00:00Who is Shonda?
00:01Man, that's such a great question because Shonda is evolving, right?
00:07I'm a woman.
00:10I'm a mother.
00:11I'm a daughter.
00:12I'm a learner.
00:13I'm a student.
00:15I'm responsible.
00:17I'm irresponsible.
00:20Message.
00:22I am perfect and imperfect.
00:26You know, I'm faithful.
00:28Um, and, you know, I am grateful.
00:35Wow.
00:36You, you, you highlighted one very particular point in there.
00:41It's perfect and imperfect.
00:44I think in what we do within Chief to Chief, what we represent at Essence, we are constantly
00:51trying to prove to our community of Black women and the community that they live in,
00:58that it is okay to be open and transparent about whatever imperfect means in your life,
01:05right?
01:06You and I have talked about admiring and watching women throughout our career who tell these
01:11stories of success that don't seem to have as much emphasis on the trials as they do on
01:17the triumph and how, because we're pretty self-aware and are really aware that we're super flawed
01:22creatures, we'd be like, so that's not going to happen to me because this little flower ain't
01:26going to be able to have that kind of perfect journey.
01:28How do you get, how did you get to the place where when you are asked the question, who is
01:33Shonda, you have one of the answers be, I'm imperfect.
01:39How do you get to the place of comfort with that as we figure out how to continue to help
01:44the Chiefs within the Black community understand how okay it is?
01:49It is personally important for me to open up space for other people to lead.
01:57And I recognize that one of the barriers for me was the idea that I had to be perfect before
02:06I took a step and there are lots of reasons that I moved into leadership and in doing
02:17so realized through the exposure and through opportunities that were out of my control,
02:27right?
02:27And in some cases, even more public opportunities to make mistakes that I realized that they
02:33didn't break me, but they made me stronger, that those were the lessons that I realized
02:39what I was built from, that I recognized the strength that I had, that I realized that
02:49embedded in leadership, embedded in life, embedded in parenting, embedded in every aspect of life
02:57is imperfection and the opportunity to be introspective, to learn, to grow.
03:06And, you know, it's sort of the saying without the test, there's no testimony.
03:11And what's the point of the test if you're not going to bring the testimony?
03:16Yeah.
03:16And so I believe wholeheartedly in that.
03:19And so if I believe in it, then I have a responsibility to share it.
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