268 | Reducing Stigma and Engaging Men with Gigi Sabbat
Our guest this week on the pod is Gigi Sabbat. Gigi is the Founder and CEO of Life Service Center of America, LLC, a Motivational Speaker, and a 5x Best Selling Author. She's also a Life and Confidence Coach, a 1st Generation Haitian American, the host of the Walk With Me Podcast and a Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Advocate.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
Engaging Men for Positive Change in Our Communities: Interview with Gigi Sabbat, CEO of LSCOA.
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
SPEAKERS
Gigi Sabbat, Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:02
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of the Awarepreneurs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practices. Each episode, I do a deep dive interview with a thought leader in this intersection. Someone who has market tested experience, and is already transforming anyone. Before I introduce our guests and our topic today, I have one request. If you could go over to Apple podcast or whatever app you're listening to the show on, hit the subscribe button, do a rating and review. It helps tremendously. Thanks so much. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Gigi Sabtba, and our topic is Reducing Stigma and Engaging Men. Gigi is the CEO and founder of life Service Center of America, a motivational speaker and a 5x best selling author. She's also a life coach and a competence coach, a first generation Haitian American, the host of the Walk With Me podcast, which I recently had the honor of being a guest on, and a domestic violence and sexual assault advocate. Gigi, welcome to the show. Thank you, Paul. It's such an honor to be here today. thrilled to introduce our audience to so before we get into this topic, really interesting topic. And 250 plus episodes, we've never done an episode on engaging men for positive change. And here we are, you're just the right person to help us before we get into that part of the work, didi. We're called to wear printers. And one of the ways we'd like to get to know somebody is to ask you about a wellness or resiliency practice that you personally use to get yourself ready to do this important work. Absolutely. Great question. And in regards to resiliency, a resilient mindset truly matters. And so prayer truly matters. And so what works for me is prayer. Prayer truly matters. And I say this all the time, when we read the Bible, we're building a relationship with Him. And so it's so important to read the Bible. I start my day off reading the Bible, and I end my day off reading the Bible. So listeners, there's something you should know about how Gigi and I met, we connected on LinkedIn. And Didi reached out and said, Hey, will you be a speaker for this event that's coming up? We'll tell you about that's for men. And I was like, Oh, sure, cool, how can I help and I looked into it. And I was like, Wait a second, this is really interesting. We have two women doing an online event of a very significant moment, this awesome group of speakers for men, and I was like, I've been in business for 15 years, I'm not sure I've ever seen. And we were talking a little bit about it before we hit record, but God, like if you were gonna give, we'll get into the background of the wider container of the work, which is this thing called life service center for America doing awesome work. But like that context, like our topic of engaging men as positive forces for change, and some of the stigma that sometimes gets in the way of men feeling comfortable, you know, rolling up our sleeves, and really doing some work, what led you and your co founder for this wonderful initiative to say, you know, we need to do an event that's engaging men as positive forces.
Gigi Sabbat 03:19
To be honest, the Bible says, walk by faith, not by sight. And this just happened. Essentially, we did one on last year, we did one on for the woman, we did the global confident Women's Conference. And so God led us to do one this year for the men. And so we came up with a confident, global confident men's conference. And it just happened. It just happened. Again, walking by faith, and not by sight.
Paul Zelizer 03:46
And like to give some scope, like it was quite successful, the event you did last year, is that fair to say?
Gigi Sabbat 03:52
Absolutely. The women were from nominal. And what they shared was phenomenal. Very, very powerful.
Paul Zelizer 03:59
And somewhere along the way, people said, Hey, what about the guys? That's right. Yeah. And so you and your co founder decide to do … tell us the name of the event,
Gigi Sabbat 04:10
The global confident men's conference. A global conference.
Paul Zelizer 04:12
And you have like, quite a wonderful group. I haven't even gotten to connect with all the guys yet. But this wonderful group of speakers and like, What's your intention? What do you hope to happen with this conference?
Gigi Sabbat 04:27
Essentially, what I'm finding is that a lot of the youth need assistance because and why because they look up to a lot of the the older men for advice. And so we do have a few folks on the panel covering, covering youth leadership as well. And it's not just for the youth but also for the adults. So what they're going to cover is business and mindset and so much in alignment with confidence. So if you're listening to this message today, I highly recommend that you reserve your virtual seat and also when you attend the conference, As to take notes, we'll put a link to the event in the show notes so people can sign up and get more information. So you are been have been for a long time to do, you've been a advocate around domestic violence, you've been an African around sexual assault, when you're interfacing with communities, you've seen up close some pretty hard issues like give our listeners a little bit of sense of that part of your work. Absolutely. And that's just me understanding folks from their place of pain. Almost four years ago, I almost lost my life, death by strangulation in a domestic violence relationship while in law school. And I'll never forget, one day I had just got done studying. And then I was on the couch, I was on a phone call with the colleague from the SBA, because at the time I was the SBA president. And I'll never forget, the abuser charged at me beat me almost strangled me to death, threw my phone across the room. And when I tried to get back up, I fell flat like a vegetable. And at the time, I didn't understand why, but the domestic violence advocates told me it's because I lost oxygen to the brain. So the fact that I'm still here, and I'm able to utilize my skills, and my knowledge is truly a blessing. After everything that happened, I stepped into God's purpose for my life. And I launched two books, launched a podcast and launched a company. And God led me to host an event and the first global event was on domestic violence. And that's just me listening to him and where he needs me to serve and how he needed me to serve. And that's what we did, we did one on the global, the global domestic violence conference. And what I found was that domestic violence did not just happen to women, it does happen to men. And there's a stigma that's attached to domestic violence in where folks believe that it only happens to woman, which is not the case. It also happens to men, a good friend of mines, Grady Taylor, who was very outspoken about domestic violence, he lost a part of his eyesight due to being hit in the eye socket. And I love what he says, because he says that he lost his eyesight, but he's still in one eye, but he still has his vision, which is very powerful, which shows folks and I hope folks can understand that no matter what you go through, that you can overcome, and with God that you can overcome all things.
Paul Zelizer 07:10
I'm so sorry that that happened to you. And thank you for sharing that with us. Do you do your own personal experience. And I imagine that that if somebody's listening in, they're trying to listeners, if you want any sense of the kind of traction I'm talking about, you might just like drop over on Instagram and take a look at what's happening on GDS profiles, you might notice that when GG post something interesting things happen, let's just say that, I'll put a link to GTV Instagram account, as well as, you know, websites and things like that in the show notes. But there's something about the way you're showing up in the world that people are noticing is that fair to say? TTM. I like making up a story. That's not true.
Gigi Sabbat 08:00
I hear you a lot of people tell me that. And here's the thing, it's for me, I hear folks, and I see folks and but for me, it's all about serving others, right. And so again, I just I walk by faith, not by sight. And so I hear you, I see you but for me, again, I'm just focusing on on where God needs me to serve and how he needs me to serve. And this is what I tell people all the time. When you almost lose your life, you start seeing from a different lens, mind you, I love helping others my entire life. And but for me, it's just now understanding folks on a different level, which is so out of this world, it's almost There's no word for it. To be honest with you.
Paul Zelizer 08:43
There's something about the way you're you relate and share so openly and so matter of factly, about your history with domestic violence. And also the way this like our episode title, we're talking about reducing stigma and engaging men and I would have no judgment. Matter of fact, my first career was 15 years in community mental health. And Gigi, we talked about, you know, I led batterers intervention group, I was one of the first male employees in a Domestic Violence Crisis Center, like, like, I have some embodied experience in the world you're talking about, and I would have no judgment whatsoever if a woman or anybody went through domestic violence, but it does happen more to women. While certainly I've also met men that it's happened to, and worked with men that it's happened to, for somebody who went through that if you are just like, look, I give men a lot of space here and it's not my piece of work to engage men in positive change. I would like totally understand, but that's not the path you've taken. Is there anything you can share for somebody who's had challenging experience and yet there's a way in which we do Using stigma and holding a vision of men as being both confident, and also positive forces for change and the communities and that you work with and care about any wisdom about how to do that, given some of the really challenging experiences you've had?
Gigi Sabbat 10:20
Absolutely. That's a great question. And so you see, Paul, I have two brothers, and I have a father, right. And they're men. And so and so here's the thing. What I found is that a lot of individuals who've been through domestic violence, they say, well, a man hurt me. So we're just going to exclude them completely. This doesn't happen to them. So they miss completely that it does happen to men, because they shut out men in general. And how do I know this? It's from listening to. And I'm not saying everyone thinks like that. I'm saying, some individuals that I've spoken with do believe that they shut out men because men have hurt them. But if you're listening to this message today, I encourage you to just next time, a gentleman tells you that he's been through domestic violence, to listen, listening. And remember that the Bible says, Father, please forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. And so it's it's so important for us to forgive. So we can move forward as well.
Paul Zelizer 11:22
Due to your, in your bio, we read your first generation Haitian American, and I know you're working in communities that are dealing with, this is a complex time for, for first generation communities of all kind here in the US I live in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, is I don't like this language, but it's the language that people use. Were the first majority minority state, I just don't like that language. Why can we just say we have a high proportion of people color much higher than most of America. That's what they're trying to communicate with that. We both care about communities where, you know, there's high levels of violence, where you were talking about youth leadership as a passion of yours. It's also something I'm really passionate about, like, when you're in the communities that you care deeply about, and you're seeing some patterns of violence, like, what? What is it important for somebody to understand about how violence is showing up in our communities and what our young people are seeing and experiencing when they're getting into some of their first, you know, their first relationships? What do we need to know as people who might care about this issue, but might not have all the information?
Gigi Sabbat 12:43
Great question, Paul. So essentially, when it comes to domestic violence, folks believe that it's only physical or violence in general, folks have this stigma, where they believe that it's only physical, that's not the case, it can also be verbal. And in regards to domestic violence, it can be financial, there's also PTSD that's tied to it. And until also that mental abuse, right. And so what we found was that, oftentimes, the abuser has a character trait that's in alignment with the narcissistic character trait. And so it's so important for folks in society to realize the signs in the red flags that are in alignment with the domestic violence. And once we as a society can understand that you can, as a citizen, contact the proper authorities if you are aware, or you notice someone in those situations that you can contact law enforcement. Because I truly believe that there are some individuals who believe that it may be out of their place if they see it, or they're aware to contact law enforcement, but I believe that that would be the proper route to take. If they are aware, they noticed that someone is in that situation in our society.
Paul Zelizer 14:02
Thanks for doing that Gigi. Is there a particular IP I know some, you know, hotlines and other things that I recommend, but is there any particular resource if somebody is dealing with some of these issues in their personal relationships that you tend to refer to, I would
Gigi Sabbat 14:19
say to contact 911 meeting, because if you are in a domestic violence relationship, you are in danger. Because oftentimes, what we're noticing in society, if the individual has done it once, they will do it again. That's,
Paul Zelizer 14:32
That's one of the things when I was doing the work and getting trained to do batterers intervention, that it was called hearts and flowers, right? I feel so bad and you know, buy chocolate or buy flowers or they, you know, be very apologetic it'll never happen again, but most often times it did. And the general trend through time is often towards more lethality if there was a physical incident, or if there was pretty significant gain physical or emotional or financial abuse, like you were describing, it tended to get worse through time even know when something happened. And those apologies, they, they were said with a lot of emotional energy and a moment of deep regret. The long term trend when something kind of cross certain threshold is that it got more and more severe. Is that fair to say?
Gigi Sabbat 15:22
That's right. And a lot of people have a stigma as well that it cannot happen to someone in college or it can happen to a doctor, it can happen to a lawyer, it can happen to a professor. But what are we seeing over and over again, it does happen to those type of individuals. And Take me for example, it happened while I was in law school, and I truly believe that folks, folks who are in studying or in college as well, they are they are vulnerable. Now that I am aware of domestic violence in the signs and red flags that those folks are vulnerable to that as well. Why do I say that? Because the individual, the abuser, the narcissistic with a narcissistic character trait can take advantage of someone, especially when they're so focused in their studies, or their work in general.
Paul Zelizer 16:05
Thanks for that DD. So 911 is a great resource. I also will put there's a national hotline for at least in the US, most countries, these more developed countries will have a national hotline, I'll put one to USPS national hotline for domestic violence in the shownotes. GED this, this reducing stigma part of things. This is something again, really unique and kind of a three part question. What does it take for you personally, as a woman, and as a leader, and as somebody who has personal experience to help create a climate that is reducing stigma and making it safe for men to show up in the communities you're leader at? That's, that's part one. Number two, what happens when that stigma is less intense? And men do VR comfortable, I think you're doing a good job of it. I think you have some sense of like, what happens in a community when those you know, young people, or when somebody who's had a rough upbringing, where maybe they experienced or saw violence? And my sense is, you've seen some people lean in, right? You mentioned gravy, your brand, right? You have examples you have embodied experience. So what what does that look like? And the third one is, what could you teach somebody? Or what could you recommend for a listener? Who wants to reduce stigma, but isn't quite sure how to do that?
Gigi Sabbat 17:32
Excellent questions all. And so when we talk about stigma, it's folks belief based off what they may have heard from someone he said, she said, or something that's not a fact. And so when we talk about stigma, you asked me, How am I able to, so to speak, allow these folks or for them to come forward. Here's the thing, first and foremost, it takes listening, observation and research, listening, observation and research, those are truly important, and to also communication, building relationships, and allowing those folks to express themselves freely without any any interruption. And when we talk about going back to Grady, Taylor and a lot of the other men that I work with, for them, it's not easy. I'm not going to sit here and say that it is easy for those folks to come forward because it's not. And they will tell you that as well. But they do it. They do it because they love helping others. And, and Dylan Christopher, he's another advocate as well. He's very outspoken, he actually spoke on the domestic violence conference that we had a few years ago. And he came forward. And he was in a homosexual relationship with a man. And so that's not spoken about as well, that it does happen in homosexual relationships as well. But he come he came forward as a man, and he's homosexual. And he shares that it can happen in those type of relationships. So is there there's a lot of areas that are not spoken about in our society, where we need to discuss it as a whole, in order to have positive solutions. And until we do that, we will never have the solutions that we need in our society for for real change.
Paul Zelizer 19:17
Absolutely, duty. Yeah, thanks for bringing that into the conversation. Let's let's widen back just a little bit. And the context for this work. Actually, there's more, you got lots of balls in the air. You're a juggler. I think you have struggled to train right. You're five times bestselling author, right? A life coach a competence. But but one of the things you're best known for is the life Service Center of America. What is that? And in many ways, it seems like that's one of the big umbrellas for things that you do. So if I'm a listener, I'm like, What the heck is this LC Oh A. What would you tell me about it?
Gigi Sabbat 19:58
Excellent question. So God led me to launch a life Service Center of America, which is also known as LS CoA. And it has two aspects, the personal life coaching and business coaching. And then also, the second aspect is the business service navigator, which allows our members to locate the services that they need in a reasonable time. And so as far as the events component, as I mentioned earlier, God led me to host those events. It started off with domestic violence, then we did one on sexual assault topics, and I'm a survivor of but then God led me to do one on breast cancer. And I said, Wait a minute, God, I'm not a survivor of breast cancer. And he said, Well, my child, I need you to go and do it anyway. And I said, Okay, and this is what I learned, you don't question God, you say, Thank you, God. And so I just I listened to him and where he needed me to what he needed me to do and where he needed me to serve. And so we also did one on mental health, and so many other topics, alcohol, recovering drug addicts, pregnancy topics, and so much more. And, again, I just love serving others. So for me, I can do this for the rest of my life. And I've been doing it and I just love helping others.
Paul Zelizer 21:02
And one of the things both you personally, but I believe it's also true for the center is there's a faith basis, it's part of how you gain strength. It's part of how you navigate your life. And I imagine that that's part of the conversation that at least some of the people you work with. It's a frame that can help in some of the challenges they're facing. Is that fair to say?
Gigi Sabbat 21:26
That is correct. And, Paul, to be honest with you, the way I view life Service Center of America is as though it's a ministry.
Paul Zelizer 21:33
And when you approach it as a ministry, like how does that work in terms of how much of it is a, like, if I'm a listener, and I'm trying to understand a faith based approach? And I'm like, okay, I get what coaching is, and I get what ministry is, but she's doing some sort of hybrid, like, how does that work in your mind?
Gigi Sabbat 21:59
For me, it's just listening to God and what He needs you to do and letting go and letting God
Paul Zelizer 22:04
so let's do this. In a moment, I want to come back. We're known for being really granular, you know, me, listeners, I want to ask Ed about five books, the center, life coaching, the business service navigate. Like, there's a lot going on here, how these multiple streams of revenue come together, how you balance your energy, how people find you for each of these and other really granular social entrepreneur questions. But before we do that, I just want to do a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. Do you have a business that's about making the world a better place, and you want it to grow both in terms of your impact, helping more people and your income, so you could live a good quality life? If you do, I'd like to talk to you about some research for a second. When scientists look at what actually contributes to humans reaching their goals, the single biggest predictor, whether it's a wellness goal, or it's a business goal, is what they call social support. In other words, a group of people who are on a similar journey, who can help you with specific strategies that work on that journey at the time and point of development that you're on, as well as emotional support for the ups and downs of that journey. Being a social entrepreneur has highs and lows, right? If you like that kind of support, where printers has a community called the AWARE printers community, over 270 really generous and really skillful social entrepreneurs. And that's what we do with each other. We share concrete strategies, as well as emotional support for the ups and downs of the journey. If you'd like to find out more, you can take a look at aware printers.com forward slash community. And thank you to everybody in the world printers community who helps sponsor this podcast. So Gigi, in the second part of the show, and welcome back, everybody, in the second part of the show, we like to joke about putting on our social entrepreneur glasses. So if you were to like give our listener an overview, you've got a bunch of different balls in the air. So between writing books, and what you're doing to run the center, and how much you're doing life coaching, and how much you're doing these events, and how much energy just like, like if it was a pie chart, like how much of your energy is going to each of these different endeavors?
Gigi Sabbat 24:29
What 100% Because if I'm if I'm serving God's people, I'm going to put 100% into it, right? And it is mind body, soul and spirit, and also understanding God and what he what he needs me to do and where he needs me to serve, and understanding that he's in control. Right. And I spoke with a lot of folks and they say, that's the hardest part for them to do is to let God be in control. But here's the thing, then I asked them, Do you remember whose child you are? And that shifts the conversation because Then they begin to realize that they are the children of God. They are the children of God, we all are. And so God is in control because God is the Creator of all things. And so I love to talk about servant leadership, servant leadership truly matters. Because when we understand that we are the children of God, and we understand what we're called to do, we understand that he needs us to serve his people. And so it's so important to show up and serve. And so a lot of folks believe that they have to have it all, or they have to have it all right, just to serve. No, you can serve right where you are just like you can pray right where you are. And a lot of people believe that in order to pray, they have to be perfect. You don't need to be perfect. God loves his children as they are. So show up and serve as you are, and continue to meet people where they are.
Paul Zelizer 26:03
Like, if you were going to help somebody understand, like, how much time in a week or a month, like writing books, or putting on an event or working with individuals in life coaching, like help us understand a week and Gigi is life as multi interest multi passionate, everything's values based, but like you can't do it all the time. Every one like how many hours go to each of these different parts of your work?
Gigi Sabbat 26:32
I would say 40 plus hours if I had to,
Paul Zelizer 26:35
Like break it down, break it down for us a little bit what how many hours go towards writing? How many hours goes towards the life coaching?
Gigi Sabbat 26:43
To be honest with you, Paul, I listened to God's direction and God's timing. So when you ask me how many hours I think that's quite interesting, because I can't give you the normal answer. I'd be lying, if I were to give you an answer to that. Because why? There is no exact estimate, for example, with the healing and growth project that the book project, right that we're releasing at the end of the year. This, I just completely let go and let God just like I did with all of my other books. And for me, with this one, what I found quite interesting was was was just letting go and letting God and seeing what the outcome of what he was going to do with healing and growth. Does that make sense?
Paul Zelizer 27:33
It totally does. It totally does. And so and here's
Gigi Sabbat 27:37
the interesting thing, Paul, what turned out to be it almost 20 Plus books series is now one book, a collaborative book of over 50 co authors, which I never saw happening. And when I look back now at what God was going to do with that project to where it what he's doing now, I have an aha moment. But that aha moment is such a beautiful thing. Because I understand that I let go and let God. And it's such a beautiful thing. When we understand that again, God is in control. And when we listen, and we see how beautiful things can be if we just listen, if we just listen to him.
Paul Zelizer 28:30
My thoughts did he is that there's a real skill set that you've built to do that kind of listening. And I'd be curious if I'm a listener on like, well, that sounds great GG, but like, You got books and you got events, and you got clients and you got this navigator thing going on. Like how does, what kind of suggestions do you have to help somebody build that muscle of listening to whatever is greater than we are?
Gigi Sabbat 29:03
I would say in the Bible says we have two ears and one mouth, right? And I get it right folks may think well, what does that mean? And, and but I'd love to speak right? But here's the thing if you're listening to this message today, right? That's why it says two ears, one mouth, because we need to listen twice as much more than we speak. Right? And so I truly believe that when we just digest into the Bible, and we pray and we build that relationship with God, then we can understand what he needs us to do and how he needs us to serve. And as the amazing leaders who came before us as Billy Graham, my goodness, I love his message because it's so powerful. And he talks about us forming other servant leaders. And it's so true. That's what we need to continue to do to show up and serve His people. And so If you're listening to this message today, and you're looking to understand where to begin, I would say start off with the Bible. Start off by building a relationship with him. First and foremost, the relationship is key. Understanding that communication is key. And then also serving and understanding who's you are, which is the child of God. And then also to patients truly matters, having the patience and the confidence. Because you need you need to have both in order to serve and to lead. And why do I say that? Because it's so important to wait for his timing. God's timing is always right. And so you see, for the example that I showed you earlier, had I move on my own direction, and not listen to him. I wonder how healing and growth would have turned out? Does that make sense? Paul?
Paul Zelizer 30:52
Totally makes sense. Totally. And, and like, when you're getting a sense, let's say it's a book, the next book, The healing and growth buck, like, are you in a divine conversation? Hey, I could use some guidance here. Like, you know, I'm Jewish we talk, we're known as the god wrestlers, we talked really, it's encouraged to be, you know, forthright with our Higher Power. Let's just say that, right. As a god wrestler, we could say, hey, you know, divine spirit, like I'm trying to figure this out. I could use a little help here, right? Like, like, are you asking for guidance on a project by project bait? What, what's the next thing that's wanted with this book? Or what's the next thing? Can you help me with some guidance on the next big event that we're going to do? Or I have a client that I'm stuck with? Or I'm trying to grow out the Navigator? Are you like specifically asking for guidance on the individual endeavors? initiatives that you're working on?
Gigi Sabbat 31:56
That's such a great question. And so here's the thing, right, so you mentioned so many different factors of the company and what I'm doing right. So those things are there, but I cannot move without God's direction. So and I think that that's a difficult thing for a lot of folks, right is understanding Okay, God, what are we going?
Paul Zelizer 32:13
In? Right? What's happening here? Right?
Gigi Sabbat 32:16
Right. But when you understand that God is in control of everything, and you understand that God's timing is always right, you just need to wait, pray, stay still. And, and you're right, it sounds as a process, right? But it's really not that hard. But for me, I found myself saying still quite often in the past years, and I say, Okay, God, I understand I'm staying still, I'm waiting, right? There have been several periods, where, where I haven't moved. And I understand why looking back, I understand why, but had I not stayed still. And I just moved at my own direction, and listen to my own guidance, then I couldn't serve God's people how he needs me to serve them, right? Because essentially, God is in control. And so if we're listening to ourselves, are we really serving his people the way he needs us to serve his people know. So it's so important to wait and stay still and listen to his direction. And the end result, you can always tell if it's God's direction, or someone's own direction, very simple. And that energy you can feel the energy as well. And so I love to my colleagues as well, or folks that I such as you, Paul, who are doing amazing work, and you can tell when when it's spirit led and it's faith based and when you truly let go and let God.
Paul Zelizer 33:57
did you you're gonna be like, This darn granular entrepreneur guy keeps asking me these granular questions up here that Kerry respected so one of the questions our listeners ask a lot is like how people you know you're doing this really impactful work and how people find you and say, Judy, I'm I want to buy your book or GED. I'm gonna sign up for the next conference. This one the global men's confidence conference or GED, I want you know, I need to use your I need to take part in your navigator, the business service navigator, right. And you have these multiple things you're doing you have a man's you have this great podcast, which we haven't even mentioned because it's another ball in the air and you got so many balls in the air, it's hard to count. Right? So you have your podcast like I said, listeners go check out what's going on on Instagram, like when you just from entrepreneur perspective as a listener who listened to a podcast because the guy who is the host of That's really granular questions, I wouldn't be doing my job. If I didn't ask a little bit about that, like how many people that actually pay you money for something, come through Instagram, or come through the podcast or calm? Because they take part in an event? Do you have any sense of that?
Gigi Sabbat 35:17
Absolutely. What I found is that it's a lot of my a lot of folks that come to me, they're either referral base, or they've heard me speak, and they know I'm a coach and the type of work that I do. And for me, again, it's just listening to God and listening to folks, right, and not just giving them the same product, right? That would be so easy to give everyone the same product. But what I found is that it takes you need to listen, first and foremost. And that's why I meet with folks, and I see, okay, what do you need assistance with, if I can even help you, then I will provide you with the best product that can help you. If not, then I will refer you to someone who can because I know many entrepreneurs and business owners, who would be more than happy to help them if there's something that I can help them with. And so I have done that in the past, I have referred them to other folks as well. If there's something out of my scope, and here's the thing, we need to show up and serve, show up and serve and listen. And first and foremost, that's key so important.
Paul Zelizer 36:22
With multiple balls on the air, I am thinking of our listeners, and I think most of our okay, I get these events. Thank you for telling me about men's confidence Summit coming up again, we'll put a link in the show notes, folks, a life coach, I think, you know, in a confidence coach, I think most of our listeners have some sense of what that is and go check out Gigi has particular spin on it's really beautiful work you're doing Didi business service navigator, I think some of our people might be like, What the heck is that? So enlighten them do you do? What's that part of the work? You do?
Gigi Sabbat 36:57
Absolutely. So the business service navigator allows individuals and our members to locate the services that they need in a reasonable time. Rather than going through 1000s of web pages, I ask this question over and over again. How many of you have went to look for a quality service only to go through 1000s of web pages, and everyone raises their hand, we've all been there. And imagine you're with your family, you're or you're by yourself or you're traveling? And you just want that quality service, but you cannot locate it? How painful and annoying would that be? You're looking for that service. And so it's so important to continue to continue the work that I'm doing because understanding what God needs me to do and that and understanding that what the issue, the issue. And that issue is folks not having that place where they can find that quality service?
Paul Zelizer 37:59
And is there a particular kind of service that you find yourself making a lot of referrals for?
Gigi Sabbat 38:05
Well, it's located on our site as well. So we cover pretty much every type of service that you can think of, literally,
Paul Zelizer 38:13
via but imagine, you know, maybe like websites maybe help with marketing, like those kinds of business services. Yes, sir. Great. And again, we'll put a link in the show notes. And thank you for catching us up on what that part is. Go check it out, listeners. So let's let's move on to the book, part of what you're doing. You're a five time best selling author tell us a little bit are two books in particular, we're not on video, but you have two books LED. If we were on video, you'd be holding them up right now. Tell us about those.
Gigi Sabbat 38:45
Absolutely. So God first and walk with me, as I mentioned earlier, those books launch after I almost lost my life four years ago, death by strangulation and domestic violence relationship. And so it's a spiritual journey. And so what does the Bible say? Bring my people to me. And so that's what I'm literally doing. And so walk with me is all about helping others understand the importance of never giving up. And, and also to walk in with purpose, right. And God first is all about helping others understand the importance of having God first in our lives and understanding that we wouldn't have all the issues that we have in society, if people were to keep God in his proper place, which is first.
Paul Zelizer 39:26
And again, we'll put links to those books in the show notes. You also have a podcast called Walk with me like, like, what's that about? And you do so much already? Why do a podcast on top of everything
Gigi Sabbat 39:38
else? Thank you and for me, it's again, God's direction. I'd never saw in a million years that I have a podcast, a podcast.
Paul Zelizer 39:49
Why would you do that?
Gigi Sabbat 39:51
That's me listening to God's direction in what he needs me to do. And I love serving others and I love helping people. And when we talk about walk with me again, same thing there. Same message helping others understand the importance of never giving up and walking with purpose God first.
Paul Zelizer 40:07
So, let's go back to our topic for a little bit and reducing stigma and engaging man, when when you bring this approach to the communities, you care about God and you're, you're reducing the stigma, you're listening, you're doing that deep work in the way you're describing, you're listening to that spiritual direction about what your role as a sermon leader is, what happens in communities that can successfully reduce the amount of stigma that men feel, and really engage the men in those communities. What do you see happen?
Gigi Sabbat 40:43
I see something beautiful happen, which is human beings coming forward and expressing themselves freely. And then we're able to listen, and when we're able to hear their messages, then we can we can have solutions and real results. But change takes an army, it no one can do it themselves. It takes an army. And so it's so important to listen. And I love what Mahatma Gandhi says, Be the change you wish to see in the world. So true.
Paul Zelizer 41:16
Great. That's a great advice. Great quote. Yeah. So, Judy, you're busy, visionary woman, like when you look ahead, you're already doing all these awesome things. Just totally awesome. When you look ahead about what you might be bridging into things, new books, or new conferences, or, you know, some people it's scale that they're working towards, is you're listening to where you're being guided into next. Maybe it's not on your website. Yeah. And I'm somebody like, where's Gigi, Colin, what might be coming next? Do you have any sense of where the next couple years might be taken you
Gigi Sabbat 42:00
listening to God in his direction, what he needs me to do, but I love what I'm doing and, and LS CoA and continuing what I'm doing with LSU. A, and just serving his people. And if it's through the events, then that's what it is, if it's through the books, and that's what it is just listening to God and what He needs me to do. And we have quite a few events coming up in 2023. We have the confidence conference, the business conference, the Leadership Conference, the world warriors conference, the OCD conference, the ADHD conference, and then we're going to end it off with that that annual gala that we always do for the company.
Paul Zelizer 42:39
Makes my head just spinning. So much good work, just a deep value and all the great work you do DD. Well, I know you're super busy women, and our guests are super busy as well, there's so much to talk about, we tried to touch on as much of it as we could. But if there was something you were hoping we were going to talk about, and we haven't gotten to it or not in the depth you wanted, or there's something you want to leave our listeners with as they go out to imply this in their servant leadership roles. And you want to leave on with some suggestions, some advice or resource, something like that. What would it be?
Gigi Sabbat 43:20
Yes, and I love that question. And I want to circle back real quick to the events question why, because we also have the foster care warriors event coming up in 2023, which is very important. And again, that goes to just listening to those folks and those folks and what they've had to overcome, and what they've been through. And so if you're listening to this message today, I highly recommend to reserve your virtual seat and to take notes at all of those events as well. And my message to your audience, Paul, to close this off here is to remember that we are all the children of God and to keep God first in your life and to never give up and not just in your personal life. But keep God first in your business. And remember that he wants to be a part of all areas of your life, all areas of your life. And never give up maintain a resilient mindset. And so when you're able to maintain a resilient mindset, you're able to continue to to serve. And what what does that say, right, Paul, you can't serve from an empty cup. You can't lead from an empty cup. So always make sure first and foremost to have that self care, take care of yourself, and then continue to show up and serve. And, and for me, everything that I do is Spirit led. And so if you're listening to this message today, let go, let God and remember God is in control.
Paul Zelizer 44:46
Today, it's an honor to know you and thank you so much for being on the show today.
Gigi Sabbat 44:50
Thank you, Paul. It's such an honor. So again,
Paul Zelizer 44:53
So again listeners, t's going to be a lot of links on this show. Let's just face it - loads of good things. There's a wonderful group of speakers for the global men's competent competence summit up here, speaker about nap, the books, the website, all the good things, check the show notes. So that's all the time we have for today's show. Before we go, just a quick reminder, we love, love, love listeners suggested topics and guests, more and more of our episodes are coming our way. I just did two recordings in the past 24 hours, both from suggestions from listeners. So please, if you've got an idea for somebody to be on the show, go to the website and check out our contact page. We have three simple guidelines, we try to be really transparent about how we're making decisions. So go check it out. If you read those and say I got somebody please send it on in we'd love to hear from you. So for now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these intense times. And thank you for all the positive impact you’re working for in our world.