00:00You have this moment where you go get your MBA, you start to get really clear
00:04about the role you want to play in the world, right? What is the next step? Do you look for
00:10a company that does that? Do you look for a job that does that? Like what did you come out of
00:14that MBA experience with that purpose clarity? Right. Where did you go to do the next step in
00:20that? So you know very deeply in your role that representation matters. It does. So when I was
00:27getting my MBA at Duke University, there was a black woman named Ann Fudge who came to speak.
00:33Ann Fudge. And that was a pivotal moment. What did she do? Ann Fudge at that time was
00:38president of Kraft Foods, of one of the divisions within Kraft Foods. And she came to speak to us
00:44and it was like a lightning bolt. Like if there were a professional love at first sight, that's
00:50what it was. Got it. This is a black woman. She looks like me. She's from D.C. She's doing,
00:55she's a boss, but she's doing it authentically. I've never seen a leader at that level black and
01:05being authentically herself. What do you mean by that? Because I think authenticity is a word a lot
01:09of people use. Yeah. So when you said you saw something authentic, what about the way that she
01:13behaved registered as authentic to you? It just, it felt real. It felt like she was being her full
01:21black self. Yeah. It felt like she, she didn't have a mask. She wasn't code switching. She was just
01:28being who she was, the way she was talking, the story she was telling. And that was the first time
01:34that I realized you can be a hundred percent yourself and be a leader that you don't have to
01:39try to emulate what you think a leader is, which is a straight white man. Yeah. So after seeing her
01:47speak, um, I was like, I have to work at Kraft Foods. I have to work. So it was, I have to work
01:51at Kraft Foods. I'm going to be in Fudge and I got to work at Kraft Foods. And I already knew,
01:54I already knew, I already knew I wanted to do marketing brand management. And then when I saw
02:00her, that was the company. I said, I have to work at Kraft Foods. So then before you do that though,
02:05you have to go through a series of interviews on campus. And remember, I'm coming in with a degree
02:11in Spanish and experience as a teacher. Yep. Going with an MBA, with an MBA, no, as pursuing
02:17my MBA. So this is my first year. So I'm going against people that had come from corporations
02:23that had had parents, multi-generation in business in corporate America. And here I am,
02:29you know, I was a teacher and I had a degree in Spanish. So every interview I went on that first
02:34year, I never got a call back. How did you feel not getting any calls back? I felt like maybe I
02:43didn't belong there. Maybe I wasn't qualified. And in reality, I just needed to be better prepared
02:50through the interview process. And I needed to do a better job of linking how my experience would be
02:57applicable to the future experience of working for those corporations. But when I met with Kraft,
03:03it was a two-on-one interview. So I'd never really had that. And it's really intimidating,
03:07but something, I don't know, it was like divine intervention. I just walked in there with a level
03:12of confidence, I think because I had this vision of Ann Fudge. Yeah. Amazing what that does.
03:17It is. When you talk about representation matters and what she meant for you in this moment after
03:21you've been turned down for a bunch of interviews, this is your last one. And it's Ann Fudge that's in
03:26your head. Got you walking with your show. Right. And so the women interviewing me were several levels
03:31below her, but I think in my mind, I knew they represent her group. And so maybe I can be
03:37myself. That's an amazing way to think about it. And do a good job at this interview. And so
03:42I did well at the interview. I got the internship. And then I didn't know where I was going to be
03:48placed. It would either be New York or Chicago. It could be any division. There were several.
03:52I happened to be placed in Ann Fudge's division and it was like, huh.
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