Actress and producer, Marsai Martin, sits down with Sharí Nycole at EXCELERATEHer to chat about what drives her ambition, how her creative passions have anchored her success in Hollywood and the importance of healthy boundaries.
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00:00Marce Martin is here and she is a media maven in her own right and I'm inspired by you more
00:13often than you think. She just got honored here at the Accelerate Her conference. During your
00:17acceptance speech you talked about how this award kind of felt different for you
00:21and you've received a lot of awards as you mentioned as well. What is the feeling that
00:26you have when you're coming into an environment where you know you're going to be honored and how
00:31did that feeling kind of shift for you with this particular award? Oh wow. Well it kind of feels
00:37like like five stages of something like how the people say five stages of grief I was like five
00:42stages of trying to calm myself down and get ready to prep for something like this and honestly it
00:49starts with what the award is for. How does this connect and relate to me as of right now in the
00:56space that I'm in? Yeah. And who am I talking to? Who is the audience? Who am I engaging with? And
01:02when I um with of course I've known Miss Kim for quite a while and to be able to be here and just
01:10kind of be in her world and her space I knew that was a very big moment for me um and and for her as
01:17well so I just I wanted to give her all her props and as well as um the amazing CEOs the business women
01:25the corporate women and everybody who was in that room that I guess in other ways watched me grow
01:33into this person um into this 20 year old version of me so to be able to kind of just put all of those
01:40details and kind of just put them in a space where I'm like all right this is this is what I know I'm
01:47going to say and how I want to present myself um that's that's pretty much what it is and I try not
01:53to think about it throughout you know like sometimes you can overwhelm yourself with it uh but sometimes
01:58like even today I just did a little text uh thing in the morning and that was it I was like what do we
02:05think on my little notes app and then that's and that's that's what I did and didn't worry about it
02:10anymore and it turned out great thank you thank you I mean it was such a warm room I mean having
02:16you and along with so many other women there that was just here to be present and listen and to
02:21understand and connect with one another yeah um made everything so warm and easy to speak towards
02:28yeah you mentioned your age on stage you just mentioned it and I'm I'm still like just 20 oh my
02:34goodness she's accomplished so much and when you think about at least in my opinion how self-aware you
02:39are at such a young age I will ask you and I've been asking people throughout the day here um what
02:44is one word or adjective that describes how you're wired how you're made how I'm wired is I'm I'm very
02:51much um a uh oh I would say the first thing that came to mind and I'll explain was silent but deadly
03:02because I am very much an observer I like to listen and to understand the whole person yeah who am I
03:12talking to who who are who are the people that I'm in this room in who am I allowing a seat at the table
03:18versus what do I need to build from and grow into and those are things that you don't really grasp by
03:27talking all the time yeah or trying to dominate something that you don't even know what you're
03:31trying to do um and for me I I really just like to sit back understand take in as much information
03:39as possible so when I am ready to go I am ready to go I know exactly what I want to do the strategies
03:45that I want to take the creative direction I want to go in so I can sit on these meetings and
03:51talking to the people that I need to talk to to get my full thought out and know exactly
03:58the type of person you are and how you're going to respond or um the way I need to talk to you about
04:04certain things and understanding your full perspective before I jump into what I'm about
04:08to give you so yeah that is probably something that I would say in in terms of how my brain is wired
04:17it's amazing yeah I'm in this environment and this is my first year at elevate her and I've just been
04:23so enamored with the the caliber of men and women and men there's a man here who have graced this uh
04:29hotel conference and one of the things that I'm loving is the bridge between wealth and wellness yeah
04:36and for you before I get into the wellness piece I do want to ask at 20 years old even prior to you you
04:42started to build your your brand has grown exponentially you've built a certain amount
04:46of wealth you've built your own empire what would be your biggest piece of advice for for a young
04:52person who desires to to fast track and and again you didn't fast track because somebody gave you
04:56something you fast track because you earned it and I do think that's possible you know everybody
05:01thinks you have to put all these years in to get to a certain point you've proven hey it can happen
05:05for you yeah you don't have to be 40 50 years old for it to happen for you yeah so for those who are
05:10interested in the track that you're on and in your favor and what you do as well but what would be
05:14your advice to though oh well for me I feel like my journey started as soon as I took control of my own
05:25life and stopped allowing other people to find the answer for me how do you okay and Marce how do you
05:34get empowered to do that as a child I think just being tired tired a lot I'm so stupid I don't have
05:43pills then girl sometimes you need to be tired of hearing the same thing and if you know as a grown
05:49lady like yeah you mean tired as a kid you can be tired too just like it's a fed up bed up like
05:56dang from you two I'm getting the same answer a no are we serious so sometimes you just gotta find your
06:02yes or build your yes I love that and I mean for me I'm I grew up with very headstrong risk-taking
06:11parents and my whole family is like that so I wasn't like when I had that idea it really wasn't
06:20like I was strayed the wrong way or someone pulled me out of that mindset like no I was actually they're
06:26fueling the fire you were reared in in being fed up and doing something about it yeah so he's like I'm fed
06:31up my parents like well I'm fed up too what we gonna do about it so um that's truly what it is and
06:38that's like that's the steps that we take through and through and I think as I guess with my advice
06:44for young people is don't stop creating stay consistent and if it's truly your passion
06:52go for it with something like this especially in the entertainment industry and what I do
06:59yeah you you can't you can't have for you do it you gotta be really in it especially when you are
07:05black a black woman and then a young black woman on top of that it's it's it's challenging and it's not
07:12easy it's not easy whatsoever and you're gonna have lots of downs and for you to overcome that it has to
07:20be something that you choose every single day yeah so my my thing is if it's if it's truly something
07:26that you want to do find the passion in it and just go for it because when it's your passion