Latest / Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh / The Path to Purpose: Exploring Women's Leadership and Success

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The Path to Purpose: Exploring Women's Leadership and Success · Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh

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Well, hello, hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Chatting with the
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Experts TV show, where I, the host, Paula Okonneh, speak with women from Africa,
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from the Caribbean, and in the diaspora.
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These women are professionals, and they are successful entrepreneurs,
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and our mission is to inspire, is to motivate and empower women globally.
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Sometimes we have a few men, but for the most part, it's always women.
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Today, our topic is Elevated and Empowered, a new vision for
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success, wellbeing, and leadership.
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And this panel of dynamic women, these four dynamic women, will be
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exploring how women can achieve success without sacrificing well
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being while embracing their authentic confidence and leading with purpose
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in personal and professional spaces.
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These women are so inspiring, not just to me, but I know to
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so many who are joining today.
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So what I'll do is I'll let them introduce themselves before
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we jump in to the discussion.
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And so with that, I'm going to look at my screen.
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I would ask Dr. Olabisi Oshikanlu to introduce herself and then
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we go to the next person.
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Hello there Paula.
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Good afternoon from Atlanta, Georgia and good afternoon to the listening
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audience wherever you're joining from.
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It's a great pleasure to be here.
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My name is Dr. Olabisi Oshikanlu.
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I'm a physician.
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First, I'll actually like to say I'm a mom, and then I'm a physician.
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I work with women and I help them and emerging leaders to unlock their
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potential to transform their futures.
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I help women, especially in healthcare reconnect with their passions and
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create lives where success aligns with the deepest values and together with
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me, can help them to tackle challenges like work life imbalance, imposter
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syndrome, and other things that pressure them to have it all together.
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And I do this through my business called Full Hands Ventures.
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We offer workshops, coachings individually and in group seminars
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and podcasts like this or TV shows like this where we just inspire,
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encourage and empower and elevate women.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Dr. Dr. O, as we fondly call you and next going from my screen, I'm
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going to ask Dr. Michelle Beadle Holder to introduce herself.
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Hello, everyone.
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Thank you for being here and thank you to Paula for convening this group of women as
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we talk about leadership and well being.
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I'm Dr. Michelle Biedl Holder.
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I founded Food at the Center.
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I believe that everything important in life has food at the center
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of it all, and sometimes we work and forget to nourish ourselves.
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And that's what I did for many years, and I want there to be a place where
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we see the kitchen as a form of leadership lab, where we come together,
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as family members, whether you're at work or in your community, and
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bring connection, promote our health and well being, and celebrate our
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culture, the best parts of our culture.
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And some of what we do is to help you transition from relying on
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takeout to cooking more at home.
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Not to say that you always not have takeout, but to make the best decisions
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that are good for you and your family.
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And so I'm really looking forward to having the conversation
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with the group today.
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Thank you so much, Dr. Michelle.
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And you know, we are thrilled to have you here.
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And next we have Marva Riley.
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She's an RN, she's an author, and she's a holistic health advocate.
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Over to you, Marva.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you, Paula, for having me.
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I'm so happy to be with these amazing trailblazing women on the panel.
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And thank you to our audience for joining us today.
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My name is Marva Riley.
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I too, like Dr. O, live in Georgia.
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It's a little bit outside of the Augusta area.
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Loving it.
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It's a beautiful day today.
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Sunny and 76 degrees.
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I have all my windows open.
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I'm a holistic health advocate.
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And I have been a registered nurse for 30 years.
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I thought about it, I said, it's 2025.
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And I became a nurse in 1995.
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So that makes it 30 years of nursing.
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I spent most of my nursing practice in critical care.
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And then I became the patient.
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And since then, since I reclaimed my health using a holistic approach,
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I endeavor on a mission to inspire, encourage, and help motivate all people
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to become and remain the healthiest, happiest version of themselves.
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I have authored three books myself and a fourth book is a collaborative work
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with, I think 11 other women and one man.
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So, and my books are on Amazon for sale as well.
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So I'm excited to be here today.
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I know that you're going to hear a lot being shared today.
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And I hope that you will be able to take at least one nugget that will
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help you to succeed in taking the best care of yourself so that you can
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be the best leader that you can be
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Awesome.
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Thank you so much, Marva.
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And next we're gonna last but not least.
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We're going to ask Nma Emeh to tell us all about herself.
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Thank you, Miss Paula, and for having me and welcome everybody.
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Thank you for taking the time to join us for this discussion.
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My name is Nma Emeh and I am a body image confidence coach, passionate
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about empowering women and young girls.
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to break the generational cycle of hating their bodies.
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Why do I do this?
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Because statistics show that 9 out of 10 women are dissatisfied with their body.
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And that number is just as bad as we go down the line for
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teenagers between 13 and 17.
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That number is about 78%.
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And then for girls within the age of Seven to 10, it's about 54%.
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So it's sort of a problem and I'm just here to help and I
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look forward to the discussion.
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Thank you.
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Thank you so much, Nma.
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It's a pleasure to have you here.
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And you know, as I said at the beginning, these four dynamic women
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have a lot to bring to the table.
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And I know that you, our audience will learn from them as I have been learning
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from them off camera for the past.
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Oh, year or so, because I've known most of them.
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In fact, every one of them has been a guest on Chatting with the
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Experts at some time or the other.
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Well, to the audience that joined us.
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I do want you to know that we are going to have this discussion for 30 minutes.
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It's going to be interactive in the sense that you can ask any
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questions at this for the first 30 minutes, just put it in the chat.
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And once 30 to 35 minutes is over.
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We are going to open, I'm gonna stop recording so it becomes a
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safe space, and we're gonna open up the floor to you all to ask
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questions, one-on-one to these women.
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And you also have an opportunity to switch on your cameras if you are comfortable
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doing that, or keep it switched off and ask questions by either unmuting your
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mic or putting your question in the chat, but I do want to show you that it's going
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to be a safe space after 30 minutes.
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We are not recording in other words, so that just be between those of you there
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who have joined us and those of us here.
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So, wow.
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As I mentioned, these women are all leaders in different spaces.
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And today, that's one of the things that we are going to
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be discussing among ourselves.
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And of course, you guys will be able to ask questions.
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And one of the questions that was brought up to me was, what is one
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limiting belief that you have had to overcome in your leadership journey,
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and how did you break through it?
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Because we are all from different fields, it will, you know, our
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answers may differ, but it's all directed towards the leadership.
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Who would like to take that?
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Hi.
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Hi everyone.
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Thank you for asking that question, Paula.
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I think I can speak to that.
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And yesterday we met to just kinda like prep for this.
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And as I mentioned to you, when I began to think of the panel that we have, this
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wonderful lady, we're going to talk about food and things like that, I began to
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see leadership as vision and as a recipe, just kind of like you're preparing food.
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But when we think about limiting beliefs, for me, it's been just having clarity
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being able to say what's my purpose.
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For years, I thought my purpose was just being a physician.
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I grew up, my father died very early on in my life.
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And so I grew up thinking, my whole purpose in life was to be a physician.
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But over the past 24 months, I've been able to pivot, to
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follow, I've gotten clarity.
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So I can see clearly, there's a song, I can see clearly now.
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So now I can see clearly, I had cataract surgery, so I can see clearly.
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And so now I know what my purpose is.
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My purpose is to empower emerging leaders.
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My purpose is to empower women in my field.
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My purpose is to encourage them and to help them get a sense of purpose.
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So before I just thought I just embodied being a physician, but now it's like,
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I know that this is what I'm created for and I'm doing it with passion.
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That's why I'm on this podcast.
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That's why I have workshops for women.
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That's why I have seminars for women.
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That's why I coach people with regards to who they are and helping them to overcome
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this filling of I can't do it all.
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I'm a fraud that what we call imposter syndrome, or I shouldn't be in the room.
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And I'll stop this so that the other speakers can chime in.
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Yes.
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So feeding into that.
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I'm sorry, Marva, you wanted to say something.
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Yes, go ahead.
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I wanted to say something.
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Actually that limiting belief what comes to me is before I wrote my first book and
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my book is all about how I was able to overcome life threatening health issues,
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drug free using a holistic approach.
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And I used to have journaling as part of my healing tools.
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It's one of my healing tools.
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And I used to always journal and write things in my journal.
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And he said to me, You should, you should write all these things you're
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experiencing in a book because you can help others by sharing your story and I
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said to him, Oh, even if I write a book, I'm not expecting anybody to read it, but
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at least if my children read it, then all my grandchildren, then I would be okay.
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And he said, No, you write your book like you're writing in that black book.
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He said to me, put it in a book and publish it so other people
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can read it and benefit from it.
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And I never thought that anybody would have bought my book, let
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alone learn from it, let alone express that what I wrote was able
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to help them transform their lives.
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So that was a limiting belief that I had to overcome with the help of my partner.
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Okay, so I think many of us as women grow up, believe in that, that person or that
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person can do it because I read books.
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But I never thought that since if this person or that person could write a book
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and people actually read it, I bought and read these books, that someone would
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read the material that I published.
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And when I sold my first hundred books, I couldn't believe it.
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And then people would reach out to me and say, for example, you know, when
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I read your book, your testimonial about healing from a life threatening
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heart disease called cardiomyopathy.
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Dr. O would know what I'm talking about.
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I had people reach out to me on YouTube, for example, and say, when
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I read your book and I realized that you were able to do it, I
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realized that there's hope for me.
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So that's a limiting belief that I had to overcome.
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And as women, many times, we struggle with that.
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You know, big time not seeing the leadership within ourselves that's
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already there until probably someone else has to, you know, help us, encourage us
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to look within ourselves and see that.
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And so that leads me to, Nma, I know that you are, and you always
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have to correct me on this, you are body, image, complete the sentence.
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Confidence speaker and coach.
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And I know you speak a lot to women and young girls, because
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you want them to see within themselves that there is leadership.
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Absolutely.
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And, a little bit about me, my background was in, I worked in finance and operations
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for Fortune 500 companies and sat on a couple of leadership teams and some
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of the limiting beliefs I had at the time was that I needed to be silent.
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And that's something that resonates.
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Well, most women feel, especially the higher you go, especially
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if you're a woman of color.
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You feel the need to be silent in rooms where you need to speak up.
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And for a long time, I was silent in rooms where I needed to speak up
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and it didn't serve me well in that I sat out of roles that I knew I was
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well qualified for, but because I didn't elevate or amplify my voice,
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I missed out on those opportunities.
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And so that's something that we continue to see with women.
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But in working with them now, hindsight is always 20, 20.
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What I do is building that confidence because what I've learned over the years
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is that confidence is not born in silence.
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You have to speak up and voice what you want, otherwise no one is going
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to know how they can help you.
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And, a number of people on the panel, my fellows, speakers on the panel will
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know that one book I'm reading right now is The Aladin factor, which some of you
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may know about, and the main purpose, or thing that he's saying in that book is to
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speak, to ask, to ask for what you want.
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And unfortunately, a lot of women, we don't, we've been conditioned to be
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silent, to take a back seat, and then growing up in a minority family or being
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black were even silenced even more.
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So one thing that I help people overcome is teaching them how to speak up and
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as they do that builds their confidence so they can go for the opportunities
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and experiences that they desire.
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I absolutely love that.
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Now, Michelle, I know you have a unique take on leadership, leading
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with food, leading from the kitchen.
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Let's talk more about that.
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Thank you.
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I would say it started with me, my limiting belief.
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I'm trained as a medical sociologist.
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I have an anthropology background, and so I look at like the
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social determinants of health.
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That's how I was trained to look at things.
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And I was a health science professor, I left academia to follow food.
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And my comfort zone when it comes to food is to be in the garden,
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not so much in the kitchen.
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And so when I got the call, this inner calling to follow food, and within
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me it was saying, you should cook.
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I was like, oh no, that's not for me.
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I'm gonna call my mom.
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Mommy knows how to cook.
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Mommy, can you come teach this class for me?
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And she did.
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You know, my mom.
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Is I always say she represents the health conscious leader in the family, but I also
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was under valuing my own contribution to the family and to the larger collective.
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So what some would say simple as home cooking was something that
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I didn't have as much confidence in, even though I did it and I'm
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pretty good at it, people tell me.
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So you get all these degrees and you're, you know, doing your thing in your career,
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but what happens when you're at home?
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How do you take care of yourself?
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And if we all have to eat every day, that's an essential part of
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self care, not only for yourself, but for the people that you love.
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And if you're not eating well, you can't lead as well because If you're
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always grabbing the most convenient food that's available to you, then
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it can increase anxiety and stress or feelings of anxiety and stress.
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But if you're eating whole foods, foods prepared at home, then you get to take
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control because a leader has a vision, leader has a vision of what where she
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or he wants to go, and how to get there.
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And if you're not nourishing yourself, you know, you may have brain fog.
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If you're a leader, you're all constantly making decisions,
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energy level, all of those things.
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I think eventually when I started to cook, it started really small.
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It was all about getting a routine, practicing, practicing, gaining
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my confidence in the kitchen.
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So that's one of the things that I work to help people with, is to
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redevelop those skills, find out what they love, find your passion in the
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kitchen, explore, try new ingredients.
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And that sense of openness can contribute to other areas of your life in terms
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of your career and how you want to elevate yourself and your community.
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So, yeah, it's the little things, I think, like cooking.
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That gave me more confidence and I can say, I can teach you, I can learn anything
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I can, and I can show you how to do it.
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And I want you to know how to do it.
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I don't want to feed you.
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I want you to feed yourself.
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Absolutely love that.
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Feed yourself.
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'Cause when you feed yourself, as you said, clears all brain fog and you
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can lead and lead others with that.
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So, you know, most of us here are from many different cultures.
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And we, you know, I remember talking off camera with you, Michelle, and we
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talked about how, you know, there were certain roles that we felt put on us.
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And so I wondered, how can we, as women, unlearn certain societal and
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generational beliefs that kind of limit our confidence and even our self worth?
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How can we
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bring that into our leadership today and seeing ourselves
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different from how society?
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Looks at us.
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Does any one of you want to take that?
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I can speak to that.
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I love the fact that you've convened this panel because we've talked
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about health, we've talked about food, we've talked about body image.
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And one word we've banted around in the past couple of minutes has been vision.
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And I love acronyms.
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Everybody I know knows that I love acronyms.
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And so overnight, as I thought about this, and I'm still answering your
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question, I thought about the word vision.
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So it starts, first of all, so V in the vision will be viewing
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your destination clearly.
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As I mentioned earlier, I had cataract surgery.
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I know when you have a cataract, you can't really see.
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But once the cataracts were removed, everything, my whole world changed.
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So beginning to see ourselves as who am I?
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Seeing that I have a purpose that I have... asking myself,
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what is my goal and what impact do I want to have in the world?
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And I think that that helps you to shift where you're coming from.
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And it helps you to kind of break those generational things like, oh, this is this
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is a woman's role, or a woman is supposed to be in the kitchen that we've talked
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about so just having that viewpoint and then imagining the possibilities, just
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like when you want to cook food, you think about what you want to cook in your mind.
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So imagining yourself where you want to be.
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Yes, I'm a physician, but I see myself now more as someone who's
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inspiring people, who's helping people to unlock their potential.
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And that was always in me, people have always come to me for advice.
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But being able to ship that narrative from this is what my family expects of me,
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or this is what society expects from me.
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I mentioned in the boardroom.
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I used to always think I had to have my hair permed, nothing wrong with that.
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But now I braid my hair, being able to break free out of that
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box that people have put you in.
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And, but that comes from you knowing, okay, what's my purpose, what are
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my goals and stating them clearly.
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We know about SMART goals and then, saying to yourself, what's the impact?
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Working with the end in mind.
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And I'll stop there for now, but I'll talk about the other
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parts of vision as we go along.
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I love that.
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Working with the end in mind.
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I thought Marva, you wanted to say something.
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I kind of wanted to piggyback on what Dr. O said.
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I think once you find your purpose in life,
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and sometimes you would kind of know what your purpose is at a young age,
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but you don't live in it until later on.
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For example, I always knew from I was a little girl.
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I think I mentioned it in our first interview, Paula, from I was a
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little girl, I wanted to be a nurse.
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When I was a little girl growing up in a little village in Jamaica, I
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admired the nurses because they were always caring for the neighbors and
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the village and stuff like that.
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So I always wanted to be a nurse, but I never had the opportunity to go to
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nursing school when I was in Jamaica, even as a young adult, I came to
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the States, I worked a full time job and I had two little children and a
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husband and I went to nursing school.
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So that was my passion.
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Now, my passion, my nursing passion, has evolved over the years from being
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a bedside nurse, to being now, a staunch advocate of holistic living.
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Now because I'm living in my purpose, I'm kind of tunnel vision.
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I know what it is I'm trying to do.
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I know what I'm trying to do.
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I know my goal is to encourage and inspire you to become your healthiest version.
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So when I see someone, that's my focus.
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I'll talk to you about that when I'm in front of the camera,
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that's what I'm speaking to.
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When I'm working out, I'm speaking to others.
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If I go to the gym, that's what I'm talking about.
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That's my purpose.
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And so I don't have any more hesitance.
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I don't have any more shyness.
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This is me.
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And I've developed my style over the years, which I
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tweaked, but this is my style.
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Take it or leave it.
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That's just me at this point.
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I have matured and I'm living in my purpose.
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So I think the most important thing is finding what your purpose is.
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What is it you love to do?
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I think one of the ladies said, I know Dr. Michelle said, she was in education
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and she eventually discovered her purpose in the quote unquote kitchen.
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I think Nma had a different profession.
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And has transitioned to body image.
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So once you live in your purpose, you're going to lead in your purpose.
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I couldn't agree more.
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Once you discover your purpose, you lead in that purpose
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because that's been me too.
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But this is not about me today.
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This is about you four dynamic women speaking to the world,
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to all who have joined us.
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Believe it or not, it's almost 1:30pm.
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I just have a quick p. m., something to say.
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And Marva, you explained it so well and Dr. O as well.
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But I know that one question that I often get asked by clients
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is, how do I find my purpose?
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How do I discover my purpose?
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And so I'm going to peel it back a little bit., For me, I truly
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believe when you're searching for your purpose, I'm a woman of faith.
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When you're searching for your purpose, you have to go back to the
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one who created you because only he knows where your purpose lies.
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And so I encourage you to seek God.
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That's step number one.
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But what I've also found out is that our purpose usually has
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something to do with what has been a constant theme throughout your life.
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So you're going to have to do some deep reflection.
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What has been a constant theme, a topic of discussion?
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What have people continue to say about you?
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What have you continued to think about all through the different stages of your life
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from birth through where you are today?
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So for me, for instance, my body has been a constant topic of discussion.
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From the moment I was born, I was born way over 10 pounds.
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And so the doctor told my mom, this one would have killed you.
27:11
So this is it.
27:12
I'm the youngest of seven.
27:14
And then growing up, I look quite different from my siblings who were
27:19
tall, motherless, and more voluptuous, and so that became a topic of
27:23
discussion as I moved into puberty.
27:26
And then I get into my teens, and I get into my 20s, 30s, the same
27:32
topic of discussion in the workplace.
27:34
There were questions about how I got promoted, maybe it was
27:38
because of my physical appearance.
27:40
And so during the pandemic, that was when I took a step back and I
27:44
was like, Lord, I don't want to do finance and operations anymore, but I
27:49
don't know what you're calling me to.
27:51
And then that's when it hit me.
27:53
What has been a constant topic of your discussion?
27:55
And the Lord literally led me to Psalm 139 verse 13 and 14.
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We are beautifully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works
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and that my soul knows very well.
28:08
And that has been the passage that I lead with, that I'm
28:13
beautiful and wonderfully made.
28:15
My name Nma, in Ibo, literally means beauty, but for a long
28:19
time, I didn't feel that way.
28:22
But it's not by chance that my parents named me, I don't consider myself the most
28:27
beautiful person and of all the names that they chose, that was the name I was given.
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So that's how I know that I'm living in my purpose where I'm
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trying to help other women and young girls find the beauty that God has
28:41
created in them from the inside out.
28:45
I hope that helps you find your purpose.
28:49
Isn't that beautiful?
28:51
Absolutely beautiful.
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And yes, I hope whoever listens to this after we put it out on
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the podcast and on the TV show and YouTube listen to this and know that
29:09
they're wonderfully and marvelously made and can find their purpose.
29:13
That's really very touching Nma, as well as everything else that Dr. O and Marva
29:18
has said, before we open up the floor I do want to know if Dr. Michelle has any one
29:24
thing to say, I mean in relation to that,
29:30
about finding her purpose because you, I mean your story is really very unique.
29:35
I love it.
29:36
I've been part of the cooking class, it has changed my life in
29:39
the sense I'm eating healthier.
29:41
After joining your class, so please go ahead.
29:45
You talk about rules, and I think in many cultures, there are certain
29:51
roles that are given to men and women.
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They start really early in life.
29:56
And the kitchen has often been regulated to the role of women and girls.
30:04
And, I grew up being told that you should learn how to cook so that you
30:10
can feed your family and your husband.
30:14
And I grew up in a time where women were changing what was given to them.
30:21
Like you had a choice, an option to not do it.
30:26
We have takeout more now so than ever.
30:29
And, I rebelled.
30:30
I rejected it.
30:32
I didn't want to cook and I did everything to sabotage every
30:35
meal my dad taught me to prepare.
30:38
But it had to become something that I reclaim as my own, something
30:43
that... you talk about leading, as leading yourself first.
30:50
And so the role of cooking became something more expansive, not just
30:54
a duty to family or to other, but something that I could give to myself
31:00
and that, could help nurture me in many ways, holistically, like Marva
31:05
said, holistically, but I rejected it.
31:09
I didn't want to do it.
31:11
I saw it as less than.
31:13
I had internalized many of the ideas about what being in the
31:20
kitchen was, and I devalued it.
31:25
And it's only when I started to look at how much joy it brought me to smell
31:30
the ingredients that I had, to grow.
31:33
I grow food, to be able to grow something, watch something grow
31:36
from seed to preparing it to nourish myself and the people that I love
31:41
that I began to really value food.
31:51
If we don't have it, we will recognize that we don't have it.
31:55
So thinking about roles, it's for everybody to do.
31:59
If you eat, you should be able to prepare at least one meal for yourself.
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And to do it with intention and confidence.
32:09
And so, yeah, the simple thing as an everyday meal really,
32:12
really brought me back to myself.
32:16
And I'm still teaching.
32:18
I'm not in academia anymore.
32:21
But I was actually, was it yesterday?
32:24
or the day before?
32:26
I was teaching a group of professors, their deans, how to
32:29
cook a traditional Jamaican meal.
32:32
And it was in someone's kitchen.
32:36
So I'm living in my purpose because I'm still teaching.
32:39
And what I'm teaching is something that people can implement in their
32:42
day to day life for the betterment of themselves and their family.
32:50
Not a great take on taking back your power, understanding your role and
32:56
your purpose and doing it in the field in which you were called, not
33:00
necessarily the one that you thought or internalize that you needed to be
33:03
in, but the one that you're actually called to be in and doing it with such.
33:09
I can see, I mean, the job every time you talk about what
33:12
you do your face lights up.
33:15
Finding your purpose and leadership obviously go together.
33:22
All right, so we're about to open up the floor, but I want all of you four or
33:27
four of you dynamic women to just tell people where they can find you online
33:31
just in case people have to drop off before we open up the floor to everyone.
33:35
And I'm going to start again from looking at my screen.
33:39
The first person who is to the right of me.
33:42
Yeah, the right of me is Dr. O. Can you tell people if they are, if
33:46
they would like to get in touch with you, where can they find you online?
33:50
I'm just typing it in the chat right now.
33:53
fullhandsventures.com.
33:58
I just put it in the chat.
34:00
That's my website.
34:01
I'm also on LinkedIn.
34:03
I'm on other social media handles, but I'm also on LinkedIn where I'm
34:07
very active as Olabisi Oshikanlu MD. So just put Olabisi Oshikanlu
34:12
MD, but you can go to my website.
34:15
We have a lot of resources.
34:17
And you can read more about me and what I do.
34:21
Thank you.
34:23
Thank you, Dr. O. And to the right of you is Marva.
34:29
Okay.
34:30
Thank you so much.
34:31
So my name is Marva Riley, R I L E Y. I am on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
34:41
And you can also purchase a copy of my books.
34:46
On amazontarget.com and walmart.com and any online bookstore.
34:53
Just look up Marva Riley and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
34:58
I'm always posting great tips every single day to help you to become and remain the
35:05
healthiest, happiest version of yourself.
35:10
Thank you, Marva.
35:11
And maybe you can drop that in the chat as well.
35:16
Next would be Nma Emeh, do you mind telling people how they
35:20
can get in touch with you?
35:23
Yes, thank you.
35:24
I am on all the social, well, majority of them.
35:28
, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, but I will also just post my, oops.
35:35
I thought I did post my link tree, so ways to connect with me
35:41
online and all my links are there.
35:45
Thank you.
35:47
Absolutely.
35:48
Oh, and I have a free gift on the link tree so you can, it's a free download if
35:52
you're one of those people who overthink, you know, I have a resource for you there.
35:58
Thank you so much.
35:59
And last but not least, Dr. Michelle.
36:04
You can find me, my website is foodatthecenter.com.
36:08
I'm on Instagram, and there's a link tree.
36:12
I should have grabbed that.
36:12
The link tree is on Instagram, Michelle Beadle Holder on
36:18
Instagram, I'm on LinkedIn.
36:20
I'm more active now.
36:21
So, Michelle Beetle Holder, PhD, on LinkedIn.
36:26
So, those are three places that you would normally find me.
36:32
And I also have a cooking classes coming up in March.
36:36
We're going to be making curry chicken, Jamaican curry chicken, planting hash on
36:42
the following week and also a jerk salmon.
36:46
I also sell spices and I have a digital cookbook as well on my website.
36:52
So if you go to the shop section, you'll find it there.
36:56
I want to know when you're making the oxtail.
36:59
Oh, all right.
37:00
Yes.
37:01
And you can also, if you want to have something more private, more
37:04
catered to you, then just reach out.
37:10
And I can do something special for you.
37:12
Oh boy, now she's made it even more special.
37:17
Oh boy.
37:17
So, to all who joined us, my name is Paula Okonneh.
37:20
I am the host of this, TV show called Chatting with
37:23
the Experts with Paula Okune.
37:25
Oh, it's so obvious.
37:26
And what I do, I speak with women primarily.
37:30
And these women are from Africa, the Caribbean, and in the diaspora, and
37:36
what I encourage these women to do is to empower, educate, and inspire
37:42
women globally through their own professional skills and services
37:48
that they can showcase to the world.
37:51
I've been a podcast host for about 12 or 13 years and my story is a different one.
37:58
I got into this because primarily I was so scared of public speaking.
38:02
And so what I do in addition to the show is I teach men and women how to overcome
38:08
public speaking through having a podcast.
38:11
I teach them the way to do that.
38:13
And, that's me in a nutshell.
38:16
So I'm going to open up the floor to the audience, I'm going to stop recording.
38:21
As I promised, and, everyone who has joined, feel free to ask any
38:27
questions or questions that you might've thought of that you didn't
38:30
have a chance to ask, or I didn't have a chance to ask these fantastic women.
38:34
And, we'll be doing that in a safe space.