Hustle Her
Hustle Her
Hustle Her - Suzanne
Have you ever wondered how a top executive in the insurance industry finds balance between a demanding career, family life, and personal passions? Prepare to have your curiosity satisfied as Suzanne Williams, Director of Policy, Regulation, Corporate Secretary and Data Privacy Officer for the Association of Insurers and Reinsurers in Bermuda, peels back the curtain to reveal the secrets to her success. Discover how she juggles multiple responsibilities with ease, how her love for ballet shaped her work ethic, and why focusing on a few key activities during high school can cultivate commitment and drive.
We continue our journey with Suzanne as she reveals how she navigated her career transitions, found purpose in her work, and bridged the gap between the global regulatory environment and the local Bermuda context. She shares her thoughts on the importance of Bermudians holding key positions within international business settings and how to overcome professional challenges. Listen as she shares her strategies on turning uncomfortable networking situations into opportunities for creating meaningful connections.
Finally, we delve into the deep end with Suzanne as she shares her thoughts on overcoming self-doubt, workplace discrimination, and the importance of sponsorship in career advancement. Hear her compelling story about her first professional correspondence and the valuable advice she received from her father that helped shape her career approach. We wrap up with an exploration of the balancing act of parenthood and career, and discuss how to find happiness in your career and create a positive legacy. Tune in for this exclusive insight into a world where business acumen, personal growth, and family life intersect.
It's time for hustle her podcast. I'm your host, deshae Keynes. Hustle her is all about inspiring women through real life experiences that have helped to mold and develop not only me but my guests into the entrepreneurs and leaders we are today. If you're an enterprising woman determined to succeed and looking for a bit of motivation, a bit of tough love and some actionable takeaways to be the best you girl, you are in the right place. Hey guys, and welcome back to hustle her podcast, as always.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. We have a few housekeeping that we always do. Big thank you to our sponsors, brown and company, as well as 59 front. In addition to that, make sure you guys subscribe to the YouTube channel and head over to the website hustle her podcastcom so you can sign up to be one of our VIP members. So in the house my house today is the amazing director of policy regulation. The corporate secretary and data privacy officer for the Association of insurers and reinsurers in Bermuda is Suzanne Williams. Charles, how are you? I'm wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me today. Absolutely yes. I can't believe it. We're finally here. I feel like I asked people and they're like, yeah, maybe we'll see. And then I think I finally got you like, yes, let's do it.
Speaker 2:No, I was always up for it. It's just you know scheduling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, scheduling is always a problem here.
Speaker 2:I've been watching a lot of them, so I am, you know, following a lot of amazing women.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you are one of them. So we're going to jump right in, ready, all right. So just answer the question I'm going to ask with whatever comes to mind first, and we'll go from there. I feel happy when.
Speaker 2:I feel happy when my family's happy. Being a professional woman and I've been doing rules that have required a lot of time, you know, in the office, a lot of long hours I'm going to count them by trade and I've tried to figure out how to make everybody happy. I will say that I'm a bit of a people pleaser. I might not come across as being that, but I'm even that in my role. I'm happiest when everybody seems to be satisfied with what I've done and whether it's at home, whether it's in the office, that makes me happy. Friends, do you want to go somewhere? Yes, even when I don't want to go somewhere because I feel like they want me to.
Speaker 2:I've gotten better as you get older. That's the beauty of age. You have a little bit more of that recognition that you should come first in certain instances. But I have, you know, spent a lot of my time trying to make sure that everybody's happy, and it's exhausting. I found a bit of more balance in that. I found a bit more balance All right.
Speaker 2:I feel sad when I feel sad when, when I feel like I'm not in control of things, again trying to change or reframe that a little bit, because you don't have to always be in control.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I am. It's hard though.
Speaker 2:It is hard for my personality and I think you know control. I don't feel like I'm necessarily a controlling person, but I like things to be in order. Anybody that knows me knows everything from personal life, the way that things are in my home. You know, I feel like my friends think I'm borderline OCD, but I like things a certain way and when they're not, it makes me uneasy. So you know, I was traveling with a friend and one of our family members is this person that can just get up and change her life like that and slightly envious because it's if there's no way. You know, I was talking to another person and I said I'm not sure how much money I would have to have my bank account before I felt like I could retire.
Speaker 2:It's probably in the trillions, which makes no sense right, but it's about knowing how things are going to play out is my comfort zone. So when I want to make plans, where are we going? When are we going? What time are we going? If people are being flaky, it stresses me out. So just that, that lack of being able to know how things are going to play out and that stability, it makes me uncomfortable, it upsets me. So but I've tried again, trying to adjust a little bit, to move on and things will be okay. Yeah, okay, all right, I feel loved. When I feel loved when I'm heard and understood. I feel like you know, both in personal and in the term loved, and I'll take a little bit outside of that. But even in personal life, as well as in professional life, if I feel like you have understood what I have to say, my perspective, even if you don't agree with me, even if you never get to that place of agreement, I feel like I'm content and I feel like you've respected me. Yeah, then that's when. But I'm okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, and that can be on both sides, like you said personally, and professionally, I don't expect I'm not, you know, the head of my organization, but if I feel like leadership is listening to me, even if they make another choice, is there right? But I feel valued. So, from a work perspective, I don't expect to be loved, but I expect to be valued. And at home, I expect to be, you know, respected and heard, and if I'm not, then I don't feel that that love.
Speaker 1:Got it Okay, and then trust is to you.
Speaker 2:Trust is. That's a hard one. When I think about trust, I think about honesty and communication. So I feel like trust for me is someone allowing me to be myself and respecting and loving me. For that person, even if that person on any given day is not great, it's a nominee to fail and still be there. So I feel that I feel most trusted again in both, in both worlds. Yeah, when I'm allowed to be me and I don't have to apologize for being me and I'm valued for being me, I feel a sense of security and I feel like that that person, in whatever relationship it is, whether it's personal or professional, is trusting me. Yeah, they're letting me, they're letting me be and they trust that everything will be okay.
Speaker 1:Nice, okay, and then I guess I was trying to get away from these, but I feel like I can like the the. Who is your celebrity crush, or who was your celebrity crush?
Speaker 2:So my son this is terrible my celebrity crush. I haven't had one a long time because I'm it's very hard to impress me. I feel that Bobby Brown, my friends are going to die.
Speaker 1:Bobby Brown, I would have never.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that he took a turn, yeah, yeah. So I mean I'm talking about my prerogative. Bobby, okay, before Bobby, no, no no, not, not, not current Bobby, but yeah, but I don't know if I've really like outside of that, but you know that was the posters on the wall, that was the older things. So I knew any of my friends that ended up seeing this would be like absolutely, she was obsessed.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, bobby Brown, everybody I think I need to know like two Bobby Brown songs. I'm not surprised.
Speaker 2:I aged myself. I did all of that in one response, but that's fine. I've also embraced my embracing age.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious. I think I remember some new addition songs and he went out on his own post new addition right, okay, he's done a lot.
Speaker 2:We won't go into all the things. We won't go to all the things.
Speaker 1:We'll just think of the positives and go from there. That's right, all right. So when you think of, like, when you get the most work done or when you're the most productive in life, like what would you consider your zone of genius?
Speaker 2:I would say being able to keep multiple balls in the air.
Speaker 2:And I would say well, I think that's like my special power. I think that's what's led me to be in the real that I am in today. It's a very small office and I have to do multiple things and I'm expected to do them Well this kind of jack of all trades scenario, and I think that I also work very well under pressure. I am a crammer, I mean it's, and I try to be better, but the quote, the term better, I think maybe that's not the right word. I try to take more time and plan ahead and I don't, and I don't think that's my good zone.
Speaker 2:I actually think that you know if I'm going to speak on a panel and I look at the questions the night before in the hotel room that's my sweet spot. I did that in college. I was not the person that was studying for exams weeks ahead of the exam. It all, it all worked out and I think that.
Speaker 1:that's the challenging part. It all works out it all works out.
Speaker 2:So why would I change exactly? I said that before. Why did I change my special sauce? This is my special sauce, but I do so again, like in some of the rules that I've had. It's just keeping all the balls in the air and that ability to be flexible, to think on your feet. That's when I feel like I'm at my best. When I'm when I have too much time, I feel like things go awry for some reason. Right, yeah, so you know, I don't think what I would know what to do with too much time in the office. I don't know what to do when I don't have meetings back to back, deadlines, travel, all these things pressure. A question coming in that I have to try to figure out and like that is what drives me at pace.
Speaker 1:I totally understand, because for me it's if I feel overprepared, especially like when you're speaking on a panel, I feel like I've forgotten something and then I'm like, oh my God, I should have said that and you know what I mean. So I totally understand with you. I'm the best like right before I'm reading the questions, I know my answers are going to be unprepared, but not overly prepared.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I go in most of the time with bullet points just in case, and I want to make sure that I make certain points. I also don't like to come across as heavily scripted. Yes, and I mean I understand why sometimes in certain rules and you know, different individuals have to be more scripted than others because their rules are critically important to run in of a country or some other large organization. But I tend to be better when I just knew I want to hit these points and I try to tell myself they wouldn't ask you to speak on this if you didn't have something in your brain that made sense. So I try not to get too worked up about it.
Speaker 1:And it again, it's worked, it's worked all the time, so why switch it Exactly? No, I totally agree with you. So tell me about Little Suzanne, like, what did you like to do when you were younger?
Speaker 2:Little little Suzanne was a tomboy because there were no girls in her neighborhood her age Really, I know it's hilarious. So I was fishing and riding bikes and running through the bushes for the longest time, and then I was introduced into dancing by my mother.
Speaker 2:So I did ballet at Russian School of Dance for a few years and then I wanted to do more things. At that time they didn't offer more than ballet and we have the Jackson School of Dance and then I literally danced for the rest of my life, probably seven days, five days a week. When I finished, before I went to college, it was probably like five days a week, maybe sometimes six or seven, depending on what the weekend was like, at Jackson School of Dance. And I still teach up until today.
Speaker 1:Really, what do you teach?
Speaker 2:I teach tap. I was teaching ballet for a period of time, so I've taught both over the years. I feel like the discipline, so I don't like failure is not an option which sometimes is to my detriment. Not doing the absolute best job that I can do is not an option which sometimes might be to my detriment, because my work ethic, I think you know, sometimes I'm like you could actually just pull back a little bit, but it's not really in me. But I think some of that was because of dancing, because of the discipline that you need from that. So I think that it helped to shape the personality that I have today. I also think to a certain extent, you know, even when work is really tough and it's hard or painful in quotes, it's part of it because it's not a pain in dancing.
Speaker 1:It hurts. So what? Keep doing it Right.
Speaker 2:When you want to be, you know, at a certain level you just keep pushing through. So, yeah, I enjoy it. Up until today, I have retired multiple times, probably every year for the last five or six years, but then it's like it's also a family as a community there. So, yeah, I dance pretty much defined my younger years. I did track and field, but I had to pick one after a while. So I did a lot of sports up until high school, but then once I got into high school, I had to choose. So it's definitely my love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I totally agree with you about the having to choose growing up very similar with me. Like I did a few things and then I remember I had to choose between like Taekwondo, basketball and like student government and I really liked Taekwondo but it ended up being what I had to give up, essentially because you just can't do everything Absolutely and in like those final years of high school it's like okay, what are you really going to commit to? Because you know high college applications, all that type of stuff like what are you really going to excel at? So I totally get that and I think, figuring out I wish I would have figured out earlier on what I liked the most. Because I liked it all yeah, because I feel like I would have been better at at least one of those things I totally agree, I had to figure it out.
Speaker 2:My body was telling me you can't do all these things. Something's going to give, because different muscles, different things but also scheduling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and to your point, you can't in my opinion you can't be amazing at something that you're doing part time. Yeah, so you know there was different organizations back then that brought people or invited people to dance from various of the schools to kind of, you know, elevate your training and things like that, and you were invited to do so and you were expected to put in additional hours. So you could. I couldn't be playing that ball and I couldn't be staying after school for a track and stuff like that, and I had to go to dance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I chose that.
Speaker 2:And I was a great sisterhood. I love that for the young dancers. I'm a teacher at United Dance Productions and I love it for those young dancers and I see it and I remember it. You know they, they, they fast with each other. You know they're made with each other. They love one each other, they help each other, they encourage each other and that's that was a really great part of growing up, because you love the same thing in the same way and not many people. Nobody else relates to that. Yeah, so that's why you create that sisterhood and those friendships will last forever. Yeah, and I still meet up with some of these women that I danced with way back when we were like eight, nine, 10 and 11, we still get together and have lunch, have brunch, and it's like we never really skipped a beat because we spent so much of our foundational years together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really cool. That's one thing I didn't do growing up because I my parents believed in an actual curricular activity, but dancing was just never one. I was a tomboy for a really long time and my dad loved that. He never had sons so he was all for it. But yeah, dance was one thing I looked back on and I'm like man, I wish I would have done that and I'm not too late to change. It's not too late. I think it might be. I think I might be a little late. I'm, I'm, I have rhythm. I don't have like two left feet, but it does. If I have to learn, like a, anything choreographed, it takes me a really long time to get it. So it's not like a comes naturally to me kind of person. So I just keep myself out of this as much as possible. So how did you know you wanted to go into becoming an accountant?
Speaker 2:So I did not. It happened just by kind of by accident. I did not know what I wanted to do and there was a woman in my life my god sister actually that was studying to be an actuary at the time and our families were very close. I was always there and she was like you should be an actuary or a lawyer and accountant. And I noticed the fact that she barely came out of her room to eat and I was like I'm absolutely not being an actuary because you don't look like you're having fun. Fast forward she's. She's had an amazing career. But that was just wasn't for me. So I said I don't know what I want to do, but I need to probably leave and get my further my education, and so I chose accounting. It was a great choice because it's a great foundational, especially from your international business.
Speaker 1:It was a great foundational degree.
Speaker 2:I probably learned very early in my career as an accountant that I didn't want to do accounting for the rest of my life. I didn't want to be an accountant, but I would just take the skills and move them on, and then that's what I did.
Speaker 1:And then so when did the switch into insurance kind of happen, so that happened when I went to the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
Speaker 2:So I left. I was at KPMG as an accountant for eight years. I took a year off when I had my son. I was a year off with him and then I didn't go back there because he was a preemie. He's a micro preemie. He was one pound 11 ounces. He's a miracle. So even anybody that knows anything about public accounting and when you're at that level it's a lot of hours it was almost impossible. Even though he was out of the hospital he was still delicate.
Speaker 2:So I couldn't commit to coming back to that environment. The company was amazing and I said I found other, I need to find something else. The BMA kind of dropped in my lap. I went and I talked to them and I started there in supervision and so of course I was supervising insurance and so I had done audits of insurance companies. But I had done a lot of audits. So then that's when the focus and insurance started. I was there for 10 years at the BMA a little over 10 years and then I left to, went to one of our larger insurers in Bermuda. I did compliance work there and then I was there for three years and then I ended up coming to ABR.
Speaker 1:It's crazy how life takes you through different things, right? Did you ever think you would be kind of in the position that you have now when you first came into the workforce?
Speaker 2:No, no, I didn't. But if this podcast can inspire anybody and I've told people before that I've talked to you about career paths the best thing I did at the BMA was everything, what I mean by that is I worked in numerous departments as they were in various stages of infancy and as they developed.
Speaker 2:So I did supervision, I did processing of licenses, I dealt with companies that had compliance issues, I did some international travel on the policy side, because it was a small organization at that time, and I firmly believe that those varied experiences lent me all of the skills to be able to do the jobs that I've done since then, and specifically this job, because I understand a multitude of perspectives.
Speaker 2:So coming into this job you know it's really about, I feel like I'm the conduit between Bermuda and the regulatory environment and the global regulatory environment and the members of our organization, and that's kind of what I do.
Speaker 2:But from a local perspective, I just think it's really important for me to try to figure out how to make everybody happy, because international business is critically important for our economy, but Bermuda's my home and I think you know Bermuda and Bermudians are important too, and so I try to find this balance between Bermuda's voice being heard in the international business setting and around that table, but also the international business community is voiced being heard in a Bermuda context so that we can all live happily ever after. So yeah, I didn't see it, but I do know that when I left the BMA and I was doing the work there, you know you don't realize why something's important to you until you finish doing it. So when I moved on, I enjoyed my time in the private sector I will not say that I didn't and I learned but I feel like something was missing and I didn't realize that until I moved to ABR. And I think what it was.
Speaker 2:It was this importance, like you're doing something more important than just a paycheck, right, and that's fine, I'm not saying that everybody has to but I think that depends on what feeds your soul and I feel like at the BMA I understood that the work that that organization does is critically important to Bermuda, because of the importance of insurance specifically, and I feel like ABR is somewhat as important, if not as important, closer, as important as an organization in helping bridge that gap between this major, you know, economic driver of Bermuda and making sure that we stay Bermuda, stays at international business center, stays economically strong, all those things, and it just means like it's a little bit more important but that's more stress.
Speaker 1:So I will say it's a lot of pressure, it's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 2:And so I do know that I do feel like I'm under a lot more scrutiny and a lot more pressure, but it feels like it's worth it.
Speaker 1:No, I got that and I guess with those types of roles cause I felt similar at the BDA as well, because you're in like positions where you're selling Bermuda to certain people but you're also selling Bermuda to Bermudians and the sectors that we represent as well.
Speaker 1:So it's very much like it's a different type of weight on your shoulders when you're doing the work and you have to like it right. You have to be really invested in it, be able to sing the Bermuda story everyone singing from the same hymn book, as Jeremy Ramsey would always say that's a direct quote. I mean, you know, making sure that we're all on the same pages and seeing the value across the board. It's difficult to do and you feel that weight on that pretty heavy sometimes and you get a bit more invested as a Bermudian as well in those types of roles. So I think it's important to have people in those roles that are Bermudians, cause you get it. But so you've had a few different careers, few different jobs in your career. I should say how do you know when's the right time to go to the next opportunity?
Speaker 2:I feel like you have to follow. Just follow your gut and maybe not always your heart, your head sometimes. I think I loved working at the BMA. The BMA will always have a sweet spot in my heart. I say this all the time.
Speaker 2:I left the BMA probably two years and I still kept referring to it and I would talk about them. I'd be like we open, I'm not there anymore Because I was there for so long. I was there as they grew. I have a lot of friends. I mean I made lifelong friends at that organization. So when I left it was the right thing to do for me as a human in my career.
Speaker 2:But it was hard to leave. I mean I was emotionally attached to the organization and the people there. So but I had to be practical. I knew that. You know, if you wanted to take that next step, sometimes you have to jump. There was a number of things saying this is the time, and so I did so.
Speaker 2:I really think you have to maybe weigh some of the pros and the cons but then realize that it's not always. Change is not always gonna be comfortable. Most of the times is not. I don't really like change. I like again it goes back to. I like things like this, but I've learned, especially in the job that I'm doing, no day is the same. I never do what I plan on doing, and so I've learned to be a bit more flexible. But I would say to people don't be afraid of something new, don't be afraid, even afraid, of failure. I mean, I could have probably been at the BMA for the rest of my career, the rest of my working life, and, you know, never had to worry about being made redundant, right, the BMA.
Speaker 2:I always used to always say if there's one company to regulate, I'm still gonna have a job right and it's not far from being true Moving into the private sector, mergers, acquisitions, redundancies, right but I didn't let that stop me from that next step, because I said you have to have faith in yourself, that you know you'll figure something out. So really just believe in yourself as well, Knowing, feeling it, and then believe that you're gonna make it happen. And if you don't, you'll figure it out as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think sometimes we get so afraid of making jumps, as women in particular, because it's one okay, I know the world that I'm currently doing and I'm comfortable in it and then going into something else. Am I qualified to do it? Do I have the experience, Like all of those different types of things? So I think I've heard it before. Sometimes it's imposter syndrome as well.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Which is crazy, right, Because we are in an environment sometimes where you don't even realize that that's what it is and it's actually holding you back and it's just I don't know. I love the fact that you've moved around in your career, because we haven't really seen a lot of that until later millennials and now Gen Zers. They don't believe in staying anywhere long, and so I like that you've done the different things, because with some people it's like oh yeah, I was in this organization for 30 something years and it's just like and you just didn't wanna do anything else ever. Right, and it's good to, I think, change and you're doing really well in it. But I did wanna know how is it going from an organization like the one you were previously to being at A-Bear now with just two people in the office Like how Well, three, it's three of you, right, it's three of us.
Speaker 2:So it's um, it can be challenging at times. I will. So just a quick story. When I was interviewing for the role, when I was speaking to my current boss and then the former leader who was kind of transitioning his way out, I remember him saying to me so there's gonna be times when you're gonna be very alone and not think you know what to do because you don't have anybody to bounce anything off. Most people can just oh, this is my, this was what I was thinking, what do you think of this? And that has happened, but it's, it's made me grow so much.
Speaker 2:I mean, there are things that I don't think. There's anything that my CEO has asked me to do that I've thrown up my hands and said I don't know how to do it because I went to clock at Nanna University. I always use our motto find a way to make one. Yeah, I will find, I will find a way or make one, I will figure it out. And I try to tell my son that all the time. I'm like there's nothing that you can't figure out how to do because first of all, we have the internet.
Speaker 1:That's number one.
Speaker 2:Here you go and you and you know people right. So I just you asked me to do something, and I sit down and if I, if I don't know how to do it, I figure out who can I contact that can give me some direction, give me some information, or where else can I find that information, and then I use that and I put it together and I make it happen. And so, from that perspective, I think I've been able to overcome that largely or figure out ways, you know, to change the way that the organization operates in order to take advantage of the skills and talent that that are, that I'm connected to, that I'm able to access. So I've done that as well. Also, I'm I call myself, I'm an extrovert, an introvert because every and people are like no, you're not.
Speaker 2:I'm like I, oh, I am, like it's the pain involved with me having to do all most of the things that I do, mm-hmm, and I've said to my CEO before okay, my, my extrovert meter is is doing this yeah, yeah, I got it, I gotta go, I gotta go, I'm done right.
Speaker 2:But it also goes back to gotta do what you got to do and I'm gonna do it Well. So when people say, oh, you would never know, that you really don't want to be, and I'm like, because if you knew I wouldn't be doing it, well, exactly, that's not an option. Yeah, that's also exhausting. Yeah, exactly Right. So with having a few fewer people in the organization, that feeds my desire to not have tons of people, mm-hmm, as my baseline personality. But yeah, yeah it's, it's fine. I mean, you know, we make it work, we make it, we make it work.
Speaker 1:Which is good. I mean, you mentioned about introvert. Extrovert and I was reading some of the other day and it was like how you really can tell if you're Introvert on. Extrovert is how you recharge. Like some people recharge around other people and that makes them an extrovert and an introvert. As you recharge, like Not necessarily alone but with your nucleus watching TV, you're doing something a bit more quiet and I was like, well, maybe I'm a bit more of an introvert than I thought I was, because I prefer that to recharge like if I'm, if my over stimulation is doing this, it's time to be, you know, by myself or whatever that may look like in terms of recharging, because going around more people is Doesn't work and I think you're right.
Speaker 2:I think for me, I realized, because when I say that people challenge me, but you have, you know, so many pockets of friends right there, might there people I know, mm-hmm all day long if you could do that all day long. I'm a person that I don't get caught up on formalities, like if you are my friend and you're in my neighborhood, you don't have to just come. You might catch me looking crazy and you might have to deal with that because I'm also not gonna be like I need to get myself.
Speaker 2:No, you're gonna just have to deal with, yeah, that you find me because you came, but I, you know cocktail parties and conferences and things where I have to do this with people that I don't know. It is draining, yeah, but necessary, so, but some people feed off of that. Some people love that. Right, I don't love it, but I Recognize the importance of it to the work that I do. I Recognize it have to do well in order to support the work that I do, and so and so I do it. But it's, you know, so many people that like, oh, you must love, no, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I totally resonate with that. I mean one thing you like sometimes you just like, oh god, I got a network at this thing. It's almost like you got to put on a cape or like a mask. It's like, all right, let's go do this, but you, you understand why you have to do these things. Some of the best connections I've ever made, professionally or personally, honestly, have been through those uncomfortable situations and knowing when to kind of pull you know your, your trick, kind of out of the hat, like your unique thing about you in a conversation, all those types of things we were doing that the other day of the interns. It's like when you're networking, like, what is it about you? That is like, ah, oh, I didn't know that about you and a lot of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everyone needs one right and so you do that networking. It's just. You cannot imagine the amounts people who actually feel like that, who don't enjoy it.
Speaker 2:I also think it's important for people to hear it. I'm involved in an organization called we speak and it's about supporting people through public public speaking journey, and the point with the reason I'm raising that is because, even with me going into that organization and being involved so I'm on the board and I'm being involved with some women that you know are very senior in their roles. They speak all the time, just understanding that they have fears around that as well. So it's the same thing, you know, when you see people doing things while you think, oh, this is so easy for them, I can't do that because I'm afraid of this, or I can't do that because that makes me uncomfortable. So that's why I feel like, you know, I don't have any problem saying I don't like doing this. So just because you see me doing it and you think I'm doing it really well, don't think that you can't do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just had to push past that. Yeah. So having that, you know realization that everybody's human and they have you know they're flaws and they have their insecurities and they have all those things, but you can take that kind of to another level in order to advance yourself from a professional perspective, and I think it's very Motivating to know that it's sometimes just as hard for other people that seem like they have it really easy. And that was one of my ahas when I was sitting around some of these women that I had never met before and I was like Spend two weeks, plan, you know, planning for what you're gonna say on a panel. That's amazing. I spend two hours, it's true, and it made me feel, you know, like, okay, you know, not as bad as I thought.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, it's totally okay, yeah. So when you think of like being afraid or like challenging moments in your career, like what are some of the things you would say I wouldn't necessarily say afraid, but things that have been really challenging and how have you kind of overcome them?
Speaker 2:so you know, taking on this role was Intimidating the woman that my my predecessor. She did an amazing job. She was very well respected and you know, when people, when you are taken on a role and they're like you know, people consistently bring her up, not bring her in, her up in a way that was meant to, you know, dim my light, but just saying you know, oh, this is the role that you're doing, she and you know, they knew who she was, right so, and I knew that she had done an amazing job, also, again, as a woman of color, as a woman and then posture syndrome thing. I remember that I can remember the first bit of correspondence that I had to send out for the organization, and when I say I had the mouse, like you know, pressing send it's gone.
Speaker 1:It's gone, yeah, and it was all of the art.
Speaker 2:Am I saying the right thing? Are they gonna read it and say that doesn't make sense because I had to analyze something, etc. And then I sat there and I said I'm sorry, they hired you for a reason. Right, just put, you know, put your big girl panties on and press, send, right.
Speaker 2:So overcoming those situations was really just about Reminding myself and of course this takes time but reminding myself that I'm here for a reason. Yeah, I belong for a reason. Somebody made the decision that I was the right person to do whatever it was and Not to get in my head about. You know, somebody might not agree or somebody might be evaluating me because that's okay, you don't. You don't. You don't even have to agree with what I've said, you don't have to agree with my perspective, but I belong here. I was invited to whatever it was for a reason. Again, it's. I think sometimes these things are easier to say than to do. And again, you know, youth is great, but age brings you some of this. You know, I'm gonna let all that stuff out of my head. I'm gonna get out of my head and I'm gonna move on because I'm here. You know I belong. Yeah, but yeah, just really remembering why I'm in the room, whatever the room is, yeah.
Speaker 1:I know it's. It's very interesting that you say that because you find yourself I know I do sometimes in rooms with people and you're just like Jesus, I why am I here? Yeah, right, like there's people here that are so far along in their career and but they wanted my opinion on something or whatever. They may feel like. So that may feel like. So I totally understand that and you have to, like I Was it was a panel that my dad was on, last year actually, and he was like you know, you kind of have to get the mirror and you are smart. You were kind like you do that, so I do that so often like you do not Realize how much you have to kind of talk yourself up and I wonder if it's, is it just so a woman thing, is it a person of color thing, like, do we feel like everyone feels that way, or do you think it's just a unique to us as women or black women, I Think?
Speaker 2:it could be a mixture of all of those things. I think it also has a lot to do with personality, right? You know you've met these people that, don't? They think they're amazing at everything and you can't tell them otherwise and that's great for them, mm-hmm. And then you meet people that are the exact opposite, that are literally think that they're horrible at everything and they're actually amazing. Yeah, so I think that you could. Those are, those are personalities, I think.
Speaker 2:But also I think you can't take away from the history the path that people of color have have taken and feel like maybe these things are for us, or my god, I have to be amazing or it's gonna get yanked out from underneath me. Right, again, I've reached a stage in my career where I feel like I tell myself I'm not worrying about any of that, because I'm here for a reason and I know my worth, I know the skills that I have and I know that I'm good at what I do. Yeah, and that's not to be inflating yourself, that's literally to be. This is a fact. Right, I'm doing this, but it's not easy to do, but it's important for us to do. I've taken away from as a woman of color. I've taken away from how I need to dress, how I need to wear my hair, how.
Speaker 2:I need to do these things I've had again. If my friends are watching, they're going to be like $70,000 here. Yes, I have.
Speaker 2:So I have put braids in my hair because I was tired of doing it and I was trying to grow my hair out. And what I have done that in my 20s? Absolutely not because I've ever thought that people would have judged that this is not professional and all those things that we had been told. But a couple of years ago I was like, pretty sure nobody's going to fire me, pretty sure that what I bring to the table in this organization far outweighs the way that I wear my hair, far outweighs the outfit that I decided to put on today and I've gotten out of my head about those things. And I think that women struggle, especially women. I had lunch with an amazing woman just the other day and they talked about this idea of sometimes even dimming your light a little bit so people take you seriously.
Speaker 1:We still have to do that. It's insane. It's insane. I was talking with a friend of mine and her manager said to her she had ascended in the organization quite quickly and the manager came to her and was essentially like look, you deserve this promotion, we think you deserve it, but we think that you should kind of take a backseat to doing speaking engagements and announcing it in the organization, Because we don't want people to feel essentially some type of way about it. And she called me. She was like literally in tears. She was like so did I not deserve it? Did?
Speaker 2:I deserve it. You just literally took it away from me.
Speaker 1:Diminished the entire promotion, exactly Buy it. And she was just like Deshae what in the world? How are we still doing this? My numbers are better than everyone else's on the team. People have been doing it for X amount of years and this is what I'm still having to deal with just because I'm younger than 40. Like she just couldn't believe it, I was actually at a loss for words. She's calling me for what to do and I'm just like wait what? I'm sorry. Repeat that again Because I was so dumbfounded by the conversation. She's like I got pulled in.
Speaker 2:It sounds crazy. It doesn't necessarily surprise me, unfortunately, because things have changed, but not that much. Yeah, yeah, and. But that is the world that we're still living in. And it was a woman.
Speaker 1:Her manager was a woman who came into that as well.
Speaker 2:I've heard these stories as well. I've heard stories of women managers asking women professionals to do things to make the male professionals' lives more easy, because I guess that's a woman's thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know it's hard. I had a manager say to me a really long time ago. She said to me she said I was hired from the neck up. And I just started laughing one day because she used to say it all the time and for the longest I was like what's she talking about? And then one of the guys started seeing it because someone had asked him to pick up something. He was like I'm hired from the neck up, just like. Oh, you're hired from the neck up. I'm hired from the neck up, like I'm here because of my brain and what I can do. And I think someone asked her to file. She's like no, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not my job. Not my job, and you probably wouldn't ask a man to file you sure wouldn't If it wasn't his job. Yeah, yeah, I know I'll do my job all day long.
Speaker 1:All day long.
Speaker 2:I'm not asking me to do things because it's. I mean, I'm not even sure what year it would have had to have been for me to be OK with you asking me to do a job because it's a woman's job in quotes that you wouldn't ask another male to do, I'm happy to pitch in, but as long as everybody's pitching in right For something that again, organization that I'm in, it's all hands on deck.
Speaker 2:I mean again not the reason. Why did you ask me that I'm happy where I am? Because we don't deal with there's really no office politics per se, because there's a few bit of people. Everybody knows I will do anything, from help ordering a catering to having to meet somebody. Everybody does everything, all hands on deck. Then it makes sense for events and things like that. But yeah, I hear these stories all the time, all the time.
Speaker 1:It's just so crazy. But I guess a woman in your position and moving in your career, what would you tell a younger woman going through some of the things that you went through? And I know you said where you are now in your life, you're like, forget that. I know why I'm here. Like, what would you give to a younger woman going through that?
Speaker 2:So I will say, and I must say that I think I've been pretty fortunate with respect to my path, because I've had people that have believed in me and promoted me, supported that At the BMA I had that I left as the deputy director and the individual I reported to brought me through and promoted me to that role when I left and where I am.
Speaker 2:We need to get a lot done, but my current CEO gives me a lot of opportunities and I will say that I speak to other women and they say all the time that's not always the case. I mean, he is a CEO and he will get a speaking engagement and if he's busy he'll say I can't make this, but Suzanne can probably do it. And sometimes I'm like I'm sorry, what, what am I speaking? But the opposite tends to happen for others, whereas they have leaders or people above them that do not give them those opportunities, if they can't make it, well, I'm unavailable and that's the end of that. So I have been fortunate to have people, for whatever reason, that have pushed me, have given me opportunities to increase my profile, increase my experiences, challenge me in those ways. So, getting back to your question on what I would say, I would say find that person. It's not always easy, but find that not just mentor, but sponsor.
Speaker 2:We've talked about that a bit in our DNI workshops and things like that, but it's not the same thing. Your mentor can be someone that's your peer. Your mentor can be someone that's beneath you in the food chain but can provide you a great amount of advice. But a sponsor has to be someone that can help you move in the organization. They have to have enough influence to be able to say the shea is amazing and I think she should be brought into this project. She should be given this opportunity to weigh in on this particular issue, and mentors can't always do that.
Speaker 2:Sometimes your mentor and your sponsor can be one in the same person or at those levels. But I think finding someone that can help you move in your career is very important and they can also give you that confidence because if they can weigh in at a senior level on your contribution, your take on an issue, you can bounce things off of them. Then you can get a good sense for how you're perceived in the organization more broadly. So I would say try to have someone in your life or in an organization specifically that can help you to actually move forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, sponsorship is so key, right, and I love how you broke down the difference, because a lot of people don't know, and speaking my name or your name in a room when you're not there to bring you into something is so important Like being able to be invited into the fold or into a particular club that you wouldn't have had access to because someone spoke your name in a room is vital. It's something that you can't. It's unmatched. It's better than the mentorship or the networking, all of that. Like you know what I mean, knowing that you have someone that's your sponsor as well. I also. I can appreciate. Sometimes you don't even know who some of these people are. It's so crazy to me. But doing that for other people as well is also really important.
Speaker 1:That's something that I'm learning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally agree. I probably spend a couple of hours a month having a coffee or a call or some contact with someone about their career. Sometimes it's people that have been doing something for 10, 15 years and want to make a change. Sometimes it's an intern, sometimes it's a student, and I probably have never said no, because I think it's part of my responsibility. If people think I have something to help them with, as with respect to moving along in their career, why would I say no? Number one, and people did that for me.
Speaker 2:I had people in my life and I think that it's not always the case, and so, of course, and very often, I've literally been able to give people advice that has helped them. I remember a young girl who wanted to talk to me about her progression and I met with her, and I met with her very quickly and I looked at her resume and things like that, and then, when I met with her, I realized that she was very shy and I said this is why you're not getting these roles and I sent her. I said you need to go and be a part of eSpeak. She went to the bootcamp. Well, she has a new job and she's had it for some time. She may see this, she may not see this. I'm sure she'll remember. But the point is I'm not gonna say that that was the reason why she got it, but I think that just having a little bit more confidence and speaking up and being able to interview a little bit better, probably helped, right, but also you telling her that, because she's probably meeting with all these people.
Speaker 2:And let's be real, You're amazing but, realistically speaking, you could go and do all the designations you want. When you sit in the room with someone that's gonna be speaking confidently and with authority, they're forgetting what you're saying because they can't get past the fact that they can't imagine you being in a room being able to influence anybody to do anything Exactly. Even though she was very smart and I think that I know many people that have been to eSpeak bootcamps they talk about how they walk away. Having gotten over that, I'm terrified to say something in front of people, so I feel like you can't really go through the bootcamp without changing yourself a little bit. Do, yeah.
Speaker 1:It forces you to. You know what I mean, Cause you have one. You have to come in there prepared to say something, and I like how we speak works as a coach in particular. Like you start with a smaller group, then it gets to a bigger group and then it's not no forcing you to do it, but then you do it in front of everyone, right, and it builds momentum throughout the whole day and the confidence as well. There's no greater feeling than someone that was so shy to go in the six people group.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:That goes up at the end of the day in front of the whole crowd, right, it's no?
Speaker 2:better feeling and you see it, and I think it's also that did I die? You did it, you didn't. You probably felt like you were going to Like when somebody said this is what you're gonna have to do. You probably said I'm not gonna make it. Yeah, I'm gonna need the paddles, but I'm gonna. Somebody's gonna have to bring out the paddles.
Speaker 1:That's the truth, but you make it. Here's the thing, though it's all the and I'm sure you feel the same way. If all the public speaking, all the panels, all the, everything, even in a public speaking class since I was born, my dad is a PR professional Like I still get nervous every time I have to go up and speak in front of people, like your heart is racing. You know what I mean Not like unprepared, but just nervous. I don't think that ever goes away, and I think it's also a good thing. Like, if I don't feel nervous, something's wrong.
Speaker 2:I say that to people all the time. It's almost a feel nervous. I'm fortunate that I don't get super nervous. I don't lose sleep, I don't. But that morning I tell people I know that I'm human. I know that I'm human because whenever I have to speak I don't have an appetite. Oh same, and anybody that knows me knows that me not having an appetite is rare, so I don't have an appetite. I'll probably have coffee, you know, and I don't really have. I'll pick and then, but, like you said, I don't really get nervous like that. But before, maybe half an hour before, just before getting on little bit of adrenaline, heartbeat starts to pick up and as soon as I start it's over, because so fortunate in that respect. But again, it's not like I have no reaction to it, it's normal, yeah it's normal and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1:And I think once people do it you kind of you get, you know you you get that that's the normal thing, and the more you do it because some things that I used to be, I used to feel like that about almost every speaking thing.
Speaker 2:But now, like it's only really when I'm doing large panels, because I now, you know, speaking in front of groups of students and people, like I've done that so much, it's like my, my everyday life. I have no reaction to that anymore. That's, that's fine. But you know, if I have to travel and do panels overseas and things like that, I will still, you know, have that time when the morning where I'm like I don't really want to bother with anybody, I want to just be to myself in front of it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you mentioned something a little earlier. When you had your son, how he was a micro premium, you adjusted your career Like what, if at all, outside of that has been some of the changing kind of things that have happened in your career and personal life. When it comes to balance, like what, how does that work for you?
Speaker 2:So I've talked to a few people about this. This work life balance thing does not exist for me, unless I'm redefining the term balance, and when I think of the term balance it means things are going to be equal. No-transcript. In that way I do feel like it depends on the world that you have. So in the world that I have, I do have a lot of flexibility. Right, I have to sometimes, you know, travel a lot. I'm traveling on weekends, I'm working on weekends, depending on the event that's there. But then that means that if whatever day of the week because I have a small office and then I can potentially take that time, take an afternoon or whatever, to get done, what I need to get done, it needs to just all get done and nothing can slip through the cracks and that's the end of that and that's in this role. When I was, you know, earlier in my career, there were large organizations and the structure has to be a bit more defined, and so I spent, you know, I spent time I don't know how many football jerseys my son got out of Gatwick Airport, guilt presence, traveling and bringing them home, and I didn't travel as much as I have to travel now. So I think everything and it's time. I think I'm where I should be for that.
Speaker 2:But I was able to balance it very, I think, very well when he was younger, pretty well when he was younger. I do know that if I was doing this job then I would feel very stressed about that. I do remember doing calls. I can remember being in Australia on business and you know he thought it was so funny because it's morning and then night and whatever. And he'd be saying morning, mommy, and you know it's nighttime, and he was so tickled that he realized what it was. So those, those trips were there. But I had a really good support system. You know, even my mother had retired by the time he came along. So because he was fragile in his, his health at that time, he's fine now. He's a, he's a pain, just like every other 19 year old. So you know he's completely healthy in that respect. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I was.
Speaker 2:He was able to go with her so that you know when. It was no need for me to find, you know, people to sit him and those things, so she had that extra time, yeah. So I think that it's not like that for everyone, and I know a lot of women that have that, that guilt along with it. Children are resilient, yeah, children are really resilient, yeah, and we probably are harder on ourselves for things that we think that we're supposed to be doing, that we really need to be. Children don't need much.
Speaker 1:They don't, and also you don't remember a lot either.
Speaker 2:If I'm thinking about it, they don't they don't need much, especially if you spend when you are there. It's quality.
Speaker 1:That's what they remember. You remember what's important and you remember the good. You remember good and you remember bad. That's right, you don't I?
Speaker 2:mean you're not. If you're not leaving the child you know with like a slow feeder that you leave for your dog, then the child would be fine If the child has a human taking care of them, you know like if you're doing that you might need to rethink your approach right. But otherwise in that it's the truth.
Speaker 1:I know I was just having a friend of mine who's you know, just having some difficulty leaving her daughter for the first time and I was like, look, my parents weren't together growing up. And very few times do I remember a lot of that.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Like I don't remember I was happy, it wasn't a bad situation or anything like that. But I just I don't remember it and I was saying I wasn't saying it to her, being like you know, it's the same thing. I was like she's going to be okay, Like your daughter is going to be fine, it's going to be fine, it's going to be okay.
Speaker 2:There are, there are special occasions, and we tend to, as parents, make them special, right. So was I missing my son's birthdays? No, I wasn't. Um, did I sometimes have to miss something at school because I was traveling Sometimes? Yeah, did I make sure that somebody was there? Yes, so if you have a support system, there are fine. You know, not everybody can be there for everything you can try. Um. My personal opinion around that is it also creates resilience and stability within a child. For example, I know people that say we'll say with pride and this is not a criticism, my child's never been away from me. My my view on that was well, they might not know how to survive without you. And is that good?
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, so and I'm not saying leave your child for weeks right.
Speaker 2:My point is that, you know, having a night or a a a staycation, or going away for the weekend with your significant other or your girlfriends, or whatever the case may be, and your child being with someone that loves them, nurtures them and it's going to take care of them, is probably not the end of the world, and I will let them know that I can be okay without my mom, I can be okay without my father. It's not the sign of a bad parent, um, but again, this is not a criticism, it's just my perspective. So I think you need to recharge and reanalyze and, as long as they're taken care of, it's probably an okay thing for them to know I can make it.
Speaker 1:That too, and then also seeing your parents happy like is also huge, right. Um, I have a friend who lives overseas who recently got divorced, and she was saying to me the other day she was like my children, why? I think no, not her children. Her son said to her mom you're so happy now they can feel it. And she like literally she was in tears. She was like how unhappy was I that he can feel it and knew it already. That's right. She hasn't even been six months, that's right. And so it just goes to show like being a happy, happy parent or just a happy person just in general reflects in so many different ways that even children notice, and he's only like seven, apparently, like I used to use the phrase is you probably should go away.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you know as your partner, every once in a while assuming you're in that relationship to remind, remind yourselves why you like each other or that you like each other. Yeah, because getting you know, doing the day to day, working whatever, can get to that point where everybody's just on this autopilot and it can be stressful. And I know a lot of people that I've talked to over the course of the years. They say that you know their husband or their, their wife or whatever. They fight most about parenting stuff. Right, and they talk about when we go on trips, who don't fight.
Speaker 1:Well, right, because it's the kids are not there.
Speaker 2:Kids are not there Like they are the master instigators. They play one against the other, like all those things. So just take. It's okay to take some time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just you where you don't have to worry about those things that you have to make decisions on. That are some of the primary things that cause conflict. Yeah, because sometimes you know conversations on head, in front of some, in front of going into situations. You might have a child and never had the conversation about X, so now you're clashing on how you deal with X. So every time X comes up there's an issue. Okay, well, you know what, go away for a weekend and you never have to talk about X? Yeah, ever again. Right, but what all the things that are the reasons why you're together? Yeah, and then you'll remind yourselves that you still actually like this human and then you move on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you move on. So you look back at like your life and even like where you are now, like what would you say has been not necessarily your greatest inspiration, but things that have propelled you for it. Like your why, why you get up every single day. Okay, I'm competitive.
Speaker 2:I could say I could try to come up with something that wasn't true. That's on the door, you know, it's it's I. I literally am competitive, and not with other people, but with my best self, and so when I feel like I might not want to do something, I think about, and the result will be what, and it normally goes to, I won't be in the best physical shape that I want to be in. So why do I get up and go to the gym? Cause I like to.
Speaker 2:The other day, carry my groceries all of them at the same time, from super market down the. I pull a boy here's your tip. But no, I don't need you, sir, I don't need you. Give them all to me and I. You know what I mean. That's the competition. Yeah, with myself, even at work, do I work hard? Because of other people? Of course, I want to be seen as doing a good job, but it's more about me, and so my driver, in every single thing that I do, is am I making myself feel like I'm being the best that I can be at that? Um, am I a little competitive on other things?
Speaker 1:Yes, I had to give up.
Speaker 2:I had to give up spinning because I was going to kill myself, because I was in spinning and it was women that are 25 years old and I'm looking at the screen and I'm like I want their numbers and I'm forgetting that I'm double their age and I'm like I'm going to have a heart attack. I had to actually let the whole thing go Cause I for fear that I was going to literally. No, I'm dead serious.
Speaker 2:I got it I got it and I was like you're going to have to do? Just go for a walk, because it's pretty, you know, pretty benign.
Speaker 2:You probably won't die but you will die on this spin bike If you don't stop it, because that's my personality, um. So yeah, it's not anything you know. I wish I could come up with something. You know that that sounded a bit more prolific. No, it's me wanting to be the best that I think I can be in various areas, or that what I want to be, and it drives me, no matter how I feel physical health, mental health, all those things, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what advice would you give? I guess all the women kind of coming up and if they're navigating, I don't know, a career shift in some sort or they're thinking about, you know, having kids in that balance or non-balance that they have, what advice would you give to her?
Speaker 2:I, I think I would say, be very honest with herself about what she wants and the, and also the why that we just talked about, because and is it because you yourself feels the need, or is it because this is where everyone else is? This is where everyone else is going? What is your priority in life? Um, if it's the happiness and stability of your family, do you need to take this shift to do all those things? And when I say the happiness of your family, I don't mean not to put yourself first, because you know this. This term happy wife, happy life it's the same happy, happy mother, happy children right To your point that you made about your friend, like they feel you. So, if you need to make a shift to continue to be happy so that you can create a happy environment for the people that are important to you, then then go for it.
Speaker 2:And what I give to people advice I give to people I've given it to my own son about careers is try to find something that you really love to do and figure out how you can make it a job and don't stop thinking about it, don't, you know? Don't be constricted by what you think the job is right. Um, I talked to people in insurance about all this time. I'm this all the time. You know, these things can also be translated into a career in international business if that's what you want.
Speaker 2:But you don't have to be constrained by these cookie cutter rules. Figure out how you can do something, because you can be doing it for a long time. So you know, and you're, I think, mid, maybe in the middle of your, your, your life, and you're trying to figure out something to do. That might seem a bit scary, like how do I choose? How can I make a choice, but I've seen amazing women turn a desk job and um embark on these entrepreneurial um ventures and knock it out of the park because of the fact that they've seen so much, they've done so much. So I would really say make sure that you are clear on why you're doing it, because otherwise you're probably not going to succeed. Yeah, um, and then be, be fearless, be fearless in it, yeah, all right, two more things before we go.
Speaker 1:Um. So in the beginning I was asking you, I feel, when I am when. So I guess, lastly, is I am successful when?
Speaker 2:I am successful. When I struggle with that, maybe I struggle with the way that I'm going to answer it, because so I'll answer it a different way and hopefully it satisfies. So success, obviously, in my opinion, should be different to everyone. You know what is success to you, so for me, success is being able to live the life that makes me happy. So I feel like I'm successful now because I am happy. I am happy with my life the way that it is.
Speaker 2:If somebody dropped a bag of money on my lap, would I throw it a? No, but do I need more? No, because I can travel. I can have social interactions with my friends that I feel like are meaningful. We can do things together as a group.
Speaker 2:I can give my son the life that I would like to give him, which has nothing to do with being spoiled at all, it's just affording him the ability to see things and experience things that I never did more because we're a different world now. Right, I travel a little time with my parents, but we were back in that generation of. We went to the United States. Yeah, that's what you do. Yeah, right, and it wasn't because we couldn't go anywhere else. But people have changed and the world is completely open, right. So I want him to experience those things. So I feel like I feel success in that I am completely content with my ability to make my life, or I'm content with my life the way that it is. I don't necessarily need more to be happy, and that's what I think my opinion success should be is when you have what you need to be happy in your life.
Speaker 1:I am not done, but we are wrapping up on time. So I'm going to ask you the last question, and we ask everyone before they leave the couch what do you want to be remembered for? Well, you're no longer on this planet and someone says, suzanne Williams, charles, what do you want them to say about you? What do you want that core memory to be?
Speaker 2:I would like to think that people remember me for being there from a friendship perspective. I feel like I am a very reliable friend to my friendship group. They know that they can call me for anything, whether it be to talk about something for financial support if necessary, because if you need something and I think that anybody that's my friend would know that I'm somebody that would be there and I pride myself in that, because if I can help you even if it's my, if I have $10, you can need five. Right, I will do that because you're my friend and that's how I treat my friends. So I want to be, I would love to be remembered as being somebody that is there when needed to be, and I am busy. So it doesn't mean that I'm calling you every five seconds, all those things. It's just that you know you can pick up the phone. If you haven't spoken to me in an entire year, you can pick up the phone and if you have to ask me something, then I'm going to try to figure it out for you, right? And then, professionally, I think I would also like to be remembered as being someone that, again, can be relied upon to get the job done well.
Speaker 2:Respected ethics, Very important to me. I've said this to people before. They will hear me say you know, I know that there's many ways to get a job done, but I'm not breaking the law and I have to be able to sleep at night. So you know, I don't cross lines and boundaries, but I want to be known for getting things done in a very classy, professional and well respected way, and that's how I would like to leave my business career and just as a friend that can be relied on from a personal perspective.
Speaker 1:I love both of those things. That's amazing. That's something that you, I think, feel like. You got those checkboxes down, so if anything happens, I think you're good.
Speaker 2:I don't know Just let me not look, she's joking, I'm joking Not cool anymore. I'm just joking.
Speaker 1:No that's really the most important things, that's good Well, thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I really appreciate it. So if anybody wants to get in contact with you to learn more about you or take up some of that, you know, a few hours. You have a month to pour into younger colleagues. How would they do that? They can email me.
Speaker 2:Okay, I want me to. Yeah. Suzanne dot Williams. Hyphen Charles at abirbm. Okay, perfect, all right, thank you for allowing me to be part of this club, and now I'm a club member club member.
Speaker 1:We love it. All right, thank you so much. Yeah, all right, guys. So we just had an amazing episode with Suzanne Williams, charles, if you like. She said, if you want to get in contact with her, if you want to learn more about her, just kind of pick her brain about her career. She's very open in that regard. Make sure you email her and she can find some time to connect with you. Again, big shout out to our sponsors for this episode, for this season, actually Brown and Company as well as 59 front.
Speaker 1:Some of the accessories you see here on set today did come from Brown and Company, and we'll mention some of the books that you'll see later on in the episode. So make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel to stay abreast of all the new episodes that we have coming out. And then, on top of that, make sure you head over to the website hustle her podcastcom. Start up, become a VIP listener. We're doing some really cool giveaways, maybe some of this stuff you see on set and as well, to get some updates. You can see the show notes, you can read Suzanne's bio and a little bit more about her you can find there. Thanks again for watching hustle her podcast. Hey guys, thanks for watching that episode.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you saw, but we did have some books on display. Our sponsor this season is Brown and Company, and their bookmark curated some books for us. The first one was the secrets of Tamron, then we had the mental wellness and finally we had the cultural treasures of the world. All of these books can be found at the bookmark at Brown and Company.
