The Prolific Hub Podcast
The Prolific Hub Podcast is a digital archive & celebration of all things creativity, purpose and alignment.
The Prolific Hub Podcast
Overcoming Adversity & Redefining Success: The Power of Reinvention ft. Chanera Pierce | Ep. 53
In an inspiring conversation with Chanera Pierce, we explore her journey from the corporate world to carving out a unique path in mixology and hospitality. Her story of transformation highlights the power of embracing unexpected opportunities and redefining what success means on a personal level.
As Chanera candidly shares, the pandemic was a time of isolation and reflection that prompted a significant career shift, which led to a newfound clarity and motivation to pursue a passion-filled path. Her journey of overcoming adversity reveals the beauty of personal growth and self-discovery, showing how challenges can be catalysts for creativity and meaningful change. Through her business Mixational, Chanera combines her expertise in mixology with her dedication to building community and female support, underscoring the profound impact of genuine connections. Her story is a powerful reminder of how vulnerability, community, and introspection can fuel entrepreneurial dreams.
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More from Chanera:
- Visit mixationalxchanera.com to book services and view upcoming events!
- Follow @mixationalxchanera on IG!
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Hey friend, welcome back to the show. I am so excited for you to tune in to today's episode featuring a very special guest, shanira Pierce, who is a former colleague of mine from the housing and nonprofit industry and who has since gone on to do really incredible and remarkable things, and she's here today to share more about her journey as an entrepreneur and with her business, mixational. I'm so excited to jump into this conversation. Shannara speaks with so much conviction and purpose and we have such a great combo and I'm so excited for you to tune into it. That being said, this episode is an audio only experience, so you will only catch this one in audio format on your favorite podcast platform or as audio on YouTube. We are getting back to basics over here, and I'm kind of excited about that, because this is how podcasting started audio only. So, without further ado, let's jump into the conversation.
Aliya Cheyanne:Hi everyone, welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, aaliyah Cheyenne, and I'm so excited today to be joined by a very special guest, shanara Pierce. Hi, shanara, hello, hello, hello. I'm so excited to have you on the show today, so I always like to share. Yes, I'm so excited that you're here. I always love to share. Just how I might know folks, and a long time ago seems like forever ago it actually kind of was. Shanara and I worked in the housing industry and we were very close collaborators on a big project at the time and we overlapped with each other. We worked together, we got to know each other and recently I saw that Shanara launched her own incredible business and I am so excited to talk more about all things mixational. So welcome to the podcast, janara.
Chanera Pierce:I still don't. I'm still not used to hearing other people say the name, so I'm always just like, yeah, I am so okay. But yes, thank you, aaliyah. This is just like I said. It's been really nice, um, to see us both on the other side of something that felt like many worlds ago.
Chanera Pierce:And then we get to both share our very unique paths and you know we have our origin stories but, of course, like our path has converged again and we get to, you know, chat about what's new and, you know, chart these new directions together.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, I love that, I'm so excited and we were talking a little bit about that. It's so funny that you say chart these new paths, because something that I love to say in the intro for the show is that I love talking to folks who are path charters and world builders, and that's exactly what you're doing, and I'm just so grateful to be in conversation with you to talk about all the cool things. So let's get into all the things, but first I would love for you to share with the audience just a little bit more about you, who you are in the world today. Sure.
Chanera Pierce:So I always, you know, tell people I'm born and raised in the South and I think that that gives people just a very unique context into how I exist in the world, have moved through the world and why certain places and things inspire me and, honestly, are the reason why I am who I am today. So, born and raised in Memphis, tennessee, lived in many different places, who I am today, so born and raised in Memphis, tennessee, lived in many different places. Ultimately, you know, moving throughout the Midwest, went to graduate school at the University of Michigan, did some work in Detroit following, and a lot of my work at that time was again in public policy, particularly in housing policy and community development, and that's really important because that was the reasons why I ended up moving to New York and where I ended up meeting, of course, aaliyah, and so you know, we were doing work, a joint collaborative project that honestly ended up creating so much opportunity for me in ways that I never even imagined. So, you know, I like to say that I went from the advocacy part of housing to then the program management piece where a lot of the things we ended up advocating for, which was the source of income policy I actually got a chance to do some really cool implementation work for the city of New York and so did some program management around building out a pilot program to help people move into higher opportunity communities, and then I kind of you know around, I would say around the time of the pandemic right really started thinking about what's next, what are some opportunities for myself that I've kind of left on the table right, because I feel like and we were talking about this right Like a lot of times you feel like you've been trained and drilled to have one specific direction in life and I got to a point in my life where I realized I don't know if I ever allowed myself to explore different things, and so this is where I started getting certifications and just a lot of different learning and some new opportunities.
Chanera Pierce:Opportunities Ended up leaving the city, did a short stop at a consulting company doing some housing work and then left, got on Wall Street for a very short period of my life. It was not.
Chanera Pierce:I will say it was what felt like a really great opportunity ended up not always being what I thought was going to be the opportunity that I wanted it to be which was fine, right, because what went from being possibly one of the worst parts of my life ended up opening me up to so many different opportunities and where I am right now in this life, and so I was laid off.
Chanera Pierce:I had a lot of time to think about, you know, my next steps and I decided at the beginning of the year that that same energy I had whenbased business that focuses on bartending for private events, consulting with venues and clients on their cocktail menus, collaborating with brands for different promotional events not only promotional events but also promotional cocktails kind of use that to amplify their work. And also, just, you know, engaging people and teaching people around wines and spirits and beers and how to create interesting drinks that reflects their personalities themselves. And also kind of using this space to connect with more femmes and more women and more Black people who are interested in starting their own thing. But also, you know, diving deeper into the world of mixology and using that passion and that fun and just connecting with people across the many different industries to share our stories. And this is where we are today.
Aliya Cheyanne:Oh my gosh, I love how you say that and this is where we are today, as if you did not just express like a lifetime's worth of work, and I think it. I just feel like it's so important to also just say I hope you give yourself like the praises that you deserve, because even in making this pivot to creating mixational, like you accomplished so much across the housing industry, like you did so much, and the ability to just reinvent yourself and pivot like that's not to be taken lightly. That is a gift and a skill. So I hope that you have moments to just reflect on like all that you've accomplished and what you're building and creating now, and I'm so excited to talk more about just mixational and like all the details of it Monday afternoon.
Chanera Pierce:I don't appreciate.
Aliya Cheyanne:I mean, but I mean that's kind of what it's all about, like, I love just lifting up, especially black women who are just charting their own paths and building new things and, um, like you said, betting on yourself. I say that a lot about myself on this show and it's so. It's okay, girl, soak it in because, um, you know, if you don't give yourself your own praises, somebody has to. You don't give yourself your own flower, somebody has to. So I hope that you just recognize all that you've accomplished, and I feel like I often also have to remind myself of the things that.
Aliya Cheyanne:I've accomplished throughout the course of my career too. Especially in this season of pivoting and betting on myself and remembering like nothing about this is failure. This takes an incredible amount of grit. This takes an incredible amount of commitment and dedication to yourself, to your vision, even if no one else understands what that is but, you understand what it is.
Aliya Cheyanne:Listen, I hope you always remember that and encourage yourself around that. And you know, I just, yeah, I feel like I needed to tell you that, but also, just you know, bringing up the pivot again and I feel like so many women, the pivot, embracing the pivot, there's so many women and femmes, particularly Black women, who just listen. Okay. So Shannara just held up the pivot here in the book.
Chanera Pierce:Listen, look, I got it all. Baby, baby, what I tell you, I haven't raised it. I even got the workbook.
Aliya Cheyanne:Okay, okay okay, but also recognizing, like sometimes we need additional tools and things to help us make sense of what is going on, right, right, right. Sometimes transformation requires a little guidance and a little direction, honey, we got to take it in whatever form we can, yeah for sure. So I think that's so cool that you're even like allowing yourself the space to like learn and pull in new tools. But I say all that to say that this is really a transformational period and I am always interested in people's pivot stories.
Aliya Cheyanne:So you shared a little bit about how, you know you navigated to a new experience and it didn't pan out the way that you wanted it to, and there were a series of events like being laid off and having time, like you really started to explore more deeply what you wanted to do and, you know, build some tools up for yourself and get certifications and different things and explore your passions. And I feel like, although these experiences feel deeply like personal to us, there's like this theme of like this pandemic that was just a major reset for a lot of people, as tragic and as hard and as dark as that time was in so many ways, um, and the impacts of which are still being seen today, oh my gosh so many people went into a cocoon and really transformed during that time, like we, a bunch of us started waking up like is this?
Aliya Cheyanne:it can, it can't, be it it?
Chanera Pierce:can't be it. It can't be. I think that's really it for me. I think you know so many of us had time to ourselves.
Chanera Pierce:Right, I mean, I lived alone.
Chanera Pierce:I live in New York City.
Chanera Pierce:I don't have a lot of close family here Right, I have friends, but a lot of them have elderly parents that they're living with, that they are living with or, you know, had roommate situations, and so I spent a lot of time by myself really, you know, and I tell people all the time like I saw my friends, like you know, and from other regions and stuff out living life and I'm like New York was such a different place during the pandemic in such a way that I like I lost a lot of my life, but also like I had to go deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep inward in order to like, really reclaim parts of myself and be my own best friend and be the only person I talked to for sometimes days on end if I wasn't working, or you know FaceTiming and all of those things, and so it was a really, really, really rough time.
Chanera Pierce:But I also, you know, and from what I'm hearing from you as well, like it was a time that had to be. It was deeply, deeply, deeply, um, an introspective period that really started making me put a few things together that ended up shaping the course of my, the next few years of my life, for sure yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
Aliya Cheyanne:And I think that ability to go inward is so important. But it's different when it's like you're being kind of being forced to do it in that kind of like really intense and concentrated way. But I would just love to hear a little bit more of just the backstory of going inward and coming up with Mixational. I want to know everything, like, like the thought behind the name, because I think the name is so lovely and unique and different.
Aliya Cheyanne:I haven't heard it before, I know. When I first saw it I was like Mixational, what is this Like?
Chanera Pierce:I'm so curious and to learn that you have like so many of these offerings, Just take, take me through that process of creating this thing in your brain, yeah so, you know, I guess the origin story is like I said I you know I did the the thing right and got on Wall Street doing some, I thought, interesting work at the time, but there was a lot of things around just the culture. It was just a complete shift, a complete deviation from, honestly, the worlds that I've come to know. It felt, you know, and I knew a couple of weeks in like, boy, this is going to be, this is going to be a very trying space for me, and it ultimately became a very, very different, just different and difficult place for me to manage. And so there was a lot of like stuff that was coming up for me at that time of just not feeling good, right, not feeling smart, not feeling capable not feeling like I just fit in.
Chanera Pierce:I'm always having to put on different masks, characters and masks in order to just feel like I'm fitting in Right, and I think that was it Right. It was just always and it was just never enough. It was always something. It was always something about me being critiqued or being. You know, I've never experienced people tattling on me to my boss and like things, just that I'm like. This is.
Aliya Cheyanne:You know what I?
Chanera Pierce:mean, and like it got to the point that I told my. I remember I'll never forget this. It was like April 24th, it was just like a snowball of so many different things and, of course, my birthday is April 24th and one of the things I like to try to do is just pray to my. You know, my ancestors, my spirit guides and I just, you know, I ask for total transformation, I ask for whatever this is right now. It can't be, you know, and I was off work.
Chanera Pierce:I remember that week that was for like a long weekend. I did like a couple of days in Colombia with some friends and then I came back and I did like a whole spa day with one of my close friends and, like I just looked out over the city, we were at Sojo, um, over in in um and in Jersey, one of my favorite spots, and that's it. I said I just I need something different. And boy, and so a couple of days later um, of course begins the beginning of of may um, my little sister came up and took me out for my birthday.
Chanera Pierce:She took me to birthday dinner it was just such a cute little thing, and but I was expressing to her at that time I'm exhausted, I'm tired, right, and I've never I mean, um, at that point I'm what? 34 years old, I'm like what I? What do I have to be exhausted from? But the job was really where it got me. The things that were happening were just like this feels just unnatural, yeah, you know. And sure enough, a couple of weeks later, I get this notification you know, it was such a weird thing that happened, in which I knew something was you know and then, like lo and behold, I get the call. I get on the call with one of my higher ups in HR.
Chanera Pierce:I get the notification that I'm laid off. And what would have been, should have been possibly one of the most devastating moments was actually me with a sigh of relief Wow, you mean, I don't have to go back to this nonsense anymore. Yeah, yeah, thank god, you know what I mean.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, which is insane right but not if the space got you up yo, I mean that's.
Chanera Pierce:I mean I knew two weeks in, like the first few weeks, I had to call out for a sick day because I already had like the Sunday scaries Like a job, like a job is a job right. You know, like I'm not, I don't take a lot of things like that too personal, because I know I know how to show up and do my thing. But I'm in a space now where everything I do is like not right. No, this can't be it. You know what I mean.
Chanera Pierce:And I was expressing to my little sister that, um, you know, back in early May, like I do want to take some time off. I just I need some time to just decompress and just really figure out what's next for me. Yeah, lo and behold, not even a month later. Yeah, I get that and I oh, wow, I guess I get the summer back, like what otherwise could have been and should. And it was Don't get me wrong Like there was a lot of grief that came with that, a lot of personal like you know, just like damn, I wasn't good.
Chanera Pierce:I guess, you know, I guess they really did hate me. You know, like all of these things were coming up but honestly, a lot of the biggest. The initial reaction was a sigh of relief, yeah, and so you know that allowed me. You know I did kind of allow myself to kind of enjoy the summer right, like I'm like finally I just get time to decompress, finally just kind of relaying fun and pleasure and just hanging out and kind of doing my own thing. And I went to go see Usher in Vegas with my line sister.
Chanera Pierce:I went to see Beyonce in Toronto for the.
Chanera Pierce:Red, reddest touch concert with, like some of my close friends, like he was living it up because I was just like I am free, yes, um. And you know, then like I finally started putting myself out there for the job search, mhm and baby, I was in for rude awakening, mhm, um, in which it was just so difficult. I'm like Shadera, me, I can't get a job nowhere, and I'm talking places were leading me on for weeks and months. I'd never gotten the run around the way I got with that job search and it was humiliating, right.
Chanera Pierce:And then I think that's when a lot of like the guilt and like a lot of the well, maybe I should have just played along a little nicer, maybe I should have just like a lot of that grief started coming up for me anger at myself for not being smart enough, or you know adapting, or you know all of these things Like why couldn't I just be better, what was wrong with me? And like that that beat me up for some months, right, because I just had struggled so much with getting that next role. You know things that I know I was overqualified for things. I'm getting personal referrals. You know from, uh, from the inside.
Chanera Pierce:You know I'm doing the things that they tell us what we're supposed to do yeah, right, and I was struggling, yeah, and it weighed me down for months and I'm talking throughout fall, um, going into the winter, oh, it made. Oh I felt terrible, yeah, but something in me was just like well, maybe this isn't it right. And so I just started like thinking about you know, like all right, so what are some skills that I can utilize that I can? What are some things about myself that like I can kind of start putting out there just to get a little bit of cash flow right? Bartending was the first thing that popped up and that's the thing like so funny During the pandemic, like I was actually making drinks and like feeling real, like I got really into mixology and like it was always been like this reoccurring thing for me.
Chanera Pierce:This like I love craft cocktails, I love the idea like the intricacy of building a cocktail, like I really enjoyed that, like what it, what that entire experience was, and like the advancement of cocktail culture, and so it was always one of those like lingering things. And then during the pandemic, you know, when we had nothing but time, I actually started trying to do my own little thing. Right, it was always for fun, just taking little pictures of stuff, and then I guess, like that, I picked up that thread again somewhere, you know, last November, december, and I was like what, if, what could that look like? But I again, it was just this time of just letting a lot of ideas come up and just sitting with them, like not being too quick to run with anything, because at that point I said I just knew I had to get a job, I had to figure out this next step, I have to do the things, this doesn't matter.
Chanera Pierce:So the start of the new year comes around and again I try to use the new year to really journal for myself. I write a letter to myself on future me life could look like, or my next year could look like, and really allow myself to kind of sit with so many things and just like, all right, you have nothing but time at this point. What is possible for me? What, what feels right right now? And I kid you not, on the second day, january 2nd 2024, this idea of a mixology-based company started flooding me, wow, and I'm talking flooding me in such a way that I'm like I've never like just getting these like almost downloads.
Chanera Pierce:Yeah like almost downloads like you know, depending on what your spiritual practice are, we call them spiritual downloads in which I'm getting all of this information.
Chanera Pierce:It was so clear yes, right, like, and it was in a way that I'm like I can actually articulate this in a way that it feels right and like this idea of a mixology based business that really focuses on at that point it was content creation, but also like maybe mobile bartending as well, doing private parties and things like that. And so I sat and I talked to my mom about it, right, because you know your parents are like sometimes you be like that first wave of does this even make sense? Yeah, and when I ran it down to through my mother and she was like, no, actually that's a really good idea, and like the fact again, like something that was just so new at that time. But I had such a level of conviction that just felt almost just unwavering, in such a way that I had never felt before, and so I sat with it for a couple of days and then I was talking on the phone with my little sister and I was like okay, well, what do I need to do? First she was like well, you know, I did my little sister, the one who took me out for dinner on my birthday this year she was like she reminded me that she had like got her bartending certification just for fun some years ago and
Chanera Pierce:she was telling me about the place that I should go, I was like, oh, you know the name of the school, blah, blah, blah. She was like you know, they have a New York campus. She sends me the link to it. So I'm just looking at it and I'm like, okay, yeah, you know. And like I saw that you know that they have like a tuition for like $600 or something like that, and I was like, okay, I don't have that money. I am freshly unemployed and I'm on unemployment. My severance had already run out Like it was just stuff Right.
Chanera Pierce:And so one of the lessons I had been learning from therapy and you know, for many, many years of learning how to be vulnerable is let people be there for you. I reached out to like 10 of my closest friends, you know, who are all very, you know, very much working and, you know, have their own lives and successful in their own right, and I included, like my parents as well, and I asked everyone like, hey, this is what I'm trying to do, this is what I imagine that I would like to do. Would you be interested in donating to this? And it's so funny because we're approaching 444 on a Monday, I sent this email out on a Sunday and within 24 hours I sent that email actually out at 444 on a Sunday. Within 24 hours, I had reached three times that goal. Wow, just from my very close friends. Wow. And then my mom she just came through and dropped. She was like, well, I've been thinking about a way that I can invest, really so incited to your life.
Chanera Pierce:I really think it's going to be great. And she just gave me the money for the tuition. So now I'll have the tuition money and I had the money that I need to be able to, you know, get to the classes and back, begin to kind of rebuild my bar and like getting tools that I needed and just like really start to set the stage right. Like I got the, the investment money for beginning to like just get lighting and like it was just so many little different things that I was actually kind of able to do. Yeah, to really start laying the groundwork for mixational, yeah, in January of that year, so that next week I started the bartending school. I took it serious, I knocked it all out in one week, wow, every single day, wow, wow. And like I really focused on having due diligence of the faith of my friends and my family. I think that that was what you know, really that was what I needed to know, that they see me, that my dreams are real, that they're not this whatever hallucination that I thought I was having. Yeah, and that's really what kind of laid the groundwork from there, and so you know, it allowed me to again just start laying the groundwork and thinking about what was next and like actually thinking, oh, maybe I need a logo and maybe I need this and maybe you know, and really like taking the time and like I went into the bartending school, it was such a good space because not only did I learn the classics, but it was also just a space where I went in without thinking about mixational. But it was also just a space where I went in without thinking about mixational, right, because I was like that's not the point here. The point is I need to learn, but I also need to be open to the possibilities as well. Yeah, and that was it. I just allow my space and someone and I credit her, her name is Jasmine when I developed a really good social media relationship, social friendship almost but she was, like you know, be seen trying, yes, and I think there was something about that that kind of liberated me.
Chanera Pierce:Yeah, right, because, again, like you know, we go into like our entire lives, we're supposed to be polished and professional and just so on. Point that, like you, don't really give yourself the grace to be seen trying something brand new, starting all the way over, like you know, and starting from the bottom. You know what I mean, or whatever your perceived bottom is, but little did I know. I was never at my bottom, right. Oh, which was really something that I really should have been when we're thinking about our stories and how we talk about them. Like I was never at the bottom. Yeah right, I had the faith of my friends. I had the faith of my family, yeah, I had everything I needed.
Chanera Pierce:At that time I decided to be seen trying. So every day I was on Instagram like, like, just like showing people myself, myself making little drinks and stuff, and like attending school and like I even did a little game with my close friends where I'd have them send me a drink and I would make it for them. Then I would post the video. You know, just like really showing like, at least, at the very least, bringing my close you know little close circle in um on this new journey that I'm doing. And again like be seen trying right. And then, like, when I finally passed and everything, and I got my little search, my photo and my certificate and my ATAP certification and all of that and I was just like did this like recap video and I just like told people about like I, I'm a licensed bartender, now this is what I'm doing.
Chanera Pierce:Yeah, there were so many people like this is so this is amazing. Like, oh my, you know just like. And it was again just like this reminder of like, oh wow, I am again not starting from the bottom Like there are so many people who believe in this dream that I haven't even really don't even know how to articulate fully all the way yet. Yeah, but that was it though. Right, and it was just like it became this like lesson for me to like what does it look like to be seen, trying to be seen, putting yourself out there? Types of events I started meeting. You know, I met really influential people in the space, like going to their talks and, you know, tastings, and just like, honestly, the more I started talking about it, the more like people were like oh yeah, I want you to connect to this person here and this person had a ticket to this and you should go to this. And it was just every time I the story of mixational for me ended up becoming every time I opened up my mouth there was opportunity.
Chanera Pierce:at the end of every conversation it felt like.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah.
Chanera Pierce:Yeah, and such a way that I had it was just always forward momentum with it, and so I started laying out this groundwork, this, like you know as a former project manager, you know we love a plan, plan, plan. I literally started project planning mixational.
Aliya Cheyanne:And I was like.
Chanera Pierce:What does it look like? Right? So I started building my credibility right by establishing content creation and just doing demonstrations on Instagram and cross-posting it across different social media platforms. And people were like wait a minute, oh, this is really good, like I never knew, you know, and just like really engaging people and like kind of just sharing a lot of the things that I not only learned in bartending school but I've acquired over the years. And then it became this thing of like, oh right, like people are really into this. Okay, right. So what does it? What do my next steps look like? So I did like, during March, madness.
Chanera Pierce:Like I did mixational madness and it was this like bracket of just like brands you know popular brands and like things like that and just really started actually engaging the world around it. And then I was like, okay, well, what's next? Right, all right? Um, I need a website. A website, right, and I need to really outline my services. And spent three weeks, heavy weeks, of building up my website and getting everything prepared and lined up and bought the domain and just like just so many different parts that I had no idea what I was doing. But I just had to trust that the next step, that what I was doing, was ultimately leading me, yes, yes.
Chanera Pierce:And then this really magical moment of like kissed it happened in April, cause my goal was what if I'll just like lunch, fixational with what I have on my birthday Right Like that was like this artificial but real deadline that I had April 24th? Right so remember that was at the very beginning of this story, um, but and I'll get to you know what ended up coming of this, but it was just like, okay, so I went to some event.
Chanera Pierce:It was a, it was an industry event. A lot of influencers, blah blah, blah, blah blah, like types of you know just different types of events, people. They were all going. So the name, the place, the location of this event has multiple locations, completely different parts of Brooklyn. Okay, so I went to the wrong location. Oh, okay, in that wrong location there were three other women who also went to the wrong location as well, and so we're all walking around like where are we supposed to be going? Blah, blah, blah blah. And they were like I think we're all at the wrong place.
Chanera Pierce:So we all get in his car and we just all started talking, yeah, and then like I kind of leave and I think at that point again, this is like early april I'm still feeling like a lot of like that rawness of just being discouraged from the job hunt and the layoff Right and. But there's still a little small budding dream of mixational yes, and I started talking about it and in that car right ended up being a woman who connected me to a bar owner that I ended up work bartending at her place to really start establishing myself as a local bartender. I'm having my own residency and also ended up another person in the car also ended up giving me some of my first events, and it was one of those things like every time I opened my mouth about this business and I led with this vulnerability, being open to the opportunities so many people were just like, yeah, hell, yeah, yes, let's see what we can do, right, and that's it. And that's the story of Mixational. It just became this like really amazing world of connections, of people of different industries who were curious about what this little girl was doing, created some mixology business, bartending, private events and, you know, doing classes and teaching people how to make beautiful things that they can also use to amplify their own cocktails at home and all of these different events. And I decided to launch it on my birthday and, again, like I was always trying to share a lot about what's my, the story of Mixational, the story, my story and how we both came to be and celebrating not only my 35th birthday but also the birth of Mixational and really being just like out there and loud about it and saying I'm not going to be ashamed of how I got here anymore. Yes, because I should not be ashamed, right, right, this is a very nap.
Chanera Pierce:Like layoffs happen, thousands of people have been laid off right, like I am not special in this regard, but what is special is I took this time to create something that was uniquely my own. Yes, that ended up changing my life. Yeah, and I had to sit with it. And, you know, sometimes I get like it's so hard to kind of think about like to your earlier point like you don't realize what you're doing until, like sometimes you know you have to have someone else, like it's getting amazing, and I'm like, no, I'm just trying to survive.
Chanera Pierce:It's been a really, really earth-moving thing in which I only I'm less than six months and I've had amazing collaborations with McDonald's right reached out to me to do an amazing, you know, and just so many different things. But, like I've had this, you know people have come to me, you know, saying, hey, I'm actually going to do my first pop up. Just really exciting for me. You know, in a couple of weeks, on October 14th, here in Brooklyn, and you know I have brands that are reaching out to me asking me to do this with their companies and do this with their brands. And hey, I have this promo idea. How can we collaborate and I've done no less at this point than almost three dozen private events since I launched. I've led classes, I've done some really interesting things and I even the story of Mixational has been proliferated in the New York market so well I had to bring on a second bartender, who has been helping me as well.
Chanera Pierce:So yeah, it's been I mean from January 2nd on down to September 30th today like it's been a world changing life year for me, the story of true transformation, that story that I was asking my folks for you know, my birthday last year it came to pass, came to be in such a magical way that I could not have ever imagined. Came to be in such a magical way that I could not have ever imagined. But it did start with a little bit of heartbreak, but I think I needed that right To kind of get away from whatever it is that I think I was supposed to be, even for this moment, right and really allow myself to do something different and take in that same spirit of always betting on myself and bringing it to this phase of life.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, that is just so profound. I got goosebumps so many times while you were speaking. I think, something that's so interesting to me, and even as you reflect on this as well the juxtaposition of not feeling good enough in one space and then being affirmed so deeply by your friends and family and having them literally pour into you and invest in you and your and your vision, because you're always more than enough. Yeah, but it took the right people to see you and to see that and and remind you and I think also just that experience of I mean so many black women in particular experience it just the micro aggressions, the constantly like being critiqued, like let you be, you know, not saying you are, but let you be someone who might be neurodivergent or something we just never kind of fit. It's's never these spaces, right.
Aliya Cheyanne:These spaces weren't built for us to fit anyway. You know. So you know, black women are the biggest and fastest group of entrepreneurs right now, and it's hard to not see or understand why, like so many of these spaces don't make us feel safe or included or cared for. Instead, we feel ostracized, we feel belittled, we feel disrespected, we feel disconnected, we don't feel supported, and that ultimately leads us in many cases and in many ways not all to create our own things and I just love hearing that, even in your story to create our own things, and I just love hearing that even in your story and, yeah, shout out to your social media friend or your friend Jasmine, for you know saying, you know be seen, trying.
Aliya Cheyanne:I've explored the theme of being seen a lot on the show and it's so incredible to me how you have allowed yourself to be vulnerable and to be seen and to even speak about your vision. So many of us feel like scared sometimes. I even have moments, like with this show sometimes, where I'm just like I feel timid to even say I have a podcast sometimes, because it's like people think so many things about podcasts now, things about podcasts now. It's like there's also a level of like shame and embarrassment, even though I feel like what I'm trying to accomplish with my show is so much more meaningful than that shame okay.
Chanera Pierce:You're not just a bunch of mediocre men sitting around with a mic like let's be really clear here I know you're not over, you know here sitting around around regurgitating Reddit talking points.
Aliya Cheyanne:I know, but there's still a level of that right, even feeling comfortable expressing it. So I think it's so beautiful to hear your story about how you have, just even if it was uncomfortable, open your mouth to share, and how many blessings and opportunities have come from that. That's so powerful, and you share that example of going to the quote-unquote wrong location with those other women, but that was the right location.
Chanera Pierce:It was the right location. The irony of it all, like the right location, you know, and I was so stressed out about because, again, like that time, I was still on unemployment I'm like I've wasted this uber money to get to this place.
Chanera Pierce:I had a free ticket to this thing. I let my friend down. You know just like all of these things were in my head at that moment. But not allowing those things to kind of stop me from being vulnerable and hopping in a car with a group of women that I'd never wouldn't have known, from freaking anybody on the street.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah.
Chanera Pierce:Yeah, yeah, two of them ended up, you know, helping me make my life for the better, and it was just again. It's just moment, magical moments of kismet. That's all I have.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yes, yes, and I think too, something that sticking with me too, with your story, is you having that moment with yourself, your ancestors and your spirit guides and I mean hindsight is 20-20. It might not have felt like it in the moment, but I honestly also feel like, perhaps for your own evolution, for your own push to this to be greater, you might have required that layoff at that time, because, even though you were feeling that way, you may not have left on your own immediately you were feeling that way, you may not have left on your own immediately.
Chanera Pierce:You know, right Like I think that's the thing right Like you know, I talk about this with friends and associates and just folks who are curious about what I'm up to, and I'm, like you know, who would leave their job, their very comfortable job with amazing benefits and all of these things to do this right, um, you know, god knows I wouldn't have left on my own volition if I didn't have to.
Chanera Pierce:Yeah, um, but the other side of it is I actually needed to. Yes, um, there was so much deep healing my body needed. Yeah, there was so much rest and recovery that I needed, because you get so full of everyone else's critiques of yourself that you can't see yourself for who you are anymore. Yes, and that's where I was. I could not see myself for who I was anymore. I became really a shell of myself. Honestly, I did.
Chanera Pierce:I became very much a facade of really just, you know, waking up every day to put on my, you know, my little heels and stockings and dress and really just trying to become I created it on my own or what where I was going to always be enough.
Chanera Pierce:Yes, and even if I wasn't enough, you know, like the perfect amount, there was going to be something that met me on the other side of every time. I put myself out there To help get me to where I needed to be. And it's no, you know, surprise or anything that that this became that space for me, you know, the nightlife space where I got to be fun and sexy and just, you know, having a good time and not feeling like. You know I had to cover myself up to not be too girly, to not be too loud and you jokesy, and you know I get to be myself, yes, and I get to talk about shit I'm interested in, yeah, I get to talk to people I'm curious about, yeah, and I get to hear all these really cool stories. I'm like I get to go to events and I get to go to, you know, just like. Finally, I'm in spaces where, like every aspect of who I am has led me here, you know, being able to project, manage, right.
Chanera Pierce:Being able to advocate for myself and others, being able to research, being able to understand, even just doing business analysis. Yes, right, there are so many aspects of who I am and what I've done in the past that have allowed me to be able to be relatively successful. Yeah, I'd like to think oh, yeah, they prepared you, yeah, yeah, yes.
Chanera Pierce:First five months of business and then it's like you know, so not there was nothing that you know could that went unused, and I think that was really something that's been really amazing about this whole experience for me is that I have so many diverse experiences working, you know, in my very short 35 years of life yeah, but like that have led me to who I, where I am right now and being able to position me for my next steps, and that has been amazing as well.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yes, yes, one thousand percent. I love, I just love even that framing of nothing has gone unused or nothing goes unused because it was really preparation and you didn't even know it back then. But here you stand in it now, fully capable of doing all the things, like yeah. And let me also just say like I tip my hat because there are a lot of folks who would not call themselves like a success at five or six months. You're bringing on help to do that this is black.
Chanera Pierce:Yeah, like I get to like everything that I said that I wanted to accomplish in my first four months of business I've been able I'm sorry in my first year of business. I've done in my first five months, wow, wow, and so for me, that's my success. Yes, I don't need a. That's my barometer of success. Barometer of success that saysometer of success that says I want to do private events, I want to have high-end customer base.
Chanera Pierce:I want to work with million-dollar brands. I want to collaborate with Black femme mixologists and bartenders and build relationships. I want to work with people and build relationships. I want to work with people. Everything that I said that I wanted to do has been done, so now I'm like okay, well, maybe I can do this shit, then Maybe this is it, though, you know, maybe I am doing the thing. Yes, and for me and that's been another thing too is like defining my own barometer, like being my own barometer of success.
Chanera Pierce:I'm not looking for anyone else's anymore? Yeah, right, I think there were so many prior to this year. I always looked for other ways to measure my value. Yeah, to measure my. What does my success look like? Yeah, measure, just like you know, making sense of my own life? Yeah, and so that's been the thing about mixational is mixational has allowed me to actually look for it in myself, mm-hmm Right, and validate myself and, you know, establish what is my own purpose and what is my own meaning look like for me, yeah, so yeah, like I would like to call myself a success.
Aliya Cheyanne:I can't like one of my goals this year was to be like.
Chanera Pierce:at one point, I was facing eviction, and the thing that I said to myself this year was I just want to be able to stay through the summer. We're approaching October. My rent is paid up for a couple of months now.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yes.
Chanera Pierce:I know that.
Aliya Cheyanne:And so for me, yes, yes, yes, ma'am, yes.
Chanera Pierce:So, you know, and being able to come out of, you know, rent, debt and now, like be paid up for months, and I was able to resign at least, and I was, you know, like that's my success for right now. My success for right now, and it's it feels good, and it feels good to not have to look for someone else to validate that for me anymore.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, I think that's so beautiful and so profound what you said. I talk often about people defining success for themselves, because when you hold yourself to society standard or what everybody else tells you, what you're supposed to do or what everybody else tells you what you're supposed to do.
Aliya Cheyanne:It's elusive and you always feel bad.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yes, you have to define success for yourself what it looks like for you, what it feels like in your body, and it sounds like security, peace, flexibility, showing up as yourself. I also I thought it was a fleeting thought, but I said to myself I feel like what Shannara is doing is perfect for her, because you've always had this big and dynamic personality and I feel like, exactly as you described, you're getting to be yourself, you're getting to be conversational, you're getting to network and mix with people who you're curious about, and it is the perfect space. It is the perfect space. It is the perfect space. So kudos to you for like stepping into this space and handling it so masterfully and so powerfully and like pulling in all of the tools and the expertise to create and shape and build this thing from the ground up. I think it's beautiful to witness and I have loved hearing every step and every minute about it. And I know, despite all of the successes and all of the wins, I know it was not always easy, but it was hard for sure. Yeah.
Chanera Pierce:Getting to this space is so hard and it's not without you know it struggles and every day doesn't feel as good and sometimes, like you say, you do have to remind yourself how you got here and you know and all of the personal wins that you've had. And I think, like I said, like it's it is, it is scary, but embracing like, just like doing, doing it afraid, right, like the, as the people say. Yes, another thing jasmine sold into me yeah, it was just like.
Chanera Pierce:Those were the two like running themes for so much of what I did. It's just like being seen trying and just doing it, afraid. Yes, today I'm scared, but it's like every day I'm gonna do something, that it is sufficient. Yeah, um, whether it's talking to someone about it right and sharing this dream, or whether it's I just did a webinar just talking about risk and regulations on alcohol wow, you know, and just like allowing myself to learn so much and being a part, just like being part of this evolution and not kind of standing by and letting life happen for me.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, right yeah, I think that's so powerful. I did a whole episode about doing it, scared, doing it alone and doing it anyway, and it requires this.
Chanera Pierce:This life demands that has to listen but you meet people along the way who are like I'm also terrified, but hey, let's do it right together, yeah.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, that's beautiful. It's been meaningful as well, yeah. I think there's also something to be said about the way well, you know people in general, all people but the way women will stand up and support each other. Not all the time, women will stand up and support each other Not all the time, but I love the examples of all the women that have supported you and helped you with your journey and introduced you to opportunities, because when that happens, we're unstoppable, unstoppable, yeah.
Chanera Pierce:You know I give so much credit. It's to your point. The women in my life have shaped so much of my this journey this year. Yeah, and it's to your point. The women in my life have shaped so much of my this journey this year. Yeah, um, and it's really my this old to like just the divine feminine within me right and being able to connect with other feminine spirits.
Chanera Pierce:Um, you know, and not to say that the masculine doesn't have its purpose, but this is particularly for the women in my life. I have, you know, one of my best friends who is almost kind of brilliant. She gets on my nerves but no, like, she's been like basically my small business consultant, from the marketing of my work to the event coordinator. She literally is helping the private project, manage my pop-up with me and another young lady who she connected me to, who I ended up becoming close to, who is now, who does my design work right and she's made my logo and she has created a color palette for me that actually amplifies the spirit of mixational. And how is it that I can tell that story in a very beautiful design and she's made by. You know, um, our flyers. And, like you know, so, shout out to danielle lee, my bestie.
Chanera Pierce:I was about to say shout her out. I love him, so, dang. You know, like, that's my girl, she has a sub stack, is she right? She's ais, is a we'd like to call it because she called me a bartender, is, but you know, and shout out to Monet Hill, who is my bartender, who came on and, like, she actually hired me for an event with WeWork and then, in turn, you know, we developed a really good close and she was like, hey, I used to bartend back, um, back in my you know, she's from new Orleans and and that's another thing for me, you know, being a Southern black woman, right, that's my, my origin. So, connecting with other Southern black women up here, I'm like, of course, yeah, so I ended up being able to fold her into my work and giving her opportunities to share her story and share her, her curiosity and interest, um, through mixational like I.
Chanera Pierce:You know, I cannot shout it out enough and so it has been this, really like I said this, this, this alignment of people who are curious about what I'm doing, who have skills that I lack right. But the spirit of wanting to help and advance it, and in such a way that it's been magical for sure. Yeah, I think nothing short of it.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, nothing short of it. Indeed, this has been so good. We're getting close to time, but it's just so sad. But, shanara, I would love for you to two things. I know you're still in your first year, but you have accomplished so much. You have also dropped so many gems and shared so much wisdom. But for the person who is listening to this episode and they feel really inspired and maybe they're interested in starting their own thing, but they're they're nervous, they're unsure they might be experiencing a multitude of things that are impacting their decision.
Aliya Cheyanne:if you had a piece of advice, or even something you wish someone would have said to you when you were about to go on this journey, is there anything you?
Chanera Pierce:share with them. I would say go deep, right, go within, do something that, if it only makes sense to you, it is that, your courage and conviction, that is going to allow you to tell that story and bring in like like minds as well, as well. And so you know, don't do it for anyone else.
Chanera Pierce:This has to be something that comes uniquely from you, or you Right? And I also say do the things that kind of scare you, right? So you know, brief aside, here is I actually have come from a family that struggles with alcohol. Even myself I have my own struggle with navigating alcohol. Wow.
Chanera Pierce:So, being able to use something that has actually created so much hurt, right and alchemizing it for my own good draw on like I said, my ancestral connections and their lessons, to utilize it for my own good and just creating a way for me to re-approach this life. Like I said, do something that kind of scares you, right, like being around so much alcohol, you know, kind of the thought of that had me kind of scared. Because what if right. But I think, though, right, like you're on your own unique journey, you're on your own unique path and I'm doing something that is allowing me to use things that would have otherwise terrified me in a very different space for this new found lifestyle that I have. And so, again, like it came from within, right, and I had to sit with this for a while before it became really cogent and just right. But do the things that kind of scare you, but also things that just resonate within deeply, that there's like a level of courage and conviction and even like self moderation that comes with this as well, right?
Chanera Pierce:Like you know how you need to now re-approach this life for yourself, yeah. So do things that make sense to you, do things that drive you, do things that make you happy, do things that make you scared, but also, ultimately, do it for you, and do it so that you know, you're able to define how you define yourself and how you show up is on your own cord and no one else.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, wow, who knew we were also going to get that little piece of information? I did not know that that is so deep and also alchemy is the perfect word for that. But what also came to mind is it was probably your purpose, not, probably it is your purpose to heal that for your family.
Chanera Pierce:Yeah, like that is, I just got a little bit of a chill, like I did too, but it was, that was part of the healing, and all of this was like, no, like I need to do, like this is ultimately for my highest good, because I'm doing something that brought so much destruction, yeah, to my family, yeah, right, and what can I do now to be a better steward of this substance? Yes, which is why I'm so, you know, on top of like education around it, yeah, moderation around it, yeah, I cut people off, you know. I'm like. You know, I'm not the bartender who's just going to keep serving you.
Chanera Pierce:Right but it's like how can I ensure that people are going about this safely? And in a way that is here to amplify the ambiance, not to you know, take away from it.
Aliya Cheyanne:Yeah, from it, of course. Yeah, that's really powerful and thank you for that additional piece of wisdom. Thank you, if folks want to get in touch with you to get a class, to book you for a private event, any of the things, where can they go? So?
Chanera Pierce:you can find me a couple of different ways at. I'm at 333 Lounge bi-weekly Sometimes weekly depends on the shift but I do the brunches and so we do a little cute little karaoke brunch. I'm also having my first hop-up, which will also be at 333 Lounge on October 14th. It's a Monday, so it starts at about six o'clock. It's going to be a night of exclusive cocktails. You, of course, are invited, and I'll send you a very direct invitation for you to join.
Chanera Pierce:But you know, come out and try some of my drinks. I've finally just solidified the menu for the night. I'm so excited. You can hit me up on Instagram and TikTok Less on TikTok. But it's Mixational X Shannara, so that's C-H-A-N-E-R-A, but you could also use that same Mixational X Shannara or by Shannara, right? But MixationalXShanaracom is my website so it can tell you about any upcoming events. It's cool. In a pop-up, you can share out some of the reviews from my previous work and you can book me if you have any events in the area, if you would like a curated menu for your venue or just for your home, right, and you want some really fun cocktails that can wow your friends, and you can also do cocktail classes and things like that as well. So a variety of different ways to connect, a variety of different ways that I can add value and service to your life through the wine and spirit space, and I'd look forward to any type of opportunities to do so.
Aliya Cheyanne:Amazing, and I will make sure I link all of those details in the show notes so it's easy for folks to find. I can't thank you enough for spending this time with me, with us, to talk about all things mixational, to share your story, yes, and I'm proud of you. I'm so proud of you. So thank you for bringing your full self to this conversation and sharing all the things.
Chanera Pierce:This has been really good, thank you, thank you, thank you so much and thank you for creating this space, and I'm proud of you too, man. Like it takes so much to have your own vision for something and actually putting foot to ground to make it happen. Yeah, like that is amazing. I'm proud of you. I'm glad our paths get to converge again and I look forward to any future other opportunities that we have to do so.
Aliya Cheyanne:So excited, thank you. Thank you, hey friend. What an incredible conversation with Shanara. Shanara, thank you so much for joining the show to just share a bit more about yourself, more about your experience, more about Mixational, your journey as an entrepreneur and beyond, and I can't thank you enough for showing up so vulnerably and enthusiastically to speak with me and to share your story with our friends here on the show. If you enjoyed this episode, if you found it inspiring, encouraging, informative if you found it inspiring, encouraging, informative, if it resonated with you in any capacity, I invite you to leave a review for the show. Let me know what you think in the reviews. Five stars only. Please support your girl.
Aliya Cheyanne:Whatever platform you're listening on Apple Podcasts, spotify, podcast, addict wherever you're tuning in, please be sure to rate and review the show. Reviews help tremendously in the podcasting world. It helps more folks to find the show. So if you are someone who shows up for this show every week, you tune in, always coming back for more. Please take a few seconds out of your day to leave a review for the show. It would mean so much to me and it would help me out a ton. Thank you so much for lending your time, your energy, your ears and so much more to this show. I love spending this time with you and I'm so grateful for you tuning in each week. If you know someone in your network who you think would love this episode as well, or any other episode of the show, any of your favorites, the show in general, please be sure to share the show, share this episode with a friend and encourage them to tune in as well. Thank you so much and I will catch you on the next episode. Bye.
