October 24, 2025 • 27 mins
The latest Building Black Business podcast episode features Honey German in conversation with Sharde Weiss, host of Around The Way With Sharde. In Partnership with @DriveToyota
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Building Black Business Today. Honey
German is your host, and your guest is Sharday wis welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thank you for having me. Honey, how are you? How
are you? I'm doing amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
You look absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Thank you for joining us today. The smile on your
face tells me this is going to be just a
great episode.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
This is gonna feel like a conversation on a stoop.
I promise it is.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Now, what do you want me to call you? What
do you want me to label you?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Honestly, just Sharda. I take my legal first name.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
I've tried to think of really cool names and nothing, nothing, nothing, never.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Really it's dope. It's different, you know your mind's but
it's not.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, well, funny enough.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
When I was born in the eighties and my mother
was a big shad A fan. But a lot of
women were naming their daughter Shade at the time, so
she's like, you know, I want to throw a little
razzle dazzle on it. So she threw a couple extra
letters in there. So I'm not Shada, I'm Sharde.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
And I love it. Yes, your last name, wife, Yes, man,
talk to me where'd that come?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yes, well, I am from Queen's the World's borough, and
I'm a mixed child. My mother is black again, my
father's Puerto Rican and white, so my grandfather's Jewish, my
mother my grandmother's from Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Straight.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
We all are from America, like you know, we were
born here and anything. But yeah, my sister is super
super light skin. I'm like kind of fair.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
And I like, yeah, yeah, I'm like right out the
little exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
But it's funny because even growing up like people like
you're not sisters and because one ended a one color,
one ended.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Up the other.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
When we yeah, we've had to pull our IDs out before.
It's like, no, we have the same mother, same father,
same address. But I love it though. I have cousins
who have dreads and then I have cousins who are
blonde hair, blue eyes. You know, so we got the
whole un and the whites family.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You got all that. Now, Yes, career wise, what is
the label that you like? Media personality or what do
you like?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Yeah, I've been thinking about that too, and I think
that difficult when in this space is like what am
I going to say about myself? But I think media
personality is gonna fit me the best.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I like that one. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Even sometimes when people like, oh, your podcast and I'm like, well,
it's more of like a web series.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
In my eyes, it's like a vlog. Yeah, exactly, Like
you know, multimedia personality. How about we give you that one.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
That's the one I use.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I'll share it with you, okay, Because I do radio,
I do podcasting, I do TV.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
It's multimedia.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
It is, it is, And you know, I don't want
to put myself in a box. You don't want to
be able to kind of branch out and yeah, I
need to do a little bit of everything wherever.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
You need me.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
That's why I'm gonna go. You gonna do voiceover, absolutely
do it. You want a commercial, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yes, that's the last thing I want to I want
to do commercials on TV.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I think that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
TV makes me nervous, though. I was on Good Night
New York earlier this week and I was so nervous.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I'm like, yes, and then you don't look nervous.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
But then I get on there and I'm chilling, and
everybody you were nervous.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I'm like no.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
But the lead up to going on TV is just
like and then you're like watch when you get in there,
you're like, yeah, what is this? Once you're watching it
on TV, it's different. But how do you work with
your nerves because you're in front of the camera.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Oh man, I am a ball of nerves. I'm not
even gonna lie.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
It is right.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It is so nerve wracking.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I do want to fumble.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
It's like no, because the camera's are role. It's like,
you know, I'm trying to be as like poised as possible.
But I have a team, so you don't want to
be like cut go again, to go again.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Our first episode, that's like my name was cut.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I was like, wait, stop, pause around the way with Sharday. Yes,
that is what we're referring to. That's it.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
That is it, you know, dealing with my nerves, I
think honestly breathing. Breathing is very important to me. Like
literally just a couple of deep breaths, you remember, I do.
I do shout out to my therapist. She's like, girl,
you gotta breathe and through the nose, out through the mouth.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's that's my goal.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
You look good on the second I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I appreciate you. You look natural, which is good to me.
What's most important. When I'm watching somebody and I feel
like they're acting or they're putting on yeah, I kind
of like shut down and I don't want to, but
I shut down.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I know what you're talking about. I know exactly what
you're talking about, and that that was my goal too.
I'm like, you know what, just I kind of just
threw myself out there. I was like, just be yourself,
you know, don't change your voice, don't change change your inflection.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Like you don't imitate nobody.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
I hate yeah, especially when people come up under somebody
else and then they start like their mannerisms, even with
radio sometimes like I see somebody that used to work
with somebody and I'm like, yeah, so you just adopted
the whole personality.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, it's like you're a chameleon. I just want to
be known for being myself. That is my main goal.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
And you're doing good and you're likable.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
That's another thing. You could see a video you be like,
I don't like this person. Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
I'm just.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
You.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You're absolutely right. It's so true.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
But the good thing about my show is that like,
especially my first season, I'm interviewing people that I'm familiar with,
you know, so I know these people and I knew
for myself, I was like, you know, if I'm going
to start, let me not jump in the river the
first time. Let me dip my toe in it. And
so my practice is like with people I know and
you know, I'm a little bit more uncomfortable. But after
you do that a couple of time time, you know,
(05:00):
now I feel like I could talk to anybody, you know.
And so it's all about practice. It's all about repetition,
learning the things that you do. You know, that's the
only way to learn something is to actually do it.
So here I am doing it.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And with this it's it's a lot about straight up
stalking the person before they get here. Oh yeah, you
all know everything? What they ate this morning? Are they married?
Where did they start? Because if the person you're sitting
across from, or interviewing, or just in their space, if
they feel like you don't even know me, they're gonna
shut down on you.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
One hundred percent. Well, I know you grew up on
fifty first and Broadway. I know you moved to Long
Island in seventh grade.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, you're watching what I'm mark.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
You know, it's because I don't do a lot of interviews.
I never like to make it about me. Okay, it's
a weird thing I'm creating, kind of like just a
library of other people. Yeah, you know that was for
I put out a call in the summer. I was like,
you know, I have a month off from podcasting. I
want to do other people's platforms, right, because it's like,
I have so many people come up here. I'm talking
(05:59):
about big people that I'm like, Wow, this person made
a huge sacrifice to come here.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I gotta get back. Yes, and I did a couple
of interviews and you caught one of those tales of Latino.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yes, yes, she did. Wow too.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
She's so beautiful, by the way, it was easy to watch.
You guys are easy on the eyes and was so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Right nice.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, then you'll had the little wine or champagne.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'd not drink that. What lit James has me scared.
But anyway, Oh, I'm back to the way. Can we
talk about this now? This is not the first time
you work in media?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
No, no, it's not.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
How did you start?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
What?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
When did the bug bite you, and you were like,
I'm going to use my voice.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
You know, this started. I'm going to say maybe like
fifteen years ago. I tried to come out with a blog,
like back in the type blog.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, like a typing blog. Didn't work, celebrity news.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
What was it.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
I don't know what I was doing, to be honest
with you. I just started getting contact, creating my face
on it. I started to write things out and it
just felt really clunky and weird.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
A couple of all of us I started blogging too.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
It starts, you know, it was like that eras to
I think it was maybe like twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Were always building websites on word.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Pressent shit exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
But yeah, so a couple of years later, I'm gonna
say I think it was like twenty twenty one. So
matter of fact, let's start from the pandemic. My full
time job, I worked downtown in a financial district, and
I remember we were in office and a couple people
got sick, and then more people got sick. More people
got sick so slowly that COVID was being introduced and
we're not a remote company at the time at all,
(07:30):
and they were like, all right, guys, we'll see you
in two weeks. And I never saw it him again,
Like it was over.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That was me.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
They told us, they were like, you know, you might
have to do your radio show from home for two weeks.
And they gave us equipment, they gave us headphones. They
girl five years later.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
That's what I'm saying. I always remember that last day.
Everyone was like, see you later, last time I saw you.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So to this stake or are you back?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
No, yeah, we're so remote. We're still remote. And we
actually started hiring outside of.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
New York, which were good for you.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Yes, I don't think I could go back full time.
I think it's over for those days. I like working remote,
and I feel like I get more done at home.
To be honest with you, don't be sitting.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
On phone what you mean and they listen.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
They love us working remote to but they know, like,
you know, we get work done at home.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know, it's that water cooler talk. You know, you
go grab a snack and but.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Get more done. You don't mean watch the bathroom while
you work.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Oh no, no, no, no, I'm talking about I'm able to listen.
I'm able to focus, you know, because a lot of
times when you're in office, people come up to you,
Oh look at this, I.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Can't you come in? I get probably fifty percent of
the worldow.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, it's always like this. So I'm glad we
went remote.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
But during that time, I mean, I spent a lot
of time at home. And unfortunately at that time as well,
my daughter was visiting my father in the Bronx and
this is when COVID like just shut down and my
father was like, I'm not sending her back home. So
my daughter was at my dad's house for six weeks
and I was home by myself, and that really gave
me the time to think and like, listen, what do
(08:58):
you want to do? You know, Like I'm I make
a great income and everything, and I love my job,
but it's like I need to take this money and
invest it in myself somehow. So about a year or
two after that, I started an audio podcast. So it
was called The Chillery Banks Show.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I saw that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yes, yes, I'll tell you funny story how I got
that name.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
My brother over here, Lamar and I we have a
big group of friends and him and I just always
been like the Chillers, Like we're just laid back, calm Uh,
So we started calling each other serial chillers, right, like
a serial killer, but a serial chiller. So that was
like our name, and he's Chill Smith and I'm Chillery Banks.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
That's me.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
So it was like a joke. It started out that way,
but it just kind of stuck. So I have a
three bedroom apartment. I took one of my bedrooms that
was really just like spare and I turned it into
a podcast studio. Look at you making content creation space listen.
I painted the room. I had a nice desk chair,
all the equipment. Shout out to my boys Strife. He
was my engineer, so he would come. I would have
(09:56):
guests come, interview twelve people I believe with that season nice.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, that was a really good.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Show, especially during COVID you get all that done, you know,
because almost everybody was shutting down and you were opening
up shot.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Exactly exactly, and I was just like, you know, I
just wanted to do something for myself. That that was
really it. And again my first episode was very shaky.
I was nervous, but as I kept going and you know,
learning what I do, it became very easy. Then we
got into season two of that show. It was ten
episodes per season. I and you're doing this all on
your own, this is all one man show.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And you're conceptualizing. You're like, I'm gonna do a season.
It's gonna have ten episode.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Like I just sit in my room and I just
get because you.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Work in finance, because we were here at I Heeart,
so a lot of us are like we're on the
radio now. The radios can be an extension of the podcast,
but for you to actually conceptualize and execute.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Yes, listen through. If I say I'm gonna do something,
I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
What sun are you?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I'm a Leohan figures big Leo, Yeah, big Leo.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
When I got my eyes on something, it's just like,
I don't know, it's like this five me. I'm like, oh,
I want it, and I'm gonna get it, you know.
And so I started this audio podcast and it went
very well.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
It was really cool.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
My second season, I interviewed Jacques Morel he's a photographer.
Shout out to him and Djvip as well, which was great.
But I was like, you know, I have to move
into visuals. Like I knew I had to move into visuals,
but at the time I was like, you know, work
is going well, my family is good.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
You know, everybody around me's good. My friends are good.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
But the only thing I didn't have like a huge
grasp on, was like my weight. And so I said
to myself, I said, listen, I don't want to put
anything out where I'm going to look back and be
cringed out or anything. So I took two years off
and I just got my life together, got my life together,
and then beginning of this year actually started talking to
(11:47):
my friends and stuff, and I was like, yeah, I
want to bring the show back, but I want to
kind of like revamp it. I don't want to do
Chili Banks show. And one day I was just sitting
there and I was thinking to myself. I was like, yeah,
you know, like I want to be in a street,
you know, I want to be outside. I want to
see New York. I want to go to neighborhoods. I
want to talk to people. And I was like, round
away with Shard, I love that. There we go the girl.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, And when you say I got my life together,
what does that mean? Two years? You just you just
glossed over two years.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I did I need over that? So, you know, my
my whole life.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Like I said, my my mother is black, my father's
Puerto Rican and white, and food is very big in
my house.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
I remember on Fridays my dad would bring home like
cai or cats or El Pueto or something like.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
We always was like a big eating type of family.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
It's like we're gonna eat out. It could it could
be Spanish food, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
My mom loves curry and a hurry, so she would
bring that home after work.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And you know, of.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Language for our family, say yo, I got paid. I'm
about food for everybody. We're just gonna eat.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And we don't.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Always make the best decisions, you know, black and brown families.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
We like to eat. We like to eat like we
wanted to taste good.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Okay, absolutely, we're not out here talk about we're gonna
have a vegan dish and not.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
No no, no, I want rice, I want.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Beans, I want all, I want it all.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
No, we're actually going to go eat after this.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
That's the other thing, Like anytime I do something, it's
like food's involved.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I'm like, all right, where we're gonna go eat? You
know where we're gonna go stop.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Still, to this day, till this day.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
We're going to eat right after this. So on the weight, well,
so you can share? Yeah, no, no, of course I
want to share. And you know what's funny, I'll tell
you a quick story before I share, because I was
kind of worried about that. I was like, dang, do
I want to talk about it, like in depth like that.
But I was at a dinner in May and I
met Angie Martinez, which is one of my idols, and
I spoke to her and I was just telling her
(13:42):
about I love her.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I came up understand like love l O v E.
I love Angie.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
She's dope.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I tried not to fan girl. I hope I didn't.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
But I was talking to her and I have mentioned
my weight loss to her and she looked me dead
in my face and say, you have to talk about it.
She's like, that's it, Like you have to Because I
was like, yeah, you know, I don't know. She was like, no,
you have to talk about it. And so for that reason,
here I am talking about it, right. So thank you
Angie for for giving me that tip. But yeah, you know,
like two years ago, I'll be honest, I was walking
(14:14):
in the city one day and I remember I had
a white T shirt on and some jeans, and you
know when you walk past like a storefront and the glass,
your body's kind.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Of stretched a little bit, right, So I walked down,
I looked at her.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I was like, oh damn, okay, right, and I kept
walking and I was like maybe it was just that mirror.
But then it was the next door and the next
door and the next door, and I was like, oh nah,
I really looked like that, Like I.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Gotta I got to like, oh slipped up?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
And you know, there's tons of health issues, as you know,
with carrying that weight. It was a lot of little
aches and pains I had that I just I just
chalked it up til I'm getting old, you know, like
that was it. I had like this knee pain that
was really bugging me. But it was the weight that
it was the weight. I didn't know until the weight
came off, to be honest, and.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Then you were like a brand new woman.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
You're like, yes, no more and random. So at my
highest weight, I was actually two seventy nine. I'm five
to three. Are you kidding? I Am not joking.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
You know that the pictures looked very different. Yes, but.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You know I always carried my weight really well.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Though I stop because you're doing the same thing I
used to do.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Listen because I was in my twos also, but I
was like, oh my, my waist is kind of small.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
You know, I carry my weight okay, but you know.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Just like you were mentioning, I wouldn't want to do video, no,
And I didn't want to do public speaking, right. I
didn't want people to record me. I didn't want people
to take a picture. And then I didn't know I
was going to look fat. And I'm like, no, no, no,
I'll take it with my camera. I'll send it to you,
and then I would just edit it. Yes, live like that. No,
who wants to live this way? I want to be
able to get up on a podium speak and I'd
be like, ah, my two chins showing right.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I hear you.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
How good do you feel?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I feel amazing. I feel amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
I'm down one hundred and twenty five pounds beautifulcus, which
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
I opted into a procedure called VSG. It's vertical sleeve
getstracted me. And the simplest way to put it is
that you're temmy goes from like a football to a banana.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
So liesten, very very easy. I'll be honest. My my
biggest regret about that was that I didn't do it sooner.
It was and I know, you know, obviously some people
have complications and you know, I feel so bad when
people do.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
However, for me it was different. It was very easy
for me.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
I think I did about a year and a half
of of research before. For you, yeah, I wanted to
make sure this is something you knew what you were
going My surgeon is amazing. His name is doctor Stephen Maroola.
He's in Queens as well. Amazing. He has a great
bedside manner and you know, by the time I did
have a consultation with him, I pretty much could answer
(16:43):
the questions myself, like I.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Knew were pro I know what I'm there for.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
I knew, I knew what I wanted to do, and
I was like, you know, I'm paying all this money
and insurance.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
So and you look absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Thank you, Thank you. My two year anniversary was actually yesterday.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Congratulate.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You know, that's a lot of weight and you know,
sometimes it's not even about the way we look.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
It's all about the way we feel.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
It is one hundred percent because I've always been like
a heavier girl, to be honest, like even when I
was a kid, Me and my sisters, Yeah, seriously, we
all was it was.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
At rice and beads, right, But I had to get
it up with me.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
And I feel like in my life I've overcome so
much and the only thing I haven't really been able
to get a grasp on is my weight. And so like,
work was going good, family, everything, like I said, but
it was just this one thing and I was like,
you know what, I don't have to live like this.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I'm gonna have to do this.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
You don't.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah, So I changed it and good for you. Yeah,
thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
It was it was great and I got the procedures
down October sixteenth, twenty twenty three. I was home the
next day and I was back at work in about
a week, week and a half. And the weight's it's
been coming off since then. My knee pain is gone,
like every pain that I I sleep so much better.
And shopping is so fun. I can imagine you were
(18:01):
like then or that, Yeah, yeah, shopping is And I
wrote that here I said, I said, she's very stylish.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I love the way you dress.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Thank you so much. You know, I'm having fun. I'm
having fun with it. I try not to be too
like trendy, and you know, I try to just do
my own thing, to be honest. It's like the more
weight that I lost, the baggy or my clothes got
because you.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Know me, because you no longer feel the need to
have tight clothes to show you have a shape. Now
you're just like, I'm just swaggy and cute. You know,
I don't worry about my.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Way, don't worry what's under here, right right surprise. How
did your daughter feel because you have a twenty three
year old daughter.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I do.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I have a twenty three year old daughter. You know.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
It's funny my daughter. I remember when the weight like
really started coming off. She hugged me and she was like,
oh my god, mom. She was like, both of my
arms are around and I was just like, yeah, girl,
it's lit like we're back at it.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Are your clothes?
Speaker 5 (18:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh well that's the worst part. Now she takes your clothes,
she takes everything. Natalia, if you're watching, put my lip
gloss back, get out of my close she's got my
coat on right now, I swear to you. But now
we're the same size, shoe, pants, tops, everything.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Good luck to you. You go on vacation as a rap.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
I see on her Instagram and I'm like, wait a minute,
like it a mine, you know, my suret?
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:18):
How does she feel about your content?
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You know, she loves it?
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Man.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
How some kids might be like, mom, that's cringe. I
don't like.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Sometimes, No, they they're honest, the kids are very honest.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
But no, she liked it.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
And you know, I think because my daughter and I
kind of grew up together. I had my daughter very
young in high school. So it's literally like I gave
birth to my best friend, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
I'm like, she's her daughter.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Yeah, she's grown, she's grown, she's grown. At the time,
obviously it was difficult, you know. It definitely wasn't anything
to laugh about. But yeah, definitely it was yourself. Yeah,
I don't know anything. I but your only child, my
only child, my one and only you know, maybe one
day I'll pop up some more, but for now that
(20:00):
is yeah, I know, but no, she she likes my content.
She came to one of my shoots with me when
we shot Don Jay over here. She came and she
was very supportive. She watches my show, she subscribes and stuff.
But I think she's just proud to see like her
mom doing what she wants to do. You know, I've
spent my whole life, like literally, my whole life has
been being a mother, you know, and now my daughter
(20:22):
is old enough to the point where she has her
own job, and you know, I could kind of take
a back seat a little bit and do the things
I want to do. So I think she's just proud
of me for going after my dreams and she gets
to watch, which is great.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
That's amazing because you know, sometimes some people go without
really pushing their dream.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
And the fact that you know you made this change,
you know with yourself, that you feel confident enough to
get in front of the camera and you don't launch
something like around the Way with Sharday that has a
visual and that can go so far. Yeah, I commend
you for that, because a lot of people, you know,
they just let years go by. It another year and
then you're forty, and then you're fifty, and then you're sixty,
and you're like, I wanted to be a dancer. I
(21:02):
wanted to be a singer. You're not letting that happen
to you. You know, that speaks volumes about you, your
determination and you know where you're headed.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
I appreciate that. I just don't want to live with regret,
you know. I feel like earlier on in my life
being a mom, I've missed out on like going away
to college and things like that. But now it's like
I'm grown, my daughter has grown, and it's like the
life is show short, you know, and I just don't
want to live with regrets and should have what it could.
Is like, if I feel like painting tomorrow being an artist,
(21:30):
I'll do that.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
You know you I love I love where you where
your head is at right now?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, yeah, I try to say positive, you know, and right.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Now you're in a space where you are the business. Yes,
so you're going to have to execute and move just
so differently. You take care of yourself, you know. It's
just it's different now when you become the brand, when
you become what makes the money, things changed a.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Lot hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
You know. I always find myself in really challenging positions.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I feel like I like it.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I like it sub conscious because I honestly, I am
very scared to speak, and here I am speaking right now,
like what we're doing absolutely okay, I'm scared to speak,
like just in general.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
But I would have never gotten that from you.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I know.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
I push myself all the time to do the things
that make me uncomfortable, you know, because I know what
my comfort zones are and I could excel there. But
I feel like my comfort zone is just easy, you know,
it doesn't challenge me at all. So I even told
myself a couple of years ago, I was like, you know,
if I'm going to start talking, like I need to
start reading more. I need to start, you know, like
(22:34):
talking to more people, maybe people I wouldn't talk to normally,
you know, to get a vibe and be able to
hold a conversation.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
So yeah, I tend to do things that are hard.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
You know, but when I do accomplish it, I'm way
more proud of myself.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
I did it. One of my life models that I
live by is do it scared?
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I Like, so many opportunities are going to come and
You're like I'm scared, No, Yeah, do it?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
I put myself situations where I'm like what am I
doing right now?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Who said I could do this? Whole camera crews, whole
sets And I'm like, okay, let's go. Yeah, but leading up.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
To it, it just feels scary. But I love that you've
launched that you're putting out episodes now. If someone is
listening and they want to find you, they want to
find an episode, like follow, subscribe, what are we plugging
in today?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
So it is.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Around the way with Shardei and Shardei is spelled sha
r like Robert D, like dog e, like elephant. You
can find me on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. YouTube is
where all the shows are. You'll see the shorts and stuff.
I post a couple of shorts also on my TikTok
and my instagram obviously has some clips and things as well,
but YouTube is where you can find everything. And I
(23:46):
also have some old episodes of the Trillery Banks show
still on my levelo. So if anybody wants to take
a you know, trip down memory lane and listen to
that audio podcast is still up there too.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You know, I want people to see growth.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
I want people to see like know, I started here
and I just continue to keep going, you know, So
everything is still up there.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Now what's next? Around the way with your day? Are
we on pause right now? When's the new season? Did
we wrap up? Where we Where are we at right now?
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Yeah? So actually today is episode five out of six.
Today's episode five out of six. We have a finale
episode comming in about two weeks.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
And you guess.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Actually, my guess is my brother.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Oh, me and my brother be a good coming.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah, it's gonna be great.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
And the funny thing is is that, like the show
was really centered around me. So I take my guess
around my way. So I go to my original neighborhood.
I'm originally from. I'm from Queen's born and raised. I
never lives anywhere else, but when I was very young,
I had lived in Jamaica.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
My family from No No, Jamaica, Queens.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
I love Jamaica, the island by the way, but I'd
be like, oh, this story, we're from Jamaica, Queens. My
my parents grew up in Baisley and we lived on
something for a little while, and then I really grew
up in Bayside. Bayside is like where I went to school,
you know. I went to elementary school, middle school, high school,
and then eventually I moved to Flushing. So I'm a
(25:09):
Queen's Girl, like Queen's forever. You know, I'm big on
that too. I'm real big on being from Queens. I
love being from Queen's And that episode is actually going
back to Bayside.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
One with your brother.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Yeah, yeah, we went back to Bayside. But the best
part about it is that I got permission to shoot
in my old high school.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Oh really, I love that.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Oh my god, it is so good.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
So you know, I got a chance to talk about
my pregnancy, and you know how I kind of maneuvered
in that space because you know, it wasn't all glitten
glamor obviously, but I got to talk about just growing
up in Queens and going to school out there and
managing being a student and a mom. And yeah, that
episode is gonna come out in two weeks, so I
(25:49):
believe like November three is when we'll see that, and
then after that we're going to just take a little
breath because we've been on go.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
It's the holidays.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I know, I got to put my tree up.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
I do Thanksgiving too, By the way, I'm actually a
pretty good cook, So Thanksgivings at my house I was
just gonna say that Thanksgiving us our days. Oh yeah,
I'm not making it. I'll make you anything. I could
make you source from scratch, my my aunty.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Dragging it now, I'll talk about so from scratch.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
From scratch my my uncle's wife.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Back in the day. She was an Italian woman and
we were very very young. I remember going to tell
you yeah, yeah, yeah, and then I don't know. On
Thanksgiving she said she's making everything everything. So we're going
to pause for the holiday. But I'm gonna start shooting
season two of Around Away with Chardy probably in February
and launch that in April. So I'm trying to do
(26:40):
like you know, every other quarter. I guess you can
say to release the show until you know it becomes
bigger than me, which is.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
The goal, but that's not it, definitely will. I want
to thank you so much for coming through building black business.
You know where we're here to empower, motivate, promote anything
that has to do with black business. We want to
push forward and you know around the way with shar Day,
We're going to make sure we get it out to everybody.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
It's coming, y'all.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Please thank you so much for sitting down with me today.
God bless and good night.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Thank you, honey, Thanks guys,
Welcome to another episode of Building Black Business Today. Honey
German is your host, and your guest is Sharday wis welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thank you for having me. Honey, how are you? How
are you? I'm doing amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
You look absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Thank you for joining us today. The smile on your
face tells me this is going to be just a
great episode.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
This is gonna feel like a conversation on a stoop.
I promise it is.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Now, what do you want me to call you? What
do you want me to label you?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Honestly, just Sharda. I take my legal first name.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
I've tried to think of really cool names and nothing, nothing, nothing, never.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Really it's dope. It's different, you know your mind's but
it's not.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, well, funny enough.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
When I was born in the eighties and my mother
was a big shad A fan. But a lot of
women were naming their daughter Shade at the time, so
she's like, you know, I want to throw a little
razzle dazzle on it. So she threw a couple extra
letters in there. So I'm not Shada, I'm Sharde.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
And I love it. Yes, your last name, wife, Yes, man,
talk to me where'd that come?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yes, well, I am from Queen's the World's borough, and
I'm a mixed child. My mother is black again, my
father's Puerto Rican and white, so my grandfather's Jewish, my
mother my grandmother's from Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Straight.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
We all are from America, like you know, we were
born here and anything. But yeah, my sister is super
super light skin. I'm like kind of fair.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
And I like, yeah, yeah, I'm like right out the
little exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
But it's funny because even growing up like people like
you're not sisters and because one ended a one color,
one ended.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Up the other.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
When we yeah, we've had to pull our IDs out before.
It's like, no, we have the same mother, same father,
same address. But I love it though. I have cousins
who have dreads and then I have cousins who are
blonde hair, blue eyes. You know, so we got the
whole un and the whites family.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You got all that. Now, Yes, career wise, what is
the label that you like? Media personality or what do
you like?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Yeah, I've been thinking about that too, and I think
that difficult when in this space is like what am
I going to say about myself? But I think media
personality is gonna fit me the best.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I like that one. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Even sometimes when people like, oh, your podcast and I'm like, well,
it's more of like a web series.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
In my eyes, it's like a vlog. Yeah, exactly, Like
you know, multimedia personality. How about we give you that one.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
That's the one I use.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I'll share it with you, okay, Because I do radio,
I do podcasting, I do TV.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
It's multimedia.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
It is, it is, And you know, I don't want
to put myself in a box. You don't want to
be able to kind of branch out and yeah, I
need to do a little bit of everything wherever.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
You need me.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
That's why I'm gonna go. You gonna do voiceover, absolutely
do it. You want a commercial, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yes, that's the last thing I want to I want
to do commercials on TV.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I think that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
TV makes me nervous, though. I was on Good Night
New York earlier this week and I was so nervous.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I'm like, yes, and then you don't look nervous.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
But then I get on there and I'm chilling, and
everybody you were nervous.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I'm like no.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
But the lead up to going on TV is just
like and then you're like watch when you get in there,
you're like, yeah, what is this? Once you're watching it
on TV, it's different. But how do you work with
your nerves because you're in front of the camera.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Oh man, I am a ball of nerves. I'm not
even gonna lie.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
It is right.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It is so nerve wracking.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I do want to fumble.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
It's like no, because the camera's are role. It's like,
you know, I'm trying to be as like poised as possible.
But I have a team, so you don't want to
be like cut go again, to go again.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Our first episode, that's like my name was cut.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I was like, wait, stop, pause around the way with Sharday. Yes,
that is what we're referring to. That's it.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
That is it, you know, dealing with my nerves, I
think honestly breathing. Breathing is very important to me. Like
literally just a couple of deep breaths, you remember, I do.
I do shout out to my therapist. She's like, girl,
you gotta breathe and through the nose, out through the mouth.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's that's my goal.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
You look good on the second I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I appreciate you. You look natural, which is good to me.
What's most important. When I'm watching somebody and I feel
like they're acting or they're putting on yeah, I kind
of like shut down and I don't want to, but
I shut down.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I know what you're talking about. I know exactly what
you're talking about, and that that was my goal too.
I'm like, you know what, just I kind of just
threw myself out there. I was like, just be yourself,
you know, don't change your voice, don't change change your inflection.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Like you don't imitate nobody.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
I hate yeah, especially when people come up under somebody
else and then they start like their mannerisms, even with
radio sometimes like I see somebody that used to work
with somebody and I'm like, yeah, so you just adopted
the whole personality.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, it's like you're a chameleon. I just want to
be known for being myself. That is my main goal.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
And you're doing good and you're likable.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
That's another thing. You could see a video you be like,
I don't like this person. Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
I'm just.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
You.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You're absolutely right. It's so true.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
But the good thing about my show is that like,
especially my first season, I'm interviewing people that I'm familiar with,
you know, so I know these people and I knew
for myself, I was like, you know, if I'm going
to start, let me not jump in the river the
first time. Let me dip my toe in it. And
so my practice is like with people I know and
you know, I'm a little bit more uncomfortable. But after
you do that a couple of time time, you know,
(05:00):
now I feel like I could talk to anybody, you know.
And so it's all about practice. It's all about repetition,
learning the things that you do. You know, that's the
only way to learn something is to actually do it.
So here I am doing it.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And with this it's it's a lot about straight up
stalking the person before they get here. Oh yeah, you
all know everything? What they ate this morning? Are they married?
Where did they start? Because if the person you're sitting
across from, or interviewing, or just in their space, if
they feel like you don't even know me, they're gonna
shut down on you.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
One hundred percent. Well, I know you grew up on
fifty first and Broadway. I know you moved to Long
Island in seventh grade.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, you're watching what I'm mark.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
You know, it's because I don't do a lot of interviews.
I never like to make it about me. Okay, it's
a weird thing I'm creating, kind of like just a
library of other people. Yeah, you know that was for
I put out a call in the summer. I was like,
you know, I have a month off from podcasting. I
want to do other people's platforms, right, because it's like,
I have so many people come up here. I'm talking
(05:59):
about big people that I'm like, Wow, this person made
a huge sacrifice to come here.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I gotta get back. Yes, and I did a couple
of interviews and you caught one of those tales of Latino.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yes, yes, she did. Wow too.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
She's so beautiful, by the way, it was easy to watch.
You guys are easy on the eyes and was so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Right nice.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, then you'll had the little wine or champagne.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'd not drink that. What lit James has me scared.
But anyway, Oh, I'm back to the way. Can we
talk about this now? This is not the first time
you work in media?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
No, no, it's not.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
How did you start?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
What?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
When did the bug bite you, and you were like,
I'm going to use my voice.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
You know, this started. I'm going to say maybe like
fifteen years ago. I tried to come out with a blog,
like back in the type blog.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, like a typing blog. Didn't work, celebrity news.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
What was it.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
I don't know what I was doing, to be honest
with you. I just started getting contact, creating my face
on it. I started to write things out and it
just felt really clunky and weird.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
A couple of all of us I started blogging too.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
It starts, you know, it was like that eras to
I think it was maybe like twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Were always building websites on word.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Pressent shit exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
But yeah, so a couple of years later, I'm gonna
say I think it was like twenty twenty one. So
matter of fact, let's start from the pandemic. My full
time job, I worked downtown in a financial district, and
I remember we were in office and a couple people
got sick, and then more people got sick. More people
got sick so slowly that COVID was being introduced and
we're not a remote company at the time at all,
(07:30):
and they were like, all right, guys, we'll see you
in two weeks. And I never saw it him again,
Like it was over.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That was me.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
They told us, they were like, you know, you might
have to do your radio show from home for two weeks.
And they gave us equipment, they gave us headphones. They
girl five years later.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
That's what I'm saying. I always remember that last day.
Everyone was like, see you later, last time I saw you.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So to this stake or are you back?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
No, yeah, we're so remote. We're still remote. And we
actually started hiring outside of.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
New York, which were good for you.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Yes, I don't think I could go back full time.
I think it's over for those days. I like working remote,
and I feel like I get more done at home.
To be honest with you, don't be sitting.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
On phone what you mean and they listen.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
They love us working remote to but they know, like,
you know, we get work done at home.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know, it's that water cooler talk. You know, you
go grab a snack and but.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Get more done. You don't mean watch the bathroom while
you work.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Oh no, no, no, no, I'm talking about I'm able to listen.
I'm able to focus, you know, because a lot of
times when you're in office, people come up to you,
Oh look at this, I.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Can't you come in? I get probably fifty percent of
the worldow.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, it's always like this. So I'm glad we
went remote.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
But during that time, I mean, I spent a lot
of time at home. And unfortunately at that time as well,
my daughter was visiting my father in the Bronx and
this is when COVID like just shut down and my
father was like, I'm not sending her back home. So
my daughter was at my dad's house for six weeks
and I was home by myself, and that really gave
me the time to think and like, listen, what do
(08:58):
you want to do? You know, Like I'm I make
a great income and everything, and I love my job,
but it's like I need to take this money and
invest it in myself somehow. So about a year or
two after that, I started an audio podcast. So it
was called The Chillery Banks Show.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I saw that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yes, yes, I'll tell you funny story how I got
that name.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
My brother over here, Lamar and I we have a
big group of friends and him and I just always
been like the Chillers, Like we're just laid back, calm Uh,
So we started calling each other serial chillers, right, like
a serial killer, but a serial chiller. So that was
like our name, and he's Chill Smith and I'm Chillery Banks.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
That's me.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
So it was like a joke. It started out that way,
but it just kind of stuck. So I have a
three bedroom apartment. I took one of my bedrooms that
was really just like spare and I turned it into
a podcast studio. Look at you making content creation space listen.
I painted the room. I had a nice desk chair,
all the equipment. Shout out to my boys Strife. He
was my engineer, so he would come. I would have
(09:56):
guests come, interview twelve people I believe with that season nice.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, that was a really good.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Show, especially during COVID you get all that done, you know,
because almost everybody was shutting down and you were opening
up shot.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Exactly exactly, and I was just like, you know, I
just wanted to do something for myself. That that was
really it. And again my first episode was very shaky.
I was nervous, but as I kept going and you know,
learning what I do, it became very easy. Then we
got into season two of that show. It was ten
episodes per season. I and you're doing this all on
your own, this is all one man show.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And you're conceptualizing. You're like, I'm gonna do a season.
It's gonna have ten episode.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Like I just sit in my room and I just
get because you.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Work in finance, because we were here at I Heeart,
so a lot of us are like we're on the
radio now. The radios can be an extension of the podcast,
but for you to actually conceptualize and execute.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Yes, listen through. If I say I'm gonna do something,
I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
What sun are you?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I'm a Leohan figures big Leo, Yeah, big Leo.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
When I got my eyes on something, it's just like,
I don't know, it's like this five me. I'm like, oh,
I want it, and I'm gonna get it, you know.
And so I started this audio podcast and it went
very well.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
It was really cool.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
My second season, I interviewed Jacques Morel he's a photographer.
Shout out to him and Djvip as well, which was great.
But I was like, you know, I have to move
into visuals. Like I knew I had to move into visuals,
but at the time I was like, you know, work
is going well, my family is good.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
You know, everybody around me's good. My friends are good.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
But the only thing I didn't have like a huge
grasp on, was like my weight. And so I said
to myself, I said, listen, I don't want to put
anything out where I'm going to look back and be
cringed out or anything. So I took two years off
and I just got my life together, got my life together,
and then beginning of this year actually started talking to
(11:47):
my friends and stuff, and I was like, yeah, I
want to bring the show back, but I want to
kind of like revamp it. I don't want to do
Chili Banks show. And one day I was just sitting
there and I was thinking to myself. I was like, yeah,
you know, like I want to be in a street,
you know, I want to be outside. I want to
see New York. I want to go to neighborhoods. I
want to talk to people. And I was like, round
away with Shard, I love that. There we go the girl.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, And when you say I got my life together,
what does that mean? Two years? You just you just
glossed over two years.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I did I need over that? So, you know, my
my whole life.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Like I said, my my mother is black, my father's
Puerto Rican and white, and food is very big in
my house.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
I remember on Fridays my dad would bring home like
cai or cats or El Pueto or something like.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
We always was like a big eating type of family.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
It's like we're gonna eat out. It could it could
be Spanish food, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
My mom loves curry and a hurry, so she would
bring that home after work.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And you know, of.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Language for our family, say yo, I got paid. I'm
about food for everybody. We're just gonna eat.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And we don't.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Always make the best decisions, you know, black and brown families.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
We like to eat. We like to eat like we
wanted to taste good.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Okay, absolutely, we're not out here talk about we're gonna
have a vegan dish and not.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
No no, no, I want rice, I want.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Beans, I want all, I want it all.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
No, we're actually going to go eat after this.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
That's the other thing, Like anytime I do something, it's
like food's involved.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I'm like, all right, where we're gonna go eat? You
know where we're gonna go stop.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Still, to this day, till this day.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
We're going to eat right after this. So on the weight, well,
so you can share? Yeah, no, no, of course I
want to share. And you know what's funny, I'll tell
you a quick story before I share, because I was
kind of worried about that. I was like, dang, do
I want to talk about it, like in depth like that.
But I was at a dinner in May and I
met Angie Martinez, which is one of my idols, and
I spoke to her and I was just telling her
(13:42):
about I love her.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I came up understand like love l O v E.
I love Angie.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
She's dope.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I tried not to fan girl. I hope I didn't.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
But I was talking to her and I have mentioned
my weight loss to her and she looked me dead
in my face and say, you have to talk about it.
She's like, that's it, Like you have to Because I
was like, yeah, you know, I don't know. She was like, no,
you have to talk about it. And so for that reason,
here I am talking about it, right. So thank you
Angie for for giving me that tip. But yeah, you know,
like two years ago, I'll be honest, I was walking
(14:14):
in the city one day and I remember I had
a white T shirt on and some jeans, and you
know when you walk past like a storefront and the glass,
your body's kind.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Of stretched a little bit, right, So I walked down,
I looked at her.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I was like, oh damn, okay, right, and I kept
walking and I was like maybe it was just that mirror.
But then it was the next door and the next
door and the next door, and I was like, oh nah,
I really looked like that, Like I.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Gotta I got to like, oh slipped up?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
And you know, there's tons of health issues, as you know,
with carrying that weight. It was a lot of little
aches and pains I had that I just I just
chalked it up til I'm getting old, you know, like
that was it. I had like this knee pain that
was really bugging me. But it was the weight that
it was the weight. I didn't know until the weight
came off, to be honest, and.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Then you were like a brand new woman.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
You're like, yes, no more and random. So at my
highest weight, I was actually two seventy nine. I'm five
to three. Are you kidding? I Am not joking.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
You know that the pictures looked very different. Yes, but.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You know I always carried my weight really well.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Though I stop because you're doing the same thing I
used to do.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Listen because I was in my twos also, but I
was like, oh my, my waist is kind of small.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
You know, I carry my weight okay, but you know.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Just like you were mentioning, I wouldn't want to do video, no,
And I didn't want to do public speaking, right. I
didn't want people to record me. I didn't want people
to take a picture. And then I didn't know I
was going to look fat. And I'm like, no, no, no,
I'll take it with my camera. I'll send it to you,
and then I would just edit it. Yes, live like that. No,
who wants to live this way? I want to be
able to get up on a podium speak and I'd
be like, ah, my two chins showing right.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I hear you.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
How good do you feel?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I feel amazing. I feel amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
I'm down one hundred and twenty five pounds beautifulcus, which
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
I opted into a procedure called VSG. It's vertical sleeve
getstracted me. And the simplest way to put it is
that you're temmy goes from like a football to a banana.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
So liesten, very very easy. I'll be honest. My my
biggest regret about that was that I didn't do it sooner.
It was and I know, you know, obviously some people
have complications and you know, I feel so bad when
people do.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
However, for me it was different. It was very easy
for me.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
I think I did about a year and a half
of of research before. For you, yeah, I wanted to
make sure this is something you knew what you were
going My surgeon is amazing. His name is doctor Stephen Maroola.
He's in Queens as well. Amazing. He has a great
bedside manner and you know, by the time I did
have a consultation with him, I pretty much could answer
(16:43):
the questions myself, like I.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Knew were pro I know what I'm there for.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
I knew, I knew what I wanted to do, and
I was like, you know, I'm paying all this money
and insurance.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
So and you look absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Thank you, Thank you. My two year anniversary was actually yesterday.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Congratulate.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You know, that's a lot of weight and you know,
sometimes it's not even about the way we look.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
It's all about the way we feel.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
It is one hundred percent because I've always been like
a heavier girl, to be honest, like even when I
was a kid, Me and my sisters, Yeah, seriously, we
all was it was.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
At rice and beads, right, But I had to get
it up with me.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
And I feel like in my life I've overcome so
much and the only thing I haven't really been able
to get a grasp on is my weight. And so like,
work was going good, family, everything, like I said, but
it was just this one thing and I was like,
you know what, I don't have to live like this.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I'm gonna have to do this.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
You don't.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah, So I changed it and good for you. Yeah,
thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
It was it was great and I got the procedures
down October sixteenth, twenty twenty three. I was home the
next day and I was back at work in about
a week, week and a half. And the weight's it's
been coming off since then. My knee pain is gone,
like every pain that I I sleep so much better.
And shopping is so fun. I can imagine you were
(18:01):
like then or that, Yeah, yeah, shopping is And I
wrote that here I said, I said, she's very stylish.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I love the way you dress.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Thank you so much. You know, I'm having fun. I'm
having fun with it. I try not to be too
like trendy, and you know, I try to just do
my own thing, to be honest. It's like the more
weight that I lost, the baggy or my clothes got
because you.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Know me, because you no longer feel the need to
have tight clothes to show you have a shape. Now
you're just like, I'm just swaggy and cute. You know,
I don't worry about my.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Way, don't worry what's under here, right right surprise. How
did your daughter feel because you have a twenty three
year old daughter.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I do.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I have a twenty three year old daughter. You know.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
It's funny my daughter. I remember when the weight like
really started coming off. She hugged me and she was like,
oh my god, mom. She was like, both of my
arms are around and I was just like, yeah, girl,
it's lit like we're back at it.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Are your clothes?
Speaker 5 (18:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh well that's the worst part. Now she takes your clothes,
she takes everything. Natalia, if you're watching, put my lip
gloss back, get out of my close she's got my
coat on right now, I swear to you. But now
we're the same size, shoe, pants, tops, everything.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Good luck to you. You go on vacation as a rap.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
I see on her Instagram and I'm like, wait a minute,
like it a mine, you know, my suret?
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:18):
How does she feel about your content?
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You know, she loves it?
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Man.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
How some kids might be like, mom, that's cringe. I
don't like.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Sometimes, No, they they're honest, the kids are very honest.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
But no, she liked it.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
And you know, I think because my daughter and I
kind of grew up together. I had my daughter very
young in high school. So it's literally like I gave
birth to my best friend, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
I'm like, she's her daughter.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Yeah, she's grown, she's grown, she's grown. At the time,
obviously it was difficult, you know. It definitely wasn't anything
to laugh about. But yeah, definitely it was yourself. Yeah,
I don't know anything. I but your only child, my
only child, my one and only you know, maybe one
day I'll pop up some more, but for now that
(20:00):
is yeah, I know, but no, she she likes my content.
She came to one of my shoots with me when
we shot Don Jay over here. She came and she
was very supportive. She watches my show, she subscribes and stuff.
But I think she's just proud to see like her
mom doing what she wants to do. You know, I've
spent my whole life, like literally, my whole life has
been being a mother, you know, and now my daughter
(20:22):
is old enough to the point where she has her
own job, and you know, I could kind of take
a back seat a little bit and do the things
I want to do. So I think she's just proud
of me for going after my dreams and she gets
to watch, which is great.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
That's amazing because you know, sometimes some people go without
really pushing their dream.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
And the fact that you know you made this change,
you know with yourself, that you feel confident enough to
get in front of the camera and you don't launch
something like around the Way with Sharday that has a
visual and that can go so far. Yeah, I commend
you for that, because a lot of people, you know,
they just let years go by. It another year and
then you're forty, and then you're fifty, and then you're sixty,
and you're like, I wanted to be a dancer. I
(21:02):
wanted to be a singer. You're not letting that happen
to you. You know, that speaks volumes about you, your
determination and you know where you're headed.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
I appreciate that. I just don't want to live with regret,
you know. I feel like earlier on in my life
being a mom, I've missed out on like going away
to college and things like that. But now it's like
I'm grown, my daughter has grown, and it's like the
life is show short, you know, and I just don't
want to live with regrets and should have what it could.
Is like, if I feel like painting tomorrow being an artist,
(21:30):
I'll do that.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
You know you I love I love where you where
your head is at right now?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, yeah, I try to say positive, you know, and right.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Now you're in a space where you are the business. Yes,
so you're going to have to execute and move just
so differently. You take care of yourself, you know. It's
just it's different now when you become the brand, when
you become what makes the money, things changed a.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Lot hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
You know. I always find myself in really challenging positions.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I feel like I like it.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I like it sub conscious because I honestly, I am
very scared to speak, and here I am speaking right now,
like what we're doing absolutely okay, I'm scared to speak,
like just in general.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
But I would have never gotten that from you.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I know.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
I push myself all the time to do the things
that make me uncomfortable, you know, because I know what
my comfort zones are and I could excel there. But
I feel like my comfort zone is just easy, you know,
it doesn't challenge me at all. So I even told
myself a couple of years ago, I was like, you know,
if I'm going to start talking, like I need to
start reading more. I need to start, you know, like
(22:34):
talking to more people, maybe people I wouldn't talk to normally,
you know, to get a vibe and be able to
hold a conversation.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
So yeah, I tend to do things that are hard.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
You know, but when I do accomplish it, I'm way
more proud of myself.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
I did it. One of my life models that I
live by is do it scared?
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I Like, so many opportunities are going to come and
You're like I'm scared, No, Yeah, do it?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
I put myself situations where I'm like what am I
doing right now?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Who said I could do this? Whole camera crews, whole
sets And I'm like, okay, let's go. Yeah, but leading up.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
To it, it just feels scary. But I love that you've
launched that you're putting out episodes now. If someone is
listening and they want to find you, they want to
find an episode, like follow, subscribe, what are we plugging
in today?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
So it is.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Around the way with Shardei and Shardei is spelled sha
r like Robert D, like dog e, like elephant. You
can find me on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. YouTube is
where all the shows are. You'll see the shorts and stuff.
I post a couple of shorts also on my TikTok
and my instagram obviously has some clips and things as well,
but YouTube is where you can find everything. And I
(23:46):
also have some old episodes of the Trillery Banks show
still on my levelo. So if anybody wants to take
a you know, trip down memory lane and listen to
that audio podcast is still up there too.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You know, I want people to see growth.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
I want people to see like know, I started here
and I just continue to keep going, you know, So
everything is still up there.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Now what's next? Around the way with your day? Are
we on pause right now? When's the new season? Did
we wrap up? Where we Where are we at right now?
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Yeah? So actually today is episode five out of six.
Today's episode five out of six. We have a finale
episode comming in about two weeks.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
And you guess.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Actually, my guess is my brother.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Oh, me and my brother be a good coming.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah, it's gonna be great.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
And the funny thing is is that, like the show
was really centered around me. So I take my guess
around my way. So I go to my original neighborhood.
I'm originally from. I'm from Queen's born and raised. I
never lives anywhere else, but when I was very young,
I had lived in Jamaica.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
My family from No No, Jamaica, Queens.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
I love Jamaica, the island by the way, but I'd
be like, oh, this story, we're from Jamaica, Queens. My
my parents grew up in Baisley and we lived on
something for a little while, and then I really grew
up in Bayside. Bayside is like where I went to school,
you know. I went to elementary school, middle school, high school,
and then eventually I moved to Flushing. So I'm a
(25:09):
Queen's Girl, like Queen's forever. You know, I'm big on
that too. I'm real big on being from Queens. I
love being from Queen's And that episode is actually going
back to Bayside.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
One with your brother.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Yeah, yeah, we went back to Bayside. But the best
part about it is that I got permission to shoot
in my old high school.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Oh really, I love that.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Oh my god, it is so good.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
So you know, I got a chance to talk about
my pregnancy, and you know how I kind of maneuvered
in that space because you know, it wasn't all glitten
glamor obviously, but I got to talk about just growing
up in Queens and going to school out there and
managing being a student and a mom. And yeah, that
episode is gonna come out in two weeks, so I
(25:49):
believe like November three is when we'll see that, and
then after that we're going to just take a little
breath because we've been on go.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
It's the holidays.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I know, I got to put my tree up.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
I do Thanksgiving too, By the way, I'm actually a
pretty good cook, So Thanksgivings at my house I was
just gonna say that Thanksgiving us our days. Oh yeah,
I'm not making it. I'll make you anything. I could
make you source from scratch, my my aunty.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Dragging it now, I'll talk about so from scratch.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
From scratch my my uncle's wife.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Back in the day. She was an Italian woman and
we were very very young. I remember going to tell
you yeah, yeah, yeah, and then I don't know. On
Thanksgiving she said she's making everything everything. So we're going
to pause for the holiday. But I'm gonna start shooting
season two of Around Away with Chardy probably in February
and launch that in April. So I'm trying to do
(26:40):
like you know, every other quarter. I guess you can
say to release the show until you know it becomes
bigger than me, which is.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
The goal, but that's not it, definitely will. I want
to thank you so much for coming through building black business.
You know where we're here to empower, motivate, promote anything
that has to do with black business. We want to
push forward and you know around the way with shar Day,
We're going to make sure we get it out to everybody.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
It's coming, y'all.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Please thank you so much for sitting down with me today.
God bless and good night.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Thank you, honey, Thanks guys,
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