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Aging Like a Fine Wine - The Terrah Bennett Smith Interview
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Apr 9, 2024
Today, Caren spends time with the multi-talented Terrah Bennett Smith. From humble beginnings in the Bronx to conquering Broadway, television, and the music industry, Terrah's journey is a testament to resilience and relentless pursuit of her passions. Hear her inspiring story of overcoming obstacles and carving her own path in the entertainment industry. Gain insights on aging with grace, pursuing your dreams, and rewriting your life's script. #Broadway #terrahbennettsmith #Pursueyourdreams Check out more shows here: http://www.carenglasser.live. Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/carenglasser Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carenglasserlive Follow us on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/carenglasser Check out some of our favorite products: https://www.amazon.com/shop/carenglasser Listen to the Life Uncorked Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3JXij4K
View Video Transcript
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[Music]
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I'm Karen Glasser here and welcome to
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life Uncorked today's segment is all
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about aging like a fine wine and who
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better to have on the show is Tara
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Bennett Smith the producer director
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actress writer and
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Mom and she likes to say she's living
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her bigger B Bolder better self every
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day say that 10 times fast welcome to
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the show yeah welcome thank you thank
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you for having me bigger better bigger
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better bigger better Bolder better and
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if you get it and you say it and that
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that's good I'm glad you said that
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because it helped to remind me to say I
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haven't said it in a while well there
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you go I think of that when I think of
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you uh because it's a great it's a great
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tagline so let's just start from the
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beginning back when Tara you back then
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how did what's your journey like to get
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to where you are right now it doesn't
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have to be a whole to do but tell us the
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short version of your journey well the
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short version I grew up in New York um
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my mother uh in what's considered the
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South Bronx not when I was growing up it
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was just the Bronx and then it became
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the South Bronx but I'm told now it's
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being gentrified so now it's
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SoBro uh but anyway so I grew up in what
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they call SoBro now and um in the
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projects and my mother was a single
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parent for most of when my parents got
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divorced I don't remember how old I was
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but in order to keep us nice and busy
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and off the streets she kept us involved
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in the Performing Arts so we start I
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started dancing at the age of five in
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Elie Andrews dance school and then went
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on to do theater musical theater and
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vice versa and that kind of was my bug I
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I've never been a I never really enjoyed
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School the way they teach and I probably
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because if back then I'm I'm might have
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been diagnosed with a learning
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challenge uh but no one you know back
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then you weren't diagnosing you just
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couldn't focus you know basically is
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what we were dealt with right so I
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always knew that I love the Arts and I
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would find any way to perform whether
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putting on my own little talent shows on
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on on the balcony we had a Terrace on
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each floor in the building where I grew
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up and I would do shows and you buy
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tickets and all my friends would be in
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it so that was kind of my beginning but
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I didn't realize how it was it was
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nurturing and and it was nurturing Ing
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and and teaching and grooming me to
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become a producer director I just knew I
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wanted to perform but I didn't know that
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me putting on my own shows producing
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them getting the talent getting the
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tickets was basically producing right so
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I started doing that and then over the
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years um you know kind of got sick of
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doing musical theater because that's
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most ofly what I was getting in New York
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and then I moved I got my first two
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commercials and I got my first Broadway
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show in my teenss wow and then I started
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a record label in my teens and got an
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opportunity to tour Europe because I
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wanted to sing so I said well if I
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nobody's gonna give me a record deal I
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started wow with my godfather and a
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friend of mine we started a record label
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so that's kind of the backstory then I
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moved out to LA and got a real record
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deal with RCA records with another with
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a girl group and started doing more
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television which I was excited about the
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very first thing that I booked was a
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pilot a SP off for The Facts of Life uh
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Natalie's character was moving to New
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York it was going to be called Big Apple
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blues and I was going to be one of her
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roommates with David Spade and Richard
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greo and I forgot the other young ladies
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Nam so we were all roommates in the city
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it didn't get picked up but it was a
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nice experience so my very first thing
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that I booked out here was a television
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pilot ah which taught me a lot about the
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fact that I can have those things you
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know that I could have a record deal and
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I'm capable doing this capable of doing
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that even
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though somewhere in the back of my mind
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when you grow up in poverty or you grow
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up with lack or you know you lose your
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mother very early which I did at the age
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of 16 I lost basically was parentless um
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I had aunts who took over but didn't
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have you know a parent um so with that
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said there's a lot of ying and yang that
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goes on inside of myself you know that's
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the pull and pull push and pull so
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outside of that I started um doing
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television
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uh in front of the camera and someone
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asked me to direct something and I just
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did it for the fun of it and found out
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years later which adds in to where I'm
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what I'm doing now that I ended up being
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a director and a producer I think part
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of one of the reasons is I like the
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freedom of doing things the way I like
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to do them you know I'm not very good at
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a job that I don't like tried I've tried
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a few of them and um yeah you would fire
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me with what's interesting Tara is that
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you you create what you want to do you
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you actually create those entities those
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those uh
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opportunities maybe when nobody else
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might give you that opportunity and so
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you have spent your career at least it
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would appear creating those
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opportunities not just for you but for
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other people as well very much so and
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and with that comes a lot of headache
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just to be honest it's not always the
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easiest Road right but it's a road that
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fits who I am better than
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sitting around waiting so so what would
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you say is driving you right now what
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drives me is
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basically that there are no other
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options you know if I don't do it what I
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love then what happens you know I'm kind
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of here until we are no longer here
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until we make our transition if you're
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not trying to push forward and finding
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new ways to to to live your life and be
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creative and go after the things you
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want then what is part what is the point
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of this journey that we're doing right
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right yeah so I guess that's what drives
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me is the fact that I just won't take no
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for an answer and it may not appear to
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work one way uh so I look for another
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way to get around it I don't like
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anybody to put a brick wall up in front
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of me even though I may want to cry that
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particular day because there's a brick
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wall in front of me you know I I'll cry
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and then I figure how to kick the wall
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down and how to kick the wall how to
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kick the wall it's just a desire that as
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long as we're here we have an
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opportunity to as long as we're here we
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can move we have sane mind we're
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physically able to get up and move about
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right we have a duty to ourselves to
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honor us as individuals because you know
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I have friends of mine who who are
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younger than me who are struggling
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physically with health issues that you
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know I know that if they would give
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their limb to be able to get back up and
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walk the way they used to walk not be
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going to the doctor every day or not be
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trying to figure out you know I would
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just love to be able to do my craft or
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do my art and when you don't have that
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opportunity um things look different and
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I don't want things to look different
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because I I let it sly or I didn't give
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it my best I think it's so important
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what you're saying I I mean truly and it
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is very inspiring and the next I was
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going to say what inspiration can you
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give to someone who was starting uh
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something new maybe in this this chapter
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in life and you're kind of already
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saying it is don't stop yeah you know um
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this is my this year 2023 was the year I
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became a
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senior official senior as they say high
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five Tera okay five and um you know
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seniors when when we were told about
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them they did not look like us to me you
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know I mean maybe I'm wrong but I don't
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remember them you're not wrong you're
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not wrong right I don't remember you
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know too many that I knew could just go
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you know hike four or five hours to work
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out lift weights you know take classes
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you know I don't remember that so I
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think for me for you whatever age it's
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like until you're dead you're not dead
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agreed until they come to get you you
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have an opportunity
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to to reinvent yourself right now I'm
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the
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CCO Chief content officer of a new
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company called inani I've never been in
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the C Club because I straight away from
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jobs but this particular Adventure spoke
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to me because I get to do everything I
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love to do right
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plus plus be a CCO being charged with
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the way I love so that's something new
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for you very new this all happened this
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so that is for you what's next and
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what's next is the opportunity to travel
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and be on and and to employ myself in
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any of the fields that I love and then
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to be of service I'm opening up
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hopefully soon in
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2024 a creative art center I'm starting
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small with the Venture with a friend of
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mine I have that going I have anani
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going and
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um I'm exhausted I'm exhausted listening
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to you those are the those are the
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things I I'd love to have a creative art
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center that a place that I used to go to
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when I was young you know that helped me
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to hone and hone my crafts and my craft
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and um just you know have a camaraderie
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with other like-minded artists so yeah
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so for those of you and I know it's a
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lot of you out there would like to stay
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connected to Tara you can go visit her
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website at reclaim haven.com what are
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they going to find there Tara they're
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gonna find a lot of things that uh we I
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have workshops and things for women
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especially for women who want to
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redesign I do a thing called redesigning
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your blue blueprint and rewriting your
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script so you know you can do it at any
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age so that's what you're going to find
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there plus some things on you know what
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do in my workshops and and a little bit
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more about me and they can find you on
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Facebook at tab Bennett Smith and they
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can also find you on Instagram atthe
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Terra Bennett Smith any last thoughts
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you would like to share with our
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audience just my quote that I say on a
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regular
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basis you woke up this morning
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everything else is
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profit yes I want to thank everyone for
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joining us today we know you have a
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choice go out and give someone an
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awesome day and terara thank you again
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and we'll see every next time bye bye
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[Music]
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everyone
#Acting & Theater
#Broadway & Musical Theater
#Self-Help & Motivational