Episode NotesMind, Body, Gem – Season 5, Episode 5Alicia Spark - A Fit to Navigate graduate and change warrior Special guest: Alicia Spark – A true champion for change, Alicia has embraced the tenets of the Fit to Navigate and is the embodiment of the FTN goal of developing and inspiring relationship entrepreneurs.In this podcast, Alicia Spark and Rokki Bonner have their second Mind Body Gem discussion, where we learn more about the journey Alicia has taken since graduating from FTN. Alicia has physically, emotionally, and mentally moved leaps and bounds and is thriving as the owner of a kennel for specialized breeds of dogs.  Follow your heart After being diagnosed with cancer, Alicia re-evaluated her life and, with the support of her son, Jackson, and her longtime love, moved to Oklahoma and to open a dog breeding business, Tornado Alley Kennels. Resilient navigator and entrepreneur Armed with the tools she learned as a Fit to Navigate graduate, Alicia understands the importance of being not just an entrepreneur but a relationship entrepreneur! As someone who has been justice-involved, Alicia believes it’s important to commit to new things that keep you busy, accept what’s happened, and accept life on life’s terms.  Focus on quality Alicia is focused on more than being a breeder. She researches each dog and ensures that her customers get quality and best-in-breed from her dogs. This sets her apart - she loves and cares for the dogs from conception to their forever home. Establish healthy lifestyle habits It’s not just about fitness; for Alicia, she stays true to what she learned in the Fit to Navigate program and ensures her whole well-being is the focus. Mental health maintenance is essential, along with enjoying the small things: a beautiful sunset or the beauty of the stars.Follow Alicia’s work: Instagram @tornadoalleykennelz; Facebook Tornado Alley Kennels; TikTok #tornadoalley580Connect with Mind, Body, Gem guests and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigatekeywords: impact, life, social impact, motivation, rokki, Alicia, Tornado Alley Kennels, Tornadoalley580, Cane Corso, Presa Canario,  learning, people, personal growth, family, health, opportunity, wisdom, plan, incarcerated, dog breeding, cancer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode NotesValencia Gundar - The Art of Service Special guest: Valencia Gundar – A champion for service that creates self-determination, she founded Smile Trust, an organization committed to serving unsheltered people in Miami, Atlanta and around the world.Valencia Gundar and Rokki Bonner discuss Valencia’s motivation for the creation of Smile Trust and how her life experiences helped shape her approach to service. Valencia’s hometown, Miami, is integral to what motivates her - being of service to the many people who make up the diaspora of the city is of vital importance.  Stay committed to the people you are serving Valencia stays committed to the people she is serving - those are her people right there, every day. She doesn’t do charity work, rather she creates models of self-determination and restores hope. Her goal is not to serve people. Her goal is to provide resources for people so they can serve themselves and then serve others around them. She brings the tools and they serve themselves! Focus on resources and tools to create self-determination Val’s goal: When people walk away from an interaction with her, they don’t feel guilt. She understands the importance of self-determination in overcoming obstacles. Valencia believes that codependency is not healthy, and that's what many charities do, create codependency so that the people you serve become dependent on a system. It is critical to create a system that teaches people to stand on their own.  Look for mentors - observe and learn Valencia surrounds herself with mentors. She takes advantage of the opportunities to sit next to them and watch them work. Valencia has learned that mentors are not a panacea, instead, she takes the good pieces from them that fit, leaves the rest on the table, and goes on to her next challenge. Don’t be afraid of your vision A guiding principle for Valencia, is don't be afraid of your vision - do what it takes to get it done. When Smile Trust began, Val was of service every month, even if her resources were low. She understands the importance of being there consistently. No matter how big you grow, always stand in service to others. Today Val has teams, both in Atlanta and Miami. Regardless, you can still see her on a Sunday scooping out rice and working with the Smile Trust team. It’s humbling for her to get behind the table and help out. Never forget. Listen to the people you serve Valencia believes strongly in the tenet -  listen to the people you serve. Don’t build something for yourself, build it for the community you serve and the greater community you live in. No one should feel “less than”. Valencia is all ears any time an unsheltered person wants to have a conversation with her.  Valencia’s legacy is for communities to become self-determined around food - the organization is on its way; last year, Smile Trust touched 200,000 families with food across 4 countries.Follow Valencia’s work on: https://thesmiletrust.orgConnect with Mind, Body, Gem guests and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigatekeywords: impact, life, social impact, motivation, rokki, Valencia, Smile Trust, learning, people, personal growth, family, health, opportunity, wisdom, plan, unsheltered, homeless, food insecurity, incarcerated Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode NotesMind, Body, Gem – Season 5, Episode 3Anna Gsanger - Meet our Tactical Navigator.  Special guest: Anna Gsanger  – She is a mother and professional with over ten years of public and private sector experience as a Marketing and communications strategy expert. She is now Fit to Navigate tactical navigator. Learn more about Fit to Navigate at Fittonavigate.com Anna Gsanger and Rokki Bonner discuss Anna share their journey as their friendship grew and evolved into a sisterhood, which now turned into an opportunity to develop the Fit to Navigate social enterprise mission. Doing things from the heart. Anna shares how early in her career, her focus was on access to health care and health policy and creating an impact. Anna was passionate about the possibility of creating access to free health care within the Clinton administration. When National Health Care didn’t see a possibility, Anna shared about going back to business school and working for a large pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Left turn, Moving to Columbus. Anna talks about moving to Columbus as not being something she planned or imagined for herself. Anna shares that she moved to Columbus to be with her now husband, Bob. Moving to Columbus for Anna meant “starting from scratch” because she didn’t feel she had a connection to the people living here. Says, “Columbus is all about who you know.” Building Relationship. Anna shares how she built relationships in Columbus by attending network events and taking people out to develop her professional network. She would find temporary work that allowed her to be part of an online business and manage a business transition.Balancing Motherhood and having a career. Anna says, unlike most women, she was “lucky” that she could decide that she was going to redshift her career to spend more time with her children. Growing up with a single mother, Anna had to go to many places with her mother, so it felt normal to have her children with her everywhere she had to be. Anna talked about the importance of also having time for herself. FTN Tactical Navigator Anna shares that she joined the team Fit To Navigate because of her inspiration and relationship with cofounder Rokki. Anna talks about the excitement and passion of the work and being part of growing the Fit To Navigate team. Anna shares that the work Fit To Navigate does has the ability to be part of the change in how Society views restorative justice. Anna shares how she has developed her self-care practices and what that means to her. Follow Anna’s work on her social media page: Connect with Mind, Body, Gem guests, and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigate keywords: impact, life, social impact, motivation, rokki, Anna, learning, people, Motherhood, family, health, woman, opportunity, wisdom, mother, plan, restorative justice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode NotesMind, Body, Gem – Season 5, Episode 2Natalie Legrand - Being a Global Citizen Special guest: Natalie Legrand  – She is a multilingual professional with over 10 years of public and private sector experience in various positions. Natalie Legrand and Rokki Bonner discuss Natalie's core values and how they are linked to her upbringing. Natalie shares intimate memories of her earlier life growing up with her as a Honduran and Haitian grandmother. Natalie also shares her personal connection to the war in Ukraine. This is about family for meNatalie shares that her husband is from Ukraine. Natalie shares how her husband’s family escaped their homes due to the war. Natalie has never experienced racism in Ukraine, but as a black woman, she feels emotional about racism. Roots: Opportunities and Access Natalie jokes that the only commonality between her mother and father’s culture of Honduran and Haitian parents is the cooking. As a child of immigrants, Natalie’s parents took pride in their culture while also wanting more for their children. Natalie shares how her parents worked hard to create access opportunities and access for her which links to Natalie’s core values. "Navigating Learning Abilities" Natalie shares her experience of learning and growing up with ADHA. Natalie redefines  ADHA as her ability to hold multiple ideas and things simultaneously. Natalie thought she would never have the ability to learn Russian as an adult didn’t seem possible. Natalie noticed that she could learn different languages once she had the interest and excitement. Natalie says she still works on releasing her self-judgment. Using Corporate experience to create impact.  Natalie accredited her ability to take in multiple interests to her transition into finance. Natalie was looking for a way to use her experience to align with her personal values, which is when the opportunity to go to Ukraine presented itself. Ukraine was the odd choice for Natlie, making it the ideal choice for her. Issues are never-endingNatalie is kept up at night, but this belief is that social impact work is never-ending work. Natalie feels until we can change the narrative, people’s attention. When so many problems seem to come at once, it can feel like a lack of attention. Natalie shares how fitness and health and how to navigate her well-being. Connecting Natalie’s body and mind is how she learns. Natlie shares having sickle cell disease and how she uses fitness to care for her health. Follow Natalie’s work on: https://www.natalielegrand.com/about Connect with Mind, Body, Gem guests and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigatekeywords: impact, life, social impact, motivation, rokki, Natalie, learning, people, personal growth, family, health, science, opportunity, wisdom, brain, plan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Special guest: Trevor Torrance – former basketball player, founder of 'BMore' Trevor and Rokki Bonner discuss Trevor's journey from being a professional sportsman to becoming a founder of BMore, an organization specialized in performance development. Being at his highs and lows during his athlete career, Trevor came up with handy methods to break blocks and self-made limits in order to achieve more and perform better overall. -      Dream of becoming famousBorn and raised in Perth, Australia, Trevor dreamed of becoming famous. At the age of 16, he ended up in a selection process for talented basketball players. More than a decade later, our guest experienced the world of semi-pro and pro athleticism, crossing the globe all around. After that period, he decided it was no longer what he could do. -      Going from sport to corporateAfter his basketball career, Trevor found himself in naturopathy. Realizing he has a competitive background and a healer inside of himself, he decided to spread the knowledge in performance development. He started his mission by helping individuals and organizations to get where they want to be. -      "I am not good enough."Every person brings this sentence into their life at some point. In these situations, people tend to accuse themselves of something they are not guilty of or responsible about. Trevor finds this issue to be the result of our brain that "likes to know what is going on." If that is not the case, the brain is making up negative stories, creating defeatism within our bodies. At this very moment, we should locate that negative energy, reverse it to our advantage, and create something positive out of it. -      Stop overloading your brain, make it simple.The most important thing we should do is to set a clear intention at the beginning of our day. Setting a bright intention helps us to send it right in front of our brain, and it will set us up for success throughout the day. Setting simple and clear plans can free us from stress. -      Embrace the sense of freedomTrevor's organization 'BMore' helps people find their inner peace and improve feelings of fulfillment. His team guides people to free themselves through training, such as nature therapy, massages, yoga, long walks, doing exercises, and detoxing from mobile devices. That way, people can reconnect with the essence of being a human and set their goals and plans clearly. Trevor concludes that self-care is the basis from which we can build healthy lives. Follow Trevor's work on: https://bmore.com.au/.Connect with Mind, Body, Gem guests and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Season 5 of the Mind-Body Gem Podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So many flowers in God’s gardenSylvia remembers her brother went to prison when she was young. She shares that when a person goes to prison, the whole family goes to prison. After that, she lost her husband when their child was only six months old, soon after two sisters and two brothers. Consequently, she started doing drugs and alcohol, coming to the point where she almost saw herself dying. She decided to go to the hospital and start serious rehab treatment.Starting a clean lifeAfter the rehab, she felt that she should go to church to connect with God and start praying and serving. That was the moment she went to the prison ministry. She faced many people from similar dysfunctional families, all going through life alone. She wrote a letter to a church asking them to send Bibles to prisons, translated from 16th century English to modern. That way, people could understand wise words and feel hope for all of them.Walking in her path. She started the whole mission focused on how people shouldn’t be numb and blind to their problems. Church and the Bible are just numerous paths that lead to empathy and love. Wise words already exist, and we just need to understand and use them in everyday life. If I’m not the problem, there is no solution, one of the recovery principles.  Reverend Sylvia shares that anytime I’m looking outside myself for the problem, nothing will get better. Reverend Sylvia  goes on to share the only thing I we can change is ourselves, our thinking and our reactions to others. Live the life that makes the difference.Reverend Sylvia shares that self-care is the most important thing. Only if we are good for ourselves can we be good for the world. God is the increase and she believes the outcome of her work is in Gods hand and she is simply here to water and plant her mission.  Reverend Sylvia believes to change systems we first have to impact people in the system which is her impact in this world. Follow Sylvia's Journey on IG: @Connect with Mind, Body, Gem guests and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 Different lifeLetha was born to a 15-year-old mother in Omaha, Nebraska. She was only a child but already helping her mother a lot and doing many household chores. After college, she realized she wanted to have a different life than her mother. Her strong will to help people grew further through nursing. From that experience, she claims she gained some true qualities like love and care for others and the discipline she still has today.Starting a home care agencyShe opened a home care agency in 2008. After a short time, she made 2 million dollars a year. Even though the business was going great, she and her partners didn’t share the same business ideas, which caused the end of the partnership. She realized how important it is to choose the right people to partner with. Overcoming systemic racismLetha describes her emotions during her career as a business owner and how it feels to be a black person in the room. Also, she faces different types of discrimination in the business world, since black people obviously aren’t given the same chance to develop their business ideas. She concludes that fighting injustice and making continuous efforts are the only possible way to make it happen.Pandemic vs. service industryAs a result of the global COVID pandemic, anxiety overwhelmed people, especially business owners, who had extra responsibility at the time. With her wife, Letha reoriented to a delivery system and still stays in touch with the customers to keep the Bake me happy business running. As a result of the pandemic, Letha reimages what a successful business looks like, focusing on keeping operations and space small.  Non-stop planningDue to the uncertainty of our world, Letha concludes that we need to keep all the options open. That way, we won’t be surprised no matter the difficulty we may encounter in the future. After all, mutual support in the community is essential, and it is the silver lining of our cloud.Follow Letha's Journey on IG: @bakemehappygf.Connect with Mind, Body, Gem guests and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Looking at the pastDeja is a mother of five children. She reveals she was not always in harmony with her self-care. What’s more, she neglected her needs for a long time, being in abusive relationships, having sex at a young age, etc. Thankfully, she saw the end of that period when she realized she needed to work on self-care.Love is in the air, everywhere.Together with her mother and sister, Deja opened a spa center to benefit both professionally and personally. The professional benefit is, of course, running a successful business, but the personal one is more important. Being together with one’s family is the feeling that no money can replace, which drives the success of their business.What is self-care?Deja defines self-care as a healthy relationship with oneself. Due to the modern way of life, which often leads to burnouts, Deja says that authenticity is quite endangered among people today. We all go to work, try to earn more, and climb the career ladder, but we forget we are much more important than the money itself. If we don’t remember what actual values are, we will likely get into a deep depression that no money can solve. Self-care means reestablishing valid values in our mind and body. And this results in strengthening our relationship with ourselves.Always find the time for yourself.We live in capitalism, and most people still work for others, not for themselves. Although challenges are always on the path to success, Deja also thinks we should accept new challenges if we are ready for them, and we will be prepared only if we are in love with ourselves. That is why people should change the world from personal to global, and that is why self-care is crucial for all of us.Follow Deja's Journey on IG: @bereplenish.Connect with Mind, Body, Gem guests and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steps into the independenceBorn in Beijing, China, Hoy remembers her early childhood not being so much fun. At the age of 13, she left her family for the first time, going to Singapore. After that, she arrived in Ohio to begin studying Computer Science Engineering at the University of Toledo.Language barriers starting domino effect barriersHoy explains exactly how difficult it was to blend into a new environment without knowing the language. One example that vividly describes this problem was the one where she ate pizza day after day because that was the only food she could point her finger at without needing to say anything else.Searching for acceptanceDescribing her efforts to become a part of the community, she claims she made some wrong decisions that led her to prison. After ending up in such a horrible place, she felt like it was just a bad dream. Unfortunately, reality woke her up in the same, unenviable situation.Not just a numberHoy soon realized that being imprisoned doesn’t need to be something necessarily bad, and that she could learn a lot from that experience. Also, she started bringing in different habits into her daily routine, such as working out and strengthening her body, both physically and mentally. That was the time she started thinking that everything in our life happens for a reason.Faith is the keyHoy started to read the Bible, which was her best friend and companion on this undesirable journey. After getting out of prison, she met Rokki and became a member of her sisterhood. With all the mutual care and love, she finds it much easier to make future plans. One of them is to become a trainer and share her positive attitude with others that may be facing troubles.Follow Hoy's Journey on IG: @hoyzhangConnect with Mind, Body, Gem guests and upcoming workshops on IG: @Fit_to_navigate   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.