00:00The five-year-old Maya was lit. I had a lot of personality. My mother said I was the dream
00:05child
00:05because I listened. I was good. I didn't give her problems. Very boisterous in nature. Not problematic
00:14but free-spirited. I would definitely tell my younger self not to be in a rush on anyone else's
00:21timeline and make sure that along the way that you take care of you first so that you can reach
00:27your destination. When I first started it was a very rough and rocky time. The definition
00:31of success for me was to have my family involved and everything that I did and have people around
00:36me that I love but that got stripped away from me due to a very ugly divorce between my parents
00:41who were also simultaneously my managers. At the time that my parents were getting a divorce
00:46my mom was simultaneously diagnosed with breast cancer. I didn't know who to turn to and who
00:52to actually discuss it with because there was nobody. I didn't want to talk about it.
00:58With the business representatives it was very embarrassing at the time. I did a lot of praying.
01:02I did a lot of writing. I did a lot of crying. I wasn't the person as a teenager I
01:06was supposed to
01:07be because I was processing everything. I would just shut down you know not knowing if that next phone
01:13call would be my mother on her way out or if my dad committed suicide. I was terrified of bringing
01:20it up
01:21to my record company because I felt that that would be too risky as in they would tell me to
01:27take some
01:27mental break and see a psychologist or something like that. So I just held it in and then it turned
01:33into art eventually. It's probably not the healthiest way but at least I had the pen and paper. I had
01:39to
01:39leave you know the music industry behind for a minute to figure out what made me feel whole again.
01:452005 I moved back home from all of it. Built a studio. My brother built it. Created a foundation for
01:50kids in that area from both broken homes in the inner city the heart of Washington DC. Became a
01:58teacher again one of my passions that make me feel alive. I knew what the bigger picture should be
02:02and I had a vision of what that was and I just wanted peace. Honestly I just wanted to keep
02:08the
02:08peace and everyone to be happy. Trying to please so many people can definitely cause a lot of stress
02:14so when your body is telling you this doesn't feel right something is missing something's missing.
02:19Take the time to try to identify what the problem is and what the void is so that you're not
02:24filling
02:24it with unhealthy things whether that be unhealthy people, unhealthy thoughts to yourself. I watched
02:31the women in my family struggle so much my entire life. There's been a lot of sadness and a lot
02:37of crap
02:38taken from my grandmothers to my aunts to my cousins to my mother and I appreciate and I'm fortunate for
02:45all of
02:46the sacrifices that they've made but how can I get around being that woman. I have to break this cycle.
02:52That was the start of building my family back together. My self-care usually means turning my phone
02:56off, stopping business because I'm a workaholic behind the computer before I even get to my art
03:0290 percent of the time. I have tunnel vision. I'm driven and it's very boutique on an independent level
03:09right now. Though it might be a boutique level, it's done right. Everybody's getting paid, equated for,
03:18documented, organized and I know what's going on. That's what it is. Being an independent artist and
03:24independent label, it's done right. The grind is harder, the grind is longer. Willing to be on the road
03:3011 months a year with no man, no relationship, celibate, vegan, no dating, don't see my girlfriends,
03:37don't even see my family or my animals because I want to do one thing. Invest in the greatness that
03:43sometimes I feel interference has gotten in the way with. I entered the music business right at the
03:48right time. I don't think I would have been as strong as I am now if I entered the music
03:55business
03:56now. Things happened in my life that were blessings to keep me humble, to pull me back from maybe
04:02getting taken up by the wolves. I want to make sure that I'm really happy with what I'm doing and
04:07do it
04:08for the reason I got into it in the first place. Make people feel the way that I felt when
04:13I was first
04:13moved by music.
