Her Story
About Marilyn
My career path has been driven by a lifelong passion for giving back to those less fortunate. Growing up, I always championed supporting family members who were struggling, including an aunt who was an alcoholic. I taught for 2 years at a high school, where I saw students who were less fortunate and wanted to elevate their experiences and help them want a better future for themselves. I then worked at Sandals Resorts, where I met so many different types of people and my desire to give back only grew stronger. When I left Sandals at around 30 years old, I was wondering what I could give to my country, St. Lucia. I wanted to empower women to know they could be entrepreneurs and do things on their own and excel. I created 'The Soup SLU,' a talk show similar to The View, because there were so many male talk shows but nothing to uplift women and let them know they're empowered to do just as much or more as men. I was in my fifth season when COVID came in 2019 and we couldn't air anymore. I then became a radio host with a show called 'Lady Stock' talking about women. When that stopped, I started Where Ladies Talk on Facebook to give women a sense of pride and worthiness, to let them know they're not alone during COVID when so many had lost their jobs and couldn't feed their families. After 3 months I had 800 followers, and after 8-9 months I reached 1,000 and then close to 2,000 followers. My goal was that anytime someone went on the Facebook page, there would be something to uplift them, a quote or affirmation. Our charitable work began when we helped a young single mother who wanted to commit suicide because she had nothing for her daughter for school. We gave her everything she needed - uniform, books, supplies, shoes, groceries. That led to our back-to-school supply drive where we gave over 100-200-300 free school supplies. We also created 'We Bring an Angel to You for Christmas' giving over 60 households hampers, and we brought salon services to elderly women in nursing homes. I moved to New York and launched Where Ladies Talk New York chapter, continuing the same mission of giving back to the St. Lucian community. My passion is really about advocating for women and letting them know we are our sisters, we go through things similarly, and it's about sharing stories and being positive.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Marilyn
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute my success to my mom. I think more or less my mother, because she was a single mother and I saw how hard she worked with my siblings and I. We turned out okay, she really did a good job, the best she could. I did a motivational speech for Women's Day talking to fatherless daughters and how we could overcome it, because a lot of people seem to think that for you to be the best that you could be, you have to have a nuclear family. But sometimes you find persons that are in single-parent households - yes, we have to push even more to make it, but when we get to where we are and we look back, I really wanted to admire my mom. She was somebody that I've always looked up to in terms of strength, of how she reached where she reached with having us and her determination to be the best she could be at the time. I would also say my aunt - I don't want to emphasize the alcohol, but I want to emphasize in spite of that, she was really and really an amazing aunt. She raised me for a bit, and going and seeing her through all of that trauma and her kids and everything. So all of those persons growing up, and along the way I have some of my teachers who helped.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Have fun! Live, explore the world, have fun with it. There is never a right way or a wrong way, but at the same time, be focused on what you want. Don't rush. Take all the opportunities that come your way to develop yourself, to grow, to learn. Take all opportunities that come your way for the betterment of yourself. Don't rush into life in terms of marriage or having a relationship. Focus and take this time for you to learn yourself, to learn what you want, to learn what you want to be. Take as much education as you can when you're at college, when you're at school. At some point in time, the universe will give you back tenfold what you really want in terms of marriage, in terms of a relationship, in terms of the kind of career that you want, because you have taken time to focus on your education, you have taken time to focus on you as a person. Just don't rush to wanting to grow too fast.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge for me would be funding and support. That would be the biggest challenge in getting funding and getting others to support causes that I think meet supporting, because I do a lot of charitable work in terms of just wanting to give back to the people that need it. So my thing is really funding.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Loyalty is my number one for me. I would also like to see honesty. Loyalty, honesty, and just being authentic, being true to yourself, being true to who you are.
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