Clarity Coaching, which differs from life coaching, is a term coined by Precious Azurée to explain the work she does with individuals seeking clarity and confidence in tackling their goals. In this episode of Business Edge, listen to Precious discuss the biggest issues she sees that hold her clients back from fulfillment and success. She discusses how people can overcome hurdles such as time management and a lack of prioritization, and how she has developed her craft through reading and learning. Plus, listen to her explain how data can help elevate the lived experiences of people of color!
Precious Azurée [00:00:00] Self-awareness is just so important. We can talk about the branding and the marketing, and I want to launch, I want to have a party, I'm gonna get the website up. All this stuff is fun and shiny and cool. But when it comes to execution and you get frustrated, we didn't check in with ourselves first.
Finn Lambouris [00:00:17] You're listening to Business Edge, the podcast for professionals looking to excel in the workforce. In each episode, our guests take a deep dive into their personal and professional experiences to give you an edge in the marketplace. This podcast is brought to you by Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:32] Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Business Edge podcast. My name is Chrissy and with me today is Nicole. How are you doing?
Nicole Klemp [00:00:39] I'm doing pretty well, Chrissy. How are you today?
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:42] Good! I'm glad it's almost the weekend, so.
Nicole Klemp [00:00:45] Yes, me too.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:47] Well, today with us, we have Precious Azurée. Nicole, can you tell us a little bit about Precious, please?
Nicole Klemp [00:00:52] Yes. We are so excited to have Precious with us today. She is a clarity coach sought out by entrepreneurs, small business owners and nonprofits seeking clarity on their brand strategy, systems to boost productivity, and personal development. In addition to her consulting business, she's breaking barriers as the vice president and co-founder of the award winning black female-led nonprofit Measure, a public education and data advocacy organization that uses data and education to mobilize communities to eliminate social disparities. In 2021, Precious was awarded Houston Business Journal's Women Who Mean Business Outstanding Nonprofit Leader Award and positioned as the Social and Cultural Committee Chair of Houston Area Urban League young Professionals. As a woman of faith with a strong emphasis on developing people, Precious has made it her mission to develop the human, social and financial capital of her community to position their legacy for sustainability and growth. Thanks for joining us, Precious.
Precious Azurée [00:01:50] Thank you for having me. I'm so, so happy to be here.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:53] Oh, yay! Well, thank you. Tell us a little bit about how you help business leaders develop themselves personally and professionally.
Precious Azurée [00:02:01] Amazing question. I do this in several different areas. First and foremost, within my nonprofit. So I am one of the co-founders. We were founded--we're celebrating five years this year, actually.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:02:14] Oh, congratulations.
Precious Azurée [00:02:15] Thank you! I started off just as a volunteer helping with the branding and marketing as the Chief Communications Officer and was later promoted to the VP role. And in that role, I was charged with really expanding our team and mobilizing our volunteers to become data activists. And so we do a lot of work around developing them and empowering them with data to be able to self advocate. And then also as a clarity coach, I have taken my digital platform mainly, primarily Instagram and doing a lot of work and helping people have the paradigm shifts necessary to really operate from a spirit of abundance and being able to soar personally and professionally. And so really just taking the limits off of, you know, what society puts on us or even our, you know, just generational curses some people may have on their families and just constantly conditioning the mind to want more and to strive for more and to seek purpose and fulfillment in all that they're doing. And lastly, I am a part of a digital investing community where we are helping people expand their knowledge when it comes to cryptocurrency, when it comes to foreign exchange trading. And so honestly, making money is 90% mindset. And so I like to work with those that are working professionals, are new to entrepreneurship and developing their mind to be able to fulfill their purpose that God has put on their lives. And, you know, I just don't believe in any type of ceiling whatsoever when it comes to growth.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:03:48] I love that perspective. Thank you for sharing. And I think it's so important, that thought of living from a place of abundance. I think a lot of us are conditioned to live, you know, from that place of scarcity. So to really kind of flip the script and start learning to live from that other place. I did an abundance challenge actually last year. It was a 21 day challenge, and every day you had to do, you listen to a mantra, you maybe listen to something. And it was all about how do you build this abundance mindset? And it was amazing some of the things that unfolded with that. So that's really cool to hear you do that.
Precious Azurée [00:04:21] Thank you. I love that challenge idea as well.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:04:24] Yeah, it was one of the days you had to invite other people to do it. Like, you were halfway through and you had to invite people. And so I'm like, "Oh, well, now I know why I was invited, because it was somebody's daily challenge." But it was awkward to get people to do it. But it was fun for people who participated.
Nicole Klemp [00:04:42] Awesome. Precious, can you tell us some more about Measure and how data can help elevate the lived experiences of people of color?
Precious Azurée [00:04:50] Yes. So in the work that we do, a lot of it is centered around helping lived experiences data. Let's just start there. You know, a lot of the times people just look for the numbers and everyone's story is data and can be used to create change. And so what we've done at Measure, our primary tool that we have is our care model. And care is an acronym, and it stands for Community, Advocacy, Resilience and Evidence. And so any time we come up with any type of strategy, the community is involved from the beginning. And so with that, we're able to make the community a part--well, one, to confirm the problem. Because sometimes we just think it's a problem, but we haven't asked the community, is this the actual problem we're trying to solve. And so with doing that work and getting the approval of the community to, one, identify the problem, we also include them in developing the solutions. And so our care model, we've been able to use that to equip, primarily, our focus is black, brown, and indigenous led communities and organizations so that they have a community mobilization strategy that's data driven, that has a theory of change, that has their metrics on how they want to impact the community. Because we have a lot of people on the ground that are doing the work, but they can't show their true impact. And so working with us, we're able to help tell that story. One of my favorite parts is that historical timeline. So where I have this community conversation and put their experience in alignment with what may be going on from a national perspective, but what happens specifically in their community at that time has a more true idea of like what's happening in that direct community. So it's amazing to be able to see people feel honestly validated by their experience because sometimes it's not. And so, yeah, that's the powerful work that we do when it comes to really mobilizing the community to use data and all of our work results in some type of tool kit or a black paper. We call it a Measure black paper. And we want to just make sure any research that we do can be digestible and read by the community.
Nicole Klemp [00:07:11] That's great. Yeah. I mean, the power of data to do that work is fantastic.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:16] And I love the idea of lived experience as data. I never really thought about it that term. And how can you turn your lived experiences into the numerical data too, right? There's a way to do that. So that's fascinating. Talk to me a little bit about Clarity Coach. So I don't know that that's a term I've heard until I encountered your information. So is that something that you have coined and talked to us a little bit about how you came up with it. It makes sense to me, but I also don't want to make any assumptions about how you got to that title and that name.
Precious Azurée [00:07:45] Oh, I love that question. Yes, trademark is pending. Okay? So, yeah.
Nicole Klemp [00:07:50] Capital C! Clarity Coach!
Precious Azurée [00:07:54] So, yeah, I can honestly say post-college, it's just been a journey. So next year I'll be celebrating ten years of entrepreneurship.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:05] Congrats.
Precious Azurée [00:08:07] 10 years of figuring this thing out when you talk about adulting, career, all those things. AKPsi was a really big part of that. But I'll pause on that for, you know, maybe later on in the interview. But coming out of college, I was really focused on having a career in, like, fashion and business, but I've always been that person to bridge the gap between business and creative. And so coming out of college, I really- that's when, like, Instagram just started, you know, sprouting up. We could only post 15 second videos, like it was really, really new.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:42] Oh, I forgot about that.
Precious Azurée [00:08:43] Yeah. You know, and so I started just building my personal brand online. And from there I was known as, like, the social media girl to a lot of the seasoned entrepreneurs out in Houston and I just started advocating for creatives as well. So I was building my network on the business side, but then all of my friends that were in fashion or music or anything within the creative space, I was always that person to say, "Okay, let's monetize this. Let's create an action plan." And through me developing my branding agency is what I eventually did, I have realized that although I have the skills to do branding and marketing, my special sauce was really being able to break those communication barriers and bring people together to reach one common goal and figuring out what our priorities are and how I can put together these personalities and these skill set and these resources to accomplish this one goal. And so, and then whenever it came to communication, people were like, "Let me reach out to Precious so I can figure out how to word this. Does this make sense?" And so I've always been that person and I didn't want to be known as a life coach. I didn't want to be known as a brand strategist. Although I have a lot of background in business development, I'm not just business either. So I believe that when it comes to building a brand, you know, it's interdependent on who you are as a person, how your life is set up. It's also interdependent on how your business is set up. They all affect each other. And so I'm working with the mastermind coach that I have. We just kind of toiled around with, "What is your title?" I'm like, "I know! We got to figure this out." And clarity, I've always been bringing clarity and confidence to people to attack their goals was part of my tagline. And so the Clarity Coach was then born. And I was like, "That's it! That's it. I'm a Clarity Coach." And of course it's a conversation starter too. Like, "Okay, I hear you but what is that exactly?" And so, so yeah, it's been really, really dope because people are seeking clarity day in and day out now. It's such a buzz word now.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:10:52] So I have to ask, you're on Instagram. What is your handle? Because I need to follow you.
Precious Azurée [00:10:57] @PreciousAzuree on all platforms. I'm actually going to be launching my YouTube. Of course, I think everyone at some point wanted to be a YouTube star back early, early 2000. So it's kind of like, All right, this was a dream seven years ago. I'm actually ready now. I have a strategy now, like it makes sense. So I am going to be doing more content focused on me as the Clarity Coach because on my, like, for Instagram, for example, I'm very authentic, transparent. It's more like, lifestyle. You see some family, you'll see mindset, you'll see shopping, style, all that different stuff. But on my YouTube, I want all of that content to be focused on the coaching aspect of me because I have several, several layers.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:11:42] That's awesome.
Nicole Klemp [00:11:45] You've been listening to Business Edge, brought to you by Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity and sponsored by Synergos Association Management Company. Now let's get back to the conversation.
Nicole Klemp [00:11:58] So, thinking about some of those organizations that you're working with that you're helping get clarity, what would you say some of the biggest challenges are with communication or just, you know, things that you're seeing time and time again with the different clients that you're working with?
Precious Azurée [00:12:17] Most of it is either time management or lack of prioritization. Those are probably the two key things. And a lot of people have this mindset of wanting to... You have to separate business and personal, but you have to consider personal to do business. And so I constantly, I call it reality checks and I'm like, "Hey, let's have a reality check moment and let's see where you are personally." So I have a reality check time exercise where we have 168 hours in a week. And we break those up into categories and I'll always prioritize sleep because I'm like, you have to protect the asset. I'm not team no sleep. I am team less sleep, but I'm not team no sleep because it's just not healthy and sleep is more so for the mind than the body, which a lot of people don't understand. And the average person makes 35,000 decisions a day. That's the average person. So if you're above average or you're a parent, your business owner, you probably make 2 to 3 times more, you know, decisions per day. And so I like to have that reality check exercise so that we can see where is your time split? And then based on that, because most of the time it is people that have a 9 to 5 and they're wanting to start their business or they have an active business and they're wanting to scale. And it's just having that reality check moment of like, "Okay, you actually only have 10 hours to allocate, so if it's only 10 hours then either you have the funds to hire or we got to slow this plan down a little bit." So I like to center, you know, self-awareness is just so important. We can talk about the branding and the marketing and I want to launch, I want to have a party, I'm gonna get the website up, all this stuff is fun, and shiny, and cool, but when it comes to execution and you get frustrated, we didn't check in with ourselves first. So it's a lot of that of wanting to, like, just hurry up to nowhere kind of thing, you know. And so I like to kind of center them in reality, but also let them know, like, your vision is possible. We just have to make a realistic goal. So time management and prioritization kind of go hand in hand. And I don't necessarily- I am the queen of a comma in every form, shape of it. Like, I don't believe we were put on this earth to do one thing. I embrace all of the different ideas and talents, but it's just, you know, a certain time and season for everything. And so I like to lead with love and grace, but we got to keep it honest throughout the process. So that's really what I take my clients through and they appreciate it because a lot of times when you're building something you're taught, work hard, be diligent, sacrifice, all this stuff, and it's like, yeah, but self-care is important. You got to prioritize to get through the journey.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:15:16] Yeah, it's interesting. You talked about rest and sleep being for the mind because we just talked to somebody else that said the exact same thing, that that's their one time where their mind shuts off and they wake up rejuvenated and then they have all these answers to things they had been thinking about before they went to sleep. So, interesting theme, running across everything. Talk to us a little bit about, you know, when people are looking at your services, how do you think they know that they're ready for a Clarity Coach?
Precious Azurée [00:15:45] Ooh, I love that. I literally just made an assessment of like, how can I make my questionnaires better? And so for the most part, when people are looking at my website or they may come across my page and say, "Oh, I need a consultation," I love doing free 15 minute consultations because I like to just honor the fact that someone reached out for help because that's a big milestone within itself. So I like to celebrate that and own that. And so for the most part, it's two tiers. You either have someone that has no clue what to do, but just know they need to do something different, then you have the other person that's like, I'm clear on what I need to do. I need to figure out why I can't execute or why I can't complete something. And so based on where they are, I have them book an actual clarity session. And from that clarity session, either out of that session, I'll give you 3 to 6 months of homework where you shouldn't have to see me again till you complete these items. Or, I see that you're equipped and you've answered a lot of these questions, and seeing how quick we're able to get to clarity within the session will determine, "Oh, okay, so this person is just seeking accountability and some systems they need to actually be more efficient in what they're working towards." So those are the kind of the factors that I consider when it's time for me to actually work for a client to be ready for my services. Yeah, that's probably like the most high level answer I can give you.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:17:13] No, I think that's really interesting. I appreciate you sharing that. And all these different methods, have you come up with them all yourself or is it kind of a blend of things you've learned over the years?
Precious Azurée [00:17:23] It's definitely a mixture. I am a certified John Maxwell trainer. I'm also Brendan Bouchard, he's a High-Performance coach and I've subscribed to his content for a while. Who else? Seth Godin as well as, I've read so many books, especially 2020, it picked up even more where I just got obsessed with productivity and the mind and all of these mental blocks that we go through. And then, of course, like growing spiritually and developing a deeper relationship with God made me even more limitless where I'm like, "Oh my God, I need to go be a light for the entire world so that they know their source." So anywho, it is a mixture, it is a hybrid. But through that, I think I've been able to package things in a way where people feel equipped because a lot of the time people lack confidence because they're not truly- they don't trust the system or they don't have a system to execute. And so I kind of, I like to simplify people's decision making. That's my ultimate goal, is like, how can I help you simplify your decision making so that you don't feel overwhelmed? Because a lot of the times it's all about managing the decision. It's not about making a new one, it's just about managing the original one that you set. And so I believe that that's probably the thing that I put on the forefront is like, let's simplify, because that's all it is, is making a lot of different decisions. And that's where the overwhelm, the anxiety, the fear. And so I'm big on also just making your vision visible because sometimes we'll talk about things, but I'm like, I have it on my post-it notes, I have it on my phone, I have the reminders popping up on every Apple device that I have. Like, it's everywhere where like "I can't forget the bigger goal." So if we don't see it, we tend to forget. We forget a lot as humans. And I'm like, "Let's not rely on our brains to remember everything at one time."
Nicole Klemp [00:19:29] I don't know how I would survive without my phone reminders and my Google calendar, and I just don't think I could survive without them. I don't know how people did it before.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:19:38] And I say, Apple owns my life because everything syncs. So I'm like, Oh, it's on my phone, it's on my watch, it's on my Apple TV.
Nicole Klemp [00:19:48] So we have a lot of young professionals listening. So what advice would you give them, particularly young women of color who are interested in entrepreneurship and a similar career path to you?
Precious Azurée [00:20:00] Community. Community is so, so important when you talk about entrepreneurship because being able to connect and leverage other people's wisdom is so important. And it's really the matter of, like, a lot of the times we have this mindset, specifically women of color, that, "I have to be resilient, I have to know everything. I just have to do this." And it's like, you can honor your passion and desire, but I don't want women to enter entrepreneurship thinking it's going to be hard. You know, it will, you will have challenges in everything that you do. But if you come to it with more of like, an open mindset, with more of like, there has to be a blueprint, you know, seeking to say, like, there is a system I can follow, there is someone that will be willing to help me. So just starting off, you know, not that deficit thinking, but more so a strength based of, like, I think it's always good to reflect on where you came from because sometimes when you enter new chapters, you feel inadequate. But then when you take a moment and just look back and you're like, "Wait, I've actually accomplished a lot. I had to develop my character, I had to develop these skills, and I was able to do X, Y and Z. This is just something new that I've learned. I can apply those same things," so I never want anyone to discredit what they've done to get to this point because all of that made sense to where you're trying to go now. And I had that revelation earlier this year. I just celebrated my 31st birthday. Oh em gee, I'm in my 30's.
Nicole Klemp [00:21:39] Welcome to the club.
Precious Azurée [00:21:41] I was like, Oh, my God. Everything that I've been through up until this point was not even for me. It was for me to be able to relate and connect and help the next person. So any potential regrets I may have or things I would want to redo isn't even valid because I had to go through those things to get to where I'm at today. So that's just a matter of practicing gratitude on a day to day basis. So that would be my advice is to: do not lead with the deficit mindset. You know, let's honor all the work that you've done up until this point. Stay centered in gratitude and have the mindset that there are people ready and available to support me. And I think that will take you very, very far.
Nicole Klemp [00:22:22] I love that. It reminds me of something a colleague told me once that she has a results folder. So to keep, you know, you may forget some of those accomplishments that you've had and she keeps, you know, any nice note that says, hey, you did a great job on this, or, you helped the business accomplish this goal, and like, keeping track of that, having that somewhere where you can access it later and whether you need it for a resume or just to remind yourself of all that you've done in the past, I think that's a great reminder for people.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:22:55] Yeah, I started doing that a couple years ago. Every, you know, job, I have a praise folder where those things go in and yeah, when you're having a bad day or something didn't go right, you can go back and pep yourself back up. I was curious. Two things, Precious. One, if you had to think about all the books you've read, what would be if I came to you and was like, "What's the one book I have to read?" What would that be? And that could be overwhelming, or you could know. I'm not sure. And then I'm also curious, I would imagine, and maybe I'm wrong, that you have some sort of daily practice, meaning there's a few things that you do every day. If you're willing to share those, I would love to hear those.
Precious Azurée [00:23:31] Yes, yes, most definitely. So I always have to ask people what season they're in because you're either coming out of something or going into something.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:23:43] Oh, my gosh. It's so true. So I will say, I just went through a huge career transition. I left nonprofit and went into medical communications. And I feel like over the last couple of years, I have been in the longest funk of my life, and I feel like I'm finally coming out of it.
Precious Azurée [00:24:00] Awesome. Okay, so if you're coming out of something, I would say Essentialism: the Disciplined Pursuit of Less. That is by Greg McKeown, M-C-K-E-O-W-N. I'm going to learn how to pronounce his name correctly one day, but essentialism, it really helps you understand trade offs and understand, you know, there's a lot of things that are just not important and a lot of things that are just not important and being able to go through the process of, you know, eliminating all of the trivial many to get to the essential few. I think this is a great book for those that are seeking to come out of something or, you know, you're like, "All right, this is a new chapter. How am I going to be able to, like, focus and actually be present and enjoy?" The life of an essentialist is like, I think everyone should be practicing this. I'm diving deeper into that lifestyle as well because, yeah, there's just so- the book, I have the Audible and the actual book, so. Depending on what type of reader you are, I recommend you get both, but at first I started listening to it and then I was like, "Oh, I have to mark this book all the way up." So that would probably be my recommendation. Because the thing is like, with success, it's such a paradox. Like, at one moment you have this idea, you identify your purpose and passion, and then you develop your craft and you're seen as an expert, and then you're inundated with all these great opportunities and everyone's reaching out and you have all these demands of your time and energy, and it's just a cycle. And so until you perfect that craft of understanding, like what's essential, you're going to continuously be like, "What am I doing again? And why?" You know, so yeah.
Nicole Klemp [00:25:54] Yeah, that's, that's really good advice too. Especially, you know, when you find a level of success, you can't enjoy it because all of a sudden you've got a thousand more responsibilities.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:26:04] Yeah. And what are a couple of things you do in your daily practice?
Precious Azurée [00:26:07] So daily practice, I'm an early bird. So 4 a.m, 4:30 a.m., I'm up and at it. I also trade. So some mornings I do trade in the market, but starting out my day, I'm not going to just lie and say, "Oh yeah, I get up and I do all these things. I have all this energy." No. I'll lay in my bed and I'll like thank God for waking me up and I'll just take a moment to envision what I want my day to be. So I kind of set my intentions. Then after that I'll get up and stretch Oh em gee. I've had to add stretching to my routine.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:26:40] Welcome to your thirties.
Precious Azurée [00:26:41] Oh my goodness. So I have- I work out three times a week. I work out with my trainer at six. So this is- I'm telling you everything I do before I workout with my trainer but. I didn't realize how much recovery time you needed to include when you're working out more consistently. I went to see a chiropractor for the first time this year and I was like, Oh my God, everyone needs to do this. So.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:27:04] Welcome to your thirties.
Precious Azurée [00:27:06] Yeah. So stretching is one component. I have my daily devotional and then I have my goals listed. And then my goals are index cards, like, in different corners of my house, but I also keep them in my nightstand. And then I also have my book of affirmations. So those are things I have to do every day because I have to remind myself of my power, because you just forget. You just get tired, you get drawn out. And then I have to remember that I've built my life, like, I design my life. I'm the decision maker. I get to choose. So let me not choose anxiety today. Let me not choose to be overwhelmed today. Like, I'm going to choose joy and I'm going to just trust God is like ten steps ahead of me. So those are some of the things I do. And then, yeah, three days out of the week I work out and I've got to get my, my protein smoothie in. Another thing I'm learning, I was not eating enough protein. I'm like, "Who's supposed to track- where's the adulting 101 class after you graduate college? Where I'm like, I have to do all these things to be healthy?" So yeah, I make sure I get adequate amount of food because I was the girl that would like make a smoothie, eat a light meal and then snack all day and then my metabolism said otherwise. So yeah, it's a lot, but I do my best to have accountability partners in every area of growth so that I kind of have that person I can tug on and be like, "Oh yeah, let me do that." So, yeah. That's some of the things in my daily schedule.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:28:38] That's awesome. Thanks for sharing. And speaking of values, that leads us to our signature question here on the Business Edge. Give us a time when your values were challenged. What happened and how did you handle it?
Precious Azurée [00:28:49] Amazing. This happens at least once a year. So I was like, which thing?
Chrissy Vasquez [00:28:54] What year am I going to pick?
Precious Azurée [00:28:56] Which one am I going to pick? But I'll pick one when I was in a very, very tough, tough season that I feel like a lot of people will be able to relate to. So I was in the midst of, you know, figuring life out when you're an entrepreneur. People thought you were just somebody without a job. You know, that used to be the connotation of entrepreneurship. Now it's praise. But back then it was like, "Oh, she ain't got no job, or she's trying to figure out her life." Now, as an entrepreneur, I was basically having to package my skill set to whomever I connected with. And so I connected with this woman who had a son that was interested in fashion and in design. And I'm like, "Oh, that's my background." And it went from me, like, consulting to, like, actually building his brand. And it was, he was like 16 at the time. So them trusting me with their vision and everything, I just felt so empowered and I just took on and I developed the team and structure and all these systems. Then I had got to the point where we were not respecting the systems, right? You have situations where you're in the startup environment and you're adjusting and pivoting. It's a very dynamic environment and everybody's in different places, different age groups, and there's a lot of pivoting, adjusting, pivoting, adjusting. And I had no issue with pivoting, but when I was creating systems and they weren't being respected, it just kept, you know, it just kept boiling up inside, right? And I'm a woman of grace, once again. So I like to lead with grace. I like to have transparent, honest conversations. But then it just got to the point where I just felt like I wasn't being valued, to be honest. And I'm... At this time, this was probably about 60% of my income. I decided to walk away.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:30:41] Wow.
Precious Azurée [00:30:43] I was like, this doesn't, it doesn't fulfil my spirit like I would like it to. And I was considering law school shortly after that. And then one of my... We weren't as close at the time, but I was kind of like, we were working together at the mall and she ended up moving to L.A. to go do her hosting and acting career. And like two years later after that, she had got her own show on the O network and she was like, "Hey, Precious, what are you up to?" I'm like, "Oh, just figuring out life." And she's like, "Hey, can you come out to L.A. with me during this, like, pilot season?" And then I end up being in L.A. for two years and helping her build her career and building... I was basically, I like, got rid of my car, I got rid of my apartment, and I was living out of my suitcase for two years back and forth between L.A. and Houston. And I was probably the brokest during that time. But when I tell you, I lived life. Oh, my God. I was connecting with people, building my network and just learning so much. So I just decided to, you know, let God take the wheel and always say, you help the people get what they want, god will help you get what you want. And so I just, I'm really big on surrendering. It's just a really great place to be. It doesn't sound like it, but I have to surrender daily just in order to be a kind, functioning human being. So, yeah, yeah. That would be my moment. And so I definitely want to encourage those, like, you have to honor yourself because once you neglect your truth. You know, nothing good can come from neglecting your own truth, so.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:32:26] I love what you say about surrendering. I have said for years that surrendering doesn't mean that you failed. It means that you stopped fighting something that needs to change.
Precious Azurée [00:32:35] Right there on the nail! I need to go ahead and quote you on that and get that.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:32:39] I said it on Instagram and Timehop was kind enough to remind me this morning. So how funny.
Precious Azurée [00:32:45] Well, yes, I'll have to follow back.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:32:48] Well, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a great conversation.
Nicole Klemp [00:32:52] Yeah, thank you, Precious. It was so great to meet you and chat with you today.
Finn Lambouris [00:32:58] Thanks for listening to Business Edge. If you have questions, comments, or topic suggestions for us, email businessedge@akpsi.org.