When I published an article on Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global about the forty life lessons I learned after my husband’s death, I never dreamed it would go viral. I simply published it and left it. But I knew one thing — it was the most vulnerable piece of writing I had ever created. I wanted to help women — young women, mothers, single parents, and widows — to know that after facing adversity you can make a comeback to live the life you really want. The editorial team at Medium.com contacted me to create an audio version as part of a series of their best stories. The viral article, My Husband Died at 34. Here Are 40 Life Lessons I learned From It, was featured on/or linked to by over 160 websites and viewed by 50 million people around the world.
Holistic Wealth — Resonated with Influential TV Audiences
Since publishing the book, the idea of holistic wealth has resonated with influential audiences including producers at The Mel Robbins Show — where Emmy Award-winning and 5X Emmy nominee, TV Producer, Amy Baczkowsky (and former producer of Oprah’s Favorite Things) told me personally that: “We loved your book!”. Other very prominent TV shows such as Red Table Talk, starring Jada Pinket-Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and the producers at the Daily Flash TV show loved the book. As a result, I now host the Holistic Wealth TV segment on the Daily Flash Show where I continue to educate audiences on cultivating holistic wealth (to an estimated 6.2 million daily viewers). Several CEOs around the world have contacted me about the book from India to South Africa. I was invited to be a guest on Farnam Street’s Ask Me Anything (AMA) in December 2019, following the footsteps of NY Times Bestselling Author Ryan Holliday (who appeared the month before I did) to discuss his book, Stillness Is the Key and NY Times Bestselling Author of Atomic Habits James Clear. Farnam Steet’s AMA is distributed to their Learning Community with an audience in the thousands. The book was also chosen to be a part of the Badass Women’s Book Club book Tour in March.
In terms of the movement, the concept of holistic wealth and living a holistically wealthy lifestyle are tied to current trends like increasing emphasis on work/life balance, concerns about younger generations not being financially stable. With COVID-19, we have realized that our physical health and wealth are so interdependent and that the definition of wealth needs a reset to include not only financial wealth but our physical and mental health. As I wrote in an article recently, holistic wealth is the new wealth. It also includes financial empowerment for women, and a recognition that if women are not financially empowered they cant be fully empowered, in other words, financial empowerment is the new feminism.
The Moments I Miss — Starring Bambi Northwood-Blyth
After the article went viral, I was contacted by award-winning film producer Thibaut Buccelato, to write the short-film entitled “The Moments I Miss.” The film stars Australian actress and supermodel Stephanie Bambi Northwood-Blyth, who has graced the covers of many magazines such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar and portrays my story and my words in the film. The film was produced in Paris and also stars Yannis Lespert. I especially admire Bambi’s work on shedding light on Diabetes to help so many people with the disease. My own father is diabetic, so I know firsthand the daily struggles that millions all over the world with this disease face, especially in light of COVID-19, where diabetics are at a very high risk of complications. I am especially grateful for the kind words she posted on Instagram, with regards to my story and the script: “and the beautiful @KeishaOBlair for being so brave and sharing your emotive script and allowing me to play such a special character“.
Interviews With The Most Successful People on Earth
In writing the book, I had the honor of interviewing some of the most successful people on earth — from celebrities and world-class athletes to gifted academics in the world of economics and personal finance. When the article I wrote about 40 life lessons went viral, and an agent suggested that I turn it into a book, I interviewed some of the most successful people on earth about the 40 life lessons I developed and harnessed these lessons in the form of a book on overcoming disruption and life-altering setbacks.
The Art of Recovery From Disruption
In my new book Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons To Help You Find Purpose Prosperity and Happiness, I interviewed over 100 trailblazers, influencers and celebrities who are world-renowned experts in these life lessons, such as Tia-Clair Toomey, Olympian and three-time CrossFit champion, widely regarded as the “fittest woman on the planet”; Dr. Gail Saltz, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College and sister of Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Adam Riess; Apryl Jones from the reality TV show Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood; Osric Chau, Canadian actor and martial artist, best known for his role as Kevin Tran in the CW series Supernatural and as Vogel in the BBC America series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency; Dr. Robert R. Johnson, CFA, CAIA, professor of finance at Creighton University and coauthor of Strategic Value Investing, a book that has been on Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting reading list for the past four years — among many others.
I also personally reached out to best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell to get his permission to use a few of his insights. I contacted Oprah’s team, in order to get her insights as well as Deepak Chopra. These luminaries agreed to be quoted in the book, indicating that the movement resonated with them and their purpose. I wanted to compile the absolute best advice in a book that could change lives and present a framework for overcoming setbacks and disruption to achieve success, prosperity and happiness.
The 8-Day Holistic Wealth Challenge
During the book launch week, over 400 women in North America and around the globe, as far as India and Ghana signed up for the 8-Day Holistic Wealth Challenge. We challenged everyone who joined the challenge to begin living a holistically wealthy life. Teachers, Nurses, University Administrators, Therapists, and Female Entrepreneurs all participated. Each day we completed a separate challenge, integral to cultivating a holistic wealth mindset, including writing a personal mission statement (day 1), developing a personal financial identity (day 3), and developing a platform that represents you (day 8). To view the entire playlist and start the free 8-Day Holistic Wealth Challenge, click here.
Arianna Huffington on Holistic Wealth by Keisha Blair
The book excerpt was published on Thrive Global and Arianna Huffington shared it across all of her social media accounts to a combined 15 million followers, including on LinkedIn (below) to more than 9 million followers. Other influencers such as Dave Kerpen, NYT bestselling author of the Art of People as well as international bestselling author Chris Bailey of The Productivity Project also helped to spread the word. The quote that Arianna Huffington highlighted from Holistic Wealth — is one of the most poignant: Our education system teaches about linearity, not about what to do when this linear pattern breaks, not where to look for resilience, not the art of recovery from disruption. Indeed, the holistic wealth framework, emphasizes the art of recovery from disruption.
The Keisha Blair Institute on Holistic Wealth
Many readers reached out to me personally to propose a certification program to put the framework outlined in the book into practice. As a result, I launched the Keisha Blair Institute on Holistic Wealth with a membership portal with free resources as well as several online courses such as the Certified Holistic Wealth Consultant Program and other courses such as Build Your Life Purpose Portfolio, Holistic Healing, Build Your Financial Independence Portfolio and Build Your Holistic Wealth Blueprint.
Join Us In This Global Movement. Visit the Keisha Blair Institute on Holistic Wealth to find out more.