Latest / QUESTION EVERYTHING / PRETTY AFFIRMATIONS: How To Believe In Yourself + Truly Go For It With Actress Sheria IrvingÂ

Transcript

PRETTY AFFIRMATIONS: How To Believe In Yourself + Truly Go For It With Actress Sheria IrvingÂ · QUESTION EVERYTHING

0:00
Speaker 1: The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
0:06
Speaker 2: Big Things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
0:10
Speaker 2: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe, and each week my guests
0:14
Speaker 2: and I have conversations that put a new spin on pretty.
0:19
Speaker 2: This is pretty smart. Today we're chatting with Sharia Irving,
0:25
Speaker 2: an actress and founder of the nonprofit mentorship organization Shaping
0:29
Speaker 2: Her Earth. It celebrates, embraces, and empowers young women of color.
0:33
Speaker 2: She brought her love of performing and education together in
0:37
Speaker 2: a really unique way. She's a classically trained actor, graduating
0:40
Speaker 2: from the Yale School of Drama. You've seen her bring
0:43
Speaker 2: powerful characters to life on screen and on stage with
0:46
Speaker 2: powerhouses like Billy Porter and Lena Waithe. But it wasn't
0:50
Speaker 2: until a little bit later in life that Sharia became
0:52
Speaker 2: an actor. She began her career as a New York
0:55
Speaker 2: City public school teacher. I'll be honest, I had a
0:58
Speaker 2: bit of a week before this interview, and I came
1:01
Speaker 2: in a little depleted. After an hour with Sharia, I
1:05
Speaker 2: was reinvigorated. She's the kind of person that fills you
1:08
Speaker 2: up with her joy and generosity of spirit. I can't
1:12
Speaker 2: wait for you to get to know her. Here's so
1:14
Speaker 2: much of her wisdom, especially about how we can believe
1:17
Speaker 2: in ourselves in a meaningful way, use affirmations and lift
1:20
Speaker 2: other people up simultaneously. Get ready to vibrate higher with Sharia,
1:25
Speaker 2: irving everybody. Sharia is in my hometown. I can see
1:30
Speaker 2: the Hancock Building over her right shoulder. You're making me
1:33
Speaker 2: so happy.
1:34
Speaker 1: What's up Chicago for having me?
1:38
Speaker 2: So this dives in perfectly to the first question, because
1:42
Speaker 2: I want to know what your childhood was like. And
1:44
Speaker 2: you just told me. You grew up in Miami, so
1:46
Speaker 2: you're not used to the cold weather. You grew up
1:48
Speaker 2: as a sunshine baby.
1:49
Speaker 1: Yoh, Miami three h five, all day sunshine. So being
1:54
Speaker 1: out here in Chicago, while it's beautiful, it is cold.
1:58
Speaker 1: I was raised in this sunshine, nothing but the good
2:01
Speaker 1: all sunshine, and it was really beautiful. I was raised
2:04
Speaker 1: in a a staunch religious household, so I've always been
2:09
Speaker 1: driven to service.
2:10
Speaker 2: Do you still consider yourself religious?
2:14
Speaker 1: I think that I love God. Okay, I love God.
2:18
Speaker 1: One of my mottos is and my core values is
2:22
Speaker 1: to live to love and right, So to live the
2:26
Speaker 1: life of God created me, whatever that is, but to
2:29
Speaker 1: live it authentically, truthfully bothly, to love beyond the limits
2:33
Speaker 1: of my prejudices, to love everybody. I think everything can
2:37
Speaker 1: be healed if we just sprinkle a little love on top, right,
2:40
Speaker 1: and to serve and all of that. They're my belief
2:45
Speaker 1: that God is good and that the universe conspires for
2:48
Speaker 1: our goods.
2:49
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's beautiful. You know, I think a lot
2:53
Speaker 2: about what God means to me because I grew up
2:56
Speaker 2: in a household that was Jewish but very religious. Sure,
3:01
Speaker 2: so I kind of I almost think I grew up
3:03
Speaker 2: atheist a little bit. And it wasn't until later in
3:06
Speaker 2: life that I dated somebody who kind of showed me
3:10
Speaker 2: something different, which I'm forever grateful for. And so I
3:14
Speaker 2: know this is definitely a little off topic, but since
3:16
Speaker 2: we were talking about God, do you have a definition
3:19
Speaker 2: of what that means to you?
3:21
Speaker 1: Yeah? You know what's crazy is when you're talking about
3:24
Speaker 1: like growing up under Judaism but not really being practiced
3:27
Speaker 1: and so not really having this firm concept of God.
3:31
Speaker 1: I think that it takes years and it takes life
3:35
Speaker 1: to really understand what God is. Right, Like I always
3:41
Speaker 1: tell my love, I say, you know, God isn't a man.
3:44
Speaker 1: God is in a woman. Maybe God is an octopus.
3:46
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen the movie Men in Black,
3:49
Speaker 1: where at the end you see the tentacles and then
3:53
Speaker 1: the octopus puts the galaxy into a bunch of galaxies,
3:58
Speaker 1: and there's just so much more. Until you're old enough
4:01
Speaker 1: to really do the unlearning of what we think God is,
4:06
Speaker 1: then that presence might not be real for you. For me,
4:11
Speaker 1: just living living life has affirmed the fact that God
4:16
Speaker 1: is real and that I'm not here alone. Sometimes we
4:19
Speaker 1: feel like an island, like we gotta We're doing everything, muscling, hustling,
4:23
Speaker 1: doing the grind of it all. But I believe in God,
4:26
Speaker 1: so I'm now I'm able to release a little bit
4:29
Speaker 1: more now and that God holds my head.
4:32
Speaker 2: So it's so funny. I didn't see this conversation going
4:35
Speaker 2: this way, but it's so perfect. No, it's so perfect
4:38
Speaker 2: that it did. Because part of the reason I started
4:41
Speaker 2: trying to understand what God meant to me at all
4:45
Speaker 2: is that I really looked to people that I admired,
4:48
Speaker 2: which is why I love mentorship, because some of them
4:51
Speaker 2: I knew, and some of them I didn't know. They
4:52
Speaker 2: were people I read about in books like Oprah Barbara
4:55
Speaker 2: Walters right, And one of the through lines with all
4:59
Speaker 2: of is they all believed in something. And I thought,
5:03
Speaker 2: what what do all these people understand that I don't
5:06
Speaker 2: have an understanding of. If I admire all these people
5:08
Speaker 2: and they all feel something that I'm not feeling, It's
5:11
Speaker 2: interesting with Oprah.
5:12
Speaker 1: She I used to listen to her and Deepak Chobrah
5:16
Speaker 1: do these free meditation series, right, and so I used
5:20
Speaker 1: to meditate. It's like a twenty one day meditation brown
5:24
Speaker 1: and listening to her. She describes God as source, right,
5:28
Speaker 1: so source being everything, the beginning of everything. And when
5:34
Speaker 1: I think about God like that, it makes my life
5:38
Speaker 1: a lot easier because it means I don't have to
5:42
Speaker 1: do to muscle to manifest it is it will be
5:46
Speaker 1: if I continue to do the work that I love,
5:48
Speaker 1: if I continue to put goodwill out there, and that's God.
5:54
Speaker 1: So yeah, Oprah definitely is one for me who really
5:59
Speaker 1: me closer spirit, closer to God.
6:01
Speaker 2: I love the idea of source. Thank you for sharing that.
6:04
Speaker 2: Welcome so to like looking at you now, you have
6:08
Speaker 2: a really magnetic presence. Is that something that you would
6:11
Speaker 2: say you had as a kid?
6:13
Speaker 1: Magnetic? I don't know but I think that as a kid,
6:17
Speaker 1: I was really outgoing and I felt like I could
6:20
Speaker 1: do anything. That's a big testament to my mother. My
6:23
Speaker 1: mother was a D one track star and she had
6:28
Speaker 1: me in.
6:29
Speaker 2: College while she was running track.
6:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, while she was running track. And I think, you know, honestly,
6:35
Speaker 1: I think her life would be different had she not
6:38
Speaker 1: had me. I think she had goals of going to
6:41
Speaker 1: the Olympics. But watching her taught me a lot about
6:46
Speaker 1: what success looks like. I was a toddler watching my
6:49
Speaker 1: mother and graduate college. So she taught me that I
6:52
Speaker 1: could do absolutely anything, and she championed all the ideas
6:57
Speaker 1: that I had. So acting kind of came really natural
7:01
Speaker 1: because she throw me into these oratorical contests at church
7:05
Speaker 1: and then at school. She just allowed me to do
7:09
Speaker 1: so many different things, and I'm so grateful for that.
7:12
Speaker 1: So that was really outgoing. Although it was magnetic, but
7:16
Speaker 1: I was like glued to other people. I was like, Hey,
7:19
Speaker 1: my name is Sharia, you hear what's going on with you?
7:21
Speaker 1: What do you doing? You know, just always trying to
7:23
Speaker 1: be in the mix.
7:25
Speaker 2: You mentioned acting, but we skipped over a whole part
7:28
Speaker 2: of your life. You started out teaching in New York City.
7:31
Speaker 2: So how did you get from Miami to New York?
7:33
Speaker 1: Okay, So Miami took me to Tallahassee, Florida. I went
7:38
Speaker 1: to Florida State University first, and it was there that
7:42
Speaker 1: I learned so much more about myself and learned so
7:45
Speaker 1: much more about what I wanted to do and all
7:48
Speaker 1: of the gifts that I had. So I decided to
7:50
Speaker 1: do Teach for America. I come from a large family
7:53
Speaker 1: of educators, so it was only natural for me to
7:56
Speaker 1: do a teaching program. And I told them, I said,
8:00
Speaker 1: I will only do this if you send me to
8:02
Speaker 1: New York. And they were like, well, we can sing
8:06
Speaker 1: you to New York, but we don't have any general
8:09
Speaker 1: education positions. We only have special education positions. And I said,
8:14
Speaker 1: I'm up for the challenge. Let's do this. So I
8:17
Speaker 1: was a sixth grade special education teacher in the South
8:19
Speaker 1: Bronx Wow, and that's where I started teaching. I was
8:25
Speaker 1: always an actor, though, so I would, you know, dress
8:28
Speaker 1: up as like Sir Joner Truth and do that AIN'TI
8:31
Speaker 1: Woman's speech? I was doing all of these things to
8:33
Speaker 1: get them engaged. But yeah, it all started from Teacher
8:37
Speaker 1: for America. I was an economic teacher. So I was
8:40
Speaker 1: I was doing kind of a lot of things. I
8:43
Speaker 1: have a lot in my bag.
8:46
Speaker 2: So well, I've heard people say to actors that like,
8:50
Speaker 2: instead of studying acting, study life, go live a lot
8:53
Speaker 2: of different things, go experience. Does that ring true for you?
8:57
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Absolutely. One of my teachers at Yale would always
9:01
Speaker 1: talk about an actor's education as being a very human education. Right,
9:06
Speaker 1: so we're studying the human condition and the only way
9:09
Speaker 1: you can do that is to live. Like, I didn't
9:12
Speaker 1: know that I was going to make acting a profession.
9:15
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think that I had a blueprint
9:18
Speaker 1: for that. I had no mentor to tell me that, oh, well,
9:23
Speaker 1: this is you want to be an actor. Sure, I'm
9:25
Speaker 1: an actor, listen, this is this, you can do this, this,
9:28
Speaker 1: this this thing. That nobody communicated that to me. So
9:32
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that that was my trajectory. But
9:36
Speaker 1: everything happened for a reason. And here we are.
9:39
Speaker 2: How did you transition? How did you leave teaching to
9:42
Speaker 2: because you studied at Yale?
9:43
Speaker 1: Right, I have a I have a Master's of Education
9:46
Speaker 1: from Pace University and then an MFA in acting from
9:50
Speaker 1: Yale University. And here's the segue. So after I got
9:53
Speaker 1: my master's in education, I was teaching. And then after
9:59
Speaker 1: I've become a and your teacher and I'm here, one
10:01
Speaker 1: of my students is like, miss Irvan, you should act
10:05
Speaker 1: because you'll be like real good at it. And I
10:08
Speaker 1: don't know what was in the food that he or
10:10
Speaker 1: the water, but I felt like a hypocrite. I felt
10:13
Speaker 1: like a really big hypocrite because I had all these
10:16
Speaker 1: signs up in our classroom like you can, you will,
10:20
Speaker 1: you must, you can do anything that you want to do.
10:23
Speaker 1: And in my heart of hearts, I knew that I
10:25
Speaker 1: wanted to tell stories, but I had no blueprint and
10:30
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to do the thing. So I
10:32
Speaker 1: was a little little scared too. And you know, my
10:36
Speaker 1: students marginally told me that I should.
10:39
Speaker 2: I love that an eleven year old changed the trajectory
10:42
Speaker 2: of your life.
10:43
Speaker 1: She changed the trajectory of my life right there. I
10:47
Speaker 1: think she was twelve, an eleven twelve year old telling
10:51
Speaker 1: me you can do it. That's what I needed. And
10:56
Speaker 1: after that, I literally resigned that year after I finished
11:01
Speaker 1: her class, I resigned and applied to Yale. And then
11:06
Speaker 1: that set off a whole different trajectory of things.
11:10
Speaker 2: Which is interesting too, because if education was such a
11:13
Speaker 2: priority in your life, I think some people would have said, Okay,
11:15
Speaker 2: I'm moving to LA and I'm going to start auditioning,
11:18
Speaker 2: and instead you said, no, I'm going to go study this.
11:20
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it's so important to hone in craft.
11:23
Speaker 1: I needed it. I wanted it. I wanted to have
11:27
Speaker 1: a bunch of tools in my toolbox so that I
11:29
Speaker 1: can whimp them out whenever necessary. I wanted to be trained.
11:33
Speaker 1: It was super super important to me. I could have
11:36
Speaker 1: got I mean, yeah, like, if you have talent, go
11:38
Speaker 1: do it. But I wanted longevity and I wanted to
11:42
Speaker 1: be able to be malleable. I wanted to be able
11:46
Speaker 1: to transform and I needed tools to do that. So
11:50
Speaker 1: that's why I went to school.
11:51
Speaker 2: So when you're in school studying this, I'm sure it's
11:55
Speaker 2: a different experience than people that are coming there either
12:00
Speaker 2: right out of college or like. You must have had
12:03
Speaker 2: a different appreciation for it because you wanted it so badly.
12:07
Speaker 2: It wasn't just like something you signed up for to
12:10
Speaker 2: spend two years and then figure out what else you
12:13
Speaker 2: wanted right now.
12:15
Speaker 1: It wasn't. I was so grateful and humbled by the opportunity.
12:19
Speaker 1: Perhaps I also suffered a little bit from an imposter syndrome,
12:23
Speaker 1: thinking that I didn't belong to be there. There were
12:26
Speaker 1: students that had come straight out of undergrad they'd always
12:29
Speaker 1: known that they wanted to act, and they presented like,
12:33
Speaker 1: you know, they knew a lot more than I did.
12:36
Speaker 1: But I was there, and I was really excited to
12:40
Speaker 1: be there, grateful every day to be there, and yeah,
12:44
Speaker 1: put everything that I could into that experience. It's a
12:48
Speaker 1: three year bubble at Yale. Three years, three years, and
12:51
Speaker 1: it's a bubble like you're in new Haven proper. It's not.
12:56
Speaker 1: It's a two hour ride from New York. But new
12:58
Speaker 1: Haven is a very small and all we're doing is
13:02
Speaker 1: telling stories, being creative, building and growing networking with other
13:08
Speaker 1: creative people. It's a beautiful time to play and bloom.
13:12
Speaker 2: So while you were there, did you have any mentors?
13:15
Speaker 2: Were there teachers, even your peers, or did you look
13:18
Speaker 2: towards actors that you loved? Was there anybody that was
13:21
Speaker 2: kind of your north star?
13:22
Speaker 1: So this is an interesting thing. So I feel like
13:26
Speaker 1: I've never had a specific mentor who has guided me
13:31
Speaker 1: throughout the trajectory of whatever my career, my education. No,
13:38
Speaker 1: but what I have had were really amazing, strong women
13:43
Speaker 1: who guided me to the next step. So the first
13:47
Speaker 1: person that I loved just visiting Yale was Asia Naomi King.
13:53
Speaker 1: And you may know her from How to Get Away
13:55
Speaker 1: with Murder. She's done tons of other things, but she
13:59
Speaker 1: was the first person I met. We met at a
14:00
Speaker 1: coffee shop and we're talking and I'm like, so, how
14:04
Speaker 1: do you like Yale? Like, is it all it's cracked
14:06
Speaker 1: up to be? And she was like, it's really great.
14:09
Speaker 1: Don't worry, You're going to get in. And I was like, really,
14:14
Speaker 1: I felt super nervous, but she affirmed that within me
14:19
Speaker 1: that I shouldn't doubt that I should go in confidently
14:22
Speaker 1: I was going to get in. She knew. I also
14:25
Speaker 1: had a teacher at Yale, evannel Nuless, who is always
14:30
Speaker 1: champion my special abilities. Right, So at Yale, I think
14:35
Speaker 1: a lot of teachers they teach you how to do
14:38
Speaker 1: a certain thing, but Evan always championed the way that
14:41
Speaker 1: I wanted to do the thing. So that was really wonderful.
14:45
Speaker 1: So many women who have just always guided me to
14:48
Speaker 1: the next thing, affirmed me, encouraged me to the next,
14:53
Speaker 1: the next level.
14:54
Speaker 2: So It's interesting. I had somebody who started a philanthropy
14:59
Speaker 2: called Good City Mentors in LA when I first moved here,
15:03
Speaker 2: and when I went to the launch dinner, he said
15:05
Speaker 2: something I will never forget to the audience. He was
15:08
Speaker 2: trying to raise money, and he got me because he said,
15:12
Speaker 2: every kid just needs one person to say I believe
15:15
Speaker 2: in you one You just need one person.
15:19
Speaker 1: And all you need is one person, but to.
15:21
Speaker 2: Really see you, because it can't be sort of half faked.
15:24
Speaker 1: No, no, it has to be. It always has to
15:27
Speaker 1: be rooted in truth, right, truth and honesty and love always.
15:31
Speaker 1: But to have a person to say that, hey, your
15:34
Speaker 1: dream isn't crazy, I can see this for you. Let
15:38
Speaker 1: me help you. Let me figure out a way to
15:40
Speaker 1: help you to get to where you want to be.
15:42
Speaker 1: We need that, We need those blueprints. I'm Miami, Florida.
15:46
Speaker 1: Didn't know anybody who was an actor. Knew nothing. And yes,
15:50
Speaker 1: I went to middle school called Neural School of the
15:53
Speaker 1: Arts in Miami, so I knew about the device of acting,
15:59
Speaker 1: but how to actually do it, the business of it.
16:02
Speaker 1: I had no blueprint. If I had somebody to say, oh,
16:05
Speaker 1: is that what you want to do? When I act? Okay,
16:07
Speaker 1: so this is what you're gonna do. You're gonna get
16:09
Speaker 1: these headshots, that's what you're gonna do. You're going to
16:12
Speaker 1: have a repertoire of monologues at your disposal. So let's
16:16
Speaker 1: let's get these prepared, all the things, all.
16:19
Speaker 2: Step one comedic and one dramatic.
16:22
Speaker 1: Girl, girl, yes, yes, do you know? For Yale to
16:27
Speaker 1: get in, they asked for a classical monologue and a
16:30
Speaker 1: regular monologue from you know, any piece of embody of work.
16:34
Speaker 1: I had no experience with Shakespeare, like zero. So I
16:38
Speaker 1: went to the New York City Public Library, got the
16:42
Speaker 1: jailer's daughter on tape and learned the monologue. So when
16:48
Speaker 1: I did it for Yale, I had did it with
16:50
Speaker 1: this affected speech tone like I was from England or something,
16:54
Speaker 1: knew nothing about what Shakespeare really was and how to
16:58
Speaker 1: deliver it. Faked it till I maked it so.
17:03
Speaker 2: And to hear it, you probably delivered it the way
17:05
Speaker 2: the person on tape was doing it.
17:07
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I know I did. I know, I
17:09
Speaker 1: copied it, but you know I got away with it.
17:12
Speaker 1: I guess. I guess they saw something. They're probably looking
17:14
Speaker 1: at me like this girl is.
17:16
Speaker 2: Coming in it's like going on American Idol and singing
17:19
Speaker 2: Whitney Houston like you just went. You went to the
17:22
Speaker 2: hardest thing you could do, and you're like, Yep, I'm
17:23
Speaker 2: gonna tackle that one.
17:25
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna do it. I'm
17:26
Speaker 1: gonna jump in without fear, right. I tell my girls
17:31
Speaker 1: all the time. You know, fear is false evidence appearing real.
17:35
Speaker 1: It's not real, So we create these stories, negative self talk.
17:40
Speaker 1: It's false evidence appearing real, like it's a real threat.
17:43
Speaker 1: What if I try out and don't get it? Well,
17:46
Speaker 1: what if you try out.
17:47
Speaker 3: And do get it?
17:48
Speaker 1: So it's not a real thing. And to to turn
17:52
Speaker 1: that acronym into face everything and rise right, so face
17:59
Speaker 1: it an excel at it. You know.
18:02
Speaker 2: I feel the Reverend coming through you when you said.
18:05
Speaker 1: That, I can't get my dad out of me if
18:08
Speaker 1: I tried, but I love him so much. It's a
18:10
Speaker 1: good thing he passed away a few years ago, but
18:13
Speaker 1: the lessons that he taught are not lost upon me.
18:17
Speaker 2: He's in you. I could feel it coming through Face
18:19
Speaker 2: everything and rise Yeah, that's beautiful. Have you had a
18:23
Speaker 2: pinch me moment in your career?
18:25
Speaker 1: Yet? A pinch me moment, do you sing just a
18:33
Speaker 1: little bit, just a little bit, you can carry a tune.
18:36
Speaker 1: The one moment that I got a little beside myself
18:40
Speaker 1: and didn't really know how to I just didn't know
18:42
Speaker 1: how to meet the moment is when I first graduated
18:46
Speaker 1: for MEO. The first job that I got was Romeo
18:49
Speaker 1: and Juliet on Broadway and I was working with Orlando Bloom.
18:54
Speaker 1: Condola shot and unbeknownst to Condola, her mother, Flicia Rashan,
19:02
Speaker 1: was one of the actors that I looked to for everything.
19:07
Speaker 1: I thought she was so amazing, how she moved seamlessly
19:11
Speaker 1: from TV film to the stage. I her regal beauty, presence,
19:18
Speaker 1: all of it right. And I got a rare chance
19:21
Speaker 1: while working with Condola to meet her mom. And she
19:27
Speaker 1: was just so normal, you know, like because everybody is normal, right,
19:32
Speaker 1: but she was just so normal, like this is her mother,
19:37
Speaker 1: and her mom is just so she had an aura
19:39
Speaker 1: around her and it couldn't have been more than a
19:43
Speaker 1: blip of a conversation. But meeting her, I had to reassess, like, WHOA,
19:51
Speaker 1: This is kind of like a full circle moment for me.
19:55
Speaker 1: I watched her growing up and now I'm literally in
19:58
Speaker 1: a space to be able to tell her how awesome
20:04
Speaker 1: she is. So perhaps perhaps that was a big pinch
20:08
Speaker 1: me moment. I've worked with so many really, really dope people,
20:13
Speaker 1: and I'm excited for the future because i know that
20:16
Speaker 1: I'll be working with more. But it's always a pinch
20:20
Speaker 1: me moment to get to do this, to tell stories,
20:24
Speaker 1: beautiful ones at that I'm you know, always at all.
20:28
Speaker 2: I think it's cool too that your first job was
20:31
Speaker 2: Romeo and Juliet, when you decided to do a Shakespeare
20:34
Speaker 2: monologue to get into school, and the first.
20:37
Speaker 1: Job I get a Shakespeare I'm so country. Listen, and
20:40
Speaker 1: I'm not bringing it out right now, but I have
20:43
Speaker 1: such an accent that I've had to kind of like
20:45
Speaker 1: pair away a little bit. You know, my idiolect is
20:48
Speaker 1: strong because my people are from Georgia, but we migrated
20:52
Speaker 1: to Miami and live in Miami.
20:54
Speaker 2: I was having a meltdown that you worked with Billy Porter,
20:57
Speaker 2: Because anybody asked me whom I think you as of
21:00
Speaker 2: all time, I say Billy Porter. I only got to
21:02
Speaker 2: speak with Billy like for two minutes on a red carpets.
21:05
Speaker 2: Still my favorite interview of all time.
21:07
Speaker 1: Amazing amazing as he's amazing.
21:10
Speaker 2: As a performer. So if you could indulge me for
21:13
Speaker 2: like sixty seconds, what was it like working.
21:16
Speaker 1: With joy Billy is first of all amazing. We did
21:20
Speaker 1: while I Yet Lived Together, which is a play that
21:23
Speaker 1: he wrote which is about his family life. So in
21:27
Speaker 1: the play, I played his sister, and there are all
21:30
Speaker 1: these he wrote, all these monologues, these direct addresses for
21:35
Speaker 1: Tanya to deliver, and I'll never forget. We were in
21:40
Speaker 1: tech and he's like, you need to find your light
21:43
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, okay. I kept standing in the shadows.
21:50
Speaker 1: There was this like spotlight and I kept going outside
21:54
Speaker 1: of the spotlight and didn't understand what find your light meant.
21:59
Speaker 1: But he was like, find a light. And since then
22:03
Speaker 1: I'll never forget that sentiment. But not just on stage,
22:08
Speaker 1: in life period. Finding the light within me too, the
22:13
Speaker 1: thing that makes me want to get up in the morning,
22:15
Speaker 1: the thing that inspires other people. So he kind of
22:20
Speaker 1: left me with a jewel there just finding my light.
22:23
Speaker 1: He's such an inspiration and it was really amazing to
22:27
Speaker 1: work with him. And on the same production, I got
22:30
Speaker 1: a chance to work with Si Payton Murkison, who is
22:34
Speaker 1: on Chicago, MDE. She's actually my mentor slash stage mom.
22:39
Speaker 1: She played my mom in the show, but we've stayed
22:42
Speaker 1: great friends and I love her so much. She's been
22:46
Speaker 1: a really awesome presence in my life. All the women
22:49
Speaker 1: that were on the show Powerhouses. You're talking about Lilius White,
22:53
Speaker 1: Tony Award winner Lily as White, Sharon Washington, Elaine Graham,
22:58
Speaker 1: such really great, formidable presences that were able to teach
23:03
Speaker 1: me and guide me. Doing that shows.
23:07
Speaker 2: So cool to hear you talk about all these women
23:09
Speaker 2: that have guided you, because I have to tell you,
23:12
Speaker 2: in what I do, I feel the shift generationally. The
23:16
Speaker 2: women my age, like even peer to peer, really support
23:19
Speaker 2: each other, and I think overall make an effort to
23:22
Speaker 2: support the women below like younger coming up, the women
23:25
Speaker 2: above us. There were so few positions that the culture
23:29
Speaker 2: around helping other women is just not there, really, And
23:32
Speaker 2: so a lot of my mentors professionally have been men,
23:36
Speaker 2: and personally I feel lucky, like a lot of my
23:38
Speaker 2: mom's friends have been mentors of mine. But it's so
23:41
Speaker 2: cool to hear that professionally you've had all these women
23:44
Speaker 2: in your life. I feel like that's so rare.
23:47
Speaker 1: I've had so many women to guide me. My fourth
23:50
Speaker 1: grade teacher, her name was Miss Canty. The fact that
23:53
Speaker 1: I remember that tells you she would make us stand
23:56
Speaker 1: up every morning and recite this affirmation. No one can
24:00
Speaker 1: determine who I am but myself. My parents cannot, my
24:04
Speaker 1: teachers cannot, my friends cannot. They can guide me, but
24:07
Speaker 1: in the final analysis, the choice is completely mine every
24:11
Speaker 1: day without fail I've never forgotten that it stayed with me,
24:15
Speaker 1: and it is enabled me to feel like I can
24:19
Speaker 1: do anything, that I have the choice, that I have
24:22
Speaker 1: autonomy and agency over my life. So many women like
24:27
Speaker 1: Miscanti have been there throughout my journey to teach me
24:31
Speaker 1: a little nugget to help me to evolve and to
24:34
Speaker 1: expand expanded awareness. Right, that's what this life's journey is about,
24:39
Speaker 1: to uncover things about ourselves and about the world and
24:42
Speaker 1: about others around us. So, yeah, I've always been led
24:46
Speaker 1: to and have so many positive women in my life.
24:52
Speaker 1: It's just really a blessing.
24:53
Speaker 2: It's really cool to hear. It's rare. Why did you start?
24:57
Speaker 2: She can we dive into your organization?
25:00
Speaker 1: Yeah? I love to. So she stands for shaping her
25:04
Speaker 1: earth and what we do is we are a nonprofit
25:09
Speaker 1: social impact organization that empowers celebrates young women of color.
25:16
Speaker 1: Our specific mission is to equip young women of color
25:19
Speaker 1: with the tools to claim their space, uplift their communities,
25:23
Speaker 1: grow their talents, and use their voices to affect positive
25:27
Speaker 1: change in their lives and the lives of other people.
25:30
Speaker 1: The idea came when in my last year of teaching,
25:34
Speaker 1: I was teaching and I had a bunch of girls.
25:36
Speaker 1: And that's really strange for special LID. Usually in the
25:39
Speaker 1: South Bronx, the population is mostly African American men because
25:45
Speaker 1: and they're put in special education for behavioral disturbances whatever.
25:50
Speaker 1: But this year I had all these girls. I was like, Wow,
25:53
Speaker 1: special ad all these girls okay, And I've noticed that
25:59
Speaker 1: what they they really needed was some guidance, some love,
26:04
Speaker 1: and some affirmation, right, That's all they needed. I taught
26:09
Speaker 1: them absolutely. But during my lunches I would be holding
26:13
Speaker 1: sessions with them. They would need lunch, they'd come, they'd
26:16
Speaker 1: sit with me for lunch and we'd just talk. We'd
26:19
Speaker 1: have some girl time even after we left after the
26:23
Speaker 1: school was over. I gave them my phone number freely
26:27
Speaker 1: and they text me with problems that they're going through
26:30
Speaker 1: and I was always available to just to just give
26:34
Speaker 1: a loving word or some sound advice, to model some
26:38
Speaker 1: positive behavior. I realized that we need this, we need this.
26:43
Speaker 1: Black and brown girls, girls that looked like me, need mentors.
26:48
Speaker 1: So I wanted to create an organization in which these
26:51
Speaker 1: young women would be at the forefront. So an organization
26:55
Speaker 1: that centered their voices and poured directly into them. So
27:00
Speaker 1: we have a mentorship program. We also have a little
27:02
Speaker 1: something called a SHE Retreat, which is all about love
27:05
Speaker 1: and self love and self care. We teach wellness, habits, yoga, meditation,
27:11
Speaker 1: all the things, yummy food, good stuff, good gifts. And
27:15
Speaker 1: we also have our blog which is now shifting to
27:21
Speaker 1: something called Elemental, which is going to be our art space.
27:25
Speaker 2: So oh, I love to hear this.
27:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. I let the members guide
27:31
Speaker 1: our organization, so what they're seeking, what they want to investigate.
27:36
Speaker 1: I let them tell me, what do you want to do?
27:39
Speaker 1: We have two SHE collegiate cohorts right now on two
27:43
Speaker 1: college campuses. One is USC and one is at Columbia University,
27:50
Speaker 1: and they're always asking to do things. Well, can we
27:54
Speaker 1: do a panel on this? We want to talk about
27:57
Speaker 1: this we want to talk about right now, Asian violence,
28:01
Speaker 1: hate against the Asian population. So it's a whirlwind. But
28:06
Speaker 1: whatever they want to do, I'm available for. I just
28:10
Speaker 1: want to create a platform for them to be able
28:13
Speaker 1: to do anything and to explore everything.
28:16
Speaker 2: So you launched this in twenty sixteen, but as I
28:19
Speaker 2: was researching, I learned you didn't really have a name.
28:22
Speaker 2: Now you were like, I've never run an organization like this, No,
28:26
Speaker 2: And also you were getting a whole new career off
28:29
Speaker 2: the ground. In my mind, I'm like, how did she
28:32
Speaker 2: launch this and get a whole successful acting career started?
28:37
Speaker 2: Like this must have really been inside of.
28:39
Speaker 1: You, I think inside of me and the other women
28:43
Speaker 1: that are helping me, right, So it takes a village.
28:46
Speaker 1: I have an amazing board, and I have an amazing
28:50
Speaker 1: team who always have great ideas and who want to
28:55
Speaker 1: see this succeed. So it was in me. But I
28:58
Speaker 1: really credit a lot of positive words from my team,
29:04
Speaker 1: who are always like, Okay, well we can do this.
29:06
Speaker 1: This is not this isn't I'm like, does this sound crazy?
29:09
Speaker 1: Can we do something like this? This is in the
29:11
Speaker 1: middle of a pandemic. Can we raise money for scholarships?
29:14
Speaker 1: Can we do this can and they're always like yes
29:16
Speaker 1: and yes, and so I have an amazing group of
29:20
Speaker 1: women who are really helping me to build sheet and
29:24
Speaker 1: they want to succeed.
29:26
Speaker 2: How have you seen it evolve over the years, Like
29:28
Speaker 2: how many girls did you start with? How many do
29:30
Speaker 2: you have in the programs now?
29:32
Speaker 1: I started with one girl, one a girl. Her name
29:36
Speaker 1: is Jayla Auston. I love her so much, she's my mentee.
29:39
Speaker 1: And then that grew to about fifty in membership and
29:44
Speaker 1: that's steadily growing. So it's really interesting how just being
29:49
Speaker 1: present for our youth is all right. I just wanted
29:53
Speaker 1: to do good. I wanted to help. I wanted to
29:56
Speaker 1: offer a kind word, do a good geesh, do a
30:00
Speaker 1: good deed for a young woman that looked like me.
30:03
Speaker 1: I had no idea how to do that or what
30:06
Speaker 1: it would turn into. But then it blastomed into mentorship
30:10
Speaker 1: being one of our core pieces, sisterhood being one of
30:13
Speaker 1: our core values. Like I but I had no idea.
30:16
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I just wanted to do something,
30:20
Speaker 1: and in that desire to do something came this this
30:26
Speaker 1: thing shaping her. Earn so excited about it and proud
30:31
Speaker 1: of it, and I'm just you know, kind of like
30:33
Speaker 1: watching to see what it will become. I'm excited for
30:37
Speaker 1: the growth.
30:38
Speaker 2: I am too, especially you know, I was reading that
30:41
Speaker 2: a lot of mentor mentee relationships happened because people see
30:46
Speaker 2: themselves in a younger version, and so oftentimes you don't
30:52
Speaker 2: really reach outside of your own network and the people
30:54
Speaker 2: that you mentor look exactly like you. And so historically
30:58
Speaker 2: in our country, who are the people power?
31:01
Speaker 1: Right?
31:01
Speaker 2: White men? They mentor other white men, and it just
31:05
Speaker 2: begets more of the same. And so I keep hearing
31:08
Speaker 2: you say black and brown women and women that look
31:11
Speaker 2: like me, why do you feel like it was particularly
31:14
Speaker 2: important to you to mentor young black and brown women.
31:18
Speaker 1: It's absolutely representation matters, right, So I just want to
31:21
Speaker 1: bring us to VP Harris being accepted into office. How
31:27
Speaker 1: monumental that was for a young woman to see and
31:32
Speaker 1: to say, oh my god, she looks like me. That
31:36
Speaker 1: means that I can do it too.
31:38
Speaker 2: And this is what power looks like, or a version
31:40
Speaker 2: of it, you know.
31:41
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, like if you never if you never see
31:45
Speaker 1: your likeness, then how do you know that you can
31:49
Speaker 1: actually achieve the thing. It's hard to see. That's why
31:53
Speaker 1: I'm so I'm always in awe of the people who
31:58
Speaker 1: are named the first of anything. I'm always in awe
32:02
Speaker 1: because of the amazing engine and determination they must have
32:07
Speaker 1: had to push through to be the only You know,
32:12
Speaker 1: so it's super, super super important that we mentor women
32:17
Speaker 1: that look like us. It doesn't, it doesn't, you know.
32:19
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not saying that a white woman can't
32:23
Speaker 1: mentor a young black woman, or a black woman can't
32:27
Speaker 1: mentor a young Latina woman. It doesn't. It doesn't really
32:31
Speaker 1: work like that. I'm just affirming the need for representation.
32:37
Speaker 1: We need that. So it became so important to me
32:41
Speaker 1: and kind of just I was like, yeah, this is
32:44
Speaker 1: this is exactly what needs to happen. We need to
32:46
Speaker 1: be sewing back into our communities.
32:48
Speaker 2: And there was a void historically, so I think you're
32:51
Speaker 2: filling it in a lot of ways.
32:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely. You know, on on predominantly white campuses pwis predominly
32:58
Speaker 1: white institutions. I heard that, Yeah, yeah, Florida State is one.
33:04
Speaker 1: So I went every college that I have attended has
33:09
Speaker 1: been a predominantly white institution. What a lot of black
33:13
Speaker 1: women and women of color don't necessarily talk about is
33:19
Speaker 1: this feeling of invisibility and hyper visibility, right, so feeling
33:26
Speaker 1: like their voices are not heard. But also if you
33:30
Speaker 1: are the only black woman lating a woman in the classroom,
33:35
Speaker 1: you're hyper visible, so that people are actually looking at you,
33:41
Speaker 1: not not necessarily in negative ways, but that type of objectivity.
33:46
Speaker 1: So there's tons of research that suggests that women of
33:50
Speaker 1: color who consistently engage with mentors experience more positive well being.
33:56
Speaker 1: Students who are mentored have lower rates of college dropout,
34:01
Speaker 1: greater satisfaction with the college, experience, higher GPA is it
34:05
Speaker 1: goes on and on. So we're just trying to meet
34:08
Speaker 1: that need and because there is a high.
34:11
Speaker 2: Demand there really is. I've never thought about it in
34:15
Speaker 2: terms of the way you said it, with hyper visibility
34:18
Speaker 2: and invisibility. It's such an interesting contradiction.
34:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's absolutely. It throws you a kilter, right, because
34:27
Speaker 1: when you're going to some of these institutions, some people
34:31
Speaker 1: have not had to interact with a person of color.
34:34
Speaker 1: They've never interacted with people.
34:35
Speaker 2: Of color before I went to UW Madison and I
34:39
Speaker 2: graduated in twenty thirteen. When I was there, six percent
34:43
Speaker 2: of the student of the undergrad student body were black
34:46
Speaker 2: and a little more than half of that percentage were
34:49
Speaker 2: student athletes, and I remember thinking to myself, six percent
34:54
Speaker 2: of the entire that's insane.
34:57
Speaker 1: That's insane. And that's why you have the need for
35:01
Speaker 1: things like a Black student union, an Asian student union,
35:05
Speaker 1: a Latina student union, because these students are really looking
35:09
Speaker 1: for places where they feel safe, safe spaces where they
35:12
Speaker 1: feel seen, spaces where they're advocated for and affirmed. So
35:18
Speaker 1: it's not as easy as we'd like to think. So
35:21
Speaker 1: by providing a sort of safe space, a mentoring space,
35:27
Speaker 1: I think that it would make it a lot easier
35:30
Speaker 1: for our young people.
35:32
Speaker 2: I think so too. And just to have a sounding
35:34
Speaker 2: board is so awesome. Sometimes I don't need someone to say, like,
35:39
Speaker 2: you know, go left or go right. I just need
35:41
Speaker 2: to have them hear me. Maybe that's a woman thing, but.
35:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, just to be heard, you know, and if that
35:50
Speaker 1: person can offer some awesome wisdom along the way, that's
35:54
Speaker 1: an added bonus.
35:55
Speaker 2: I heard you say in a previous interview that the
36:00
Speaker 2: challenge is always getting started, but I learned to just
36:02
Speaker 2: do it. Don't wait for perfection, just start and let
36:05
Speaker 2: the work teach you. What has your work taught you?
36:08
Speaker 2: Because I think that you've you've been in a few
36:11
Speaker 2: different worlds.
36:12
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, this work is teaching me to hold on tightly,
36:17
Speaker 1: let go lightly. Right, So say that again, hold on tightly,
36:24
Speaker 1: let go lightning. Sometimes when we really want something, when
36:28
Speaker 1: we really want to do something, we can crush it, right,
36:32
Speaker 1: Like if the thing is in the palm of our
36:34
Speaker 1: hands like a baby bird, we can hold it so
36:38
Speaker 1: tightly that we actually end up crushing the thing instead
36:42
Speaker 1: of opening it and letting it fly. I'm learning through
36:46
Speaker 1: shaping her earth is. I'm learning to let it go.
36:51
Speaker 1: She already is. It already is. And the more that
36:55
Speaker 1: I give it away to these young women, the better
36:58
Speaker 1: it becomes, the it becomes.
37:01
Speaker 2: Do you think it's important that people have mentors within
37:06
Speaker 2: the same industries that they are in.
37:09
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Absolutely. I think that there is two things. I
37:13
Speaker 1: think that you definitely want mentors who are able to
37:18
Speaker 1: provide tools directly relating to their mentee's needs and career goals,
37:23
Speaker 1: so being knowledgeable about the blueprint and a mentor who
37:27
Speaker 1: can demystify that process for them. But it's also okay
37:32
Speaker 1: to have a mentor.
37:34
Speaker 4: Who exhibits and models positive behavior, who's dependable, who's empathetic,
37:39
Speaker 4: who's encouraging, who's loving, So on both sides of the spectrum,
37:44
Speaker 4: you can be a mentor that I always err on
37:48
Speaker 4: the side of having someone who can specifically demystify that
37:53
Speaker 4: blueprint for your career.
37:55
Speaker 2: You're kind of shifting my perspective on that. After hearing
37:58
Speaker 2: your answer. It's really oh way, yeah, the demystification is important.
38:03
Speaker 2: You're right, you need someone when you have no idea
38:06
Speaker 2: what's up. You need someone to really kind of give
38:10
Speaker 2: you the practical, tactical things I've always thought as mentorship
38:15
Speaker 2: more holistically, maybe as like someone that you admire and
38:18
Speaker 2: what sort of behavior you can model, which is maybe
38:21
Speaker 2: a different sort of mentorship. But you're right, you do
38:23
Speaker 2: need someone to say, hey, your comp card looks whack,
38:26
Speaker 2: you know, and not always.
38:28
Speaker 1: So the type of mentor that you're discussing is super
38:32
Speaker 1: important as well. Somebody who doesn't engage in negative self talk,
38:35
Speaker 1: who's always championing you and models the person that you
38:39
Speaker 1: would probably like to be in the future. That's all, okay.
38:43
Speaker 1: I think when we're talking about the programs, the mentorship
38:47
Speaker 1: programs that shape in her earth that we provide, we're
38:50
Speaker 1: looking to create she leaders and leaders in whatever feel
38:54
Speaker 1: that they're that they aspire to so with that having
38:58
Speaker 1: an end to their profession is important and necessary.
39:03
Speaker 2: Thank you for that. I'm with you, and you've definitely
39:05
Speaker 2: shifted my perspective. I saw an interview that you did
39:09
Speaker 2: where you said, I believe you should always push past
39:11
Speaker 2: the limits of your comfort zone. It's so easily said
39:16
Speaker 2: and so hard to actually do in practice, and I
39:19
Speaker 2: was wondering if you could share a story of a
39:21
Speaker 2: time that you really acted on that and how it
39:24
Speaker 2: served you.
39:26
Speaker 1: Last year in twenty twenty, I did a show called
39:29
Speaker 1: Twenties and I played the part of Lorraine. You are
39:34
Speaker 1: really taught in that. It's a really ground breaking TV
39:37
Speaker 1: show that centers of black woman, queer masculine presenting woman
39:44
Speaker 1: at the center, and I played her love interest and
39:49
Speaker 1: it was really a phenomenal experience, especially because in the
39:55
Speaker 1: Black community, the lgbt QIA community is still and maybe
40:03
Speaker 1: this is not just in the Black community, I will
40:05
Speaker 1: say in the world in general, it's not wholly accepted.
40:10
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's people who tolerate people who are
40:14
Speaker 1: lgbt QI plus bus plus, but not not true, unadulterated acceptance.
40:22
Speaker 1: So me being on the show as a sexually fluid
40:27
Speaker 1: woman I found really beautiful and really exciting and pushed
40:32
Speaker 1: me out of a out of the zone of where
40:37
Speaker 1: I felt that I would be persecuted by doing so.
40:42
Speaker 1: Because again, I'm from a staunch religious household, so it
40:46
Speaker 1: was really lovely to be able to tell that story
40:51
Speaker 1: and to illuminate that, no matter how uncomfortable it could
40:58
Speaker 1: have been for my community. So yeah, pushing past that
41:02
Speaker 1: because because you only get to the good stuff after
41:05
Speaker 1: you push past, right, So all the good stuff is
41:08
Speaker 1: on the other side of that fear is on the
41:10
Speaker 1: other side of that discomfort. So just pushing past it
41:13
Speaker 1: and then we can have a conversation.
41:15
Speaker 2: Was it received with love? Did you feel like your
41:19
Speaker 2: community received it?
41:20
Speaker 1: I don't know.
41:21
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, I think, to be honest,
41:25
Speaker 3: I I on the first episode, I have a little
41:29
Speaker 3: bit of a tossl sex scene very PG, but I
41:34
Speaker 3: think that I think that especially my family I felt
41:40
Speaker 3: was a little shocked by it.
41:43
Speaker 1: But it's good. Shock value is good because it's really good.
41:47
Speaker 1: We can we can, truly, as I said before, start
41:50
Speaker 1: to really have a conversation about well, why are you
41:53
Speaker 1: shocked or what makes you turn away? Or why do
41:57
Speaker 1: you feel this way about same sex relationships? Or why
42:02
Speaker 1: don't you believe in sexual fluidity? Let's have Let's have
42:07
Speaker 1: a conversation. So that's always a good thing for me.
42:11
Speaker 2: It's cool to hear you say that, because it's one
42:13
Speaker 2: of the reasons that I love TV, film art in
42:18
Speaker 2: general is the conversations it opens up. I don't think
42:21
Speaker 2: people really talk about that enough. It's cool that you
42:24
Speaker 2: view your work in that way.
42:26
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I want to always be a conversation starter, right,
42:31
Speaker 1: because that's that's what artists do. Our job is to
42:36
Speaker 1: reflect the times. Nina Simon, representation matters. We're supposed to
42:41
Speaker 1: illuminate the human condition honestly, openly and encourage the world
42:46
Speaker 1: to expand their viewpoints sometimes and evolved. Yep. Art does
42:53
Speaker 1: it pushes us to evolve.
42:55
Speaker 2: So I always do kind of a rapid fire at
42:58
Speaker 2: the end, it's not that rapid fire, but they're similar questions. So, Okay,
43:03
Speaker 2: what is one book that you've read that you think
43:06
Speaker 2: either everyone should read or a book that's really shifted
43:09
Speaker 2: your perspective?
43:10
Speaker 1: Vibrate higher daily A Laila Dahlia.
43:13
Speaker 2: I have yet to have a guest stump me. I've
43:16
Speaker 2: heard of every book that they've mentioned.
43:19
Speaker 1: This is the first.
43:20
Speaker 2: I'm very excited.
43:21
Speaker 1: You have to read it. She's amazing. It's completely altered
43:26
Speaker 1: my way of being and encourage me to step into
43:30
Speaker 1: my power.
43:30
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm on it today. Thank you. What is the
43:34
Speaker 2: best advice you've ever gotten and why?
43:36
Speaker 1: The best advice that I've gotten was to live on purpose,
43:40
Speaker 1: to be confident in my decisions, and to never to
43:45
Speaker 1: let other people decide for me, but for me to
43:50
Speaker 1: assume my agency and to live on purpose. It's been
43:53
Speaker 1: the best advice that I've ever gotten. Ever.
43:58
Speaker 2: Have you ever gotten bad advice?
44:00
Speaker 1: Yeah? Not to tell the truth? Yeah, I absolutely have
44:03
Speaker 1: gotten bad advice to lie, and that's just not good,
44:08
Speaker 1: that's not healthy. I always I think about my feet dancing,
44:15
Speaker 1: the way that we present and walk into the world.
44:18
Speaker 1: I want to walk with joy and I can't be
44:22
Speaker 1: a liar and do that small, live, big lie whatever. Like,
44:27
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to live in truth and be honest
44:29
Speaker 1: about everything.
44:30
Speaker 2: That's beautiful imagery dancing through life, dancing into the room. Yeah, Oh,
44:36
Speaker 2: I love the Broadway jazz hands.
44:38
Speaker 1: You got me.
44:39
Speaker 2: I already loved you now, I love you so much.
44:43
Speaker 1: Okay, all day.
44:46
Speaker 2: Okay, So we do a pretty smart question. I picked
44:49
Speaker 2: one at random, okay, and this I love. So you're
44:51
Speaker 2: not in your usual house right now because you're with
44:54
Speaker 2: your partner on location, but in your home home. What
44:58
Speaker 2: is your favorite room in your house?
45:00
Speaker 1: My favorite room in the house is the living room
45:02
Speaker 1: because it's where I live. Literally, we have a view
45:06
Speaker 1: overlooking the pool, so it's really really nice to see water.
45:11
Speaker 1: The goal, the goal is to move into a house
45:16
Speaker 1: on the ocean. Ocean view the expands, it always humbles me,
45:22
Speaker 1: but right now, my favorite view is of the pool.
45:26
Speaker 1: We also the houses outside our window is lined with
45:30
Speaker 1: white roses, so that's really beautiful. And in the summer
45:33
Speaker 1: there are all these butterflies that come sit and bless
45:39
Speaker 1: me with their presence. It's really really lovely.
45:41
Speaker 2: So you have made a lot of smart decisions in
45:44
Speaker 2: your life. What is the smartest decision you think you've
45:47
Speaker 2: ever made?
45:48
Speaker 1: The smartest decision I've ever made is betting on me.
45:51
Speaker 1: Is really believing that my dreams are valid, that I
45:55
Speaker 1: am powerful, that I am beautiful. It's really just on me.
46:01
Speaker 1: Moving to New York when I was seventeen years old
46:04
Speaker 1: to pursue education, but also doing so many other things
46:07
Speaker 1: on the side, like like, I've always betted on me
46:11
Speaker 1: and that's the best decision that anybody can make.
46:16
Speaker 2: That's really cool. I never thought about moving as a
46:19
Speaker 2: bet on yourself and it is, Oh my god, faith move.
46:22
Speaker 1: It's a faith move. Me me moving from New York
46:27
Speaker 1: to LA was a faith move. Like it's it's always saying, Okay,
46:32
Speaker 1: I don't know how it's going to work, I don't
46:36
Speaker 1: know where I'm going to live, I don't know what
46:39
Speaker 1: job I'm going to have, but I feel like I
46:42
Speaker 1: need to do this thing. So I'm going to believe
46:45
Speaker 1: in myself enough that I'm strong enough and capable enough
46:50
Speaker 1: to move to a new city, adopt all you know,
46:53
Speaker 1: learn the roads, everything, and activate my potential there plant
47:00
Speaker 1: and then bloom. So it's all it's all a faith move,
47:03
Speaker 1: and it's all you believing in yourself that your calling
47:07
Speaker 1: is greater, that you can do more, that that you're
47:09
Speaker 1: destined for greatness. That used to be my when I
47:13
Speaker 1: was in high school. My my email address was destined diva.
47:19
Speaker 1: I love that always, I know, because it's just it's
47:23
Speaker 1: an affirmation right, what are the words that we're telling ourselves?
47:26
Speaker 1: And I always told myself that I'm destined for greatness.
47:30
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means. I still don't know
47:32
Speaker 1: what that means, what exactly does that mean? But I
47:36
Speaker 1: am always activated by my calling to serve and doing
47:42
Speaker 1: that with the young women around me, and hopefully my
47:45
Speaker 1: work through them will be great.
47:46
Speaker 2: Hopefully my storytelling will be great.
47:51
Speaker 1: That's all.
47:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you say affirmations to yourself still?
47:55
Speaker 1: I do? I have to. I have to. I have
47:57
Speaker 1: to encourage myself because the world is not a very
48:01
Speaker 1: kind place for any of us to live, so we're
48:04
Speaker 1: always getting negative messaging in some sort of way. So
48:09
Speaker 1: it's really important to make sure that on the top
48:14
Speaker 1: of my lips always is something positive about myself.
48:19
Speaker 2: I have a friend in Chicago, he's actually on Chicago
48:23
Speaker 2: pe d L. Royce Hawkins, and he said to me
48:25
Speaker 2: one time, some people are ego driven and some people
48:29
Speaker 2: are spirit led, and you know it when you feel them.
48:34
Speaker 2: You are so spirit led. I can't even tell you
48:37
Speaker 2: from our opening conversation, you really brought me so much
48:42
Speaker 2: joy today. I can imagine you do that with so
48:43
Speaker 2: many people in your life, so Thank you. You really
48:46
Speaker 2: shifted my perspective on things.
48:48
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Danielle for saying that I appreciate you.
48:51
Speaker 1: I appreciate what you're doing this. This is an inspiration
48:55
Speaker 1: to so many young women who listen to your podcast
48:59
Speaker 1: to be more than pretty, to be smart. I'm so
49:02
Speaker 1: grateful that you had me here, that you believe in
49:06
Speaker 1: our mission and wanted to share it. So I appreciate you.
49:09
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you so much. Sria, you are beyond
49:30
Speaker 2: all right. Today is a good day to have a
49:32
Speaker 2: good day. I'll see any