Archives for June 2022

Einstein is known for having said that if you try to teach a fish to climb a try, the fish will feel stupid.

For most of my life, I have felt stupid.
Worthless.
Out of place.

Part of the reason I felt that way is because I was told—repeatedly—that I WAS stupid, dumb, and ugly.

But there was another reason.

No matter where I went, I never fit.
I was either too loud or too different or not talkative enough or not outgoing enough.

Add that to being an unprotected child in a sea of violence, street life, and poverty, fitting in was a matter of survival.

So I became a social chameleon.

I learned to match people’s energy, tone and values. I learned to blend in but I never fit. So I created my own spaces that I could control to be myself.

That worked—until it didn’t.

Since I imploded my life in 2018, I’ve been trying to find a place where I “fit.”
Well, I found it. And it’s NOTHING I could have prayed for.

Unscripted television.

First and foremost, I didn’t know there was an entire INDUSTRY dedicated to various forms of reality television. I only knew of the “House Wives” brand. But it’s SO much more!

Unscripted television plays to ALL my strengths—from entrepreneurship to teaching—but most importantly, I’m rewarded for being myself.

So I am diving in, head first, into this new wonderland and I’m committing to selling my first series on or before September 23, 2022. That’s my birthday.

I’m fine if I do or don’t. AND, it’s a game worthy of my life. To reach the world through television is a dream come true and it allows me to impact the world.

So stay tuned! I will be writing about the journey. I hope you join me.

Thanks for walking with me and bearing witness.

I love you,

Dr. Venus

Juneteenth is about liberation! As I liberate myself from the need to “make things work” and create my own lane in unscripted television, I am ALSO looking at what it would take for YOU– for US as a people– to emancipate ourselves from emotional and economic wounds from our past that undermine our ability to monetize together. Here is the raw truth: the key to your wealth is NOT working harder. It’s us healing our distrust of each other, creating AMAZING products and services that we love, and working together to support each other’s dreams intangible ways.

As I kick the door of the hinges of unscripted television, I am blessed with new business friends who are doing the same!

Meet Award-Winning Filmmaker, Author, and the CEO/founder of the new streaming platform QFN TV, Kanithea Powell. She is CRUSHING the game as a Black Women against streaming giants such as Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+!

AND she is doing it on her OWN terms!

“The content that’s been curated on QFN TV is fresh, vulnerable and eclectic,” said Powell during a recent discussion we had about her pioneering streaming platform.

This extraordinary streaming platform includes:

• groundbreaking narratives
• cutting edge documentary films
• engaging TV series
• unforgettable originals.

As the world becomes more and more splintered, it is ESSENTIAL that Black People STOP being buyers and start being owners. We need to build and OWN our own platforms instead of “sharecropping” (yes, I said it!) on other people’s platforms.

• Disney owns OWN.
• Loreal owns Fenty Beauty
• Live Nation owns Rock-A-Fella.

No shade. I am PROUD of Oprah, Rhianna, and JayZ. They have paved the way for a Kanithea to create, self-fund and OWN her planform in this current moment!

Just to give you a sense of how MAJOR this streaming platform is, QFN is currently available in 170 countries and 40+ million households and devices on over six OTT, mobile, Connected TV and desktop platforms.

And get this: QFN in ONLY $4.99 a month! #micdropped

Go here->>>>>http://www.qfntv.com to explore and subscribe to a streaming platform that was created for us and by us!

Juneteenth is about liberation. If we want true freedom, what we MUST do is start to leverage WHERE we spend our money. Check out QFN and if it DOES NOT feel like a fit, DO NOT subscribe. I am serious. I am not saying to “buy Black” out of obligated loyalty. I am saying check out black-owned businesses and if they feel like a match for you, then put your money on it.

If you like Netflix, you are gonna to LOVE QFN TV!

I love you,

Dr. Venus

Ps: If you like Netflix, you are gonna to LOVE QFN TV! Go here and explore and if it feels right subscribe! http://www.qfntv.com

Juneteenth is about liberation. If we want true freedom, what we MUST do is start to leverage WHERE we spend our money. Check out QFN and if it DOES NOT feel like a fit, DO NOT subscribe. I am serious. I am not saying to “buy Black” out of obligated loyalty. I am saying check out black-owned businesses and if they feel like a match for you, then put your money on it. Check it out and subscribe NOW! http://qfntv.com

I’m stunned.
Amazed.

I’m trying to get my head around what just happened. Maybe if I retrace my week, I can help you understand how God just BLEW! MY! MIND!

As you may or may not know, I moved to LA to be an “artist.”

I’ve made millions empowering purpose-driven Black Women (& the Brothers who love us) to heal their way to their first million or their next million with ease. After my divorce, I realized that I had a dream I had given up on: being on television. So on March 6, 2020 I moved to Los Angeles, trusting God and stepping out on faith.

Covid came two weeks later. Quarantine was mandated.
Hollywood shut down.

Fast forward to 2022, and I am back in the game of having my own television show. A few weeks ago, my entertainment attorney introduced me to an INCREDIBLE television executive and we bonded. I prayed to God she would mentor me. It JUST so happened she was scheduled to do a mentoring session the following week at an unscripted television conference. She invited me to come.

I said yes and immediately reorganized my life to attend.

Each day I prayed for guidance and miracles.

GURRL, let me tell you what happened…

Me and my television executive were talking and in walks MATHEW KNOWLES!!! Beyoncé’s daddy! The creator of the most successful girl’s group of ALL time.

I just stared.

Then I turned around and moved to the other side of the table as my executive went over to him to say hello. I figured I’d sit quietly and wait for them to finish and for my executive to come back to the table.

Well she did—AND she brought Mr. Knowles with her!!!!

I was stunned! Mr. Knowles was kind and charming. He shook my hand and asked me about my projects for television. I don’t remember what I said. But I do remember him inviting me and my executive to his house!!!!

My jaw dropped to the floor!

We all agreed, and I rode with my executive. She drives a Tesla. I didn’t know how to open the door to get in the car. It didn’t have a handle.  I fumbled with it for almost a minute before I figured out I had to press it to get in. Talk about new experience!!!

We get to his home and it is a mansion!

Beautiful is an understatement. The entire property is designed on the edge of a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The house, location, and the view were stunning.

It turns out that Mr. Knowles teaches at multiple universities. He even invited me to one of his classes. He kept saying, “sign her! she needs her own show!”

The next day I sat with him for an HOUR and we discussed healing Black men, entrepreneurship, his $275 million dollar fund to create new Black-centered content, and his upcoming documentary on creating Destiny’s Child.

I wish I could help you feel the level of confirmation and hope that is in my body right now. I was so disheartened when I had to cancel my live event.

Now I see God had other plans for me.

Plans to enlarge my territory.
Plans to prosper me with ease.
Plans to fulfill the dream he placed inside of me when I was a teen on the streets.

I now have new business friends at Ebony Studios, Amazon Studios, OWN, A&E, ESPN, and others. Each person is interested in hearing my concepts for unscripted television and documentaries.

If I hadn’t felt so low about my failed event, I don’t think I would have been so hungry to win at SOMETHING when I was invited to invest in myself and attend the summit.

Being open has shifted the trajectory of my life. Happy and I even went whale watching!!!! 

I have NO IDEA where all these new relationships in television will take me, but I am committing to giving it my all!!

I’m sure God has a plan for me!!

Thanks for witnessing and celebrating this new direction with me!!!

Help Me Lord.
I can feel myself crying on the inside but I’m too numb to let them fall.

Seeing the 19 tiny caskets custom designed by an artist to reflect their favorite superhero or Disney princess …

Seeing the Buffalo shooter ESCORTED from Tops Grocery Store like a War hero… (Knowing had he been a Black Man he would have been shot dead on the spot).

Reading about a shooter who killed an Asian person in a church…

AND THE FIVE MASS SHOOTINGS THAT FOLLOWED THESE TRAGEDIES.

I get triggered.

I have to pace my tragedies.

Anxiety attacks.
Panic attacks.
Nightmares riddled with the audible violence of guns and vision’s
of bloody nooses.

Breathing is hard.
Getting out of bed is harder.

So I pray.

“God please help me?”
“Help you what, my Beloved. My Bae.”

My eyes fill with tears.

I love it when God calls me by my pet name for him. It makes me feel special.

(Deep breath).

“Please help me not hate.”
My God smiles at me as he stokes my cheek with his finger tips.

“Bae you have too much love in you to hate. Right now, you’re hurting. It’s easer to hate than feel the hurt that only real love can feel.”

I snuggle up in God.

God holds me close and tells me stories about creating the galaxies and water.
I don’t really listen.
I just appreciate the steady beat of his heart in my ear as I give him my grief.

“Bae, it’s ok.” I shake my head at him.
“It’s bad God. They are killing kids now, shooting up grocery stores then claiming mental illness.”

“Racism is a mental illness Bae.”
“That’s not the point God.”
“Then what is the point.”

I feel rage bubbling in my stomach and pouring out of my mouth like hot lava.

“The shooters should fucking DIE! The 50 Republicans should loose THEIR children due to gun violence. YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING GOD!!!!

I start crying and screaming at the same time.

“If you’re God of EVERYTHING, why don’t you punish them like you punished Pharaoh when he refused to let your people go? Why do you let them do this?? ” I scream at God.

He listens.
And waits.
And listens some more.

God wraps me in his arms and rocks me while I weep.
He hums as he rocks me into peace.

God then takes my tear-stained face in his hands.

“Bae, I am right here with you in your sadness. It’s fine that you question me. here is my answer: the mass shootings are not due to my negligence. It is the predictable consequence of complacency. Water is wet. Guns kill.

“But the Senate won’t act.”
“They will when enough of you get out of your feelings and into action.”

God looks me deeply in my eyes and smiles softly at my wounded heart. He kisses my forehead.

“You are my most beloved precious treasure. You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased. Let yourself grieve Bae. It’s appropriate and it’s healthy.”

I feel myself relax on the inside.

I lay my head on God’s lap as he strokes my hair.

“On the other side of grief is peace and power. Feel. Grieve. Allow. Rest in me. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Give me your grief. Let me carry it for you.”

I looked up into the face of my God.

Love, assuredness, and safety fall from his eyes into my wounded heart like seeds of hope and healing.

The seeds take root and start to bloom in my heart and I see a weed. A trigger chocking the life out of one of my heart flowers from God.

It’s a trigger. From my childhood.
The mass shootings took me back to being in a drug bust; to being unsafe.

I was unprotected as a child.
I was unsafe in momma’s house.
I was in perpetual danger on the streets.

The shootings put me back on the streets. They make me feel like I’m about to die.

God sees my heart and and reaches in me, plucks the weed out, so my heart flowers can reach full bloom.

“Bae, I am with you always. You are safe now. Give your burdens, your fears and worries—give them to me. Let me carry your cross.”

So I did.
I do.

The battle is not mine but the Lords.
I lean not to my own understanding with the mass shootings.
I trust my God with all my heart.

The battle belongs to God.
And I am his most precious valuable treasure. He will always keep me safe and be with me through it all.

My God works ALL things for good.
I don’t have to understand to know that God is sovereign. My God has a plan for my life and eternity.

No racist, supremest, or extremest is more powerful than my God.
I dwell in the safety, certainty, and security of my God.