 Welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Sister Power's vision is that women everywhere will learn to live as sisters, to respect each other's wounds, to promote each other's progress and to benefit from each other's knowledge. Our vision is to create activities and services designed exclusively to increase women's networking opportunities and to build the knowledge and skills that can lead to self-sufficiency and empowerment. And I'm so happy today to have a very special guest with us, Tadia Rice, owner of Rice Consulting. Welcome, Tadia. Thank you, Sharon. It is an absolute joy to be with you today. You do realize you were the first person I met when I came to Hawaii. Oh, another first? Yes, another first. I love it. Oh, this is what I love about this. And our title today is How to Help Women to Succeed. And you are the perfect, perfect guest to lead us on this journey. And so we have so much to talk about. I do. And so let's just get started. All right. How about that? All right. Again, we have Tadia, Dame Tadia Rice, who is a knight in the chivalric orthodox order of Saint John right here in Hawaii. You all do such good work for others. And now you have become part of an only 90 native born and naturalized who won the 2017 Ellis Island Medal of Honolulu a few months ago in Hawaii. Congratulations, Tadia. Now I have a quick question for you. Sure. And this was over a month ago. So you're just coming back from New York from this prestigious award. How do you feel? It is indeed an honor. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is given every year to less than 100 Americans, was so exceptional. And I had no idea what it was going to be like. And it was indeed an honor. I've never been honored in such a significant way full of pomp and circumstances. And on Ellis Island with the Statue of Liberty next to us, it was very significant and very symbolic. And I was very happy to join so many people that I've admired for so long. And here I was among them. Wow. Well, you're the perfect person. You've done such good work. You're a keynote speaker. You're a consultant. You're a star. You're a star. You've acted in films. And you have several books under your belt. Let me ask you this. The Ellis Medal of Honor ranks among the nation's most renowned awards, given to those who have shared knowledge, compassion, exceptional talents and abilities. And significant philanthropic and humanitarian contributions to this country. In a spirit of generosity. And the lofty ideals of democracy. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have officially recognized the Ellis Island medals of honor. And every recipient is listed in the congressional record. That includes you now. Yes, it does. And I was very happy to be representing Hawaii to do so. Thank you. Oh, it was remarkable. I mean, pictures tell the story much better than I can. But what was so wonderful was to be with people. And what most excited me was that the youngest ever medal of honor recipient is Malala Yusefzai. The young Pakistani girl who was shot in the head because she believed in education and still does and is a warrior fighter for women around the world for education. And of course that is exactly what I feel as well. And then I got to meet Hamid Ulekaya, who's the Turkish fellow who came to the U.S. with nothing. And he started Chobani Yogurt. And it has become not only the number one selling yogurt product, but he has a very humane business, a very human way of treating his employees, and actually become stockholders in the company. And it's just a very new model of doing business that I really hope others will embrace. That sounds absolutely wonderful. And just a little intimidating with all these fabulous people. So tell me, so who are some of the other medalists? Oh, my goodness. Well, what was very interesting was that, you know, there's no bill. No bill laureates. So many, there's like 2,000 people in the 31 years that this award has been given. There were no bill laureates, civil rights leaders like Coretta Cots, Scott King, and Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, who I had the honor of marching with. And in the day, Elie Wiesel, political leaders, Madeline Albright and Joe Biden, Charlie Rangel, who I also had a chance to be with, what a charmer he is. Then this year, in this class, I was with Buzz Aldrin, 87 years old. That man walked on the moon, and if he could go back and walk on it again, he would. He, no glasses, fit as a fiddle, amazing man, truly. And he actually spoke, and his message was that we are always discovering this is an adventure and that we must remain committed to discovery in the universe, starting with ourselves, of course. So that was really wonderful. Deepak Chopra has received the award. Dr. Oz, who I was also with in New York. Ruth Westheimer, who is a kick. And there's also other medalists, Mike Wallace and Diane Sawyer. Oh, why? And this year, Fareed Zakaria, of whom I'm a fan, for sure. And we were together and had a talk, and I invited him to Hawaii, and he's never been. And so I do hope he will come. His kids were very, very anxious. So it was great. It was great. Sounds like it. I see that seven U.S. presidents have also won in three secretaries of state. All women, by the way. Yes, ma'am. I'm not hearing that. All about empowering women. And our all-long-serving senator, the Honorable Daniel Inouye, was among the very first group in 1986 when the medals were first given. And I had the opportunity to meet the gracious Senator Daniel Inouye. And so tell me more. Well, it is an amazing history to how and why these medals began. And, you know, initially there were a lot of celebrities and noted people, Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Paul Simon, Penny Marshall, Natalie Cole, Gloria Estefan. Very diverse group. It was really wonderful. And Eddie Olmos, who of course I know from early days, Casey Kasem, Alex Haley, Martin Scorsese. So there was a host of celebrities early on. Now it is more about scientists and a lot of sports figures who have been Olympians. I mean, Muhammad Ali won the first year, Evander Holyfield. A lot of really remarkable people. I mean, everybody has done something or things. A lifetime of work, a special discovery of some kind, a scientific breakthrough. Something that moves forward humanity and moves forward the country and our nation in terms of being innovative and modern and just wonderful. Wow. You know, in the first year of the award with Senator Inouye was a remarkable Muhammad Ali, as she spoke earlier. And the list of medalists reads like a who's who of sport. Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mano, Arthur Ashe, Tommy Lasorda. I remember those days when Tommy Lasorda, sure. Evander Holyfield had the opportunity to see him fight in Las Vegas with Markable and Arnold Palmer. So tell me more. Well, I mean, it is a who's who. It really is a who's who. So for me, to now be among who's who's is very exceptional. And I was indeed extremely honored to be among such caliber of individuals. Wow. Do you know why you were chosen to receive the Medal of Honor? Well, I don't know the specifics of the panel that identified me. But one, I knew a previous medalist and you're nominated only by previous medalists. And so this friend of mine, who's known me for 40 years, literally witnessed my lifetime of trying to break ceilings in the corporate world and entertainment and international relations. She watched me develop my career as a management consultant. And ironically, we both became organizational dynamic experts and keynote speakers as well. So we have a lot of notes to compare. But she saw that I was very consistent in my fights for promoting women's rights and the rights of marginalized communities, the elimination of racism, trying to make the world a better place. She was very close to me when I was creating the Tahare Association, which is a nonprofit and we've educated 22 girls around the world. With the criteria being that they are agents of change in their communities. They don't have to have the best grades, but they have to be an agent of change in their community. So she saw me through different board commitments that I've made that benefit social and economic marginalized communities. And she knows that for the last six years I've been volunteering at Kailua's Women's Prison, the Hawaii Women's Correctional Center. And I often tell great stories about how wonderful these women are who I have the privilege of working with. Before we switch gears, we have your beautiful award that's displayed here. And tell me a little bit, when they awarded you this beautiful award here, what was going through your mind? I don't know. It was overwhelming. And you're behind this stand up of the medals and they present it to you on your neck and there's pictures and flashing cameras. And you don't really get it until it's over. And then you're very swiftly moved to here and you sit on a dais and you're doing things and it's like a three hour program followed by an incredible dinner actually in the Ellis Island Museum. All this is placed on the island. So you're ferried over and I mean it's very well coordinated and one thing happens after another. And you watch as everybody else is shown because your picture is on this jumbotron and they specify who you are, what you do and what your ethnic background is. And so you kind of begin to see the bigger picture. There were 37 ethnic groups represented. 37. So it was interesting to see people from all over the world and these are a lot of newer immigrants. So you had people from Iran and Turkey and Korea and China and Cuba and various places around the globe who were new immigrants. Then you have your older fifth generation and third and fourth generation Americans with Italian extraction or Polish or Eastern European or wherever. So as it happened, as it unfolded you began to see what this was because I really hadn't been able to appreciate what it was because I've never been. And so by the end of the night you do feel honored. All four branches of the military are there. They traditionally participate. They honor you as you walk in and up and at every point they're saluting you and they're playing music and it's extremely patriotic and very, very American. So it was really something I hadn't quite experienced in the same way as any other experience that I've had. Now can anyone attend? I mean once you're honored and you receive this letter I'm sure there was a special letter. How was it delivered to you? Was it via email? No, a formal mail, a formal invitation, a formal letter. Everything was very formal. Snail mail and they call you, they talk to you, they ensure that you can attend because if you can't attend you can't go. And first choices are for the medallists and their guests and then previous medallists and their guests. So it's not really open to the public. It's really quite elite and exclusive to people who are within that medallist community and of course politicians, the New York, and because it takes place in New York you have a lot of New York people. Well I'm excited to hear more and we're going to take a short break and we'll come back with Tanya Rice and finish this journey. Thank you. Aloha, my name is Raya Salter and I'm the host of Power Up Hawaii which you can see live from 1 to 130 every Tuesday at thinktechhawaii.com and then later on YouTube. I am an energy attorney, clean energy advocate and community outreach specialist and on Power Up Hawaii we come together to talk about how can Hawaii walk towards a clean, renewable and just energy future. To do that we talk to stakeholders all over the spectrum from clean energy technology folks to community groups to politicians to regulators to the utility. So please join us Tuesdays at one o'clock for Power Up Hawaii. Aloha, I'm Tim Apachea host for Moving Hawaii Forward a show dedicated to transportation issues and traffic. We identify those areas where we do have problems in the state but also the show is dedicated to trying to find solutions not just detail our problems. So join me every other Tuesday on Moving Hawaii Forward. I'm Tim Apachea. Thank you. Welcome back to Sisters Power. Your host Sharon Yarbrough and we're here with Tadia Rice owner of Rice Consulting and we have a lot more to cover and I think today is how to help women to succeed and we have the perfect woman here. We're going to change gears a little bit. We want to talk about your prison work and has so much impact on the women at Hawaii's Women's Community Correctional Center. What do you share with them? It has been such a fulfillment working with the women in prison who were incarcerated and what I was able to do was really create a totally different program of basically skills building and I help them build self-esteem and self-confidence which is what they need so so much. They also need education so essentially I do the same work with them as I would do with the CEO or leader of any organization. Their work is to learn to be comfortable speaking in front of people to have emotional and mental clarity to be able to think through situations impulse control which all of us have to work on to how to communicate clearly which is a very strong part of what I do for CEOs and leaders how to develop emotional intelligences and a host of other skill sets that is really important for anyone to better themselves improve perfect continue to strive for excellence and for them especially it is a healing piece they are able to heal once they have knowledge and self-reflection. Wow and I want people to know that you've mentored me throughout the years as well and I appreciate that I love this platform because sometimes you never have a chance to just sit down and have girl talk and really find out the more details what our friends are doing so let's move forward so you are recognized for having lived an extraordinary life of generosity to others which you share with us with the women's prison it's no surprise you've been recognized by the United Nations U.S. Congress California State Senate and the cities of Atlanta Honolulu and Los Angeles Yes Los Angeles was home to me for a very long time before I moved to South Africa and before I came to Hawaii and one of the wonderful things we have in Kama is we were both Angelenos at one time at one time in our life and we knew a lot of the same people Mayor Tom Bradley and Congresswoman Ambassador Senator Diane Watson were very helpful in many ways and been involved you know when I was young I was always searching for truth as an adolescent so when I was a teenager I learned about the Baha'i Faith and the teachings there really were very sensible and the teachings were every single human being should have a craft a profession, a skill and once they attain that as they work in that they strive for excellence and perfection and when you do that your work actually becomes service to others so service is a linchpin unity is a linchpin and when you're able to incorporate that kind of spiritual component that motivation to do well do good for others as well as yourself and your family it's amazing the opportunities that come to you the rewards of how good it feels to do good work and be a good human I don't want to do anything unless it's a feel good thing and I think that's our brand I think more people should incorporate that if it feels good it is good and so tell me what was your take away from the Ellis Island medals of honor very interesting it was great to see the diversity of individuals being honored those 37 ethnic groups really did span the globe it was a celebration of immigrants and you know in America we're always celebrating the immigrants and their contributions to the United States for me though as I sat on the dais looking out at the thousand people who were essentially there to honor us not all of us are immigrants and not all of us have immigrant backgrounds and as I was thinking about it I realized you know immigrants benefited really from the contributions and sacrifice of the First Nations people of this land who were wonderful stewards Malama Honua same thing that Hawaiians do and that we want to strive for the world to do they took care of that land of course it was taken from them stolen from them genocide committed against them and then it was enslaved Africans who were then forced to work the land and literally on their backs build this country buildings bridges everything you name it so for me I thought you know I wonder if immigrants realize that they have benefited from the sacrifice that they suffered and they have now benefited so I really hope that Americans and anyone that I talked to can realize that we have to acknowledge this truth and we have to celebrate and honor First Nations people enslaved Africans colonists and immigrants when we talk about how great America is because it wouldn't be great if it weren't for every one of those communities so today more than ever all of us are called on to show the same kind of courage that all of those communities demonstrated when they were either forced to leave their land forced to work and build the country come to new lands that they didn't have opportunities in before and and become a great nation because of those elements and factors I feel the passion that you're and I see that your eyes are watering up and I see how passionate you feel about this so this has really impacted you this journey receiving this prestigious award and I like your take on that and I'm glad you had the chance to share to the thousands of women and men who are listening to this show we need to keep that in mind America's identity is very very big we have to be informed and not everyone is school is never out you have an extensive background that crosses so many industries you are a playwright and performer with two CDs that competed for Grammys how did you achieve all of this well first of all I started out very young second of all I'm now very old so this time I had a lot of time to do this I didn't do it in a week or two but I was I don't know why it is but from childhood I always was curious always inquisitive I mean to the extent that people really didn't like me asking all the questions that I asked but I always wanted to learn more and more and more so I was very willing to learn anything and everything even if I didn't get it like physics but I want to learn about it and I also realized that if you work hard and you learn everything you can and then you begin to identify opportunities and seize them life rewards you and you can't anticipate what those opportunities are you won't know what they are but you say yes always say yes you are a popular keynote speaker whose presentation lead with aloha actually proves the science of aloha how did that happen? accidentally like most things happen to me in my life I was so fortunate I had been coming to Hawaii for a very long time since the 70s and I knew that one day I would move here and stay here and be here but I had other things I had to do before then when I got here I was completely astounded when I learned about Aunty Pilahipaki who created the aloha spirit it was actually called the pacific prayer initially and eventually the legislature adopted it as the aloha spirit law it's actually a law on our books so there were these five aspects of what is in aloha she took the words of aloha in english and made acronyms for them but she was much much deeper than that I know the depth of how far she went with this so I then got to befriend Kumu Ramzi Tom who became my cultural Kumu and I just adore this man and his knowledge and of course he was one of her students so he really schooled me about Aunty Pilahipaki and as I learned more and more about the different components of aloha I said why does this work I mean it works but why so my curious mind started researching what happens socially, psychosocially what happens physiologically when we express kindness and perseverance and unity and all of these parts that comprise the aloha spirit and so I contextualized those and I then was able to explain an often to audiences the mainland to come here a lot of businesses that if you incorporate these behaviors in your life with your family with your employees with your coworkers your leadership skills and ability exponentially increases and I use examples and I show exactly how and people get it they get aloha and they see it's deeper than just hello goodbye we have so much more to cover and our time is ended thank you so much Tadia we'll have to do a part 2 how do we help women to succeed aloha aloha