The SIP: Season 1 Bonus Episode Transcript

Learn more about The SIP and this bonus episode from the first season here.

[Intro music plays]

Albert Lawrence:

Bea!

Bea Perez:

Hello! How are you?

Albert Lawrence:

I’m well! Good morning to you.

Bea Perez:

Oh my gosh. You look so professional over there, with your microphone and everything.

[Transitional music plays]

Justin J. Pearson:

Today, we’re excited to share a special bonus episode of The SIP with you. While our podcast usually features incredible Coca-Cola Scholars, today we’re honored to have an incredible leader from The Coca-Cola Company, join us as well. In this bonus episode, 2003 Coke Scholar Albert Lawrence rejoins The SIP to interview Bea Perez, the Senior Vice President and Chief Communications, Public Affairs, Sustainability, and Marketing Assets Officer for The Coca-Cola Company.

In case you missed him in our first two episodes, I’ll fill you in on Albert. Albert is an entertainer who wears many hats. As a correspondent on the Saturday morning CBS series Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation, he introduces children and families to new inventions and technological advances. He’s served as a recurring correspondent and producer for ABC7 Eyewitness News in Los Angeles, hosted virtual reality experiences for Lexus, authored digital trending digests for Warner Bros, and won a Telly Award for content created through his production company, Talk of Fame. Whether he’s camping at Coachella, cosplaying at Comic-Con, reviewing products or movies for Amazon Live and IMDB, or covering the Oscars, Albert’s an assertive pop culture junkie, primed to debate topics ranging from country music to superhero flicks. If you know Albert, like I have the pleasure of knowing him, you know he’s always full of joy and amazing to be around.

Now, let’s learn a little bit about our guest, Bea Perez. As the Senior Vice President and Chief Communications, Public Affairs, Sustainability, and Marketing Assets Officer for The Coca-Cola Company, Bea leads an integrated team across public affairs and communications, sustainability, and marketing assets to support the company’s new growth model and path to become a total beverage company. In this role, Bea aligns a diverse portfolio of work against critical business objectives to support brands, communities, consumers, and partners worldwide. She oversees the company’s sports and entertainment assets, including iconic partnerships with the Olympics, Special Olympics, and FIFA, and leads strategic and operational efforts for the company’s retail, licensing, and attractions portfolio of assets.

Since 2011, Bea served as The Coca-Cola Company’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, where she developed and led progress against comprehensive global sustainability commitments with a focus on water stewardship and women’s economic empowerment. Prior to her sustainability role, Bea served as Chief Marketing Officer for Coca-Cola North America, where she built brands by developing some of the company’s most historic relationships, including American Idol and NASCAR. In addition to her role at The Coca-Cola Company, we are honored that Bea is a member of the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation’s Board of Directors and a longstanding champion of the program. I am so curious to hear about Bea’s career path and what it’s like leading a national brand through a global pandemic. And now over to Albert and Bea.

[Transitional music plays]

Albert Lawrence:

I will start this off by saying Bea, the last time that we saw each other, we were in Switzerland. You were working on an incredible project and this was in February.

Bea Perez:

Yes. Yes.

Albert Lawrence:

My oh my. How are things?

Bea Perez:

Oh my. Things have certainly changed haven’t they? Back then, we were talking about how do you better network organizations and how do you drive growth for companies through a whole different approach? And you were actually pulling off the miracles of pulling out the real stories from all the people. And that was yes, an amazing project because it’s really the continuation of the journey we’re on. And I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful we had that meeting in February because it was really the last major gathering we all had. It was actually in the beginning of the pandemic, but I’m not sure any of us realized that it was the beginning of the pandemic. And because we had that connection point and started the journey then, I think it’s actually helped all of us. I know it’s helped us to cope as we’ve been in these lockdowns and talking through these video boxes.

Albert Lawrence:

Wow. I didn’t even think about the idea that having that as a touch point, right before the pandemic really started to make an impact in the United States could actually be a strengthening point because you have these bonds that were established and also relatively recent there, so you can still continue on a trajectory.

Bea Perez:

Absolutely. And it’s amazing because as you know, we’re a big global company with people who live all around the world. And so you don’t always get to see people who are living in China, India, wherever, the United States all coming together. And so it’s been great because it’s separated the boundaries. And so we all now talk virtually and we feel like we actually really got to know each other at that meeting. It just made it feel warmer when you’re through the video.

Albert Lawrence:

Yes. Now I want to take one step back and talk about your title for a minute. You have such a mighty title and I want to unpack it so that listeners can really understand the many different hands and tentacles that you have to have in order to function in this role that you have. Okay. So your title is Senior Vice President and Chief Communications, Public Affairs, Sustainability, and Marketing Assets Officer for The Coca-Cola Company. Bea you have to unpack that for us, please.

Bea Perez:

Yeah. I’m just convinced that they just kept adding stuff on, and so the title just gets longer and longer, but why I laugh is I actually think that it’s more strategic than maybe what I just made it sound like. James Quincey, when he came in as chairman and CEO, really back in 2017, he was building on Muhtar Kent’s legacy. And that’s what I love about Coke, I’ve been there for 25 years and I’ve seen that the chairmen who come next, always build on the legacy versus changing it. And James loved that sustainability was put at the heart and center of the business by Muhtar and as a part of core strategy. And he wanted to take that further.

And so since I had spent before that several years in business operations in the field, and I’ve lived in different parts of the world, what James did is he leveraged the skills of what I had done in my career and asked me to take on some more of these departments again. And so that was when he gave me all of the communications, public policy, government affairs. We also had the global foundation put within my area. And then he also asked me to take on the marketing assets again, and our licensing and retail business, which is the World of Coke we have or our Disney Store.

And what he wanted was for us to further expand the strategies of sustainability into these core areas of the business. Communications — how do you make sure you bring the stories to life and not just talk about how we refresh the world, but also make a difference? How do you bring those together, which is really the core purpose of the company? How do you build the next Olympic program or World Cup program, thinking about the legacy you leave in society, not just the legacy for the business?

So although the title is very long, what I say is that I think strategically bringing the work together as we think about how do you really put people at the core of the business is something that I think James really thought through when he put these areas into one. And I feel very fortunate because for me, I feel like I’ve been on this journey in my career and maybe it wasn’t obvious at the time, but when it all came together, I thought… In North America, I lead the marketing assets, I’ve done the licensing work, the communications is a part of how marketers really bring to life the marketing stories. That government affairs side was a little bit newer to me, but I also, before that worked in community work, and even before Coke, I worked at the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. So I understood free trade agreements and how different policies come together. So it allowed us to shape these areas and bring them together, and I think bring to life the mission and vision of the company.

Albert Lawrence:

Well, then you just shared some of your background right there. So I’m wondering if the position was kind of, I don’t know, like created for you. Do you feel that way? Because since you’ve already had this background with commerce and you already have this background with sports and your hands are in entertainment as well, with all of the experiential opportunities that you work with. Was this just kind of a custom made thing for you?

Bea Perez:

I feel like it was, although it’s really not. If you look at how Coca-Cola makes decisions in terms of strategy, everything is very data-driven and strategic in nature. So when James was building out how he was looking at his executive leadership team, he was trying to put together the different pieces of the strategy and how it needed to come to life and the expertise in the same areas. And so it was built off of a strategy, then came the structure and then the person. I’m very fortunate that I had a series of experiences earlier in my career. And some people know some people don’t. I actually had a mentor who offered me what I would say an opportunity of a lifetime – which we’re about to laugh in a minute. It was a demotion.

Albert Lawrence:

Oh no!

Bea Perez:

Yes. And I was in brand management. I had been doing well, but that’s what I had been doing. And he said to me, he said… He ran our Eastern region working with the bottlers. And this is way earlier in my career, he said, “If you would like to really experience what the business is like and position yourself for the future, you have to roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty and learn how the business works, how the bottlers operate, how the system comes together.” And he said, “Otherwise, you’ll be great in brand management, but you might not really understand.” And so he offered me the job and he said, “Yes, I’m going to cut your salary. Yes, it’s a two job-grade demotion. Yes, you’re going to work in the field.”

And you’re going to laugh, Albert, but I don’t know why, like just listening to him, none of that stuff mattered. I knew it was a risk, but it was so exciting the way he talked about the future that I could get beyond the short term sort of pieces of the having a different title. For me, I got beyond it quickly because he painted the picture of the future. And he said, “If you really want to understand the business and grow, you need to understand it this way.” And so I also learned some valuable lessons, which is sometimes you get promoted up very quickly, but sometimes you also have to be thoughtful and take the time to step back to learn.

And so for me, that learning moment, that’s actually what built the foundation. I learned how we make money. I learned how the bottlers make money. I learned how our customers make money. I learned how we work with society. I met the independent bottlers in the US, there’s over 69 of them. They still run the businesses today. They’re still the owners. And so I’ve built those deep, meaningful relationships that I can always go to them for coaching and guidance. But I also got to have my own route. I got trained within the operations. And so for me, if I hadn’t taken that step back, I’m not sure I could have gone as far forward as I am today.

Albert Lawrence:

Bea, that’s such an unorthodox path. And especially, I know that a lot of our listeners are either just now entering college, shout out to the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation for the support there, or perhaps they’ve been in college for a little while, maybe they’re graduating. And then we’ve also of course, got scholars back from 1989. So there’s a wide range of people with experiences that are listening to this. But given all of our experiences, I’m sure that most of us have not thought about a demotion or taking a step back as being a potential way to propel yourself forward. So that also took a lot of humility and insight on your part in order to embrace that with such enthusiasm.

Bea Perez:

Thank you. Well I also felt like… So my mom had always been my role model to me and I talked to her first, and I said, “Mom, what do you think? I’m really excited. And I want to do this.” By the way, I’d been given only 24 hours to decide. Yes. And so I was living in Atlanta, my mother was in DC and she said, “Well, what do you have to lose?” I was 24 at the time. And she said, “What do you have to lose?” She said, “At the end of the day, you have so much more life to live that if this doesn’t work out, you’ll find something even better.”

And so my mother gave me the confidence to really take that risk. And what I learned is my career became almost a series of taking what I would say, educated risks, where even when I was asked to be the company’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, I’d been coming out of marketing and I would have to completely shift gears. And it was a little scary and it was a little risky, because this is 2011, not everyone really thought of sustainability the way we all understand the importance today. And I will tell you, I had a lot of people even outside of the company who said, “What are you doing? You’re the Chief Marketing Officer of North America and you’re going to go do this? Are you sure that your company’s serious? Are you sure people care?” Like everyone gave me all sorts of interesting advice. And once again, I was like, “You know what? It feels right to me. I think this is the future. I believe that companies have to do this. I want to be a part of it.” And I felt like I was given an opportunity of a lifetime to actually move our company into a more formalized approach in sustainability.

And so I did it, it didn’t come without risk, but it was that moment again, that I was shifting and shifting. And so I will say this, it’s exciting, it’s scary but I have learned for me at least, and I don’t know how the Scholars feel about this. Every time something feels a little scary my palms sweat. That’s actually how I know what’s right. Because I feel like the growth is going to come from that. But you also have to feel that little bit of excitement. So it can’t just be the sweaty palms and the anxiety. It has to be that little bit of, “Well, what’s the possibility here? If we get this right, what is it going to look like?”

And by the way, I have to give another shout out to Scholars. Some of the greatest talent I’ve ever worked with in our company are Coca-Cola Scholars.

Albert Lawrence:

Wow.

Bea Perez:

And so, when we’ve hired them into our business, when we partner with the Scholars, Albert, like you or Karyn Harrington on my team who leads my internal comms – phenomenal. And what I find is that the Scholar mindset is very much the same. It’s about how do you keep growing? How do you keep learning?

Albert Lawrence:

And you know a lot about that because you are a board member on the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation Board. So thank you so much for that.

Bea Perez:

Thank you. Well, it’s an honor and a privilege. And what I love is that it’s made up of 50% of our bottling community, 50% of the company, as well as the alumni – so actual Scholars sitting on the board – and I feel like that’s what really helps the organization stay true to what the mission is for the Scholars.

Albert Lawrence:

Okay. So I want to transition, because you said something about having sweaty palms and that mixed with excitement and having that sort of be an indicator for you on where potential possibilities for growth can exist. I would be remiss if I did not put a spotlight on the exact moment that we’re in right now with this global pandemic, with social justice now taking a rightful spot on the stage of conversation as well. There are a lot of sweaty palms right now, Bea.

Bea Perez:

That’s right. Yes.

Albert Lawrence:

And so much of what’s been prepared for and plan for and charted for what this year was supposed to be, has just gone to the wind. Like it’s just blown away. So for Coca-Cola, The Coca-Cola Company is such a global company, how do you continue to figure out what it looks like to be responsible in a world like today? And especially when we have places all around the world that are addressing and responding to the pandemic and social unrest in their own individual ways, how do you still come up with a unifying way in order to be a positive impact?

Bea Perez:

Yeah. So first I want to start by saying, I think that when all those plans went to the wind, the most important thing, and what I’m proud of is that our company thought about the people first and said, “You know what? This is impacting real people’s lives.” And my heart really hurts for all the people who have lost loved ones and for everything that people have personally gone through, because at the end of the day, that is more important than any business plan or any idea you have to sell more products. It’s people are losing a lot, they’re hurting and they’re suffering and they’re struggling.

And so for us, it was about really turning on our community work first. And that’s what we thought of, which was, at the end of the day, the business can wait, this isn’t about selling, or this is about how do you help people become more resilient, get through this very difficult time. How do you make sure the kids who are now home, who had their meals in school are getting their meals at home? And so we’ve invested over $90 million from our global foundation into community programs. We started where the need was the greatest. So we looked at geographic areas as well as where’s the need the greatest, or what do people need from us and where can we make a difference through the foundation? And that’s where we turned it on first. We did put a lot of the other plans on pause. We said, “You know what? Those plans can wait.” And they’ll all always be there. Business will always be there, but those plans can wait. What can we do to help people? What can we do to help communities and our customers?

We found that simply by helping some of our customers think about what’s happening in their local areas and how to shift their businesses and partner to help them made a difference for them because a lot of those customers we work with are small, independent accounts who employ people, who if their business is struggling, those people will not be able to have the jobs that they need. And so how do you keep the business growing and moving and thriving, so they can also keep those people employed, so those people can take care of their families at home.

And so it was working with the different constituents and that’s where we shifted all of our focus. We started to meet with the stakeholders, meet with community leaders and meet with people to say, “What do you need from us? How can we help? And how can we be there?” The business plans are the business plans, our business is resilient, it’ll bounce back eventually. I’m sure you’ve been watching our earnings. Well, we don’t like to announce numbers where we’re down, honestly, it’ll be fine down the road. Today, what matters most is people.

And also with the social justice issues combined, it’s been very difficult for people in the middle of a pandemic. You saw the murder of George Floyd that got the entire world focused, frankly, on things that maybe have been ignored for quite some time and put the spotlight on what change has to happen. And what I was most proud of there, as well – James Quincey chose to talk to our employees first. He immediately put together his thoughts and it was very emotional, it’s very raw. He allowed us to post on our corporate sites so people could see what he really was feeling and talking about his expectations for our business.

And he talked to the employees and said, “Number one, we all need to listen better. We need to understand what are the issues and what role can we play? We have to make sure that we lead, that we don’t sit on the sidelines. We have to make a difference and step in. We have to invest and choosing to invest and put money into programs.” Like he announced a $500 million incremental investment to African-American owned businesses. And how do we think about our supplier side? At the same time choosing where not to invest. He paused our social media to say, “How do we eradicate hate speech?”

And then the last piece was advocate. Georgia and there’s three other States had been the four States left in the United States that did not have Hate Crime legislation. And so we stepped out and very quickly wrote letters to the governor and Lieutenant governor, Speaker of the House. Our employees self-organized a March and we supported them. They organized it, this is what they want to do, but we said, “How can we help? You need parking spots, you need to make sure that someone knows you have this route. How can you have masks and be safe?” And it was really interesting because James took that on first as the chairman and CEO, he set out a clear strategy and clear actions and said, “I expect us all to move in this direction and make a difference.”

And in Georgia, the law got passed, finally. We’re not done challenging South Carolina, Arkansas, Indiana. These places still do not have legislation to protect people, and we need to make sure that that gets enacted. And so how do you keep this work moving, which is about people in society, which frankly, anyone who’s in a business knows, anyone who’s listening knows that if you help society and you really make sure that communities are strengthened, your business overall will benefit. People will be able to have the ability to afford the things that they want and to generate value in the economy. But until people can take care of themselves and until you help drive change in these social issues, you can’t expect people to just think of the commercial side of our world. You have to actually make sure that they’re healthy and thriving first.

Albert Lawrence:

It’s wild. I think of Maslow’s pyramid of needs, right? You’ve got to take care of just the wellbeing of folks before they can also think about these other pleasures of life.

Bea Perez:

That’s right. That’s right. And in Albert, that includes taking care of yourself, right? Is that old airplane thing of “Put the mask on first and then put it on everyone else.”

Albert Lawrence:

Yes.

Bea Perez:

And so not forgetting that you also have to take care of yourself and be okay with what you’re doing. And that includes everything from physical, mental, spiritual, it’s all the above – mind, body, soul.

Albert Lawrence:

Yes. And one of the things that I find the most empowering and encouraging that you just shared is that James didn’t just set out a vision, like a beautiful top line vision, of where we’re just going to put out a social media post saying like, “We’ve got to do better.” No, no, no. It sounds like there were actually specific strategies and tactics and actions that could be shared so that people actually knew what to do in order to work together as The Coca-Cola Company, in order to address these issues head-on. This is just not like a pretty painting thing to check off, this is a consistent behavior. This is a complete attitude change and adjustment.

Bea Perez:

Yes. Yes, absolutely. And also he wasn’t afraid to talk about where we haven’t done well. So James didn’t just lay this out, as you said, and he laid out the actions and the guidance, but he also said, it’s really easy when you’re not driving this and constantly focused on it to actually step backwards. And he talked about how we were the subject of one of the largest employee lawsuits by our African-American employees.

Albert Lawrence:

Oh, wow.

Bea Perez:

Yes. Over 20 years ago, very public. I’m not telling you anything that you couldn’t Google. But actually there’s a lot of people who didn’t know, and he didn’t want to hide from fact that we had always been a company who represented ourselves as doing all the right things. But we’ve also had some moments where we fell backwards, and how do we make sure we are not falling backwards during these times, we can make sure that we’re driving the actions, publicly reporting them, holding ourselves accountable as much as asking people to hold us accountable. And that’s really important. So you’re right. It wasn’t just a social media post. It wasn’t just an email he wrote to the employees. It was something that he felt deeply impersonal about, expected his entire leadership to stand up behind and drive the actions. And he is holding us accountable.

Albert Lawrence:

Wow. Well, look, I know that our time is shrinking here. I know that the fellow listeners and I feel like we could just sit here… And like, you guys can’t see this video, but I can just like sit here with my hands under my head, lean back and listen, because you were dropping so many truth bombs right here. This is delightful. I do want to ask you another thing before we get into a very fun portion of this podcast. Family. Okay. So you’ve talked about your role within The Coca-Cola Company family and how that has morphed over time and your responsibilities there. But you also have quite a robust family at home, a blood family. So what’s going on there in terms of how is Bea also being this multihyphenate at The Coca-Cola Company and then also handling everything at home?

Bea Perez:

Well, it’s fascinating. So I’ll tell you, my family is my rock. And my husband is actually, he works at the CDC, Center for Disease Control. So as soon as the pandemic hit, he’s been working 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM. He’s one of those people where he comes in through the garage door and cleans up and then comes into the house. All the precautions have to be in place. He’s also fortunate, whereas there are some days where he can work from home, but he is around the clock. So typically when I used to travel a lot, he would be the rock to help the family keep the glue together at home while I was traveling. Now that role has shifted a little bit while it’s almost like he’s traveling, he’s traveling on a journey, we’ll say that. I’m the one who’s making sure that we have food in the refrigerator and doing the grocery shopping and the things that he simply doesn’t have time to do, nor do we want him to do. We want them to focus where he’s focusing.

And then we have one of those high school seniors who just graduated high school, tough times, right? But what I will say, my son really handled this well, his school was able to put together a lovely graduation on a football field with all the social distancing. Did he not have his last sort of semester of his senior year? No, but what was interesting is, what I was… My husband and I used talk about this a lot. What we most proud of is instead of him sort of crying and saying, “Well, why always me.” He was actually really focused with his friends on what can we do to help people and families in Atlanta who actually need food because they’re going to need food because maybe they’re unemployed.

And he and his friends actually got together and yes, with masks and social distancing, and they started to do some volunteer work in the community versus just sitting at home.

Albert Lawrence:

Beautiful.

Bea Perez:

And I felt so proud of that, that he and his friends did that without anyone asking. And now he’s off to his online Zoom classes for the Fall. He’ll eventually get to university, he’s at University of Southern California. And we’re so proud of him for everything he’s going to do. But you know what? He’ll have to learn resiliency as well because it’s all online for this part.

And then our daughter, who’s a sophomore at her high school. She’s actually starting on campus. I think for her, that was a little scary at first, which is how is this really going to work? The school staggered sort of the first week to have an orientation. They did a third, a third, a third of the students. So one third went on campus, the other two thirds were online, but they had different assignments. Next week they’re going to start going to, everyone comes back to school, they’re using face shields. Everyone has to wear a mask. They’re doing grab-and-go lunches and you can eat outside. So it’s different. At the same time, I will tell you that my daughter has helped me because she has a flare for production. And she’s taught me how to better do online video at home.

So I think that this generation, and I think the Scholars who are listening, this is the generation of resiliency. This is the generation that will make our world better because they’re dealing with something that is unprecedented, going through a pandemic is unheard of, right? And so everyone deals with it differently. What I’d say is that I’m so proud of my family. They support me. Yes, we’re all working hard, but we’re in it together. The blessings we have is that we actually get to have dinners together. Whether or not we like it, we’re all stuck in the same house where most of us would be traveling or doing other things. And so we’re getting this moment of time through a real tragic situation. We’re getting this moment of closeness and bonding and learning how to be more resilient.

And this generation is going to be better off for it. They’re going to be probably the generation that will truly change our world for the better and not just talking about it, but accelerating the work on climate change, accelerating the work on cleaning up our environments, accelerating the work on human health. This is the generation. And I know you all listening are the ones who are going to do it. And I’m so proud of that. And I’m proud that my family is really trying to focus on all the right things. And I just feel a lot of love at home and I feel very blessed.

Albert Lawrence:

Well, you are quite the winning matriarch right there. So well done Bea, we appreciate it.

Bea Perez:

Aw, thank you, Albert! Thank you.

Albert Lawrence:

So now, we’re going to wrap things up with what we call the Fast Five. We’ve got a few minutes here. Each of these questions that I ask you, I just want you to tell me the first thing that comes to mind, and then we’re going to move on to the next one. Keep it rapid. All right. First off, what are two apps or websites that you can’t live without?

Bea Perez:

So I can live without all of them, except for I can’t live without Find My iPhone, because for some reason I keep losing it in my house.

Albert Lawrence:

Even at home! So great! Okay, so speaking of your phone, if I looked at the music on your phone right now, what would surprise me most?

Bea Perez:

Probably that I have Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion on as well as Bach and Beethoven.

Albert Lawrence:

Hold on! You do not have Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion!

Bea Perez:

Oh, yes, I do. And I love it. And even as horrible as all those words are in her music, it doesn’t matter. And I love them both.

Albert Lawrence:

Like we need a bonus episode on that! You threw me off there Bea, and now I have to collect myself. All right. So what’s your favorite book or piece of music or art that has helped or inspired you in your life?

Bea Perez:

Well, I still, for the last, almost 25 years read once a year Animal Farm by George Orwell. And no matter what period of time you’re in, you can make it apply to business, to friendships, to society, to politics. I think it was written in 1945 and I still think it’s as relevant today. I also make my children read it. They have to read it with me once a year. And we talk about what does it mean to us in today’s world? And it’s a great fun exercise and I love it. To me, it just stood the test of time.

Albert Lawrence:

It’s so accessible, you know?

Bea Perez:

Yes.

Albert Lawrence:

Yeah, yeah. That’s beautiful. What quote or motto do you live your life by?

Bea Perez:

So it’s, I don’t even know who said this. I don’t even know who to give credit to but, “Don’t major in the minors.” And what that means to me is a lot of times people get tripped up in the little details or the one or two things that are going wrong. And I’m like, “Well, how important really is that to the broader scheme?” And so back to the resiliency comment, to me, it’s don’t major in the minors. Don’t focus on the things that don’t really matter in the long term, focus on the big things that truly matter, that drive change, that shape your values, that help society, think about the bigger picture. And remember that the minors are going to be the minors, it’s the majors that actually really matter over time because that’s what really drives true change.

Albert Lawrence:

Preach.

Bea Perez:

Amen.

Albert Lawrence:

Amen, Bea.

Bea Perez:

Amen.

Albert Lawrence:

Finally, what makes the Coke Scholars Program or network unique?

Bea Perez:

The people. The networks, the people, coming together. I feel so fortunate to have met so many Scholars, to work with Scholars. The people that this program has been able to bring together through this network – and don’t forget it for everyone listening – rely on each other, talk to each other, even if you don’t know someone and you say, “Well, I don’t know if they’ll take my call. They will take your call. You’re in the Scholars network.” The Coca-Cola Scholars network is phenomenal, but it’s the people.

Albert Lawrence:

Truly, truly, and it’s people like you again, since you serve on the board that really do amplify the impact and the power of the foundation. So Bea I just want to thank you. And on behalf of everyone listening, on behalf of the entire foundation, thank you for sharing today, a story and multiple stories that not only emphasize resilience, but also the importance of not just becoming so focused and stuck in the weeds, in the trees, like really thinking about the idea that sometimes you’ve got to step back a little bit in order to move forward and there’s no shame in humility. It’s not humiliating to be humble, you know? So thank you for being able to even dip back into those experiences of yours and being vulnerable enough to share with us your steps along the way. I think that a lot of us will find such good meat to meditate on within that.

Bea Perez:

Thank you, Albert, and thank you for everything you’ve been doing in partnership with the Scholars. And it’s truly an honor and a pleasure, and I’m humbled to be here with you.

[Transitional music plays]

Justin J. Pearson:

We hope you enjoyed this special bonus episode of The SIP, featuring Albert Lawrence and Bea Perez. To learn more about Bea’s Fast Five and other things they discussed, check out our show notes or coca-colascholarsfoundation.org. As a special note, I’d like to share that our application is now open. High school seniors can apply to be a Coca-Cola Scholar now through 5:00 PM Eastern on October 31st, 2020, at CokeURL.com\Apply2020. If you know a high-achieving high school senior with a passion for service and leadership, I hope you will encourage them to apply.

Well, that’s it for us at The SIP. Please take a moment to subscribe so you’ll be the first to get episodes of Season 2 coming in October. And while you’re there, rate us and leave us a review so that others can find us. A big thank you to everyone who tuned in to listen to the first season of The SIP and all of our hosts and guests who shared a taste of how they are igniting positive change around the world. It was truly a pleasure hearing each and every one of you.

I was so honored to be your host through Season 1. And if you’d like to stay in touch with me, please reach out to me or follow me @justinjpearson on Twitter or Instagram. You can even find me on LinkedIn at Justin J. Pearson, and I’d be happy to get in touch. Well, we look forward to seeing you again in Season 2 and meeting even more Coke Scholars in the Fall. Until then, be well and we’ll see you next on The SIP.