Women are the heads of our tables, communities, and our culture. Unfortunately, according to a study by the Center of American Progress, Black women are also usually the victims of trauma, abuse, are more likely to be underpaid and the sole manager of a household. This collective stress impacts us in our daily activities, including at work.

A Psychology Today post states:

As a manager in today's increasingly collaborative, team-oriented business environment, you can see the value of being aware of emotional contagion among your team members. In fact, executives can use their knowledge of the impact of mood contagion to create more positive team dynamics, increase performance, and decrease turnover by consciously managing their own emotions and the emotions they want to spread.

As we can see, self-love isn't just a flowery term used in teenager, "feel good" discourse. There are real-word effects to not only a manager of people or a founder, but their team.

Denise "Liv" Francis, also known as the Self-Love Educator, is on a mission to help women heal. She created The Self Love Organization, an online self-love, therapy and wellness club for women of color, to help fight the transgenerational trauma in women of color and the communities they lead.

Photo provided by Denise Francis

To aid in this mission, Denise is getting her master's degree in self-love and the black mental health experience from New York University (NYU), and is the first woman to do so.

We caught up with Denise and she shared more about her journey, being a self-love educator and her next venture with NYU.

Get into our conversation below!