'Make social media your friend'

Sagicor staff have been encouraged to make use of social media, or they would be left behind, by American actress, singer, author, and activist Sheryl Lee Ralph Hughes.

“People we are in the future. You must make social media your friend... You’ve got to get involved. It is not enough to say, ‘But I don’t know how to do this, I don’t know how to post this, I don’t have any friends.’ Get some friends! And if you can’t do it, hire a younger person and let them do it for you.”

Ralph Hughes made the statement at the Sagicor Ignite 2019 motivational session for team members at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain yesterday. At the same time she promoted her podcast, Diva Defined, her new television series, Fam, and her new book, Redefining Diva.

In her second presentation with Sagicor, the first which was held in Jamaica, the birthplace of her mother, Ivy Ralph, she described Sagicor as a bright and wonderful company with people who had pride in the company and what they did.

She told them they should be kind to themselves, lift themselves up, encourage, respect and love themselves because they were important. “If you are not very nice and wonderful to yourself it is very difficult for you to be kind and wonderful to anybody else... You are the best thing that ever happened to yourself.”

Ralph Hughes said they had to change the way they thought and stop saying negative things about themselves. She said she got up every morning, looked in the mirror and boosted her own confidence. “I don’t care what anybody thinks about me because what they think about me is none of my business.”

She encouraged the audience to pay attention to the signs and be open to the good “the goddess in the sky” had for them. If they wanted success they should not wait around for it to happen but instead do anything within reason to make it happen.

She said success was “very doable” for everyone. She added that success was different for each person, they may not achieve it at the same rate, and what people believe to be success may change over time. “Always give yourself permission to renegotiate with yourself. Your success is an inside game.”

She said life was hard so even as they worked to achieve success, they should take time to relax. She also encouraged them to take the time to find out what made them happy although it may not be easy.

“When you start feeling down, sad, overwhelmed – that’s a problem. That’s when you have to go back and remember to wake up and be grateful, to take a moment to pause and breathe. That’s the moment you have to rethink what you think you thought.”