Speaker 1: You, guys.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to feel this week. I am happy,
Speaker 2: I am sad. I am just a mix of emotions
Speaker 2: right now. I don't know if you can tell.
Speaker 3: But it's just me.
Speaker 2: It's just Mandy. This week, Tiffany sadly couldn't be here.
Speaker 2: She is on a plane somewhere over the United States,
Speaker 2: somewhere over Idaho, I don't know, on the way back
Speaker 2: from taping The Real in Los Angeles. So I'm here
Speaker 2: on my own tonight taping the show. But like I said,
Speaker 2: I'm not just sad. I'm also really really excited. I
Speaker 2: have an amazing guest joining the show tonight. I have
Speaker 2: low key been stalking stalking Sharon Epperson for the past
Speaker 2: three years throughout her career at CNBC, where she is
Speaker 2: the senior Personal Finance correspondent at the network. She's actually
Speaker 2: been there for twenty one years. It was just a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago that I ran into Sharon at
Speaker 2: an event at United Nations. I think it was around
Speaker 2: Women's History Month or some sort of gathering when we
Speaker 2: were both in the same room at the same time,
Speaker 2: and I knew I just had to grab her. I
Speaker 2: had to try and get her on Brown Ambition. So
Speaker 2: I talked to Sharon's. She was so sweet to me,
Speaker 2: so nice, so supportive. So I followed up with her,
Speaker 2: you know, you follow up with the email trying to
Speaker 2: get her on the show, and then it was crickets, y'all.
Speaker 2: It was a little bit awkward, and you know, I
Speaker 2: tried to send the casual follow up email. So Sharon,
Speaker 2: did you get my email Brown Ambition?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: Remember me still didn't hear back anything, And it wasn't
Speaker 2: until this past fall in September that I finally realized why.
Speaker 2: In late twenty sixteen, Sharon suffered a brain aneurism, a
Speaker 2: traumatic brain injury that required months and months of rehabilitation.
Speaker 2: She was out of work for thirteen months, and ever
Speaker 2: since I heard her story, I knew I had to
Speaker 2: get back into with Sharon, first of all, just to
Speaker 2: tell her how excited I am and happy to hear
Speaker 2: that she's doing well, but also to have her come
Speaker 2: on the show and share her story with you guys.
Speaker 2: Because as much as Sharon's story is about health and
Speaker 2: what happens to us when the unimaginable finally occurs, it's
Speaker 2: also a financial story. It's also how do you cope
Speaker 2: when you have to leave your job for thirteen months
Speaker 2: to deal with a health situation that's out of your control,
Speaker 2: and that comes on so suddenly, in the middle of
Speaker 2: nowhere and without further ado, I wanted to welcome to
Speaker 2: the show, Sharon Epperson. Sharon, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: coming on Brown Ambition.
Speaker 3: Great to be here, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: First, let me say I answer emails. I don't usually
Speaker 1: take a really long time to answer emails. So now
Speaker 1: that you know me, now that we're friends and we're
Speaker 1: going to do more together, you should know that if
Speaker 1: you email me, I will email you back pretty much
Speaker 1: right away if I can. And when I don't, something's happened,
Speaker 1: and in this case, something major happened.
Speaker 2: Right, So take me back to that day in September
Speaker 2: what was it again? Twenty sixteen?
Speaker 1: In September twenty sixteen, Actually, on September twenty first, twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: I was get in the middle of the busiest fall
Speaker 1: probably of my career. I was planning to interview the
Speaker 1: Treasury Secretary later that week. I had just come back
Speaker 1: from hosting a Financial Planners Association conference. I was looking
Speaker 1: forward to going to a Charles Schwab Conference in a
Speaker 1: few weeks to do a show, and I was really,
Speaker 1: really busy. I also am a mother with two kids,
Speaker 1: so my son was starting high school, my daughter was
Speaker 1: in middle school, and it was the first couple weeks
Speaker 1: of their school year as well. And so I try
Speaker 1: when I can. I tried then, but now I do
Speaker 1: it a lot more frequently. But I try to get
Speaker 1: my time into exercise and take care of myself. And
Speaker 1: I was actually at the gym. I'd already had my
Speaker 1: spinach smoothie that morning, and I was at the gym
Speaker 1: starting to exercise, and I really was just starting.
Speaker 3: I wasn't doing anything.
Speaker 1: Terribly excruciatingly difficult or anything like that. I was actually
Speaker 1: just doing some stretching and lifting some light weights. And
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I was in a yoga post
Speaker 1: and I felt the worst sensation I've ever felt in
Speaker 1: my head and something that I can't really describe. I
Speaker 1: don't get migraines, but it didn't seem like a very
Speaker 1: bad headache or migraine.
Speaker 3: It was just something that was very unusual.
Speaker 1: And I also had difficulty moving my neck, and I
Speaker 1: didn't know if I had just pulled a muscle or something.
Speaker 3: I just didn't know what had happened.
Speaker 1: But I immediately left the exercise class and went to
Speaker 1: my car, which was kind of funny because then I
Speaker 1: was like, what am I supposed to do now? Because
Speaker 1: I came with my head, which means I probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: be driving. So I texted my husband and I said,
Speaker 1: you know, can you come pick me up? I don't
Speaker 1: know what happened. My head really is bothering me. And
Speaker 1: I text him in all caps and he happened to
Speaker 1: be close to home at the time and was able
Speaker 1: to come to me in a short while, which was very,
Speaker 1: very crucial.
Speaker 3: To all of this. But we still didn't know what
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 1: And I thought again that I just wouldn't be able
Speaker 1: to go to work, probably because I just wasn't feeling well,
Speaker 1: but I would go home and rest and see what happened.
Speaker 1: And so I emailed my job let them know I
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't be coming in, and then my husband went
Speaker 1: to go get me a coffee and came back and
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I really still don't feel well,
Speaker 1: and he took me to the doctor's office. My doctor
Speaker 1: wasn't available. I saw the doctor that was filling in
Speaker 1: for her, and he says, now I'm kind of this part.
Speaker 1: I'm in and out of really remembering what happened, but
Speaker 1: he said that I just really didn't look well, ad
Speaker 1: been nauseous, I was complaining of my head. I was
Speaker 1: talking about this worst pain I'd ever felt in my
Speaker 1: life in my head, and he thought, I need to
Speaker 1: get her to the emergency room right now. She needs
Speaker 1: to get some imaging done and get a CT scan.
Speaker 1: And so my husband took me to the emergency room
Speaker 1: to a hospital nearby and actually a hospital in your
Speaker 1: new neck of the woods.
Speaker 3: That's excellent.
Speaker 1: And so I had that CT scan and the last
Speaker 1: thing I kind of remember was the emergency room physician saying,
Speaker 1: you have bleeding in your brain. What they discovered was
Speaker 1: that a blood vessel on my brain had basically exploded.
Speaker 1: And so what happens with what's known as a brain
Speaker 1: aneurysm is it's almost like a balloon, like a little
Speaker 1: bubble on the blood vessel, and it grows and grows
Speaker 1: and grows, and then eventually, you know, it's like you
Speaker 1: put too much air in it put too and it
Speaker 1: gets too weak and it pops.
Speaker 3: And that's what happened.
Speaker 1: What I remember was after basically having the CT scan
Speaker 1: at White Plains Hospital, then going to Montafior and being
Speaker 1: in the in the o R and having the anthesiologist
Speaker 1: putting me under. That's the last thing I remember. But
Speaker 1: the thing that I wanted to that I actually haven't shared,
Speaker 1: that really touched me was I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if it's you know, faith alone,
Speaker 1: or just the environment I was in, or how wonderful
Speaker 1: the people were that were taking care of me, but
Speaker 1: when and the last person that I saw before I
Speaker 1: went under was the anesthesiologist who was an African American woman,
Speaker 1: and I looked at her and I said, you're my doctor,
Speaker 1: and I just start smiling, like.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, this is like so cool. And that's
Speaker 3: the last person I saw.
Speaker 1: I never saw my neurosurgeons before I went under, and
Speaker 1: I now love them dearly, both of them as well.
Speaker 1: But that was the last person I saw, and that
Speaker 1: was pretty profound for me. She I knew she was
Speaker 1: taking care of me, and I think she.
Speaker 2: Did obviously hindsight is twenty twenty, But looking back now,
Speaker 2: were there any signs or any you know, indications that
Speaker 2: this might be a risk for you.
Speaker 1: What I've learned and what I had to learn kind
Speaker 1: of more recently, because it took me time to be
Speaker 1: well enough to kind of do the research and took
Speaker 1: me even probably longer to be emotionally ready to understand
Speaker 1: what had happened to me. But I did have a
Speaker 1: propensity to get an aneurysm. I'm African American. African Americans
Speaker 1: are twice as likely as whites to have a ruptured
Speaker 1: brain aneurysm. Women I did not have more aneurysms. Women
Speaker 1: have more aneurysms than men. And I also have three
Speaker 1: relatives that passed away from brain hemorrhages. Whether or not
Speaker 1: they were aneurysms, I don't know, but my maternal grandfather
Speaker 1: and great grandfather and my mother's oldest sister all passed
Speaker 1: away from brain hemorrhages, and family history is another risk
Speaker 1: factor that I never knew, didn't consider, never told a
Speaker 1: primary care physician ever in my medical history about it,
Speaker 1: because they all three of them passed away when I
Speaker 1: was before I was a toddler, so I didn't really
Speaker 1: think about it, and I never knew the statistics of
Speaker 1: the propensity, the greater propensity for Black women, And I
Speaker 1: think that's something that I want everybody to understand and
Speaker 1: be really conscious of when you have a migrain or
Speaker 1: when you're not feeling well with you anything with your
Speaker 1: head and youarticularly if you already have high blood pressure,
Speaker 1: or if you're a smoker. It's something to really watch
Speaker 1: out for, and also to really talk to your family
Speaker 1: members and find out what happened. My cousins, now that
Speaker 1: I've told everyone exactly what happened and about our family history,
Speaker 1: my first cousin was like, I didn't know what grandaddy
Speaker 1: died of. I had no idea, you know, because her
Speaker 1: dad didn't talk about it. So it's important. That's a
Speaker 1: time that we don't want to remember because we've lost
Speaker 1: a loved one, but it's very very important to understand
Speaker 1: what has happened, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Sharon, I have to say, just listening to your story,
Speaker 2: I'm sitting here and I'm realizing I only know two
Speaker 2: people in my life who have had a brain bleed,
Speaker 2: suffered a brain aneurism, and one of them is you.
Speaker 2: One of them is also a friend of mine from college,
Speaker 2: DeShawn Maria Harris, who five years ago, just last just
Speaker 2: as past March, it was five years passed away in
Speaker 2: her sleep from my brain anurism. DeShawn was only twenty five.
Speaker 2: I want to say it. You know, I'm thirty now,
Speaker 2: Deshaun was only twenty five when this happened. It wasn't it.
Speaker 2: You know, Seeing someone close to me, not just an age,
Speaker 2: but you know, someone actually knew passed away from that
Speaker 2: injury was a huge wake up call for me at
Speaker 2: the time. But I guess it wasn't until talking to
Speaker 2: you today, and I'm putting two and two together. You know,
Speaker 2: the two people I know who've had brain aneurysms were
Speaker 2: African American women, And it's like you said, African Americans
Speaker 2: are twice as likely, wasn't it to experience this type
Speaker 2: of injury? And that's just I'm having a little aha
Speaker 2: moment here. It makes me want to just call all
Speaker 2: my aunts, all my cousins and tell them to see
Speaker 2: a doctor asap.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm in a mother's group with about one hundred
Speaker 1: African American women, and among our group, at least four
Speaker 1: people have had a family member that has had a
Speaker 1: brain aneurism, and one is still It's just a fiver
Speaker 1: but has significant neurological issues, and the other two have
Speaker 1: passed away. And so as you said with your friend Deshaun,
Speaker 1: and I'm so sorry to hear this, but it's unfortunately
Speaker 1: that is what usually happens. Forty percent of the time,
Speaker 1: people are killed instantly by this injury, and those that survive.
Speaker 1: Of those that survive, the majority of them two thirds
Speaker 1: of them have some type of neurological issues, some type
Speaker 1: of neurological deficit that is significant.
Speaker 2: And what if I know you're I think your inclination
Speaker 2: when you first felt that pain in your head, you
Speaker 2: know at the gym, was you know, okay, walk it off. Well,
Speaker 2: you know we can manage this, call husband, have him come.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think a lot of especially women, the
Speaker 2: instinct is to just push through it. You know, there's
Speaker 2: other things. You have a busy day ahead of you, work, kids, responsibilities.
Speaker 2: You don't have time to have a headache, right. What
Speaker 2: can you say to that in terms of taking the
Speaker 2: time to listen to your body and to actually you know,
Speaker 2: take those things a little bit seriously. You know, you're
Speaker 2: you're the one who can feel your own pain and
Speaker 2: speaking up and kind of being an advocate for yourself.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm I'm definitely the type of person that goes
Speaker 1: at one hundred and twenty miles an hour, or I
Speaker 1: used to.
Speaker 3: And I had.
Speaker 1: Truly the biggest week of my career. I mean, I
Speaker 1: was going to interview the Treasury Secretary in the Obama
Speaker 1: White House when there was an Obama that White House,
Speaker 1: you know, and I was invited by Treasury to come
Speaker 1: down and to participate in a conference and to do
Speaker 1: this big interview. I was looking forward to doing a
Speaker 1: lot more, having a lot more visibility on CNBC, anchoring
Speaker 1: a lot more, doing a lot more of the type
Speaker 1: of personal finance stories and segments on NBC that I
Speaker 1: wanted to do. And I was about to, you know,
Speaker 1: really start a whole new chapter in my motherhood in
Speaker 1: terms of, you know, shepherding a high schooler through the
Speaker 1: process and a middle schooler through the process, and then boom,
Speaker 1: it all just came to a halt.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 1: I guess I could have powered through it, but it
Speaker 1: was just so unusual that I knew I needed to
Speaker 1: stop and do something. But also, my husband truly saved
Speaker 1: my life, because if I didn't have someone else to
Speaker 1: say it to, or if someone else who knew me
Speaker 1: love me and knew what I should be looking like,
Speaker 1: and obviously I didn't look like myself and insists that
Speaker 1: I go to get medical treatment right away.
Speaker 3: I may have just kept going.
Speaker 1: If that had happened at work, would I have necessarily stopped,
Speaker 1: or would I had to keep the game face, the
Speaker 1: TV face going and keep going.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: So everything happens for a reason, and I'm glad it
Speaker 1: happened when it did and where it did, And though
Speaker 1: I was on my way to work, I hadn't gotten
Speaker 1: there yet. All of that stuff is very very important.
Speaker 1: I'm also one who never misses a doctor's appointment. I
Speaker 1: kind of have been very blessed to have a career
Speaker 1: where I have a company that has provided health insurance,
Speaker 1: so I know that that's often a reason why people
Speaker 1: don't necessarily get the treatment that they want.
Speaker 3: They're not covered.
Speaker 1: But then sometimes they don't get the treatment because they
Speaker 1: just don't get the treatment. And even those who are
Speaker 1: my colleagues that cover healthcare sometimes don't go and get
Speaker 1: to the doctor's office they need to. And it's just
Speaker 1: so important because we research all the time. We're constantly
Speaker 1: Mandy reporting stories and interviewing people and researching new things,
Speaker 1: and I think there's nothing more important than researching yourself
Speaker 1: and knowing what's going on with your own body. And
Speaker 1: if you aren't getting regular medical care, you can't really
Speaker 1: understand when something is going wrong because you may feel okay,
Speaker 1: but the testing may not show that you are okay,
Speaker 1: and you want to get treated right away if something
Speaker 1: is not correct. So I think it's very very important
Speaker 1: to pay attention to your body to know what is happening.
Speaker 3: But then also you can do all that and this
Speaker 3: can happen.
Speaker 1: I mean, one of the things that is definitely in
Speaker 1: my family that I am aware of, and many women
Speaker 1: and many African American women can say the same as cancer.
Speaker 1: And so I am religious about my mammograms and ultrasounds
Speaker 1: and everything annually to make sure that I am getting
Speaker 1: tested and make sure that I do my own examinations
Speaker 1: and everything, because I have breast cancer survivors and those
Speaker 1: who have passed away from cancer in my family. And
Speaker 1: I had actually gone for those tests just a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks before this happened, So you know, you can
Speaker 1: you can be diligent and something and sometimes things can
Speaker 1: just go wrong. But if you know that you're supposed
Speaker 1: to feel a certain way, if you know that you
Speaker 1: normally wouldn't be, you know, kind of feeling this pain
Speaker 1: and dozing in and out of consciousness and feeling nauseous
Speaker 1: and all of that, you know, then you won't power through.
Speaker 1: But most of the time, I will say, when I
Speaker 1: hear of someone who has not had a successful outcome,
Speaker 1: either they've passed away or they are there, they have suffered,
Speaker 1: you know, really severe neurological issues, their family members or
Speaker 1: they themselves will say, I just powered through it. You know,
Speaker 1: I just powered through it. And it can be it
Speaker 1: can be deadly to do that.
Speaker 2: Now, you said, you feel like it's a miracle to
Speaker 2: even be alive. But I didn't want to gloss over
Speaker 2: the recovery time. I mean you had to Yes, you survived,
Speaker 2: which was amazing, but you had to take time off
Speaker 2: of work months was it? And also like relearn how
Speaker 2: to walk. So can you talk about the period after
Speaker 2: the after surgery, the recovery and the impact it had
Speaker 2: on your family and you know, in your career and
Speaker 2: your finances.
Speaker 3: So the recovery period is not over.
Speaker 1: I you know, I would people always say, and even
Speaker 1: early on after you know, the first couple of months,
Speaker 1: you look great.
Speaker 3: You know what's really the problem? You sound good?
Speaker 1: You know. I was able to speak pretty much after
Speaker 1: I had been in debated in all of those things.
Speaker 1: But once I was all the tubes were gone, I
Speaker 1: was able to pretty I was able to speak and
Speaker 1: speak pretty clearly, whether or not other people realized. I
Speaker 1: was making the right connections in my speech and I
Speaker 1: was communicating effectively with which is, you know, as a
Speaker 1: TV reporter, what I've done my whole career.
Speaker 3: That's a whole other thing.
Speaker 1: And that took a very long time to feel comfortable
Speaker 1: enough to return to my career to do.
Speaker 3: And I was away from CNBC for thirteen months.
Speaker 1: I spent two and a half weeks, two weeks in
Speaker 1: intensive care, a couple of days in the hospital after that,
Speaker 1: and then I moved to a rehabilitation hospital where I
Speaker 1: stayed for two weeks and every day I had physical therapy,
Speaker 1: occupational therapy, and speech therapy. And my physical therapy was
Speaker 1: indeed learning how to walk and maintain my balance again,
Speaker 1: learning how to go up the stairs, learning how to
Speaker 1: I didn't really have to learn how to dress myself
Speaker 1: and all those things again. But I didn't need initially
Speaker 1: need a little assistance or someone to just watch over
Speaker 1: me and make sure that I did things correctly. I
Speaker 1: think the biggest issues were definitely my balance, and it
Speaker 1: was very strange to not walk for two weeks and
Speaker 1: then have a physical therapist come into my room and
Speaker 1: I see you and say, okay, we're going to try
Speaker 1: to get you up now, and I thought, I haven't
Speaker 1: even really sat up fully. You know, it's going to
Speaker 1: be very difficult, and it was. It was very scary.
Speaker 1: And the first walk that I took that seemed like
Speaker 1: a marathon but was just walking from my.
Speaker 3: Room and I see you just a couple rooms.
Speaker 1: Down down the hallway, it seemed like such a long road,
Speaker 1: and that road had so much pain on it because
Speaker 1: there were people in those rooms that I knew probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't make it, and there were people in the rooms
Speaker 1: that looked like I probably had two weeks prior right
Speaker 1: after my surgery, and there were family members that were
Speaker 1: devastated trying to figure out what the next steps were
Speaker 1: going to be. And I remember thinking, I just have
Speaker 1: to look at the door straight ahead. If I look
Speaker 1: in these rooms, I'm going to fall down and my
Speaker 1: therapy continues. I mean, I think as having a brain injury,
Speaker 1: I think having a neuropsychologist who really understands the impact
Speaker 1: that a brain injury can have. You cannot see it.
Speaker 1: I don't have a visible scar. People figured something happened
Speaker 1: because I cut my hair off. I never had short
Speaker 1: hair for four decades. They so they figured probably something
Speaker 1: might have happened about that.
Speaker 3: But you can't see it. So if you can't see it,
Speaker 3: people think you're okay, and it's not true.
Speaker 1: There's still difficulty in terms of fatigue, in terms of stamina,
Speaker 1: in terms of focus, in terms of memory that can
Speaker 1: last for months and months and months, for years and
Speaker 1: years and years. And as a social worker told me
Speaker 1: just today, actually, you know, people used to say that
Speaker 1: recovery was in stages, and now they realize that it's
Speaker 1: two steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, two
Speaker 1: steps back, that it just ebbs and flows.
Speaker 3: Like that, and that is very true.
Speaker 1: And as soon as I start to feel like I
Speaker 1: can I can work that twelve hour day, I can
Speaker 1: do these things, and I'm going to switch this and
Speaker 1: do this so I can make this, and then I'm
Speaker 1: going to go this and take the kids here, and
Speaker 1: then the next day I can't move. I'm just exhausted,
Speaker 1: And it's a different kind of exhaustion. It's actually has
Speaker 1: we say I'm just wiped out for a brain injury,
Speaker 1: you know, survivor, it's cognitive fatigue, and it's a real thing.
Speaker 3: It's it's a medical condition. I was like, great, I
Speaker 3: don't have to say I'm just wiped out anymore.
Speaker 1: I can actually say I have cognitive fatigue, and people,
Speaker 1: can you know know that I'm that I that I
Speaker 1: sound like, you know, I actually have some a medical condition,
Speaker 1: because it really is. So it's it's a long process,
Speaker 1: but most important for me in terms of recovery, I
Speaker 1: wonder what people mean when they say that, and do
Speaker 1: they mean when you know, when, when will you be recovered?
Speaker 1: Or are you seem fully recovered?
Speaker 3: Does that mean they say I'm I seem just like
Speaker 3: I was before? Because the person who I was before.
Speaker 1: When one hundred and twenty miles an hour, did several
Speaker 1: things at the same time, was probably not in the
Speaker 1: moment very often. Because I was in five moments at
Speaker 1: the same time. I was never present when I was
Speaker 1: speaking to this person or that person because I was
Speaker 1: answering this email while I was talking to this person
Speaker 1: on the phone and doing all these things, and most
Speaker 1: of us multitask on a daily basis. Now I try
Speaker 1: hard not to do that or not to do that
Speaker 1: to the degree that I was doing it before. And
Speaker 1: so in a lot of ways, in terms of my recovery,
Speaker 1: it's really a journey as a different person to a
Speaker 1: new place. And so that's why I see it as
Speaker 1: truly the greatest blessing in my life, because I am
Speaker 1: now able to be a person that has been awakened
Speaker 1: and that has been enlightened, and it can be more
Speaker 1: mindful about what they're doing and hopefully, I think for
Speaker 1: others to see that I'm doing I am recovered in
Speaker 1: that I'm able to do that job, but I'm doing
Speaker 1: it differently and better than I've ever done it before.
Speaker 2: Well, how did you discuss your condition with your employers,
Speaker 2: Because when you return to CNBC it had been what
Speaker 2: you said thirteen months. Like you said, like a lot
Speaker 2: of people who have problems or conditions that aren't you know,
Speaker 2: can't be seen with the human eye. How did you
Speaker 2: approach having that discussion and explaining to the people you
Speaker 2: work with that you're not the same sharing anymore and
Speaker 2: you need to approach your work differently, and were they
Speaker 2: receptive to that.
Speaker 1: Well, CNBC has been absolutely amazing. They've been extremely receptive,
Speaker 1: extremely supportive, and they were supportive throughout my entire recovery
Speaker 1: to my husband, my family in that they were not
Speaker 1: pressuring me in any way to say you better come back,
Speaker 1: or you won't have a place to come back to,
Speaker 1: or anything like that. They were honestly concerned about my
Speaker 1: health and the whole way through, and they continue to
Speaker 1: be And I think part of that is because I
Speaker 1: have been there for such a long time. I mean
Speaker 1: I never imagined that I would be at the same place,
Speaker 1: the same employer for twenty one years. But I have
Speaker 1: been your a unicorn, right so they've been able to
Speaker 1: see my dedication to my field, my work, and my brand,
Speaker 1: but also to CNBC. And I am really committed to
Speaker 1: my employer in that way, and they've been very very
Speaker 1: supportive of me along the way. I spoke to a
Speaker 1: woman a few weeks ago who said, you know, I
Speaker 1: have a major illness or I've been through a major illness,
Speaker 1: and I never told anybody.
Speaker 3: I work with.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's everyone has their own way
Speaker 1: that they deal with it. I'm not saying that everyone
Speaker 1: has to tell the employer everything, but you know, as
Speaker 1: personal finance journalists, Mandy, there's another reason why you have
Speaker 1: to be upfront.
Speaker 3: Is that in order to afford.
Speaker 1: To be sick, if that's the way way to say it,
Speaker 1: to be enable, in order to finance a recovery a
Speaker 1: medical condition and the journey that it takes to get better,
Speaker 1: it takes insurance, and it takes if you, if you're
Speaker 1: able to get it, great health insurance, disability insurance. And
Speaker 1: in order to get the insurance, you have to show
Speaker 1: what's wrong with you. You have to be able to
Speaker 1: document what is wrong with you. And I completely understand that,
Speaker 1: and I know that that's the way the business works.
Speaker 1: Now from the patient perspective, I can say, it's so daunting,
Speaker 1: and it seems so callous, and it seems why would
Speaker 1: I want this to happen to me? You know, why
Speaker 1: do I have to tell you every little thing that's happened.
Speaker 1: If I just give you the bare basics, you should
Speaker 1: just believe me, because I wouldn't want to have a
Speaker 1: brain injury. But because I've had to go to so
Speaker 1: many specialists, neurologists, neurosurgeon, neurologists, neuropsychologists, my interness as well,
Speaker 1: and all of that, I have enough documentation. Then also
Speaker 1: as a journalist, as you know, working for a media company,
Speaker 1: I have the documentation and the research to show why
Speaker 1: I also needed to be out of work for a
Speaker 1: year and off the air for thirteen months. So I
Speaker 1: think that has also helped me be able to show
Speaker 1: to my employer from a totally you know, without without
Speaker 1: having any of the emotional tie that we that we
Speaker 1: have to show that I really do need to have
Speaker 1: this time because it's a medical necessity and no one wants.
Speaker 3: I don't want to relapse. I don't. I don't that's
Speaker 3: not really the right word. But I don't want to
Speaker 3: be sick.
Speaker 1: I don't want to continue to not feel well, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to try to power through and work
Speaker 1: through that because that's not going to benefit the company,
Speaker 1: and that's certainly not going to benefit me.
Speaker 2: Now, you you touched on something earlier that that really
Speaker 2: hit home for me, which was disability insurance. Recently, we
Speaker 2: had an episode, one of our most popular episodes of
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. So far all around the power of life
Speaker 2: insurance and had it to how much you need and
Speaker 2: the importance of it. Right now, I think what we
Speaker 2: what we could talk about today, especially with you, is
Speaker 2: disability insurance, because sometimes it's not that you pass away
Speaker 2: and you're incapacitated, because you're not. You're no longer here
Speaker 2: and able to provide for your family. But what happens
Speaker 2: if you you know you're here, you're alive, you're breathing,
Speaker 2: and yet some happened to you to where you can't
Speaker 2: provide and you're going through something and you might need
Speaker 2: some protection there. And I'd love to if you could
Speaker 2: talk about the disability insurance coverage, you know, if you
Speaker 2: had it, and how it helped you, and what advice
Speaker 2: you would give to others if they're thinking, you know,
Speaker 2: when they fill out their insurance forms at work, Oh,
Speaker 2: disability insurance. What's that? I don't care and kind of
Speaker 2: skip over it.
Speaker 3: Never skip over it.
Speaker 1: It's probably the most important insurance that you can have. Certainly,
Speaker 1: life insurance is important, but you're far more likely to
Speaker 1: be disabled while you're working than to pass away and
Speaker 1: your disability maybe just a couple months but it could
Speaker 1: be years, and it's so important to have. If you
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to get disability insurance through your employer,
Speaker 1: absolutely take advantage of it because as a group disability policy,
Speaker 1: it's going to be much more affordable in terms of
Speaker 1: your premiums, or it may be that you don't have
Speaker 1: to pay for it at all. The way some companies work,
Speaker 1: as my company did. You can get short term disability
Speaker 1: insurance through your company and you're not paying for that,
Speaker 1: and that is one of the benefits of the company.
Speaker 1: Then if you are disabled longer than six months, you
Speaker 1: need to have long term disability insurance, and.
Speaker 3: That may come at a cost. It may come as at.
Speaker 1: A premium that is taken out of paychecks, payroll deductions
Speaker 1: or something. And some people may say, well, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do that. I got enough whatever they give
Speaker 1: me for free. Of course I'm going to take that,
Speaker 1: but I'm not going to pay for anything out of
Speaker 1: my own paycheck.
Speaker 3: Do it because the likelihood is that you're.
Speaker 1: Going to then have more of your income covered because
Speaker 1: you've put more money into this disability policy.
Speaker 3: But also the thing to keep in mind that I
Speaker 3: was not aware of until this happened to me.
Speaker 1: Was that the long term disability insurance that you receive
Speaker 1: because you've put premiums into it, this is now a
Speaker 1: tax free benefit. So the income of yours that is
Speaker 1: covered that you're getting may it's not going to be
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of your salary or one hundred percent
Speaker 1: of your your income, but it may be forty sixty percent,
Speaker 1: and that is going to be a tax free benefit,
Speaker 1: so you're not paying taxes on that money. If you
Speaker 1: live in a high tax area like New York or
Speaker 1: New Jersey or Connecticut or many other places, and you're
Speaker 1: paying a lot in taxes, that can be a significant
Speaker 1: difference between being pretty close to what your salary or
Speaker 1: your take home pay was and being so far away
Speaker 1: from it.
Speaker 3: How are you ever going to be able to pay
Speaker 3: your rent or your mortgage.
Speaker 1: So it's really, really, really important to first take advantage
Speaker 1: of the disability insurance offered by work, whatever's given and
Speaker 1: it may be a free benefit. Then see if it's
Speaker 1: possible if there is an option to get even more
Speaker 1: disability insurance and to opt in by actually paying part
Speaker 1: of the premium. Do that because you might get a
Speaker 1: higher percentage. And then Finally, if you don't are not
Speaker 1: offered it, or if you're just one of those people
Speaker 1: that wants to make sure you have even more protection
Speaker 1: by a private disability insurance policy, it is not cheap
Speaker 1: at all. It is you know something that is it's
Speaker 1: like any other insurance. Why am I paying for that?
Speaker 1: Nothing's happened to me. I feel fine, But you just
Speaker 1: never know. And I about fifteen years ago, was doing
Speaker 1: a lot of freelancing in addition to working for CNBC,
Speaker 1: and I thought, you know, I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that all of the income that I'm getting is covered,
Speaker 1: and so I'm going to take out a private disability.
Speaker 3: Insurance policy on my own.
Speaker 1: And my husband did the same thing, and it was
Speaker 1: a very very smart move because that was a little
Speaker 1: bit extra that I was able to get from the
Speaker 1: private disability insurance company to really make sure we would
Speaker 1: be able to pay for all of the expenses that
Speaker 1: we have.
Speaker 2: Now with your disability insurance and the health insurance you
Speaker 2: were provided through CNBC, and you were fortunate to have
Speaker 2: what were some of the you know, give me a
Speaker 2: sense of the medical expenses that you guys have incurred.
Speaker 2: You said, even yourself, you're still recovering, so you're still
Speaker 2: going to physical therapy and you have these you know,
Speaker 2: these these costs that are still part of your life
Speaker 2: from what happened to you.
Speaker 1: Well, I must say, I kind of I look at
Speaker 1: what I have to pay for my copays and my
Speaker 1: what I have to pay out of pocket, and you know,
Speaker 1: it may be thousands of dollars, but not hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars or close to half a million dollars,
Speaker 1: which is probably about what my care was the cost
Speaker 1: of my care, at least initially. And this is not ongoing,
Speaker 1: This is just you know, in the emergent situation, it
Speaker 1: was I'm sure if I had no insurance, it would
Speaker 1: have been very, very high, but it was something that
Speaker 1: was manageable because I did have insurance. It was also
Speaker 1: manageable because I have talked about it so much and
Speaker 1: I know you write about it all the time as well,
Speaker 1: the importance of having an emergency fund. There could not
Speaker 1: have been a rainier day for my rainy day fund,
Speaker 1: and so the fact that I had emergency fund was key,
Speaker 1: and it meant that I didn't have to do what
Speaker 1: many people may have to do, which is dip into
Speaker 1: their for a one K or the retirement savings or
Speaker 1: something to pay for a medical bill. I didn't have
Speaker 1: to do that because I also had had the emergency fund.
Speaker 2: So did you have to deplete your emergency fund or
Speaker 2: was it just a good chunk of it that was.
Speaker 3: I did not I did.
Speaker 1: I did not have to deplete it. No, I did
Speaker 1: not have to deplete it. And I was fortunate that
Speaker 1: that I was able to, you know, manage. One of
Speaker 1: the things also keep in mind is when I'm when
Speaker 1: I was in the hospital, when I was in the
Speaker 1: rehab hospital, when I was home and on you know,
Speaker 1: relegated to like one floor for a month.
Speaker 3: I wasn't eating out, I wasn't driving, and.
Speaker 1: Have gas bills I didn't have. I didn't have to
Speaker 1: dry clean anything.
Speaker 2: Oh, so all of those expenses that can really add up.
Speaker 3: And I also had no desire.
Speaker 1: I wasn't going anywhere, and I had no desire to
Speaker 1: really eat anything fancy. All of those expenses, eating out, shopping,
Speaker 1: I didn't have. So that also helped in the sense
Speaker 1: that even though my income was less, my expenses were
Speaker 1: also less.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned earlier, you know, when you went back
Speaker 2: to work in twenty seventeen. It wasn't the same Sharon Emberson,
Speaker 2: the same one hundred and twenty mile an hour Sharon Epperson.
Speaker 2: And I'm really you're really touching me in the part
Speaker 2: of my brain I try to ignore, which is maybe
Speaker 2: slow down, stop multitasking. It feels like one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty miles an hour, you know, And I just kind
Speaker 2: of keep telling myself, Oh, it'll slow down.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Next year will be the year when you can kind
Speaker 2: of step back. But I think speaking to you has
Speaker 2: been helpful for me because it's, you know, it's you
Speaker 2: don't want to get to the breaking point. I love
Speaker 2: you to talk about some of the changes that you've
Speaker 2: made since you've returned to the office, through your career,
Speaker 2: through your family, any any sort of changes you put
Speaker 2: in place as a result of what you learn from
Speaker 2: the experience.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say that there is something wrong
Speaker 1: with being driven or wanting to excel in many areas,
Speaker 1: and I think your career has just been remarkable because
Speaker 1: I've been stalking you as well, so I know how
Speaker 1: many things you're working on and how successful you and
Speaker 1: Tiffany have been in creating your own brands and working
Speaker 1: within brands to make them even better. And I think
Speaker 1: that's remarkable, and I think that is something that is commendable.
Speaker 1: But I also think that as you're doing these things
Speaker 1: that are so fantastic, I, at least when my career,
Speaker 1: I never stopped to appreciate them. Almost at any point,
Speaker 1: I would just try to get to the next thing.
Speaker 1: And so what I do now that I never did
Speaker 1: before was really try to take a few minutes a
Speaker 1: day and just.
Speaker 3: Be present, be still. I mean, it seemed like the
Speaker 3: weirdest thing.
Speaker 1: It was one of the first things I learned in
Speaker 1: one of my therapy sessions was to stop and just
Speaker 1: be still. And you know, then you think about all
Speaker 1: these things and you're, you know, okay, but just telling
Speaker 1: me to be still. But I got to do this,
Speaker 1: and then I have to do this next thing. But eventually,
Speaker 1: over the course of five minutes or longer, if you
Speaker 1: can do it, you may be able to really just
Speaker 1: be have your mind almost completely blank for a moment,
Speaker 1: so that when you come back into it, you realize
Speaker 1: how much you have that is so good, and how
Speaker 1: much you're doing that's that is not only great for you,
Speaker 1: but great for so many other people. In terms of Mandy,
Speaker 1: all the information that you are sharing and that you
Speaker 1: and Tiphany are sharing. So that's something that I never
Speaker 1: did before. I never really stopped. So now I start
Speaker 1: my day by stopping, so rather than like jumping out
Speaker 1: of bed getting everybody ready for everything. And I don't
Speaker 1: do this every day. Sometimes i'd still jump out of
Speaker 1: bed and just start going, but I just try to
Speaker 1: take a minute, actually three to five minutes, and.
Speaker 3: Just pause, give thanks for.
Speaker 1: Waking up, for being there, being here and being able
Speaker 1: to continue my day, and kind of asking for some
Speaker 1: guidance on how I'm going to be used that day
Speaker 1: to do the best that I can. There are sometimes
Speaker 1: I don't I haven't been doing this as regularly as
Speaker 1: I should, but I that I'm supposed to take breaks
Speaker 1: during the day, so I had already put in my
Speaker 1: calendar before I got sick, this is the time I
Speaker 1: need to take a break to have a snack, so
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't like binge eat. You know, you're working
Speaker 1: so hard for twelve hours and then you're starving and
Speaker 1: you have all the food that you shouldn't have because
Speaker 1: that's what's available.
Speaker 3: So I was so I would.
Speaker 2: Take camera watching me with my cup, oh, my cup
Speaker 2: of mixed nuts. I've sid my lunch and dinner all.
Speaker 1: Right, exactly exactly, so you know, I had my breaks
Speaker 1: well for eating. But now I need to have those
Speaker 1: breaks to take five minutes to just walk around the office,
Speaker 1: or just take a minute to go into a conference room.
Speaker 3: Shut the door.
Speaker 1: I hope, hope it can pick an empty conference room
Speaker 1: to sit, just sit there for two minutes, for five minutes,
Speaker 1: and it's my work is not going to suffer for
Speaker 1: those few minutes, but I'm going to be probably in
Speaker 1: a better place and sometimes more energized when I come
Speaker 1: back to my desk to start writing again. So I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do those things. And the other thing is sleep,
Speaker 1: because I do still have suffer from the fatigue in
Speaker 1: the stamina and lack of stamina a bit. I do
Speaker 1: try to sleep more when I can, and sometimes I
Speaker 1: just have to because I just can't go anymore.
Speaker 3: I have to, I have to just rest.
Speaker 1: So those are some of the things that I've that
Speaker 1: I've done differently, but I think I never really understood
Speaker 1: what it meant and I'm still learning. I'm still such
Speaker 1: a novice about what it means to be mindful and
Speaker 1: what it means to meditate, what it means to relax.
Speaker 1: Not great at it, but I'm trying trying a lot
Speaker 1: more to do it, and I think it makes when
Speaker 1: I am able to, when I am able to then
Speaker 1: focus on my work, I think I deliver much more efficiently,
Speaker 1: and I think I'm hope that it's received even better
Speaker 1: because I've really, I've really put put myself into it
Speaker 1: to get it, to make sure it's right. Some of
Speaker 1: it is because I have to, because I have to
Speaker 1: focus more now, but I think part of it is
Speaker 1: because I'm more mindful of wanting to really help hope
Speaker 1: that my readers and my viewers understand that I am
Speaker 1: with them right now. I'm not thinking about timillion a
Speaker 1: million other things for these few minutes we're together, and
Speaker 1: I'm talking about taxes because it's just so awesome, because
Speaker 1: I really do get excited about these things. So I want,
Speaker 1: I want, I want that to come across.
Speaker 2: And so it's not so much that you pulled back,
Speaker 2: it's just you've sort of reoriented yourself and approached your
Speaker 2: work a little bit differently. Yeah, I I my mother
Speaker 2: had has a psychological slash neurological condition that it's called fibermiagia,
Speaker 2: and it's really difficult. It's not something you can see,
Speaker 2: and it's also very hard to diagnose, and even doctors
Speaker 2: are don't agree on what it is. But just the
Speaker 2: the interactions with family and friends and trying to explain
Speaker 2: her condition to family and friends and and and you know,
Speaker 2: even I'll raise a hand and play it, you know,
Speaker 2: and be honest about what I went through seeing her
Speaker 2: go through that. It's really hard to see your mom,
Speaker 2: this superhero to you one hundred and twenty mile or
Speaker 2: every day of your entire childhood and teenagehood and young
Speaker 2: adulthood all of a sudden have to slow down. And
Speaker 2: you know, I had to even learn how to get
Speaker 2: to know this new mom in my life and what
Speaker 2: she was going through. And I just wondered if you
Speaker 2: had any situations where you felt like it sounds like
Speaker 2: you had a really supportive family, friends and people at
Speaker 2: your office, but you know, any any cases where you
Speaker 2: had to sort of advocate for yourself or or you
Speaker 2: felt like people around you weren't really understanding just how differently,
Speaker 2: just how differently you've become, how different you've become since
Speaker 2: this all happened.
Speaker 1: I felt like that a number of times with friends
Speaker 1: that I've had for a decade or more.
Speaker 3: And saying, you know, you look great, What really is
Speaker 3: the issue? You really look great? And this is when
Speaker 3: I was still in the rehab hospital.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, I'm in a rehab hospital. Don't you
Speaker 1: don't see anything differently that I'm doing. But because I
Speaker 1: could speak, because they know that this is it was
Speaker 1: a severe injury, severe illness, severe affliction, but I didn't
Speaker 1: seem I didn't show anything. I was able to move
Speaker 1: my arms, I was able to walk slowly, I was
Speaker 1: able to at this point a month out, I was
Speaker 1: able to speak clearly to them, but they so it
Speaker 1: was it was hard for them to see.
Speaker 3: And I wanted to, you know.
Speaker 1: At one point, I remember a friend coming to visit
Speaker 1: me and saying that I look fine and what was.
Speaker 3: Really the issue?
Speaker 1: And I wanted to just scream, you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: to say, you know, you can't see this. I feel
Speaker 1: completely changed. I feel completely changed and completely devastated in
Speaker 1: the sense that I can't imagine the week that I
Speaker 1: had before this happened and going back to it, and
Speaker 1: that was that was a month out, so I mean,
Speaker 1: I had a long journey and I feel much more comfortable.
Speaker 1: But even today, I don't think I could.
Speaker 3: You know, I was.
Speaker 1: Contemplating a five am flight the other day to you know,
Speaker 1: or five am arrival at the airport to get on
Speaker 1: a six am flight to go somewhere and speak and
Speaker 1: then you know, go to a reception and then you know,
Speaker 1: speak the next day. And I thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: I can't do that anymore. I don't think that that's
Speaker 1: a smart idea. It's just too much and to be
Speaker 1: able to explain to people very honestly, you know, I
Speaker 1: need to be prepared and be ready to speak, and
Speaker 1: all of that I can't come in the day of
Speaker 1: and I need time to rest and make sure that
Speaker 1: I'm in good shape to do that. And people seem
Speaker 1: to understand, but you do have to advocate for yourself
Speaker 1: because people will not necessarily see it. And the other
Speaker 1: part that and I'm much better now, but the other
Speaker 1: part that really is difficult for people to understand is
Speaker 1: you look fine, you're here, you're alive, you should be
Speaker 1: so happy, and you're constantly emotional. It is a psychological,
Speaker 1: neurological issue and being another medical term emotionally labile, and
Speaker 1: having these mood swings is part of what happens to
Speaker 1: someone who's had a brain injury. And so just hearing
Speaker 1: about something or watching something or seeing something on TV
Speaker 1: that's maybe slightly sad or maybe not even sad to
Speaker 1: some people, but it just hits you a certain way
Speaker 1: and you start crying or your reaction maybe another reaction
Speaker 1: that would not normally seem appropriate. That kind of emotional
Speaker 1: filter is a little bit skewed, and so that's something
Speaker 1: else that's very difficult to explain to friends who may
Speaker 1: be like, why is she reacting that way? Why is
Speaker 1: she saying it that way? And it's not trying to
Speaker 1: be mean or trying to be you know, you know,
Speaker 1: gross or sad or I think it's just that's how
Speaker 1: you feel. And so I was talking to survivor today
Speaker 1: and she was saying, you know, just going into a
Speaker 1: place or going past a place that she remembered having
Speaker 1: gone there for surgery or gone there for you know,
Speaker 1: medical treatment, she just started crying. And I completely understand
Speaker 1: that feeling, and I completely understand doing that because it's
Speaker 1: just it's a very it can your emotions just hit.
Speaker 3: So hard, and that's very hard for family.
Speaker 1: Members to understand and to see. And I had with
Speaker 1: young with younger, they're not they're not babies, but having
Speaker 1: a twelve year old and a fifteen year old as
Speaker 1: well as my husband understanding those mood swings and knowing
Speaker 1: that I was having them and and.
Speaker 3: You know, that was hard. That was hard.
Speaker 1: And it's not like it doesn't happen ever again, you know,
Speaker 1: it's still again. It's two steps forward, one step back
Speaker 1: on a on a daily basis.
Speaker 2: And I wanted to talk about your work with the
Speaker 2: Brain Aneurysm Foundation. You mentioned a couple of times speaking
Speaker 2: to survivors. Is is that party of recovery too? Do
Speaker 2: you feel hearing stories from other survivors and kind of
Speaker 2: building a network of support through your work with the foundation?
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean the way the way that I found out
Speaker 1: of about the risk factors about brain aneurysms and about
Speaker 1: family history and the propensity of African Americans and women
Speaker 1: to have brain aneurysms was by just googling, doing some
Speaker 1: research and then landing on the Brain Aneuralism Foundation web page.
Speaker 1: And so for anybody who wants to know more information
Speaker 1: about brain aneurysms. It's a beafound dot org and I
Speaker 1: that has become my new passion. No one ever would want,
Speaker 1: would wish something like this happened to them, But because
Speaker 1: it has, and because I am able to speak about it,
Speaker 1: and because I have covered personal finance and ask people
Speaker 1: to divulge some of their most painful or most challenging
Speaker 1: and or most triumphant personal finance situations, I've felt like
Speaker 1: I must share my story and I must explain how
Speaker 1: my story kind of also delves into the personal finance
Speaker 1: journey that I took, but also the medical journey that
Speaker 1: I took. The Brain andres and Foundation is an excellent
Speaker 1: resource for survivors, for caregivers about and for those who've
Speaker 1: lost their loved ones about what this really is, how
Speaker 1: it happens, what types of treatments are available, what the
Speaker 1: recovery or you know, existing with a brain aneurysm, what
Speaker 1: that means, how that feels, how that can manifest itself
Speaker 1: emotionally physically. It's just been really really important for me
Speaker 1: to understand more about what happened to me and what
Speaker 1: could happen next. And I try not to be you know,
Speaker 1: I don't look at it as worst case scenario.
Speaker 3: I look at it as being well informed.
Speaker 1: So I want to know when my children should be tested.
Speaker 1: I want to know when I should be tested again
Speaker 1: to make sure that I don't have another one that
Speaker 1: could happen, because they develop over years, not over a
Speaker 1: couple of months, and so this is something ongoing that
Speaker 1: I will constantly have to monitor. But I also am
Speaker 1: just astounded how little information and funding and research goes
Speaker 1: on about brain aneurysms, because it does impact one in
Speaker 1: fifty people. One in fifty people is walking around with
Speaker 1: a brain aneurysm. Most of the time, it's not a problem,
Speaker 1: nothing's ever going to happen to them. But about thirty
Speaker 1: thousand people a year out of those six million that
Speaker 1: have a brain aneurysm will have it rupture, and those
Speaker 1: ruptures happen frequently. Every eighteen minutes there's someone who has
Speaker 1: a brain aneurysm rupture. And because of the likelihood that
Speaker 1: someone is going to pass away if that happens two
Speaker 1: out of five or that they're going to have a
Speaker 1: serious neurological issue for the rest of their life, two
Speaker 1: thirds who survive. It's important for people to understand what
Speaker 1: this is and to understand what they see and when
Speaker 1: they see a coworker who doesn't seem like they look right,
Speaker 1: you know, take them to the hospital or suggest that
Speaker 1: they go to the emergency room, or offer to cover
Speaker 1: whatever they're working on so that they can go home
Speaker 1: early and try to take care of themselves. And the
Speaker 1: same goes for your friends and your family members, to
Speaker 1: just be aware of what's happening. I was recently on
Speaker 1: Capitol Hill speaking to some congressional leaders about brain aneurysms,
Speaker 1: and there is so much funding in medical funding, federal
Speaker 1: funding toward medical research and areas that are very important
Speaker 1: cancer heart disease, there is so little funding given toward
Speaker 1: brain aneurism research, and so part of my work with
Speaker 1: the Brain Aneurism Foundation also is to raise awareness so
Speaker 1: that people will also be willing to donate and give
Speaker 1: to hopefully coming up with some early detection initiatives as
Speaker 1: well as improve treatment and care for those who have
Speaker 1: brain aneurysms. So I created the Sharon Eperson Chair of
Speaker 1: Research and it will be awarded for the first time
Speaker 1: this September two year, basically almost to the day on
Speaker 1: my two year anniversary. Have my brain aneurysm, and the
Speaker 1: goal of the Chair of Research is to provide a
Speaker 1: research grant to a scientist medical professional so that they
Speaker 1: will be able to look into early detection, come up
Speaker 1: with better remedies or more technologically advanced perhaps remedies in
Speaker 1: terms of figuring out who has a brain aneurysm, who
Speaker 1: is more likely to have a brain aneurysm, and how
Speaker 1: best to treat it. So I'm hoping that that is
Speaker 1: something that will continue for my lifetime because it's I
Speaker 1: think it's so important for people to be able to
Speaker 1: have the very, very best care, and in order to
Speaker 1: do that, we need to make sure that we have
Speaker 1: the best technological advances to figure out what is causing
Speaker 1: these and how they can be treated.
Speaker 2: What an amazing way to turn such a traumatic experience
Speaker 2: into such a positive, you know, light for the future
Speaker 2: of research in this really important area. Congratulations on that.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of what we spoke about in
Speaker 2: the episode about life insurance is about your legacy and
Speaker 2: what you'll leave behind and not just thinking about the
Speaker 2: here and now. And I think that's such an amazing
Speaker 2: take away from your story, Sharon. Thank you for sharing it.
Speaker 2: I wanted to leave. I wanted to leave you guys
Speaker 2: with kind of just a recap, you know, whether it's
Speaker 2: a brain aneurysm or something else, you know, something another traumatic, unexpected,
Speaker 2: the worst case scenario. I think that's what we're all
Speaker 2: in the back of our minds afraid to think about.
Speaker 2: But we should all at least take some time to
Speaker 2: think about it. And I wondered if we can just
Speaker 2: wrap up by reviewing some of the key steps anyone
Speaker 2: can take today to make their lives and their loved
Speaker 2: ones lives a little bit easier if something like this,
Speaker 2: God forbid were to happen from them. So I assume
Speaker 2: you'd start by saying, beef up that emergency fund. What
Speaker 2: else would you add to that, Sharon, I.
Speaker 1: Think one of the key things to do is automate
Speaker 1: all of your financial life as much as you can.
Speaker 1: So if you can do direct deposits for your paycheck,
Speaker 1: if you can do automatic bill pay for your rent
Speaker 1: or for your mortgage or for your utilities, if you
Speaker 1: can make sure that you have all of your accounts
Speaker 1: in one place so that you know where to find them,
Speaker 1: using something like Mint or some other service that can
Speaker 1: aggregate all of your accounts if you can use the
Speaker 1: password manager and make sure that someone that you really
Speaker 1: trust and really love has that information as well, so
Speaker 1: that anything happens to you. Because you've automated your life,
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that they're able to get
Speaker 1: in there and help you in terms of figuring out
Speaker 1: how to make sure the bills get paid and everything,
Speaker 1: and that would be helpful to make sure that someone
Speaker 1: has that information, your password to these accounts. The way
Speaker 1: to make sure legally that it's the person that you
Speaker 1: really want to have all this information is to make
Speaker 1: sure you've done proper estate planning. So your health care
Speaker 1: proxy the person who's going to make health care decisions
Speaker 1: if you are unable to do so, figure out who
Speaker 1: that person's going to be. Who's going to be the
Speaker 1: person who's going to make the financial decisions if you're
Speaker 1: unable to do that. And if you're a parent, make
Speaker 1: sure that if you and your spouse or mom and
Speaker 1: dad are not both there, who.
Speaker 3: Is going to be able to take care of these kids?
Speaker 1: Who is going to be the guardian for these children.
Speaker 1: I was able to use my estate plan. I had
Speaker 1: to use my estate plan because I wasn't able to
Speaker 1: say what kind of surgery I wanted, or where I
Speaker 1: wanted to ultimately go for my hospital, or any of
Speaker 1: those things. My husband had to do that because that's
Speaker 1: his role as my power of attorney for health care
Speaker 1: and as my power of attorney for financial issues. He
Speaker 1: was the one who handled all of the finances or
Speaker 1: was in charge of the finances. But to make it
Speaker 1: easier because he was overwhelmed at being at the hospital
Speaker 1: with me every day, we had it automated so we
Speaker 1: didn't really have to worry about when that check had
Speaker 1: to go out because it was automatically going to get paid.
Speaker 3: So those were really really key.
Speaker 1: To managing our financial life when I was particularly gravely ill.
Speaker 1: And the other part I would say is definitely to
Speaker 1: have the insurances that you need, so don't go without
Speaker 1: health insurance or disability insurance. And finally make sure that
Speaker 1: you do have that emergency fund. You can forego perhaps
Speaker 1: the fabulous vacation and just do a nice vacation. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to talk about putting a nice sum, not
Speaker 1: just not having a coffee one day and adding up,
Speaker 1: and that's a way to start, but you really need
Speaker 1: to think about what you can cut out to make
Speaker 1: sure you have the savings that you need, and the
Speaker 1: first step is to figure out what that is. Many
Speaker 1: people don't even know how much they spend per month.
Speaker 1: So if you can figure out how much you might
Speaker 1: need just for one month, Ideally people talk about a
Speaker 1: six month emergency fund. Some people can't really fathom what
Speaker 1: they spend in one month, So just start there and
Speaker 1: start small and slowly build it up and realize. And
Speaker 1: to me, trying to figure all of this out and
Speaker 1: having some of it planned already and some of it
Speaker 1: that I've had to now go back and say I
Speaker 1: should do this a little bit differently, even with my
Speaker 1: own personal finances. It's a blessing. It's the greatest gift
Speaker 1: of being given another opportunity to get it right. And
Speaker 1: it still may not be perfect, but I think I'm
Speaker 1: doing a much better job.
Speaker 2: Well. Sharon, Thank you so so much for being so candid,
Speaker 2: for being such an amazing guest, for sharing your story
Speaker 2: and keep sharing it. You know, like I said at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the show, I was explaining to Sharon,
Speaker 2: our audience is exactly the kind of person you guys.
Speaker 2: Brand ambition listeners are exactly who needs to be hearing
Speaker 2: this story. You know, African American women are the majority
Speaker 2: of our listeners, and I hope that you guys are listening.
Speaker 2: And if you don't think that you're at risk, you know,
Speaker 2: tell a friend, Tell a friend, tell a friend, so
Speaker 2: the word gets out. And I'll be sure to include
Speaker 2: a link to the Brain Inurism Foundation website in the
Speaker 2: show notes, so definitely go check that out. And Sharon, lastly,
Speaker 2: just let people know where they can find you on Twitter,
Speaker 2: Instagram Where are you at these days?
Speaker 1: You can find me on Twitter at Sharon Underscore et
Speaker 1: person E P P E R s O N. And
Speaker 1: you can find me on Instagram at Sharon Epperson CNBC.
Speaker 1: And you can also you like and follow my Facebook page.
Speaker 2: Awesome. All include links to those in the show. To
Speaker 2: you guys, Sharon again, thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad to be on the show, and thank
Speaker 1: you all so much for listening. And please tell your girlfriends,
Speaker 1: tell your mom, tell your cousin, tell your sister, tell everyone.
Speaker 1: Just take care of yourself, remember to focus on yourself,
Speaker 1: focus on being on the moment, in the moment, and
Speaker 1: treasure every single day because you just truly never know