Keisha Blair is the award-winning, bestselling author of Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons to Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity, and Happiness and the Holistic Wealth Personal Workbook. She is a trained economist with extensive experience in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. In 2019, Keisha Blair coined the term “Holistic Wealth” with the publication of the first Holistic Wealth book which brought widespread recognition. She is the founder of the Keisha Blair Institute on Holistic Wealth and is a graduate of the Executive Leadership Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Blair has been featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Essence Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Real Simple, and many other publications. The first edition of Holistic Wealth has won multiple awards, including Finalist in the 2020 Best Book Awards and Finalist in the 2020 International Book Awards (self-help categories). Blair is the host of the Holistic Wealth Podcast with Keisha Blair and the Holistic Wealth segment on the nationally syndicated DailyFlashTV show, reaching more than seventy-five million people. Her work has touched the lives of millions around the globe. You can find her online at https://www.keishablair.com/
Shauna Kosoris: What was the inspiration for your book, Holistic Wealth: 36 Life Lessons to Help You Recover from Disruption, Find Your Life Purpose, and Achieve Financial Freedom?
Keisha Blair: The book was inspired by a viral article entitled “My Husband Died At Age 34. Here Are 40 Life Lessons I Learned From It,” which was viewed by more than 50 million people around the world, and led to a short film starring Bambi Northwood Blythe, filmed in Paris.
Holistic Wealth: 36 Life Lessons to Help You Recover from Disruption, Find Your Life Purpose, and Achieve Financial Freedom, focuses on the spiritual, mental, emotional, and financial components of living a life that is fulfilling, autonomous, and filled with resilience and strength. The book now has legions of fans, including celebrities such as Actress Kelly Rutherford, Maria Shriver, Arianna Huffington, CNN’s Kirsten Powers, Laura Coates, and more. The book has been published in several countries across the globe and translated into several international editions.
The book has led to a global Holistic Wealth movement. Since then, I have dedicated my time to helping women find their strength, own their voices, and persevere in the face of hardship. I am now training an army of Certified Holistic Wealth ConsultantsTM, and people from 20 countries across the globe tune into the very popular Holistic Wealth podcast every week.
Which of the 36 life lessons do you feel is the most important?
First, outline your core values – If you ever feel lost, it can be clarifying to acknowledge the things in life that propel you. Write down the values that are most meaningful to you. Whether it’s community, loyalty, or courage—there are so many. Rank those values in order of priority, and then choose your top five. Think about not only your life and your unique story of self—where you come from, your unique background, your skills, and experiences—but also what drives you and what your passions are.
Second, create a Personal Mission Statement – An intention represents a commitment to carrying out an action in the future – creating a personal mission statement helps to articulate your intentions. The Holistic Wealth Personal Workbook has case studies and a template to help guide you.
Third, know your Personal Financial Identity – I also developed the Personal Financial Identities Framework to help people identify their personal financial identities. Everyone can take the free quiz; it takes only a few minutes. It’s also a fun activity to do with friends, families, and couples.
And finally, think about your personal Holistic Wealth PortfolioTM – Your Holistic Wealth portfolio is a summation of all your goals and intentions as well as a roadmap to get you there in the core aspects of holistic wealth. It can be updated and graded based on your individual resilience scores. The Institute on Holistic Wealth can help you develop yours. You can also reach out to me at http://www.keishablair.com.
Holistic Wealth: 36 Life Lessons to Help You Recover from Disruption, Find Your Life Purpose, and Achieve Financial Freedom is the expanded and updated version of the book, which first came out in 2019. What inspired the update?
COVID-19 mostly, as well as legions of fans of the book who came forward with additional questions and requests for help and assistance. The new chapters in the book largely respond to the needs of readers in specific areas, such as applying the new Personal Financial Identity Framework, as well as the Holistic Wealth PortfolioTM. I also wanted to include relevant issues to Holistic Wealth such as anti-racism, which really ties into social justice, as well as more on money mindset and coping with trauma.
Was it a difficult process to update 36 Life Lessons to Help You Recover from Disruption, Find Your Life Purpose, and Achieve Financial Freedom?
The update wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, and it was like writing a whole new book or a sequel to the book, which took about a year to complete. I included some anecdotes from some of the interviews from the Holistic Wealth podcast to further help readers as well as added a new foreword by Actress Kelly Rutherford, star of Gossip Girl, Melrose Place and Dynasty. Every single chapter and paragraph has been updated and expanded throughout. The new chapters added are designed to help readers really apply Holistic Wealth in practical ways throughout their lives.
How was that foreword with Kelly Rutherford arranged?
Kelly Rutherford and I have become friends. We initially met through an introduction from a mutual friend and she then came on as a guest on the Holistic Wealth podcast. She’s an amazing person and a huge believer and advocate of women’s empowerment. For the launch of the Expanded and Updated book, the Institute on Holistic Wealth announced the inaugural Holistic Wealth Trailblazers, and Kelly was the first Holistic Wealth Trailblazer.
That’s very exciting! Along with writing your book, you are the founder of the Institute of Holistic Wealth. What can you tell me about the institute?
The Institute on Holistic Wealth was founded for more in-depth courses and instruction requested from readers of the First edition of Holistic Wealth. Women reached out to me personally requesting a certification program so they could go out in their communities and help others by applying the framework and principles outlined in Holistic Wealth. I really wanted to empower millions of people around the globe to do this in a systematic, and coherent way and that’s how the Institute on Holistic Wealth was born. Right now we are working on releasing new courses to help empower people and we currently have certification programs on the Trauma of Money, Holistic Healing, as well as the signature program, the Certified Holistic WealthTM Consultant program (our flagship program). We also have a new Psychology of Counseling certification program and we will be launching the Life Purpose Certification program in the coming weeks. Anyone across the globe can become a member of the Institute on Holistic Wealth and have access to a library of resources and receive tips and strategies to live a holistically wealthy lifestyle.
You also host the Holistic Wealth podcast. What was the inspiration behind starting the podcast?
I absolutely love talking to inspirational people and sharing their stories. The format of the book also led to the podcast. For the book, I interviewed some of the most successful people on earth and I wanted to delve deeper into the stories and really allow readers to also go further with the material through a podcast. To date, we have listeners in over 20 countries across the world and I’ve interviewed some remarkable women including Actress Kelly Rutherford, Loren Ridinger, Reshma Saujani, Eve Rodsky and many others.
So what are you working on now?
I’m working on a follow-up series of books on Holistic Wealth to respond to the demands of my audience. There’s a children’s book in the works as well as a cookbook and others in the series. I also created Global Holistic Wealth Day to be celebrated on April 9th every year on social media.
Global Holistic Wealth Day is a time to reflect on what it means to be truly ‘wealthy’ and how we can embody the transformational power of living with purpose, collecting experiences, engaging in meaningful work, cultivating your health and well-being, and creating emotional and spiritual connections with others, all while continuously working to build financial stability.
KEISHA BLAIR
Everyone across the globe can celebrate Global Holistic Wealth Day by posting on all social media platforms about Holistic Wealth and how they plan to celebrate the day using the hashtag #GlobalHolisticWealthDay. We are also partnering with individuals and organizations to spread the word and help get this message to millions across the globe. There’s a sign-up form on the Institute on Holistic Wealth website where individuals can sign up to become a partner or sponsor of Global Holistic Wealth Day.
Let’s finish up with a few questions about reading. What book or author inspired you to write?
Ryan Halliday’s The Obstacle Is The Way, as well as Elizabeth Alexander’s Light of The World. Honourable mention to Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking.
Is there a book or author that you think everyone should read?
Everyone should read the authors Elizabeth Alexander and Toni Morrison.
And what are you currently reading?
I just finished Tembi Locke’s book From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home and also watched the Netflix series.
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