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Women Around the World: Ni'cola Mitchell · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuffone
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  Speaker 1: never told your production of I Heart Radio. So today
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  Speaker 1: we have a special edition of Women Around the World
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  Speaker 1: and we're featuring an interview by Nicola Mitchell of the
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  Speaker 1: amazing organization Girls Who broughtch And this interview was sponsored
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  Speaker 1: by Loreal and their Women of Worth initiative, and several
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  Speaker 1: of the women we've featured on this segment have been
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  Speaker 1: recipients of this amazing award. Pass honrees have accomplished some
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  Speaker 1: really impressive and amazing stuff as Champions of the underserved,
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  Speaker 1: including impacting legislation and Nobel Prize nominations. If you want
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  Speaker 1: to learn more about the inspiring stories behind this year's
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  Speaker 1: group of nominees the work they've been doing, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you want to vote for this year's national hountery,
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  Speaker 1: you can check out Women of Worth dot com. But today, yes,
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  Speaker 1: we have a wonderful interview with a past honoree of
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  Speaker 1: the program, Nicola Mitchell. Um quick content learning brief mention
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  Speaker 1: of sexual assault and violence. But yes, let's jump right
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  Speaker 1: in and we're so excited to be talking to Nicola today.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. Hi, everybody, thank
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  Speaker 1: you for having me. I am so honored to be here. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: we are so honored to have you. Can you tell
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  Speaker 1: us a bit about Girls Who Brunch? This is Nicola
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  Speaker 1: Mitchell and I'm the founder of Girls Who Brunch Tour Well,
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  Speaker 1: Girls who Brunches, my baby. It's an organization that I
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  Speaker 1: found it back in two thousand and fifteen. We take
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  Speaker 1: low income, at risk girls and we put them with
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  Speaker 1: girls from a better circumstance. So when I say low
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  Speaker 1: income at risk girls who are rescue from the sex
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  Speaker 1: trade girls and foster care girls who are group homes,
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  Speaker 1: and we put them with girls from a better circumstance
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  Speaker 1: and um, let him have fun teach them. Nobody knows
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  Speaker 1: anyone's background and we're subliminally teaching them at this ain't time.
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  Speaker 1: So as of date we have service twenty seven thousand
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  Speaker 1: girls due to the pandemic internationally because now we're in St. Lucia,
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  Speaker 1: England and Bahamas. We loved us because it definitely goes
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  Speaker 1: right in line with what we were talking about when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to women lifting up other women and coming
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  Speaker 1: through and teaching a better way. What it is to
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  Speaker 1: have someone who was a mentor and truly caring for others.
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  Speaker 1: So this is amazing. Um, can you talk about how
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  Speaker 1: you started this organization or how it even began? So
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  Speaker 1: Girls Who Branch, I was, Um, I'm a writer in
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  Speaker 1: my real life. A lot of people do not know that.
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  Speaker 1: They just know me as a Girls Who Branch to
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  Speaker 1: our lady. But I was in Charleston, South Carolina, and
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  Speaker 1: at that time, my mother and my son had just passed,
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  Speaker 1: and I was like in a kind of dark space,
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  Speaker 1: right and I was the featured author at a book
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  Speaker 1: signing at Barnes and Nobles. Um, it was a whole
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  Speaker 1: retreat they did around me. And these girls came in
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  Speaker 1: from the Gala Islands. And when I say that, that
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  Speaker 1: was like the best thing that ever happened to me
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  Speaker 1: because these girls were so open, so naive, and they
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  Speaker 1: were lacking so many just basic skills that regular girls have,
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  Speaker 1: so like some of these girls don't even know that
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  Speaker 1: pizza came in a box. And when we were having
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  Speaker 1: that conversation, I've seen that first half. I realized that
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  Speaker 1: I needed to do whatever I was going to do
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  Speaker 1: here in that city. I wasn't at risk kid. I
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  Speaker 1: was raped multiple times before I turned sixteen. I had
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  Speaker 1: my first daughter five days after my fifteenth birthday, and
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  Speaker 1: my second daughter by nineteen. I was beaten. I've been
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  Speaker 1: through so many things, and I've always told myself I
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  Speaker 1: was going to give back to girls. I just did
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  Speaker 1: not know how to do it. So when I met
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  Speaker 1: these girls and I was in a place of you know,
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  Speaker 1: like kind of lost, like in that wilderness, I needed
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  Speaker 1: something to set my mind on, to get out my funk.
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  Speaker 1: And two or three months later, we created the first
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  Speaker 1: Girls Who Brunched Charleston and we had over two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty girls there, which was crazy. Yeah, that's that's amazing.
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  Speaker 1: And you've already touched on this a little bit, but
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  Speaker 1: can you talk about the reach an impact of Girls
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  Speaker 1: Who Brunch um that has had since you've created it.
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  Speaker 1: So before the pandemic, we were at Girls and we're
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  Speaker 1: on a one city tour and that's averaging about two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty girls for
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  Speaker 1: a city. But once COVID happened and we had to
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  Speaker 1: go virtual, I started using stream Yard and having hosting
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  Speaker 1: each city's tour virtually. So now with it being um
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  Speaker 1: streamed on YouTube but also on all these different Facebook networks.
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  Speaker 1: Now we were having like going from two girls live
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  Speaker 1: to like three thousand people live the entire six hour
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  Speaker 1: duration of our event. And that was just wild to me,
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  Speaker 1: right because you know, you wouldn't think somebody's gonna be
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  Speaker 1: bored or whatever, but I really put a lot of
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  Speaker 1: input and thought into it. We have online games, we
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  Speaker 1: have all these different things that the girls can do
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  Speaker 1: interactively while they're watching the event. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: we have speakers, panels, workshops. Still everybody is still mailing
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  Speaker 1: now the girls their gifts to their house, and so
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  Speaker 1: that's how we were able to triple the numbers just
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  Speaker 1: in one year by covid. And then now we started
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  Speaker 1: this online masterclass series and this last one we just
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  Speaker 1: had I had forty girls from St. Lucia that were
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  Speaker 1: also involved in the session. So that was even wilder
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  Speaker 1: to me because these babies are logged in at five o'clock,
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  Speaker 1: the session doesn't start until six, waiting, like they're just
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  Speaker 1: so enthused and happy, elated that they're able to participate
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  Speaker 1: in this. So now we're gonna actually launch girls who
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  Speaker 1: brush too our St. Lucia July twenty two from this
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  Speaker 1: on Girl. That is amazing and such a beautiful thing
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  Speaker 1: to see it grow, such a necessary thing. And I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure so many parents and people who have young girls
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  Speaker 1: in their care are so grateful to have this as
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  Speaker 1: something that they can take part in. And you deserved,
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  Speaker 1: Lee were nominated for loreal Women of Worth, and we've
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  Speaker 1: actually featured a few and yeah, you are a part
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  Speaker 1: of that that is phenomenal and is well deserved, well
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  Speaker 1: earned obviously. Um, how do you feel about all of that?
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  Speaker 1: And how did you find out you were nominated? So
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  Speaker 1: funny story, right, I can tell you the truth. I
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  Speaker 1: don't have to give you any good version. I did
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  Speaker 1: not know, right, And so I started getting all these
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  Speaker 1: emails and stuff from them that we you know, you're nominated,
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  Speaker 1: ba blah blah. But I never thought I was gonna
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  Speaker 1: make it to the end. And so they can't get
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  Speaker 1: having us do all these like it's not an easy
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  Speaker 1: thing for anybody who is out there there wants to
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  Speaker 1: be a woman of work. This is like a beauty
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  Speaker 1: padget on steroids. Okay, if you have to do all
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  Speaker 1: kind of stuff, you had to show your skills, just everything,
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  Speaker 1: And so I just never thought I got it. They
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  Speaker 1: had said you were going to find out I forgot
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  Speaker 1: like before the fourth of July, right, and we were
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  Speaker 1: going to our New Orleans event, and I said, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I just didn't get I didn't think anything about it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm in the nail shop on the phone and I
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  Speaker 1: missed a call and I'm looking at the number. I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: that's gotta be a spam call, right, And so I
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  Speaker 1: didn't answer the phone. I was kind of like down
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  Speaker 1: because I was feeling bad about myself and like, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you didn't get it, you know, and blah blah blah.
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  Speaker 1: And the lady was like, I forgot her name, but
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  Speaker 1: she was like, look, I'm trying to find Nicola Mitchell.
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  Speaker 1: She was like Nicola Mitchell, She's like she won the
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  Speaker 1: Loreal Paris Woman of Words. I've left several messages on
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  Speaker 1: another line right of the line. But it was the
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  Speaker 1: fourth of July, right, so nobody's checking the voicemail. And
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  Speaker 1: I was like, I was in the nail shop, but
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  Speaker 1: I'm like screaming. My nail tech Tina was like, lady,
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  Speaker 1: bring it down, you know. But it was so funny.
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  Speaker 1: So now like every time I go back to the
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  Speaker 1: nail shop, they're like, how Lorial Paris, and how is
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  Speaker 1: Loreal Paris? But that's where I was at and it
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  Speaker 1: was just like crazy. I didn't know who nominated me
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  Speaker 1: after the fact, and I found out that my daughter
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  Speaker 1: nominated me. So that don't even made it more meaningful? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: so beautiful, Yes, so that is a that's this wonderful story.
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  Speaker 1: What in your own words can you tell us what
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  Speaker 1: it means to you to be a women of worth?
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  Speaker 1: So to be a Loreal Paris woman of worth, it
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  Speaker 1: means like everything to me because it was more than
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  Speaker 1: an award. I was like that overachiever kid because I
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  Speaker 1: came from the jack of situation that I had to
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  Speaker 1: prove to my elf that you know you're you're you're
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  Speaker 1: worth it. I guess right, And so getting awards and
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  Speaker 1: things never meant anything to me. It's like, Okay, onto
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  Speaker 1: the next, onto the next. But at that time, when
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  Speaker 1: I found out I was a cancer survivor, I was
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  Speaker 1: on radiation. I was like at a crossroads with girls
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  Speaker 1: who brunch because we have a lack of funding, just
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  Speaker 1: a lack of everything. We were just freshly new. I'm
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to turn a city down. I'm going
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  Speaker 1: through all this by myself. You know, you don't have
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  Speaker 1: money to pay people. They're falling off. I'm still having
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: to go into these cities, and I just was at
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  Speaker 1: a very low place. So when Lorio came in and
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  Speaker 1: not only did they show me that I was earth
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  Speaker 1: it because they acknowledged the work that I was doing
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  Speaker 1: for this nonprofit, but also like they celebrated us in
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  Speaker 1: so many ways, Like I was honorree in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: nineteen and I'm still being celebrated. And so that's like
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  Speaker 1: the craziest part. Right, you get an award, you get it,
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  Speaker 1: and you're gone, right, and it's to the next one.
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  Speaker 1: I still talk to all of the execs like we're family.
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  Speaker 1: I'm still being represented by them in so many different
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  Speaker 1: places and assets of life. And I just got a
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  Speaker 1: really big thing. I can't say what it is yet,
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  Speaker 1: but when I will tell you, guys off camera, I
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  Speaker 1: wanted from an interview from Loreal Paris like this, right,
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  Speaker 1: And so I called care and I just thanked her
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  Speaker 1: and I'm like, hey, you know, three years later, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you guys are still representing me, and that's just like
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  Speaker 1: the best thing in the world. It feels like family.
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  Speaker 1: They support my organization. So if you are ever afforded
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to become a woman of worth honory like,
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  Speaker 1: use that to the fullest. Don't just just accept the
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  Speaker 1: money and the accolades of that more me and and
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  Speaker 1: let it go away. If you really build that relationship
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  Speaker 1: with them and let them know that you are supportive
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  Speaker 1: and appreciative of everything that they have going on, I
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  Speaker 1: promise you you are going to continue to feel the
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  Speaker 1: foes of that. That's amazing. And you've earned all of
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  Speaker 1: that obviously with your work and perseverance and everything you've done.
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  Speaker 1: And with that, obviously you've done a lot of good
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  Speaker 1: and you're continuing to do so much goodness for those
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  Speaker 1: around you, our community, because we're talking about the fact
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  Speaker 1: that you are in Alpharetta now in Georgia essentially, and
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  Speaker 1: I love that because that's our community and love seeing
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  Speaker 1: a program like this thrive. But with that, well, what
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  Speaker 1: else can we expect from such an inspiring woman like
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  Speaker 1: yourself Because you're doing so much obviously, and you are
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  Speaker 1: a fighter to the core of everything. So what is
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  Speaker 1: the next big thing? Wow? So my bucket list was
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  Speaker 1: to be international, right, So I am from Jamaica and
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  Speaker 1: so once I get to girls who brush toward Jamaica.
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna feel like I made it correct, but like
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  Speaker 1: just continue to put out more programs. Like I had
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  Speaker 1: a moment a reflection this weekend. I broke my foot.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm still traveling with a boot on and I'm
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  Speaker 1: sitting there on the wheelchair assists coming going to from
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  Speaker 1: between the gates and I and I'm just like, you know,
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  Speaker 1: this is crazy that so many people wants us here.
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  Speaker 1: They're creating things for me. Before I was like fighting
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  Speaker 1: for people to know who I am, and now there's
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  Speaker 1: so many people who knows who girls If they don't
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  Speaker 1: know who I am, people know who girls who brunches,
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  Speaker 1: and that's just like crazy to me. And so I
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  Speaker 1: just want to continue to make it a household name.
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  Speaker 1: We have eight functional programs right now. We have Masterclass series,
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  Speaker 1: I have feeding programs, I have holiday programs, and I
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  Speaker 1: just want to be able to implement each of those
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  Speaker 1: things and every recity right on ground in every city.
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  Speaker 1: Our virtual programming is the bomb, but I want to
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  Speaker 1: be able to bring in more girls from across the world.
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  Speaker 1: We are supposed to be going to Africa and Romania,
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  Speaker 1: and so I want to be able to go to
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  Speaker 1: more countries that are having perior poverty situations, to be
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  Speaker 1: able to give those girls sanitary um napkins and teach
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  Speaker 1: them on hygiene and things like that. It's just I
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  Speaker 1: have so many things I want to do, But I,
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  Speaker 1: like I told you in the beginning, I am an overachiever.
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  Speaker 1: I promise you I'm going to be. I'm gonna do
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  Speaker 1: every one of those things eventually. Believe it, Yes, totally
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  Speaker 1: so Um, what can you say about your fellow Women
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  Speaker 1: of Earth alums and what advice would you give to
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  Speaker 1: this year's nominee. So, my fellow Women Worth alums, I
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  Speaker 1: love them. That is like a sorority, sisterhood that I
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  Speaker 1: was so honor to be UM grandfathered into. Right. I
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: talked to majority of my class on a weekly basis.
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  Speaker 1: The ones who I don't speak to on a weekly basis,
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  Speaker 1: I do talk to them, not just like that one time.
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  Speaker 1: We talk on a regular basis. I try to incorporate
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: everybody in my program in some capacity, and they do
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: the same thing for me. I just had a weekend
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: retreat with Crystal a couple of weeks ago. We went
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: to the winery and stuff, just to have some are Darca.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: She she was going through some things and she told
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: me that I needed a break. I'm gonna see Seanta
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: this weekend in Chicago. We're gonna have a weekend. So
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it's just a sisterhood that I was of amazing women
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  Speaker 1: that are just dope chicks that are doing some great things.
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  Speaker 1: And what I would tell any upcoming classes this year
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  Speaker 1: and beyond, like I said before, please just utilize this
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  Speaker 1: relationship and build on it. Just don't come in, get
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  Speaker 1: your reward and leave, Like, go in and really get
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  Speaker 1: to know your class, because you're gonna be able to
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  Speaker 1: grow even more because these great women are just put in.
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  Speaker 1: And it's great to see a lot of women who
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: follow causes and and live like this, women who go
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  Speaker 1: after their dreams. And but it's a cause. That's because
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: in some way they have been hurt, they have been abused,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: they have been something in some capacity, right, So knowing
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that and being able to be put in a room
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  Speaker 1: with women who have like showing up and showing out
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: above everybody else, like that's fantastic and support them because
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the same way we I'm broken and girls Branches fixed me.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: They are broken as well, and they're they're fighting for
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: that cause because that's healing them. So we look at
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: like that and support each other. Then you know you're
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: going to be unstoppable. That's that's amazing and beautiful. And
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you so much for being
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: here with has been such an honor and congratulations on
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  Speaker 1: your very very very well deserved, well earned, deserved thank you.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: We will be watching you and girls who runch in
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: a non creepy but very interesting to see what you do. Hello,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: you always welcome, I Guta said. The next event we
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: have in Atlanta, you guys will have for our rolt
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Ys awesome. That brings us to the end of this interview.
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  Speaker 1: We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: enjoyed getting to do it. Thanks to Nicola for joining us.
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  Speaker 1: We know she's going to continue to do amazing things
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: right here in her hometown. Hopefully we can like hang
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: out in person I know um, but also around the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: world and listeners. If there is someone you would like
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: for us to highlight in the segment, or if you
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: have any topic, suggestions or thoughts at all, please email
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: as you can do so at Stuff Media, Mom Stuff
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: at iHeart Media dot com. You can find us on
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Twitter at most stuff podcast or on Instagram at Stuff
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: I've Never Told You I thinks It's always to our
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: super producer Christina, thank you and thanks to you for listening.
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