Episode Transcript
Leslie-Ann - Be bold. Take risks. Lead by example. Believe in your power. Say what you feel, mean what you say. Hi, I'm Leslie-Ann Seon, host of the new podcast series Seon180. I came across these powerful expressions in an Instagram moment while prepping for Seon180. They really resonated with me as the justification for embarking on this exciting new venture, Seon180.
Seon180 is a platform for frank, fearless and fun discussions that move you beyond neutral to help refuel your drive at your pace, no matter the age or gender. Get ready to go the distance and make changes that are necessary to be your best self. Join me at Seon180 on this journey of discovery and advancement.
Hello, everyone and welcome again to Seon180. I'm your host, Leslie-Ann Seon, and welcome to Season two Episode zero. You can follow me on Seon180.com or any of the regular podcast streaming sites Apple, Google, audible Amazon music, or you can follow us on Facebook or our Instagram pages. In season one of Seon180, we had the pleasure of sitting down with some truly inspiring Caribbean influences, all of whom have dedicated their lives and work to making a difference. They have provided us with tips and advice to help us move beyond neutral, to live our best lives personally, financially, healthfully, and otherwise. Today we are introducing our new season Seon180 Moving Beyond Neutral, Moving Beyond the Story. We will be tackling provocative topics and hearing compelling stories from folks who have been able to move beyond neutral and beyond their own stories and challenges to kick off this new season. I am talking today with my friend and fellow legal practitioner, the lovely accomplished Lisa Taylor. I anticipate that we will be chatting about the first season, the topics and tidbits, and looking ahead to season two of Seon180, and some of the topics that we will be featuring.
Leslie-Ann - Hello, Lisa.
Lisa Taylor- Hello, Leslie-Ann.
Leslie-Ann - Welcome to Seon180.
Lisa Taylor-Thank you so much.
Leslie-Ann - Or should you be welcoming me today because you have the money?
Lisa Taylor- Yes. We're doing a little role reversal today. It's gonna be fun, and I should start by reminding you that off-camera we are Seon and LT, so your audience should recognize that if we let that fly, you hear a Seon and you hear LT, that's, that's how we roll.
Leslie-Ann - That's how we roll.
Lisa Taylor - So you are at Seaon Two. Um, when you started the last season, you did mention that the podcast was about your own journey, especially coming out of the pandemic, and now here you are. Season one is done and dusted. Um, now that you've done it. You've completed season one. How does it feel to know you're able to launch, finally, take that step and launch your podcast, and what have you learned from that experience?
Leslie-Ann - It feels absolutely great, because I had so much fear or trepidation about embarking on this project. Um, fear of failure, fear of would you get an audience? Fear of how would people respond to it? Um, fear of even the use of the technology. Um, because, as I say to folks, I'm a social media dummy. Uh, so I had to quickly learn how you navigate through this medium. Um, and then I wanted to tackle topics that I felt were near and dear to me, as well as to the audience that we were targeting. And so, for me, the learning experience was understanding that you don't know it all. You're learning something every day. You have to listen to your production team. They know best. They know better than you. And also becoming a little bit more familiar with that social media world.
Lisa Taylor - Well, I think those are lessons some of us can do something with, in our own lives, in our own spaces. So when you were introducing Season One, um, some of the things you enjoy outside of work, you talked a lot about that. Uh, so now that you've finished that season, how has the podcast helped you enjoy those aspects of your life? A little better?
Leslie-Ann - A little better? Well, uh, that's a really good question, because now you are saying to yourself, well, I like entertaining, I like doing dinners, and having friends over. Um, I like reading, and I find that in the pandemic, it was difficult to concentrate, obviously with the quarantine and isolation, you couldn't entertain anymore, and so you lost that social interaction and connection with friends, so that enabled me to reach out to folks I hadn't in a long time, and vice versa. I heard from friends all over the region about the podcast, which, again, taught me a lesson about the power of social media. And so that, to me, was very exciting. So, I spent a lot of time re-acquainting myself with the things that I love.
Lisa Taylor -Okay. Fabulous. Now it may be hard to choose, but if you were to choose one or two of the take aways, your favourite aspects of season one, could you isolate one or two of those?
Leslie-Ann - Um, yes, I can, um I think speaking with Farley Flex out of Toronto, Canada, when he said to me, there's no such thing as bad people, but bad choices, and how the choices we make really, um, steers us to the destiny that we’re meant to follow…And Shari Warner, who spoke about mental health and how we have to be able to identify, you know, mental health illness at a very early stage, um, and reach out, and make the connection, and work on it, and that counseling has to move beyond the stigma that we have in the Caribbean, which is so true. Um, and I think at that time it was poignant for me, because we had suffered a number of suicides in Grenada, quite sadly. And then one of my more enchanting encounters was with a young Barbadian, Melinda Peter, a financial consultant, who spoke to us about, you know, passing on generational wealth, teaching us about money management from the time we are toddlers, and it was amazing because I had friends saying to me, “You know what? When I heard that episode, I actually took my daughter to the ATM and showed her how to use the machine”, or “I went to open a bank account with my daughter.” So, it meant that the message and the takeaways were resonating. Then, Dr. Carol McIntosh, with us empowering the word vagina and trying to de-stigmatize the female anatomy and giving us the tidbits that we needed to take care of our health, physically and otherwise. That was very, very interesting and informative, and then, of course, with my dear friend and former banker Pontie Archibald, when we touched on leadership, the qualities of leadership and what we expect of leaders today, and whether leaders are born, naturally made or really, it's learned behavior.
Lisa Taylor - Well, I think if anyone missed any of those episodes, you've wet their appetites and they're available. You can go back and you can, you know, or if you've seen it before, you can go and have a second look, but we're looking ahead to season two, so give us an idea of what season two is going to bring to your audience.
Leslie-Ann - So, I think based on our audience response, we are keeping a similar theme, and we are focusing on the stories of people with compelling journeys. We are being provocative about aesthetic medicine and what that entails. Is that really taboo? How do we deal with it? And what is it really about? And then I want to continue the leadership theme because I think it's important, but this time it's in the context of women in leadership and female leaders, and do we need more of them, and in what spheres. It’s not just about politics, it's about business, it's about education, it's even about your and my profession, right, professional practice, and we need women to be stepping out a lot more than they do now.
Lisa Taylor - You're saying this and I am bringing to mind that we've just lost one of the great leaders of our Bar, here in Grenada, Celia Edwards, the first female Queen’s Counsel. Um, as we reflect on her life and what, you know, the lessons we can draw. What are some of your takeaways from your own relationship, professional, and personal, with Celia, that you think, uh, may be useful for all of us to reflect on in this period and ever?
Leslie-Ann - Yeah, well, I think she was a powerhouse in the law, a total force, and really an outstanding leader, and mentor for a lot of young and upcoming attorneys. She meant a lot to us, particularly as female attorneys, and those of us in litigation. As you know, we talked about her, um, at that funeral and in the tribute section, and I really did mean that she stood above the rest, in terms of female litigators, because of that misguided perception that female advocates are somewhat weak or soft, Um, and not quite capable of delivering like their male counterparts, and she just shattered that.
I loved my encounters with her. We had legendary battles in court. But, you know what Lisa, it never prevented us from being civil and courteous and enjoying a joke with each other at any point in time, whether before heading into court or after the matter was finished. And our judicial officer, our presiding judge would calm us down. “You guys need to behave.”
Lisa Taylor - Yes, that's a memory, I think shared by quite a few of us. All right, I'm thinking, what do you think gives you the great, I mean, this is your baby. You’ve brought it to life. You've seen it through. You're about to start your season two, um when I was thinking ahead of coming to have this conversation with you, one of the things that I thought about, I wondered, what is it, I was about to say Ziggy, and maybe I should explain that because I'm a part, we're Seon and LT, but I think in another sphere of your life, many know you as Ziggy.
Leslie-Ann - Most of my friends know me as Ziggy.
Lisa Taylor - And some of us call you Zigs. Maybe this might be a good time to share with your audience because I almost slipped and it came out. So rather than, let’s confront it. Is that a secret you're taking with you to the grave?
Leslie-Ann - No, no. I have disclosed that secret because I didn't want people to think it was following on Ziggy Marley. So, as I have said to you, my father was Leslie Seon, and when my mother got pregnant, they were all preparing for a boy, and they had the name of the boy as, Leslie Boyd Seon, and, of course, my mother did a 180 and there was a girl, and so my godfather, John Steele, said “Marie,” which was my mother's name, “had a zig-zag,” and they shortened it from ZigZag to Ziggy, and we've had several versions of Zig, Ziggy, Zigerts, Ziggy hearty, throughout the years, but it's been with me from birth, and that's a pretty long time without disclosing my vintage.
Lisa Taylor - Very good. That's a fascinating story. I'm sure the audience will enjoy hearing it as well. So what made Ziggy, what brings Ziggy joy, apart from this podcast?
Leslie-Ann - Um, I'd say first and foremost, my daughter Mica. I was never really a maternal person, so there is a reason why I say that, but having brought her into the world and watching her grow up, she's definitely my pride and joy, and I understand fully, um, the lessons or the messages that people use to convey, you know, have one. Um, uh, what else do I enjoy? Well, I could tell you this. I'm so looking forward to carnival and playing my jouvert, and my jab jab, because I've been deprived for a couple of years, and so, like a good Grenadian, I'm looking forward to this the most. Um, and then I think I am also trying to balance my life a lot more. I feel that I am transitioning, and so I want to embrace quite a few of the things that I otherwise would not have had the time to do, and that certainly would include a little bit more traveling, a little bit more engaging in culinary arts and maybe learning a language. You know Sanjay Gupta, I was reading his book, and he said to keep the brain active and alert, and to, sort of, stave off the onset of dementia, you've got to start learning new things, um, and keeping your brain active, and language and music, and all of that, is part of it. So, I'm looking forward to the latter part of the Seon life, and I'm looking forward to the second season of Seon180.
Lisa Taylor - Excellent, and we wish you all the very best. We hope that the season will bring to you more joy—bring to your audience, as well, some of the happiness you are obviously experiencing in bringing it to them and learning all the lessons that will come through your guests.
Leslie-Ann - Thank you so much, LT. Thank you for joining me. It was a pleasure chatting with you. I didn't see you have a sip of Prosecco. This would be a good time.
Lisa Taylor - So, this would be a good time. Cheers. Mhm.
Leslie-Ann - Thank you again, Lisa, for chatting with me on this launch of Season two Episode Zero. I'm sure that we enjoyed being at the luxurious Silver Sands Resort in St. George's Grenada. Lisa has been a close friend and legal colleague of mine for several years, so it was great for her to get a 15-minute break from the rigors of our usual routine and chat with me on this Seon180 second season launch. I want to thank the audience, in particular, for joining us today. And for those of you who have supported us in Season One, we've really appreciated your attention, your comments, your support, your compliments, and your critical observations. It's all about making the Seon180 podcast better and better, each time. Thank you audience, please join us again on Seon180, and be safe.
