Episode 32: A Conversation On Being A Balanced Black Girl - Founder and Host Les Alfred Talks Creating The Top-Rated Health Podcast and Digital Platform Dedicated to Black Women

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Les Alfred

Founder and Host, Balanced Black Girl Podcast and Digital Platform

This week’s episode features Les Alfred, founder and host of Balanced Black Girl, the top-rated health podcast and digital platform connecting Black women to Black women health and self-improvement experts. After entering the workforce full-time after college, Les began to notice the impact of a more sedentary lifestyle on her physical health and fitness, which led her to prioritizing wellness within her own life and planting the seeds to how she could help other Black women do the same.

Listen as we discuss what building the Balanced Black Girl brand has taught Les about her own relationship with health and wellness, how leaving behind the overachiever mindset has been critical to scaling her business while working a full-time job, and the importance of detaching from mainstream definitions of self-care and curating a self-care routine that is personal to one’s own physical and mental health needs.

BWTW CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS

Myriha (Host): How do you think the [wellness] industry has evolved in terms of taking into the experiences of Black women? And what are some of the gaps that you feel like are still present today?

Les Alfred: I think the biggest gap is around visibility. There is a misconception that there aren't many Black women in wellness. And I think when we talk about the diversity problem that in wellness, it's not because there aren't people doing the work, it's because they're not being elevated, and they're not visible in the same ways as many of our white and non-Black counterparts; they're the ones who get the features and who get invited to the panels and who are at the center of everything. There's actually a lot of amazing Black and Brown women doing this work; wellness is not new by any means, people are just finally starting to come around to know who they are and to listen to their message.

Myriha (Host): Were there moments when you found yourself doubting your ability to be a big voice in this space because of the landscape and the lack of diversity?

Les Alfred: It's interesting, because that came a lot later for me. When I first started Balanced Black Girl, especially that first year, I was just so convicted; all I could see was my mission and the voices that I wanted to help amplify. I was putting out like two episodes a week on top of working full-time. And then as it started gaining traction, that was when some of the doubt set in for me. It was easier to put a lot of stuff out there when not very many people were listening.

When I realized that people were looking up to me, I started feeling nervous like ‘Oh, now I can't mess this up.’ Now I feel this pressure to be perfect and to represent everybody and to make every Black woman feel seen and heard and I physically can't do that. I can only share my experience and I think my experiences can be relatable for a lot of people. But I really had to learn to take that pressure off of myself to perfectly voice every issue and perfectly represent everybody. So, it was actually a little bit later in the journey that that that fear crept in for me.

Myriha (Host): What is your definition of a Balanced Black Girl?

Les Alfred: My definition, or how I approach balance, is understanding what my needs are and doing what I need to do to get those needs met. For me, self care and balance look totally different day by day. Some days I have those feelings like we discussed early in our careers where my body is feeling really sluggish and I know that movement needs to be a priority. Some days, I'm feeling really down and I'm feeling really lonely; I need to make time for connection and talking to my family and talking to my friends. Sometimes I have 1,000,001 things on my mind, so I need to prioritize a little bit more time with my journal. My journey with balance has really looked like just understanding what my needs are, and either meeting those needs myself or being willing to ask for help if I'm unable to do that, or if I need support in that.

Connect with Les Alfred and Balanced Black Girl

Additional Notes

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Myriha Burce