Hidden Gems: Meet Celesté Martinez of Celestial Alegria

Today we’d like to introduce you to Celesté Martinez.

Hi Celesté, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In early March 2020, I quit my last nonprofit job. I was burnt out, exhausted and uncertain of what was next. I knew that I needed to drastically change my pace of life. I knew I needed to focus on rest. I knew I needed to center my healing. And so I did just that.

The week after I left my job COVID-19 started to ramp up here in the states and we all lived through last March to remember how much this changed everything. There were moments where I felt overwhelmed with uncertainty about the choice I made and I also had a lot of faith that I made the choice I needed to be more whole and this would reveal my future path. I recognize the great amount of financial privilege I had during this time, while so many people I love were struggling from the impacts of COVID and seeing a greater response to ongoing violence our Black community. All of these things really caused me to reflect on what my role is at this moment, how I could use my gifts and privileges to show up and show out for our community. It also was about staying attuned to my capacity before taking action.

On June 10, 2020, I publicly launched my coaching and consulting business Celestial Alegria. Through my business, I work with individuals and organizations to ignite joy through transformation. I believe we all are here for a sacred purpose and our joy often reveals what that is to us. The path to uncover our joy inherently moves us to transform. The process of transformation is never simple. This is why my work to focuses on coaching, facilitation and racial equity consulting.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I believe the greatest challenge and obstacle that I faced becoming a full-time entrepreneur was myself. The hard part was wrestling with my self-doubt and relating in a new way to fear.

In early September 2019, I was navigating some really severe back pain. The pain was so debilitating at times I couldn’t sit up or walk. There were no physical incidents to explain why this was happening. When I went to the doctor they also could not explain why I was in so much pain. Going to the chiropractor helped relieve some pain but it didn’t provide full relief. In the end, I took this as an opportunity to spiritually and emotionally check-in with myself. I soon realized that I was feeling really burdened and burnt out from my work with my prior nonprofit as I led them through transition. It was really hard to reckon with this truth. The more I reflected the idea of stepping into full-time entrepreneurship to become a life coach felt so exciting and inspiring; however, the idea was also really terrifying to me so I let the seed of this idea sit for a while. I trusted if it was really my path, it would be reinvigorated.

As 2019 concluded, it was abundantly clear that coaching is what I love to do and what brings me an immense amount of joy. I realized that I loved being a community organizer and developing organizers because a large part of the work is coaching people experience a transformation around their leadership or work with a group of people to make their vision of the better world they want into a reality. I remember in early 2020 trying to negotiate with my past Executive Director how could I make coaching more central to my work. Practically it made a lot of sense, but the reality is as a nonprofit program director, you’re pulled in so many directions and have to wear so many hats what you love to do isn’t always central to what needs to be done.

What ultimately pushed me to quit my job was hearing from one of my closest friends that they felt like my light was dimming. I knew this isn’t who I wanted to be in the world, and so I quit.

Towards the end of April 2020, after spending an immense amount of time resting and focusing on my healing, I found the seedling of becoming a coach returned to me. This time I didn’t let my fear limit my imagination and began to dream up what was possible. I called a good friend who has been a life coach for over 15 years and told her what I was envisioning. She asked me when I wanted to publicly share my vision, so in that conversation I set a date for June giving myself six weeks to build out my business plan and create the basic infrastructure I needed to launch. I found myself creating systems, checking off items on my to-do list, getting creative on how to create the content I needed to start marketing myself. However, where I kept getting stuck is when my self-doubt would show up. I kept thinking to myself, “Why am I starting a business in the middle of the pandemic? Will people really be interested in my offerings? Can I really be a coach?” I am so grateful for the community I have in my life because truly without them, I might have buried myself in excuses and left my self-doubt overtake me. Always at the right moment, someone would call me and would ask me how was I doing as I get ready to launch and remind me of my gifts and who I really am.

As day to launch got closer and closer, I remember feeling such immense fear. What I learned though is that this fear was actually really important. I felt this way because I was stepping into my joyful purpose. I was saying yes to what I was really meant to do.

Here I am now approaching my first anniversary with immense abundance! I am so grateful I didn’t let myself stand in my own way and that I have so many people in my life that held a mirror up to me who also didn’t let me hide behind my fear or bury myself in my self-doubt.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What I do… Coaching

My coaching is in service of Womxn of Color, Black Indigenous Queer Trans People of Color and people who identify with Latinidad and/or Chicanismo. Too often, and speaking from my own experience, we leave our needs, emotions and visions on the back burner. We forget to create a space that is truly just for ourselves. We don’t make the time to really process and reflect what is happening around us because we are just trying to survive. Coaching is an experience for my clients to slow down and take the time to center their self.

Racial Equity Consulting

I offer racial equity training through Celestial Alegria to restore our humanity, so we can be fully human and honor the dignity of one another. Oppressive systems take away our ability to be fully human and they cause pain and suffering to all of us to differing degrees. As someone who is radically committed to living out my joyful purpose, I want to be a part of experiencing the fullness of my humanity and support those who want to do the same.

My training programs and racial equity coaching services are for organizations, groups and communities, who want and are ready to take action. If you and your organization are sitting with the question of: “How do we become equitable in practice, systems and environment?” Let’s partner!

Confronting Anti-Blackness for Latinx & Chicanx

These ten weeks of political education and racial equity training for Latinx and Chicanx identifying folks. This program allows for nuestra comunidad to virtually come together to do the deep work we need to recognize how Colonization and White Supremacy are working together to perpetuate Anti-Blackness across our culturas. The next community will begin in June. To learn more sign up for a FREE call with me at www.celestialalegria.com/freecall.

Reparations Network

The Reparations Network is a community-funded action to make reparations to our beautiful Black community. The Reparations Network runs parallel each time I offer the Confronting Anti-Blackness for Latinx and Chicanx program. From the community-raised funds, Celestial Alegría pays $500 of reparations to 10 Black leaders, artists and organizations each week as the Confronting Anti-Blackness moves through the ten weeks training program. Each Friday, I share about each of the reparations recipients on my online platforms on all my social media!

Celestial Alegria Hazy IPA September 18, 2020, https://sentinelcolorado.com/sentinel-magazine/ale-yeah-10-beers-hold-the-pumpkin-spice-to-tip-back-this-season/

Colorful Colorado Collaboration Episode 1: Celestial Alegria, Lolita and Lady Justice Brewing September 10, 2020, https://youtu.be/Yhq1HLLG_Yc

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
It is crucial to experience grief. As Michelle Casandra Johnson says, “Our capacity to experience grief also expresses our capacity to experience liberation.” I truly hope that we can collective grow in our capacity to hold and experience grief together. We have lost so much during this time.

The right time to start something is when you decide to create it. If you are waiting for the perfect moment, it will never come. Trust yourself and your timing.

We can’t keep navigating everything with business as usual. We need to take the time to tend to what we need. When we make decisions that center our needs, we are better off.

Contact Info:

• Email: celeste@celestialalegria.com
• Website: www.celestialalegria.com
• Instagram: @celestialalegria
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/celestialalegria303
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/celmartinez129
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/yME408FVd-E

Image Credits
Purple blouse head shot, Rainbow sweater & Speaking shot with black hat on-Photo Credit Karson Hallaway Yellow head shot Photo Credit Soona Studios