- 2 days ago
Money, possessions and property have historically defined wealth. But that definition is expanding in the
21st century to include enriching experiences, health and well-being, breaking down barriers to health
and career success driven by purpose. A rich and fulfilling life is not just the number in your bank account.
Health and well-being, including mental health, play an outside role in building a fulfilling life. In fact, 1 in 5
Americans live with a mental illness; with Black women more likely to report feelings of anxiety or hopelessness. To help achieve optimal health, a redefined version of wealth is taking shape. Join us for a candid conversation on wealth, its connectivity to health, and how it can redefine careers. (UnitedHealth Group)
21st century to include enriching experiences, health and well-being, breaking down barriers to health
and career success driven by purpose. A rich and fulfilling life is not just the number in your bank account.
Health and well-being, including mental health, play an outside role in building a fulfilling life. In fact, 1 in 5
Americans live with a mental illness; with Black women more likely to report feelings of anxiety or hopelessness. To help achieve optimal health, a redefined version of wealth is taking shape. Join us for a candid conversation on wealth, its connectivity to health, and how it can redefine careers. (UnitedHealth Group)
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00in which we work and the people that we serve.
00:04Supporting you through your health journey
00:06and making it easier for you to get the care you need.
00:11Because we know the remarkable power of being there for what matters.
00:17Ladies and gentlemen, are you in for a treat?
00:21Please welcome actress, comedian, author, broadcaster, podcaster,
00:27and television personality, Ms. Sherri Shepherd.
00:39Oh my goodness, where am I at?
00:42Okay, all right, I'm gonna put them over here.
00:44Hey, family!
00:47Oh my gosh, it's so nice to see everybody.
00:50Look at all of this beautiful melanin.
00:53Oh my gosh, can you give yourselves a hand, ladies?
00:56Ladies, gentlemen, this is so nice.
01:01Oh, and one of my best friends in the world is here, Kim Whitley.
01:04Can y'all give Kim Whitley a hand?
01:10I'm so thankful to United Health Group for being here.
01:14This is an amazing discussion I'm going to have.
01:17I'm gonna sit down right here.
01:20Are y'all doing good?
01:21I have eaten my way through New Orleans.
01:25If anybody's like me, I have not.
01:28I've been watching y'all eat your beignets.
01:30I had alligator nuggets for the first time.
01:35It tastes like chicken.
01:37If you've never had alligator nuggets, it tastes just like chicken.
01:42And have you been taking advantage of everything here at the convention center?
01:47It has been so nice just to be amongst black women.
01:51This is the best.
01:52Can y'all just give yourselves a hand again?
01:58I want to start the show.
01:59So I'm sitting here and I'm just, I'm so full.
02:01I literally feel like I have all of New Orleans in my stomach right now.
02:04I want to give an intro, but I forgot my glass.
02:08I hate wearing my reading glasses, but I can't see any of y'all.
02:11Y'all look like one big face.
02:14Can you bring my reading glasses up here?
02:17You got a pair of reading glasses, but you can't see.
02:20Like, I don't know if yours is going to be.
02:22Thank you so much.
02:25Thank you so much, Kim.
02:26I appreciate you.
02:27I want to bring up the woman of the hour that I want to have just a sister friend discussion with.
02:33Her name is Patricia L. Lewis.
02:36And Patricia is the Chief Sustainability Officer at United Health Group.
02:42But this sister is so bad, I have got to read her bio.
02:46Because she's that bad.
02:47You came up here.
02:48And don't even say anything, Patricia, because you are so bad.
02:51I can't just say your title.
02:54Can I read it, please?
02:55Can you sit here while I give you your flowers and read it?
02:57Go right ahead.
02:57Okay, Patricia L. Lewis was named United Health Group first Chief Sustainability Officer
03:03in February 2022.
03:05She leads the development and implementation of the Enterprise ESG Strategy, including
03:12Environmental Sustainability Goals and United Health Group's health equity and diversity,
03:18equity and inclusion commitments and initiatives.
03:22Patricia previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer
03:27of United Health Group.
03:29So you are here and you are talking to me.
03:32Can you give Patricia L. Lewis a hand?
03:39Patricia, I'm really glad to be here because this is a room full of...
03:42Wait, first of all, this is your first time over here at Essence.
03:45Yes, this is my first, very first Essence.
03:48My wife who's sitting in the row, she told me I should not do that, so I'm doing it.
03:52She's here with the orange.
03:53Sherry and Sharon are coordinated here.
03:55Hey, wife.
03:56Shout out, wifey.
03:59So, yes, my very first Essence.
04:01And I will tell you, I just, the energy in the room, the energy in the hotel, I mean,
04:06you leave your room, it's just like, you see black women everywhere.
04:09It is amazing.
04:11And I have to shout out to my Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters.
04:16I'm wearing red, but I just had to represent.
04:19So it's been phenomenal.
04:22You know, when you are in Essence, you never hear more, hey, girl.
04:25You hear a lot of that when you come out.
04:27That's right.
04:28Everywhere.
04:28Everywhere.
04:29It's been an experience being here amongst so many black women who are supportive, who
04:34care.
04:35You feel like when you're here at Essence, everybody got your back.
04:38That's right.
04:38That's right.
04:39Everywhere you go.
04:40Everywhere you go.
04:41I just got to give a shout out to one sis.
04:43I took a picture with her, Patricia, and my hair, I didn't have my hair on.
04:49She got me before I put my hair on.
04:51And she wanted to take a picture, and I said, you know, I don't have my hair and makeup
04:54on.
04:54And she said, sis, we're not going to do that.
04:56You are a queen, so we're not going to start that.
04:58That's right.
04:59You look good.
04:59So whoever that was, thank you.
05:01You changed my life.
05:02I'm going to go in the air.
05:02I'm going to just have braids on.
05:04I don't even want to put a wig on before.
05:06I know.
05:06You went on and you had your wig cap on, right?
05:08You did that wig thing.
05:09I had the wig cap on, yeah.
05:10And it's so hot, I feel like this wig is slowly melting off of my head.
05:14I know.
05:15But I wanted to talk to you because we have been talking, the discussion about wealth has
05:20been around for a minute.
05:23It's almost like wealth is trending.
05:25Right.
05:25Everybody is into wealth.
05:26Everybody is into money.
05:27We got this and this bag and this car.
05:30But we're looking at wealth in a different light.
05:33Right.
05:34How do you see wealth?
05:36Listen, I think you need monetary wealth as a foundation to make sure that you can do
05:43everything that you need to do in your life.
05:44So it helps with flexibility, it helps with access to things, it helps with having fun.
05:51But to me, wealth is more than money.
05:54Got to secure the bag.
05:56But when I think about wealth, you know, it's also about health.
06:01And I think you cannot have wealth without having good health.
06:05Anybody say, well, you work for a health care company.
06:07You would say that.
06:08But I honestly think it's true, right?
06:10And if you think about the income disparity in this country and how particularly people
06:18of color do not have access to health care, they cannot, you know, really fulfill their
06:25lives if they are unhealthy.
06:28And so, you know, for me, you know, wealth is, it's health, it's mental health, it's emotional
06:35health, it's social health and having relationships and familial health.
06:40So it's a pretty broad definition as I think about it, Sherry.
06:44And, you know, you do need to have that economic foundation for sure.
06:48But I think we just need to think about it in a more holistic manner.
06:52You know, being a black woman, how many of you have children in the audience?
06:56Okay.
06:57And you have jobs.
06:58And I think that we as black women, no matter where we are, the number one thing is you're
07:03trying to figure out, especially in this landscape today.
07:06That's right.
07:06With what's going on politically, what is going on in the world today, you're trying
07:11to figure out.
07:12It's a stress that black women have that I don't think any women have of trying to figure
07:18out how you're going to make sure your kids get home safe.
07:21How you're going to make sure your kids are alive.
07:22And the stress that we face and trying to get up and go to a job and deal with a boss that
07:28you may not like, being in a career that you may not like.
07:32It is so hard.
07:34How do you define wealth for these women?
07:38Yeah.
07:39No, I think, again, it's in order to be personally fulfilled, right?
07:43You need to do what you enjoy doing.
07:47But I think this is where, again, back to the health point, you have to take care of yourself
07:52first and foremost, right?
07:54And one of the things that I really wanted to register with this audience of incredible
07:59black women, and I know there's a lot of men out here, so you're supporting black women
08:04as well, right, is, you know, when you think about health literacy, understanding the issues
08:12that face the black community, particularly black women in our health, we don't have the
08:17information that we need all the time.
08:18I mean, one of the things that comes to mind is, and I don't know how many of you know this
08:23fact, but black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications
08:31than white women.
08:32I mean, it's unbelievable that in a developed country as ours, that we still have this problem.
08:38So black maternal health is a huge issue for us, particularly those of, you know, I have
08:43a son.
08:43I have a son who's 22 years old.
08:46And one of the things that was critically important for me was the fact that I had a black doctor
08:52take care of me during my pregnancy.
08:54She was with me.
08:56She knew that I had the sickle cell trait.
08:58And so when I had my son, there was a possibility that there could be a complication.
09:03And as soon as my son was born, there was a complication.
09:08And she went to work quick to make sure that I'm still able to sit here and talk to you about
09:14this issue today.
09:15And without her, I don't know what I would do.
09:18She delivered my boy and she delivered me back to all of you today.
09:23So one of the things that we are working on very, very strongly is to try to build that
09:29population of diverse health care professionals.
09:33We just committed $100 million.
09:35$100 million.
09:36$100 million.
09:37$100 million to build a pipeline of talent, 10,000 new additional black and other brown
09:45and Asian doctors as well, and also upskilling medical professionals.
09:50So a medical technician who may want to be a nurse or a nurse who wants to get to a nurse
09:54practitioner.
09:55Why?
09:56Because culturally competent care matters.
09:59It matters because we have better health outcomes when we do have black physicians taking
10:04care of black people.
10:06And I'm here to tell you that, you know, that would have been a different story if I didn't
10:10have the doctor that I have.
10:11And we can see that from the sister who just passed away.
10:15That's right.
10:16Who was the Olympic sister.
10:18Her name was?
10:18Tori Bowie.
10:19Tori Bowie.
10:20Yeah.
10:21Who didn't have a doctor that she could call.
10:24I don't know the circumstances.
10:25Yeah.
10:25But I have to tell you, my experience in having my son, Jeffrey, was very, very different from
10:31yours.
10:32And this goes to show you that health care levels, I don't care if you're a celebrity
10:36or you're working at the post office, health care crisis makes the playing field level.
10:41That's right.
10:42So I had a doctor.
10:43I was looking for an OBGYN that could help me.
10:47Is that what you call them when they help you have the baby?
10:49And everybody turned me down because they were busy with clients.
10:52So I had to pretty much take who was available.
10:55I did not feel comfortable with this doctor.
10:58My doctor, she did not inform me of a lot of things that I needed to do.
11:02I felt like at this doctor's outfit was, come in, do you have any questions?
11:06Okay, but you got to go.
11:07And I was so intimidated by this woman, this doctor.
11:11She didn't look like me.
11:13She couldn't understand what I was going through.
11:16And one of the things that she did not tell me, and I don't blame anybody for anything
11:20because everything was my choice.
11:21But one of the things this doctor did not tell me was that you have to keep yourself
11:25hydrated.
11:26You always have to drink water because your amniotic fluid goes down.
11:30I had no idea.
11:31So when I found out that my husband cheated on me, I was depressed, and I didn't drink
11:36or eat for two days because I was so depressed.
11:39Immediately, I went into labor with Jeffrey.
11:42A whole host of things.
11:45But I felt like if I could have just been able to talk to a doctor that looked like me.
11:50Right.
11:51Because that's how I found out I had diabetes.
11:53I had a black woman.
11:54Let me tell you what this black woman said, Patricia.
11:56She said, my blood sugar was over 400.
11:59And she said, Sherry, you like wearing those heels?
12:03And I said, yeah.
12:03She said, well, you won't be wearing those heels with your feet cut off.
12:06That was a black woman.
12:07Oh, wow.
12:08Changed my life.
12:09Yeah.
12:10And because I didn't have a, she did.
12:12Because you know that black women talk to you, that auntie talk.
12:15They do.
12:16She said, now with your feet cut off, will you be wearing heels?
12:19So this doctor that I had, I don't think she understood me.
12:23And it was my first child, and I was a high-risk pregnancy.
12:27And Jeffrey came at five and a half months.
12:29It is vital when you have a doctor.
12:32How many of you have a health care person?
12:35Do you have a doctor?
12:36How many folks out here?
12:37And I see, and a lot of people don't.
12:39It is imperative that you try to find someone.
12:44Boy, if they can look like you and understand where you come from, that's so important.
12:50A lot of times, too, what you said happens quite frequently, that doctors don't listen to you.
12:57And for the young people in the audience, this is really important.
13:00Because you appear to be healthy, you're not showing major signs of illness, but you may have a nagging complaint.
13:07And remember what happened with Serena Williams, right?
13:09When she kept complaining, she knew she had a blood clot, but she was being told differently.
13:13And so she pushed and pushed.
13:15It happens to us a lot.
13:17And, you know, we have found that the trust level goes up exponentially when you have a doctor from the same or similar cultural background as you.
13:27You know, medication adherence.
13:29You trust your doctor.
13:29They're going to prescribe the right things.
13:31They're going to tell you the, you know, the hard, you know, core truth.
13:33And you're going to adhere to it.
13:35And that, to me, is all about wealth.
13:39Because if you don't have your health, you cannot be wealthy.
13:43Monetarily, it's not going to matter because your money is going to go to your kids, right, if you're not here.
13:47So that's what Sharon always tells me.
13:48You know, and they always say, Patricia, it's always that phrase.
13:51And we hear it all the time.
13:52When the life, when the oxygen mask comes down on the plane, they tell you, you have to put it on yourself first.
13:59And we know even with the stresses and the children and the husbands and the job, ladies, if we don't take care of ourselves and recharge, we are no good to anybody.
14:11Have you ever had those days, ladies, where somebody, your girlfriend calls you with a problem, and you just go, I'm going to pray for you.
14:17You got nothing.
14:19And that is happening more frequently that I think a lot of women, we have nothing to give.
14:26My sister told me, she said, I'm getting a divorce.
14:29I said, girl, I'm going to keep you in my prayers.
14:30I don't even call.
14:33How do you, you know, how do you factor into that spirituality with wealth?
14:40Yeah, no, I think it's foundational.
14:42I mean, every major decision in my life, I have had to pray about, you know.
14:48And, you know, particularly when I've embarked on these.
14:51Lift it up to your mouth.
14:52Particularly when I've embarked on these career changes, I think, you know, I was telling Sherry, you know, I took this job on about 18 months ago.
15:00And I was the chief human resources officer at United Health Group when I joined in 2019.
15:05I joined during the pandemic.
15:06So the moral of the story is be careful changing companies.
15:09You don't know what's going to happen.
15:10But I joined during the pandemic and when it started.
15:13And I did that work there for about two and a half years.
15:15But I have a long track record, you know, working in those chief C-suite kind of roles.
15:21And I was asked to think about taking this job on when I would say I was at the pinnacle of my career as a CHRO.
15:30And so I had to think long and hard about, you know, taking another role.
15:34I was 59 at the time.
15:35I'm 61 now.
15:36And I was like, should I take?
15:37Welcome to the neighborhood.
15:38Yeah, I know, right.
15:3861.
15:3961, yeah.
15:40But black is not correct.
15:42Thank you, thank you.
15:43When I said, we could be 192 and look 37.
15:49Well, thank you.
15:50But, you know, I took this job at the pinnacle of my career.
15:53And I, you know, I had to pray a lot about it.
15:56And, you know, kind of the message that came to me was, why would you not take this role?
16:01Because this is a role where you can make a difference in society, doing good inside the company.
16:05But when you can help the communities around the nation, particularly black and underserved communities
16:11with the topic of health care, why wouldn't you do this?
16:14And so I had to search my soul, which required me to just kind of get down on my knees and pray about it.
16:20And honestly, it was the right decision.
16:23So I approached most major decisions by prayer.
16:27So you, in the middle of the pandemic, in the middle of the quarantine, decided to make a big shift in a job.
16:37Yep.
16:38And it had to be really, you had to rely on God to give you that strength.
16:43Yeah.
16:43I think that's, you know, when you talk about being this age, because I'm 56, you're 61, I think a lot of times we don't, you know,
16:52we don't feel fulfilled in maybe a place that we're in, in our career.
16:57And that is the hardest thing, especially when you have people depending on you.
17:01That's right.
17:01To stop and say, I'm going to leave that and go for something that I've dreamed about, that has been inside of me.
17:07Yeah.
17:08That's a scary thing.
17:09That's right.
17:10Yeah.
17:10So getting over the fear, how did that help you?
17:15You know, no matter how successful, no matter how successful you are also, and you and I talked about this on, when we spoke this week, there is a fear factor, right?
17:25So, I mean, you know, and it's interesting.
17:28My wife said to me, well, why wouldn't you do this?
17:30Have you ever failed at anything?
17:31And I said, you know, I mean, I've had small failures, but in terms of career, no.
17:36And so I had to step back and say, what is stopping you from doing this?
17:39It was a fear of changing mid-career at this, or end of career, really, in one field and going right into another one.
17:46But, you know, I had the courage and the conviction and the support, you know, from on high to do it.
17:53And I just went about it with the same vigor that I've had throughout my career.
17:58And, Sherry, I love to learn.
17:59So for me, learning gives me vitality and hope.
18:04Just doing something different, learning something new, sharpening my skills, even at this age, right?
18:09Like, it's possible to do it.
18:11And so, you know, that's kind of how I did it.
18:13You know, spirituality for me, y'all, is sometimes I think, if you don't know, I got this talk show called Sherry on the air.
18:22And I'm saying that to say, God gave me this blessing at 55 years old, at the age where I'm tired.
18:33Sometimes I'll be sitting on the couch, y'all.
18:35I go, Lord, why didn't you bless me with this when I was in my 30s?
18:38When I had the stamina to do it, I sat across from Lorenz Tate, and I was interviewing Lorenz, and I said, what is this boy's name?
18:50Literally, and I'm being transparent.
18:52I said, who is this sitting across from me?
18:57When I'm sitting on the chair, Patricia, trying to tell jokes and be funny, I'll be talking, and I can't remember the word.
19:04Does anybody go through that?
19:06You can't remember the next thing you were going to say.
19:10Yes, absolutely.
19:10I do fitness segments, and I said, Lord, if I don't pee on myself right now.
19:16I sit there, I hot flash in the middle, and I go, and I will sit there, hot flashing.
19:23Who's hot flashing right now?
19:24Anybody else?
19:26Next time, we got to ask United Health Group, can they give away fans?
19:29That's right, that's right.
19:30We need to do that.
19:31Somebody take note.
19:32When I tell you I want to rip these clothes off, I'm so hot.
19:36But I will sit there and go, Lord, you blessed me with this thing at this age where there are challenges.
19:44You get up in the morning.
19:46How many of y'all get up and you feel like you're limping?
19:48You're walking?
19:49This ankle hurt?
19:51This arm hurt?
19:52This, you, I stood up the other day, I fell.
19:55I don't even know what happened.
19:56My ankles just said, we're not even going to take it no more.
19:58You, and you sit and you think, Lord, how can you, a lot of us sometimes feel like when we pray, how are we going to be used when it's so many challenges?
20:10But I'm here to tell you, sometimes you've got to mature into the dream that you have.
20:17He's not forgotten you, and I sit there and even with me not remember who Lorenz Tate was for that moment, it came to me by the time I said goodbye.
20:27Right.
20:27But the spirituality factor is because we have so many voices in our head that are so big that say, who do you think you are?
20:36You're not worth it.
20:38Nobody's going to believe you.
20:40So many things.
20:42And that's where we have to rely on that higher power, that faith that says, no, you are worth it.
20:48No, you are supposed to be here.
20:50That's right.
20:51Yes, you can make a difference.
20:53That's right.
20:54Do you feel, do you feel better at 61 in terms of what you can offer than you did in your 30s?
21:05Yeah, absolutely.
21:06I mean, for me, you know, that decision and connecting, you know, to my higher power, I learned that this work is more than just me.
21:14So I feel like I'm making a difference for the community, I'm making a difference for black women, I'm making a difference for our children, and that is motivating.
21:24So now, you know, almost 40 years in on a career, you know, I can step back and I can say, wow, I would never have been able to do the things that I'm doing now had I not done the work.
21:37You've got to put the work in up front, right?
21:39Absolutely.
21:39You heard me say it, it's almost 40 years I've been at this, since my early 20s, and now I feel like, man, I can really shine.
21:47So it's never too late to keep on trucking and shining.
21:51Because that's where you can really shine.
21:53And before we go, there's so many questions I wanted to ask you.
21:56Was there anything that you wanted to impart to our queens and kings that are sitting here in the audience?
22:03Yeah, so just one, two couple things, just in terms of those of you who have careers and you're working in corporate America.
22:09Make sure you have the courage to take on new and different and challenging roles.
22:16I moved nine times over the course of my career.
22:19I've worked in six industries, you know, sorry, eight industries, multiple companies.
22:25Don't be afraid.
22:26Get out of your comfort zone.
22:27You know, when you make that shift, you take that step change and you take that leap, you have the chance to really propel your career forward.
22:35It might be scary, so you've got to have courage, you've got to do it.
22:38And then the second thing I would say is make sure you get feedback.
22:41One of the things that managers fail to do is to give, particularly us as black women, feedback on whether we're doing well or not.
22:50And give us the critical feedback, not, oh, you're doing fine, right?
22:53You can be doing fine, and then the next week, you know, you're moved out of a job or you're passed over for a promotion.
22:58Make sure you demand critical feedback so that you can do, you know, close any gaps that you may have.
23:04So those are the things I wanted to say, so thank you.
23:07And if you can find a black doctor, whoo!
23:09Yes.
23:10That too.
23:11Patricia, it has been so wonderful talking with you.
23:15You too.
23:16This is streamed live, and it's going to be up on the site so you can go and find out more about United Health Group.
23:24And thank you so much for coming out.
23:26Step out of your comfort zone.
23:28That's right.
23:28Step out of your comfort zone.
23:30Thank you so very, very much.
23:36So let me go.
23:39Oh, no, no.
23:44Your time is up.
23:48Love me only when I'm gone.
23:52So let me go.
23:55Set me free.
23:57Baby, you'll wake up if I leave.
24:01Your time is up.
24:03I bet you're going to love me only when I'm gone.
24:06Yeah.
24:08Let me go.
24:11Set me free.
24:12Let me go.
24:13Let me go.
24:13Let me go.
24:13Let me go.
24:13Let me go.
24:13Let me go.
24:14Let me go.
24:14Let me go.
24:15Let me go.
24:15Let me go.
24:16Let me go.
24:17Let me go.
24:17Let me go.
24:18Let me go.
24:18Let me go.
24:19Let me go.
24:19Let me go.
24:20Let me go.
24:20Let me go.
24:21Let me go.
24:21Let me go.
24:22Let me go.
24:22Let me go.
24:23Let me go.
24:24Let me go.
24:24Let me go.
24:25Let me go.
24:26Let me go.
24:27Let me go.
24:28Let me go.
24:29Let me go.
24:30Let me go.
24:31Let me go.
24:32Let me go.
24:33Let me go.
Comments