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00:00Hello, everyone. I'm Shawn Robinson and welcome to the new power suit panel discussion. We want
00:10to thank Ford Motor Company for bringing this powerful talk to the Essence Festival. And I
00:15personally want to express my appreciation to Ford for their generous donation of $25,000
00:21to support the Shawn Foundation for Girls to help underserved and underrepresented girls.
00:26And our partner, Girl Up, a United Nations Foundation campaign that advocates for gender
00:30equality around the world. All right, let's get right into our discussion. The definition of a
00:35power suit is not one size fits all. It could be coveralls, aviator glasses, even boxing gloves
00:42to celebrate women making strides in traditionally male dominated fields. We have three amazing
00:48sisters here today who are definitely trailblazers. Patrice Banks, an engineer and mechanic and author
00:54of Girls Auto Clinic glove box guide, and Kelly Edward, the pilot and host of Travel and Leisure's
01:00Let's Go Together, and Clarissa Shields, professional boxer and two-time Olympic gold medalist. Hello,
01:07ladies. Hi. So, you know, you are leaders in what many would consider male dominated fields. What
01:19attracted you to your field? First, Patrice, I'm going to start with you. Okay. Being a mechanic,
01:25I know you said you could not find any female mechanics when you were looking for one. Exactly.
01:31I called myself an auto airhead, right? Like so many women I felt taken advantage of when I take my
01:36cardinal mechanic. I'd panic anytime something would happen. I felt like I needed a guy to help me,
01:42right? And I always waited to the last minute to do anything. And so that made me an auto airhead.
01:46And even as an engineer, it wasn't a very empowering position. And so I was looking for
01:51resources to educate myself, to empower myself. How can I make sure I feel good about the choices I
01:56make with my car? And I couldn't find them. I Google female mechanic. And the first thing that popped
02:02up is your 10 top stock images of women mechanics. And of course they have women, you know, in bikinis
02:08next to these muscle cars. I've seen those pictures before. And I thought, I can't believe there isn't
02:14more representation out here for women when it comes to their cars, helping them through the
02:18process of understanding the things that they need, why they need them. And that's kind of where
02:23it sparked. I started to go back to school at night and learn how to work on cars. And as soon as I was
02:29learning this information, I couldn't wait to share it with women.
02:32I love that. I love that. And Kelly, I remember the first time I was on an airplane and I saw a female
02:38pilot and I just lost it. I thought it was just amazing. What attracted you to the possibility of
02:47wanting to become a pilot? Well, by trade, I am an adventure travel journalist and explorer and
02:53travelers, like you said, they get on an aircraft to go to their destination. And so what I decided to
02:59do was take my adventures in my own hands and learn how to fly planes so that I don't have to necessarily
03:06go to LAX to travel across the world. I can go to Van Nuys or Santa Monica airport, gas up the plane
03:13and take off. And that type of power is something that is incredibly empowering to me. And I hardly
03:23ever see female pilots to this day. And when I do, I fan over them because it's just such a small
03:28anomaly in a number of us. Right. The community is very small, as you said, yes. And Clarissa,
03:35what about you? Boxing, male dominated. What attracted you to the profession?
03:42I was attracted to boxing just because I love the art of fighting. I was getting into a few street
03:50fights and stuff like that. And when I walked in a gym and seen guys sparring inside the ring,
03:56I seen everybody worked hard, everybody sweating. I felt like I was at home, even though it was all
04:01males at the time. Right. Let's talk about the impact of gender and racial bias and how that played
04:09a role in your journey and how you overcame these biases. Patrice, I'm assuming that, you know, in your
04:18field, you know, a male dominated field like the one that you were in, there was probably a lot of
04:24gender bias. Absolutely. Even before being a mechanic, I was an engineer. And in my group where
04:30I worked, I was the only woman, I was the only black woman that worked in my group. And it was very few
04:37and far between people that you see look like us. But I actually used that to my advantage. There's not
04:43a lot of people who look like me in the room. And so I felt like that gave me a responsibility to speak
04:49up. It gave me a responsibility to make my voice be heard, to let them know that I'm here. This is
04:54what I think. And so instead of being afraid to, you know, sit at the table or lean in, like they said,
05:01I used it as an opportunity to say, hey, you're going to hear me. And I kind of gained that confidence
05:07just in my life over the years growing up, because even growing up, I didn't have a father, it was a
05:15single family home. And I had to really step up for myself and speak out for myself, if I wanted
05:20to get things done. The first one to graduate from high school, and then I go to school for
05:25engineering, nobody in my family knew what an engineer was. So I had to really learn how to be
05:29bold very early on. And it helped me in those spaces, I realized how it was actually my advantage.
05:35Because when you don't look like anyone else, you stand out. But you got to be good. And everyone
05:39knows when you're a minority, when you're black or brown, you have to be better, right? You can't just
05:44stand out and then not show up, right? And I stood out and I showed up and I made sure that
05:50my voice was heard. And it leads to people, you know, believing you, it leads to people thinking
05:56you're authentic, right? And this is who you are, and they accept it. And then they actually admire
06:00it. And when I left DuPont to go work for myself into girls auto clinic, so many people told me how
06:08they wish they had my courage to do this and to be the person that I was as an engineer. And I never
06:13thought that, you know, I was making such an impact on people just being who I was. And so when I get
06:19into the automotive field, of course, it's very male dominated, very white male dominated. And I took
06:25all of that energy and all that confidence with me. You know, I told them I'm creating a business here
06:30for women, I tell people, I'm not an automotive company, I'm a female empowerment company, I'm here
06:34for women. And my goal is to create the services and resources and products that women need when it comes
06:40to their cars. And so now I don't even care what they think. Right? When you recognize the power of
06:47the groups that you create, or the communities that you create, whether they're women or black
06:51communities, you know, you don't care what anyone else thinks of you. Yes. So it's being that bold,
06:57confident person, believing in yourself, speaking your voice, speaking your truth, and then, you know,
07:02finding your tribe that has those same truths that you have right to support you. And then you don't
07:07care what other people think or what they're going to say or how they view, you know, your
07:13intelligence. When I first came into automotive, I didn't tell them I was an engineer. And they
07:17definitely talked down to me and didn't think that I knew what I was talking about. And you're just a
07:22pretty girl and your heels, right, and your tight pants, and you're just trying to be sexy. And I told
07:27them, I'm not trying to be sexy. I just am sexy. It's who I am. I like to wear heels. I like to wear
07:33these black pants. And that should be fine. Yes, I'm a woman. And my number one customer
07:38is women, right? This is who I'm paying attention to. So that's how I took it. That's how I used
07:42it to my advantage. Yeah. Yes. And Kelly, I'm assuming that you can really identify with a
07:50lot of Patrice's experiences along the way. Absolutely. As a pilot, I too am in a very white
07:57male-dominated field. African-Americans total for pilots are less than 3%. Less than 1% of
08:06black women are pilots. Less than only 150 black women are pilots in total, no matter what license
08:13you have. And so between the gender and the racial bias, I mean, it is ginormous. I cannot
08:20tell you how many times I show up to an airport court to get an airplane to leave and people are
08:26confused that I'm the pilot. I've been asked, are you lost? Are you looking for something?
08:32Oh my gosh. At some of these general aviation airports, you need to know the code to get in
08:38the door for one, to get on the airfield, to access the aircraft. No, sir, I am not lost. I am the
08:44pilot, Kelly Edwards, who called you and booked that plane. And so to see the astonishment, especially
08:49as I've traveled around the world, to have this brown face be the pilot, people are so thrown off.
08:55And for me, I use it as a moment to teach them and to share with them. A pilot is not necessarily
09:01your older white male. There are other pilots who also fly these friendly skies, and I am one of them.
09:08And so, like I said, I use it as a teaching moment all the time. And I show people that I'm not just
09:13a pilot who can fly one plane. I can fly several. I'm a C-plane rated pilot as well. And so there's
09:19different levels to it. And I take the opportunity to take that same education that you did, all of
09:25those hours, put my life on the line, to put a bird in the sky. And so if anything, you should respect
09:30my effort and my time and my energy. What I put to learning is such a technical and mechanical thing.
09:37And my gender and my race should not affect that. Respect the work.
09:43Right. Clarissa, how did your gender affect your journey? And what biases did you encounter?
09:50Well, one of the main things with boxing that was like a big discrimination or that was kind of
09:55biased towards women was that we didn't know how to fight. And one of the lines that they used to say
10:01is like, oh, you know, she fights like a girl. And I never knew what that was because I was always
10:07the best boxer in my gym. So I didn't ever go to gyms and people would tell me, oh, I can't fight or
10:13things like that. Guys would always tell me, you know, she fights like a man. You know, she's a good
10:18fighter. I don't feel like I dealt with any discrepancies in boxing until I turned professional,
10:25you know, with the pay gap. And just the network promotion on how they treat females, how they only
10:33promote, how they only used to promote our fights four weeks compared to the men's 10 weeks. And
10:38you know, women being the main event, things like that. But I've been on TV fighting main event on
10:48Showtime, maybe six, seven, eight fights now. And I only have 10 fights. And I fought the main event
10:53on Fridays, fought the main event on Saturdays. I've been able to make history. I think right now
11:00there's some discrepancies like the fight time, you know, compared to like our women's championship
11:05about our 10 two minute rounds compared to the men's 12 rounds for three minutes. So that's like,
11:12you know, us doing 20 minutes of work versus 36 minutes of work. And I think that's why they pay us
11:19less and try to say that women's boxing is more easier, but it's not. So I'm just trying to get
11:26everything to be equal. But I feel like that's the only discrepancies that I go through.
11:31And, um, Patricia, you had talked about, uh, you know, role models and the fact that both of you
11:36ladies are such role models because you're being in that position. Um, even if you never talk to girls,
11:44you know, eye to eye, they see you in that position. And that is enough for them to dream
11:51bigger now support and family and friends and colleagues, mentors. It's a key part of the road
11:58to success. Patrice, who are some of your greatest supporters along the way? Yeah. So, you know,
12:06being an entrepreneur and a business owner is very difficult and you definitely need supporters. You
12:11need a team of people behind you. And I always were able to find those people through mentorship
12:16programs and networking. And some of my biggest advisors, my biggest fans are, you know, helping
12:23me make this business as big as we can get it right. And help as many women as we can as possible.
12:29When you're an entrepreneur, you get a lot of support from family and that support that was really useful
12:34is like emotional support. It's the support that you need when you're having a bad day, you feel like
12:39I failed again and you came home and they make you feel like you matter. They make you feel like you are a
12:45success. But when it comes to running a business or having a career, you also need those career
12:49mentors, those people who have been there, who have done that, that can give you the advice that
12:54you need, that you may not take and you may learn the hard way. But they're still there to say, okay,
12:59you know, how can we help you get through this? And so every time, you know, also that I'm
13:05changing or leveling up my business, I'm also leveling up my mentors and my supporters,
13:10which is constantly through networking and sharing what I want to do. Here's my mission.
13:15Here's my vision. Here's what I want to do and being really open about it. And you'll meet people
13:19along the way that want to support you and help you. So, you know, family is a great support that
13:24you always will have there in your life. But it's also very important to find those mentors in your
13:29career and the things that you want to do that are here just for you, right, for you to be the best
13:35that you can be. And as you're leveling up, right, leveling up those mentors that you have,
13:40those supporters is really important. Yes. And Kelly, you were saying that in your profession,
13:46there are not many black female pilots. So who are those mentors along the way for you? Who are
13:53the people that really encourage you to pursue your dream? Well, what's interesting is, as a young
14:00black woman in this space, I wasn't in the military. I didn't know any pilots prior to. So the thought
14:05of me wanting to become a pilot scared a lot of my friends and family. Oh, concern about me learning
14:13how to fly a plane because of obvious fears. However, I use that to fuel me more so to prove to them
14:22that it could be done so that they too, in turn, could face the fears that they had. Because what a lot
14:27of people tend to do is project their fears on you. And that's something I didn't allow to happen.
14:33So I actually took the naysayers to propel me forward. When it came to the support that I could
14:39think of, you know, immediately it was my mom and my dad because they wanted me to do everything that
14:45they never sought out to do, never thought they could do, or never did. And so between my parents
14:51and my grandmother, who was ironically my first passenger ever in a plane. Oh my gosh, that's great.
14:56I love that. My grandmother said, listen, I want to go and fly with you. And her children
15:03freaked out so bad. We were up in that plane and my grandmother was taking pictures. She was asking
15:10me. She was so calm. It made, it let me know that everything that I worked hard for was so worth it
15:17because I would have the matriarch in my family be so proud of me. And just to share that, that experience
15:24was, I can't even describe it. But when it comes to, you know, mentors in the aviation field, it took
15:31me some time to find them, to be honest with you, because I kept going into places where people were
15:37always doubting or wondering why I was there. It was more like just looking at me and not necessarily
15:44always wanting to be of help, but more, why am I here? And so I had an uphill battle of, you know,
15:50being accepted in the aviation community in a lot of instances. There were a few times where I would
15:55go to a place and they would just be genuinely curious and happy to see me and say, hey, I've
15:59never seen a young black female pilot. I've never seen a black pilot. What are you doing here and how
16:03can I help? And the way for pilots to help each other, in my experience, is that they let you use their
16:09plane. They say, hey, here's my plane. You can gas it up. You can take it. Please bring it back.
16:14Or if you've never flown my type of plane before, I'd be happy to take you up. I, through going to
16:20different places, you know, around the world, I was able to find two commercial pilots that are
16:25black males who have been flying for over 30 years. And so between the two of them, you know,
16:30they keep me abreast on everything I need to know, what's going on in the aviation space. And I truly
16:37appreciate them because they had a journey of their own to be black male pilots on the level
16:42that they are. Clarissa, tell me about your support group, friends, family. Did they try to discourage
16:50you along the way or were they encouraging you to pursue your dreams? My greatest supporters
16:56are not just my fans, but my family, my siblings in general, sisters, brothers, my mom. I believe
17:06that my dad is my biggest fan. And I have my mentor and my best friends. And it's important to me
17:13because, you know, being on TV and things you have to put up, people feel like you have to put on a
17:20certain persona. And my friends and my family always, you know, be able to remind me to just be who I am
17:28because there's so many people trying to make me be different all the time just because I had a
17:32stature and the success and trying to, you know, tell me how I should and shouldn't talk, how I
17:38should wear my hair, how I shouldn't, how I should dress what I, you know, compared to what I
17:43shouldn't wear. And my family and my friends and my support is kind of just like rally behind my
17:50decisions, whatever I want to do. They're behind me and let me build my career the way that I want
17:55to talk to without the judgment. You know, they're not afraid to tell me if I'm doing something out of
18:00line, but I feel like I'm my biggest critic and I'm trying to fight a whole different fight than
18:06just boxing as far as a woman's boxing. So I have a great support system and it's just important to
18:11just, so people can remain humble and never forget where they come from.
18:16I love that you had that mentorship. Okay. Let's, ladies, let's, let's talk about self-care,
18:21taking care of oneself. It is an important part of success. What do you do to reset, recharge,
18:29you know, rejuvenate and, you know, make sure that you are the healthiest, both physically and
18:34mentally that you can be. Patrice, I'll start with you. Yes. So self-care is very important. And I've
18:40learned that along the way, as I'm going, being an entrepreneur, taking care of yourself, other people
18:46relying on you. So I have to show up healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally.
18:51And so I do little daily things for self-care, like meditate. I meditate every morning. I journal
18:56ever since I started journaling, has it helped me deal with a lot of that, those emotional feelings
19:02that you have will come up and they will show up in business. All of your flaws will come up and you
19:06have to deal with them. And that's one of the best ways that I've learned to deal with my emotional
19:11things is by journaling. And so that's a very important way to self-care, um, to do self-care with
19:17yourself, to be kinder to yourself. I learned how much to be kinder with myself when I'm journaling.
19:21And, um, getting enough sleep, right? Giving yourself permission to get enough sleep is so
19:27hard when you feel like you've got so much to do and you have so many people counting on
19:32you. Um, I have to really schedule that stuff in and, and you don't think about sleep as
19:39being something that's self-care, um, often, right? And it's one of the most important things,
19:44um, is getting enough sleep. And then most recently I've really started to eat healthier,
19:49um, changing my diet, um, eating more fruits and vegetables. That's, you know, very important. My body's
19:55really important. I was very, um, tired and lethargic in the middle of the day often. And I realized it
20:01was based on how I ate and I wasn't able to work as hard or show up, um, with my energy if I wasn't
20:07eating properly. So just those things that, you know, and I know it's not getting a manicure. I could
20:11literally run downstairs to my salon because I have a garage with a salon next to me so you can
20:15get your nails done while you wait for your car. And I can go down and get my nails done, you know,
20:20but that, which is nice, but also just how do we take care of that mental, physical, emotional self?
20:26I'm even spiritual, you know, which is my meditation. And so it's daily practice. And then when it's too
20:31much, I take a vacation. I'm out. I gotta go. And that leads me into Kelly. Kelly, a lot of times
20:38people go on vacation to relax. You do that for a living. So what is your way to just kind of unwind
20:46and be centered and just really, you know, tune out the rest of the world?
20:52Well, I am an outdoors woman. And for me, I think the best way to be centered with yourself is in the
20:59great outdoors. I do a ton of hiking and my hiking is like a walking meditation for me.
21:06To hear, you know, the twigs and the rocks and the gravel underneath my feet as I'm walking,
21:13to hear the birds chirping, to feel the wind against my body and my face. It's something
21:17about that that's very therapeutic for me mentally. I also love to go flying. When you
21:25are in an aircraft and I often fly by myself just because I don't necessarily want to just
21:30wait on someone to meet me there. I just want to go. When you're in the air and flying,
21:36you can't think about what's going on on the ground that's bothering you because there's
21:42going on in the cockpit. And that is a way that it allows me to leave any stress or drama
21:50down below me. And when I look outside of my aircraft window, I'm allowed to see the world
21:58in a more beautiful space, in a beautiful space. And so for me, just to fly up the coast
22:04from Santa Monica to Malibu to Santa Barbara, it's just lovely. I can't even share how many
22:13times, even when I take people, they say, oh my gosh, I need to learn how to fly. This
22:17is so relaxing. I will learn. I'm going to get my nails done there.
22:22Right. I was going to say, Kelly, Patrice and I will hop on with you.
22:28Yes. Whatever you're going to do. I'm a liar. That's how I want to do it.
22:32Well, those are my forms of self-care. Being outside and flying. Those are two things that
22:36I do for myself that have proven to be invaluable.
22:39Wow. Clarissa, how do you relax and unwind? What is your self-care routine?
22:46I'd like to go home, no matter where training camp was at, where I was at, doing business. As long
22:51as I go home, that's a place for me to kind of reset and recharge and get some sleep. Then after
22:56I get some sleep, I love to reconnect with my friends and my family and then eat some good soul
23:01food. And then that kind of gets me, you know, lower it down instead of being up here, being the
23:07tight, high celebrity. I get to be kind of normal and regular for a minute. And then once I get
23:12time for another fight, I just go and find videos of guys and women who I admire and I watch their
23:19videos and then I get motivated to try back training. Well, ladies, I appreciate you sharing
23:25your time because one of the things that you have taught us today is to help us move out of our
23:31comfort zone. And that's what I just love because sometimes, you know, we have to face our
23:37fears, move out of our comfort zones, tune out the naysayers, and just, you know, just really
23:45go for it. Live our dreams. So I want to thank you for joining us today and sharing your stories
23:53and to help us reach higher heights. Thank you, ladies.
23:56And we want to thank Ford for bringing this conversation to the Essence Festival and for,
24:04once again, your donation of $25,000 to support the Sean Foundation for Girls.
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