they present it to people who cannot support you, who do not understand, and who, quite frankly, could try to walk you out of or talk you out of living your dream.

So what herob does is it puts you in a space of other people who are doing the same thing, who can hold you up, hold you down, give you advice, support you, and who also understand the nuance of female entrepreneurship, which is we're women, we're also entrepreneurs, we're daughters, we're mothers.

We're cousins.

And so that is what Hera Hub is about.

If you go to herahub.com carlsbad you can learn more about that business.

Amazing community.

Shaping Freedom is where Hera Hub for me is kind of the professional leadership side of the work that I do.

Shaping Freedom is the personal leadership side.

It is the side of what I'm sharing with the world that is about family legacy and healing things up so we're not bringing forward.

So first we understand how we've been programmed, why, what our values are, truly not the ones that have been given to us, but really who we are innately and how we can clean up our lives so that we can contribute in a more healthy way to our community, to our families and to ourselves.

I also have a podcast, the Shaping Freedom with Lisa and Basquiat podcast, where I speak with ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things about the topics of family legacy, doing your work, healing, spiritual growth, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual growth and development.

I was moved by the conversation of choosing not to have children, because I chose at a young sidebar, but I chose at a young age not to have kids.

And, you know, there's this conversation of we need to have children.

Then I heard that, I was like, I'm good.

So, yes, your podcast, Anita Warrington.

That was a conversation with Anita Warrington.

She is so bold.

She's so bold and so clear and talks about things that I think there are these conversations that are happening out in the world, like on the Internets and other places.

And then there are these other conversations that are happening that are a step further and a step deeper into, like, how we're made up.

And I think that for me, what I know is that we have the right to choose.

We have the right to choose the life that we want to live, and that's okay.

And I think it's equally important to be love and for people to feel included and welcomed and like their life decisions are okay.

I think we're missing that in the world.

We're so busy putting what we think is right for other people on them versus allowing people the opportunity to share with us who they are, what they want and what they need.

And so Anita, speaking specifically about that conversation, she is a model for that, for speaking and living her truth.

Beautiful.

And I.

Yeah.

So everybody Bookmark this amazing podcast because it's life changing, because they're having real conversations about real life scenarios and people who.

Thank you.

Live what they talk about.

It's a podcast of integrity, if I could say it simply.

I'm also having these conversations intentionally with men because I think that there is such a divide.

There's a lot of divide right now in this country, and there's this ongoing divide between men and women because things are changing so much.

And so I have intentionally been having conversations with men as a way of allowing both men and women to hear the voice of the other side, to bridge.

To create a bridge between us where we can connect and define entry points, where we can connect so we can step away from what's happening right now, which is very much us against them, guys against women, where the other is the enemy and wrong.

So.

Yes.

So I just wanted to share that.

That is one of the topics, one of the things, the themes of this podcast, and I love the podcast.

And if you know of someone who would be a great guest, please let me know.

Oh, I already have a list of people.

Okay.

There's some amazing women that have been on my podcast that I think would be perfect for you, so I'd love.

To interview you on my podcast.

Well, I would love to interview you on my podcast, ma'am.

It's happening.

Your people didn't tell you?

No, did they?

I don't know.

It's already happening.

Okay, Okay.

I didn't even realize.

Listen, she's so fancy.

She doesn't know her guest.

I do.

It's not tomorrow.

It's not tomorrow.

So it's not happening this week?

No, it's not.

Good.

I'm so happy to hear that.

Okay, good.

Good, good, good.

Nice news.

That's what happens when you grow up on Bloody Marys.

And I'm just kidding.

It could be.

I don't know.

I'm just trying to make it all happen.

Okay, listen, I understand people like you doing in a couple weeks.

I don't know.

What'd you do last week?

I don't know.

I don't even know.

My team is the bomb.

That is an entrepreneur's brain.

You focus on what's in front of you right now.

What's happening right now.

I'm right here with you right now.

But I'm looking forward to that conversation, the one we're going to have on that.

I'm ready.

I know you are.

I know you are.

We are each other's people.

For sure.

We are each other's people, I just have to thank you for your time.

I could talk to you forever.

You're always welcome back.

This is the beginning for us.

I know that.

Yeah, this is the beginning.

So I just want to thank you.

How can people find you on the interwebs even though you're very private?

Am I Shaping Freedom, you know, on all this, all the social media platforms, Shaping Freedom, you can just look my name up.

I have.

There's the lisanbasquia.com website.

There's the Shaping Freedom website that'll connect you to each other.

There's harahub.com carlsbad.

We have both virtual and in person membership.

So if you're in the Southern California area, come on down.

Yeah, you can actually join my email list and we send out a weekly newsletter.

And so that's actually a great way for you to stay abreast of what we're doing and what kind of programs we have going on.

And we have tips and tools.

And the goal really is to have and help people to have the healthiest family legacy they can possibly have.

There's so much of a focus on generational wealth from a financial perspective.

And just like the conversation we had about heart, mental and emotional freedom and clarity is what's going to drive your financial abundance.

And so that's the goal, really.

Well, thank you for this again, for this conversation.

You're welcome.

Thank you to your family, for each of you making such an impactful difference in the lives of other people.

I know people think that your brother was born of an egg like Mort Mark, but he has a full family and a full life.

Full, full.

So thank you for continuing to share the family's legacy with us.

And I will be talking to you soon.

Yes.

Ask your team.

I will.

I'm now like, oh, my God.

I gotta go look to see what this is.

I hope it's not this week, because that's terrible.

That means that I am well into my week without looking at, listen, you.

Are focused, you have an enterprise and you are a mogul.

So I get it.

This was beautiful.

Thank you.

I feel so honored to have time to chat with you.

And I mean that sincerely.

I feel the same.

You feel the tingles?

I think this is the beginning.

I do.

I really do.

Wow.

Yeah.

Shout out to Billy.

Shout out to Billy.

Keeps it together.

Yes, he does.

Billy Johnson media repertoire.

I was like, look him up.

Get my act together.

Yeah.

He's the real deal.

He's wonderful.

He is.

Well, thank you, my love.

And you have an amazing Day.

And I look forward to our conversation on Shaping Freedom.

Black Women Amplified.

Family, please give a warm thank you to this beautiful, incredible woman, Lizian Basquiat.

Thank you.

Take care, and have an amazing day.

Okay, you too.

Welcome to the Afterglow with Monica Wisdom.

Hello, family.

This is your girl, Monica Wisdom.

Wasn't that a great conversation with Lucien Basquiat?

I'm just.

I'm still glowing.

I'm having my afterglow from the conversation.

I love great, honest conversations.

Y'all know I'm an introvert, and I don't do small talk well.

I'm awkward in small talk, but when it comes to deep, powerful conversations, I'm right there with you.

And although it was an interview, I'm glad she was open to the questions that I asked.

It's so funny.

Let me give you the backstory.

I wrote out, like, a thousand questions, and I think I maybe asked two or three because the conversation became so organic that I was like, let me just leave that stuff alone and really just be in this moment.

Be present and see where this navigates.

And as I always do, I prayed before I had the conversation.

I prayed a couple of times, actually, because I was truth moment.

I was very nervous about this conversation.

And, you know, I have interviewed famous people and leaders and all of the things, but there's something special about the work that she puts out in the world that I very much admire.

Not only the work she puts out in the world, but the way that she does it.

And so it's like meeting, you know, when people say, you meet your hero.

And I.

I didn't know much about her, but it was around the time she was doing an exhibit for her brother.

She and her sister in the estate were doing an exhibit called King Pleasure, I believe.

And I saw some interviews with her, and I was like, oh.

It just came to mind.

I was like, oh, I never.

You know, you don't think about people having a family and who their family is and what about their family?

So I started Googling.

You know, I get on the Google, and I started to see her work.

I was like, shaping freedom.

That sounds interesting.

So I plopped onto her website, read all of the things, and I said, one day, I want to interview her, but she's probably.

You know, that was my first line.

She wouldn't.

So it took me months to even muster up the courage to ask.

And that's.

Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow of that quiet voice because I doubted it would happen.

And so one day I woke up and God said, ask her.

And so I went on her website and I sent a message in and about a week later I got a reply and I had to, you know, you open something, I'm reading and I'm like, is this.

And I blinked my eyes.

I was like, oh.

She said yes.

And I was so excited.

And here's the thing, it's not because of who her brother is, but she's putting work out in the world that I'm putting out into the world.

So it's that she's like minded.

And it's very.

When you're navigating through entrepreneurship and you're doing your own thing, it's very hard to find people that are in this, like walking the same journey as you and doing in a way that you want to do it.

So her work made me think about my work and what I'm doing.

So even in the couple of weeks that we've been planning, I was planning with her publicist this conversation and even in just was like, oh, I need to upgrade my stuff.

So I went in and I redid the Black Women Amplified website.

I expanded some things, I took some things away, and it was just because I finally saw a blueprint of exactly the direction that I'm going in this point.

I've just been doing it out of prayer and lots of mistakes.

And then when I saw her shaping Freedom platform, I was like, oh, my God, that's it, that's it.

And you heard the conversation.

It was like that moment when she said she saw somebody who was a coach and she was like, that's it, that's what I want to do.

So it was one of those moments.

I think maybe if I had met Maya Angelou, I would have had the same type of butterflies in my stomach.

But I was very really, really, really, really excited to talk with her.

And the conversation was spectacular.

So I just want to give you a little bit of the afterthoughts of this conversation.

I think that she's doing a beautiful job of what she's putting out in the world.

She's honoring her brother's legacy, Jean Michel Basquiat, beautifully.

And through all that she's been through, the loss of her mother, her brother, her father, and all the things that she talked about going through.

She is a force of nature.

And I hope that you plug into her, you plug into her podcast and into her world, because, you know, black women amplified, we have to amplify each other.

So sending you love and light.

I hope that you enjoyed the show and make sure that you Visit our website www.blackwomenamplify.com and you get to see all the changes that I made because now ta da we have an academy now I had an academy on my other website but I have blended all the things anyway and it's beautiful.

I love it.

I love my website.

Thanks again for listening.

Share with a friend.

Listen to the conversation twice because I promise you she dropped some gems.

Take some notes.

You know if you're looking to build your next chapter, are there things in life that you need to shed or unravel?

This was the perfect conversation to get deep into that.

This conversation and Rhonda Ross I think are two of the best conversations when it talks about having those powerful conversations with yourself.

Anyway, have an amazing day and thank you for listening to the Afterglow.

Thank you for listening to Black Women Amplify.

We hope you enjoyed the show.

Be sure to subscribe and log on to blackwomenamplified.com for more information.

Keep shining.