Karen Arrington - Your Next Level Life: 7 Rules of Power, Confidence, and Opportunity for Black Women in America

Your
Next
Level
Life

Your
Next
Level
Life

7 Rules of Power, Confidence, and
Opportunity for Black Women in America

KAREN ARRINGTON

Mango Publishing
Coral Gables

Copyright 2019 Karen Arrington.

Published by The Tiny Press, an imprint of Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Front Cover design by Joanna Price | joannapricedesign.com

Cover illustration: Jag_cz/Shutterstock

Layout & Design: Roberto Nez

Mango is an active supporter of authors rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.

Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the authors intellectual property. Please honor the authors work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our authors rights.

For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:

Mango Publishing Group

2850 S Douglas Road, 2nd Floor

Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA

For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at or +1.800.509.4887.

Your Next Level Life: 7 Rules of Power, Confidence, and Opportunity for Black Women in America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: #######

ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-032-5, (ebook) 978-1-64250-031-8

BISAC category code: SOC010000, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Foreword

T he year was 1977 when I first met Karen at the University of Maryland, College Park. She and I had decided to pledge the sisterhood of Zeta Phi Beta that fall. She was line sister one and I was line sister two. When I tell you it was friendship-love at first sight, please believe me. We made an instant connection fueled by our wit, stubbornness, and insatiable sense of humor. You see, Karen was very comfortable with the pledge process as her older brother was a Phi Beta Sigma man and went to the same college. I, on the other hand, knew very little about how and why being a part of this sisterhood could go on to shape the rest o f my life.

Karen was also the daughter of the mayor of Seat Pleasant, Maryland. She came from a prominent family where both of her parents were high achievers and expected the same from their children. As Karens friend, I had no choice but to adopt those same high expectations and tried dearly to keep up with them. Truth be told, this was the foundation that carried me through to graduation when many of our freshman friends dropped out of college and went home early. Before either of us really could define what going to the Next Level meant, Karen was already taking me there.

Soon after graduation, Karen and I went in different directions. Her entrepreneurial route started with creating the Miss Black USA Pageant, an institution that is determined to, in Karens words, help Black women to claim their power, redefine their destinies, and defy expectations. Karen went on to create her own womens leadership coaching, consulting, and luxury travel company where she continues to teach, groom, inspire, and support all who come into contact with her passion and b rilliance.

As for me, I was determined to kick down doors to the boardrooms of corporate America and started my professional career in the pharmaceutical industry. Twelve years therefollowed by twenty-five years in tourism marketingenabled me to do my Next Level work as an advocate, educator, mentor, and, more importantly, hiring vice president at one of the worlds greatest family destinations on earth. This was my calling. Breaking into tourism as a Black woman executive was not without its obstaclesbut the rewards, inroads and insights that I got to share with others made everything w orthwhile.

After nearly thirty years had passed since Karen and I had last seen each other, I woke up one day and realized, I could seriously use a vacation . I needed to refuel my tank and spend time with my sisters. I booked Karens Next Level Bali Retreat. I was hoping for a rejuvenating getaway, but I got so much more

Before the trip even began, Karen and I reconnected by phone, and we talked forever and ever about everything that had happened since our college days and all that we had been through. Next came the long-ass plane ride to Indonesia (long, but so worth it!) and then a week of tropical bliss. Karen and I kept staring at each other in disbelief. In some ways, it felt like centuries since our last meeting. In other ways, it felt like barely a minute h ad passed.

Throughout that retreat, we shared our thoughts, constitutions, wit, senses of humor, willpower, words of wisdom, and joy of life with each other. We connected and reconfirmed that we can always go to another level in how deeply we care, share, and motivate. It was really overwhelming at times to be halfway around the world with my dear friendriding elephants, eating Balinese food, praying in temples, fighting off monkeys, and worshipping in the sun. We both were in total agreement that you cannot give enough, because giving with a pure intention always comes back threefold.

There are many different definitions and ways to get to the Next Level in life, love, business, and relationships. You are well on your way by reading this book. Karen is beautiful, unassuming, highly intelligent, and well-traveled; she is absolutely the best person to take us all to the Next Level. She has already influenced my life in so many ways. Now its your turn to receive some of Karens vision ary magic.

Enjoy this book. Read closely. Take notes. Let Karen take you by the hand and lead you into possibilities you hadnt even considered for yourself. Know that everything is possible. And, wherever you are right now, know that there is always room to grow, to rise, to step into that Next Level Life. There is always another leveland now its time to f ind yours.

Sheryl Taylor, vice president of Vis it Orlando

Introduction

M y name is Karen Arrington. I was born three years before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his I Have a Dream speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I was therea little girl with chubby toddler cheeks, standing next to my parentswhile Dr. King spoke those histo ric words.

I was too young to fully grasp the immensity of what was happening that day. But, on some level, I know it impacted me. The words sank into my bones. Seeds were planted. Because, for as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of a better worlda world of opportunity and limitless po ssibility.

At age fifteen, I led a protest to change the name of my middle school. Several years later, the county school board approved a petition to change the name from Roger B. Taney Jr. High School to Thurgood Marshall Midd le School.

A few years later, as a college student, I found my voice in the literary pages of works about African American sheroes like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Their stories ignited a spark that I couldnt rid myself ofto be a voice for the silenced, disenfranchised, and unheard women of color.

As I read aloud Sojourner Truths Anti-Slavery Speech Aint I a Womandelivered in 1851 at the Womens Convention in Cleveland, Ohioit felt like a torch had been passed down to me. A whisper from my Ancestors saying, Yaaas, girl, yaaas! You have been called to be a voice for women of color. Empower yourself. Empower your sisters. Help them reach their wildes t dreams.

And so, the seeds were planted and watered. I embraced my callinga calling that has led me to many different projects over the course of my life and career. In 1986, I founded the Miss Black USA Pageant, the nations first scholarship pageant for African American women, awarding over $500,000 in scholarships. I went on to cofound Diabetes Awareness Day in The Gambia, West Africa. I was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador to the countries of The Gambia and Sierra Leone. Ive mentored over a thousand young women, helping women to secure college scholarships, grants, and life-changing media and job oppo rtunities.