Soledad O’Brien On Storytelling, Feminism’s ‘PR Issue’ & Not Taking ‘No’ For An Answer

What does it take to get to a tip — though losing your center? Our “Making It Work”

Soledad O’Brien has a lot

She’s a CEO of a Starfish Media Group“Real Sports”Al Jazeera America“Black In America”“Latino in America.”

The 48-year-old promote publisher started her careerStarfish Foundationyoung women to college

Watching O’Brien during an AOL BUILD interview

O’Brien sat down with The Huffington Post to speak about advocating for herself, lifting feminist girls and how people will warn we when we ask for help.

How would we conclude success?

I cruise success changes as we change. Success before we have kids has a opposite clarification than when we turn a mom, than when we send your kids off to college. So for me, success is multifaceted. At one indicate it was about, “what’s my pursuit title?” “How many income am we going to make this year?” Then we start thinking, “What’s a pursuit I’m indeed doing? What’s a peculiarity of a work I’m branch in?” And afterwards we think, “Well, what is my life like?” we cruise right now where we am — with 4 kids who are all in a 10 to 14 operation — success for me is perplexing to figure out how to change all a things that are important, and to change them well. In a approach where you’re not shorting yourself, or your work, that is something I’m unequivocally ardent about — though you’re also not shorting your children, and your spouse. For me it’s about removing all these things to work in harmony.

Would we cruise yourself successful?

Most days. we don’t cruise anyone is 100 percent successful. we cruise we am mostly successful, that is arrange of what we aim for. You get up, we try to go to a gym, we try to eat well, we try to get your kids to school, assistance with task and do good work and work on a project. And now I’m a CEO, so I’m flourishing a business. If we can make many of those things occur during any given day, afterwards yeah, we cruise you’ve been flattering successful.

The Family

A print posted by Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) on Sep 21, 2013 during 9:04pm PDT

Why do we do a work that we do?

I have always been driven by revelation good stories. Part of what drives me is to only tell stories about people whose lives fly underneath a radar — that no one seems to indispensably caring about. we cruise those stories can be impossibly interesting.

I also have 4 kids, and I’m unequivocally driven to be as good a mom as we can be. we prolonged ago gave adult on pureeing baby food, we don’t unequivocally prepare unequivocally well, we have comforters so we kind of make beds like — swoosh, cover it up. So we feel like we have figured out a parenting thing during this impulse in time, and it could change tomorrow. When my youngest son was diagnosed as deaf, we had dual responses. One, we were unequivocally beholden to know what was going on, since he had been struggling a lot. And two, it gave us a genuine viewpoint on how bad things couldthis

If we weren’t a journalist, what would we be doing?

I used to tell people that I’d be doing hair… since for any lady who grows adult with a lot of large hair, training how to work a prosaic iron would be a unequivocally good thing. we don’t know, we can’t suppose doing anything else. we was pre-med in college, and we unequivocally suspicion I’d be a doctor. And afterwards we left propagandize and motionless not to go to medical school, and we didn’t unequivocally know what to do, and we started operative during a TV hire and we was only good during it. It’s now been 28 years or something. we would adore one day not to have 10 jobs — kids and using a association and using a substructure and using around like a insane — though we adore storytelling. So we unequivocally cruise I’d be concerned in revelation stories about people in some capacity.

Good Monday morning! New glasses! What do we think?

A print posted by Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) on Nov 26, 2012 during 4:07am PST

What recommendation would we give to immature women starting to confirm what they wish to do in life? How do we inspire and beam your possess daughters?

I cruise there’s so many times when girls and immature women are told, “It’s only not gonna work out.” And if we could give anyone advice, it would be this thought that a doing it or not doing it is adult to you. And we have to run around and feat all a resources around you. Pick people’s brains, move them lunch, buy them coffee — and only get in there to see how people who are doing what we wish to do are doing it. Learn by examination and osmosis. There’s so many of life that is being book smart, though there’s a large cube that’s only bargain how things works.

I cruise women are mostly talked out of things. we remember when we had only had my twins, we had 4 kids underneath 4 years old. And a tsunami happened in 2004. we got a call from someone during CNN, and they pronounced “well, we’re ostensible to try to send someone to Thailand, though we know we won’t wish to go, since moms don’t wish to travel.” And we pronounced to her, “Well, we have 4 kids underneath four, so Thailand sounds amazing!” And they sent me to Thailand. But it reminded me that we constantly have to plea people’s expectations. [The caller] wasn’t perplexing to be mean, she only had expectations about what a new mom would do and she was foisting those expectations on to me. we pronounced “Listen, here’s what we wish to do.” You have to reiterate it, infrequently firmly, infrequently gently, infrequently with a smile, and only constantly write your trail — and try to figure out how to get there. Hitting people adult for information, help, guidance, advice, though staying on that trail of “here’s what we wish to do.” We’re only constantly, as women, talked out of it. “You can’t do this and that” — though we can. You unequivocally can. If it’s something we unequivocally wish to do, we can. And we cruise that’s a summary that a lot of immature women need to hear. You have to set a parameters of a knowledge and a success that we wish to have.

Women’s roles and a subject of feminism have been outrageous conversations in a past integrate of years — generally when successful immature women come brazen observant they don’t brand as feminists.

I cruise that those women don’t know what a feminist is. Feminism needs a unequivocally good PR agency. They say, “I’m not a feminist,” and afterwards go on to report accurately ways in that they’re feminist. That’s a PR issue, not a significant challenge. Those are only women who don’t know what it is, and maybe women who don’t know what feminism has finished for them. My daughters who are 12 and 14 would report themselves as feminists. I’m unequivocally assertive about it — we uncover them a opportunities that they have. They’re always dumbfounded to hear about when people couldn’t do what they can do. They only don’t know. I’m not certain that all those immature women [decrying feminism] have someone drilling into their heads, “You know, a reason we get to do this is since there are a lot of people who fought for those opportunities.”

Yeah, there’s still this common misperception that feminists are man-haters who demeanour down on other women for creation certain choices, for instance a choice to be a stay-at-home mom.

Sometimes partial of a review is how we adore to predicate women opposite any other. Working moms contra stay-at-home mom, and somehow everybody is improved than a other person. We do have these fights that are arrange of churned adult and not indispensably valid. In my kids’ school, my daughters are means to do a lot of things since a moms who don’t transport as many as we do acquire them into their homes and concede my daughters to have good experiences. And infrequently we can take my daughters’ friends on cold practice since of some of a work we do. And we cruise of it as a pity thing. We are all rooting for a kids and other people’s kids to do well. we cruise that’s some-more a existence than a approach it’s positioned sometimes.

And my date

A print posted by Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) on Jul 25, 2014 during 10:58am PDT

What do we cruise are a large issues women are facing? What’s holding us behind from gender equality?

A integrate things. we cruise that women have to unequivocally figure out how to disciple for themselves — and we would supplement myself to that list. we was doing an speak he other day with Tamara Mellon, who used to run Jimmy Choo. And she pronounced it unequivocally astounded her that when she started seeking people for assistance in her business, no one pronounced no. She got to a indicate where she was like, “I don’t know what to do, I’m stuck,” and she incited to people and there was not a singular chairman who pronounced “I won’t assistance you. Leave me alone.”

As a new CEO, we have found that unequivocally true. we have never had a singular chairman who we called adult and pronounced “listen, can we collect your mind about something that I’m operative on,” never once has someone pronounced “yeah, we know what, no.” And we cruise a same is loyal for a immature women that we mentor, and a immature women in a foundation. When they go adult to someone and say, “I am stranded on a thing, can we assistance me figure this out?,” they always get support. They always get help. Not only from a people who are mentoring them, though from pointless people who are happy to take a impulse to try to assistance them be successful. The universe is unequivocally full of those people.

Women have to open themselves to saying, “I am not perfect. we am not flawless. we am going to get help, and we am going to get better.” That is a unequivocally good initial step. And unequivocally perplexing to confirm what kind of opportunities exist, and advocating for them. The whole evidence about likeablilty. It matters, though during my age, we get to a indicate where you’re like “eh, screw it.” I’m too old. we don’t caring anymore. You get to a indicate where you’re like, “I don’t caring if we like me. You only need to cruise that I’m good.” And that’s a unequivocally pardon thing. we only wish to be good. we wish to be clear, we wish to be straightforward, we wish to be respected, we wish to have good peculiarity work — we don’t give a sh*t if anybody likes me. we don’t need to go and be their best friend. When we got to that point, it was unequivocally a good moment.

The final thing we wanted to speak about was your impasse with CoverGirl’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign

I’ve been operative on a plan for them that should be rising unequivocally soon. They sent us out to go and do documentaries — find young, extraordinary women who are overcoming challenges. The biggest assignment ever. When we deposit in women, we can change communities. Literally.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/06/soledad-obrien-interview-feminism_n_6632158.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago&ir=Chicago