HELLO João, here! Glad you're here. Before you start digging in to this email, I want to make sure you know it's a part-TWO to the first part of the story that I sent your way yesterday! It'll make a heck of a lot more sense if you've read the beginning. So, search "You really should know the whole story…" in your inbox if you can't find it and check out that one first.
I feel like I should back up a little bit in the story because before I sat down, before the spicy mezcal drink, and the awkward mic drop hand motion happened, I had a conversation that left me with the biggest lump in my throat and tears down my eyes. One of the photographers shooed me into a photo and I was blinking so aggressively as to not let an actual tear slip out and ruin the photo but as my body was herded into a photo op, my brain was lingering on the words that had just been said.
I was talking with a lady president of an international brand, and to keep her story private, I don't want to share her name, but truth be told, this woman is POWERFUL. She's also kind and captivating, but she has a tougher shell around her that likely got her to where she is today: a trailblazer and a boss. She asked me where the baby was, I laughed and said, "She's in Hawaii with her daddy" and clinked my champagne glass to hers and she looked me in the eye and said, "Did you know that it took me EIGHT rounds of IVF to have my daughter?"
I shook my head "no" and totally froze. I had NO idea.
I asked her, "How many times in those 8 IVF cycles did you give up?" Expecting her to answer something along the lines of: a million and one. And she looked me in the eye and said, "Never." I was dumbfounded. IVF is an intense process. It's emotional, freaking expensive, exhausting, and filled with hope and grief with each cycle. I couldn't believe that a woman could throw herself in the ring that many times without giving up or losing hope.
I asked her, "How the hell did you keep going?"
She said, "After the 7th try, the doctor told me it was time to give up, that it was over and all hope was lost. I told him I wanted ONE more go around because once upon a time, Brooke Shields shared her story with the world and that it took her eight times and I knew if she could do it eight times, so could I."
I paused, trying to take it all in. Thoughts filled my head as I sipped the bubbles, trying to buy myself time before vocalizing a proper response. I said to her, "Can you imagine if Brooke had never shared her story? If she had kept THAT piece of her life to herself? Would your daughter be here today?"
She said to me, "Wow, I guess I never thought of that. No, I would have given up 100%."
That night she kicked off the event and shared our conversation with a room full of women, some of them her employees and friends for years. She had never told a soul what it took for her to have her baby. Her right hand gal found me later in the night and said, "I know her like the back of my hand and I had no idea that she went through that."
A lot of times in life we feel like in order to be an expert or make an impact we need a signed degree with a gold foiled stamp. We've bought into the lie that that gives us permission when in reality, life is teaching you lessons every day. You're just not stuck in a classroom with fluorescent lights and a teacher with coffee breath.
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