How do you build the career you actually want—inside an industry that was not exactly built for you—without softening who you are to fit inside it? Chee Smalls has spent fifteen years answering that question. She is Senior Director of Product Development at Coach, a style voice, and a content creator. She is also a Harlem girl who has never—not once, not in a single meeting, not in a single boardroom—code-switched a day of her career.

That refusal is the whole conversation.

In this episode, we get into how she got into fashion without the resume the industry usually demands, and how curiosity became her actual professional currency. We talk about the moments when she could have softened her voice to fit a room and didn't, and what that cost her at first, and what it eventually earned her. Her personal philosophy on luxury and why she refuses to follow trends—including the very sharp question she asks about whether the algorithm is quietly killing our individuality. The features she was insecure about for years and what changed when she stopped shrinking from them. Her marriage as a real partnership—the "we take turns climbing" model she and her husband built, where one goes head-down while the other holds it together, then they switch. And how she is thinking about ambition, identity, and the life she is building on her own terms.

She closes the episode with an "I am" affirmation you'll want to write down: "I am beauty. I am woman. I am ambition. I am God's favored and blessed. I am me."

This is also the first episode with our new behind-the-scenes intro. We shot Chee arriving at the door, the two of us mixing a rosé lemonade in my kitchen, and the moment before we settled onto the couch. The full recipe is below, make it while you listen:

Meanwhile, She Rosé Lemonade

Makes 4 cocktails (about 5 oz each)

Ingredients

1 bottle (750 mL) chilled rosé (The Beach Ros√©)

1/2 cup (4 oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 oz Grand Marnier

1 1/2 oz simple syrup

1 oz agave nectar

Ice

Optional Garnishes

Lemon wheels

Fresh mint

Edible rose petals (if you're feeling fancy)

Frozen raspberries or strawberries

Instructions

• In a pitcher, combine the lemon juice, Grand Marnier, simple syrup, and agave. Stir until fully combined
• Pour in the chilled rose and stir gently so you don't lose too much of its freshness.
• Taste.

Want it brighter? Add another splash of lemon.

Want it softer? Add another ½ oz simple syrup.

• Fill glasses with ice and pour over.
• Garnish with a lemon wheel and mint.

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Meanwhile, She is a space for conversations on womanhood, identity, ambition, and the moments that define us.