2
Heart for God

When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2014, I was stopped at a red light less than a mile from my house for what seemed like an eternity. My heart raced, and I remember tapping and tapping on the steering wheel. I had an intense headache that was radiating across my forehead and a sharp pain in my chest. Was I having a heart attack? Was I about to faint?

I later realized that I was reacting to being at a crossroads of whether to stay or go in the first company I co-created, Digital Brand Architects (DBA). I wanted to stay, but I also had a strong desire to leave and start something new. This all came from a division between me and my co-founders that was fueled by ego, power, and a dynamic between three people that can only come about in intense business relationships.

We had fundamentally different views. I remember one of my partners saying she wanted to be a cult leader, which I later understood to mean that she wanted to be the only person in charge and of authority. She wanted to control all aspects of the company and team and later created a false narrative that she was the founder of DBA. She tried to completely erase me from the company's history and creation story, when in truth, she was not at the kitchen table when Karen Robinovitz and I started DBA, nor was she present when we had the idea to launch and sign our first clients.

When Karen and I first hired her as our third partner, I immediately felt a putter-putter in my gut that I ignored. I lacked confidence and experience as a co-founder and operator and to that point had never been in a tug of war fueled by an absolute lack of trust and alignment with people I admired and truly cared for.

I am not good at manipulation. In the end, my co-founders and I simply did not agree, identify with each other, or align on the direction of the business. There was no connectivity on decisions being made about the business, and I was not consciously aware or experienced enough to play their game of chess. I did not yet have the confidence or trust in myself that I do today. I could not see how to get out and get to the other side; I felt trapped and that my entire career was riding on that one company and was my only way to reach success.

Two conversations happened, one with my longtime friend, Kathryn Finney, who is the founder and managing partner of Genius Guild, author of Build the Damn Thing, an internationally acclaimed speaker and award-winning executive. She sat with me in my backyard as I was going through this difficult period with DBA, and she said, “Sometimes it's okay to outgrow things or leave things that you started.” Those words were so simple but pivotal at that time.

The second conversation was internal. I heard God say, “I wouldn't bring you here for you to fail.” It was like a voice saying to me, “Straighten up and get it together; you won't fail in whatever you decide to do because I will never leave you nor forsake you.” It was my heart for God that carried me through the difficult decision to leave DBA and start a new adventure.

“Stop imitating the ideas and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God's will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.”

—Romans 12:2 TPT

The best lesson I learned from this experience was to believe in your dogma and stay true to a higher power, being, spirit, or ideology that is greater than you. Don't let anyone steal your joy and take you away from who you are. No one should have that much control over you, your health, and your decisions. When they do, you must take the hard step to leave, going deep into who you are and what you stand for, and reclaim your joy.

Building confidence is hard; what I also learned navigating the relationship and the divide between me and my co-founders at DBA was what I'm good at—building brands, developing cohesive strategies, connecting the dots, creating high-performing teams, and supporting not just my vision but the vision of others—as well as pushing myself to truly grasp what I'm capable of overcoming. For me, that means having a “heart for God” in all that I do and every moment of every day. One moment, one job, one career, or one person does not define your success; just like the idea of the path and company that I left behind. You must define what success looks like for you and what will enable you to live the highest expression of self that is soul-gratifying and rewarding, while also realizing that your viewpoint will change with time and experience. People may try to erase you or change history, but ultimately they do not have that much power. Stand in your truth at all times.

There were greater life lessons through my experience with DBA that I will always be thankful for:

1. Always speak up and trust myself, my gut, my ignition, and that putt-putt that is meant to make me take another clarifying look at my decisions and actions.
2. Speak on what I am good at and say it boldly and proudly. I will not leave the narrative of my core strengths in the hands of someone else to value or speak on.
3. Maintain my integrity at all costs; some people won't understand, and that's okay.
4. Claim ownership of my ideas and my intellectual property so my legacy is not lost, erased, or stolen.

Despite our strained relationship, DBA was widely successful. We were one of the first agencies to manage bloggers as talent and went on to manage some of the biggest influencers developing brands, products, TV shows, and book deals. We paved the way for the influencer management agencies that exist today. I credit all our partners with continuing the work that Karen and I started at Karen's kitchen table in 2010 to create a new blogger economy, which led to a collective reach of more than 200 million upon being acquired by United Talent Artist Agency (UTA). To this day, I will be proud of what all the founders and partners created and the work we did together to generate opportunities for the voices that became the face of our generation.

When I think about that five-year journey and all we accomplished at DBA, I celebrate all the wins, big and small. For some, success may be giving a big presentation, getting a new client, accomplishing a big project, or even just making payroll every month to keep pushing through. For some of us, success is being able to show up authentically in all of our glory at work. This is also one of the drivers for people starting their own businesses: they want the freedom to be who they are and live a purposeful life on their own terms.

Living in Purpose to Achieve the Highest Expression of Self

Who is Angela Manuel Davis? When I talked to her on my Business of the Beat podcast, Angela described herself as a child of God, a mother, a wife, a sister, and a coach. Overall, she is an encourager.

The world knows her as a five-time All-American member of the USA Track and Field team, an Olympic Trials semi-finalist, a member of the World Championship team, and a professional runner for Nike. She is also the beloved entrepreneur and highly inspiring co-founder and chief motivation officer of AARMY, a popular fitness app with on-demand exercise classes.

Besides leading the most sought-after group cycle class in Los Angeles, she has privately coached Beyoncé, Jay-Z, David Beckham, and Kerry Washington. Her positive message on living on purpose to achieve the highest expression of ourselves reverberates globally, amplified by her appearances during Oprah's Winfrey's Live the Life You Want Tour and Oprah's 20/20 Vision Tour.

She says, “Coming from a sports family and being a professional athlete myself, it's the marriage between sports and spirituality where I found my pocket … my sweet spot. I coach individuals to their best life using spiritual principles, but also using physicality.”

Business of the Beat Excerpt, in Conversation with Angela Manuel Davis

Season 2, Episode 9, March 27, 2022

edited for print

Kendra: Angela Manuel Davis, who are you, and what do you stand for?

Angela: I'm a child of God. I am somebody who has dedicated my life to living in purpose and to encouraging everyone else around me to do the same. I'm a mom and a wife, a sister, a friend, a coach. And, you know, for me, when I look back at my life, the through line has been that of being an encourager. Coming from a sports family and being a professional athlete myself, it's the marriage between sport and spirituality where I found my pocket … my sweet spot. I coach individuals to their best life using spiritual principles, but also using physicality. There's something that's so beautiful that happens when we are in a place of vulnerability.

If we can all understand that every single one of us was created in purpose, on purpose, for a purpose, that means there is something that we were created to do in this world. We weren't created to find purpose because purpose was never lost. We were actually created with purpose, right? So discovering that for a lot of people is a journey...