Title:
Synchronized Sisters: Boldly Shaping Tomorrow’s Herstory

Subtitle:

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths.

Let’s go.

Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia and Happy Women’s History Month. This is a theme that we get asked about a lot on the show and we’ve got some really special guests. And before I introduce them, I would like to start with a question.

When is the last time you realized that you were living in a moment that would one day become historic for you and your own life? Not the kind in the textbooks, but the kind that you create in your families, or your careers, or in a healing journey, or encourage.

We celebrate women around the year, hopefully. But in March, we celebrate Women’s History Month, and we look back, and we celebrate women that have hit global stages and doing all these big things. But what about the women in our living rooms? What about our sisters, our families, the people that we sit around the dinner tables with and have quiet conversations about all kinds of lived experience? So today, I’m sitting with two of those women, my favorite women in the world. My sisters are back, Regina and Corinna. Welcome.

Regina Weinstein: Yeah, girl.

Corinna Kamilli: Hey, girls.

Alycia Anderson: Hey. I’m so excited about this episode, number one, because we’re talking about us and being women together, but most importantly, honestly, I always get my highest viewership and downloads when my sisters show up on my podcast. We’re gonna make history just with that alone.

Corinna Kamilli: No pressure or anything. Geez.

Alycia Anderson: Welcome back to the show.

I wanna do a quick little intro bio, who you are, in case there’s new community that is on the show listening, and I know there is. Regina is my sister. She is my twin. She’s an entrepreneur, a builder, a mom, a wife, a sister. She’s a relationship-driven leader, a proud woman in construction, leading all kinds of incredible things.

She is building a legacy that I know will go really, really far, will probably be passed on to her daughter, I’m sure of it. Welcome back, Regina and Corinna.

Corinna Kamilli: Can you not say my last name?

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I won’t.

Corinna Kamilli: Okay.

Alycia Anderson: I can take Regina’s out, too. I didn’t think about that. Welcome back to my sister, Corinna.

She’s a communications executive, a strategic advisor. She’s the director of strategic communications at the technology organization, where she leads enterprise messaging for nearly 200,000 community members and guides leaders through AI transformation, buzzword, love it, crisis response, and large scale change.

Her newest entrepreneur chapter, which I love, she is the creative owner and co-host of Slay and Pray with Alycia and Corinna podcast. Anybody not following this podcast or listening to it, you need to. It is one of those podcasts that gives you a smile and a laugh, and some great information.

It’s something that I love to start my day with. The podcast is where two creatives are besties and they deep dive into the shows that we cannot stop watching. So it’s all about popular culture, TV, shows, and movies, but my favorite part is just the dynamic between these two. Slay and Pray with Alisha and Corinna podcast. Definitely check that out. Welcome to the show, ladies.

Corinna Kamilli: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, it’s so nice to have you back.

Regina Weinstein: It does feel good.

Alycia Anderson: So, I wanted you to come on, specifically this time around, because I don’t know, it’s Women’s History Month. I’m always interviewing all kinds of other incredible women, and I thought it would be amazing for us to kind of just come together as sisters. Not overthink too much, but just kind of like talk about women empowerment, your paths, and maybe there’s some lessons that you could gift away to our community to think about when they’re starting their careers, growing their families, doing all the things that you both are doing. But I do wanna start with some rapid fire questions, if that’s okay.

Regina Weinstein: Okay.

Corinna Kamilli: I love that.

Alycia Anderson: A little fun.

Corinna Kamilli: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: Okay. One word that describes your history-making era. Regina, go.

Regina Weinstein: One word.

Corinna Kamilli: Oh my God.

Regina Weinstein: Power.

Alycia Anderson: I like it. Corinna.

Corinna Kamilli: Uncomfortable.

Alycia Anderson: Ooh, that one’s deep.

Corinna Kamilli: Mm-hmm.

Alycia Anderson: I picked “Own It.” Just in theme with everything that’s going on in the business right now.

Corinna Kamilli: Love it.

Alycia Anderson: A woman in history you’d invite to dinner.

Corinna Kamilli: I have one.

Alycia Anderson: Go ahead.

Corinna Kamilli: As my sister said, my show talks about pop culture, current, of the moment, popular television, movies, whatever. And so right now, I am so deeply obsessed with Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. I’m in my nineties vibe, like she would wear. I’m watching Love Story on FX, and I’m reading her memoir. I would love to have her come over to the dinner table and ask her about her time at Calvin Klein.

What a badass she was in her own right. What it felt like to take a back seat to a very powerful and important man in American history. And, oh my God, so many other things.

Alycia Anderson: I love that you chose her. We were just talking about her before you came on, and I agree with you. That’s an interesting thing to take a back seat, everything that she was, too. You know what I mean?

Corinna Kamilli: She was very powerful in her own right.

Alycia Anderson:

Corinna Kamilli: Went through quite a lot in their short tenure together.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I gotta watch that.

Corinna Kamilli: It’s so good.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, she’s an icon for sure.

Corinna Kamilli: Yes.

Alycia Anderson: Regina.

Regina Weinstein: Why don’t you go next, Alycia? I’m still thinking.

Alycia Anderson: When I get asked this question, I go directly to somebody from pretty far back in our history, which is Helen Keller. There’s a lot of reasons, right? She was disabled. She was blind and deaf. She was the first blind, deaf person to graduate from Harvard with her bachelor’s degree. She accomplished all these things. But on top of just the disability thing, she was also a writer, a public speaker, a suffragist, a social activist, a global ambassador, and she traveled around the world advocating for women and people with disabilities. And I just think it’s such a powerful story, way back when.

I need to look up the year. It’s escaping my mind right now. But she was just really forward thinking for her time, and all of this activism from, just even being a woman and navigating life. So she’s always a person that I look up to.

Regina Weinstein: I have a few thoughts in my mind, and I think the one person that I keep going back to is, I keep thinking, Oprah. I feel like Oprah has had such a strong impact on women in general. Not just women, men as well. From the story she’s written from her lived experience, from how she’s helped people thrive and believe in themself.

I think she’s one of the founders of women empowerment and just women believing that they can do just as well as anyone else, in any avenue of life. And so I’m gonna have to say Oprah. Even though I thought that might be something that we might all say, because she’s just had such a strong impact being an African-American woman, coming out, and really just owning her power and her strength.

Alycia Anderson: And not only owning her own power. It’s so funny. I was listening to a podcast this morning, and there was a woman on it named Amy Purdy. Did you listen to it?

Corinna Kamilli: No, she’s just so incredible, Amy Purdy.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. She was on School of Greatness, which I like listening to in the morning. It’s motivating for me.

She has an incredible story, but part of her story is meeting Oprah. And Oprah, not only being very inspired by her story, but taking her hand and giving her opportunities. So I think Oprah goes one step further in having this presence herself.

But also she grabs the hands of a lot of people, authors, different people that have inspired her, and she puts him into the world and it really has big impact on their career.

Regina Weinstein: You’re a change maker when you’re at that position, right? You take the responsibility that you have of people looking at you in that public eye and say, “I can do good with this and I can actually do things that people are not expecting me to do.” I just think that’s amazing.

The more that we lift others up, the better off our world becomes. So anyways, Oprah. I have to say, I was thinking Madonna. Of course, you just think about some of those early people who were pushing limits as women, as we were growing up. And you just go, “Those are bold moves.” And there was a lot going on there that people weren’t ready for, but it took these next steps into this evolution of where we are today.

Yeah. Okay. One. Oh, you have something to say, sissy?.

Corinna Kamilli: I am just gonna say, kind of on the same vein, but another woman who is truly badass is Meghan Markle. How she has had to pave her own way up against the hierarchy. All for love, and the pursuit of fairness and justice. Anyway.

Regina Weinstein: Diana was also on my list, because when I think about her and her story of advocating and belief in the people around her, though her life was ended way too soon. She had significant impact in my mind of just being a strong woman who’s doing what she believes is best.

Alycia Anderson: Doing what she believes, giving back to the world, and also navigating infidelity and all the other things that came with that immense amount of fame. Very incredible. Love that. Point being, look at all these powerful women that have been leading the way, and there’s so, so, so many more.

But I love thinking about them, ’cause it motivates you in your own self. What is one thing that women need to stop apologizing for?

Regina Weinstein: Everything.

Corinna Kamilli: I know. I was just gonna say, where do we begin? Thank God.

Alycia Anderson: Success?

Corinna Kamilli: Everything. No. Well, I mean, maybe you should never apologize for that.

Alycia Anderson: Well. Sometimes we feel like we need to shrink to allow other people, sometimes men, feel more secure if we’re rising too high or whatever. Whether it’s your bosses, or in the workplace, or whatever that might be. So, I don’t know.

Regina Weinstein: I definitely think not apologizing for the strides that you’re making and the progress that you’re creating, especially in the professional environment.I’ve done a lot of taking the backseat, in my history of being a professional person. And the more I started shifting that mindset and that behavior, the stronger I’ve become.

But I think we naturally apologize for a lot. And what’s interesting is my daughter is gonna be nine. And I already noticed her apologizing for things and I just go, “Gosh, she must have gotten this from me. Why is this just a natural word that comes out of my mouth is, ‘I’m sorry?'”

Corinna Kamilli: You know what else, I think, in this new year, I need to stop apologizing for? The delay in my email. How annoying is it to be like, “I am so sorry for the delay here.”

Regina Weinstein: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: And it’s been like five minutes.

Corinna Kamilli: My boss’s boss’s boss doesn’t write that. He’s just so firm in it,

Regina Weinstein: One of the things that I have trained teams on in the past, because I’ve tried really hard to take the words, “I’m sorry,” especially out of professional circumstances, is getting to the bottom of the problem or the situation. But doing in a way where you actually avoid including the word sorry, because the second you say sorry is the second you’re guilty, you’ve done something wrong.

And really, there’s a way to transition that whole thought process and that whole communication path that’s about to begin that you can control by not saying, “I’m sorry.” So I would challenge my teams historically. “I challenge you to fight hard to not say I’m sorry for anything. Yes, it’s happened, and this is how we’re gonna recover from it. Yes, this is the situation, but this is what the solution is, and never say sorry. The second you say, sorry, you’re guilty.”

Alycia Anderson: What’s the training there on the word filling? Is it, “Yes, that is true?” What’s the replacement?

Regina Weinstein: Definitely, it could be so many different things. It depends on the scenario, but let’s say there was a billing issue. Instead of saying, “I’m so sorry for this inconvenience. We’re gonna figure this out for you. We made a clerical error.” You don’t really need to say any of that.

You find out a way to say, “I’m looking into this. It looks like there must be some sort of discrepancy. There’s been a billing issue, and we will get this resolved for you and we’re gonna get it right.” And then the second that you follow up, you respond, you go there, and you return that information. They go, “Okay, she’s a resource, and she’s true to her words, and she’s done what she said she was gonna do.”

So, that was actually a behavior I’ve worked with teams in the past on, is to not use that word.

Corinna Kamilli: That’s really smart. Take accountability for what’s happened without apologize. I like that.

Alycia Anderson: Sometimes apologies are necessary, but it’s usually in a personal way.

Once you do put an apology in a place that it probably doesn’t belong, you put yourself in a weaker position. Like Corinna was saying, the boss of the boss never says that.

Alycia Anderson: It’s like reducing your authority or something.

Corinna Kamilli: He will apologize and take accountability and stuff. I’m not saying that.

Alycia Anderson: For silly things.

Corinna Kamilli: Yeah. In his communication style, he’s not one to go in softer.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. I think that’s a strong lesson. You know what I mean? Okay. A song that feels like your empowerment anthem.

Regina Weinstein: I’ll go first.

Alycia Anderson: Okay.

Regina Weinstein: The Man.

Alycia Anderson: Oh, I was gonna say that.

Regina Weinstein: Taylor, she’s got a lot of ’em.

I was gonna use her as one of the women, but I was gonna be mentioning “The Man.” Because that song has just been something that I have been blaring in private and public for years. Because a lot of that makes me feel like myself. I feel I really resonate with a lot of that when I look in my rear view mirror of my life journey.

Anyways, sorry if that was yours as well, Alycia, but that is mine.

Alycia Anderson: Explain that one step further, though.

Corinna Kamilli: If I were a man, then I’d be the man.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Regina Weinstein: Yeah.

Corinna Kamilli: Yeah.

Regina Weinstein: In the song, she’s basically saying if I was a man, I would have gotten there faster. I wouldn’t have had to work so hard. I wouldn’t have had to have people second guessing me, or taking my ideas, or using what I’ve delivered as something of value and making it their own. Because that has been something that has been on repeat in my life.

Corinna Kamilli: Oh, God. Yeah.

Regina Weinstein: I love that song. I blast it. I blur it.

Corinna Kamilli: I love that song, too. One song that I take a lot of comfort and power in is Katy Perry, “Roar.”

Regina Weinstein: It was a good one.

Corinna Kamilli: She says, “I’ve got the eye of the tiger, fighter. Dancing through the fire, ’cause I am a champion. And you’re gonna hear me roar. Louder.” Louder than whatever. I think, especially times of great strife, I find rolling up the window, turning on the air conditioning, and freaking singing my lungs out to that song gets me through hard moments.

Alycia Anderson: Alycia’s

Regina Weinstein: like, “You took both of mine now.

Corinna Kamilli: I have to GPT.”

Alycia Anderson: I wanna make sure that I am saying it right. I feel like we’re kind of going on women’s theme, but this song is the song that I would go and work out to when I was just about to do my TEDx talk. And it’s Eminem, “Lose Yourself,” because in it it says you only have one shot.

The theme of it is go now, show up. It’s giving me the chills right now. And it makes you go, “Okay, one shot. You gonna show up or not?” That song always gets me pumped, ready to go. So that’s the next one. But Regina stole mine, so I grabbed another one real quick.

Corinna Kamilli: You also really resonate with Miley Cyrus “The Climb.”

Alycia Anderson: Oh, I do.

Corinna Kamilli: You love that one.

Alycia Anderson: I do really love that one, too.

Corinna Kamilli: I do, too. It’s all about the climb.

Alycia Anderson: It is about the climb. Life is about the climb. It isn’t about this destination that we’re getting to. Depending on where you are, you achieve these things and you’re like, “Oh. Am I there yet?” No. There’s no destination. You just keep doing it. You keep living and seeing what’s behind the next door.

It is about destination. Not even follow the destination, the way you navigate it, the way you choose, the path you choose, the effort you choose. And obviously, things come up along the way that you don’t have any power over, but those are still choices on how you navigate those things. Okay. Well that was kind of fun.

Corinna Kamilli: So fun.

Alycia Anderson: Okay, so, I wanted to ask you both, because I thought it would be interesting to talk about your history making moment. If you were to think about your life and think about one story that you made history in your own life that feels historic to you.

It was something that was big that you accomplished. It could be anything. It could be something that was in a quiet corner that nobody even knows happened, but it did something to you in your own life. Can you think of anything like that?

Corinna Kamilli: Regina, do you have one? Because I could go.

Regina Weinstein: I do. I think the audience has already heard about my personal life in some way in the past. The biggest moment that I ever had in my life, even up until the second I was being rushed into an emergency C-section, was them bringing my daughter, Ella, in front of my eyes. Because giving birth to my daughter was something that was very complicated. It took many years, and it was a huge sacrifice for so many reasons. I honestly never thought it was gonna happen. Even when I was fully about to pop and we’re having baby showers, I wouldn’t even set up a nursery because I was so fearful. I was convinced something was gonna happen to her, something was gonna happen to me. We were never gonna meet. I was very scared of that. As I got rushed into an emergency C-section and they told me that they were worried about oxygen. I thought, “Okay, this is where this happens.” They finally brought her to me. That moment of, “She’s alive and I’m alive.” That moment to me is definitely the most impactful and monumental in my lifetime for sure.

Alycia Anderson: I agree. That was a big moment. For any of the listeners out there, that full story is on episode 33. So go back and check it out. It was one of the top downloaded. My sisters always get the most downloads on the show. But it’s a story of resiliency, and love, and family, and overcoming.

Corinna Kamilli: Do you know what’s not in episode 33?

Alycia Anderson: What?

Corinna Kamilli: You, and my hot takes of Regina’s birth.

Alycia Anderson: Oh, that is true.

Corinna Kamilli: That’s not in episode 33. And guess what? Alycia and I were there the whole time. And poor Shane went to get a sandwich and we were like, “No worries. We’ve got it.” And then everything hit the fan.

Regina Weinstein: Two hours of labor, and then in an emergency that luckily turned out to work in our favor. But yeah, those experiences in life that are so out of your control. All I kept thinking the entire time is, “The only thing I can do is suck on this oxygen mask.” They’re putting me under anesthesia. All these things are about to happen, and they don’t know if my baby’s breathing. And you just stop and you think, “Okay, all right. I have no control over this except for this oxygen mask.”

Corinna Kamilli: I am the vessel, and I am going to breathe this oxygen. Oh my gosh. Yours makes me feel bad about mine, I guess.

Alycia Anderson: I like your stories, Sissy.

Corinna Kamilli: I think a lot in my life. And I think Regina, in a way, yours is like this sliding doors moment. Your journey to have your daughter was so long, and you had to persevere and go through a lot of pain and a lot of heartbreak, physically and mentally, and all kinds of things that you had to go through.

There was that moment where we were like, “I don’t know if it’s gonna happen for us.” But it did. And I think I have a moment like that, too, with my husband, where I just was obsessed with him. I was like truly obsessed with him. Still am, but just in a different way now.

I had the opportunity to go to Texas for New Year’s with somebody I liked, but wasn’t in love with. And Alycia, sitting here, was like, “I cannot hear about this for one more minute. Just call him, just pick up the phone.” I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna do it right now.” And I did. And we spent New Year’s together, and have not been apart since.

That was fifteen years ago. I think there are moments like, “Yeah, I could have gone to Texas and maybe things would’ve worked out.” But then there’s a high chance that it wouldn’t have, too. So I think that would be my moment.

Regina Weinstein: Such a true love story. There’s not many people that literally love one person from their time so young, and it never fades. It only gets stronger.

Corinna Kamilli: Wild.

Regina Weinstein: It is wild. Your love journey has been something that you don’t see with a lot of people. You just don’t. You don’t wait, you don’t hope. You move on. You just knew, and you’ve always known. That’s an amazing gift.

Corinna Kamilli: I’m really stubborn in my life, and I never like to give up. I just persevere.

Alycia Anderson: That love story reminds me of somebody that I know, too, who only loved me for his whole life, too. My Marty.

Corinna Kamilli: Oh, Marty Pooh.

Alycia Anderson: He’s probably for me, one of the, if not, most historic in my life, too, just because he pushes me. He pushes me really hard to do the things that I’m afraid of. And sometimes it really bothers me, because he just rides me. It’s not like, “Great job.”

It’s like, “You did good, but you could do better.” He just really like holds me to a high standard. When I quit my job to do this, he’s the one that said, “Just quit. Do it today.” That was historic for me in my life, too, to just take the leap and start to do what I’m doing.

You’ve asked me how I have turned my story into impact and income. That is why we created the Own It Mastery Collective. Where Message meets monetization. It’s a community driven, built for everyone and designed by someone who understands barriers and builds way beyond them. We are launching very soon.

Join our interest list now at alyciaanderson.com. The link is in the show notes.

I think that’s interesting to see how you call out your partner, because those actually are historic moments that you make in your life. It was historic for me to marry Marty, for you to marry Bobby, and for Regina to marry Shane. They do so much. It literally rides the path of your life.

You know what I mean. So that is historic.

Corinna Kamilli: I feel really lucky because my mother-in-law, Diana, was such a women’s advocate, and she was blazing the field of geology when there was hardly any women geologist. She was such a badass, and she really instilled in Bobby, a lot of equality, traits that I really love. And part of the reason I can fly, and take chances, and do things, is because I know Bobby will support me through it. He will be my biggest fan and help me through it.

I really think Diana, 100%, shaped how he views women, and he views women as allies. And I think that’s really beautiful. For me in my life, I couldn’t stay home. I would want to do more, and he’s always been very encouraging.

Regina Weinstein: That’s amazing. She was an amazing woman.

Corinna Kamilli: Mm-hmm. She was.

Regina Weinstein: Ugh.

Corinna Kamilli: She really was.

Alycia Anderson: How does that resonate for you and your life with your husband, Regina?

Regina Weinstein: You mean Diana being a geologist? No, I’m just kidding.

Alycia Anderson: Oh.

Corinna Kamilli: That was cool.

Alycia Anderson: That is cool.

Regina Weinstein: Are you talking about switching the question back to Shane?

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I think that was beautiful.

Corinna Kamilli: Shane’s mom is a badass.

Alycia Anderson: Making the correlation, when Corinna’s talking about Diana and the traits that she brought to Bobby, and how that translates really to all of us. I think Shane has so many great qualities, too, and he’s got an amazing mom. I don’t know. I just think that’s kind of an interesting topic.

Regina Weinstein: Yeah. Definitely comes from a family and immediate family, specifically where his mom had to be the mom and the dad for a lot of the years. Whether or not she was married and working through it, she had to fill a lot of roles and shape her son, as well as her daughter to be strong. And to show this work ethic, and to show strength in some of the hardest situations, and show love in every situation. That 100% is my mother-in-law, Marsha.

I am so lucky that she is a mother figure to all of us. She loves all of us, like we’re her children. For Alycia and I, who lost our mom, who was also Marsha, spelled the same way, which is odd. She’s filled a lot of voids for us. As you’re talking about this, Alycia, what’s interesting is earlier, when I was thinking about the podcast and just this conversation, I did a lot of reflecting about like, “How did I end up so strong? How did I end up confident? How did I end up with the characteristics to take risks, and do big things in my life, and not allow life to pass me, and not allow myself to get bored?” Once I’m in a position where I feel like I’ve made it, I’m bored. Okay, well, that step’s done.

Now it’s time to get to the next one and trying to figure that out. That takes a lot of courage, and it comes out naturally in all of us.

Corinna Kamilli: Where do you think that comes from?

So I reflected on this. I really did.

Regina Weinstein: I thought a lot about our dad. We had, an amazing father that we all shared, who was a strong believer in women.

He had an amazing mother, who was also working when other women weren’t working and doing things that were powerful. But he was also a reminder of some of the things that pulled women back. So I kept thinking about the push and pull of it today. The things that Papa would encourage us to do, but then also the things that he would discourage us to do in different ways, because we were women.

And it was a different time.

Regina Weinstein: Oh, totally a different time, 100%.

Alycia Anderson: That’s like a societal bias or something, right? Embedded? What’s an example?

Regina Weinstein: Yeah. I think about being at Granny’s house.

Corinna Kamilli: I don’t know if we can say it here.

Alycia Anderson: We can say it on your podcast.

Regina Weinstein: In the powerful pieces, I think a lot about the, “Alycia, you got this. You have to get out there and show people that you can do this. You are a strong woman.” And all the things that he would guide us to do as women. But then I would also think about some of the lessons that are also extremely important. We’re done eating, “Get up and do the dishes.”

There was a lot of that, while they were sitting at the table playing cards, drinking, smoking, whatever they were doing.

Corinna Kamilli: Only women in the kitchen.

Regina Weinstein: Yeah, a lot of that. That’s where my brain goes when I think about just, honestly, the transformation of women from then to now.

But I do think a lot of the magic came from him knowing that he had this responsibility to be a good example of how you raise girls and boys. But when you’re a guy, I am assuming that’s a little bit more challenging because you’ve never lived that.

That’s funny that you asked that, because I was thinking that earlier today.

Alycia Anderson: I like it.

Corinna Kamilli: I do wonder, too, in regards to Papa. One thing that he would say to me is, “Business women don’t cry.”

Regina Weinstein: Ugh.

Corinna Kamilli: And our dad died a lot of years ago. I was 25. And so, I often think, if he were to say that to Corinna now, I’d be like, “Yes, they do. Yes we do. It’s because we’re frustrated we cry. Yes, businesswomen cry. Guess what?” I always wonder like, “What would our dynamic be today, as a grownup?” I was 25, so at the time I was like, “Well, I’m grown.” I guess I’m just really grateful I made it. I had my dad for 25 years of my life, but in retrospect, it was not enough time, obviously.

Alycia Anderson: He would just be so excited to see how far all four of us, we have a brother, too, Nicholas, have gone in our lives. I was at an event couple weeks ago, and somebody asked me after I was done speaking, “Tell us about your mom and dad. What do they think about this now?”

It was like a gut punch. I haven’t gotten emotional on stage for a really long time, and I just started sobbing. And all I could say was, “Neither of them ever saw what any of their children came to fruition, you know? They would be so excited.” I shared with them how Papa said, right when I was gonna go to school in Europe for my masters.

And he died just a few years later, but what an interesting person I’m turning out to be. That was such an early stage for all of us. He never got to see any of it. I mean, he did, but he didn’t get to see us as adults with our families and adulting, as he would say, and just being successful.

We each are literally ruling the spaces that we’re in and owning that. You know what I mean? Not ashamed to say it. The whole crying thing is like, yeah, we’re hormonal. It’s okay to talk about it. We can’t hide it. It’s part of our DNA.

Corinna Kamilli: By the way, if men were hormonal, they would talk about it, okay. They would.

Alycia Anderson: I’m pretty sure they are, but I don’t think they recognize it.

Corinna Kamilli: Yeah, they are. Anger is an emotion, okay. No, I’m just kidding. That’s a generalization.

Alycia Anderson: You know what? Just to lift Papa up because it’s March, and this is the anniversary of his death this month. He just was historic, speaking of history and this month. He was a mom and a dad, and all these other things for us. He’s the biggest piece of history for me, every month, to celebrate all the things that he did, and, taught, created, and fought for.

With having so much sorrow in his heart with his first wife dying and then going through all the stuff that he did, imagine what it was like for him behind closed doors. Because I think about it now in my own life, when I’m struggling with stress, or anxiety, or all the things, and making ends meet, and dah, dah, dah, dah.

Regina Weinstein: And he just did that alone for so many years. He’s historic. What he did for us is amazing. It’s absolutely incredible. And I know he’s really proud of all of us. Do you want me to read a quote?

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Regina Weinstein: So this is from our dad,

Corinna Kamilli: June 11th, 2005 at 9:00 AM.

Regina Weinstein: “Hi guys. Just a scrap of a note. A tiny piece of my heart attached. Age has its compensations, and the best is the contemplation of my girls.

Corinna Kamilli: Saw a picture of you as babies. And the cutest little guys you were, my first born. prick of the rose thorn to think of your mother. But, at the risk of sounding mundane, I know, with all certainty of the ages, that she is smiling at your accomplishments. She would say, ‘I love you. I am proud of your accomplishments.’ Now start believing in yourself and conquer the world for yourselves, and a tiny bit for me.”

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. I love that.

Regina Weinstein: That was the whole point was conquering the world.

Corinna Kamilli: Obviously, that email wasn’t to me. I’m not a twin.

Alycia Anderson: No, but it was to his girls, which you weren’t born yet.

Corinna Kamilli: Ten years later.

Alycia Anderson: Oh, you were born.

Corinna Kamilli: I was born in the eighties. I was definitely alive. What he was doing was, it was late at night. He was looking at old baby photos.

Regina Weinstein: He was emailing Alycia.

Alycia Anderson: Alycia was in Belgium. That’s one of the most beautiful things. If you made it through the end of that, it was really beautiful. But the point of that is, it is a prick of the rose to know that they never met the kids. Not to be about myself, but wasn’t at my wedding. I would’ve loved that moment walking down the aisle with my dad. Those are big, important, small moments of many years of things.I don’t think that’s small. I think that’s big.

Regina Weinstein: That was hard on all of us. For him not to be there for you, to walk you down the aisle. That hurt all of us.

Corinna Kamilli: I know he’s proud. But wouldn’t it be great to pick up the phone and be like, “You are never gonna believe this!”

Alycia Anderson: No, he would be like every other day, “Wow, this is so cool.” All of us.

Corinna Kamilli: Yeah. When I got into college, he literally couldn’t believe it. And sometimes I put his voice in, in that way, when I do something, where I was like, “Papa, I got into University of Arizona.” And he’ll be like, “Baby!” He literally couldn’t believe it. And I insert his voice like that, ’cause I was the baby. Well, he called us all baby, but I was the baby.

Regina Weinstein: You were the baby. You are the baby.

Alycia Anderson: I think he’s pretty historic, so I’m happy that we talked about him. Especially ’cause it’s March, and this is one of those state-of-grace months, where you kind of feel his power, and all the things.

Corinna Kamilli: It’s hard for us about two weeks before.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. We’re in the thick of it right now. Loss is an interesting thing. You have people that are so close to you and then they go away. You gotta readjust and figure out how you’re gonna move forward and continue to let them live on through your actions. The things that you choose to do and implementing the lessons that they taught you and living a way that they would want to experience if they were still here.

I think all of that is really nice. Tributes and connection that you can still keep. We’d rather have him here obviously. What risk have you taken that scared you?

Regina Weinstein: Sis, do you wanna go first?

Corinna Kamilli: Okay. One risk that I’ve taken that really scared me was getting my master’s degree and reading really dense copies of things. And starting a journey that I knew I wanted to finish, but not sure how I was gonna juggle my career, which is intense, with motherhood, at the time, extremely intense.

And being a wife, and a sister, and a friend, it was a lot. It was a lot to carry. I am so thankful I did it, and I am so thankful it’s over. And I think that really showed me that I can do a lot in my 24 hours of time. Like Regina said earlier, when something’s done, you think like, “Oh my gosh, what’s next?” Never like, “Ohh! I’m gonna just coast for a bit.” No, it’s always like, “What’s next?” What’s next for me wasstarting Slay and Pray with Alisha, different Alisha and Corinna. That’s been a real labor of love. But also really scary talking about your thoughts, and feelings, and emotions on a large platform, and having people comment things about you.It can be icky, and it can also be great.

Alycia Anderson: Before we go to Regina, I really think the Slay and Pray podcast has been historic for you. In part of your history, and it’s really allowed you to blossom. You’re so funny on it, and you’re so open. You’re much more free than you are, frankly, in your real life. In your real life, you’re very regimented. On the podcast, you’re throwing F-bombs, and talking about periods, and doing all the thing. Everybody needs to listen to this. It’s hilarious. I laugh the whole time. It’s such a good show. And it’s something that we need right now, because it makes you smile.

Corinna Kamilli: It’s funny. It’s really, really good. So I think the podcast for you, Sissy, has been historic in the project, because it’s not only a great piece of content that’s coming out for everybody to enjoy and lighten their mood, like lighten up a little bit. But it’s allowed you to fly a little bit in your own space, besides mommyhood, and wifehood, and job, and big career. Not that you don’t have fun in those other places, but you have fun. You’re like free. So sometimes I go, “What did she say? Oh my God, how do I get more free on my podcast? Like, wow.” I appreciate both of your support. And Regina said it’s like listening to the National Enquirer, which was the highest compliment because our dad loved the National Enquirer.

Alycia Anderson: Everybody listening to the show. Please go download and listen to Slay and Pray. The link will be in the show notes. Okay, Regina, go.

Corinna Kamilli: Thank you, sis.

Regina Weinstein: It’s like opening a magazine when you get on an airplane and you just wanna see gossip, and not have anything serious going on in your mind. And having a break. That’s what it does for me.

Corinna Kamilli: Yeah. Thank you, sis. Yeah, that’s the best compliment anyone has ever said to me. I don’t know if Alisha took it as a compliment because we’re vastly different people, but I took it as a serious compliment.

Regina Weinstein: It’s just the banter and the back and forth.

Corinna Kamilli: Thank you.

Regina Weinstein: It’s not serious content, for the most part. Of course there’s a little bit of that, but it’s more the opposite. And I like that because we’re just living in a time where everything seems very serious.

The biggest risk that I ever took was leaving my technology job that I had worked in.

An industry that I love and have spent my entire career in. Putting on a construction hat, I didn’t know what I was doing at the time. I didn’t realize how much less women there were in construction than there are men. Of course there are, right? It just makes sense. And at the time, it was hard for me to leave my technology job because I was very proud of being a skilled woman, understanding integration, and knowing technology. I loved that.

But at the time, I wanted to shift, and I had an opportunity to get into construction and I took a leap of faith. That leap of faith has helped me differentiate myself, in an industry that doesn’t recognize me when I first walk up. I get a lot of, “Oh, you’re here.” Assume that I don’t know what I’m talking about before I do because I’m a woman. But I’m definitely a woman that can get things done in that space. And it’s allowed me to stand out. And it’s also allowed me to take my history of being an integration person, a client-centric person, somebody that has always been trustworthy and well-respected, and pushing that into construction and changing the feeling of how that makes you feel. Because construction’s very like this, that, this. But when you put a splash of very genuine care for what’s going on around a construction project that, again, is dominated by men, and you have a little bit of that female comfort zone spot, you just stand out. You stand out. I’ve thrived in it, and I’m grateful for that.

Alycia Anderson: It’s like you’re breaking glass ceilings in the construction industry. You’re leading as a woman, leading businesses. You’re not only breaking glass ceilings, but you’re bringing the emotion, you’re bringing empathy, and different feelings into the workplace, which is highly valuable as women. We need women leaders, so there’s a balance. Not all men are harsh, so that’s a generalization. So there’s a balance of personality and emotion, I guess.

Regina Weinstein: I think one of the biggest things also, is just seeing the bigger picture because of the background that I had, which was, “Let’s look at a client. What do they want, and what do they need from me?” And then taking the pieces and integrating it. I started doing that immediately. This is what we do, but why do we just have to do that? I was challenging that constantly, ’cause my clients were used to sourcing things to meet what they needed, not what I was trying to tell them they needed.

Corinna Kamilli: You know what’s so fun? I don’t know if you think about this, but when you roll up somewhere and somebody says like, “Oh, I didn’t think it would be you.” And they underestimate you, you’re like, I love that you just underestimated me. I’m gonna blow you out of the water.”

Regina Weinstein: Happens to me all the time.

Corinna Kamilli: Oh.

Regina Weinstein: Almost every day. I’ve had contractors walk up to me and give me the advice of, “You shouldn’t be so nice.” I’m like, “I’m trying to build a business with an absolutely opposite approach.

Corinna Kamilli: Motivating. My biggest risk was, I mean, there’s been a lot of risks. But I think my biggest risk, and I already said it, was probably leaving my corporate job, too, and doing what I’m doing. I still face risks in it all the time. This is not an easy path, but it’s a necessary one. And I think that when you find the things in your life, whether it’s your job, or it’s a side hustle, or it’s starting a podcast, or it’s changing the way people view something that they’ve always looked at in one way, that’s creating history, you know?

You gotta be brave. When you feel something, I think you gotta go for it. Maybe not every time. For me, it was just probably leaving my job and trying to make this thing as successful as I can, which is a constant hustle. By the way, it’s hard being brave. I feel like people talk about being brave, just like, “Oh, yeah, just be brave.” You’re like, “I’m actually so scared.” I call it synchronized swimming. Up top, you see me, I’m professional, I’m put together, I’m talking calmly. And down below, I am absolutely losing it. And sometimes you just have to fake it.

Alycia Anderson: But what happens when you fake it and you go through that?

Corinna Kamilli: You find a confidence in yourself that you maybe didn’t know you had, honestly. And then you are like, “Oh, well, I actually can do this.

Alycia Anderson: It gives you the motivation to wanna try again, ’cause you’re like, “Oh, wow, I did that. What’s next?” So I do think you’re right. Being brave and pushing through fear is not easy. But when you do, and you don’t have to do it every time, again, there’s something waiting for you to learn, or achieve, or just even have a little boost in your own center. In your own soul.

Corinna Kamilli: Definitely.

Alycia Anderson: Okay, so we could talk literally for hours, but we’re just gonna have to do another show. We’re already way past.

Regina Weinstein: There might be two shows in this show.

Alycia Anderson: There might be two shows on that show. Who knows? Okay, I wanna leave with the pushing forward moment, but it’s gonna have a theme.

Regina Weinstein: Okay.

Alycia Anderson: Okay. When future generations tell your story, what do you hope that they will say you stood for? And this is your pushing forward moment.

Corinna Kamilli: Hmm. Regina, you go first.

Regina Weinstein: Future generations will say what they remember about me, was that there was nothing more important than kindness in treating people the way you wanna be treated, literally. That has been just being a person who is genuinely interested in other people, and cares about other people.

That’s my story. I don’t know. I think that’s mine.

Corinna Kamilli: That’s so good, sis.

Alycia Anderson: What about you, Corinna?

Corinna Kamilli: I really hope that future generations, starting with my son, and nieces, and nephew, say that I really, at the end of the day, loved my family so much. There’s a lot of things that are important in life, but in my opinion, there is truly nothing better than that. Those are the people that you want through the hards, ups and downs, and the beginnings and the ends. And so that is mine.

Alycia Anderson: I love that. And I think that love is the leader of it all. Right? I think that’s a really beautiful, beautiful thing to be remembered for. If more people would live like that in this world or most of us, we would be in such a great spot. So I love that. For me, I hope future generations would say that they saw something in me that made them believe in something in them, and they decided to go forward with it.

I hope future generations see that it doesn’t matter if you’re different than other people, that who you are is beautiful. You have an open path to believe in your future, whatever that is.

Corinna Kamilli: I see both of those things in both of you.

Alycia Anderson: Same. Well, this has been a great show. It’s been an extra long show, which is lovely. We need to like start our own podcast. The three of us, probably.

Corinna Kamilli: About nothing and everything.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, talk about nothing and everything.

Corinna Kamilli: Just kidding.

Alycia Anderson: Thank you for wanting to come on this. I just thought it was really nice for us to lift up each other during this month. I constantly am highlighting other women, which is so important, too.

You two are the most important women in my life, and I’m so proud that you’re my sisters, and that we have this beautiful family and relationship together. I just love you both so much. So thank you for coming on the show.

Regina Weinstein: I love you both so much.

Corinna Kamilli: You both so much.

Alycia Anderson: Okay, well, I’m gonna leave information in the podcast notes, especially for Slay and Pray.

Go find that show and enjoy it. This has been Pushing Forward with Corinna, and Regina, and me. And that is literally how we roll on this podcast. We will see you next week.

Own It Mastery Launching This March!