Why "What do you do?" is the wrong question | Nada Taha | TEDxNashvilleWomen

We have all collectively decided that the pyramids of Egypt are the most incredible structures in the world, right, they are also probably the most mysterious because thousands of years have passed and we have yet to discover how they built such wonders in my head it said something like this CEO Pharaoh was hanging out with his friend Pharaoh contemplating life and he's like I'm an engineer, I'm a collector, I'm the ruler of this whole empire and I'm not fully realized yet and he's like

what

if there's something I can do? build and that I can create a legacy even after I'm gone,

what

if there was some kind of structure where we could paint on the walls and I can store all my gold and he's like, but I don't want you to run. square mill type structure, he is like what would happen if we made it a triangle and he passes his joint to his friend Pharaoh and his friend Pharaoh says, yes, friend, the triangle is the movement and then do they get to work?

I had to start network marketing to get all these ancient Egyptians involved and help them build these triangles and the pyramid scheme was born. Now I can make this joke because I am Egyptian and those are my ancestors. I was born in Cleopatra Hospital in Cairo, Egypt, it's a real place, but my parents decided to move us to the United States shortly after and made two unintentionally interesting decisions at the time: One, they moved us to a random little suburb of Atlanta, Georgia , and two, our first day in the United States was Halloween, so you can bet we were very, very confused as a first-generation American.

I spent my entire childhood aspiring to be the embodiment of the American dream. They pushed me to succeed and how could I not? My parents had us immigrated across the world. world to give us a better life, but what ended up happening was that I combined My success with my value, my brand became the girl who ended up. Now I have a story that illustrates this, but we're going to have to go back to 2004. A time without the Kardashians, without Instagram, without Taylor Swift. I was 14 and president of the sophomore class at my high school and I decided we needed to boost school morale and I didn't want to do it with your routine. -mill regular pep rally I wanted something bigger and more exciting so I started organizing tours to see what artists came through our town and I found a ridiculous one now in the 2000s you couldn't turn on your TV or your radio and not listen a ridiculous song, so this was a big deal, but I had no idea what I was doing.

I didn't even know the music industry existed, so I started cold calling every radio station, record label, the grocery store, literally anyone who answered my phone. I called and whoever answered my call said honey that's so nice but there's just no way it's ever going to happen so I wrote an email and a few weeks after that ring the house phone rings and it's ridiculous as a manager and he says We're in and I was like, oh man, and they were, they came and performed a whole surprise concert for my high school, which absolutely helped my political campaign the next year to be student body president, but what happened After that it was even crazier.

A few weeks later the phone rings at home again and it's MTV and they want to fly me to New York to be on TRL. Now a lot of people are too young and don't even know what those three letters and then the rest mean. We're all like, oh my God, freaking out because if you were a teenager in the 2000s, TRL was our Holy Grail, right, yeah, so I ended up on TRL with my JLo Manolo impression, my little 14-year-old self, and that It was like the beginning. of me understanding who I was as a person.

I graduated high school the next year at 15 College, three years later and by the time I was 24 I was already a published sports journalist for the NBA, a pop radio music director, a digital director building brands. and I co-hosted what at the time was the most popular country radio morning show nationally, but something interesting happened when I turned 30. I hit a wall and now many of us are familiar with this phrase or will become familiar. with the phrase because it happens to all of us and manifests itself in different ways and at different times in our lives.

For me, it happened during a meeting with an acting coach that my agent had hired me for at that point in my life. He was ready for a change. I could feel it. I thought, yeah, I'm ready for the next step in my career. Come on, so I thought they were training me to be the star in the next season of Bridgerton, as you can imagine. that didn't happen the change I was feeling wasn't an extension of the hand I realized it was a dip yes you know you know something was

wrong

and I couldn't understand what my wall was like exhaustion I had adrenal insufficiency panic attacks hormonal dysregulation I couldn't sleep at night I couldn't stay awake during the day I had a lot of anxiety and deep depression I had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever like I was living on the Oregon Trail I spent many years and I had spent a lot of money trying to fix this, but I still couldn't understand what was happening to me and why I was no longer cheerful and happy and why I was so sick.

The decades I had spent succeeding, I was simultaneously abandoning and abandoning myself. I neglected parts of me that were really important but not tied to my work at all. What I realized was that treating yourself like a business is what makes you successful and then I made it my real business. There is a solution to this by diversifying breeding. your parts and continue to evolve is what the largest corporations that shape culture do and we can do it too. All you have to do is be like Taylor Swift. I'll get there in a second, but first we have to make a stop at the University of Colorado Boulder, one of the greatest athletes of all time, is now one of the most notable college football coaches.

Dion Sanders, aka Coach Prime, is giving this program an identity that won just one game last season. and a brand and let's face it, even if you're from Boulder Colorado, you weren't watching those football games, but this story begins back in 1992, while my little Egyptian self was growing up in a small suburb outside of Atlanta, Georgia, trying to convince my classmates that no, I did not immigrate here on a camel and no, I did not grow up in a pyramid. Dion Sanders was close playing for both the Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta Braves, in fact, on October 11 of that year he became the first athlete to do so.

Get ready to play on two different teams in two different sports on the same day, now you can bet he got some flack for this. I mean, I'm sure he got a lot of those phone calls saying, honey, it's never going to happen. This is impossible and I'm very familiar with it, but Dion Sanders decided that his brand wasn't going to stay in his lane and he created an entire business out of it somewhere along the way. We have been programmed to believe that because we already do like no other and, more recently, has cracked the code.

For the NFL's young female demographic now, a lot of people joke inappropriately about her relationships, but she's the one laughing all the way to the bench and into the history books. Her stories that she has captured in her songs have earned her 12 Grammy Awards and converted her. a billionaire not to mention that many of us spend money on a movie ticket to go to the movies and watch a movie of a concert recording. We also spend money to go see in real life. She did this by treating herself like a business. Taylor has mastered the art of bringing all her bits together into one brand, and that brand is simultaneously as relatable as the fan next door who dances awkwardly at awards shows, but also as respectable as one of the greatest minds around. in business now.

I would like us all to remove any definition of brand we have from our brains for a second, we have watered down that word and I would like to take it back, each of us has a story to tell, which means we all have a brand. A brand is basically like a personality, it is the culmination of the things you see or the feelings that are evoked or the experiences that you link to a product or a person. The truth is that your story is your brand and your brand is the business. How many Have you ever been asked or asked what you do?

I hate that

question

because we're not really asking what you do, we're asking what you do that pays you the most money or what you do that makes you the most money. You are relevant enough to talk to right now. What I learned is that a jack-of-all-trades mentality has become ingrained in us. They said you focus on one thing or you'll never succeed, but they left a big part of that out. I quote because the actual quote in its entirety attributed to Shakespeare I'm going to blow your mind is a jack of all trades, he's not a master of any, but he's better than a master of one, which means that as human beings we are destined innately to diversify. we are meant to do more than one thing we are meant to be specialists and generalists we are meant to harness our passions and merge them with our practical skills you might have a degree in marketing and also like to paint draw on some Nikes and sell them online or make yourself, do it for fun and curiosity to feed your own soul.

The companies we buy, the ones that shape the culture, do more than one thing and sometimes that doesn't even affect their results and sometimes the main thing we go to them for is not what is actually most successful, for For example, Michael Jordan is estimated to have made double his NBA career earnings last year alone with his Air Jordan brand, who can tell that this part of you that you may have ignored or not paid attention to for a while time, it couldn't be the most fruitful in a few years if you just put in the time and attention to take care of it and Foster, who can say, the wall you hit at 32. or the sport you have to retire from has to be the end of a career and not the beginning of one.

I truly believe that as human beings we should focus on the things we long for, connect with the things we are excited about, the things we are obsessed with that we can't wait to get home to do the things we text messages about. our best friend in caps about the things we value the things we feel in our head, our heart, our soul and then we are supposed to allow. Whether those things become the foundation of our brands, whether you're the barista or Mrs. Starbucks herself, the spirit of who you are is reflected in the work you do every day and in that energy when you're energized and you walk into that room to Doing that work can make you a lot of money, but it will also help you affect a lot of people.

We enroll our children in everything. We give them a safe space in the spa so they can focus on their passion and discover what they like and what they don't. I don't like it, but for some reason we don't give each other equal space and repress our Curiosities like adults, rallying behind the Moguls and the multiple hyenas and cheering when Rihanna went from singing about an umbrella to building multi-million dollar lingerie. and makeup lines and we end with Jay-Z saying I'm not a businessman I'm a businessman, but why do we give celebrities this freedom that we don't allow ourselves?

They are complex and dynamic, but so are I. like when we tap into those things that we really want to connect with is when we hit the gold mine, that's the same conclusion I came to as a creative director, musical director and talent, connection is the gold mine, that's why Taylor Swift doesn't. Not only does she sell albums and tickets, she sells stories and eras last March. She made a trip back to the Homeland. I made my first trip back to Egypt as an adult because I was desperately searching for some answers and I thought maybe if I won I could get some.

I stood in front of the pyramids for hours waiting for that magical moment when my ancestor was going to appear and say poof. , your anxiety is gone and here is some joy, yes, that didn't happen either and there is evidence in the puddle of The Tears of Mine that are in the Delta Lounge right now from a panic attack I had at the airport a few weeks ago upon returning home didn't magically make me feel complete, they just made me realize that there are still parts of me that I haven't colored. for a long time and I may be here giving a talk, but I'm still figuring it out.

I'm still in the trenches and honestly I'm just getting started which I hope we can all ask ourselves at some point and that The point may not be now, but at some pointwhat's your era tour what's your second sport what's that part of you that you've neglected that could use a little more color to paint a more vibrant life I believe we all have the permission and ability to pursue all of our passions at the same time. maybe and if we gave ourselves that space maybe one day we would be the CEO Pharaoh being with our friend Pharaoh dreaming up some triangles or something like that and trying to make a legacy that lasts. lives oh