Latest / Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh / Empowering Women Through Mission-Driven Work

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Empowering Women Through Mission-Driven Work · Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh

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  Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Chatting with the Experts
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  TV show where I showcase amazing, interesting, I'm out of descriptions.
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  Women from Africa, from the Caribbean and the Diaspora.
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  Our mission, that's my guest and myself, is to inspire, to motivate
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  and empower women globally.
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  I sometimes have men, but for the most part, my guests are women.
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  Today, our topic is Working As A Mission.
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  And my guest, Dr.
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  Shanti Persaud, says that our belief system as Christians can hinder
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  our calling and prevent us from fulfilling our God-given purpose.
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  She asks, as Christians, do we see our work as a mission field, or
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  as something worldly, and can we understand that everything that we have
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  is stewarding for a higher calling?
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  Let me tell you a bit about Dr.
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  Shanti.
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  She's a passionate servant leader.
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  She's a wife and mother of three girls, and she is on a
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  mission to empower women...
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  not women, but people.
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  Women are people to live empowering lives.
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  I could say more about her.
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  But why don't I let her come on to the show.
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  And with that, I welcome Dr.
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  Shanti Persaud to Chatting With the Experts.
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  Hi.
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  Hi Paula.
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  Thank you so much for this invitation.
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  Absolutely.
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  And thank you for saying yes.
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  You're welcome.
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  I read a bit of your bio, but I didn't say all.
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  Can you just embellish it a little bit?
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  Or did I say it all?
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  You said a lot there about myself and usually sometimes
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  my bio, it goes for two pages.
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  And so I tell people, please don't, I give them very short version to
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  just, you know, that's just simple me.
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  Yes.
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  So what you haven't said is that you hold a degree in business management,
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  you have a master's in business administration, and a doctorate
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  in transformational leadership.
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  And you've had over 10 years of experience in corporate training, and
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  more than seven years of experience in business and executive coaching.
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  You've got a lot that you didn't say, but you're humble.
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  Sometimes people think that you know, when they see my CV or so they say, you know
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  how intimidating your background there is.
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  And, you know, I said to people, it's not about intimidation, but
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  how can I inspire you to be all that you are made to be right.
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  And I do believe there is greatness in all of us that sometimes we self-sabotage
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  ourselves, you know, in that aspect that, you know, we sell ourselves short.
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  We don't explore every possible thing that God has put you on this earth to do.
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  And I tell people, if you're not going to live your purpose, then
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  you're pretty much robbing someone, you know, that gift that God would
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  have given you to bless them with.
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  You know, so don't go to your grave and with all these gifts and all the
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  things that you are capable of doing.
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  I love that you say that because yes, sometimes people are so intimidated by
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  other people that you don't even spend time getting to know them, you know,
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  and you miss out so much because people are people first and foremost, and
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  all those other things are secondary.
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  And as Christians, we know first and foremost, our mission is to serve God,
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  and every other thing follows after that.
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  So yeah, I can understand why your CV intimidates, especially when
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  I look at you, you look so young.
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  I mean, off camera, you were telling me that your eldest daughter
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  is 21 and I almost collapsed.
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  I'm like, you, I thought you were 21.
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  Oh, thank you.
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  I would love to be 21 right now.
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  You know, many times people say stuff like this, if I knew what I
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  know now, like 20 years back, right?
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  You know, what kind of different life you'd be having.
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  So yeah, I wish I was 21 with all the knowledge that I have now.
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  You know, that's why I don't want to be 21 anymore, because I know at 21,
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  I was so uncertain of myself, not confident in the least bit and kind
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  of fearful of next things in life.
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  But now, I'm no longer that way.
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  And it's, a lot has to do with me giving my life to Christ and changing,.
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  That He changed me.
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  And that's why I'm happy not to be 21 again, because when I was 21, I didn't
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  know the Lord the way I know Him now.
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  Yep.
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  So let's talk about some of our beliefs as Christians.
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  Why sometimes do we feel that you know, we hinder our calling and we think that we're
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  not fulfilling our God-given purpose?
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  So something and I'm sharing my lessons that I learned coming
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  through this journey of life.
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  And, you know, coming from a Hindu background and being converted to a
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  Christian during my university age.
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  So during between 18 and 19, that's where I met the Lord.
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  And if I'm to tell you the whole story behind that, we're going
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  to spend hours on this program.
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  But during my conversion is that, you know, my heart was so much
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  in for the Lord and I want to do everything that was being told to
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  me that as Christians we should do.
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  And at some point during this whole journey here too is that, you know, I
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  got programmed to believe certain things.
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  And I'll give you an example of it, is that as Christians, I was taught that,
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  you know what, there's sacred work and there's secular work, kind of, right?
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  And when I started my MBA in Bakke Graduate University, which is a Christian
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  university, really shattered all of those belief systems and helped me to
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  understand that, you know, thinking that work is, there's some sacred work
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  and there's some secular work, That, therefore, God didn't make all work.
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  And we understood that everything under the sun, God made everything.
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  Right, and he made work.
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  I mean, I am not a preacher.
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  I am not the person to be teaching you about Christianity or the faith
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  or anything along that line, but you can read it in the Bible where, you
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  know, in the beginning where God talked about work and the whole aspect of
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  work, but the word work comes with this kind of belief that it's hard.
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  Right, because when you hear, I have to go to work.
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  Oh my gosh, work, that is like going to be draining and what's
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  not, and so we were taught that, you know, work could be joyful.
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  That God made all of us, and he made work, he made Adam and Eve,
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  he put them in the garden, and he told them to, you know, take care
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  of it as work, and it was joyful.
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  You live off of the land, all the time, you could read the whole story
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  there, and you know, he said that we're made to do good works too.
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  Right, so there's something good in all of us that we could bring out, but the
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  belief system that work is something hard, that, you know, there are certain
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  work only God blesses, and then there are certain work that he doesn't bless, right?
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  And yes, there are certain things that people do that maybe it's not in line with
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  what God you know, want us to be doing.
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  But let's talk about our regular work.
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  Like for me, I always thought, okay, as a Christian, now I need to resign my job.
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  So I manage a business with my husband and we have over 40 employees.
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  We import stuff and like the machines and different things that help our
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  farmers, our miners, and you know, different people that need certain
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  machine to help make their work easier.
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  And I thought to myself, you know what I am not fulfilling what God
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  maybe put me on this earth to do.
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  I'm supposed to be a missionary and missionary means that you leave your
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  job, you go maybe in the interior of Diana, where I'm from, or you go to
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  Africa, or you go to some third world country that people are suffering and
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  you go there and you give them the word of God and you help them through that.
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  That was my mentality of mission.
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  Right.
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  And, you know, coming to that understanding when I did my first
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  class that talk about theology of work.
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  And yeah, it was like a mind blowing class for me that shattered everything
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  that I thought this is what in that class I learned that I am actually a
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  missionary in the same store that I'm running, that I'm a missionary there,
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  and that I can fulfill my God-given purpose there as a missionary.
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  And, you know, the whole aspect of people, you know, what we're doing
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  there, it's for a bigger purpose.
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  It's to do just for a higher calling.
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  There are people there that need to also see what God looks like in us.
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  And I don't need to go leave the job and go somewhere else to show people what God
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  looks like through my behavior and, you know, my life or to tell them anything.
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  And there, there were so much life lessons in stuff that where our
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  belief system would have hinder us.
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  from actually stepping out to do great things.
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  I'm going to give you one more example of how my belief system also trapped me.
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  So, I was taught, you know, that this I call it a wiring.
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  So, my brains got wired to think that if I get more money, if I gain
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  more things in life, right, you get houses, whatever assets, If you get
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  more, then you become worldly, right?
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  And so the more you focus and you build those things or whatever
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  you have become a worldly person.
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  Christian should not be worldly, right?
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  And so I thought, okay, why focus on all those things?
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  You know, why even try to achieve getting money, more money or anything like that?
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  Why do all of that?
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  So I'll never set a revenue goal for myself.
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  Right, and I have never worked towards achieving anything grand,
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  because if I do so, I was taught that I'm going to become worldly, and
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  I'm going after the world, per se.
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  And so, the belief system is that, you know, where it says that, but money, the
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  whole aspect of both money and gaining more money or so, or money becoming your
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  god, kind of, you know, so the idea I, you know, came to understand through all of it
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  is that, It's not about having the monies.
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  If you have the money, that becomes your God.
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  Yes.
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  If you are worshipping the money, that you do every, like, money to just get
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  at whatever cost or whatever, then you might be in some problem there.
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  Yes.
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  But the other aspect of many Christians I see that are struggling.
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  Right.
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  They're struggling to get by in life.
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  And I don't believe that's what God meant because he said about
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  having an abundant life too.
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  And I'm not talking abundance where money alone is concerned.
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  I'm talking about mentally abundance in your relationship, in love, and
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  a whole aspects of abundance here.
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  And not only about money here, but it was something that I had to understand Money
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  is not you know, the root of all evil.
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  It is a love that the word that came before.
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  It's the love of it.
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  It becomes, you know, that.
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  And so the whole idea of restructuring your thinking here to understand
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  that there's some belief system that is causing you not to step out.
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  And now that I understand that I started to set revenue goals.
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  I came out of that mentality.
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  You know what?
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  If I earn more, I can able to help more people.
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  Yeah more.
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  Yes.
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  We have a foundation that brings value based teaching into schools.
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  And to get that going, it costs because we have to give
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  the materials to the students.
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  And so, if I can earn more, I can actually reach more students through this year.
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  And we're talking country transformation in a few years from now.
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  How the children coming out of high school can actually see what leadership
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  should look like and live that.
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  Right.
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  And they will bring the change, but I'm just saying, I might not live
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  to see all of that, but I can start something here because of my mindset
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  that, you know what I can earn to be able to do something greater too.
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  But I'm going to stop there and hear your thoughts, Paula.
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  I agree with you 100 percent.
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  And that's a discussion I've been having, excuse me, a lot of new Christians, young,
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  both in their walk with the Lord and young also in age, where they believe that, hmm,
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  now I'm a Christian, then I'm not supposed to, you know, actually pursue a career.
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  Or, excuse me, or, you know, get educated because it means that I
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  am, you know, becoming more worldly.
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  And I have to remind them that first and foremost,
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  you have to realize that as a Christian, it's your heart that changes and
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  your heart is what drives everything.
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  So, you know, you can have all that money and your heart is right and you can have
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  no money and your heart is not right.
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  So, it's your heart that controls your belief.
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  Your belief, first of all, is in Christ, and then you try and
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  develop a relationship with him.
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  But he himself, Jesus himself, said, render unto Caesar the things
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  that are Caesar, when someone asked him about paying taxes.
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  So that means he knew that there was a difference between, you
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  know, the worshipping, the worldly things and actually having the
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  right heart relationship for God.
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  And so I agree with you.
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  If you don't earn enough money, you may not be able to support some
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  very necessary and needed causes because you are restricting yourself.
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  I also think also of the parable of the persons who had the five talents, the
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  three talents and the one talent and, you know, saying you have to know who
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  you are and how you are called and work accordingly with that calling to be the
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  blessing that God has called you to be.
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  So thank you for pointing that out with your life.
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  I'm giving that example because it makes it even clearer to see,
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  you know, what we expected to do as a Christian.
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  So thank you.
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  I know one of the things you wanted to talk about was stewardship.
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  We have limited time and so I don't want to...
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  let's talk about stewardship.
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  This whole aspect of stewardship was something new also for me to understand
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  that, you know, everything that I have.
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  It is not mine.
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  So even though you're working so hard for your money and what's not, it's to
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  understand it doesn't belong to you.
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  And some people get confused with me saying that, yeah, I worked for
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  it, you know, I've been laboring all my life, but I've earned this
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  thing, I have this vehicle, I have this house, I have whatever, right?
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  And the whole aspect of It's something that I had to understand is that
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  all these things belongs to God, and I'm just storing it for him.
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  I'm looking after it for Him.
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  He's given it and coming to my kids.
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  I have three daughters, right?
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  Your relationships, all these things.
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  My kids is not, they're not mine.
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  They belong to the Lord.
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  And I'm just storing them for him.
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  Right?
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  And so, so many times when people see me with certain things.
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  I tell them plain, it's not mine.
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  It's the Lord's and it's free to be used for him.
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  And you know, when understanding that concept of stewardship, one
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  of the big thing that hit me as a manager, as somebody who's leading
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  a team and all of that was that my team, I'm stewarding for the Lord.
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  And the people that are reporting to me, I'm stewarding their lives too.
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  And that opened up my whole perspective as to how do I want to lead them, right?
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  And how am I going to take care of them too, being that God has entrusted me to
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  look over this business, the people in the business, the customers and all of that.
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  And so we're talking about work as a mission field here.
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  So I'm just giving you a little understanding of the things I had to
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  understand as a Christian and to help me to know that, you know, nothing holds me
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  because I know it doesn't belong to me.
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  Right.
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  And so having more money or having a vehicle, having a house, having
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  whatever might be that you have, that you know that as Christians
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  we understand we're storing it.
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  One day we're going to die, and we're going to leave everything and I don't know
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  how many leaders understand that concept.
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  Because the way we see people behave these days is like everything grab, grab, grab.
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  And the more they can grab, and you're going to die and leave all of it, right?
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  What are you putting it to use for, right?
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  And so I'm just in this aspect of understanding that you are
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  storing even your life, right?
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  And how do you want to live it?
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  You're storing it for the Lord.
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  What are you going to do?
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  Your decisions?
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  How are you investing in you to make you even better?
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  So that you can lead those people better, right?
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  How are you learning to do those things then?
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  And the importance of doing it well.
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  Many times I do interviews, I tell people that in my work here, my
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  principle comes from the Bible.
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  And it says that whatever you do, do it as if you're doing it for God.
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  Yes.
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  And so, That is our policy.
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  Whatever you do, do it.
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  Don't do it for me.
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  You're reporting.
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  Don't do it for me.
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  Don't do it because I asked you to or you're here because and you were told that
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  you have a job description and do this.
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  Do it because you're doing it for a higher calling.
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  Yeah.
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  You're doing it for a higher calling.
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  You're not doing it for the person who's paying you to do it.
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  Whether you're sweeping the floor, or you are making some serious
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  decision at the next level, whatever it is that you're doing, do it
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  as if you're doing it for God.
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  So what kind of quality would you give him?
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  Right?
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  What kind of quality you want to give him?
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  You're going to do some mediocre thing, and you know, you didn't even verify,
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  you didn't check that, you know, what kind of quality you want to give?
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  So remembering that.
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  You're storing it for him.
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  And what quality would you give to him if you understand doing your work for that?
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  We have so much disengagement problem around the world, right?
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  And with people in jobs, not only in my country, around the world.
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  And why?
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  Because we think we're doing our job for somebody else.
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  Yeah.
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  Instead of we're doing it for a higher calling.
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  And if we understand that principle, we will do things totally different.
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  So I want to leave that part with you that you are storing the lives
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  of the people, your relationships, your assets, wherever it is that
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  you have, it doesn't belong to you.
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  You're going to die and leave everything.
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  So you might as well make sure that you don't let it hold on to you and your
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  decisions are being made based on that.
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  I love it.
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  Because one thing that I mean, I love your part in words,
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  which is nothing belongs to you.
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  You're going to die because that's one thing we know for sure.
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  We are going to die and leave these material things behind.
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  But if we have been walking in the calling, if we have been walking in our
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  purpose, if we have been walking in a way that people's lives have been changed.
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  Or through them looking at our lives, they have changed.
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  Then we've done what we have been called to do.
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  Oh my word.
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  Dr.
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  Shanti, this has been very good.
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  Can you tell us where we can find you online?
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  Please, for those who have heard you and who want to know more
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  about you and the work that you do.
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  You can search for me.
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  I'm on Facebook, Shanti Persaud, or LinkedIn, and we
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  do have our company website.
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  Our company name is LEADTOINFLUENCE, L E A D T O INFLUENCE.
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  com.
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  So you can search for us at leadtoinfluence.com.
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  And you have a lot of information there about myself too, what we do.
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  Here in the end on per se, and yeah connect.
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  Let's hear any questions or anything you know that you want
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  to ask us or ask me, ask Paula.
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  Yes, and of course, for the Q & A session you'll be there to speak
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  and answer any questions that anyone who joins can or wants to ask you.
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  Definitely.
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  So for those of you who have just viewed this or subsequently
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  listen to this on the podcast.
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  I want to tell you that if you'd like to be a guest.
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  Please reach out to me on my website, which is chattingwiththeexperts.
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  com.
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  I am also on LinkedIn as Paula Okonneh.
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  I am on Instagram.
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  My handle there is at chat_experts_podcast, and I'm
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  also on Facebook as Paula Okonneh.
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  Thank you so much, Dr.
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  Shanti for this.
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  I appreciate you coming on and I appreciate the work that you're doing to
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  change neighborhoods, communities, the countries, the country you live in and
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  because you mentioned earlier on about high schoolers and being influential
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  in or enabling a change to come about in their life by what you're doing.
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  So thank you.