THIS IS WE
real conversations. real women. real stories.
here you can listen to a collection of stories from women just like you. sharing moments that changed their life. we believe that all stories should be celebrated whether they are the happiest moments of your life, moments that left you feeling lost or moments where you healed yourself again and again.
we are here for all of it. heal, grow and connect with us.
THIS IS WE
Redefining Community Through Personal Growth and Courage
How does one transform loneliness and isolation into a thriving community experience? Join me as I recount my journey from feeling disconnected during the pandemic to envisioning a transformative event for women. Drawing from my days working in community-focused spaces, like a restaurant run only by women, and teaching yoga, I found myself yearning for those deep connections when transitioning into a social media business. This longing birthed The WE Experience a project fueled by the power of instincts and personal growth. Discover how embracing meditation reconnected me with my roots and crystallized my vision, turning an idea rooted in solitude into a platform for connection and empowerment.
As we venture into the third season of the THIS IS WE podcast, hear firsthand accounts of vulnerability and courage as women share stories of motherhood, mental health, and sobriety for the first time. The season promises more authentic and inspiring narratives, showcasing the transformative power of honest conversations. Witness the impact these stories have, not just on the storytellers, but also on the listeners who find solace and strength in shared experiences. I invite you to reach out and share your own stories, reminding you that your voice matters and that this platform is ready to amplify it. Let’s continue to uplift and connect with one another.
If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review!
Do you have a story to share? Interested in being a guest? Fill out our inquiry form.
Find The WE Experience on Instagram
Find Portia Chambers, founder of The We Experience on Instagram
Hey, welcome. This is season three of this Is we, and usually I just kind of talk about what you're going to expect in season three but, honestly, as I'm sitting here recording, I haven't even recorded a single episode for season three that starts next week. So here we are and I am going to talk a little bit about how the we experience started, because I feel like this is the most asked question and I thought maybe I should have a place where it's answered. So how did the we experience start? So it's a bit of a long-winded story and I'm going to try my best to shorten it to, you know, the shortest version possible. But it started a few years ago and this was at a point in my life where I was feeling lonely. So when people ask why did I start the we Experience, honestly, the short answer is I was lonely, I was craving more connection in my life. So before we kind of get into that component, let's take a few steps back and go back down memory lane a little bit and talk about why community and connection is so important to me. So community and connection have been a part of my life for pretty much my entire life. I started my I want to say my outgoing business like not business, but job journey as a cook in a small restaurant where only women worked there. Maybe this is why I'm such a woman. You know female entrepreneurship, females in general like women rah, rah, rah. Maybe that's when my feminism started, without even knowing it, and so when I was 18, I became a waitress and a bartender, and that is when I really honed in on my social skills and how to start conversation with people, how to remember people, remember what was going on in their lives and everything like that, and I think I learned very quickly how much I loved chatting with people, connecting with people and learning new things. I'm such a curious person by nature, and when I have the opportunity to talk to people, I am literally like opening my mind and my heart up to these different possibilities, things that I never even knew were possible, and so that is kind of where community started for me.
Speaker 1:My entrepreneurial journey started when I became a yoga teacher. Some of you probably don't even know that, but I am a yoga teacher and I still teach yoga to this day, regularly, every single week. It's a huge part of my life, like my own personal life, and it's a huge component of me being in the community. I moved to having a spin studio in my home and that was when I really learned how to harness community and how to really get to know people on such a deep level and let go of the superficial. And in my spin studio, the den, it literally was like that. It was a community cave, if you will, and we would share our stories and our experiences and we would open our minds up to new possibilities and new theories. And it was amazing because we saw each other every week and we would come back with the things that we've learned or all of the other things. And it was such a fun, fun place to be fast forward and I started a boutique, boutique style social media business, um, just at the height or just at the beginning of the pandemic. Um, I still had my spin studio at the time, so I was very much immersed in community.
Speaker 1:And then, obviously, the pandemic happened and my spin studio shut down. I went virtual, which was not the same, and my spin studio shut down. I went virtual, which was not the same, and I kind of put my head down and started really going, you know, heavy and hard within my social media business, and with that came a lot of other things, a lot of realizations, a lot of missteps, a lot of learning and, at the end of the day, I think I had learned that social media wasn't necessarily my thing. Not to make this long winded story even longer, but let's just say social media took a little bit of my soul with it and it dragged me into the depths and I had a very, very hard time crawling out of it, and that was probably the most lonely I have ever been. And that was due to a variety of different things not only just being on social media, constantly having clients and working within the industry, but also, you know, the world had changed and people weren't going out as much. There's social, you know.
Speaker 1:Social gatherings were very few and far between and people were a little bit concerned, and so I decided on the Lionsgate of 2021, I want to say that I wrote in my notes that I wanted to do a women's event. I had no idea what it was going to look like. I had no idea who I wanted to be there to speak or what community I wanted to be surrounded by, whether it was like my social media community or whether it was a community that was completely separate. I just knew I wanted to do this. I knew that there was something so deep in my soul that was calling me towards that direction, and there was no inkling in my body that I should say no, or that I should stop, or that I should second guess it or think about it a little bit more. So what I did is I just kind of left it in my notes and I kind of just let it stew in the back of my mind. It was always there, ready to be reawakened, but I didn't necessarily know what it was going to look like.
Speaker 1:So a few months later I was kind of in the point in my social media business where it was really starting to run me ragged. I was really having a hard time keeping up with client demands. I was having a hard time keeping up with my own personal demands and I had hit a milestone in my business that I really thought was going to rock my world and in the reality it did nothing. I felt nothing and it was a rude awakening. It was a big shock. It was a financial milestone that for my whole life, I think I always wanted to be able to earn and to be that person, to say that I earned that and have that accomplishment and be proud of myself. But when I actually saw the number on paper, I didn't feel proud of myself. I didn't really feel anything. I didn't feel proud of myself. I didn't really feel anything and I think that was a big aha moment for me, where I was like maybe I shouldn't be determining my success within myself based on my financial goal, because that was never anything in my life.
Speaker 1:My yoga business wasn't about how much money I made. My spin studio wasn't about how much money I made. Obviously, that is a perk, but it was never the underlying successful thing. My success was filling a class with people that wanted to be there and wanted to show up for themselves and push themselves outside of their comfort zone and and be a part of this really fun, neat, exclusive community that was in my basement. My classes were sought after and you know I had crazy wait lists and you know, coming back to that financial goal and seeing it on paper was just like, okay, I'm going to do this, this is maybe the wake-up call that I needed and slowly after that, weeks after that, everything kind of started to come to a halt and I was at a photo shoot I want to say it was in September with a friend of mine, shannon, who spoke at our first we gather.
Speaker 1:I was kind of on the fence whether to mention it to her or not, and I know Shannon had a really incredible story and and I love her story and and everything like that, and so I decided, kind of near the end of our photo shoot, to be like hey, so I kind of have this idea and I don't really know where to start. But I was thinking like I think you would be just such a great person to speak at it, like would that be something you would be interested? And she just looked at me and she's like hell, yeah, I want to be a part of this. And I was like amazing. So I said send me some dates when you are available. She's a photographer as well, so I know her weekends are sacred to her. Um, send me some dates for the following year. And I'm thinking fall timing and let's just see if we can magically make this work. She sent me some dates and I was like you know what? This is it, this is the day. So I had the date in mind. Shannon was locked in.
Speaker 1:And then I asked another friend of mine, carly Ottaway from web of words, and she same thing had an incredible story. I love where she was going within her business, um, I love who she was and how she was just constantly growing as a human being, as a business owner, as a wife, as a mother, all of the things. And so I asked her would you want to share your story? And at this time, um, you know she had a very compelling story. Her house had burnt down and and their dream home had burnt down during the renovations, and so it was just, it was an incredible story of surrender and kind of letting go of the control a little bit, and I just love that. And even though I didn't even really know the full story and I didn't know the ins and outs and what they were physically, mentally going through, emotionally going through, I knew that there was some sort of essence, something in her story. And so I asked her had a date, didn't have a location, and then I decided you know what, I'm just going to book in a location. So one year out, I booked a location. Our first event was an event market and every week other has been there after, actually, and I had a date and I had two speakers under my belt and I felt like, oh my God, so I had one year to plan this event. Uh, the we experienced wasn't anything at this time. It was literally just a woman's event.
Speaker 1:Um, at this point I knew that I didn't want it to be associated with my social media business. I think there was a lot of things that I wanted to do a podcast included that I didn't necessarily want associated with that business. I think maybe deep down or subconsciously, I already knew that that business wasn't going to be in my life long-term, that it really was just a stepping stone, um, and a learning curve for me to really put myself out there by social like, not to like tear it down, because, honestly, it taught me so much. It taught me how to present myself in front of a camera. It taught me how to do all these amazing things on social media. It really upped my game in marketing as well. Like. It taught me a lot. It gave me a lot of skill sets that I use every single day and what I'm doing and part of the reason why the we Experience page looks so good is because of that.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to tear it down and think that it's nothing, because it was a huge role in my life and it and honestly it it was. It was my tower moment, and if you're not familiar with a tower moment, it is when your tower basically comes crumbling down and you have to rebuild your foundation. So that was my moment where I had to rebuild my foundation. I lost a part of who I was. I lost my values. I lost, you know, my sole purpose of why I was here and really it is community and it's serving the community. I wasn't teaching yoga at the time.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I wasn't doing anything within my community at that time and it was weighing on me and simultaneously as I don't even know if I said that right as you know, I was going through this moment in my business. My body was actually physically shutting down. I was going through complete adrenal fatigue, I was going through burnout and I was a person and I say this every time I was a person that worked out six days a week. I lifted heavy. I ate all the right foods. I didn't eat bread, I didn't eat dairy, I didn't eat sugar, I had my eight hours of sleep, I took my supplements. I did everything physically to perfection, um, within my body, and my body still shut down, and what was really going on and I have shared this story before is that I was carrying the weight of grief and my heart was broken and I couldn't, couldn't keep going on, and the mental toll that my social media business did on top of me, harboring my own grief and and kind of losing my own path, my own losing myself along the way, um, I think, really played into all of it and it was my body's way, and it was the universe's way of saying okay, portia, enough is enough. You've ran, you hustled, you've done the thing. You don't need to live this way for the rest of your life. This is not who you are, um, so everything basically kind of came to a halt.
Speaker 1:A lot of my social media clients naturally just drifted away, which was crazy, um, and scary at the same time, because once again, my life was based on this income that I was bringing in every single month, um, and you know, some of these things were shedding away, but in the same time, I was very optimistic. And single month, um, and you know, some of these things were shedding away, but in the same time, I was very optimistic and and realize that this is something that I needed to go, that I needed to do for myself. So I took a few steps back. Um, in all aspects of my life, I wasn't nearly as happy as I was. Um, I mentioned it to my husband and and happiness is a huge part of who I am, and if happiness isn't playing an integral role I said that wrong, you know a really a really big role in my life. I know that I'm off, I'm off kilter a little bit, I'm off balance, and so that's what I did.
Speaker 1:I took a few steps back. I went back to my yoga roots. I started meditating again. I started with a 30 day challenge for myself to meditate, grabbed my Peloton app me and Ross Rayburn the best of friends started with five minutes and and after two weeks it honestly changed my life. I'm not going to go into my whole meditation rant of why you should meditate, but, honestly, like if you're thinking about it, send me a DM. I would love to have a conversation with you. Honestly, meditation saved saved my life. I will continue to tell people or encourage people to meditate. Any variation of meditation is meditation. It does not need to be in silence on a cushion in a room, like, honestly, walking in a forest without headphones, is meditation. Anyways, I will stop talking about it, but honestly, it changed my life and it is what led me to the WE experience.
Speaker 1:So, this whole time, as I, you know, this whole time, as all of these things are going on, the event is still in the back of my mind. I have set the date, I have my two keynote speakers, but I don't have a name. I don't have a name. I don't have a name. That same notes where I started on Lionsgate is the same notes that I always go back to. Every time I have an idea about maybe somebody that I could sponsor, maybe somebody that could be a keynote or a location or anything, anything that had to do around events didn't necessarily have to be about that specific event, but just anything that came to mind. I wrote it down name, ideas, everything, and the name was the thing that was holding me back the most and I felt I'm gonna finally get to this event and I'm not even gonna have a name and, oh my god, like, how is this even going to be possible? So, once again, I started my meditation practice. This is at the end of December. In 20, this this would have been yeah, 2021,.
Speaker 1:Um started with my 30 days. It led to, honestly, it led to a month, two months, three months and ultimately, it led to a year of meditating Um. But after a few months of meditating, I was sitting in my office on my cushion doing the same thing that I did every single day and through my meditation, it just landed. Everything just came to me. I could fully see the vision of the we experience. It was like I was already living it. It was like I took a few steps into the future and was there, immersed myself in the experience that you get to experience when you come to one of my events or one of our events. Um and so there, it was everything but the name, and I opened my eyes and I whipped out my phone and I went to my nose and I opened it and there it was that we experience. I had probably written it down so many times, I probably looked at it so many times and said it to myself so many times, but it never felt right. And that day I opened my eyes and there it was the we experience.
Speaker 1:And anybody that knows me is that I don't really sit on anything too long. It's really really hard for me to sit on things, and I think I am getting better at it. Um, but at that time I was just like you know what? I have the name. It's here, I'm making a logo, I'm just going for it. I got an email address. You know the things, the first things you always do get an email address, get a username on Instagram and get a logo made. That's all I needed. I didn't need anything else, and what I ended up doing is I went to my secret spot this is a little cottage on a river that my parents own and it is my secret oasis. That's what I call it. No one knows where it is and I went to my secret oasis for the weekend and wrote down all of the things, typed out all of the things, what I wanted this business to be and what I want it to look like and created a Pinterest board of the vibe and everything like that, because every business that I own is always in black and white. If you have followed me throughout my journeys, I've always done black and white.
Speaker 1:That is who I am. I find that is the palette that is the easiest to work with and, honestly, it's the yin to the yang, it's the light to the dark. It is me. I am light and fun and breezy and go with the flow, but at the same time I'm dark, I'm secretive. That is who I am, and so, as much as I say the we experience is not who I am. I it's very much the alter ego in me. I am the light and I am the dark, and Portia being Portia, basically probably on the Monday it was Valentine's Day I sent out the first post.
Speaker 1:Here we are. This is it, this is the we, and it was just amazing to see an idea that literally started as a small, small wish, a small dream that I thought maybe in a few years, slowly become a reality. And so that is basically how the we experience started, in a nutshell, and it started from the crumbling of a tower. It was created through loneliness and anger. It also was created through silence and stillness. It also was created through silence and stillness. It was created through knowing that this dream is worthy to be seen and heard and loved, and I knew when I started the WE Experience that I didn't want it to be about me, and so now it seems to be a little bit of, you know, sprinkles of Portia in there, because now that I've done some events and I've been on, did the podcast and everything like that, people do want to see me.
Speaker 1:I get it. I get it. Um, but when I first created when you know, when the we experience was first born, it was it was about everybody else. I didn't want it to be about me. I didn't want to be the forefront of the name. I wanted you to be able to step onto the platform and see yourself here, to be like. This was created for me. I was just missing it and I found it and I'm here and I landed and it's soft and it's and it's amazing and I can embrace myself because that is what the we experience is. It is a place for you, it's not a place for me. I created it for you, for you to immerse yourself in, for you to step outside of your comfort zone and be the person that you really, really want to be, that person that is deep inside of you, where you only shine a little bit of light on. I want to see that person because I am curious and I love seeing people step outside of their comfort zone and that little spark in their eyes slowly grow. Because that's what makes me happy, that's what fills up my cup every single day when I see people enjoying themselves in something that I created. That is my service. That is my service to you.
Speaker 1:So this is the question I'm asked often how did the we experience start? And this is probably the shortest, long-winded answer of all, but, honestly, it came from loneliness. It came from a place where I want women to feel seen, heard, loved and supported, because in that moment in my life I I didn't feel any of those things. I felt lost, I felt alone, I felt scared, I was angry, I couldn't even love myself in those moments, but I wanted you to be able to see the love within yourself. So I'm trying to think if there's any more questions, because I had no intention of recording a podcast today, but shit happens and you find a little bit of time and you want to do it and I just thought, why not? Let's just do it now.
Speaker 1:But here we are, we just did our third annual we Gather and it was beautiful it's always beautiful, not to toot my own horn. It was beautiful to look at and it was beautiful to witness and it was beautiful to be there. It was beautiful in a variety of different ways that if you weren't there you probably wouldn't know, and it is really a place for you just to be. So any event, any story, any conversation that we have know that the intention is for you to shine, it's for you to land and simply be yourself. I'm not here to judge you. I've done enough judging in my life and I know where it has led me and I know where it has made me or I and I know how it has made me feel, and I'm not here to do that anymore. I have grown out of that. I am here to be the cheerleader to every single person that I can be. I don't really believe in competition anymore. I really believe that there is space for everybody, because I have been on both sides and I know what it feels like to be on both sides and being with community is far better than being on the side of competition, because it's so lonely over there and there's so many other things over there.
Speaker 1:We're not going to get into that. But as I continue to ramble on about this episode, I'm just really trying to think of anything else that people may have asked me, but I think that's pretty much it, so I'm just going to leave it here as it is pretty much it. So I'm just going to leave it here as it is the first episode on season three me sharing my story of how the we experience started and why I am here today. Maybe something else will come up and I'll record another episode, because that's what always happens, but what can you expect on this season of this is we? Well, I know for a fact that you can expect honest conversation.
Speaker 1:I know that you can expect vulnerability from women sharing their stories of a variety of different things, and I think that's what I love so much about it is that it's just not one topic, it's just not one thing. We're talking about so many different things. We're talking about motherhood, mental health, sobriety. A lot of these women are sharing these stories for their first time. So there was a lot of courage behind this podcast. Um, and for me, there's so many proud moments, because when I get to be on the other side of the screen, because we do this all over, zoom um and watch these women share, and watch these women explore themselves or, you know, dive deeper into themselves, it's so rewarding. It's so rewarding to be a part of that, a part of that experience. And I know that I have changed lives with this podcast and sometimes it doesn't even settle into my bones, but it's amazing to witness the aftermath of someone sharing their story and how that courage from that moment carries on with them and grows and grows and grows.
Speaker 1:So if you are listening to me right now and you're like I have a story but I'm not quite sure, send me a message, send me a DM on the Wii. I'd love to have a conversation. You know, like I always say, I'm here when you're ready. I'm always here when you're ready, whether it's this season or the next. I am here when you are ready. I am not going anywhere. So with that I'm really ending at this time. This is it. This is season three of this Is we. I can't wait.
