00:00We really have a crazily distinguished panel. These are incredibly accomplished women and I am
00:20very excited to introduce you to them this morning. Robin Brooks joins us, Denise Kegler joins us,
00:25Paula Madison, Dr. Julianne Malveaux is with us as well this morning and Linda Ridley.
00:30Tell me about, Julianne, a moment, a lowest point in your career where you thought,
00:36wow, I don't know what to do and how you got over it. What I tell my young women is that you
00:41have to really close your eyes and go inside. Anytime something crazy is happening, you go
00:47back inside you. You know what you do, you know why you're here. When you close your eyes and go
00:51inside, you just walk through. It's like walking through fire and knowing you're not going to be
00:55burned because you're put here for a reason to do what you do. My mother died when I was 15. My
01:02baby sister was five. So I dropped out of college to help my father with the home, etc. So in my path,
01:09in my career, I had not finished school. So you didn't have a college degree. Didn't have a college
01:14degree. So as I was progressing and I'm continuing to get my officer title ABP, VP, moving up the ladder
01:21I was getting more and more pressure from my managers. You got to get it. You got to finish
01:25your degree. In the meantime, who knew? My husband says to me, you know, you should have an MBA and you
01:31do more than an MBA and you know more than an MBA. Well, how can I do that? Oh, people get their MBAs
01:35all the time. And I actually had the kahunas to approach graduate schools and show them my body of
01:41work in addition to the academics and get in. And I got my MBA without getting an undergrad.
01:47I want to talk about mentoring. And for all of us, mentoring has been really important. And I'll
01:53share a very short story about how I stalked Paula and we were on a flight and she was in first class
02:00and I was way in the back and I came up and I said, I can't get the best producers. What do I do? And
02:04you said, well, you're just going to have to do it yourself. I know, but you know, I'm not getting
02:07great editors on my screen. Well, you're just going to have to do it yourself. And finally, probably the
02:1173rd time you said, you're just going to have to do it yourself. It kind of, it dawned on me like, wow,
02:16I got to run my own career. It was truly the most important mentoring session of my life. And you
02:21were like the mentor, mentor victim. Because you had no intention of mentoring me. But, so let's talk
02:28about mentoring the right way. How do you, how do you, because that wasn't it. How do you.
02:35That actually was it. That was an excellent, that actually was what, if given an opportunity
02:41to seize a moment and capture that moment in time. What you were not getting from me was,
02:47go away kid, you're bothering me. Hopefully what you got from me was, I was truly interested in your
02:52career and I was interested in what you were facing. And I have had the value and benefit of that same
02:59type of mentoring, but not always from people who could be considered at a, at a higher level. You do
03:06have to, if given an opportunity, you know, we preach that you have to have your elevator speech.
03:10You have to be able to tell someone in 30 seconds why they should invest their time in you. And you,
03:17of course, did that. Energy, spirit, stick-to-itiveness, something that reminds you. You know,
03:23everyone that I asked to help me is not going to help me. But what I want to say to sisters is that
03:29there are those of us who've been blessed with access. We have fewer doors, but the doors we have,
03:34we have to use them for our people. This is the time, really.
03:40So many talented African-American women who have really good, solid skills, but they don't
03:48necessarily have the confidence to move forward. And I guess what I would say to the group is that we
03:55make mistakes and we're only human. And, and people need to really not be so hard on themselves. And,
04:04and if they set a goal out there and set a vision, you just have to really work towards it. And I just
04:10think that sometimes people need that little extra push to say, you know what, you can do it.
04:15I would absolutely agree with that. I have such a passion for mentoring young black men and women.
04:22So I give it everything. So I do have a lot of people to come up to me and ask me to mentor them.
04:27I have yet to say no, because I just feel like I didn't have it growing up. I didn't have a mentor
04:33until I got into a certain level of my career. And it is so important. So I spent a lot of time
04:38doing it. You know what, it's just something I, I feel like I have a responsibility to do. So I, I do it.
04:44We have time for a few questions. So what I'm going to do is, I think the microphone's right
04:49here. Don't be shy. Run up. Ask a question. If you decide to pick a mentor, should they be from
04:55the industry in which you work in? Or could it be a relation, I guess a quality that you think
05:00that you'd like to foster would be a better way to find a mentor? Obviously, if you can find a
05:05godmother or godfather at your company, in your industry, that's a blessing. You won't always find
05:10that all your mentors are not going to look like you. The point is that you are basically
05:16a value proposition. You have to see yourself as a value proposition to your company, to your
05:21community, and to the world. And then you get people who can help you basically actualize that value
05:28to your company, to the community, and to the world. And that's where your mentors come from.
05:32I want to thank all of you for joining us this morning. Of course, our panelists.
05:35We appreciate it. Thank you so much. It was nice to spend some time with you.
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