International Women's Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and honor of this special day.

Our show wants to spotlight these women.

Every season, there will be one show we call women trailblazers.

Tonight, we kick off this special episode with two women blazing a path in the fields of motivational speaking and entertainment law.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

From Los Angeles.

This is KLCC.

PBS.

Welcome to everybody with Angela Williamson, an innovation arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, Dr. Angela Williamson.

Our show starts tonight with Jenna Edwards.

Jenna, it is such a pleasure to have you here.

Thank you so much for being here.

Are you kidding?

I'm so excited.

Thanks for having me.

My pleasure.

Well, you know, you're here because not only are you a trailblazer, but you have this amazing story.

So I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you to tell me all about it.

Well, I always am like, which story?

But I think we've talked before, right?

So my whole thing in the world is spreading this concept of aggressive optimism, which to me just means, like, sometimes life's going to kick you in the teeth.

And when it does, you have to, like, grab on to this optimistic mindset because, you know, it's it's difficult at those times.

And I learned that in a really severe almost way when I was in the Santa monica farmers market shopping, buying oranges.

No big deal.

Right?

Beautiful sunny day and car came out of nowhere and mowed down four blocks of people.

And he killed ten and injured over 60 of us.

And he hit me at 60 miles an hour.

And the man standing right next to me, like, right here, didn't make it.

So it was one of those moments, of course, where you're like, wow, that could have been me.

George Weller, age 86, without driving his 1992 Buick with Saber down Arizona Avenue in Santa monica, heading towards the city's Third Street Promenade due to a farmer's market that afternoon, the last few blocks of the street had been closed off to any traffic.

However, George, while his car is reported to have struck a 2003 Mercedes Benz s 30 sedan, which at the time it stopped to allow pedestrians over a crosswalk, he is said to have accelerated around a road closure side, plowing through the barricades and into the busy marketplace, which was crowded with people.

It's estimated that he was doing speeds of between 40 and 60 miles per hour with the whole tragedy taking just 10 seconds to unfold when his car finally came to a stop.

Around 63 people had been injured and sadly, ten people being killed.

People were in complete shock at what they had just witnessed.

What had been a lovely afternoon at the farmer's market was now a scene of chaos and devastation.

And I think it's because I suffered really severe post-traumatic stress disorder from the event.

I stuttered when I talked.

I couldn't read.

I would forget basic words when we were having a conversation.

But that's important that you stuttered.

You couldn't read because what was your job?

What was your job when you were at the farmer's market?

Because a lot of people in Los Angeles, we remember that event.

Yes.

What was your job?

I had literally, like a month before, been on the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Technically, I'm a slayer.

I inherited her power, which is like, the coolest thing ever for a Buffy fan, which I am.

And so I came out here from Minnesota, and my dream had always been to be on television.

And here I was on like one of my favorite shows.

I thought my whole life was going to begin and my career was going to take off.

And then this event happened and I literally couldn't do the basic things it took reading, speaking to be an actor now on every girl in the world who might be a slayer will be a slayer.

Every girl who could have the power will have the power can stand up, will stand up.

And it took me three and a half years before I could, like, work again and function.

And I was having like, severe flashbacks on a daily basis that would, like, send me into panic attacks that would make me pass out from hyperventilation.

Like it was really tough.

And so I didn't realize it at the time, obviously, because I was in the trauma that, you know, you you really do have to like, surround yourself with things that remind you of the good, which is why I'm obsessed with yellow by the way.

But so years later, I realized I had subconsciously been aggressive about this optimistic viewpoint.

During that whole period of my life, because everything in my head was so dark and, you know, just really awful.

And so I was like, okay, what can I do?

Like, there's things that you can do.

Surround yourself with yellow, surround yourself with the things that make you happy.

Remind yourself that, you know, life can be good again.

So that's essentially kind of the foundation of where I come from when I talk to people.

Well, I mean, all of a sudden, one day you just come up with these, you know, aggressive optimism.

And so was that after looking at the steps that you had to take to get out of those dark days that you had, or was it that you just had to turn your mind around to that?

I don't know that like aggressive optimism.

I remember I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who was using the terms separately but kind of together.

And I, I didn't even remember that conversation until he reminded me when I was like, Hey, I'm going to start doing these speeches and like, write these stories about this thing I'm calling aggressive optimism.

He's like, Oh, that's like what we were talking about.

So I think like when you're in a community, especially like as we get to be amongst all these amazing, creative, wonderful people who, you know, you have these conversations and like years later you're inspired by them without realizing you're inspired by them.

So I think that's how the the terms came together.

But yeah, it's short answer is that's how that.

And in recently because that term means so much to you you actually took the steps to did you trademark.

Yes I own the term aggressive optimism which is like the trickiest thing ever.

Who gets to own a term?

Well, apparently I do.

And it was because of our our coauthor or Katie Jeffcoat, who's in the inspired impact series with us.

She was trademarking something called Intentional Margins, and she's a lawyer, so she knew you could do that.

I was like, You can do that.

And so we had this conversation and she's like, Absolutely.

And I was just about it was pre-COVID, and I was doing high school speeches, and that was what my like theme was.

And so I went ahead and trademarked it, which is not an easy task.

So it's kind of like something I'm proud of.

I have it, like all framed.

By my goal.

Then if it if it is a task, I will make that my next goal.

But I love because you have this term, you trademarked it because it's so successful.

So my question to you, Jenna, is how can we use that in our life right now?

Oh, wow.

You really are putting me on the spot.

You said like three questions and these were not ad, but I got.

To tell you who you are and what you do.

So you're telling us what you do and how to do it.

I'm just starting out on television.

I am razzing you.

I am kidding.

No, it's it's really, you know, my big thing is like, figure out what works for you.

So I have a real hard time with with, like, the idea of frame working certain, like, psychological things.

Okay.

But I will say what has worked for me is when you're going through something identifying because denial, like, honestly, denial almost killed me when I had PTSD.

I was like, It's fine.

I'm fine.

I mean, I literally didn't sleep for eight months.

Any time I tried, people died in my head like it was horrible, right?

And I was like, Oh, it's all good.

It's all good.

And I'm like, That is not the way to go, right?

So denial needs to go away and acknowledgment needs to come in its place.

So sometimes the situations really cruddy like I mean.

It's hard to acknowledge.

So, you know.

So how did you do that for yourself based on that event?

That was a whole thing.

Like, it's a whole traumatic story.

Do you really want me to share?

Because I'm happy to, yes.

So it was eight months that I didn't sleep and I and I also denied needing therapy.

And like.

So I was a mess.

I was a mess.

And I had finally given in to the idea.

Like I grew up in Minnesota, where very much pull yourself up by your bootstraps, get on with life.

It's okay.

And everybody around me was like, You should be so grateful you're alive and when you say that to somebody who went through a traumatic event, it's not that I wasn't grateful.

It was that like PTSD makes it so that you're crying all the time, Like your brain doesn't work the same way.

The way it was described to me was so brilliant.

It was like we have fight or flight reflexes and we evolved to the point where when we are in a traumatic event, we're not going to beat somebody up and we're not going to run away.

And so the chemical reaction in your body just sits there and it like totally changes the chemistry in your brain, in your body.

And until somebody explained that to me, I was like, oh, that's why I am so optimistic, but yet I'm crying all the time or I'm so optimistic.

Yet if a car backfires, I am on the ground having a flashback like I can't control it.

And so for me it was this whole process of acknowledging it.

But the acknowledgment came in a really horrific way.

So I finally went to therapy and they finally gave me sleeping medications.

But let me tell you, it took like 15 to 15 different medications to get the right thing like it was.

I was having reactions, all these things, and I was just feeling so hopeless and exhausted, like, you need sleep.

So one day I am and I say this like with a giggle, because to me it's just so.

I still can't believe I went through all of this.

Right?

So I'm not trying to belittle it when I giggle.

Just so you guys know, I've been called out on that before.

So one day I literally was in my apartment.

I'll never forget it.

And I just wanted to sleep so badly that I and my husband was my boyfriend at the time.

Thank goodness he stayed.

I don't know how he did it.

Like I had gotten sleeping pills from the doctor.

He hid them and I ransacked the entire house because I was going to take the entire bottle and not because I wanted to die, but because I just wanted to go to sleep.

And it wasn't working.

And in this moment of, like, literally sitting in my living room, things like, like off the shelf, my whole room was destroyed.

I had this moment of like, you need to go to the hospital.

Like, this is not something you can do on your own anymore.

And so I you know, I checked myself into the psych ward and I asked for help.

And it was the first time that I slept, like, I remember sleeping that night and being like, Oh, I'm better.

Like, I'm finally sleeping.

I woke up the next day and I went to the therapist.

I was like, I'm better.

I can go home now.

He's like.

You were just starting the process, but you.

Yes.

In order to start that process, you had to acknowledge, yeah, you needed something more than what?

Jenna Yeah.

Even the poor little boyfriend can give you.

Poor thing.

I don't know how he did it.

Yes, exactly.

And from that acknowledgment, you can then go, What are my options?

Because like, I have a very logical brain, you know, I'm a producer.

You know, you have to you look at the situation, you're like, how do we get here?

We're here, we get there.

And so for me, the getting there took about two years of like trying all these different things.

So with aggressive optimism, it's like acknowledging where you are understanding where you want to go, but then being willing to try the things that you need to try to figure out how you can get there happily.

Right?

Well, and I'm thankful and thank you for going off script and explaining that, because when people think optimism, they think I just have to be happy all the time.

And oh, and that's just happiness is part of it.

It's the journey to get there.

And my understanding what Jenny's mission is with this.

Yes, it's it's not necessarily always the journey to get there.

It's more of just how do I explain it?

I'm so sorry.

I'm not having an easy time explaining this.

Apparently, it's figuring out how you can get there with joy, right?

Like there's this term now called toxic positivity.

Have you heard of this?

No.

And I'm like, yes, that's exactly.

That's like that's two opposite.

So how do two opposite opposites come together?

It's that denial piece, right?

It's that like, oh, if I'm just positive, I'm just like constantly happy.

But then you're in denial of the actual situation, which is what nearly killed me, right?

Like, like being toxically positive.

And I'm fine.

I'm fine.

It's all good.

Everything's fine.

When I was not fine, like physically not okay.

And so it's one of those things where, like, yeah, we can't constantly be like sunshine and roses.

Sometimes life is hard, but we have to constantly be like, yes, life is hard right now, but it's not going to always be hard.

That's the optimism, right?

And you know what?

That is a perfect way to end our talk.

Oh, I know you were on such a roll.

You didn't realize that, but you gave us so much in that in and you allowed us to understand what it means to to have aggressive optimism.

So thank you so much for that.

And thank you for telling us that when we find our joy, we can find a way to get out of that situation.

100%.

You are so perfect to start this show.

Now I'm going to bring your other trailblazer on to finish the show.

So thank you so much, Joy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And come back as I continue my Women Trailblazers conversation with Nadia Daivari.

When I was growing up, my mom was extremely tidy.

We were trained to put things back where we got them from.

One day when I want them to my mom's house, I felt like I wanted someone else's house.

There was stuff everywhere.

And just growing up, the way I grew up.

And to see this transition was very alarming.

When Sean talked to me, it was a wake up call, and that's when I went to the doctor.

Nadia, thank you so much for being here on the show.

You have done some amazing things in your business.

Tell us a little bit about you and why did you choose entertainment law?

Well, thank you for having me, Angela.

I it always is a little shocking to hear somebody talk about me in that way because, you know, when you're practicing law or you're doing your work, as I'm sure you know, you're just trying to do the best you can and working your hardest and to actually feel that maybe you have helped some people and achieved some of your goals or most of your goals and are making a difference.

It's always very satisfying, gratifying to hear.

So I'm grateful for that.

Well.

Almost.

And maybe because I know you a little bit.

We've been friends for a little bit and we've worked together, but I see Nadia more than an entertainment lawyer.

I see someone who is passionate about what she does and passionate about your clients.

And so where do you think that comes from?

Because it's almost as if you you are on a personal mission.

That is very true.

And thank you for recognizing that.

I feel like everything I do has a little piece of me in it, and I feel like my clients, I as an advocate, as an attorney, I have to advocate on their behalf and protect them.

And that is my goal more than anything else.

I feel if you are this is such a cliche and we hear it all the time.

If you really love what you do and if you feel passionate about it, everything else will fall into place.

I have to.

I have come to experience that.

So it all comes from again, and maybe another cliche, but but from a place of love.

You know, I when filmmakers come to me and they have their passion and the project they're working on that they've been wanting to do for such a long time, they put in so much time into it, and sometimes their life savings or their friends and families or they've worked so hard to raise the financing and get the project together.

So I feel a part of that too.

You know, I want to contribute.

I want to help them get to where they want to go.

And I feel privileged to be a part of their team.

So each time it's like you're giving birth to something, you're creating something, something very positive and constructive, you know, and very creative.

I feel blessed to be doing what I do.

And what I really and this is the reason why you're in this episode is as a trailblazer, because when people think about law, they think about, okay, I'm going to get this degree and get into the best law firm.

But what I like that you've done is you've actually you have your own law firm and was that a difficult decision for you to start out on your own?

Because I mean, you took a chance there and it's amazing.

That's a really interesting question because I did start out like everyone else, you know, and that's invaluable.

I can't say that anybody should skip that.

You know, of course, everybody has their own preferences, but the lessons you learn are invaluable how to practice law, how to be a good lawyer and different skills, you know, just legal skills and other skills, client interactions.

And you learn from your peers and from your more experienced attorneys.

So there's no I can knocked up.

And then, of course, there are different paths that you can take, you know, that's a whole different discussion.

But just to touch upon it, you can go into the law firm setting, you can go into the studio setting, you can go into the smaller production companies within the area of law that I practice.

That is.

So I did a little bit of all of that, and I got to a point where I had met a lot of people and I had spent some time practicing law.

So I had developed a network of people and some all of that.

So I can't take all the credit for it.

I have to say.

You're being humble to that.

It's definitely a quality of a trailblazer.

You're very humble.

I can't take credit for that.

But, you know, I, I think, you know, it's.

What did I say?

You have to do the hard work and then hope that you're in the right place.

Otherwise, as a kind of many things have to come together.

And I would be a fool to take a side credit for all of it.

Right.

So so it got to a point where having had the network of people that I have known, the work kind of let its its lend itself to.

You know, I became so busy where I wouldn't I didn't have the chance to even go on interviews even even as of like maybe two months ago I had an offer to go work for a company.

So there was another again, I had to make that decision.

Do I want to continue what I'm doing or do I want to go back into a company?

You know, before that I had an offer to go to a big law firm maybe about two years ago, and then I had to make the same decision, you know, So why, as you discuss, you know, when did you decide to do it on your own and work with two other female attorneys and versus being in an a company or in a law firm that that continues on?

You know, you can still at any time kind of go back and do any of those things.

And the question it's again, it's an interesting question of how you approach that.

Yes.

Do I want a lifestyle?

It's much more work and much more difficult thing to do what we're doing.

I've noticed that even though you do work with two other women, but it still is your own company and you talk about being accessible, you don't really work Monday through Friday 9 to 5.

And so, I mean, that is dedication all in itself.

Do you think that that's what makes you different from anybody else that's out there doing entertainment law?

Because you have just this diverse list of clients, phenomenal clients.

And I think you.

And I well, I think just being an attorney, you can't be a 9 to 5.

You know, it does just doesn't exist.

Practicing law, maybe for some people in certain situations.

But on a whole, I can't say never.

But on a whole, you know, with majority of attorneys, that doesn't happen.

And then within entertainment law, it's even less so, especially if one of your clients is going into production or something's happening to them.

You know, it's a much more personal relationship and you become the confidantes, you know, almost it's it's a counselor, you know, and and people come to rely on you.

And I feel responsible.

I feel, you know, that I that that I have to take the best care that I can of my clients.

So then by just the virtue of that, your your your day or your work time expands to accommodate that.

But then the nature of the business is also one that, you know, it's really there is no 9 to 5, there is no five days a week.

It's really always on.

I remember I joke one time I was on TSA, you know, trying to get checked through the airport and I was on the phone.

TSA made me think of the phone.

And of course, right after was I was back on the phone.

So it just never stops.

It never ends well before I in my conversation with you.

And thank you so much for being on this special episode about women trailblazers.

Where do you see Nadia going in this business with entertainment law within the next five years?

So you had some changes and so.

Well, I wish I knew the answer to that.

I mean, what am I what are my thoughts?

And I hope that I'm still lucky enough to be doing what I'm doing.

Just that is a blessing.

I hope that, you know, we take good enough care of our environments that we are all healthy and this pandemic kind of eases and where we can take care of each other and I can continue to do what I'm doing and maybe get on the production side of some things.

That's wonderful.

You would be wonderful on the production side.

Oh, well, I definitely have to keep in touch and talk about that because I can definitely see that in.

Your I think entertainment lawyers, whether, you know, a lot of us do become involved, you know, you kind of because you're helping clients and you wind up putting these projects together without really putting projects together.

So you kind of do become involved in that aspect a little bit too.

That does make sense.

Well, again, thank you so much for just sharing your time with us today and letting us know a little bit about entertainment law and why it's so important.

You gave us so many wonderful examples and definitely keep in touch with us on the show because we like to bring some of your clients back on the show too.

It would be my absolute pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

Angela.

Thank you.

And thank you for joining us on everybody.

With Angela Williamson, viewers like you make this show possible, join us on social media to continue this conversation.

Good night and stay well.