- 4 weeks ago
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello everyone, it's Maria Taylor here and I'm so happy to be a part of the Essence Wellness
00:09House for a special conversation about breaking through mental barriers for the win presented
00:14by Secret. We have an all-star cast here for you today to listen to and learn from and I start with
00:20our vet Swin Cash. She's the vice president of basketball operations and team development for
00:25the New Orleans Pelicans but she's a superstar in her own right before she went into the front
00:29office, 15-year WNBA vet, three-time WNBA champion, four-time all-star, and two-time Olympic gold
00:36medalist so I don't know how she fits all of those accolades in one house but she makes it happen
00:41and we have Monique Billings, a UCLA women's basketball superstar. She still holds the record
00:46for blot shots at her school, also now playing in the WNBA and she's also the the self-care queen so
00:53she's got a lot of advice for how to take care of your mental wellness. It'll be great to hear
00:58the talking points from Monique and then our young buck is Sha'Carri Richardson. She's the eight-time
01:044A state champion out of Texas, a junior world record holder in the 100 and 200 meter and also
01:10attended LSU for a season where she won the 100 meter NCAA track championship so saying she's fast
01:16is an understatement. We've got a great group here to chat about mental wellness but Swin I want to start
01:22with you because you've transitioned through so many different careers. You've done broadcasting,
01:26you sat where I am, you've been a WNBA vet, you're an Olympian and now you're in a front office. I wonder
01:32how you grapple with the different identities and roles that you've held over the course of time while
01:37staying mentally tough through all those things. I think it's important for me what I've learned
01:42throughout my career and even now being in the front office is make sure you have a solid foundation
01:47and I always go back to that my foundation is my family, my foundation is my faith, my foundation
01:56is how I approach every day in a very authentic way and I think that's what always kind of kept me
02:03centered even when life gets really crazy, whenever you know work gets really crazy, it's important to
02:10always have that center and that foundation for yourself. I love it, foundation and being grounded.
02:15I feel like that's something that we can all learn from and use as we move forward and Monique,
02:20that's something that you kind of pride yourself in. You talk about balance a lot so walk me through
02:26the self-care routines because as athletes we know when our shoulder's hurting and we know we need to
02:29rehab it but you know mentally when you're going through something you might not know who to talk to,
02:33you might not know how to handle it. How do you deal with that? I mean just like Swin said,
02:38having foundation, having good people around you and knowing what you need in that moment,
02:43you know not every day is going to be the same. So some days my self-care routine looks different
02:47than other days. A game day self-care routine is different than an off-day self-care routine
02:52where I might like to pamper myself more. Some days where I'm having a game, that's a day where I'll
02:58listen to like a meditation and just do a different form of self-care. So self-care isn't always just
03:03bubble baths and massages, you know it's a lot mentally too. It's not just bubble baths? That's good to know.
03:11Okay Swin, I know that you've been through these situations before. You're in a male-dominated
03:19field so there's times when you walk into a room and you're probably the only black woman,
03:24a lot of times maybe just the only woman in general. I wonder how you process those moments
03:29and those situations, still have your voice heard and still accomplish whatever it is you wanted to
03:33accomplish when you stepped into that room. Um well the one thing for me that's always helped um
03:39especially now is understanding that especially athletes when we're younger um majority of time
03:45girls play with boys and boys play with girls and you really don't kind of get separated until pretty
03:51much high school, right? And so you learn how to interact, you learn how to perform and that's what
03:57everybody looks at. They don't care if you're male or female and so I take that mindset into every
04:02meeting of one um understanding that yes I may be the only one in the room but it's not okay to just
04:08be the only one in the room. Like you also want to make sure that your voice is heard, that your opinions
04:12are heard and that you that you are also contributing to um to the success or um to the movement in which the
04:21direction the organization is going and so that's what I pride myself on is making sure we're not only being
04:25in the room but making sure we're being heard and mentally just processing the fact that if you
04:30perform and you know what you're talking about, you know your job, that's what people are going to see
04:35and understand. Um not to be worried about if you're male or female. I think anyone will tell you
04:39if you're going to help me win, if you're going to help contribute to that, uh people usually want to
04:45gravitate to that. There's the unique strength that you have, Swin, I feel like and it seems like
04:50you've always had it. Was there ever a time when you didn't? Okay, and if you didn't have that confidence,
04:54where did you get it from? Where did you generate it from? Um well the good thing for me is that when
05:01I was young, I had a lot of female role models where everybody was always looking to outside female
05:07role models and my mom um was a foreman on an all guys crew. So I saw her as a young girl getting up,
05:12putting overalls on, getting, you know, tying her hair up to be ready to go and do maintenance and
05:17electric and electrical work um but putting on lipstick and makeup and so that was always building me at a
05:23young age and and when I grew up um when I had those moments of insecurity like we all have right
05:28um I feel like I'm a confident person but when I have those moments of insecurity I always think back
05:33to the women that came before me who had it harder than I did and so that gives me strength like I draw
05:39strength from people that laid the foundation down for me. That's why I'm always if you ever hear me
05:43speaking or talking to people I always give love to those that came before us because they surely had it
05:48rougher than we did but I make sure I take time to mentally get in a good place and spiritually be
05:55in a good place and that's always uh it always goes back Maria's foundation I think with every woman
05:59having a solid foundation of who you are and what you believe in anytime the world gets shaky or any of
06:05those things happen or you feel insecure you can always go back and um stand strong on a solid foundation
06:12and Monique I just saw you giving snaps back to the solid foundation because you were really feeling what you
06:17were hearing right there walk me through moments of insecurity maybe that you've had over time and
06:22how you balance getting through that while staying true to yourself recognizing that there wasn't
06:27insecurity or something that you had to process and deal with well I know this is something that you
06:32and Swain can relate to but being a tall girl yeah at such a young age and not knowing how to navigate
06:38through that um my whole life I've been so tall I was a little awkward and I didn't realize that that
06:44tallness was a superpower at the time now I'm like I wouldn't trade my tallness for the world because
06:49I love standing out and I love being different in that way and I don't mind being asked everywhere
06:54I go how tall I am do you play volleyball do you play basketball what do you do I don't mind but um
07:00when I was younger I didn't want that attention it's funny um I went to Catholic school and I when we
07:06would go to mass I'd be in the pews and I would like bend my knees to try to look small and try to look like
07:12everyone else around me but I just didn't realize um my tallness was a gift so now I'm thankful that
07:18I'm able to embrace that and accept that and I have women um such as all three of you ladies that
07:23I can look up to and I can see you guys' confidence and try to emulate that as much as I can and
07:28realize that there's younger women younger girls looking at me now and um if I don't show my confidence
07:34and I don't truly have confidence how can they be confident so just trying to be a light and example and
07:39be intentional to um be thankful for my flaws to show that I have flaws to show that I'm imperfect
07:47and that's totally okay it's okay to have flaws we had a couple of flaws with our technical
07:51difficulties too but that's okay okay ladies and gentlemen okay so let's go back to the question
08:01about obviously being someone who's coming up in the social media age you have an incredible following
08:06but there's pressures that come along with that I know there's challenges that come along with that you're
08:09not representing your brand sometimes people expect you to represent the black community or
08:13women track athletes how do you handle and deal with some of those pressures it's definitely dealing
08:19with all of those pressures is I wouldn't even see it as a pressure because I have a passion for
08:24every single topic um being a black athlete being being black um running from my brand being a professional
08:31track athlete all of those things I have a passion for so it's nothing that I feel a pressure I'm
08:36obligated to but at the same I just feel like people have to understand that we are people too
08:42like the same the same things that they do today how they get up every day and they function we do the
08:47same thing we just happen to be maybe a little faster we can shoot hoop better you know we can
08:52probably swim a little better that's it but then they were humans and I just um wish that the following
08:58will understand that that way they understand that we have a job just as well as they do but at the same time
09:03that our passion if we can and if we choose to do that of course we're going to express that to
09:09show that their voices are being heard just just as well because their voice is our voice we are
09:13their voice so I just want to just let my following on just everyone know that like whatever I stand
09:19on I definitely believe in and I just want my following to know that I support them too just as
09:23much as they support me because without them where would we be I love the fact that she said a little
09:28bit faster y'all I do have a question for all of you guys because in your own rights I'm sure you've
09:40dealt with it so Carrie for you you might be dealing with haters on Instagram or someone that has
09:45something negative to say Monique's when if you've had instances where people are just saying well
09:50basketball player y'all should be in the kitchen somewhere like these are real things that are still
09:53happening if you go on Instagram and see ESPN posting about Maya Moore right now um how do you
09:59handle haters and we'll start with you Swin but I want all of you guys to ask these questions the
10:03doubters whatever how do you deal with them um you catch me right because I'll pull up and be like oh I
10:11got time today it's okay I got time for you and I can reply back but in it see what I like to do is I
10:17like to educate people through my response right so um if it's somebody that is talking and they're
10:23not even talking in facts and they're saying things I would give them a tidbit of information before I
10:27block them and then the other way that I handle it is sometimes not even responding like I kind of
10:34pick in shoes um because sometimes I just give people the ability to sit there because a lot of
10:39times you have to keep in mind people will write stuff and be sitting there all day and I know this
10:45sitting there waiting for a response because as soon as you respond before you even finish they're
10:49already trying to type something back so you have to understand and pick your spots um but use your
10:55response as your release I only respond when I need to release and make sure that I'm feeling good about
11:00it I don't I don't let people trigger me that's what I would say you know both to Carrie um both to
11:07Mo is like don't let people trigger you always control your narrative always control your response and
11:12that's two things that I feel like that I've learned of being in the game for long that I really
11:17truly mastered to an extent I need it yeah honestly it seems like a waste of time and energy to me
11:26especially if it's super disrespectful I'm like who is this person this isn't serving me it's not
11:30doing anything for me why am I going to give you my energy and my attention and I'm big on showing you
11:35better than I can tell you so I'm like okay if someone has something negative to say let me show you I just
11:40let my game speak for yourself love it I think I'm a little both I definitely feel the need that
11:48like my performance speaks for itself so I definitely like to leave it alone but sometimes I do feel like
11:53I got just a little extra energy after practice just a little bit so sometimes I do actually want to but
12:03it's in a way to because it's just like they don't know what goes on behind closed doors they don't see
12:07what we go through way we mentally what we physically what we put ourselves through when
12:12we suggest see a performance all I see is a performance to them is entertainment oh it is
12:17nice but to us it's our lifestyle it's our it's our pride this is what we do 25 8 literally 25 8 you
12:24don't just do it just 24 hours this is something you have to make a lifestyle you want to be great
12:29if you want to be if you wanted to be a you know your career so I just feel like
12:33like yeah with the haters it's it's definitely picking shoes I'm definitely learning
12:38so I'm a little above I want to talk sometimes and sometimes I just let them just let them sit and
12:43just wait
12:47I love the advice that all of y'all have given I'm walking away with not letting anyone trigger me 25 8
12:53I'm lucky carry and then Mo I'm recognizing that my self-care routine is more than a bubble bath
12:57there's a little more that I got to put into it um you ladies are great and that's what this is all about
13:02I mean we're we're creating more mental toughness we're breaking down the barriers that women may
13:06experience in their everyday life but we're learning from individuals like you that have been so
13:10successful athletically and obviously when you're off the quarter you're off the track you guys have
13:15been an inspiration to women everywhere um and also someone that has been supporting women for years
13:21is secret they're the first anti-person brand designed specifically for women so for the last 60
13:26years they've been on the forefront of women's lives and through the years the brand has really
13:30supported women's advancement the equality through campaigns communications and secret
13:35challenges women everywhere to be all strength and no sweat I want you guys to keep on sweating
13:40and keep doing the strength that we need every single day um and again thanks for joining the
13:45Essence Wellness House this has been an amazing conversation I hope everyone was able to learn
13:49something from it thank you thank you thank you thank you
Comments