 Welcome to Sister Power, I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, the first African American to serve in that role, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed carpool karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. Sister Power's VIP guest today, Taya Rice, founder of Tahirih Association, Teacher Girl Changer World, and Keisha King, keynote speaker, educator and mental health advocate. Aloha ladies, welcome. Aloha. Aloha. Thanks for coming again, Taya. My pleasure, my pleasure always. And before we start chatting about the number one book in the world becoming by Michelle Obama, Keisha King, I want to welcome you to the Think Tech family. Thank you. It is such a pleasure and an honor to be at this table with both of you esteemed ladies and it is a wonderful delight to be on Think Tech. Thank you for your warm welcome. Oh, you're absolutely welcome. This is such an exciting time for us right now that we have the first African American woman in her book is number one. Number one in the world. Number one in the world. In the world. And so, let's talk about becoming. What does the idea of becoming mean to you? You know, I have thought about this and just last night I was reflecting, if I were a young woman today, what would it mean to me? And I thought, you know, when I was in my twenties, I never thought I was becoming. I just was doing, being, trying, aspiring. I didn't realize what was happening to me. So then of course move into the thirties and with each decade, it's really not until you hit about for me, like fifties, where you say, wow, I have been becoming all this time. I will never actually be, I will always be becoming, transforming the butterfly coming out of the cocoon with more colors in my wings, more iridescence, more sheen, more power to fly. So we may think we're not getting it. We may think we're failing. We may think we're not as successful as we aspire to be. But you know, that's all part of becoming. And Michelle talks about that in the book. You have to have failures in your life to be able to appreciate success. That's how you learn. That's right. So it's okay. So my message to younger women would be, every day you are becoming, be glad for the experience you're having. Don't ever think you're going to be it all. You don't want to be it all. You always want to be becoming. That's where the power lies. Keisha. That was heavy. That was heavy. That was heavy. That was heavy. Deep. I wish I would have went first. You know. I want to ask a question. Come on. Come on. Come on. I just think becoming is just kind of delightful because it's two words, two verbs, and we're looking at both of them saying I am B, right? So I am. What you are right now is what you are, right? And then coming is something that hasn't fully happened yet, right? It's an action word that is always in the now. So for me, becoming is what I am right now and what is to come. And so I like the combination of the two of those because it gives you this essence of expectancy, right? And if I were to really describe how I personally feel about becoming, I would simply say that I am always expecting the great, right? Wherever I am right now, greater things are coming, right? And so I kind of feel like, especially as I read this book, that no matter where you are in life, be present. Be present in that moment, just be, right? And then you can be hopeful about what is to come. And I think that is what is so delightful about this book is that there's always this sense of something is brewing that is not yet here, but it's coming. It's coming. And that gets me overly excited because I know whatever it is is going to change, but what's coming is going to be even greater. I'd love that you highlighted hope. And I was reading something about Michelle when she was afraid to hope her husband could be president. She said, when her husband appeared on the cover of Time with the headline, Can Barack Obama be the next president, she stated she had a hard time even looking at it. This is what she says, I was doing what a lot of black folks do. We were afraid to hope, she said. It's hard to believe that the country that oppressed you could one day be led by you. So hope is just, I love the fact that we are really now speaking to the younger generation. So now they're growing up with seeing what we thought would never be. That's so true. I mean, can any of us ever forget the night that he won? I cried. Everybody was crying that it was otherworldly in many ways because for those of the eldest of us, the elders, you know, what they had been through, they were many who had been alive from slavery, children of slaves, and here to see this incredibly powerful, brilliant man and his beautiful wife, who was a descendant of slaves, to actually fulfill that American dream that nobody ever thought was going to happen. I never thought. I never thought, but boy, how fortunate and how lucky we were. We were at the inaugurations. We were there. We were in it of it, with it. Being a part of history, I think, for so many millions of people that experienced that, whether it was TV or right there in DC, we were invested. We were invested in it. This was our country. And so there was a great pride. And this is America. This is our America. And let's just hope, thank you for hope, let's hope that this current time passes swiftly and that we have that optimism again, that this country can be what it was intended to be, democratic, a union with unity of diversity of peoples. Keep hope alive. And you know what is so exciting about the book, too, is that in just a few days, we are having a first ever to happen in Hawaii. And it is going to be such an event. And I'm going to let you talk about that. But I just want to say that the overwhelming response we've gotten means that we likely have to do this royalty that's coming up. We have to do it again and very soon. Sharon, please explain about the royalty. I most certainly can. As a matter of fact, we have the invite that we can share with everyone. It is Sunday, standing on her shoulders. And listen again, there's hope again. My hope is that this book will inspire everyone to tap into their own journeys of becoming and to share their stories with one another. This is what I love about sisterhood. And you know, when you go on her webpage, I think we're almost sold out. But you can contact Tati and I. We may have a seat left. Two. We have two seats. Two seats. That's it. And it's going to be at the Kahala. You can see the background of Kahala is going to be at the veranda. And I'm getting calls right now. OK. It's at the royalty service. And after we discussed it, my girlfriends were kind of rubbing it in my face. Oh, I'm going to the book signing. What about Hawaii? I said, well, then I made a phone call. And then you go online. And then it says no event near Hawaii when you look at her book tour. So we thought about it. And I've done Sisterhood Park Hawaii. We've done book signings for many, many years. And this is the first book signing that Sisterhood Park Hawaii is having with no author. So this is a new one. But she's there. We have the main. Let's talk about the prize. The prize. The autographed copy by Michelle Obama of the book Becoming. I don't think anybody else has this in the state in Hawaii. So if you want to be the lucky, lucky winner of the auction, you will have the few signed, one of the few signed copies, maybe the only one in Hawaii for all that we know. It's so special. This is something that can be passed down to your daughters, your sons, your grandchildren. This is a legacy piece. It is a piece that will continue to empower subsequent generations. Not just us. Not just us. But my daughter, my granddaughter, everyone is excited about this. So we all have our copies of the book, but who's got a signed copy? A signed copy by the first lady. That's right. And I think she's traveling to Finland and Norway and all across the globe. And I'm so happy that Keisha will be there to enjoy. We're going to have a wonderful, beautiful, elegant crowd of beautiful women wearing clothes with one shoulder showing because we're going to honor Michelle and her shoulders, which are beautiful. And the wonderful thing is that the becoming book itself is not just a remarkable read. It is a symbol being the best-selling book ever now in history of the power of this individual. She is empowering others because she was empowered, empowered by her mother, empowered by her grandmother, empowered by her husband, empowered by her brother. So this is what standing on each other's shoulders is all about. We have to do that. We honor our kupuna. We stand on their shoulders just as the young ones will stand on ours. We owe this to them. Absolutely. Keisha, your thoughts. You and I had a wonderful conversation about the book. And you did bring out some very key points. So let's chat about that briefly. Sure. As I was reading, first of all, I both read the book and listened to it again on audiobooks so that I could hear her voice and her emotion behind what she was saying. And I absolutely loved the book. I loved how it was written. I loved how it was segmented into the three parts. And I also fell in love with Michelle Obama all over again, primarily because of her vulnerability. And I think she was both authentically who she was and fully aware of what it's like to be an African-American woman. And when you are an African-American woman in the spotlight, as she was, thrust into the spotlight, she knew that she had to be twice as good to get half as much. And she talked about that in the book. And she was also very honest about the fact that she didn't necessarily want her husband to get into politics at all. I got you. And we're going to continue. We're going to take a short break and we're going to come back and finish discussing becoming. Awesome. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. When I was growing up, I was among the one in six American kids who struggled with hunger and hungry mornings make tired days. Grumpy days. That kind of days. But with the power of breakfast, the kids in your neighborhood can think big and be more. When we're not hungry for breakfast, we're hungry for more. More ideas. More dreams. More fun. When kids aren't hungry for breakfast, they can be hungry for more. Go to hungarees.org and lend your time or your voice to make breakfast happen for kids in your neighborhood. Aloha and mabuhay. My name is Amy Ortega Anderson, inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power Hawaii. With Think Tech Hawaii, we come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday. We invite you to listen, watch for our mission of empowerment. We aim to enrich, enlighten, educate, entertain, and we hope to empower. Again, maraming, salamat po, mabuhay, and aloha. Welcome back to Sister Power. I'm here with my special guest, Taya Rice with Tahiré Association and Keisha King, educator and mental health advocate. And we're disgusting becoming by Michelle Obama, the number one book in the world. And what I'm getting excited about, again, we'll mention if you missed the first section, we're having a royalty service at Veranda, Epicahala, and we'll show a picture of the treats that you will see and taste and feel at the Kahala there you are right there. Isn't it fab? What royalty? We're dealing with royalty. Royalty at a royalty. At a royalty. And the beauty about this is we're doing exactly what Michelle said. Exactly what she said. She hopes to inspire women to come together, to talk together, to share ideas, to share challenges, to be there, you mentioned being present, that is so, so important. Be there for each other, be present for self, be present for friends, to really cut through the socio-dynamics that women have been burdened with in our society that we can't be friends with one another, that women are just, you know, they can't get things done when in reality we have always gotten things done. And it's now time for our brothers to move over and allow us to have more control and more influence and more input in policy and action to save our nation, to save our country, to save our globe. That's a good point, and Kisha, I want to read something that Tadia was speaking about and you can elaborate on it. Michelle says the difference between a broken community and a thriving one is the presence of women who are valued. Yeah, I agree with that wholeheartedly. I think what she understands and that old proverb understands is that it takes all of us, right? It takes sisterhood. Every person brings a different aspect and a different viewpoint and a way and manner of doing things that really helps the other. And so if there are some missing pieces to the puzzle, another person can bring that and add to it. And I think when you influence and properly educate women and help them to feel empowered and as you do on this show and when you are giving insight and wisdom to women that they help all things grow. You know, if a man gives a woman a house, she makes it a home and immediately it blossoms and flourishes into what it can be and should be and needs to be, right? We are by design receivers and receptors, right? We take what we have and we just work with it. And when we do that and we are combined with the men, right? I don't think they fully need to step aside. I think they need to continue what they're doing because men have their purpose, right? They certainly do a great job at most all of the things that they do. We just enhance it and add to it. Partnering. They need to be our partners. And that is something that we've got to do more of. And Michelle and Barack were such models of a partnership in how they functioned in the White House and even out of the White House. How they raised their children, how they conducted themselves with other nations. In everything they did, they were a true partnership. One did not shadow. One did not overwhelm the other. And you know, it's so important and I know that we all agree. Michelle talks about education. That it's so important that girls are educated, that they are valued and given education. Girls, you know, 70 million children around the world don't get a basic education and more than half of them are girls. So educating girls and women is something so close to my heart because the Tahirah Association gives education scholarships to girls and women around the world who demonstrate being agents of change in their community. Because if they empower their community, the whole village can change. The whole community, the whole region. So as we come together on Sunday at the Kahala for the Royal Tee for this royal woman, you know, we're going to exemplify all of that. Absolutely. And I'd like to, she says, choose people who lift you up. And I wanted to share a picture when I met Michelle Obama and Barack Obama, which I rarely share. And we'll, yes, please show the picture now. This was the most exciting, usually I am never without words, but when I met them, the kindness, the generosity, I just felt like he was my brother and she was my sister. They embraced me. And this is the real deal. This is what we're getting. The book, the how she speaks and how she, you said that you had her on audio and when you read her book, we can feel exactly what she feels. It was so real. And I was talking to you ladies earlier that I read something that she said that he was late for. Oh, the date. First date. Yes. He was late for the first date. And she was saying, okay, well, this black man is late. And then with his smooth, cool self-walked and leaned in and gave her a kiss and she said, well, that's my man. I love him. That's my man. And this is how we talk. Really, this is how ladies who went to get together, this is how we do. You know, I think their authenticity was probably a singular, most powerful piece of them. I love it. Everybody can feel it. It's palpable. They're real. It's exciting. They're not part of a dynasty of politicians or wealthy Americans. They were real. They went to real school. They shopped for groceries. They, you know, they were like us. They were normal people. And I think that showed in everything they did and their concerns and love and care for others, whether it was small children or whether it was world leaders. As I mentioned before though, I also think that it's really good because they were vulnerable. They were not perfect. They didn't come up in a wealthy family, but Michelle's family was most idealistic. There was a time when we could say things like they were the cause of the cause of the speech, but that might not be good nowadays. But, right, right? But I think growing up in a two-parent home and, you know, you have your spouse, your husband, and your two girls, I think that's amazing and wonderful that she had that environment and the community that surrounded her that made her feel so secure and welcome. But there is this thought that they did all of that and worked really hard, especially Michelle, academically, but she did go to Ivy League schools. So if you remember, in the back, in the beginning of the campaigning, they were saying, oh, these two elitists, they went to Ivy League schools and they did this and they did that, right? And I just love the fact that she was so real as to say all of the various trials that they faced in that process. So, yes, we went to Ivy League schools. Yes, I grew up in a wealth, a decent family with a decent family life, but I'm still Michelle. I'm still shell, right? And so I just embraced every aspect of her that was truly authentic, but imperfect. Imperfect. Because we, and she said it in her book, we have a tendency to think everything must be perfect. True, and it's just not true. The reality was acknowledging that they weren't perfect. Right, like when they had marital problems and they went to therapy. That's right. And he wasn't too excited about going to therapy. That allowed me to see him in a different light to say, oh, okay, most men aren't excited about therapy, especially in that community. Yeah, two teenage girls, you know, daughters, that's a very difficult time for any family, any parent, any teen. Just, I don't know. I mean, we aren't deifying them. They were human. They were very, very real. And I think we celebrate them for their being so real. Right, yeah. And so they're like us. I don't think any of us think they're not. I think that we all relate to them. And because they come to Hawaii every year, and because we, most people in Hawaii love them and consider them ohana, they get space, they get privacy, they get time, they're welcome, they're at home here because they come back every year. This is their comfort zone. And we should all be just so proud of that that we can give them the aloha that they have given to others. Very well said. And I also like what she says that we need to start focusing on what matters, on how we feel and how we feel about ourselves. And I think what her book is also stating is how she felt about herself from the beginning, coming from humble beginnings, to striving and working hard. And striving to, just to class your lady, being very gracious. And then also teaching her daughters under a microscope. So we have to matter to ourselves first. You don't love yourself, how can you love someone else? Exactly. And she stressed that women need to have a cadre of girlfriends. That our emotional support system comes from the girlfriends that we have, the loyalty that we've developed between a sister's ship with others. And so, you know, back to the royalty, this is the beginning of developing sister ships with diverse women, with a group of women in Hawaii that are all shaker movers. I mean, there's going to be some incredibly dynamic women at this first royalty. And I guess we have to start preparing for a second royalty. They're asking for a second one. So stay tuned. And we'll show you the invite once again at the Kahala. But I'm glad that you were talking about that because she says, walk away from friendships that make you feel small and insecure. And seek out people who inspire you and support you. And what I like about, when I found out Keisha was on Think Tech, immediately I reached out to you. And you immediately embraced me. What? And then I told Tati about you. And she said, I can't wait to meet her. This is what sisterhood is all about. Indeed. That's right. Networking women together, it's not about business. You know, we think of networking as business. No, no. It's about dimensions of relationship. Sometimes it ends up with a material benefit. But that's not usually the drive. The drive is usually friendship, support. Michelle says, I'm paraphrasing probably badly. But if it doesn't serve you, if people don't serve you, serve your purpose, serve your values, serve who you are, don't bother. Don't bother. I like them because we're coming to a close. I mean, we can go on and on and on. And I like what you were saying. And so Keisha, just give me your thoughts on, we only have a minute or so. So Tati, you take 30 seconds and you take 30 seconds and let's finish speaking about becoming. I think it's a wonderful book. I think if you've been under a rock and you don't have it, get it. Right? But I also think that it just speaks to sisterhood. It speaks to humanity as a whole. And the future. There's so many things out that say the future is female. I don't disagree with that. On my Instagram page at Crossroads Traveler, I have a picture of two coins. One is a nickel. One is a dime. And the caption says, the size of your circle may decrease, but it increases in value. So a nickel is much larger looking than a dime, but it has less value. But when you close that circle and you have a smaller piece, it increased in value because of the dime. And so I would encourage everyone to do that as I have done. All right? That is a great metaphor. Can I use it? Thank you. That was great. We're going to borrow it because that's what women do. That is what women do. So I just want to thank Michelle Obama for allowing me to understand that I am becoming. And I will continue to celebrate in my becoming as I celebrate my sisters as we all become. Well, Sister Power, I want to thank you, Tadia Rice, and I want to thank you, Keisha King, for coming on Sister Power, discussing becoming. And out to Sister Power viewers, Oceans of Aloha, peace, blessings, love. I'm Sherri Yarbrough, your host, Sister Power Aloha.