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