Speaker 1: This is Let's be clear with Shannon Dorney. Hi, everybody, welcome, Welcome,
Speaker 1: What an honor to be here. I am Kat Sadler
Speaker 1: and I'll be hosting Let's be Clear this week. And
Speaker 1: as so many of you know, this platform, this space
Speaker 1: is so sacred, was so important to Shannon, so just
Speaker 1: to be invited here, I have to say, I just
Speaker 1: I'm so so touched. I have to believe that knowing Shannon,
Speaker 1: even from the other side, she's probably moving things around.
Speaker 1: She's still such a force, and so in a weird way,
Speaker 1: I feel like she even chose me to be here today.
Speaker 1: So for that, Thank you, Shannon, thank you for her
Speaker 1: whole team. I'm so so grateful to be here. For
Speaker 1: those of you who may not know me and know
Speaker 1: my career as an entertainment host and a TV host,
Speaker 1: a journalist, I like so many of you, was very
Speaker 1: invested in Shannon's life and her career, and I knew
Speaker 1: her from AFAR and admired her for countless reasons, countless
Speaker 1: reasons for her bravery, for just how honest she was,
Speaker 1: how she fought for what she believed in, and that
Speaker 1: is not easy to do. People like Shannon make it
Speaker 1: look easy, but it's it's not. I had to learn
Speaker 1: that the hard way. Has taken me many, many years
Speaker 1: to figure that out as I've gotten older. But again,
Speaker 1: because this space, this podcast was Shannon's way of sharing
Speaker 1: her truth in her own words, I'm honored to help
Speaker 1: continue with that mission and talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: truth today. That's kind of I think going to be
Speaker 1: my theme. In fact, a little fun fact. I even
Speaker 1: have the word truth tattooed right here on my forearm.
Speaker 1: I was after a real nasty breakup, which I'm happy
Speaker 1: to tell you about because Shannon would, she'd tell it
Speaker 1: like it is, She'd tell you everything. But I thought
Speaker 1: first it might be fun to kind of tell you
Speaker 1: how Shannon and my worlds collided or intersected over the
Speaker 1: years before I get into that, because to frame this
Speaker 1: a little for you guys, I long before I was
Speaker 1: a TV host on E and spent decades, you know,
Speaker 1: reporting from all over the world for the Entertainment Network.
Speaker 1: I always dreamt of being a journalist, but I was
Speaker 1: from a very very small town in Indiana, and I,
Speaker 1: like so many other teenagers in the nineties, was obsessed
Speaker 1: with Beverly Hills nine o two and zero and would
Speaker 1: watch religiously. It was appointment television and Shannon was an
Speaker 1: icon then, I mean to me, I mean that cast
Speaker 1: was obviously, you know, so impactful to so many and
Speaker 1: shaped pop culture in so many ways at the time.
Speaker 1: But Shannon was just she had this strength, she had
Speaker 1: this aura, she had this just super such a magnetic
Speaker 1: energy around her you could tell, even as an actress
Speaker 1: on that show. So I grew up just kind of
Speaker 1: idolizing her like so many people did. And Hollywood for me,
Speaker 1: I mean forgetting I know two and oh, I mean
Speaker 1: Hollywood as a whole was a pipe dream for a
Speaker 1: kid like me. I didn't know anyone in the business.
Speaker 1: I didn't have family in the business, but I would
Speaker 1: watch shows like Hers or movies on the screen and
Speaker 1: did dream about one day coming to Hollywood. And you
Speaker 1: got to remember that, y'all, this is a long time ago.
Speaker 1: This was before people had phones, before we all felt
Speaker 1: far more connected, before the world felt smaller. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was huge. It would have been like going to
Speaker 1: Mars to go to Hollywood. But I ended up studying
Speaker 1: journalism in college in Indiana also, but would eventually land
Speaker 1: my first ever TV reporting entertainment job in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: So if you are old enough, and I know you
Speaker 1: Charmed bands will know this. But Charmed was on the
Speaker 1: WB network. I was hired. My first TV job was
Speaker 1: the WB twenty, which was the affiliate of the WB
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. So here I was twenty one years old.
Speaker 1: Also another pinch me dream job that the fact I
Speaker 1: landed was just crazy looking back, but I was hired
Speaker 1: to be on this ten PM newscast in San Francisco
Speaker 1: as a twenty one year old as the entertainment reporter.
Speaker 1: And I even brought you a little keepsake because I
Speaker 1: thought you WB fans, Charmed fans would appreciate this. I
Speaker 1: still have my WB twenty mug from my very first
Speaker 1: TV job back in nineteen ninety seven, the WB twenty
Speaker 1: News of ten. Yep, that was me. So what that
Speaker 1: meant was here I was this young reporter trying to
Speaker 1: exude confidence, trying to be brave, trying to you know,
Speaker 1: emit this strength, often faking it till we make it
Speaker 1: when we're young. Right, But I landed this job, and
Speaker 1: I remember it wasn't long after that they were like, Kat,
Speaker 1: we're going to send you to Los Angeles on assignment.
Speaker 1: Did you not to the set of Charmed? Yes? True story,
Speaker 1: And what I'll continue to do here is like wow,
Speaker 1: looking back, connecting all the dots and then just sitting
Speaker 1: here in front of you guys today. It's just wild.
Speaker 1: But I was so nervous, I was so green, I
Speaker 1: was so inexperienced, and I just I remember that trip
Speaker 1: like it was yesterday because it was the first time
Speaker 1: I'd ever come to Hollywood been on the set of
Speaker 1: a massive production of that scale. I remember it was
Speaker 1: a night shoot. It wasn't on a stage or anything.
Speaker 1: Was actually somewhere set. I think it was in the
Speaker 1: home that Charmed was filmed in, and it was in
Speaker 1: the mountains somewhere in this beautiful, like California picturesque setting.
Speaker 1: I remember it was dusk, it was getting dark, and
Speaker 1: I was so nervous because I knew I was going
Speaker 1: to come face to face with Shannon Freakin Doherty. I mean,
Speaker 1: I remember this like it was yesterday. And the exciting
Speaker 1: part about that is I was able to have that
Speaker 1: front row seat to watch them do their scenes. And
Speaker 1: it was Shannon, it was Alissa, it was Holly, it
Speaker 1: was the director, it was. You know, it was this
Speaker 1: massive production, and I remember just being in awe of
Speaker 1: the immense amount of work they were doing and thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, she's not that much older than me, and
Speaker 1: thinking like, look at how incredibly dedicated to her craft
Speaker 1: she is. She's such a star, she is such a legend,
Speaker 1: and you could feel her aura just by being in
Speaker 1: the same room with her. Now, the bummer to this
Speaker 1: story is that I must have waited hours to get
Speaker 1: the interview with the girls that night, and I never
Speaker 1: got this dinking interview. I never got the interview, and
Speaker 1: it was because I think they were running late and
Speaker 1: they were behind on their scenes, and you know, these
Speaker 1: these productions have to you know, it's all about you know,
Speaker 1: money and schedules and the union and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: So for whatever reason, they could not take a break
Speaker 1: and they never did do the interviews, which was totally
Speaker 1: heartbreak for me. But on the other hand, it was
Speaker 1: still so fulfilling because I was just there. I just
Speaker 1: felt like a giddy little guest, not really a twenty
Speaker 1: two year old journalist trying to get the interview. So
Speaker 1: I was a little bummed. But of course, fast forwarding
Speaker 1: to my time then on E and crossing Paso Shannon
Speaker 1: and being able to cover her over the years and
Speaker 1: always admiring her and respecting the stance she would take
Speaker 1: no matter what until the very end, which is so admirable,
Speaker 1: her vulnerability through her painstaking illness. I just sat over
Speaker 1: here like so many of you and just you know,
Speaker 1: my heart, my heart was just so touched by her
Speaker 1: sharing of her journey and her illness and still until
Speaker 1: the very end showing us her courage and the way
Speaker 1: that she would stare down everything that she was going
Speaker 1: through and be so honest with all of us about
Speaker 1: every step of the way. And then one other just again,
Speaker 1: interesting connection is you all know Chris Cortazo, who is
Speaker 1: one of her very very best friends and dear friends.
Speaker 1: As fate would have it, I have become friends with
Speaker 1: Chris in the last couple of years because he actually
Speaker 1: sold our home out here in Malibu to my partner
Speaker 1: Gregan and me, So he sold our house for us
Speaker 1: so that we could move to where we are now.
Speaker 1: So anyway, just so many little interesting, interconnected beats to
Speaker 1: our lives and the fact that I'm going to say
Speaker 1: it again, she and her team asked me to take
Speaker 1: up a little space here today is really really cool
Speaker 1: and very special to me. And to bring it back
Speaker 1: to truth a little bit, I mean, I suppose the
Speaker 1: way that my career evolved, and having been in this
Speaker 1: industry and being on a massive television network for more
Speaker 1: than a decade or twelve years up until that point,
Speaker 1: I had really operated like so many, so many women
Speaker 1: unlike Shannon do, so many women who don't feel like
Speaker 1: they have the permission, like Shannon do, so many of
Speaker 1: us who have been taught to stay in a straight line,
Speaker 1: to keep things tidy, to not complain, to seek the
Speaker 1: approval of others, to be liked by everybody. In many ways,
Speaker 1: I was that girl. I was that girl from a
Speaker 1: small town in the Midwest who just wanted to be
Speaker 1: liked and didn't want to rock the boat. And that
Speaker 1: is a very limiting self belief, and it is It
Speaker 1: is not the way I would recommend any of you
Speaker 1: live your lives. I mean, I had to learn, and
Speaker 1: I've had my own journey. But I was that employee
Speaker 1: in my company that you know, I guess I'd say
Speaker 1: I was a yes girl. You know, yeah, sure, all
Speaker 1: work extra hours, all work a longer weekend. I'm a
Speaker 1: team player. I never I never really challenged the powers
Speaker 1: or the authority, and in many ways, on me, I
Speaker 1: muszled my own creativity and muzzled my own needs, often
Speaker 1: as a working mother. On top of that, to just
Speaker 1: be liked, to stay in my sweet little spot that
Speaker 1: probably somewhere in my subconscious I was always afraid of losing.
Speaker 1: Because we are also taught as women that were just
Speaker 1: lucky to be there, right Like I was a lucky
Speaker 1: to have a dream job. On me, I was lucky
Speaker 1: to do the work and be in the position to
Speaker 1: interview celebrities, aless celebrities and these iconic figures that I
Speaker 1: should just keep quiet and shut up and keep it
Speaker 1: moving and never really a voice and a grievances about
Speaker 1: anything to do with that. Right, And by the way,
Speaker 1: take the pay we give you, because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that would do this job for free, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So if some of you know
Speaker 1: my name, maybe it's because you didn't watch E, but
Speaker 1: maybe you know of my story that eventually the kind
Speaker 1: of quiet, more submissive, go with the flow girl cat
Speaker 1: that I once was. It took learning of a massive
Speaker 1: pay disparity at my job for me to finally use
Speaker 1: my voice and understand my power and understand what I
Speaker 1: could do, what I needed to do, what I had
Speaker 1: to do to be truthful to my own soul and
Speaker 1: my own spirit and to stand up for what was right.
Speaker 1: And so it's people like Shannon who had been in
Speaker 1: the news, or people like Rose McGowan who had been
Speaker 1: in the news who I had been covering, these other
Speaker 1: remarkable women like Jennifer Lawrence speaking out and talking about
Speaker 1: pay disperity or injustices in the workplace. It took me
Speaker 1: reporting on them to see them as these old characters,
Speaker 1: these bold people, these bold voices that did it anyway
Speaker 1: because it was the right thing to do. Then my
Speaker 1: own story became, you know, right paralleled alongside many of
Speaker 1: those stories. I found out about pay disparity with my
Speaker 1: co host, and I went through a myriad of emotions
Speaker 1: because of that. It was about a year long process.
Speaker 1: You know, I get asked about this a lot. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like I learned the news and then I quit
Speaker 1: my job and it was over. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: a really quite a season, have a lot of soul
Speaker 1: searching and figuring out what to do about it, you know,
Speaker 1: I first learned that I was underpaid, severely, severely underpaid,
Speaker 1: and I was embarrassed, and I was angry, and I
Speaker 1: was frustrated. And how Hollywood works, you know, I had
Speaker 1: an old team of agents, and so then of course
Speaker 1: I bring this information to them. Whether they knew or not,
Speaker 1: of course they had to have some idea of what
Speaker 1: the disparity is. That's another whole part of the network
Speaker 1: here in Hollywood. But I had a decision to make.
Speaker 1: It's like, let's ask for what I believe that I
Speaker 1: am worth, and then if I don't get that, what
Speaker 1: am I going to do about it? And so my
Speaker 1: story is such that we did. You know, I asked
Speaker 1: for what I believed was reasonable pay what I thought
Speaker 1: was fair ballpark pay to what my counterpart had been making.
Speaker 1: By the way, for those of you who don't know
Speaker 1: the story very well, you know, we started at the
Speaker 1: network the same year. This was really an apples to
Speaker 1: Apple's situation. We had a very similar public profile like
Speaker 1: this for me felt very very much like an injustice
Speaker 1: and a huge, huge, you know, evidential reality that this
Speaker 1: was in fact an injustice and was wrong and by
Speaker 1: the way, illegal. So we tried to negotiate getting my
Speaker 1: pay to where it needed to be, and at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, that network decided that they weren't
Speaker 1: going to meet me there, not even close by the way.
Speaker 1: So I always tell people this, you know, again, back
Speaker 1: to the good girl culture that so many of us
Speaker 1: were raised to be or to how to behave in
Speaker 1: this very polite society as women, You know, how it
Speaker 1: used to be. I got angry, and I always was
Speaker 1: taught that angry anger itself was maybe a bad emotion
Speaker 1: or a negative emotion, and it wasn't. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: it wasn't a pretty way to behave. And it actually
Speaker 1: took the anger from the situation to propel me forward
Speaker 1: to do what I did. Like anger in that situation,
Speaker 1: it was the emotion that I needed to awaken my
Speaker 1: voice in many ways, to use my reach and my
Speaker 1: power and take a stand against what I knew to
Speaker 1: be right. So I also just want to say that
Speaker 1: for any of you, regardless of what you do, or
Speaker 1: if you're working in corporate America or have your own
Speaker 1: business or whatever it is, or whether or not you
Speaker 1: don't work at all, there's something I think inside of
Speaker 1: all of us, which is our own moral compass, and
Speaker 1: I just think it's so incredibly important that we listen
Speaker 1: to that guttural instinct. And for me, my decision became
Speaker 1: easier because I was able to walk away and quit
Speaker 1: that job because I knew, I knew that if I
Speaker 1: were to stay, that would have been a disservice to
Speaker 1: me and my spirit and my core, because I would
Speaker 1: have been living a lie. Again, it's back to truth
Speaker 1: and the opposite, which is essentially living a lie. I
Speaker 1: would have gone air on air every day, day after day.
Speaker 1: I would have settled for what I knew was below me.
Speaker 1: I knew my worth was greater than what they were offering,
Speaker 1: and I would have It would have just been an
Speaker 1: act of self Deceit really the opposite of loving oneself.
Speaker 1: It would have been settling, and therefore I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been able to do even the job that I wanted
Speaker 1: to do, that I love to do. So eventually the
Speaker 1: decision became easy for me. I guess nothing was really
Speaker 1: easy about it, but it was at least clear. Let's
Speaker 1: be clear, Okay, the decision was clear that I would
Speaker 1: walk away and I would exit, and that departure for
Speaker 1: me taught me so so much about all of the
Speaker 1: many virtues that Shannon talks about and believes in and
Speaker 1: acted upon, which is be brave. You know, even when
Speaker 1: your voice shakes, you've got to be brave if that
Speaker 1: is your truth, and and share your truth. And I
Speaker 1: have to say, as scary as it is, guys, like
Speaker 1: it's so incredibly rewarding to do it, I believe that
Speaker 1: the universe on the other side of these scary moments,
Speaker 1: these moments we were fearful, the moments where we feel
Speaker 1: like we have everything to lose and real life is
Speaker 1: on the line. I mean, I was a single mom
Speaker 1: with two kids. Money mattered in my household, and so
Speaker 1: to take that leap was a massive risk. But because
Speaker 1: I did it, and I know this now, I can
Speaker 1: sit here on the other side and say, I know
Speaker 1: that I did that because I've been rewarded by the universe.
Speaker 1: I have been rewarded in so many ways. To see
Speaker 1: the women in Hollywood rally around me after making that
Speaker 1: decision and leading again, not something I'd ever done. I
Speaker 1: didn't love conflict. I disdain conflict in fact, But because
Speaker 1: I had the courage to do that, I mean to
Speaker 1: see the support I received from doing that. I don't
Speaker 1: know if y'all know about the Golden Globes. You know,
Speaker 1: event months after my departure in the thick of Times UP,
Speaker 1: I mean so many women that again I love and
Speaker 1: revere Sarah Jiska Parker and Eva Longoria and Deborah Messing
Speaker 1: and Jennifer Lawrence and all these women taking a stand
Speaker 1: on my behalf saying we stand with Kat because women
Speaker 1: should be paid fairly in the workplace. Like I was
Speaker 1: just astounded by the response that I received from other
Speaker 1: women and maybe perhaps even more importantly, the young girls
Speaker 1: around the world who would reach out to me after that,
Speaker 1: after that act of mine, after that stand of mine,
Speaker 1: young girls doing like school reports in their classes, and
Speaker 1: then there would be college courses on equal pay and
Speaker 1: just we've definitely, I don't want to say a long way,
Speaker 1: but we've definitely made progress in recent years. And so
Speaker 1: that was just so fulfilling for me and unexpected for
Speaker 1: me that my move would make any kind of impact.
Speaker 1: I didn't do it for the impact. I didn't do
Speaker 1: it for any kind of notoriety. In fact, I was
Speaker 1: suddenly like thrust into being this poster child for at
Speaker 1: the Times UP movement. Which I didn't ask to be.
Speaker 1: But I'll also just say that it's so interesting if
Speaker 1: you're open to being used enough service in your lifetime.
Speaker 1: I remember being at E and I remember watching a
Speaker 1: lot of the other TV hosts come and then they'd go,
Speaker 1: or a reporter would come, and then they'd leave, and
Speaker 1: we'd be at their goodbye parties and we'd be wishing
Speaker 1: them well and we'd be toasting, you know, their career,
Speaker 1: their contributions to the network and everything they did in entertainment.
Speaker 1: And I remember always sitting there thinking, Hmm, I wonder
Speaker 1: what my exit's going to look like. I wonder what
Speaker 1: my goodbye is going to look like. I wonder what
Speaker 1: my farewell party, what people are going to and I
Speaker 1: wonder when that would be and how that would look.
Speaker 1: And I never would have dreamed that my exit, after
Speaker 1: twelve years, five days a week being with this company
Speaker 1: and a dream job, that I absolutely changed my life
Speaker 1: for the better in every way, that my departure would
Speaker 1: look like that number one, and to just affect so
Speaker 1: many others and so ever since that post in that position,
Speaker 1: I have felt a real obligation to continue to tell
Speaker 1: that story and to continue to shine light on the
Speaker 1: disparities in the workplace for women and the inequalities that
Speaker 1: are so so real still to this day, not just
Speaker 1: for me and for white women, but for women of
Speaker 1: color in particular. The disparity is horrific, and I hope
Speaker 1: that we continue to shine a light on this issue.
Speaker 1: And it does take a certain skin. It takes a
Speaker 1: certain skin to keep speaking up and to walk into
Speaker 1: your boss's room and to say no, I want the promotion,
Speaker 1: or no, this is unfair, or how come I keep
Speaker 1: getting this assignment. He keeps getting this assignment, and he
Speaker 1: keeps getting promoted, and he keeps getting the better jobs,
Speaker 1: or he keeps getting the praise or the accolades. So
Speaker 1: I feel you, women, I feel you. I know what
Speaker 1: you are up against. But keep going, keep going. And
Speaker 1: I always like to give the advice to keep records
Speaker 1: of your achievements and what you do, because it's one
Speaker 1: thing to say I believe in myself, I know my value,
Speaker 1: but there really is some added value if you can
Speaker 1: just show your wins, have records of your wins. Whatever
Speaker 1: job you're in again, whatever industry you're in, whatever life
Speaker 1: situation you're in. The proof is in the pudding. You know,
Speaker 1: if your clients are loving your work, or write that down,
Speaker 1: or if you got this you know, thank you, or
Speaker 1: nice email from another somebody else, you know, write it down.
Speaker 1: Keep these things, collect these things, and don't be afraid
Speaker 1: to ask proactively for what you want. I think that's
Speaker 1: another thing I never really did growing up, is even
Speaker 1: in school, even in work, I would never just I
Speaker 1: was never that person just knocking on the door and
Speaker 1: asking for what I want or asking for the assignment
Speaker 1: I wanted, or as you know, raising my hand and
Speaker 1: challenging anything like don't be afraid like that. Is what
Speaker 1: I've learned through this whole process is just how liberating
Speaker 1: it is and how much freedom there is when you
Speaker 1: speak up. It's not even just speaking out, it's just
Speaker 1: speaking up because again, as a society culturally over hundreds
Speaker 1: of years, and this is just look at where we
Speaker 1: used to be. I mean, my mom loves to tell
Speaker 1: the story that you know, she had to ask my
Speaker 1: dad to get a credit card because women weren't even
Speaker 1: allowed to get their own credit card in our lifetime. Guys.
Speaker 1: So you know, we have a lot of way to go,
Speaker 1: but we have come a long way and let's keep
Speaker 1: it going, is what I would say. For certain that
Speaker 1: in many ways is kind of my my et story
Speaker 1: and how that all came to be, and how again
Speaker 1: I believe in truth in every aspect. In fact, my
Speaker 1: podcast Kat Sadler now has morphed into you know, it
Speaker 1: used to be more interviews with celebrities, kind of my background,
Speaker 1: my experience of a conversation, for sure, but it is
Speaker 1: morphed into let's talk about it. Let's take off the masks,
Speaker 1: because let's get real. Let's be vulnerable. Can I be
Speaker 1: transparent with you? Can I let it all hang out
Speaker 1: again the way Shannon All always has. She was a
Speaker 1: pioneer at this. But what happens when we do this
Speaker 1: with each other is that we give one another permission
Speaker 1: to be ourselves. We give one another permission to be
Speaker 1: okay and understand that I don't care what you do,
Speaker 1: what your zip code is, if it's nine O two
Speaker 1: one Oho or if it's four six two five six.
Speaker 1: In Danapolis and Niana where I'm from, we all bleed red.
Speaker 1: We all have problems, we all have highs, we all
Speaker 1: have lows, and there is just such great value when
Speaker 1: we share our similar stories we're all so much more
Speaker 1: like than we are different because it makes us feel
Speaker 1: us alone, It makes us feel comforted in these similarities,
Speaker 1: and hopefully it inspires all of us to keep going,
Speaker 1: keep going, keep sharing. I mean, on a very superficial note,
Speaker 1: and any of you again who listened to my weekly podcast,
Speaker 1: know that I do share so much of my life,
Speaker 1: and I often talk about the healing that I've done.
Speaker 1: I mean, one of the beautiful things having left my
Speaker 1: five day a week career and now working for myself
Speaker 1: and having my own production company is I'm really in
Speaker 1: the driver's seat of what I get to talk about,
Speaker 1: on what I get to do. But it also opened
Speaker 1: up the space for me to do a lot of
Speaker 1: my own healing. In recent years, I had been in
Speaker 1: a series of failed relationships. I have been divorced twice,
Speaker 1: although I will say I'm friends with both my exes.
Speaker 1: But I was getting into some relationships and one in
Speaker 1: particular that really almost took me out. Took me out
Speaker 1: three or four years ago, and I went on a
Speaker 1: real deep, deep dive into self healing and learning to
Speaker 1: love myself again, learning to once again trust that gut
Speaker 1: of mine, trust me myself, and trust my own power,
Speaker 1: and I talk about that a lot on my podcast.
Speaker 1: So I've done so much internal work. I'm literally that friend.
Speaker 1: I'm always sending like the book recommendation or the podcast
Speaker 1: recommendation or a catformation, like lifting people up and trying
Speaker 1: to remind women of what they can have and manifest
Speaker 1: in their life to live optimally. But on the flip
Speaker 1: side of that is, I'm still very much a girl's girl,
Speaker 1: and all the girls I know in my life still
Speaker 1: love to shop, and still love great clothes, and still
Speaker 1: love want to share and exchange beauty secrets. And so
Speaker 1: as I was turning fifty last month, the year before
Speaker 1: turning fifty, I started, you know, having those conversations about midlife,
Speaker 1: and a lot about midlife has to do with our interior,
Speaker 1: our physical health, changing, our hormones, sleeping differently, growing different
Speaker 1: weighing differently, like our moods changed. So much changes at
Speaker 1: this time of life. And I was really, as a journalist,
Speaker 1: interested in really exploring how that impacts women. But I'd
Speaker 1: be lying if I didn't talk about the very vain
Speaker 1: or superficial maybe not vain, but certainly the more surface
Speaker 1: concern of what it means to age on the outside.
Speaker 1: So I explored this whole what's available to me. I
Speaker 1: didn't like my jowels so much. I started looking sad
Speaker 1: all the time. I looked angry when I wasn't in photos.
Speaker 1: And so I did what any good journalist does, and
Speaker 1: I interviewed my plastic surgeon about do I need a
Speaker 1: facelift or would that mean for me? And what would
Speaker 1: that be like? And how could I experience this? And
Speaker 1: should I or shouldn't I? And while I do this,
Speaker 1: here's an idea, why don't I take my truth to
Speaker 1: the people. And I am so glad that I did,
Speaker 1: because I kid you not sitting here about seventeen months
Speaker 1: post facelift, I hear from women every single day. I
Speaker 1: literally joke with my doctor, Kim my plastic surgeon who
Speaker 1: did my facelift necklift and I lift. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: have become a liaison. I'm now the like consultant for
Speaker 1: facelifts everywhere. It's like first it was I was like
Speaker 1: the equal pay poster child. Now I'm the facelift poster child.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I'll do the job because I'm happy to
Speaker 1: talk about it because again, it is my truth. I
Speaker 1: am incapable of telling a lie. People said to me like,
Speaker 1: why are you Why are you telling the world about it?
Speaker 1: Couldn't you just go do it? I'm like, I'm doing
Speaker 1: it because that is who I am, that is how
Speaker 1: I operate. And again the it's like, why gatekeep on
Speaker 1: this stuff? Number One, I can't lie. I would never lie.
Speaker 1: I would never be that person who's like, I had
Speaker 1: three months vacation, don't I look rested. It's I just
Speaker 1: I'm allergic to lies. I don't want them from anybody else,
Speaker 1: So why would I tell a lie? But also the
Speaker 1: Sisterhood of Women were just like, let me let me
Speaker 1: share with you what was how painful was it? What
Speaker 1: was the recovery? Like how scared was I? You know?
Speaker 1: Did they? You know? There are so many technical aspects
Speaker 1: of this type of surgery and is a very serious
Speaker 1: surgery and not to be taken lightly. But I've been
Speaker 1: able to connect with so many different women literally you
Speaker 1: guys from around the world who want to know about
Speaker 1: this stuff. And in fact, doctor Kim is very happy
Speaker 1: because he keeps saying, I just booked another one of
Speaker 1: your friends from Dubai or somebody from Australia, it's wild.
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's just been another way, again not strategically
Speaker 1: as far as my career goes, to just another very natural, organic,
Speaker 1: authentic truth that I've been able to share that through
Speaker 1: doing that, I think is providing value to other women
Speaker 1: that makes them feel more okay in their own bodies
Speaker 1: and minds when they start to feel similarly. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying everybody go out and get a facelift. What I
Speaker 1: am saying is, do your homework, get information, take this seriously.
Speaker 1: Here are the risks involved. And then the other advice
Speaker 1: I was giving every single person I speak with on
Speaker 1: this is for me. It felt like the right time
Speaker 1: because this wasn't about let me fix my face and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden I will be happy now. This
Speaker 1: was I've done the interior work. I've done so much
Speaker 1: introspection on self. I'm good with who I am. I
Speaker 1: love the person I've become. I stand here confidently with self,
Speaker 1: love knowing who I am. So this is just icing
Speaker 1: on the cake. The facelift was the cherry on top
Speaker 1: to other work that I'd been doing on myself, a real,
Speaker 1: real gift to self. And so I've always said, you
Speaker 1: can get all the botox you want to get in
Speaker 1: the world, but that's not going to make your problems
Speaker 1: go away, and that's not going to give you the
Speaker 1: real joy that I think all of us want in
Speaker 1: our lives. Joy. It really is simple. And so I
Speaker 1: have to tell you one more thing before I let
Speaker 1: you go, and that is again, I believe so much
Speaker 1: in energy and coincidences. I feel like there is this
Speaker 1: really a more masterful universal plan for all of our lives.
Speaker 1: So I encourage you all to pay attention to that
Speaker 1: and look around. If your eyes are up and you
Speaker 1: can not be on your phone all day, They're just
Speaker 1: there's so much beauty in the mundane and all these
Speaker 1: things that each day like develop right in front of
Speaker 1: our eyes if you are again awake enough to see them.
Speaker 1: I know that Shannon loved horses, and that is another
Speaker 1: love of mine are horses. It is my spirit animal.
Speaker 1: And I have been really deep diving into the power
Speaker 1: of the quantum field and metifestation and neuroscience and how
Speaker 1: our brains work and how we kind of try and
Speaker 1: someone in really beautiful things into our lives. And I
Speaker 1: have had horses on my vision board for like three
Speaker 1: years now, and again for anyone who follows my story
Speaker 1: through my show, they know that I moved to where
Speaker 1: I'm sitting today, which is Little Gem Ranch. It's a
Speaker 1: ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's a dream come
Speaker 1: true and we're on all this acreage and it's just
Speaker 1: been a wild ride so far. But this home where
Speaker 1: I'm living used to be home to horses. There are
Speaker 1: about eight horses that lived here. There's still some corrals
Speaker 1: here and I keep telling everybody like that's like phase five.
Speaker 1: One day I'll get a horse. One day I'll get
Speaker 1: a horse. And I've been manifesting one day to have
Speaker 1: my dream horse. And it's just too cute that we
Speaker 1: have too much going on. We're redoing our house, we're
Speaker 1: redoing our land, and we've got six kids between us,
Speaker 1: so our lives are very full and very busy. But
Speaker 1: the people adjacent to our property, by the way, there
Speaker 1: are probably five different homes within the vicinity, none of
Speaker 1: which have horses. Right, but the neighbors right adjacent to
Speaker 1: our house moved in in July and as of literally
Speaker 1: last night, as the sun is going down, unload their
Speaker 1: first of two horses. And so when I say that
Speaker 1: this property is like adjacent, like we share a fence,
Speaker 1: and when we're sitting by our pool, twenty feet away
Speaker 1: is what is now our neighbors horse Coral. And so
Speaker 1: last night I was so excited. I was sitting on
Speaker 1: my couch and I heard me like I'm sitting on
Speaker 1: the couch. I'm like, oh, there's a horse. There's a horse.
Speaker 1: Where's there a horse? And I like throw my uggs
Speaker 1: on and I run outside and there was many And
Speaker 1: while she's not my horse, she's our neighbor's horse, but
Speaker 1: we became friends really fast. And she's so gorgeous and
Speaker 1: she looks like this frosted Graham cracker, beige, nude, freckled,
Speaker 1: kind of stunning horse. And I was just going to
Speaker 1: bed last night and I was just like, I have
Speaker 1: had horses on my manifestation board for three years and
Speaker 1: I have no business owning a horse right now. I
Speaker 1: don't have the time, you know, we don't have the resources.
Speaker 1: We have so many other things to do. I was like,
Speaker 1: but what are the chances that I'm looking at a horse.
Speaker 1: There's a horse we have a friend. It's not my horse. Again,
Speaker 1: it's not my horse, but I get to look and
Speaker 1: enjoy and befriend this creature without even leaving my house
Speaker 1: every single day moving forward. And that's many. And apparently
Speaker 1: they're moving in Zoro next week. So two horses that
Speaker 1: I'll get to love on and even ride. We were
Speaker 1: talking about that last night. So I just I thought
Speaker 1: of Shannon because as I was coming to the microer today,
Speaker 1: I was like another horse lover. Maybe she's up there
Speaker 1: just winking at me. Because what a gift, What an
Speaker 1: expected gift, A manifestation of I suppose my thoughts and
Speaker 1: emotions focusing on all things beautiful, all things beautiful. So
Speaker 1: one more thing before before I let you go. I
Speaker 1: actually I do this sometimes you heard about catfirmations are
Speaker 1: kind of my way of sharing affirmations with people and
Speaker 1: ways to lift them up or inspire them or just
Speaker 1: give them a bit, a bit of a read or
Speaker 1: a notion that brings them comfort in some way. And
Speaker 1: I found this book as I was prepping to come
Speaker 1: here into Shannon space today. It's called How Far You
Speaker 1: Have Come. It's by Morgan Harper Nichols. Do you know this?
Speaker 1: She's an artist and poet. She's all of our Instagram.
Speaker 1: Her artwork's amazing If you don't know Morgan Harper Nichols,
Speaker 1: go check her out. But she wrote in this poetry
Speaker 1: book one passage that I just thought was so so pretty,
Speaker 1: and it reminded me of Shannon a little bit. So
Speaker 1: I'll read it with you guys. It says, when all
Speaker 1: of this is over, I'll take shelter under the orange
Speaker 1: tree that sits in the shadow of the old oak tree,
Speaker 1: cloaked under the sky, wide and black. I can trust
Speaker 1: and believe despite the sorrows stored in my skin, joy
Speaker 1: is a steady stream in the depths of my soul,
Speaker 1: and the midnight sky a balm for my sun dried arms.
Speaker 1: I am not who I was. I do not have
Speaker 1: to run anymore. I have hope. This day is still
Speaker 1: brimming with a thousand stories, and my story is one
Speaker 1: of many. Under the orange tree, under the oak tree,
Speaker 1: my words unassembled within me. I peel back this orange
Speaker 1: layer by layer to tell its story, and then I
Speaker 1: peel another one and another. I taste their sweetness, each
Speaker 1: piece of fruit in its own season. Leaning against the
Speaker 1: brown tree trunk, I weep. Finally, under all these shredded layers,
Speaker 1: I am finally free to rest. So I love you, Shannon,
Speaker 1: I love everything you stood for. I'm sorry we didn't
Speaker 1: get to share a human hug in your lifetime, but
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful to know of you and to now
Speaker 1: be a vehicle here today on your space Let's Be Clear.
Speaker 1: So thank you everybody for just letting me connect in
Speaker 1: this way with you, and tune in next week for
Speaker 1: another episode of Let's Be Clear, Let's Love Hi,