Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to LaTonia Taylor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
LaTonia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
There are so many defining moments from my life, since I chose a religion outside of my mixed Southern Baptist and Traditional Catholic family to releasing my Army ROTC Scholarship in the name of that religion and becoming a young 18 year old bride. My choices fed my internal BLACK-Sheep of the family stories or did they? Was I designed to be an interruption to a fear-based, go along to get along, unquestioned mind?
Growing up in The South, I was blessed to have a women dominated family where one generation overcame odds against them as single and divorced mothers to college graduates who exposed my cousins and I to college life on the yard. There was never a doubt that I’d go to college, pledge a sorority and have a successful career. Yet, I was an initiator without really knowing it, when reenacting that life wasn’t enough by High School I created the first Delta Sigma Theta Little Sister organization called The Tantalizing Socialites. It just seemed to make sense. It made sense that when my mother told me she didn’t have the means to finance the college of my choice, I had to find an alternative that would leverage me being in the honors program and non-athletic. Thus, the full ride to Southern University A&M in Baton Rouge. Then, I gave that up. Who does that?
I do that. So perhaps it was that track record, to mention only a few that made selling my entire household and moving to abroad to Costa Rica. Actually, I was called to Costa Rica. It had been shown to me in my prayer time that I would go there three years prior. My Prayer Partners are my witness because I spoke it and left it alone. I couldn’t wrap my intell around it, because I’d just ended what I called a “buyers remorse” marriage and regained my sense of self. Within these three years after hearing that I had shamanic level work to do in Costa Rica, I met a love divine. We were two old souls that held a sacred space that quantum leaped other people’s understanding about how quickly we partnered. It was time to renew the lease and I had grown weary of The DC Area. We still explored our next move there or some where. I mentioned Costa Rica as being a consideration prior to meeting him. Then, about 72 hours later, he said while sitting out on our balcony, “I could do Costa Rica” and it was ON! Mind you, I had never researched the area, didn’t command the language or fantasize about living in Central America but in less 40 Days we shedded 20 years of possessions, limited mindsets and other people’s side eye to move abroad to an Air B&B and dots to connect.
When we moved abroad, we shedded so much of the rat race mindset that we didn’t even know controlled our daily lives and mindset. Slow living felt weird at first. Fresh fruit every week from farmers directly taught us to consume what we needed versus storing food and eventually wasting it. I lost weight without trying, while eating foods that bloated me and had become forbidden. My husband and I walked more and lived without Air Conditioner without overheating in one of our homes because of its placement on the mountain. Then, we’d navigate to other parts of the Country to experience the rainy season in the jungle and still find reasons to rejoice in the sweltering heat. When it was time to renew our passport stamps, we found ourselves in nearby countries – Nicaragua or Panama on an adventure. Some were not always laughable, but the adventure on the edge of our seats made us appreciate the next 90 days of witnessing families spending quality time on Sunday and Soccer as a religious experience. Then, we became family and were invited to break bread with locals from all over the world. We created life-time friendship bonds with other expats who had taken the risk to live abroad for different reasons and maybe were in different seasons of their life. The irony is I had the same income in The States where I struggled as a New Entrepreneur but there I lived well and enjoyed the quality of my life with experiences that were priceless AND indulgent. My spirit healed from the heartbreak of inauthentic relationships that radical choices sometimes expose. I heard The Voice of The Divine more clearly and we eventually returned to the States, unintentionally after attracting a multi-million dollar contract that would lead us to our next stop in The Dominican Republic but the political client in America directly impacted International Business. At least so I thought, that to be the reason. It was a divine set up to return home to myself in new ways. I had been rebirthed once again.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
The first question that people would ask before we left for Costa Rica, while we were there and after we returned is “What did you do for a living?”. I left The United States with full commitment to the first call to Ministry as The Owner and Principle of Rebirth International and returned to The US rebirthed as a better Spiritual Entrepreneur. My signature adult woman rites of passage program- Juicy Spirit Awakened grew with me on my journey and expanded into a full ReBirth University suite of Purpose, Pleasure, Passion and Profit centered curriculum. My program supports the seekers, like me who live a non-traditional life or challenged old paradigm created by religion, cultural or unique spiritual gifts. My devotion to my own feminine journey, emotional and spiritual freedom and metaphysical approach to spiritual psychology gave birth to my book – My Juicy ReBirth – A Journey to Healing the feminine through pleasure and sacred process.
I consider myself and my clients as Multi-Passionate, Leading Ladies. I can boast about my presence in Executive Halls to community and grass roots initiatives; one of them are on display today as the decorated Elephants and Donkeys in Washington, DC. While I have also had a rewarding career in Public and Private Partnerships for major government agencies, including The Mayor’s Office in DC and Chief Program Officer for The first of it’s kind – highly facilitated Citizen’s Summit hosted in The Nation’s Capital, I am most proud of my life as an entrepreneur. I turn MINDSET blind spots into breakthroughs for others because I have had to do it for myself with every stretch I made for myself in Love, Sexuality and Money. Feminine Soul Retrieval was an unheard speciality and I’m most proud of initiating yet another lane that defined my message of Rebirth and Emerge Transformed for women in life and business.
As much as I pride myself on being my own woman, I do not stand or transform myself alone. It’s been a 20 year process of learning and unlearning through various healing systems such as Reiki, Tantric Massage, Iridology, Ordination, Goddess Rites of Passage initiations and Herbs and Nutrition to late life degree completion in Transformational Psychology. My mentor and spiritual covering, The Reverend Iyanla Vanzant invited me to her team on The Own Network’s Iyanla, Fix My Life less than 2 years after my return from living abroad. While I had served as faculty at The Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development and graduated from The Inaugural Class under her leadership, the honor was all mine to be trusted to coach 1.5 million viewers through generational healing and life changing decisions. To be a Fix My Life COACH is one of a kind and now services other Media outlets in their versions of transformation on TV.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the reasons I have a passion for Spiritprenuership is because I’ve had to learn and unlearn the hard mindset lessons of life as a spiritual business owner with a creative’s approach to heart-led service. I hated sales and numbers. My mindset was justified by the famous Erykah Badu line, “I’m an Artist and I’m sensitive about my “ish.” So while I invested in top level Business Coaches who outline the best sales and marketing strategy, I could have every had prior to losing my 9-5 security blanket – I was hard headed and insecure, as a result of all the years of being “different”. The “different” one in my family, in my circle of friends and later on in ministry and business. I also thought I could do business different.
While Empaths, Artist, Healers and Helpers of Humans in other fields, can do something different, there are some business basics that need to be foundational. I learned the hard way. I struggled the first 3 years of business. The fear of failure drove late nights and a struggle mentality because I wasn’t charging my worth. While I was conditioned to learn on the job and land exactly where I needed to be for other people’s organization, I was emotional and brutal with myself about my process of learning in my own business. My first mistake was bootstrapping my business and not asking for help and under-charging reflected in my stress levels. The truth is I had so many resources around me and a fountain of untapped, under marketing resources within me.
My move abroad as a Digital Nomad gave me space to leave the America hustle and create space to reevaluate myself, the business plans I already had, implement them and most of all SHIFT MY MINDSET. The quality of my thinking changed the my scarcity driven relationship with myself and money to prosper one that included selling, new education and improved marketing that aligned with my identity in The Marketplace. I saw a turn around in my program delivery, type of clients and financial confident. While I could market more in a brand focused world, I have been able to live a hustle free, soft abundant life that supports a feminine business model of entrepreneurship with a rewarding approach to high level boutique services for my clients. So many heart-centered entrepreneurs are misaligned through traditional business gate-keeping models and business coaches that they take it something is wrong with them and they also shrink, struggle or suffer in silence. Business is NOT one side fit all and now I take all of my misfires I’ve learned through several thousands of investment dollars to offer integrated services to the best of the best.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
If I could go back to the times when I was contracting with agencies for short-term programs, I would choose the same profession but I would leverage all of the years of big business differently. In fact, I now understand that went I first stepped fully in the entrepreneurship, it was really ministry. Ministry is the first call that I answered and loved. I ducked and dodged the guidance of my Elders to Pastor a church in the traditional way. The traditional way of ministry was confining and controlled by the expectation of people for the office, depending on how they had been conditioned. While I as counseling and pastoring far beyond, any hit or miss coaching workshop, I resisted the title or language of ministry for offering in the marketplace.
Then, I graduated to accept that I had a Marketplace Ministry. That fit however, I now know that there is a difference between avocation and vocation. I now know that choosing to build my main income through my vocation is not a betrayal to my purpose and the sustainability of my lifestyle. I was ill advised by other spiritual business owners who birthed their business through a self-sacrificial philosophy. While I respect those Elders in the industry, there numerous options to prosper in multiple ways that is separate from your avocation. In fact, there will come a time where your gifts will make room for you. We do not have to set up conflict between the two. It’s okay to separate vocation and avocation, then structure the businesses and service to benefit one to the other.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://LaToniaTaylor.com
- Instagram: @the_revcoachceo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RebirthbyLaToniaTaylor
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebirthbylatoniataylor/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RevCoachCEO
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/RebirthbyLaToniaTaylor
Image Credits
Captured by Jo LittleBookofBlackLuvPhotography