Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Hey, y'all, you have no
Speaker 1: idea what people go through and what they've had to
Speaker 1: push through in order to get to the place in
Speaker 1: life where you see them now, where you see them shining.
Speaker 1: But you don't know the things that they've had to carry,
Speaker 1: the dark moments they've had to endure. But that's why
Speaker 1: I'm so eager to introduce y'all to my next guest
Speaker 1: coming up right here on Checking In with Michelle Williams.
Speaker 1: Omg omg, omg. I'm not going to get too comfortable
Speaker 1: here because this is someone whom I had nicknamed Sunshine,
Speaker 1: but she's a respected industry veteran and is one of
Speaker 1: the top top creatives in the PR business for people
Speaker 1: such as Mariah Carey, Prince Destiny's Child individually and collectively,
Speaker 1: and so many more. Please welcome Powerhouse Publicists and CEO
Speaker 1: of Sure Media Group, Evet Noel.
Speaker 2: Sure, Thank you, thank you. Sell. That's a sweet that's
Speaker 2: a street.
Speaker 1: Listen twenty two years and time you soar higher heights.
Speaker 1: But you I've called you Sunshine for years because you
Speaker 1: exude sunshine. Evenings, even amidst pressure, even amidst just having
Speaker 1: to tell somebody off, Yeah, because they disrespected one of
Speaker 1: your clients. And I'm named off some amazing, amazing folks
Speaker 1: in the industry. But there's more to you just holding
Speaker 1: hands walking.
Speaker 2: Down spread carpets. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now we're in the era of social media where everything
Speaker 1: is for the gram. Yeah, and you were doing this
Speaker 1: before the ground.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the grit before the gram is what they call it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, things have changed, you know that. I was
Speaker 2: telling someone the other day that I remember being on
Speaker 2: the carpet with Destiny's Child and being in the middle
Speaker 2: and a photographer yelling at me, be mad, take your
Speaker 2: hand out of the phone out, you know, because I
Speaker 2: had forgotten to let you have.
Speaker 1: Have you posted that picture of something where your handle.
Speaker 1: We've seen that photo where your hand.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's always in it. It's always in it. And
Speaker 2: it's crazy because all those years later, one of my
Speaker 2: favorite photos is me holding hands with Chloe and Hallie
Speaker 2: and I was on a carpet with them and I said,
Speaker 2: oh my god, before the photographer yelled at me, let
Speaker 2: me let go. Because all those years later, I think
Speaker 2: what it is I have been blessed to work with
Speaker 2: artists pretty much from the inception, and so I've gotten
Speaker 2: to work with artists when they were young people, young men,
Speaker 2: mostly young women. And I can't help it that I
Speaker 2: came into the business first and foremost as a mom,
Speaker 2: but also because I'm just somebody that loves people, and
Speaker 2: you know, going back to Destiny's Child, being trusted by
Speaker 2: the label, of course, but being trusted by the Noles family.
Speaker 2: And at the time, the first four members were fourteen
Speaker 2: and fifteen year old when I met them, you know,
Speaker 2: and when you came in, you were like twenty years old, right, l.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ninety twenty years old.
Speaker 2: So to me, to me, that's a baby, because I'm
Speaker 2: still twenty years ahead of the members of Destiny's Child.
Speaker 2: So I may not need to be mommy, but I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be Auntie.
Speaker 1: I've read out of all these things award winning publicists,
Speaker 1: at least a few times a year, we're seeing where
Speaker 1: you are being honored by someone. But let's not also
Speaker 1: fail to mention that you are a mother and a wife,
Speaker 1: you are someone's sister, you are someone's aunt, and somehow
Speaker 1: you even balance all of that. But I think it's
Speaker 1: the mama bearing you. Like you said, some folks you've
Speaker 1: been dealing with since they've been fourteen and fifteen years old,
Speaker 1: so you can't help but to be protective, and mostly
Speaker 1: women whom you have a woman protect in a male
Speaker 1: dominated which is shifting. As far as those stats on
Speaker 1: who are executives and who are calling the shots, there
Speaker 1: are some women there calling the shots. I mean you
Speaker 1: were one of them as vice president of publicity at
Speaker 1: Sony at one time. In my correct yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely, but you had to be protective, and us
Speaker 1: as clients, we don't mind.
Speaker 2: You know. My whole thing was, there's never a time
Speaker 2: that you're going to look bad. There's never a time
Speaker 2: that you're going to look bad. I will not let
Speaker 2: the client look bad. I will refuse the situation. I
Speaker 2: will handle the situation. No one had to tell me that.
Speaker 2: I didn't read that in any sort of manual that
Speaker 2: Sony gave me, and I certainly didn't read that in
Speaker 2: journalism school or in any of my public relation classes.
Speaker 2: It's just innate. It's just who I am. And you know,
Speaker 2: like you said, I mean, I wasn't born as a
Speaker 2: sixty year old. You know, I lie Hondy.
Speaker 1: You know, I lie, honey, she just celebrated a milestone
Speaker 1: birthday of turning sixty. And this is a long time
Speaker 1: in the industry. But you didn't start off as a
Speaker 1: publicist though, No.
Speaker 2: I started at as a journalist. I went to college
Speaker 2: to become a journalist. Actually I wanted to be a
Speaker 2: combination of Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey. So I really
Speaker 2: really was concentrating on broadcast journalism. But it's better now.
Speaker 2: But back in the day, I had really really bad
Speaker 2: asthma and just horrible upper respiratory issues, and so my
Speaker 2: nostrils were always so nasaled. It always sounded this as
Speaker 2: though there was something stuck in it. Oh. So the
Speaker 2: first time I actually recorded myself to hear what it
Speaker 2: would sound like on television or radio, ooh, honey, I said,
Speaker 2: I'd better learn to do print journalism because I sounded
Speaker 2: so bad. Yeah. So I concentrated on writing, to be
Speaker 2: honest with you, and not really on the voice. But
Speaker 2: that's what I studied, and I ended up going to
Speaker 2: Black Beat Magazine and staying there for quite some time.
Speaker 2: Quite some time, I think I would say, like nine years,
Speaker 2: and then over to By the way, I did it
Speaker 2: because I love it. I did it because I loved it.
Speaker 2: I loved the artist, I loved music, I loved writing.
Speaker 2: I didn't do it for the money, because, honey, if
Speaker 2: I did it for the money, somebody needed to like
Speaker 2: put the dumb scap on me. The money was so
Speaker 2: bad after college, and I knew that I was a
Speaker 2: brilliant person. I mean, I'm not should you should not
Speaker 2: be ashamed to say that you're brilliant. I knew I
Speaker 2: was well read. I knew I had discernment. And what
Speaker 2: they were paying me to be the editor of that
Speaker 2: magazine it was just a joke, but I always knew
Speaker 2: that it would be the best stepping stone. And I
Speaker 2: learned so much. I was already working with artists for
Speaker 2: a minute. Let's forget the artists. You know what, Blackbeid
Speaker 2: gave me the training for to be around publicists. I
Speaker 2: had to deal with them to do my job. I
Speaker 2: had to call a publicist in order to get an
Speaker 2: interview with an artist. So I learned how publicists work.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to be one because I felt they
Speaker 2: were whoa, they get so crazy, whoa whoa wooh. You know,
Speaker 2: But then I said, maybe I could be a different one.
Speaker 2: Maybe I wouldn't be so harsh with journalists. Maybe I
Speaker 2: will give people grace. Maybe I will be respectful of
Speaker 2: their time and deadlines, and maybe I will do just
Speaker 2: a little bit more research on who that person is
Speaker 2: so I could deal with them from a human standpoint,
Speaker 2: Because I think for now.
Speaker 1: You sure you want to give away the secret to
Speaker 1: some of your sauce.
Speaker 2: Oh, I do, because at some point our expiration comes
Speaker 2: and you want to know that you have given a
Speaker 2: little gem after you're gone. And I'm not even talking
Speaker 2: about death. I'm talking about, yeah, absolutely doing something else,
Speaker 2: you know, wearing a bikini until I'm eighty years old
Speaker 2: on the beach in Grenada. You know. Yeah, you have
Speaker 2: to teach those secrets. You have to teach that. And
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter what work you do. You have to
Speaker 2: give another human being grace. And I never wanted to
Speaker 2: be the person that worked with a big artist and
Speaker 2: felt that I was better than others so treated people badly,
Speaker 2: because then I'm not really giving the client grace. Imagine
Speaker 2: I'm taking you Michelle on the carpet and somebody acts
Speaker 2: the fool. Yeah, I'm going to be firm with them,
Speaker 2: but I'm not going to take away the humanity. I'm
Speaker 2: not going to take away the humanity because what am
Speaker 2: I doing is I'm also embarrassing you, right, so I
Speaker 2: would probably give you a head up. Okay, Michelle, I
Speaker 2: got this. I'm gonna take care of this, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to say, Okay, don't yell at them. I'm going
Speaker 2: to tell them to come over to you. And they're
Speaker 2: going to come. They got to look right into your
Speaker 2: camera and they're going to give you time. But you
Speaker 2: can't yell at them. And please don't take the photo
Speaker 2: from the side profile that you know you're not going
Speaker 2: to You're coming to you. They're coming to you, and
Speaker 2: they're going to look right into your lens so you
Speaker 2: could get the photo you want, but you have to
Speaker 2: do that with honoring the person and telling them I'm
Speaker 2: trying to make this better for you. But I've seen
Speaker 2: the opposite. I've seen publicists yell at people and oh my,
Speaker 2: I know. I'm going to be firm and I'm going
Speaker 2: to be I'm going to be protective of my clients,
Speaker 2: but I will not take away someone's humanity.
Speaker 1: Which is definitely a key to I believe your longevity
Speaker 1: and why everybody from the cameraman to host, the person,
Speaker 1: lighting and the rigging, they love when you're there.
Speaker 2: Oh that you.
Speaker 1: Know that, you know that.
Speaker 2: That's so sweet.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people when you book
Speaker 1: clients on certain shows, they already know that client is
Speaker 1: going to come respected. They it's like they get excited
Speaker 1: eve that book this client. Oh we we're good. We're good,
Speaker 1: We're good. And especially for them that's been here so long,
Speaker 1: I think they beam up when they see you there
Speaker 1: and how you're still the same but still fears amazing light.
Speaker 1: Like you said, you give people what they need. I
Speaker 1: think that's very telling of how people see you too.
Speaker 1: You know, a publicists that it's not just the client
Speaker 1: getting the love, but you deserve that too.
Speaker 2: You do well, you know, Michelle, Listen when I get
Speaker 2: up in the morning, before I'm Michelle Williams publicist, Beyonce's publicist,
Speaker 2: John Legend's publist, whoever I'm working with, whoever I am
Speaker 2: Dennis and ConL Noel's daughter. I am a child of God,
Speaker 2: I am an immigrant. I have all of these other
Speaker 2: titles before I take on that title, So I have
Speaker 2: to show up first as myself respect, myself respect the
Speaker 2: people who raise me and love me. I always say,
Speaker 2: I show up to finish the work that my mother
Speaker 2: and my father couldn't finish. And my mother and my
Speaker 2: father would never walk into a room and disrespect someone, Right,
Speaker 2: So I come in first with those other titles. When
Speaker 2: I put on the hat of your publicists, I have
Speaker 2: to represent you the way you want to be represented.
Speaker 2: There is no way you're going to feel good about
Speaker 2: the situation if I come in like a bull in
Speaker 2: a china shop. Yeah, no, no, no. You want somebody
Speaker 2: fears to represent you. You want somebody with knowledge, You
Speaker 2: want somebody but confident. But you want those folks to
Speaker 2: call again and not say, ooh, we love Michelle.
Speaker 1: That's true. That is so true. And I'm so glad
Speaker 1: that you went into who you're the daughter of, because
Speaker 1: people can also get so excited about what you do,
Speaker 1: who you work with, and it's like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: you just said that you are the daughter of immigrant
Speaker 1: parents coming from Granada to New York. And when I
Speaker 1: gave you the copy of checking in, you had definitely
Speaker 1: told me. Yes, you had told me some things about
Speaker 1: your mother in the past. You know, we've gotten to
Speaker 1: know each other and have some personal moments.
Speaker 2: Y'all.
Speaker 1: I've called event on what do I do in this relationship?
Speaker 1: Because I think I talked too much and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: run this man away. We've done that, We've had those
Speaker 1: personal moments. But you told me something about your mother.
Speaker 1: Because y'all have this, I don't want this episode just
Speaker 1: to be about, Oh, they gonna spill some tea about
Speaker 1: some of our clients. No, this ain't the podcast.
Speaker 2: This is not the podcast.
Speaker 1: This ain't the podcast for that. But you were telling
Speaker 1: me about your mother, who was diagnosed with being bipolar,
Speaker 1: and how she was made fun of by family members.
Speaker 1: People didn't understand and they isolated her. Can you give
Speaker 1: us part of that and how that prepared you for life?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I mean I think I got my doctorate
Speaker 2: on being her daughter. Really, it was the lessons of
Speaker 2: life from day one. I'm going to go back to
Speaker 2: when I was probably about ten. I always get it
Speaker 2: wrong because I probably could have been about nine. But
Speaker 2: it was when my mother tried to commit suicide, and
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't know what that meant. I didn't
Speaker 2: know what that is. I didn't you know all I
Speaker 2: know is they were trying to pump her stomach, and
Speaker 2: then they took her away to the hospital. She had
Speaker 2: come to visit Granada after she had been in America
Speaker 2: for a while, and I think something clicked then and
Speaker 2: there that something is wrong with my mom and if
Speaker 2: she comes through this, I have to take care of her.
Speaker 2: And that's a big burden for, you know, a preteen.
Speaker 2: So I started paying attention, you know, after she left
Speaker 2: and went back to the US, I started paying attention
Speaker 2: to what actually is going on. And I would hear
Speaker 2: women talking about, you know, that crazy lady, that crazy lady,
Speaker 2: that crazy lady, and I realized that it was my
Speaker 2: mom they were talking about. Now, they were women in
Speaker 2: the village who were so good to my mother, but
Speaker 2: they were people who they themselves didn't understand what that was,
Speaker 2: you know, So now I could forgive them. But then
Speaker 2: it was very very hard. When I came to America,
Speaker 2: I was fourteen, and my mother had gone in between
Speaker 2: you know episodes. You know, she was good one year,
Speaker 2: she wasn't one year. But when I arrived, she was very,
Speaker 2: very very well, and then she got very sick, and
Speaker 2: she was sick for like two or three years. So
Speaker 2: at fourteen is when it really was that is going
Speaker 2: to be my job. And when do I talk about it? Well,
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't. So most of my high school
Speaker 2: I didn't join too many clubs or anything like that
Speaker 2: because I had a responsibility. I had to go to
Speaker 2: the G Building, which was at King's County Hospital in Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: to see my mom. I did my homework there. It
Speaker 2: was as though she was in jail because it was
Speaker 2: like bars, you know, and they would let me in
Speaker 2: and I would sit, I would do homework, and then
Speaker 2: I would comb her hair or help her brush her
Speaker 2: teeth or whatever. And then when she was well, she
Speaker 2: was the most brilliant person I knew. It was like
Speaker 2: a thirty stems of poem that my mom would just recite,
Speaker 2: you know. And she knew all of the Catholic prayers
Speaker 2: like by heart. She just knew all of those, She
Speaker 2: knew every song, she knew what was happening in the news.
Speaker 2: She just had a brilliant, brilliant mind. But bi Polar
Speaker 2: is a monster in that it really is up and
Speaker 2: down literally by polar. By Polar, it's like hot too, yep,
Speaker 2: pole up down, It's like extremes you know, like and
Speaker 2: it could all happen within like an hour. I could
Speaker 2: be sitting having like a real important conversation with mommy,
Speaker 2: and then the next minute she doesn't know me, or
Speaker 2: I can go visit her thinking she's having a good day,
Speaker 2: and then she start yelling and screaming like there's a
Speaker 2: stranger in her room, and it would be me, you know.
Speaker 2: So I never knew which mom I was going to get,
Speaker 2: but I was always prepared. I was always prepared, you
Speaker 2: know why, because the love never shifted. I loved my
Speaker 2: mother in the throes of a horrible episode, and I
Speaker 2: loved her when we were having a beautiful conversation, you know.
Speaker 2: And then I learned. I learned, I asked questions, I
Speaker 2: read books, I looked at what medications went with what medications,
Speaker 2: and I questioned whether or not this dosage was too
Speaker 2: strong because she was sleeping too much or something. And
Speaker 2: then my husband and I, David and I decided that
Speaker 2: we're just going to take care of her. So we
Speaker 2: took her out of Brooklyn and we brought her to
Speaker 2: live here, and as my travel started getting really, really plentiful,
Speaker 2: we found a home for her so that they could
Speaker 2: really monitor her medication. Now, the good thing about my
Speaker 2: mother's mental illness is that she got better as she
Speaker 2: got older. There were years as she got older that
Speaker 2: she was just now dealing with physical ailments of getting older,
Speaker 2: So we have to monitor her pressure. But she went
Speaker 2: years without episodes, and I really know that medication absolutely
Speaker 2: helped and therapy absolutely helped. But I can't have any
Speaker 2: of those without love. I was attention and attention. You
Speaker 2: got to be present, you got to show up. I
Speaker 2: would come off planes and go see her. If I
Speaker 2: was on the town on the road for a long time,
Speaker 2: my husband would go. My brothers and my sisters, like,
Speaker 2: you have to be present. But I learned responsibility at
Speaker 2: a very very young age. Years later, when I left
Speaker 2: high school, I was out of college and everything already,
Speaker 2: I had a full career. I was asked to come
Speaker 2: back and speak to my graduating class, and I was
Speaker 2: a keynote speaker, and I finally revealed in that keynote
Speaker 2: address why I was running from school every day. I
Speaker 2: finally told them that I didn't make a lot of
Speaker 2: friends in high school because of my responsibility to take
Speaker 2: care of my mother. That I was the first person
Speaker 2: at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Church Avenue in Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: waiting for the number thirty five bus to let me
Speaker 2: out to go see my mom, and I will get
Speaker 2: out and walk across the clockson Avenue and go and
Speaker 2: stay there, and wouldn't leave there until probably like three
Speaker 2: point thirty seven, you know, to take care of her.
Speaker 2: And you're talking about a sixteen year old. And I
Speaker 2: took care of my mother until twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: You were present, Yeah, had to be remember all of that,
Speaker 1: and you you were on world tours and multiple clients
Speaker 1: at a time, but still making time for your mother.
Speaker 1: But even I know that there are some listeners here
Speaker 1: who I would say that they're caregivers as well. Was
Speaker 1: there any human part of you that was like I
Speaker 1: can't do this or how do I keep going?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? What I mean, there were so many wives.
Speaker 1: Girl.
Speaker 2: I would sit down and say, lord, let's just have
Speaker 2: a conversation. First of all, why am I doing all this?
Speaker 2: Why can't I be a booster or cheerleader? Why can't
Speaker 2: I go and just hang out? Why do I have
Speaker 2: to be the responsible one?
Speaker 1: Isn't that? Why do I have to be the responsible one?
Speaker 1: Can go beyond people that are just maybe caregivers or
Speaker 1: right now you're the breadwinner, or right now you are
Speaker 1: the caregiver. Yeah, so that question lingers for millions of people.
Speaker 1: Why do I have to be the responsible one? Do
Speaker 1: I want to just go out and have a good time,
Speaker 1: have me some drinks and go to bed, But I
Speaker 1: can't because I can't be drunk and take care of you.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: Or I can't stay out with my boo.
Speaker 2: But think about that, Michelle, think about that. My mother's
Speaker 2: illness gave me responsibility, but it also saved me. What
Speaker 2: would I have been? I don't know. It's that question
Speaker 2: that linga's. Without the responsibility to take care of my mom,
Speaker 2: would I have been a different person?
Speaker 1: Well, this is what I'll say. I feel like when
Speaker 1: you say gave you responsibility, you were able to take
Speaker 1: care of her and some of her most fragile, vulnerable, tender, private,
Speaker 1: maybe even someone embarrassing moments, which prepares you for what
Speaker 1: you do today. You take care of people in their
Speaker 1: most tender, vulnerable, embarrassing moments that should just be left private.
Speaker 1: You are there. A matter of fact, one of your
Speaker 1: clients passed away. You had to write that press release
Speaker 1: of their passing away.
Speaker 2: The hardest thing I've ever had to do was to
Speaker 2: tell the world that Prince had passed away. First, I
Speaker 2: had to digest it first.
Speaker 1: I was just like, you know, just as a human,
Speaker 1: as a fan consumer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and as somebody who had gotten to know him.
Speaker 2: I actually thought that it was a hoax because I
Speaker 2: was on a flight. I was in between two flights.
Speaker 2: When I landed, I noticed that I had missed I
Speaker 2: don't know how many calls could be recorded, but I
Speaker 2: had to have missed about one hundred calls. And then
Speaker 2: as I kept looking at it, I saw that my
Speaker 2: husband had called about ten times. But I was like,
Speaker 2: why is he calling? He knew I was on a flight,
Speaker 2: so I immediately thought, oh my gosh, my mom, even
Speaker 2: though she was just elderly, she wasn't really sick, right,
Speaker 2: But I thought, maybe it's my mom. But then I said, like,
Speaker 2: it would be my husband, then the New York Times,
Speaker 2: then the LA Times. Then you still say it press
Speaker 2: then DNN.
Speaker 1: I'm just like, wait a minute, wait a minute, yeah,
Speaker 1: because as you're telling this story, y'all, y'all can't see us,
Speaker 1: but my hands are in front of my eyes and
Speaker 1: she's telling the story because I'm just imagining you and
Speaker 1: your heart's fluttering, really heart seeing in la times who
Speaker 1: did something? What happened?
Speaker 2: Because that's what I was thinking. I was like, if
Speaker 2: it's not my mom. And then I quickly said, it's
Speaker 2: not my mom because there weren't any calls for my
Speaker 2: sisters or my brothers. So I said, it's not my mom.
Speaker 2: But oh my gosh, it's probably something happened to one
Speaker 2: of my clients. But I was not thinking death at all.
Speaker 2: I was thinking somebody accused them of something, something I
Speaker 2: just you know. So I called my husband back first,
Speaker 2: and he said, call Phedra, who was a wonderful woman
Speaker 2: that was Prince's business manager. Princess died. I said, what
Speaker 2: do you mean. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 2: The last thing I did before I left was to
Speaker 2: send a message for Pedra, telling Prince I'm going away
Speaker 2: and when I come back, we're going to do the
Speaker 2: cover of the magazine. He wanted to do. What are
Speaker 2: you talking about? I called her and I said, what
Speaker 2: is this hoax? Why are we giving into a hoax?
Speaker 2: She's like that the world is waiting for you to
Speaker 2: tell them officially. I said, it's true? How is it truth?
Speaker 2: And then I asked her a few details, and then
Speaker 2: I said, let me start writing. But I'm writing it
Speaker 2: on my phone and calls it and text are still
Speaker 2: coming in. And my daughter was traveling with me and
Speaker 2: she saw me crying and she took my phone away
Speaker 2: from me and she put it back in airplane mode
Speaker 2: and she said, Okay, now you can write. I said, oh,
Speaker 2: that's why, I said, did you just school you actually
Speaker 2: know how to do that? Yes?
Speaker 1: But you know what, can I say this to folks
Speaker 1: that are listening now. None of my listeners wouldever do this,
Speaker 1: but do y'all hear the anguish, the despair, events, blood pressurizing.
Speaker 1: So that means not only for the family members of
Speaker 1: these horrible hoaxes, but for the people that work so closely.
Speaker 1: EV's just not his publicist, that was a friend. So
Speaker 1: I think that's why hoaxes are horrible, because it gets
Speaker 1: everybody in a up and you got to hear your
Speaker 1: one know it's not true, because hoaxes are pretty normal nowadays,
Speaker 1: and it's like, no, it's not true. Then then your
Speaker 1: whole spee. You're already done.
Speaker 2: You've already done the physical damage to someone, you know.
Speaker 2: It's like, it's just listen. I was at an airport
Speaker 2: in Trinidad. I was literally on the floor, literally sitting
Speaker 2: on the floor called Piaco Airport in Port of Spain, Trinidad,
Speaker 2: writing this, and then I said, you know, I'm only
Speaker 2: going to send it to one person. I'm just going
Speaker 2: to send it to the Associated Press and a Casta
Speaker 2: Moodie who's now at the Hollywood Reporter, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to just let her tell the world. And I called
Speaker 2: her and we're both choked up on the phone because
Speaker 2: she was one of the last people that Prince agreed
Speaker 2: to do an interview with, a guy who didn't used
Speaker 2: to do interviews. And I'm just like, the whole thing
Speaker 2: is just spinning, like, oh my goodness, you know. And
Speaker 2: I sent it to her and minutes later, literally I'm
Speaker 2: walking out of the airport and it's already on the
Speaker 2: screens at the airport. We have official word Princess spokespersonally
Speaker 2: that Noel Sure has just released a statement. I said,
Speaker 2: oh my goodness, not only is this real there, it
Speaker 2: is the tickling on the airport stuff there, it is
Speaker 2: right there. Yeah, yeah, it was very sad, very very sad.
Speaker 2: And of course, only three weeks later, I'm back on
Speaker 2: the tour, you know, the Formation World tour, and I
Speaker 2: get a call that I need to go home because
Speaker 2: my mom is not doing well. And it was Mother's
Speaker 2: Day weekend. I get home on Saturday, I spend all
Speaker 2: day with her. Sunday, I know that that's it. I'm
Speaker 2: not going to see her anymore. And she leaves the
Speaker 2: world like right after she has Mother's Day with us.
Speaker 2: And I just thought that is appropriate because to the end,
Speaker 2: the thing she wanted to do better, the thing she
Speaker 2: wanted to have more time to do and perfect, was
Speaker 2: to be a mother. So she would not die until
Speaker 2: Mother's Day was over. She just would not. She died
Speaker 2: two am going into that Monday morning. She just would not.
Speaker 2: I was with her until but the almost midnight. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I should have stayed. The regret is that I
Speaker 2: wish I had stayed with her. I wish I had
Speaker 2: held her hand. I wish I would think she.
Speaker 1: Would have left with you still being there.
Speaker 2: Though, No, No, she would have held on. She would
Speaker 2: have held on until I fell asleep, okay, and then
Speaker 2: when I woke up, she would have been gone because
Speaker 2: she did not want me to see her. She didn't
Speaker 2: want me to see her. Yeah, yeah, I felt really,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I felt I didn't come through for
Speaker 2: like two days, honestly, but I felt when when we
Speaker 2: finally let go of her, I felt that her journey
Speaker 2: was her life journey was exactly what it meant to
Speaker 2: be because to this day, all of the lessons that
Speaker 2: she taught me, a lot of it were in her illness,
Speaker 2: were in her act. Like you said, her most vulnerable
Speaker 2: moments were the most teachable moments for me.
Speaker 1: Talk about so much loss. We talked about the loss
Speaker 1: of one of the most amazing icons, Prince.
Speaker 2: There will never be another like him now?
Speaker 1: But will they will never be? No one like your mom.
Speaker 1: There is no one to replace her. And at the
Speaker 1: same time, if I'm not mistaken, you had another death
Speaker 1: in the family not too long after that.
Speaker 2: My aunt. Yes, but my mother fixed it that I
Speaker 2: was there for her to see there. I was like, Mommy,
Speaker 2: what are you doing? I don't want to be there,
Speaker 2: but I was there.
Speaker 1: Isn't that something you want to talk about loss and
Speaker 1: how you're still present? But I get concerned about just
Speaker 1: the human side of you, and of course you do
Speaker 1: well as far as you're vulnerable in public, you'll do
Speaker 1: a transparent post.
Speaker 2: But I'll later exactly so, I was to say, you know.
Speaker 1: What is the overriding lesson to folks listening as it
Speaker 1: relates to loss, But one of it is dance five
Speaker 1: minutes later. You know, it depends on the loss. I
Speaker 1: would say, how do you dance five minutes later to loss?
Speaker 2: I think I've gotten to that age, or at this
Speaker 2: time in my life where I realize that the circle
Speaker 2: of life includes death. The circle of life includes loss,
Speaker 2: and to truly honor those we love who have left us,
Speaker 2: we can only stay in a place of sadness for
Speaker 2: a short period of time, because to honor them, we
Speaker 2: have to also remember the good, the ups, and all
Speaker 2: of the great things they've done for us. I'm very
Speaker 2: transparent with my emotions, and it takes me a while
Speaker 2: to sit and write what I want to say to
Speaker 2: the world, and what I want to say to them
Speaker 2: is that we are this sort of convoluted people, and
Speaker 2: we have this mixed way of seeing things. We're not
Speaker 2: all the same, we all process things differently. I go
Speaker 2: into a very very still place when I'm sad. It
Speaker 2: takes me to a place where nothing in my body works.
Speaker 2: I'm paralyzed. I don't need food, I don't need water.
Speaker 2: I don't even need to go to the bathroom. I
Speaker 2: could just sit in my stillness for two days. I
Speaker 2: did that when my mother died. I get very like
Speaker 2: you see the films, and this is still and everything
Speaker 2: is passing by. That's what That's what happens with me.
Speaker 1: Is that also how you deal with stress? Would that
Speaker 1: be called depression or just or more conscious? I'm still
Speaker 1: and this is just what happens when I'm still? Is
Speaker 1: that what I'm hearing you say?
Speaker 2: I need to put a title on it. I don't
Speaker 2: know that I've ever really felt the press, so I
Speaker 2: don't know if that is true depression. But I know
Speaker 2: that I get really really sad now I've told you.
Speaker 1: Which is a human response. By the way, I don't
Speaker 1: want to make you put a title on something now,
Speaker 1: but I haven't naturally after.
Speaker 2: Loss, I've been searching for a title because just lately
Speaker 2: it wasn't about a physical loss of you know, someone dying,
Speaker 2: But when I think about it, I did lose somebody
Speaker 2: that I just really, really really loved. I saw her
Speaker 2: as a mentor, a lady from my village in Grenada.
Speaker 2: I did not expect to react to her loss the
Speaker 2: way I did. I was really, really sad, and I
Speaker 2: think it's because I broke my routine. I have a
Speaker 2: routine when I go home, there's a number of people
Speaker 2: that I must see, even if it's for three seconds.
Speaker 2: But in COVID and coming out of a coming out
Speaker 2: of a spike in Grenada, I had to stay in
Speaker 2: my bubble. So I only sort of stayed with the
Speaker 2: people who were going to attend my birthday party because
Speaker 2: they were all vaccinated, all declared by the health department.
Speaker 2: So we kind of stayed in that bubble. And I
Speaker 2: was never going to ask anybody outside of the bubble,
Speaker 2: are you vaccinated? I just knew I was going to
Speaker 2: stay in the bubble. But I decided not to visit
Speaker 2: a lot of people, and she was one of those
Speaker 2: people that I always visit. And then she passed away
Speaker 2: pretty soon after I got back, right after the holidays,
Speaker 2: and it really bothered me. It really really bothered me.
Speaker 2: And I think the fact that I didn't go back
Speaker 2: for her funeral that bothered me. But I think beyond that.
Speaker 2: I was coming down, like I said in my post,
Speaker 2: from a high that happened for my birthday, Like literally,
Speaker 2: I planned my birthday for five years and it was
Speaker 2: beyond expectation. It was huge. It was just my emotions everything,
Speaker 2: and I think that in the weeks following it, I
Speaker 2: had to do this oooooo and it was a little
Speaker 2: bit of a legdown that I had to come back
Speaker 2: into my world. I have to work, I have to pitch,
Speaker 2: I have to make calls, I have to do things
Speaker 2: that go to the supermarket, I have to go to
Speaker 2: the cleaners. I have to get my nails done. All
Speaker 2: of those things were like ah, I didn't want to
Speaker 2: do any of that. I just wanted to be in
Speaker 2: that place that I was for thirty days with the
Speaker 2: most incredible love I've ever felt. It was intense and beautiful.
Speaker 2: So that is a kind of loss too, when you
Speaker 2: don't want to step away from where you are into
Speaker 2: what is a little bit more reality. Right. So I
Speaker 2: literally want to coin a phrase because people don't talk
Speaker 2: about Okay, there are situations where you're planning a wedding,
Speaker 2: or women who are getting ready to give birth. After
Speaker 2: they give birth, there is a sadness that people can't explain.
Speaker 2: And it's because the baby is no longer just your baby.
Speaker 2: That baby now belongs to the world, belongs to your partner,
Speaker 2: belongs to your family, and it's difficult sometimes to share
Speaker 2: something that was so I mean, it's a physical thing.
Speaker 2: That baby was in you. You felt everything up the baby. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I really understand postpartum blues, I completely, but
Speaker 2: I didn't understand what it's like to come back from
Speaker 2: something very very happy into reality when you saw reality
Speaker 2: as mundane and not giving you the kind of love
Speaker 2: that you had, you know, in abundany.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here trying to figure it out that now
Speaker 1: you got me wanting them. I got therapy in two days,
Speaker 1: so I can ask the therapy please and let me know.
Speaker 1: But we were, you know, trying to figure out when
Speaker 1: everything is high or it's like a performing that you perform,
Speaker 1: or ee event, you've had such a great achievement and
Speaker 1: then you come back to your room two days later.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, but I think it happens to performers. If
Speaker 2: they're honest, they will tell you that there was that
Speaker 2: adrenaline that pumps you.
Speaker 1: Know, yesterday, I've seen you no, no, no, no, this wasn't
Speaker 1: even a perfellment. For three days straight, I was in Columbia,
Speaker 1: South Carolina at a very high powered women's conference, and
Speaker 1: it was everything I needed was affirming, confirming. It was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I've got the tools to go and do the next
Speaker 1: thing that I want to do, or it was confirmed
Speaker 1: that you should do this, You're not crazy. And then
Speaker 1: yesterday I was like, I'm alone, It's just me and
Speaker 1: these rec's PC Candy com and so I was like,
Speaker 1: when you were talking, there is a term for it.
Speaker 2: I've heard it be a term. There is a term even.
Speaker 1: When preachers preach if they're a high because the audience
Speaker 1: is yes, yes, yes, and then they get back into
Speaker 1: their office or they go home. I promise you be
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get the term for it. There is a
Speaker 1: game for exactly what you are describing.
Speaker 2: But think about it in your line of work. Not
Speaker 2: the author, not the great speaker, but the performer, Michelle.
Speaker 2: Think about what happens you're on stage, you're performing either
Speaker 2: by yourself or you're with the group, and the audience
Speaker 2: is screaming, everything is crazy everything, and then two and
Speaker 2: a half hours, three hours later, you're in the car
Speaker 2: and you're going back to the hotel or back to
Speaker 2: your apartment. There is a little bit of sadness. If
Speaker 2: we're really honest with each other, there is a little
Speaker 2: bit of sadness because for two and a half three hours,
Speaker 2: twenty thousand, thirty thousand, eighty thousand people, it's unfair for
Speaker 2: anybody to think that a normal human being could come
Speaker 2: down from that energy force without feeling something has shifted,
Speaker 2: which is where I think about it more.
Speaker 1: Yes, which is where I think addictions and habits formed.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. Or because they want to constantly
Speaker 2: hear that clop when you want to.
Speaker 1: Constant beyond that high or your room. You know you've
Speaker 1: had ours where their rooms always are constantly filled with
Speaker 1: people entourages.
Speaker 2: They don't want to be alone.
Speaker 1: They don't want to be alone because they know that
Speaker 1: feeling all too well versus saying, Okay, I just poured
Speaker 1: out my heart, soul and guts to the world. How
Speaker 1: in a healthy way do I replenish post performance let down?
Speaker 1: It's what ah wow, we just found out there's a
Speaker 1: term post performance let down.
Speaker 2: Well, what we're gonna call it PPL.
Speaker 1: Post performance let down, y'all. This is live, so we
Speaker 1: are finding out and how it could possibly that instead
Speaker 1: of feeling proud and successful, you're feeling depressed and lethargic.
Speaker 1: You're suffering from a post trace letdown, a common malady
Speaker 1: among athletes after the culmination of months of work, which
Speaker 1: is why Olympian athletes feel depressed. You done worked all
Speaker 1: those years for five.
Speaker 2: Minutes out of the track meet, and then what, yep, yep.
Speaker 1: You've worked all this time, all these years for this birthday.
Speaker 2: Five years, for this birthday, for this birthday. One day.
Speaker 1: It lasted one day, and then you gotta come back
Speaker 1: home and deal with us.
Speaker 2: Then I got I gotta make some phone calls. Then
Speaker 2: I gotta be like, Michelle, can you do this? Yeah?
Speaker 1: That's but y'all, that you don't understand where you were
Speaker 1: served for weeks in Grenada. Matter of fact, you took
Speaker 1: time off, by the way, to have a vacation to
Speaker 1: do what you needed to do for your mental health.
Speaker 1: Everybody is serving you, honey, your outfits, honey, those custom
Speaker 1: outfit wherever honey, the performers, honey. And then.
Speaker 2: I learned my closet expecting the Soca star to come
Speaker 2: out and start performing. He wasn't here.
Speaker 1: Wow, Angela, thank you for letting us know what this term.
Speaker 1: So this will help me. Then to you play a
Speaker 1: lot of tennis? I do?
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 1: So when you say that, I was gonna say, you've
Speaker 1: always been active, which is probably why, like you said,
Speaker 1: you you probably don't really know what it's like to
Speaker 1: be depressed, or you have just found healthy ways and
Speaker 1: you've got great people around you that yah. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you. Somebody bet when event needs to cry, she's
Speaker 1: gonna cry. Oh yeah, what's wrong with a lot of
Speaker 1: us in.
Speaker 2: The ugly cry in public. I will do it in boardrooms.
Speaker 2: I will do it on planes, I will do it
Speaker 2: on red carpet. I will do whatever I need to
Speaker 2: do to get the emotion out because but you know what, Michelle, Michelle,
Speaker 2: don't forget that I watched the woman I love the
Speaker 2: most in this world not let out her emotions and
Speaker 2: then scream it out when she was in a mental institution. Okay,
Speaker 2: I have that mirror in front of me every day.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I say? Every day? Not today,
Speaker 2: not today, not today, not today. I just wake up.
Speaker 2: I thank the Lord that my heart is beating in
Speaker 2: my chest and I said, not today, we will not.
Speaker 2: Let's say and get to us today. We're going to
Speaker 2: work this through. We're going to work this through. Some
Speaker 2: days are harder than others. I was saying to Edwin,
Speaker 2: my work husband, Edwin, Yeah, saying to him that going
Speaker 2: to Disney last week was the universe gave that to me.
Speaker 2: It was like Kelly was going, I was going to go,
Speaker 2: and it was like, oh my god, this book came
Speaker 2: for Kelly just in time, because Disney's a really happy
Speaker 2: place for me. Duh it is. But I was surrounded
Speaker 2: by people who are friends as well as clients, right,
Speaker 2: and it was like our little circle. And I got
Speaker 2: them to come play tennis with me. Two days in
Speaker 2: a row. We woke up early. Oh my my god,
Speaker 2: Orlando is so hot, and we played tennis and it
Speaker 2: was just a release, just let it out, just let
Speaker 2: it out. So I think for me, I'm not saying
Speaker 2: I'm perfect. There are gonna be days I'm going to
Speaker 2: be very sad. But I find that three things get
Speaker 2: me out of a situation that I can't handle. I
Speaker 2: have to dance. I'm the world's worst dancer, but I
Speaker 2: have to put on some kind of soca music or
Speaker 2: African sounds or something, and I have to dance. I
Speaker 2: absolutely need to pick up a racket. I need to
Speaker 2: pick up a racket and just go and hit a
Speaker 2: ball someplace. And then I have to feed my body
Speaker 2: with something from the God's green earth. I have to
Speaker 2: put something that will give me energy, veganariat. I am
Speaker 2: one hundred percent vegan right now. I don't see myself
Speaker 2: going back to anything that bleeds for a.
Speaker 1: Long time from Grenada and not eat some of the
Speaker 1: world's freshest maybe stock, I guess no, I won't do livestock.
Speaker 2: Maybe in a weak moment that that fish. A man
Speaker 2: comfort the sea with some fish, maybe yeah. But for
Speaker 2: now I'm doing a detox with food. I am really
Speaker 2: going and looking at foods that give me energy and
Speaker 2: realizing that there are some foods that even WHI I love,
Speaker 2: it takes away my energy.
Speaker 1: So they are linking gut health with our mental health.
Speaker 2: That's been the cool. But we keep everything here though,
Speaker 2: we keep everything in the core. Everything comes from the core.
Speaker 2: Think about it already, Your emotions are there? What do
Speaker 2: we say? Oh my stomach hurt, Oh my god, I
Speaker 2: feel nervous, Oh my stomach day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, and then.
Speaker 2: On top of it, you're going to put toxic foods
Speaker 2: in there. We don't need to do that because the
Speaker 2: emotions that we're going through is already putting all our
Speaker 2: intestines like this, right, and.
Speaker 1: We don't detox. You know, the livers good to detex
Speaker 1: because it detaxes all of those hormones and all that
Speaker 1: stuff that makes us exactly balanced. Okay, yeah, so we Okay,
Speaker 1: She's given us tons and tons of gems. I will
Speaker 1: say I had kale for the first time because Evet
Speaker 1: made it. And I had eaten kal in a long
Speaker 1: time because I was like, I can eat events kale,
Speaker 1: but I don't eat kale. But now I do eat kale.
Speaker 1: But my first time having kale was because event made it.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Earlier in the podcast, we talked about how I've called
Speaker 1: you for personal relational advice and you love your husband, David.
Speaker 2: I can't nobody tell you not to.
Speaker 1: And if you try to, and you try to cross
Speaker 1: some you will get the event that was on that
Speaker 1: red carpet at the Grammys that yes, you might get
Speaker 1: a little but it might be a little more unfiltered. True,
Speaker 1: And y'all the one from Granada and one of the
Speaker 1: secrets to long lasting love as someone you travel in
Speaker 1: this industry. What I do know is David and your
Speaker 1: children are constants. That's what I know for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. You know, be yourself, like be honest,
Speaker 2: like I tell David exactly what I want, exactly how
Speaker 2: I'm feeling. Just because you're with somebody for all those
Speaker 2: years they did not study mind reading in school, couples
Speaker 2: are making us assumptions about you know, while you're growing
Speaker 2: as a couple, don't forget you're growing as an individual too.
Speaker 2: The seventeen year old that David fell in love with, man,
Speaker 2: I've had some rebirts throughout the years. He's had to
Speaker 2: wake up to a different girl sometimes, Like who are
Speaker 2: you well? Because I just made an arc. I'm thirty now,
Speaker 2: I'm not the seventeen year old you fell in love with.
Speaker 2: I'm forty now. I'm not the thirty year old you
Speaker 2: were learning about. I'm fifty now, I'm not the forty
Speaker 2: year old you thought you knew. I'm sixty now. Hello,
Speaker 2: it's a whole other woman here. You have to have
Speaker 2: grace in your relationship, and you have to have those conversations.
Speaker 1: Because you know the other there's growing and it's.
Speaker 2: What they're growing too. We're growing as individo.
Speaker 1: Your partner is growing. So that's why I don't believe
Speaker 1: in the term we grew apart.
Speaker 2: God forgive me, because I don't want to put anybody down.
Speaker 1: I promise you.
Speaker 2: I just think people get Investment takes time and work.
Speaker 2: Like when you put money in Wall Street, you check
Speaker 2: on it all the time, you call your broker, you
Speaker 2: do it all the time. Well, invest in your relationship,
Speaker 2: you got to check on it, you got to work
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: I guess you can grow apart if you don't be
Speaker 1: conscious that the other person is growing too. Exactly and
Speaker 1: your word from earlier, grace, Yes, each other is growing.
Speaker 1: So it's like, Okay, you have a period where you're
Speaker 1: growing and they're just kind of you know, they're chilling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then they're growing. But you're like, Okay, I guess I better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's supposed to push you. That's supposed to
Speaker 2: push you, and we're supposed to respect that, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know how many people will admit
Speaker 2: to that, but we've all been embarrassed by the way
Speaker 2: we hear a couple that's supposed to be in love
Speaker 2: talk to each other even out in the street. You're like, whoa,
Speaker 2: what do they say to each other behind closed door?
Speaker 2: They just keep it real with they just keep it away.
Speaker 2: At this point, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 2: But that's not the person I'm going to turn my like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're they're awful. I'm saying that person is being real.
Speaker 2: Some is not right. Let's talk about it. Let's talk
Speaker 2: about it. Let's not make assumptions. From the day I
Speaker 2: met my husband, I have been so vocal with what
Speaker 2: I want. And I was only seventeen. I was only seventeen.
Speaker 2: From day one, I've asked and for patience with me
Speaker 2: because of all the responsibilities I've had. Yes, you know,
Speaker 2: because of all the things I've had to do. And
Speaker 2: we still look at each other and he says to me, Wow,
Speaker 2: I did not know the ride I was going to
Speaker 2: get on when I walked into Burger King and asked
Speaker 2: for your name. He got some girl in a brown
Speaker 2: polyester suit at seventeen. And now he woke up one
Speaker 2: dan and he's like, who is this Caribbean woman up
Speaker 2: in this house? Who is like wow. But it has
Speaker 2: been an incredible journey of ups and downs where interracial couple.
Speaker 2: I should say, We've had a lot of things said
Speaker 2: to us done to us. I've been disappointed that he
Speaker 2: came from a family that just didn't have any I
Speaker 2: don't know, they just never I don't know they've ever
Speaker 2: seen black people before they met me, and it was
Speaker 2: such a strange thing for them. And you know, because
Speaker 2: he loved me, so he wanted to forsake them. But
Speaker 2: I had too much love for my family, so I said,
Speaker 2: you can't do that. Hey, I'm going to Brooklyn every
Speaker 2: Sunday get my rights and feed so I'm not you
Speaker 2: better not be forthaking your family because I'm not forsaking mine,
Speaker 2: you know. And worked with him so he could work
Speaker 2: with them. I said, they may never love me, they
Speaker 2: may never understand if they don't want to grow, but
Speaker 2: you were born into that family, and you've got to
Speaker 2: teach them what you know.
Speaker 1: Even you, that's unheard of. That's unheard of because it
Speaker 1: could have been they don't love me, well, why do
Speaker 1: you need to love them? The Bible says cleave and leave.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no no no. Michelle, Instead I got myself
Speaker 2: a pen. I took out all the checks he had signed,
Speaker 2: and I learned how to sign his name. I bought
Speaker 2: Eastern cards, Mother's Day card, Father's Day card, Christmas cards,
Speaker 2: every kind of card, Birthday cards, and I sent them
Speaker 2: for years when he didn't want to talk to them.
Speaker 2: And then one day he came and he said, that's it.
Speaker 2: We're going to go see them. They're going to understand
Speaker 2: what this love is, and they're going to meet their grandchildren.
Speaker 2: By now, we have three children that they haven't met yet. Right,
Speaker 2: And somewhere between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, somewhere at that border,
Speaker 2: I was no longer angry. I left home angry. You
Speaker 2: didn't want to go. But somewhere between New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: I remember reaching to the back of my husband's head
Speaker 2: and telling him it's going to be okay. And then
Speaker 2: pretty much right after that, his father passed away, and
Speaker 2: his mother I could have predicted that because when we
Speaker 2: met him he was at the beginning stages of Alzheimer's
Speaker 2: and I said, man, he missed out on so much.
Speaker 2: But when his father passed, his mother said to me,
Speaker 2: I am not following him in the grave. I'm going
Speaker 2: to stick around to get to know you and my grandchildren.
Speaker 2: And almost to the hour ten year anniversary of his passing,
Speaker 2: she left. She gave us ten years.
Speaker 1: It's like you live in love, grace and forgiveness daily.
Speaker 2: I have to you know, first of all, I got
Speaker 2: these kids who they didn't ask to be here, and
Speaker 2: they're here. And they also didn't ask to be in
Speaker 2: this complicated, racist world, and they're here, and so I
Speaker 2: needed to at least let them know the other side
Speaker 2: of who they are, even though I thought the Grenada
Speaker 2: side was better, but I.
Speaker 1: Got a little more spiceless.
Speaker 2: Bye. Yes, yeah, but I mean, you know, I just
Speaker 2: I come from what I come from, and my people
Speaker 2: give people grace.
Speaker 1: Absolutely grace, love and mangoes and mangoes every time. When
Speaker 1: you get to Grenada, Michelle, I've got to get me
Speaker 1: a mango.
Speaker 2: I've got to get you to Grenada. I got to
Speaker 2: get you to listen.
Speaker 1: I am ready, girl.
Speaker 2: We were like ready, please let me shows, please, let
Speaker 2: me show schedule workout, please let me show you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's okay, We'll get you to Grenado. I've got
Speaker 2: I'm going to get to Grenada. I'm gonna get you.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get thee I'm gonna get Kelly, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get mess Tina, I'm gonna get all of you. The grenada.
Speaker 1: We are going and we have to get there, and
Speaker 1: we we gotta get there for you. You are just
Speaker 1: a jewel, a joy, and.
Speaker 2: We're trying to come to my funeral. You ain't getting
Speaker 2: the grenada for my funeral. You come in Tornaday Carnival.
Speaker 2: We can make carnival.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, that's like eighty years from now. We're talking about
Speaker 1: a word about that. So I'm sure the listeners are,
Speaker 1: including myself, We're gonna walk away like there's more to event.
Speaker 1: And I know I've got some of the Beehive on here. Okay,
Speaker 1: if you don't learn something, but what I'm saying about
Speaker 1: the bee Hive, they probably knew all this stuff about you, honey,
Speaker 1: because they will dig, Honey, They're going to dig and
Speaker 1: get the information. But thank you for today, thank you for.
Speaker 2: Let me say, let me say, show up for you.
Speaker 2: I want to Chelle, you knew this was coming. You
Speaker 2: knew this was coming, I want to say, and I
Speaker 2: think your listeners already know this. But Michelle is consistent.
Speaker 2: The Michelle that is here has been through so many things, good, bad, whatever,
Speaker 2: And Michelle is Michelle is Michelle, the young woman who
Speaker 2: walk into Destiny's Child that I took aside and I said,
Speaker 2: I am here. You have a question, you ask anything
Speaker 2: you want to know. I'm here. I will make the
Speaker 2: time for you, Michelle Williams. I will make the time
Speaker 2: for you until time runs out for me, because you've
Speaker 2: been there for me and things that we don't even
Speaker 2: talk about. You know. The other day I went to
Speaker 2: the back of my pantry where I still keep a
Speaker 2: little box that was burnt in my fire in two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight. It was a bunch of photographs that
Speaker 2: just got burnt and they're all sort of tangled together.
Speaker 2: And I don't know what the scientists will tell you,
Speaker 2: but when you open that box, you still smell the fire. Wow,
Speaker 2: all those years later. But instead of me getting sad
Speaker 2: about it, when I open it, I think about you.
Speaker 2: I think about you in your stilettos coming out of
Speaker 2: that suv. You can so the press.
Speaker 1: Day that I had said on you, we was like,
Speaker 1: what's going on. We're on the.
Speaker 2: Way, came to my lawn. You and Courtney Andersma I'll
Speaker 2: never forget it. And you were there. You helped me
Speaker 2: put together my closet, which is my linen closet that
Speaker 2: I still call Michelle's linen closet. You are grace, love
Speaker 2: and friendship personified. You keep me in business. You let
Speaker 2: everybody know I'm doing a project you might call you back.
Speaker 2: I am so grateful for you. I'm grateful for checking
Speaker 2: in with you. I'm grateful for working the press with Sarah,
Speaker 2: with you and that and Edwin, we had the best time.
Speaker 2: You reminded all of us to check in so importantly
Speaker 2: with God and with ourselves and those we love. And
Speaker 2: I just want to say that you have been a
Speaker 2: blessing in my life, and I thank God for the
Speaker 2: Destiny's Child journey that I got to meet you and
Speaker 2: know you and got to meet your family and your
Speaker 2: late dad, who was so handsome. He had the best
Speaker 2: hair in the world. Best hair Evett.
Speaker 1: Knows how to bring get the tear ducks VI.
Speaker 2: I just had to say that, because you know you
Speaker 2: doing this podcast, you checking in with everybody. You checking
Speaker 2: in with everybody, and we have to remember to check
Speaker 2: in with you. And for those people who are constantly
Speaker 2: giving we have to give back, you have to get.
Speaker 2: So I'm giving you. I'm giving you always you.
Speaker 1: Have given us, You've given us so much love. Today
Speaker 1: y'all got to listen to this episode to give and
Speaker 1: just take notes of what resonates with you and some
Speaker 1: of the lessons of life that events spoke with us today.
Speaker 1: Even promise us you'll come back again.
Speaker 2: What are you kidding you? Don't you have to act again?
Speaker 1: And prayerfully, I don't know when there's a book or
Speaker 1: three or five or seventy you.
Speaker 2: One of these days, but it will be about my mom.
Speaker 2: It will be about mom. It will never be about
Speaker 2: this distance. It will be about my mom, absolutely, because
Speaker 2: I pride myself in protecting my clients to the end.
Speaker 2: So anybody who's looking for the book on my.
Speaker 1: Pad, tell a good luck.
Speaker 2: It's not coming.
Speaker 1: It's definitely not definitely, definitely not coming. But like I said,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's way more to you than what the
Speaker 1: public knows as far as just your work, you know,
Speaker 1: so we would be delighted to have a book from
Speaker 1: you about your mother and the responsibility that you had
Speaker 1: at such a young age. So I know there's some
Speaker 1: there's some listeners on here who probably have that same responsibility,
Speaker 1: and so I'm glad you were able to share with
Speaker 1: us today. And you can't wait for you to come.
Speaker 2: Back, you bit, I can't wait, and I can't wait
Speaker 2: to see you in person. I missed you. I missy show.
Speaker 1: I know I know, all right, Sunshine, I'll talk to you.
Speaker 1: I love you again. As I stated in the beginning,
Speaker 1: that you never know the people that you look up
Speaker 1: to and people that you say you want to be like,
Speaker 1: well you just can't want to be like them when
Speaker 1: they're shining and when they're bright. When you pray for
Speaker 1: a person's life, you're praying for the good and the
Speaker 1: not so good that it's come with it. Now I
Speaker 1: know that things that are bad can be turned around
Speaker 1: for your good. So it's kind of like, Wow, some
Speaker 1: of y'all have known Eyvet. You've seen her in pictures,
Speaker 1: you've seen her in red carpets with some of your
Speaker 1: quote unquote faves, not knowing what she went through as
Speaker 1: a little girl and what she went through as a
Speaker 1: teenager and high school, college and in her adulthood. So
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that we had a chance to talk
Speaker 1: about I want to say perseverance, whatever it is that
Speaker 1: you might be carrying right now. You might be the
Speaker 1: caretaker of someone in your family, and you just think
Speaker 1: you're just going to be stuck with this forever. I
Speaker 1: really hope that yvet story inspires you and encourages you.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about yourself in the process. Yvette had dreams,
Speaker 1: aspirations and goals, and I think the results have probably
Speaker 1: gone above and beyond anything she could ever think or imagine. Right,
Speaker 1: So don't forget about yourself, That's all I want to say.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about you if you're put in a position
Speaker 1: where you're like, Okay, I've got to care for someone
Speaker 1: right now. You know I've got I'm the oldest sibling,
Speaker 1: and you know I've got to take care of my
Speaker 1: younger siblings until it's time for me to go to
Speaker 1: school or college. So just be encouraged by events, testimony
Speaker 1: and her like. I am so excited that you guys
Speaker 1: continue to tune in every Tuesday to new episodes of
Speaker 1: Checking In. I'm thankful. I say it every episode. I'm
Speaker 1: thankful for you guys, because if I don't have no listeners,
Speaker 1: I don't have a podcast. iHeartRadio Black effect could be like,
Speaker 1: all right, even so we're gonna have to let you go.
Speaker 1: But that's not the case, because you guys continually check
Speaker 1: in and you download and you refer other people. I
Speaker 1: got a DM that said somebody sent them the Nicole
Speaker 1: Lynn episode and how inspired they were. So thanks to
Speaker 1: those that are even referring people to the podcast and
Speaker 1: send episodes their way, as they say, sharing the episodes.
Speaker 1: All right, well we'll see you again. Know that you
Speaker 1: are loved. Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.