How can you find joy?

Farra Trompeter: Welcome to the Smart Communications Podcast. This is Farra Trompeter, co-director and worker-owner at Big Duck. So I met today’s guest at a workshop several years ago, and then we had the chance, the organization Big Duck and her organization Blue Engine, to work together when she was the chief development and communications officer several years ago. She also was on the podcast before, back on episode 117: How does branding make things easier? And for today’s conversation, we’re going to pivot from talking about the work to how we do the work. And we’re going to ask the question, how can you find joy? And of course, I’ve had the joy of spending a lot of time with today’s guest, both on Zoom calls and in person.

Farra Trompeter: So I am delighted to be joined by Elandria Ayoka Jackson Charles. Elandria is the founder and chief joy officer of Ayoka Partners, where she champions the clarity and joy of Black women leaders through sabbatical care, supporting both extended time away and sabbatical moments woven into daily life. She helps leaders reconnect with themselves, creating ripple effects that transform how they live, lead, and love. Elandria earned her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MPA from NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Elandria, welcome back to the show.

Elandria Jackson Charles: Thanks for having me. This feels like a full-circle moment. I’m so happy to be here, Farra.

Farra Trompeter: And I am so happy to have you here. Well, as we prepared for today’s conversation, one of the things that you said to me that I really took note of was, “Joy is my thing”. And you also taught me that “ayoka” means “one who brings joy to all” in Swahili. So what does joy and ayoka mean to you, and what’s bringing you joy these days?

Elandria Jackson Charles: Yes, let’s talk about it. So Ayoka was my original middle name, and as you mentioned, it’s Swahili for “one who brings joy to all”. And what I realized is that in my business, I actually want to make joy accessible to others. In order for me to do that, though, I had to make sure that I have my own practices for joy. And so a part of my journey has been building a toolkit of what does it mean to actually access joy? What is the rest that’s required? What is the intention that’s required? What are the tools that allow you to constantly, on a regular basis, access joy? And so in my business, that’s exactly what I’m doing, is creating the space and providing tools for the women that I work with to access joy in all areas of their life.

Elandria Jackson Charles: What’s bringing me joy these days? It’s so much. It’s so much, and I’ll be honest with you, it could be easy for me to start with the big things, right? Like the trip that I took to Santa Fe, or to Jamaica, or even my two young kids. But you know what? I actually think joy is about small micro moments and being present and appreciating and noticing. So I’m going to give you an example of something that brought me joy just yesterday. So I’d gotten up at six o’clock in the morning, got my kids ready, took them to school, came back home, and I was like, “You know what? I need to reset. I do not want to start my day right now based on how it currently started, and I actually want to start over.” So I made a cup of coffee, I sat on the front porch, and as I was sipping the coffee, it was raining, and I looked to my left, and I saw this super bright, vivid lavender-colored flower. And truly, in that moment, I felt joy. I looked at the flower that I hadn’t noticed before; it’s certainly been in our yard for a few months now. And I thought, “That is just beautiful.” And so when I think about joy, I think it is about the micro moments of appreciating and noticing the beauty and the spectacular things that are all around us.

Farra Trompeter: Wow. And if the color purple doesn’t bring you joy, something is wrong with you.

Elandria Jackson Charles: You know a little something about that, don’t you?

Farra Trompeter: That’s right, that’s right. You know, I love the purple. In fact, just another podcast we recorded, we were talking about Alice Walker, The Color Purple, the book, the movie, all of it.

Elandria Jackson Charles: Awesome.

Farra Trompeter: Yeah. Well, let’s flip it for a second from the personal to the professional, and I’d love you to talk a little bit about your company. What led you to start Ayoka Partners? And can you talk a little bit about what you do there and who you work with?

Elandria Jackson Charles: Sure. So I started our Ayoka Partners for me. I started for the old version of me who was on the brink of burnout, who was experiencing chronic fatigue, who didn’t feel like she belonged, who couldn’t access her brilliance. And then I started for the me of today, to be the wife and the mother and the friend and the daughter and the big sister that I want to be. And so the women that I work with are high-achieving, they are brilliant, they are spectacular in their own right, but they’re tired. They are tired. And what I’ve learned is, in my time working with women and coaching them, is, you know, we show up to do the work, but I am looking at a shell of a person, someone who is so exhausted that she can’t access the questions or even the answers that are already inside of herself.

Elandria Jackson Charles: And so through my business, I provide space under the umbrella of sabbatical care for women to come home to themselves. And so what I mean by that is we’re going to pause. You’re going to have space to process, to think, to remember, and then I’m going to provide you some tools for you to consistently be able to practice joy. And so, within the sabbatical care, I have actual coverage. Like when a leader is deciding to take extended time away, I will support her and her team before, during, and after her time away. And then sabbatical moments, which is the part of my work where I actually am a guide, and I’m helping women understand how, day-to-day, there are small things that you can do to bring you joy. You don’t have to wait to the three-month sabbatical. That’s not even possible for a lot of people. And so sabbatical moments is about taking and accessing the time that you do have to pour into your own joy.

Farra Trompeter: Great. And we’re going to come back to the sabbatical moments idea in just a minute. I want to stick with the joy part of it, though, and obviously, they’re intrinsically connected, and we’ll keep exploring that connection. But I know that you’ve actually led workshops about the urgency of joy, which I love that idea of making joy urgent. And so how is that showing up for you? What makes joy urgent for you, and why do you feel like it’s imperative that people learn to prioritize pursuing joy?

Elandria Jackson Charles: You know, I think joy is the currency of life. Joy is the thing that we own and that we have and that cannot be taken away. And so I think it’s so urgent to practice it because, you know, if you haven’t noticed in 2025, you can’t rely on anything around you to fill your cup. And so what are you doing within yourself to make sure that you are cultivating this idea of wonder and awe and appreciation and joy? When I think about Black women in particular, I know that 50,000 Black women die from cardiovascular disease every single year. So you want to talk about urgency, it’s urgent. People are dying because of the stress and the pressure, and the deprioritization of yourself for the sake of others. And without taking the time to stop and to pause and to be still and really honor what you need in order to better serve others, in the worst case scenario, it can lead to death. But what I’m seeing on a regular basis is people just being a shell of themselves and not able to show up in their brilliance and their purpose.

Farra Trompeter: Well that is definitely imperative. So thank you for breaking that down. Now, let’s get a little practical for a moment. What are some things that people can do to practice joy as part of their work lives, and not just something that happens at night or on the weekends or on vacation? And beyond that, again, I know you’ve moved into helping leaders make time to lead with joy via sabbaticals. So what are some ways people can start creating those “sabbatical moments” in their daily lives, as well as prioritizing taking meaningful time off?

Elandria Jackson Charles: So, you know, I’m going to start by talking a little bit about my own toolkit. What I realized is accessing joy is so much easier when you have almost like a menu of options where you are aware on the front end of what I can go to? What I can draw on when I need to access joy? So, some examples for me. So when I think about my spiritual health, that looks like meditation, that looks like prayer. When I think about my physical health, that means moving for 20 minutes every day. So, on a Monday, it could be taking a walk around the neighborhood. On a Wednesday, it could be on the Pilates mat. On a Friday, it could be a run. But making sure that I’m physically moving in some way. And so when I think about the people that I work with and those who are looking to access joy, I think a really good place to start is to do a survey of different areas of your life. Think about your mental health, think about your physical health, think about your financial health, think about where you need more joy, and then come up with very practical ways that you can consistently pour into those areas.

Farra Trompeter: That was really helpful. I’m starting to make a list of all the places in my life I need to think about finding joy. And I’m just going to get back into the second part of the question, which is, what are some ways people can start creating those sabbatical moments in their daily lives, as well as prioritizing taking meaningful time off? I know for me, you know, when I, years ago, there was a time when I was at Big Duck, where not only were like, “You have to take two weeks off, but we’re locking you out of your email. You can’t access it, right?” And I really appreciated that was an act of love at the time to make sure I was getting that joy and the real meaning of taking time out. So what are some ways people can find that sabbatical moment? Not everyone might be able to take several months off. So how do we find those moments in our everyday lives?

Elandria Jackson Charles: Yes, great question. So I like to think about sabbatical moments in two ways. The first are natural pauses, natural opportunities that are already built into your day that we are not accessing, that we are overlooking, that we are not taking stock of. And then the second bucket is creating the pauses. The first one that comes to mind for me is when you wake up in the morning, the minute you open your eyes. I got this question through a rest practice led by Octavia Faith Raheem, who is a speaker, an author, a rest coach. And the question is this: “What is the best fuel for your dreams today?” What is the best fuel for your dreams today? Since December of 2024, I have opened my eyes every single day and asked myself that question, and it has been game-changing. So that’s like a natural moment that you can seize and use it more intentionally.

Elandria Jackson Charles: Another example is, you know, we’re constantly transitioning throughout the day, whether it is from meeting to meeting, interaction to interaction, and I don’t think we’re breathing enough. And so think about ways that you can incorporate breathing. I really, really do like box breathing, where you say that Zoom call ended, box breathing, and then move to the next thing. And so box breathing, if you’re not familiar, is counting four counts up, holding your breath, four counts, exhale four counts, pause four counts. Do that three or four times, it resets your nervous system and you’re off to the next thing. Okay, so those are examples of sort of existing built-in natural pauses. Others where you create, I think changing your physical environment is huge. I remember you know, when I was working for an organization, I would literally sit at my desk at 9:00 AM and not get up until five, even eating my lunch at my desk. And shame on us because we have agency, and there’s actually like time that we own that we are giving away. Go for a walk, 15 minutes. Go eat your lunch somewhere else. You can do that. So I think changing your physical environment is another way to just build in a pause. I also listen to podcasts. I actually find that as a way to broaden my perspective and, in some ways, build community. So I bet you didn’t know that listening to this podcast was a sabbatical moment. Check.

Farra Trompeter: There we go. You’ve done something today. Keep listening, keep taking more sabbatical moments. Love it. That’s great. Well, before we go, I want to touch on something else that I know brings us both joy, and that is rest. You were talking a little bit about it. Personally, I love a good nap on the weekends. I’ve sometimes taken a nap at the end of the workday when I have been on those back-to-back Zooms and just feel exhausted, even though I haven’t left my apartment. I’ve also learned not to book my evenings, you know, back to back, or have my vacations packed solid with plans and endless things to do. Just pick a few things I know I want to make sure happen, but don’t book myself nine to five or nine to nine on a vacation. So I’ve learned a lot for myself and trying to bring myself joy through rest as well. And I know that part of your work involves coaching leaders to take and get the most out of work rest, or sabbaticals. So what’s the connection between sabbaticals and joy for you? And maybe you can even start by offering a definition of sabbaticals because again, I think many people think a sabbatical might be unattainable, or it’s really long that maybe not be able to afford that or get as much time off. So maybe you could talk a little bit about how you define sabbaticals and then the connection between sabbaticals and joy.

Elandria Jackson Charles: Sure. So when I think about a sabbatical, I think of intentional time. Intentional time away from the usual. And so when I say time, we could be talking about two minutes, 20 minutes, two months, okay? And so this is just intentionally stepping away from your normal, regularly-scheduled program. Now, the connection for me between joy and sabbaticals is the heart of it is: It’s really, really hard to access joy when you are tired. When you are teetering on the brink of burnout and chronically fatigued, you can’t think straight. It’s hard to know what you want because you’re so dysregulated. And so I think that one of the ways to access joy is through rest. And so the sabbatical is the intentional time away, the intentional pause, the intentional stopping and listening and noticing, slowing everything down so that you can hear, so that you can hear your heart and listen to what it is telling you will bring you joy, so that you can then start putting those practices into place.

Farra Trompeter: That’s great. Well, I hope this podcast has sparked some joy for everyone who’s been listening or reading the transcript at bigduck.com/insights. If you’d like to learn more about Elandria’s work at Ayoka Partners, be sure to check out AyokaPartners.com or connect with her on LinkedIn. Elandria, before we go, any other words of wisdom or joy you’d like to share? Anything else we didn’t get into or something that sparked joy for you recently, you want to share with us?

Elandria Jackson Charles: You know, my last words are start small. Stop thinking about accessing joy as this big, large, unwieldy thing. It is very accessible and can happen in the most micro ways, and will make a huge difference.

Farra Trompeter: I love it and I love that idea of waking up every day, asking questions, holding that space. So thank you for everything you’ve shared with us. And everyone out there, I hope you have some joy coming your way.

Elandria Jackson Charles: Thank you, Farra.

Farra Trompeter: Thank you.