Episode 99: Welcome back to the Mindset Chick Podcast, I am so happy to have you here, I'm your host Kristi Dear. Today, we have a very special guest, somebody that I'm very excited to introduce you to, Charmaine Williams. Charmaine is known for her joyful energy, authenticity and true collaborative spirit, her zeal for inspiring others to realize their best potential. She is a passionate advocate, champion and storyteller who breaks barriers to drive deeper personal connections, living by example, she's inspired others by being bold and unafraid to expose her own personal vulnerabilities.
Ready? Listen in...
EPISODE NOTES:
• I just love for you to share about this video and why you felt like it was so needed. Yes, so it was actually a collaboration with my friend Camille Thompson, who's also the director of M.O.M. Crew, which is a dance team I'm a part of, with a bunch of other amazing, incredible, strong women. It's definitely a sisterhood. And so, Camille oftentimes will come up and say, Hey, let's do a video, I'm going to do a video about this or that, and then she actually asked me to collaborate with her on this video concept. And so there is a song by Mary J. Blige called Good Morning gorgeous, and we actually did contemporary dancing to that video, choreographed by someone else as well. And so after that... And we were like, Okay, what do we do with this? So there was a lot of back and forth on what does the song mean? There's different words within the song and it really resonated with so many different women that are part of the team, and we really wanted to release and do a video where we could have impact really in showing not only our dance abilities, because it is a dance video, but it is also a video about body image and what we as women go through. As you to look at, especially his mothers, because everyone that's part of M.O.M. Crew is also a mom. So not only do we have some of the own insecurities that we have just as women, but also as mothers. We're really hard on ourselves, it's challenging to carry the weight of making sure that you're doing the right things for your kids, second guessing that, but then also trying to be a woman in this world where there's a lot of criticism. (03:15)
• On time, there's a daily struggle for millions of women that have to go through that all the time, and there's a ton of single mothers that are out there. And so that was one of the stories that we featured in the video, and she's actually the featurette, at that's part of that video where essentially she's going through this, she's trying to talk herself up, and as she goes through, all of her friends are there to say, You know what, we're going to care for you and we're going to take you out. Right where we get her kind of glammed up, make her still amazing and incredible, have a wonderful time with your sisters. But know that even though each and every one of those women are going through the struggles, towards the end, you start to see how do they individually overcome each of those struggles that are represented in the video, because it's not just about a sad time and let's go feel sad and be sorry for ourselves, you know, as we're going through, it's really about making sure that we are lifting each other up, which is exactly what M.O.M. Crew is about, and then making sure that everyone feels loved. And so you can see that we're in these neutral kind of outfits, we really wanted to take away all of the glitz and the glamor and really just show that it's really about rallying around and making sure that we all feel incredible about ourselves despite what the circumstances might be.(08:11)
• It's really incredible, there's nothing like it. That's what made this video. What you would call easy to do, it wasn't because nothing was manufactured, and it's the real authenticity of each and every woman coming across and trying to make sure even after the footage, with all the footage we have, how do we go in and make sure that we're picking the best part and working with the videographer and cutting those together, and you've got a really short time to tell that story. But it's so important to tell, and there will be more, there will be more like this, but it was really the first collaboration that Camille and I did, and I think it's incredible. I really just took what her vision was for M.O.M. Crew, and then the experiences that each and every one of us had, and we kind of put that together for everybody to see because those are the things like in the video that behind the scenes, we see from each and every member of the team. That's what makes us a sisterhood, because everybody feels so comfortable in sharing really personal parts of their life, but can trust each one, to know that neither of us are going to... None of us are going to take advantage of it. (15:42)
• As an extrovert, I'm very extroverted. So a lot of introverts, like complete introverts, maybe feel a little uncomfortable. But I've met a ton of introverts, like my husband is a natural introvert. But with me, he's been... And we've been married for 17 years, so would be... He is a lot more open. Everyone that kind of just gets around me, just becomes a lot more open, and goofy. People feel comfortable with the silliness, the goofy-ness. We'll go and talk in other voices because we're just goofy like that. People look at us weird and it's just like, I don't know, it's goofy, I love life, I want to enjoy life. But at the same time, the only way that I can... I literally feel like I've only been able to come out and accept myself truly, probably since I joined M.O.M. Crew. It took me that long to feel comfortable with myself, and that's in my late 30's. So, I went through my whole life thinking like, I can be this way around this group of friends, but I have to be this way around this different group of friends, and then in the corporate environment, which I've been in for over 20 years, in the corporate environment, I have to be all about business, all the time. And what I realized is that I was not sharing a part of myself that could actually make someone else smile. (21:13)
CONNECT WITH CHARMAINE: • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CharToTheMaine • Instagram: @charmyz • LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/charmainewilliams
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE NON-PROFIT M.OM. CREW including appearances, community performance and a peak into their sisterhood: • Website: https://momcrewdfw.com
• Instagram: @momcrewofficial
• TikTok: @momcrewdfw
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Momcrewofficial
Quote at the beginning of the video:
"Women are not just beautiful, they are gorgeous.
As women, we struggle with our image, fears,
doubts and confidence with our changing bodies.
Are we really beautiful?
As mothers, we persevere in our strength for our
families and children. Our beauty comes from
within.”
-MOM CREW
You can view M.OM. Crew’s emotionally moving and empowering Good Morning Gorgeous dance video here:
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH KRISTI:
• Kristi Dear Website: https://kristidear.com • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coachkristidear • Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/themindsetchick • Twitter: https://twitter.com/coachwithkristi • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristi.dear • Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/CoachwithKristi/boards
** Download my FREE gift to you my Magic 5 Morning Mindset KristiDear.com
EPISODE AIRED ON: September 06, 2022