Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sisters Speak Wellness. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Sisters Speak, thanks for joining us today. What’s the best advice you ever gave to a client? How did they benefit / what was the result? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)
The best advice we have given to our clients is that there are 5 elements to successfully reaching wellness goals. These 5 elements include: (1) Goal Clarification, (2) some method of Tracking and Accountability, (3) having some type of social support with others who are working towards the same goals, (4) extinguishing misinformation about health, wellness, and healing with knowledge and training grounded in evidence-based research and application, and (5) making sure you have access to resources that allow you to implement strategies that will support you with reaching your wellness goals.
We had a client that was over 250 lbs, didn’t drink water and felt depressed because she did not know what to do to improve her health. She was also on her way to going under the knife for gastric bypass surgery. She joined our signature 12 Day Ultimate Fast program and later joined our Members-Only Sister Heal Thyself Wellness Club. During the Fast program, she released 26.6 pounds, which set a record for weight loss in our program. Additionally, she was able to shift her identity regarding food and drinking water through emotional healing. Because the 5 elements are at the core of our members-only Wellness Club, she continues to practice the wellness strategies she learned in both the fast program and the Wellness Club. She has shared with us that she’s more determined and confident about reaching the wellness goals she’s set for herself and avoiding surgery as she releases weight by successfully implementing the 5 elements.
Sisters Speak, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Initially, there were 4 founding members of Sisters Speak Wellness. Currently, Carla Rabb-DeRosa and Sheba Israel (aka Tanya Durrah) are the two remaining founding partners of Sisters Speak Wellness. Together, we have over 2 decades of experience and practice in the holistic wellness arena. We are both passionate about the health benefits of plant-based living and how it can eradicate chronic metabolic illnesses, especially in the African American community and specifically among women of color. This is one of the reasons Sisters Speak Wellness is dedicated to providing real educational solutions that elevate the health of our communities. We are Holistic Practitioners serving primarily women of color and their families. We seek to deliver ancient plant wisdom and innovative science-based nutrition through the power of socially structured experiences, honest conversations, and accountability. Both of our lives changed in terms of our health when we made drastic diet and lifestyle changes.
(Carla) My mother would tell you that I began my career teaching in Detroit at 3 years old with my little brother, my dolls, and stuffed animals as my audience. Since then, I have cultivated a love for teaching and brought it to training rooms, conference stages and board rooms all over the world. I love people and I absolutely love food! I’m most energized when I can widen the understanding of how plant food can radically change health and productivity. At 36, I gave birth to one of the tiniest surviving premature babies weighing in at only 14 ounces. This heartbreaking experience recalibrated my mindset regarding health. As a veteran vegetarian, I realized that there was still a huge gap of understanding around the impact of nutrition on quality of life.
After taking the time to retreat and shift my own habits, I lost 60 lbs of toxicity and waste as well as stabilized my blood sugar, and blood pressure. My own personal transformation ignited me to walk with thousands on their health journey through my work at the Living Foods Institute and audiences all over the world. As a mother of two now healthy teens, I’m also a 3 time published author committed to helping other women celebrate life by increasing their energy. In my book, RAWx Your Life! 21 Delicious Plant Inspired Recipes, I share my foundational steps to adding healing plants to the table.
Now known as the “Wellness Rawx Star”, I am recognized as an Advanced Food Healing Coach, a celebrated Raw Food Instructor and Kemetic Yoga Teacher. Ultimately, I would love the opportunity to take care of women in a healing getaway designed to create new healing habits and culinary skills. On my retreats, I use cutting edge technologies to transfer food science to enticing and easy wellness practices to share in your homes and organizations. My message as a mother and food nutrition scientist is deeper than just, “eat your vegetables.” I help women re-engineer their values regarding food consumption and remap their habits for health.
(Sheba) People often ask me what I do. My response is generally, “I’m the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker.” Although my answer to this question is lighthearted and somewhat humorous, this generally describes who I am. In addition to being an IIN Certified Holistic Health Coach, I’m also a wife, mother of 6, homeschooler, COO of our family’s healthy beverage company and a serial mompreneur. To say that I’m busy is an understatement. But it’s also one of the reasons I chose to practice as a wellness professional. Because I know what it’s like to get out of sync with living a healthy, balanced, lifestyle from time to time, I wanted to support other women and their families with the sometimes overwhelming task of creating healthy habits for optimal health.
My journey into health and wellness started over 30 years ago. Although I’ve been blessed to not be affected by the known chronic illnesses that plague our community, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, etc., at the time I was “sickly”. I suffered with chronic migraines, candida, fatigue, and colds and flu. It’s crazy, but it was normal for me to have a cold anytime of the year, headaches that would last for days, and fatigue that made it challenging for me to be productive. I was simply tired of not feeling good. I knew something needed to change, but I didn’t know how or what to do to change it. By accident, I gradually changed my diet to a plant based diet and began a weekly exercise regimen. My body responded immediately to this new “thing” I was doing. And within weeks everything that I had been experiencing with my health disappeared. For the first time in years, I felt good, had boundless energy, had mental and physical endurance, and was able to get back into my Levi’s 501 jeans to boot. I was overjoyed!
As a result, family members and friends began asking me what was I doing? I shared with them what I’m sharing with you. My friends and family encouraged me to learn more about what I was doing and I decided to become a certified Wellness Practitioner, by enrolling in The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is where I received my certification as a Holistic Health Coach. As a native of Atlanta and the child of a parent from rural Alabama, I share with people all the time that “I’m not country, but I am Southern.” So making the switch to plant based living was somewhat challenging for me. My transformation didn’t happen overnight and to be honest neither will yours. But what I know for sure is that if you keep it simple, take it one step at a time and implement some fundamental habit changes, you’ll release weight naturally, ditch the pills, have boundless energy, experience less joint pain, have more restful sleep, eat in a way that sustains healthy weight and nourishes your body, and as an added bonus, you’ll simply glow. I can make these claims because that’s what happened to me. I’ve been supporting women with reaching their health and wellness goals for over a decade. This is why I do the work I do. This is why I K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Steps) to Health!.
We believe all women should have fulfilling relationships, grounding spiritual practices, an encouraging and supportive community, purposeful living, financial solvency, self-love, fitness and mobility, high energy, and of course health sustaining nutrition. As a matter of fact, it is our intention over the next year to serve and support 1,000 women and their families in transforming their health and eradicating dis-ease. We have already begun this work through our signature 12 Day Ultimate Fast Program, our 7 Day Winter Detox Program, and our groundbreaking Sistah, Heal Thyself Wellness Club members-only community.
We begin the year with a 7 Day Winter Detox. This detox program specifically focuses on the detoxification of the liver, kidney, and colon. Because we understand that these three organs hold different seats of emotion that hinder the body from total detoxification, in this program, in addition to meals designed to detox each organ, we include journaling exercises to facilitate a deeper cleansing. The participants of this detox reported major breakthroughs that allowed for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.
Then, twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the Fall, we facilitate our Signature 12 Day Ultimate Fast Program. In this program, participants get to benefit from experiencing 4 different fasting modalities that jolt the body with releasing toxins. This program allows you to not only have 24/7 online support from us, but you also get to interact with us LIVE over the 12 days. We know this works based on the testimonial feedback received from participants. The majority of our participants release up to 10 lbs during the 12 days. 75% report that their energy levels increase during and after the fast. And over 90% report better and more restful sleep.
All in all, we believe the #1 thing that sets us (Sisters Speak Wellness) apart from other Holistic Health Coaches/Wellness Practitioners is our “community”. We’re BIG on support, support, support. Not only do we personally provide support, but we have cultivated a community of “woke wellness sistahs” that support and encourage each other to reach their wellness goals. Its somewhat unheard of these days for black women to have a NO-JUDGEMENT space where they feel safe to share their vulnerabilities and be open to receive accountability. I think that’s the thing we’re most proud of…..is that together, with the women in our community, we’ve created this safe space to elevate health, while healing physically, emotionally, and spiritually simultaneously. We are honored and humbled that these powerful women trust us to guide them to health, healing, and wellness.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
When they say its a small world, its really true. Carla and I (Sheba) had been in a lot of the same circles, but had never really formally met each other. But it was “the motherhood” that ultimately brought us together. For 2-4 years, our daughters participated in an afterschool music program called Urban Youth Harp Ensemble. Twice a year, Urban Harp performed a harp recital. Because of my role as volunteer parent leader for the concerts, I was charged with soliciting other parents to volunteer in various roles to make sure that the recital went off without a hitch. Carla became an active parent volunteer, and this was the beginning of how we cultivated a friendship. Eventually, Carla invited me to attend a business event that would be the catalyst for us to become friends and business partners to create Sisters Speak Wellness.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Can we say COVID (lol)? Initially, when the founding members of Sisters Speak Wellness got together, we were all looking to embark on doing more speaking engagements. So our initial coming together was in a Master Mind Group that was the catalyst of one of the founding members. We were meeting via conference calls by-monthly, then weekly to support each other with procuring speaking engagements around corporate wellness, organizations, companies, etc. Then the COVID “lockdown” happened. We each were making some headway when the “lockdown” happened and NO ONE was “hiring” speakers. At that point, we had to make a pivotal change in the direction we were all going with our wellness businesses. We knew we wanted to still speak and teach, but now we had to figure out HOW we would do that. At that point, it was suggested that we create and facilitate our own speaking/teaching “engagements”, but online. We developed an online 4 week Wellness Series that addressed a different wellness topic each week. We were able to hire a business coach that worked with us in implementing, marketing, and selling of our event. To our surprise, close to 70 registered and paid to attend our inaugural online event. At that point, Sisters Speak Wellness was born.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sistersspeakwellness.com
- Instagram: @sistersspeakhealingwellness7