Black Love’s Codie Elaine Oliver, Provides Healing And Wellness For Black Women With The You Retreat

In 2017, business and life partners Tommy and Codie Oliver, founders of Black Love, Inc. and the Black Love docuseries, built their media empire to help drive change by inspiring healthy conversation around relationships across the Black community. Oliver understands Black women’s ability to love and affirm themselves and how vital it is to their existence and how channeling it can be, which is why she decided to share her expertise with women across the nation with The YOU Retreat.

The YOU Retreat is an intimate, one-day wellness experience and opportunity for Black women to pour into themselves. The retreat was specifically designed to break down emotional and spiritual walls in women who need to jumpstart their journey to clarity and peace. Throughout the retreat, guest speakers like Tabitha Brown, Angela Rye, Estelle, and more, conducted conversations about finding peace amid difficult life transitions and shared their wellness practices.

Ahead of The YOU Retreat, we caught up with Oliver on why she created the wellness event and what’s next for Black Love Inc.

Dominique Fluker: What led you to create The YOU Retreat, Black Love’s first-ever women’s wellness event? What’s the purpose and the intention behind the retreat? 

Codie Elaine Oliver: Last year, before the beginning of the pandemic, so many women in my life were struggling with grief or heartbreak, self-doubt, and anxiety feeling like there was no one to talk to. I’m solution-oriented when it comes to help my loved ones get the support they need, so The YOU Retreat was born out of wanting to help those close to me and, of course, knowing we weren’t alone in these emotions. 

When the retreat was canceled in March 2020 due to COVID, I wasn’t sure I’d try it again, but it’s not like getting through grief and anxiety got any easier over the last year. So, we brought it back and focused not only on helping Black women feel like we can get through anything but also on sisterhood as one of the ways through. We are stronger together, and real queens fix each other’s crowns. The YOU Retreat 2021 was born!  

Fluker: Why is it so important for you to help Black women find love and acceptance within themselves, especially during COVID-19? 

Oliver: Everyone deserves to know what it feels like to love yourself fully. But as Black women, we are often told we are less desirable, less deserving of equal opportunities or income, and expected to fit into others’ expectations of what we should be. Those negative stories can permeate our existence and affect all our relationships unless corrected, so I always want to create a space where we could pour into one another and feel seen. 

Fluker: The YOU Retreat has a star-studded line up of panelists like Estelle, Angela Rye, Tabitha Brown, and more. Could you speak to the retreat’s session themes and panel selection? 

Oliver: The overall theme of the YOU Retreat is for Black women to heal through community and owning our worthiness. I personally curated conversations with women I knew would be vulnerable in sharing their highs and lows and women who consistently encourage other women. We have a panel on conquering entrepreneurship and inner peace featuring the founder of Brown Girl Jane, Tai Beauchamp and me, sisterhood despite life’s seasons featuring real-life best friends Devi Brown and Angela Rye, creating your own path with singers and trailblazers Estelle and Mickey Guyton, and affirming yourself even when it’s tough featuring Melissa Fredericks and Tabitha Brown. 

Fluker: Coming off the heels of a successful 5^th season of Black Love, how is The You Retreat an extension of your docuseries?

Oliver: The Black Love docuseries is about what it takes to make a marriage work. However, our larger Black Love brand highlights 360 degrees of Black love, including partnership, dating, parenting, friendship, and most importantly, self-love. Self-awareness and focusing on self-love are critical components to forging healthy relationships with others. Our brand is rooted in transparency, and folks can always expect that the openness that made our docuseries popular is what we offer across all our content and events.

Fluker: What do you hope guests receive from attending The YOU Retreat?

Oliver: My greatest hope in all the work we do is to show people they’re not alone in whatever they’re going through. No matter our level of success, most of us have experienced self-doubt, low lows, grief, heartbreak, and setbacks. The speakers at the YOU Retreat share their stories to offer perspective to the audience.    

Fluker: What’s next for your media company, Black Love Inc.? Share your plans for expansion and upcoming projects, like producing the upcoming Netflix film, The Perfect Find.  

Oliver: Just this year at Black Love Inc, we launched a podcast network, a content app called Black Love+, and we create live and virtual events, including the 4th annual Black Love Summit, which will take place in November. We’re also developing several exciting TV and film projects and just wrapped the Netflix film The Perfect Find, a romantic comedy based on a book I love by Tia Williams. Our goal is to create content that centers Black people as leads.