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Sam Meraj, Senior Director of Quality, Safety and Reporting @ Walmart | Liquid Assets - YouTube
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[Music]
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hi
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i'm carly jos and i lead partnerships
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and business development at learnluxe
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i'm joined today by sam mirage the
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senior director of quality
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safety and reporting at walmart for our
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liquid assets interview series
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where we have candid conversations about
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money and career
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so sam thank you so much for joining me
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today
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thank you so much cardi it's a pleasure
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to meet you yeah
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great to meet you as well and you know
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since we call this
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liquid assets i have to ask um are you
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drinking anything funds today what's
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filling your cup
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i am drinking some tea
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yeah it's pretty amazing it's indian tea
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and it's very aromatic and strong
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i love that i love that i have a little
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bit of chai tea myself
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so love that love the smells and
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everything coming through
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great well we have some exciting
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questions for you um so why don't we go
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ahead and get things started
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yes please go ahead perfect and so i'd
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love to kick this off with more of a fun
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icebreaker type question
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um seeing that we're all working from
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home and everything what is one
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unusual or interesting thing on your
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desk right now
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oh i have it right here here is my
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dumbbell
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i because because you know one thing
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that i've learned
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in working from home initial days when
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you're working from home
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your mental and physical health kind of
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takes the back seat because you're so
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focused on work
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um and one thing that i learned was we
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can take better care of our customer
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when we are taking better care of
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ourselves so between the meetings or
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whenever i get time i like to work out
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a little bit that's amazing that's so
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smart i'll i'll
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go up and take a little walk around my
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apartment or something but i never
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thought to keep a dumbbell on my desk i
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think
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that's a life hack i might have to steal
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[Laughter]
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that's why i shared it carly yeah thank
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you
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um amazing okay so shifting gears a
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little bit into more of those money and
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career questions
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people say that hindsight is everything
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so i'd love to look backwards a little
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bit
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um and the question i have is if you
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could go back in time
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and meet with your 16 year old self
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what's one piece of financial guidance
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that you would share
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i would tell my 16 year old self to
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invest in myself and and you know that's
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a lesson that
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probably i have learned a little too
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late in my life like i won't sit too
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late but
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it took me some time to get there
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because as women
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we tend to put our families before us we
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tend to put our teams before us we tend
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to put
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everybody else before us but the way
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what
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investing in myself looks like is you
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know it is important for my mental and
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physical well-being
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and it is important for my career
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development because if i have to take
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that
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course i will if i want to pursue a
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certification i will
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if i have to invest in a degree i will
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and if i have to invest in things like
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travel and um you know a better wardrobe
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for myself
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or if i want to give myself um you know
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a
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little prize i i will do that because
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that is important for my happiness
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and my well-being so true i love that
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it's so
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i feel like in order to invest in others
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we need to invest in ourselves first
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so i love that absolutely yeah
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amazing and another look-back question
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maybe a little further down the line
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from when you were 16
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i think something that so many people
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look forward to is that first paycheck
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they get from that first job
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so i'd love to know once you got that
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paycheck what did you do with it did you
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save it did you have a specific thing in
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mind that you wanted to buy with it
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um currently i'm a foodie when i got my
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first paycheck
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i am happy to share that i spent it all
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on food
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and i went to all my favorite
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restaurants that month to eat
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everywhere that i wanted to eat and i
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could never afford to
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i still i i look back and i have no
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regrets
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that's amazing that's such a good way to
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spend it do you remember what kind of
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food you got or what's your favorite
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food now
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now my favorite food is indian food
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pakistani food i like more spices but at
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that time
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i remember that i had my first sushi
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meal
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which was a very special meal because i
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had never had sushi in my life
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and i went to my first lebanese
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restaurant
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which was another delicacy because i had
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never had it
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that's definitely a great splurge for
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that trying sushi for the first time
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i love it so now
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present tense what's one big financial
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goal that you might be saving up for
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right now so
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now my uh mantra on saving
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is that i try to max out my retirement
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accounts
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and i think that that's the goal that i
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don't hope to retire anytime soon and i
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hope to keep working
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but that is something that i religiously
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try to max out
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my retirement accounts and there is one
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advice that i'll
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give to my fellow colleagues and uh
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young women as well
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that save when you can and again
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investing in yourself
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first safe for your retirement then also
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say for other goals
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but maxing out your retirement is an
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important tool and it's going to
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it's going to pay you over time right
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that's a great way to think about it and
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i think
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my next question follows up on that
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really well i know you said you're not
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looking to retire anytime soon but you
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have
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a dream retirement in mind of what you'd
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like to do once you have
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all of that free time i would love to be
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on a beach and i'll tell you that i i
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would like to continue
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working as long as i can i would totally
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work in a way where it contributes to
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the world
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like writing books or teaching or taking
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like a back seat and a more relaxed job
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or a more relaxed task
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but yeah somewhere on a beach give me
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some palm trees
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give me some good food and that's my
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dream retirement
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that sounds perfect i want that right
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now right
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yeah especially in the pandemic
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absolutely yeah
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amazing so now shifting gears again to
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talk a little bit more about your career
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you've had some amazing experiences
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throughout your career having
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your background in medicine and public
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health and now your current role at
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walmart
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but what i'd love to know is if you
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weren't doing this your specific role
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right now
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what other role do you think you would
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have i know you mentioned maybe being a
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teacher or something down the road would
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be a dream is that
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kind of what you'd love to be doing
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right now as well actually
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i have taught along with working at
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walmart or previously my job
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when i was at the health department i
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used to teach in an mph
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program and i did that for eight years i
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have had many
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different jobs even outside of medicine
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and science i was a radio jockey at one
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point
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and i worked in media quite a bit it is
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very hard for me to imagine
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not doing public health or not being in
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health care because that is what my
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passion is
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um i think if i was not in my current
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role
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i would be pursuing something else but
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within health care
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yeah that makes sense i mean you're
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you're impacting people's lives every
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day with the work you do so that's
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really inspiring and
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and thank you for it for everything
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you're doing as well that's amazing
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um and another career question is what
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advice do you have for
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women who might be entering the
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workforce in 2021 whether they're
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changing careers or coming right out of
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college what do you think is one
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piece of advice that they would benefit
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from
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i would say one common mistake that i
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see
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young women making is that don't
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underestimate yourself you know you are
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worth
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more than you think you are capable of
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more than you think always keep
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challenging yourself reinventing
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yourself
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and don't underestimate your abilities
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if there is a new skill set that you
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think you don't have today
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but you would like to have go pursue it
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go pursue your dream
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apply for the dream job and and you know
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don't underestimate yourself
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yeah i love that and that ties back to
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what you were saying before about how
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when you want to improve your skill set
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you take a course on it or
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taking that time to really learn and
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pursue what you're passionate about
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that's so important to share
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um and for women to pursue it to achieve
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their dreams
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well i think we have a few minutes left
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so i have a few more fun questions that
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i'd love to
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to ask if that's okay part of it amazing
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okay first one thinking back to money
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true or false
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money can't buy happiness
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so money can buy happiness it it can't
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make you happy it's not the soul factor
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that's gonna make you happy
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but it is easier to be happy with money
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than it is to be without money which is
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why i would say we always have to
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negotiate our salary it's
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not all that you work for but it is
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important part
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of what you work for very true next
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question what has been your favorite
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work from home purchase so far aside
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from the dumbbell
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[Laughter]
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my favorite work from home purchase is
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actually my elliptical
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because you know being in office you get
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to walk around quite a lot
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and initial days of work from home i
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felt like i was not taking care of
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myself
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so it makes me feel a lot better it
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gives me those endorphins that
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get me going and i am in a upbeat mood
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throughout the day
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so that's really my favorite purchase
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during this pandemic
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i love that i found the same thing when
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i started working from home i had to
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force myself to wake up in the morning
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and do the same walk that i would do for
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my for my commute just to make sure i
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was getting that activity but i like
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your idea with the elliptical for the
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you know one other purchase that i would
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like to mention i did buy my first puppy
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because i don't think of him as a thing
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more like you know a
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member of the family but really that has
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brought a lot of excitement to my family
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and
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i think that has been great as well oh
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wow that's really exciting
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okay last question in honor of
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international women's day and women's
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history month
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who is one woman who has inspired you in
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your career
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that's a very hard question that is very
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hard for me to say
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to pick out one woman that that i would
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say
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has inspired me but i'll tell you that i
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still read back on the story of florence
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nightingale
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when i was a little girl and i used to
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think about healthcare that was a story
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that i would read
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again and again and again because you
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know the
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spirit of helping human beings
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i think it impacted me at a deeper level
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and i would say that that's
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one moment that impacted me at a very
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young age and brought me
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to the field where i am yeah that's
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amazing she's definitely
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a woman i think we can all look up to
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and admire
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so i love that answer great well those
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are all of the questions that i have
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thank you again sam for
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for allowing us to shine light on your
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amazing career your
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amazing guidance for other women
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enjoying the workforce i think
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you have some amazing insights and
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experiences that i love being able to
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highlight
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thank you so much cardi it's a pleasure
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to speak with you and thank you so much
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for the opportunity
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yeah yeah thank you as well and everyone
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stay tuned for
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our next episode of liquid assets we're
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excited to see you then
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