🎙️ Episode Title: The Art of Falling Up: Darci Graves on Resilience and Empowerment

💭 Episode Description: This one’s for anyone who’s been knocked down and is ready to rise with intention, grace, and power. In this deeply inspiring episode of The Uncaged Pod, Jess sits down with Darci Graves, a speaker, author, consultant, and fierce advocate for falling up!

Darci shares her personal and professional journey, from working with the University of Maryland and CMS to facing and overcoming aggressive breast cancer. She introduces her life philosophy, “The Art of Falling Up,” a bold reframe of resilience that centers healing, agency, and growth. With refreshing honesty and warmth, Darci walks us through her process of feeling, resting, plotting, rising, and cheering- a model for reclaiming strength without bypassing the struggle.

We talk code switching, the retreat of DEI efforts, celebrating the small wins, and why choosing recovery over reaction is one of the most revolutionary things you can do.

✨ Connect with Darci Graves:

🌐 Website: darcigraves.org

📸 Instagram: @nowspeakingdarci

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Resilience can feel passive. Falling up invites action and intention.
• You don’t have to bounce back. You can rise differently.
• Cultural confidence is both personal and systemic.
• True recovery honors the body, the spirit, and the spaces in between.
• Celebrating small victories fosters community healing and momentum.

📌 Favorite Quotes:

🗣️ “We all do better when we all do better.” – Darci Graves (01:30)

🗣️ “The art of falling up, because we all get knocked down… but we can talk more about that.” (06:03)

🗣️ “Resilience feels a little more passive… But when you're falling up, you're taking an active part in this.” (18:01)

🗣️ “Wake every morning with the goal of letting people know they matter.” (32:40)

🗣️ “How do we help people restore themselves? Because I think there’s a lot of people who are just depleted…” (45:46)

🤝 How You Can Support Darci’s Work:

– Explore her site: darcigraves.org

– Follow her for empowering updates on IG: @nowspeakingdarci

– Share this episode with someone navigating their own fall

– Try the Falling Up process in your own life

– Celebrate a small win today, for yourself or someone else

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