Nikki Haley gets Candid on Trump, Immigration, and the State of America
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January 28, 2025
TLDR: Former SC governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley discusses her tenure under President Trump, how personal experiences influenced policy decisions, and leading through crisis with Ken Coleman.

In a compelling episode of "Front Row Seat," host Ken Coleman engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and current presidential candidate. This blog summary distills key insights from their discussion, emphasizing Haley's unique leadership style shaped by personal experiences and political challenges.
1. Personal Background Shapes Leadership
Haley opens up about her childhood, highlighting her experiences of racial bullying in a majority white rural community. As the daughter of Indian immigrants, she felt caught between races.
- Key Lesson: Her mother taught her to focus on similarities rather than differences. This lesson has deeply influenced her approach to leadership, emphasizing unity in the face of challenges.
- Takeaway: Embracing common ground with others helps in de-escalating conflicts and working towards solutions.
2. Leadership in Crisis
Haley recounts significant challenges during her tenure as governor, particularly in the aftermath of the Charleston church shooting, where she skillfully managed intense media scrutiny and community grief.
- Decision-Making: During crises, decisive action is crucial, even when outcomes are uncertain.
- Example: Haley called for the removal of the Confederate flag, a move requiring consensus across various political divides.
- Quote: "In times of crisis, you have to make a decision, and you need everyone to feel invested in the outcome."
3. Navigating Relationships and Differences
Haley reflects on her working relationship with Trump. Despite ideological differences, she managed to communicate openly and honestly, fostering a collaborative environment at the UN.
- Strategy: When faced with conflicting views, providing alternative solutions instead of outright rejection can lead to productive discussions.
- Key Insight: Genuine leadership often involves making personal connections and easing tension through clear communication.
4. Empowering Women in Leadership
Haley advocates for increased female representation in politics and business. She believes the key to breaking the glass ceiling lies in women willing to run for office.
- Quote: "Women need to see themselves as leaders, and we need more women to run for office."
- Advice: Women should cultivate their unique strengths in leadership roles while maintaining their authenticity and confidence.
5. The American Dream and Immigration
As the daughter of immigrants, Haley shares insights into the significance of legal immigration and the values learned from her parents.
- Perspective on Immigration: Haley believes in the importance of legal immigration as a cornerstone of American prosperity and urges respect for those who follow the rules.
- Key Thought: "You must stay true to laws while also appreciating the blessings brought in by newcomers."
6. Cultivating Grit and Resilience
Haley reflects on her upbringing, where perseverance was deeply ingrained. She stresses the importance of grit in raising the next generation.
- Parenting Philosophy: Haley emphasizes equipping children with survival skills rather than shielding them from difficulties.
- Quote: "They need to know some sort of struggle. You have to grow through what you go through."
7. A Vision for the Future
Haley discusses her vision for America, emphasizing hope and progress despite current challenges. She cautions against pessimism prevailing among younger generations.
- Message to Gen Z: Acknowledge the struggles but also emphasize the potential for a brighter future through hard work and appreciation.
- Inspiration: Encourage gratitude for daily blessings to foster a positive outlook on life.
Conclusion: Leading with Integrity
In closing, Haley reiterates the importance of integrity in leadership. Whether in politics, business, or everyday life, standing by one’s values is essential.
- Final Takeaway: Trust your instincts and do what is right, regardless of external pressures. "Do what you think is right and let the chips fall where they may."
Nikki Haley’s candor and wisdom in discussing these critical topics offer rich insights not only for aspiring leaders but for anyone looking to navigate the complexities of modern society. Her journey underscores the power of resilience, unity, and commitment to principles in overcoming obstacles.
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When you kick, kick hard, and make sure they never forget it, but have a smile on your face while you do it. Many times in crisis, you don't know how it's going to play out, but you have to make a decision. People believe what people believe. Your job is to show vision. Former presidential candidate, US ambassador to the United Nations, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Ambassador Haley has a proven track record of bringing people together, regardless of their background or differences.
Governor Nikki Haley and state officials there will remove the Confederate battle flag from a monument just outside the building. I said at three o'clock today, I'm going to call for the Confederate flag to come down. I was on this newscast and I said President Trump is going to put sanctions on Russia. Larry Kudlow comes out. There might have been some momentary confusion about that. And I said, with all due respect, I don't get confused.
You would be just a vicious poker player. If you put your chips in the middle, I think I'd fold. I think you would.
Welcome to Front Row Seat. I'm your host, Ken Coleman. This show is about conversations that help you get better, level up, and lead well. The people in this room today are a representation of you, wherever you're watching or listening. And in this room, any of these folks has the power to join the conversation, to ask a question, and then we're gonna see where the answer takes us. If you're enjoying the show, make sure to let us know by liking and subscribing.
Today, I'm so excited. Our guest is the former governor of South Carolina, the former ambassador to the United Nations and a candidate for president of the United States. Everyone, please help me welcome Nikki Haley. Hi. So good to have you. Thank you. It's great to be here.
Okay, so it's always fun when I get to sit with someone like you who I've seen do a million interviews. I've seen you on the spot, you know, in moments of crisis where you've led and led well. I've seen you on a debate stage. But here, just one on one, I'm fascinated
by the story of your life and how you became successful because it's very unique to you. And so I want to start early on. I was doing some research and you've been very candid about it growing up in South Carolina that you were bullied over race. Kids didn't know what race you were and it put you in this weird middle ground. And I think it's relevant given that we still have a lot of racial tension in this country.
What was that experience like for a little Nikki Haley? What did it do to you emotionally? How did it shape you? You know, I think everybody has a story. And I don't run from my story. I'm very proud and thankful for the way I was raised because that is how you become who you are. And we were, you know, the only Indian family in a small rural town in South Carolina. I always tell people we weren't white enough to be white. We weren't black enough to be black.
They didn't know who we were, what we were, or why we were there. And I would get teased on the playground. And I remember when I would come home, my mom would always say, your job is not to show them how you're different. Your job is to show them how you're similar.
And it's amazing how that lesson on the playground has played throughout my life, whether it was in the corporate world, whether it was as governor or ambassador or even candidate for president, when you face a challenge, if you first talk with people about what you have in common, people let their guard down, and then you can start focusing on the solution. And so while it was hard growing up,
You know, those same people who didn't understand anything about our family, they grew to accept us. And, you know, once they accepted us, then they started to show us, you know, what a neighborhood and a community is. And, you know, that same area and that same state elected me as their governor.
So it goes to show the progress that we are seeing in this country that, yes, we're always going to have challenges, but look at the blessings of how far we continue to come and how much progress we continue to make. And I think that's the part is you have to embrace people and embrace their differences. But I don't think you ever have to complain about the situation you're in. I think you have to find your way to make it a positive.
about how old were you in that moment that you describe, you come home. I'm just curious how old it was, second grade. Now that's a lot of wisdom that Mom dropped on you. Like that's incredible and still is gold. If we shut it down right now, that statement is really amazing. But I am curious because you strike me as
Someone who again publicly is our first time together in a room having a real conversation But you strike me someone who's mentally tough who has a lot of grace under fire Those debates are not fun. They are painful for the American people to watch because it's gotten nasty. They're painful to be on that stage. I can only imagine and yet you you you you seem very Mentally tough going back there mom tells you that your second grader
Okay, I hear what she's saying. But how did you handle that as a youngster? That young getting made fun of, maybe feeling like you stick out, the identity thing is real. Do you see the lessons and those healed scars helping you today? That's what I'm curious about. I know they've helped. I mean, it was survival mode at the time.
But I look back and now it's the reason when I see someone bullied, I get my backup and I want to defend them. Everybody says, well, what was the reason that you suddenly took to Israel at the United Nations? It wasn't that I knew that much about Israel.
I saw how badly they were being bullied at the UN and I got my backup. And I've always tried to fight for people who I felt like couldn't fight for themselves. Even as governor, it was one of those things I wanted to lift up everybody. I wanted to find a better way forward. You know, I tell people,
As governor, one of the things I wanted to do was I wanted to understand the prison system. And I thought, how do they get in? What happens when they get out? You always hear about recidivism rates and things like that. And so I would go in against my security, would go in there into different prisons.
high security prisons, women's prisons, men's prisons, just to understand. And we came back and we reformed the entire thing. We started giving financial literacy classes. We taught computer classes. We gave faith-based help if they needed it. We started focusing on resume building.
And I went and required them to put equipment behind the fence so that they would learn a skill. Now in South Carolina, when someone leaves the fence, they've got a job to go to the next day. The goal is you don't want anyone to feel helpless. You want them to feel empowered. It's about lifting everybody up. And that came from that second grade.
playground, which was don't let anyone hurt, don't let anyone suffer, don't sit and watch it, go help them, save them a couple of steps along the way to have a better life.
I love that because in the research you've said in previous interviews, your family, when you were growing up, never said, I love you to each other. This is amazing. And then didn't hug much? Is this true as well? Okay. And I love this. Not until after I was in high school, then it all changed. It all, we had my older brother got married. It was kind of a fractured time in our family.
And he stepped away from the family. And then when we all came back together, we just started hugging more. We just started saying, I love you more. It was almost like something that was never really done suddenly became done. And so now we do it all the time. But it was just that family crisis at that time actually brought us closer together. Wow.
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Well, this is what you've said in previous interview. They knew talking about your parents that we would face hardships and obstacles in life and they wanted us to be prepared. So their philosophy was you don't complain about problems. It's my favorite part. You do something about them. It just feels like mom and dad created an environment for some mental toughness, but also not just toughness for the sake of toughness. It feels like maybe there was a challenge in the house to go do something, make a difference. Is that true?
There was no whining, no complaining. If we ever cried, my mom would hand us a glass of water and say, go to your room. She didn't even want to see you cry. It was, look, this is life. Life is hard. You need to get through it. We love you. We're here to support you if you need it.
You know, snap out of it and get going. You really could never feel sorry for yourself ever. I was one of four kids. We all helped take care of each other. But at the end of the day, it was survival. And that is just what life was. And they always taught us to have a deep faith.
They always taught us that God's got you, but you go out there and you do the best you can and don't complain about it, do something about it. They've really instilled in us that the best way to appreciate God's blessings is to give back. You have to make meaning in your life. You have to do something that makes other people's lives better, but you've got to be tough about it.
Well, I love this because I'm laughing because I'm putting myself. I've got three kids, three teenagers now. You've raised two kids, they're now awesome adults. If we said that to our kids today, the average American parent said, here's a glass of water, go to your room. You've been called for child abuse or something. Yeah, but it might change the country. And so here's a follow up on this. First of your opinion, it feels like we are raising kids that have less and less grit.
and we have a lot more drama and we're seeing this in the data. Gen Z, who I'm raising three, are coming out of school and going to the workforce and having a hard time with just a basic work day. I'm not in any way insulting that generation because they're bright and they're the future and I love them. I'm raising three. However, in light of mom going, here's a glass of water, dry it up, get to your room, have a couple sips.
Could we use more of that in today's parenting? I mean, don't insult that generation, but question the parents. It's our fault. Because, you know, I look at how our parents raised us. We accepted it because they left wealthy lifestyles in India.
and came to this country with $8 in their pocket because they wanted a better life for their family. And so from the kids' standpoint, we saw how much they sacrificed for us. So I have grown up always knowing I have to prove to them they made the right decision.
And so we wanted to please our parents. I saw them work seven days a week. I saw that they were constantly trying to do for us. I saw they never went out on a date. They never left without us because it was family was everything. But then I looked at my kids when my kids were growing up.
I started doing the books for the family business when I was 13. It wasn't until I got to college that I realized that wasn't normal. And so I remember at 13, I had to figure out what we were gonna pay and how we were gonna pay it. When times were tough, you stretched that dollar, you got creative, but you figured it out. And when times were good, you never celebrated, because you knew the tough times were gonna happen again. So when my kids were coming along,
We required that they had to have a job at 14. Either you find a job or we're going to find a job for you. So our daughter, she started working. I remember she got her first paycheck. She was like, I did all that work for this. They learned the value of a dollar. They learned what it was like to be responsible for someone else. My son comes along. We had just moved to New York when I became UN ambassador. Same rule applied for him. He needed to find a job.
He didn't find one and I said, okay, you had to find yourself a job. He was like, Mom, we just moved to New York, what do you want me to do? And I said, okay, then I'll find a job. And he worked in a homeless shelter because they needed to know you don't get a pass. You have to do this. And look, I think all parents, we want our kids to have a better life. And we think showing them love is by giving them everything they want.
But actually showing them love is they need to know some sort of struggle. They need to know what it's like to work for someone else to earn money, to see how little it is so that they now want to go and make it more. And it also teaches them you got to work hard if you want to have the life your parents have.
And so I think we really do. We've overcoddled and overdone because at the end of the day, I still have to stop myself from wanting to do for my kids. But if they don't go through what we went through,
then you either go through the challenge now or you go through it later, but you're gonna go through it. So it's better that they go through it early while they've got their parents to kind of chaper them through. Yeah, and this has an impact, not getting into policy here, but this does have an impact on a nation and its work ethic and its economic might, correct? I mean, talk to any CEO and they will tell you it used to be
making money, dealing with customers. Now it's, how do we deal with the employee base? Because their feelings get hurt. They suddenly, you know, they don't want to work at the office. They want more remote time. I talked with someone the other day and he said he was interviewing someone. And the first question was, how much time do I get off?
How much are you putting in my retirement? How many days do I get to work from home? Like all the things that had nothing to do with the actual job. And I think COVID just exacerbated all of that. This is fascinating to the business leaders who are watching this, people who want to be leaders, people who want to max out in their professional life to be able to live the life that they want. Jefferson pinned it, life, liberating the pursuit of happiness. You could say this show is largely about the pursuit of happiness. So to that end,
as you look at the immigration issue, which is again politicized, but let's just pull that out. Let's just go to the immigrant and you understand it.
the daughter of immigrants, the first non-white governor of South Carolina. I mean, you have lived the immigrant dream. So my question is, what can we learn from people who come to this country the right way, like your mom and dad, $8 in their pocket? What can those of us who want to grow personally to max out professionally, to lead well? What can we learn from your mom and dad, people like them?
I mean, first of all, the fabric of America is legal immigration. That's correct. I mean, that is what has made us an amazing country. But I first have to say, you know, my mom, she's 89, and she lives with us. We take care of her. And whenever we sit down for dinner, I mean, one of the first things she always says is, are those people still crossing the border?
And the reason is, she always said that if you don't come to this country legally, then you won't live in this country. Like, you have to follow the rules to come to this country and you have to follow the rules to be in this country. And for them, they put in the time they put in the price. They came here legally. They are offended by anybody that doesn't come here legally.
And they don't feel like anybody should get a pass. And so why should others skip the line when those that are trying to do it the right way are sitting there waiting? And so what they instilled in us is laws are laws. And I have always said that America is a country of laws. The second we stop being a country of laws, we give up everything this country was founded on. So yes, legal immigration is important.
A legal immigration is a bad precedent because you're basically telling people the years that you're waiting, the money you're putting in, don't do it just cross illegally. And that's just not a good lesson for anybody. But for those that come here legally, we are blessed by their experiences, by their education, by their skills, by all that they bring in. And we should absolutely cherish that. But I do think that there has to be a distinct difference between legal and illegal.
All right, let's talk about strides for women in the professional world. Certainly you represent both sides of professional success in the corporate world and then in the political world. Do you think the glass ceiling is still a thing? And if it is, what needs to be still done?
So the first thing I'll say is I'm a huge fan of women. I think we are amazing at balancing. I think we're amazing at prioritizing. Regardless of what people say, we're less dramatic. We believe in getting things done and we can be perfectionists. We are our hardest critics.
You know, when I ran for governor and became the first female governor, you know, they said, what does this mean? And I said that y'all will quit talking about it, you know, because I do think that there's this thing about being the first
Everybody puts this big pedestal up that you've got to be the first. But really, the best thing about being the first is that it becomes normal, and people quit talking about it. And I think that really is what we want to see. In terms of a glass ceiling, there are challenges for men that run. There's challenges for women that run. There's nothing that's harder for women than it is for men. We at South Carolina, when I became the first female governor,
We were the lowest in the country on women elected officials.
And they asked me what I thought about that. And I said, the reason we're lowest in the country is not because it's harder for women. It's because women don't run. We need more women to run. And so that's a lot of what it is. You look at Congress, there's majority men. It's not that they're not allowing women to get in, it's that we need more women to see themselves as possibly doing that. And then we will get through that. So I don't think there's a glass ceiling of
America's not ready or America gives women a harder time. Women do have to work twice as hard. That's just the nature of it because there's not that many of us in those roles. So until we can saturate it, we need to work hard and hold down the ladder for others so that we can make it easier for them.
What do women do uniquely better in a leadership role? I think we just balance well. We know we can have seven things and we're going to make sure we look at all seven things and we're going to prioritize and we're going to make sure that it gets done right. You know, I always say
It is that perfectionist side of us. The weak side of what women always have to struggle with is we are our own worst critics. We second guess everything that we do. Men, when they see a challenge, they jump and they think about it after.
With women, we think about it 10 times before we jump, but when we jump, we know exactly what we're doing. So it's just a different way of thinking. That's interesting. I want to dive into that because in a CEO role, a manager role, a politician, whatever. So leadership is our context here. When you say that women tend to be harder on themselves,
did you see that in your various leadership roles you make you did all this you sifted you've analyzed it as you said from multiple angles then you make it if it didn't work out or did you find that
that that was something you really had to struggle with, where maybe a male doesn't? You know, I'll go back to my first job outside of, when I graduated college, graduated in accounting, got a position for, as accounting supervisor for a company in six of its subsidiaries, was the only female executive at the time. I was completely green, first new job, you don't know what to expect.
And I remember I'd probably been in the job maybe a month, and we had a meeting one morning with all of the executives and the CEO, and we go in there and the CEO's running late. And he comes in about 15 minutes late, and he's kind of putting his stuff down. He's apologizing. And the CFO looks at me and says, Nikki, why don't you get Paul a cup of coffee?
And I remember thinking, I didn't know how I was going to handle it, but I knew how I handled it was going to dictate how they treated me going forward. And I said, absolutely. And I leaned to the phone in the middle of the table and called my assistant. And I said, Kim, will you please get Paul a cup of coffee? Nice move. They never asked me to get a cup of coffee again.
And the lesson in that is you don't have to embarrass people when something goes wrong. Sometimes they don't know how to handle it. So in that moment, without really knowing, I showed them where the boundaries were. I didn't embarrass them in doing it, but I also let them know, don't do that again. Can I just jump in and say, that's the mom lesson that she gave you as a second grader?
That was the moment. You did exactly what she said to you. In every part of my life, I've done that. In every single part of my life. I have goosebumps. That's why I say that lesson on the playground has dictated my life forever because the goal is don't line about it, don't complain about it, but fix it. Find a way that you can show people how to move forward. And I think from a women's perspective, what I always tell women
And anybody just coming out of college is learn how to push through the fear. Because the biggest part is when a challenge is faced or anything, you tend to step back and say, oh, but I can't. But if you'll allow yourself to lean in,
you find out you're so much stronger on the other side. If I didn't push through the fear, I wouldn't have run against the longest serving legislator in South Carolina. If I hadn't pushed through the fear, I wouldn't have run for governor. If I hadn't pushed through the fear, I wouldn't have accepted the position as you and Ambassador. If I hadn't pushed through the fear, I wouldn't have run for president. But when you push through the fear, you live life. If you don't push through the fear, you never know what could have been. Why haven't we had a female president yet?
It's a few things. It's about the right person at the right time in the right moment, right? It's not that you look at all these countries that have had female leaders. I mean, America's way above that. So it's not that they're like, oh, we can't have a woman. I think you're always going to have a percentage of the population that says, no, a woman can't do it. When I was in the campaign, there was this morning show
And they were going through and they're interviewing people in the coffee shop to say, you know, what they think. And they're like, oh, you know, and the woman said that she said, you know, we can't have Nikki Haley. I mean, she's probably menopausal.
And I remember thinking, what? People think it's men. There's some women who don't think that, but you can't pay attention to that small minority. You've got to focus on the majority. And the key is you have to be the right person at the right time.
And that's true for anything. That's true in corporate life. That's true in any part of the workplace. It's true in running for president. You have to be the right person at the right time. But that doesn't mean you don't put yourself out there. You put yourself out there. You fight the good fight and you let the chips fall where they may.
I love this because I do want women, I think, of my 16-year-old daughter. I want her to hear and see this conversation, to look at women like you, to go, OK, we are bringing something different to the table. And it's OK to say it's different because different is better. It really is. And we've not seen that yet. And I do think it would be fascinating to see someone like you in a cabinet situation, someone like you in a summit. We grew up, we're very close in age. And we won't reveal anyone's age today.
But I remember growing up with Reagan and Gorbachev and how those summits, that had a lot on the line. And I do find it, for lack of a better word, fascinating to see what it will be like to have a female US president in a situation like that, because I do think the dynamic changes. And for the good. Women aren't as ego-driven, and they tend to see the challenge at hand.
and, you know, go into it. And what I would tell your daughter and any young woman coming in is, you know, know that you deserve to be in every room that you're in, so act like it. That's so good. And we, dudes, we tend to puff up a little bit. Do you experience that? You do. Y'all can be a bit sensitive. Right.
You do. I mean, I think that, you know, there's, there's something to the male ego that gives them their confidence and women get their confidence from doing. They don't, it's not about how they have to be. It's from doing. They want to prove themselves. That's where we get our confidence. So the more we do, the more confident we become. That's really good. Just a different way in the way we're raised and the different, you know, it's human nature for women versus men. Well, I'm learning something and I, and I,
And I was really excited about this conversation because it would be fun for male leaders to start to realize, hey, you may be overlooking some women that if you start to see the natural differences that you're highlighting, those differences are superpowers, could be a game changer. Women are workers, workers, workers, workers. We pride ourselves on results.
And it doesn't matter whether it's a stay-at-home mom, whether it's a teacher or a nurse or someone in the corporate world, we really pride ourselves on what results come from us, what we were able to accomplish. That's our inner spirit, is that we have to produce, we have to make sure that we've shown our worth. You see that in every woman.
in all the years of coaching 10,000 plus people on the air about their profession, where they're at in their life. And we've posted some of those things on social media. They've gone viral and it's around women, specifically women who were in the professional world and then decide to go home for a season or maybe for the rest of their life to work at home, to run the home, to be with their children.
But there is a certain amount of guilt, and yet they want to feel not judged by society. That's the setup, because that's what I've experienced in women asking for me to coach them on that. I want you to coach them. Because they guess themselves all the time. It really is in our human nature. The first thing I'll say is,
It's the reason I'm such a fan of women is because we do try and do everything. And we don't just want to do everything, we want to do it well. And the mom guilt, I can totally say, I mean, I always tell
new parents that enjoy this time because once you have a baby you'll never know again what it's like not to worry. And that guilt sets in you just you wake up thinking about your kids you go to bed thinking about your kids. But I remember as a legislator.
I remember that I would like go into a meeting after getting the kids to school, and all of a sudden, I would see like a little hand print on my skirt. Or I would go reach into my purse and I'd pull out a crayon. Of course. Or, you know, the one. Or a bag of goldfish.
Or my husband would tell you, it would make me crazy. If I forgot to sign a permission slip or if I forgot to send them with a snack, it would eat at me. And my husband would say, it's over. They're fine. Don't let, but that mom guilt like sits with you and you just are kicking yourself all day. So mom guilt, the only thing I will say is do the best you can every day.
and just accept it. And so for those of you, if you're working and you're feeling the pull of your family, the lesson that has worked well for me is I always said, if I'm a good mom and a good wife, I'll be a good governor. If I'm a good mom and a good wife, I'll be a good you and ambassador. Because if everything is good at home, you can kill it at work. If one thing is off at home, that is where your head is, always. So make sure
Everything at home is okay. And then you can go and knock it out of the park. If you have decided to come home and you feel like that is where you need to be, be comfortable in your skin. That's a great decision. Life decisions, half the battles making the decision. Once you make it,
Own it and be proud of it and make it the best you possibly can. There is no right or wrong in what you do. There's only what will make you a good mom, a good wife so that you can be good at whatever that is that you want to do. And, you know, guilt is wasted energy. The best way to get out of it is do something. Whatever that is to make you have less guilt, do that because it's worth it.
I'm curious, and since we're talking about this, maybe your thoughts on how women handle crisis, and I got just a little picture here. We'll put it on the screen for everybody as well. But I think this was a shining moment for you. I hand this to you. You'll remember this. This is after the horrific shooting, the church shooting in Charleston. And I remember watching this. It was, of course, global news, not just national news that day. And you were under fire in a
very intense situation. One, because of the horrific loss of life and the evil there, the racial powder keg in the state of South Carolina. And I saw you just now, even just now took a deep breath in a moment of crisis like that as a leader. What were you thinking?
It's the hardest moment in my life. I mean, the absolute hardest moment in my life because, you know, when you're a governor, you're used to dealing with a lot of different crises. You know, we had, you know, hurricanes and winter storms and we had a school shooting and you deal with a lot of different things. This was a moment. There was no way to prepare for this. There was no way to really know this.
situation was, you saw 12 South Carolinians do what they do every Wednesday night. They went to Bible study.
at Mother Emanuel Church. But on this night, someone else showed up. He didn't look like them. He didn't act like them. He didn't sound like them. But they didn't call the cops and they didn't throw them out. Instead, they pulled up a chair and they prayed with them for an hour. And when they bowed their heads in that last prayer, he began to shoot.
These were people like Ethel Lance. She had lost her daughter two years prior to breast cancer, and she had a broken heart. But she would go around Mother Emanuel Church, cleaning, singing one day at a time, sweet Jesus. That's all I ask of you. Give me the strength to do every day what I have to do. Our youngest victim, Tywanza Sanders, just graduated from college, had the world in front of them.
But on that night, he stood in front of his 87-year-old great aunt Susie, and he looked at the murderer and said, we mean no harm to you. Or it was people like Cynthia Heard, whose life motto was simply to be kinder than necessary.
That's who these people were. They weren't famous, but they love their family, they love their church, they love their community. It was the first time that our country experienced a shooting in a place of worship.
The national media went crazy over this situation in literally a split second. They all moved into South Carolina and there were just media trucks everywhere. They wanted to make it about race. They wanted to make it about guns. They wanted to make it about the death penalty.
And I quickly like just pushed them back and said, this is not the time. There will be a time and place we can talk about every one of those. But right now we have nine souls we need to lay to rest. And I didn't have the luxury of time because two days later, the killer came out with his manifesto or they found his manifesto. And there he was draped in the Confederate flag, just spewing hate.
And I knew then that something had to shift. And I remember calling my staff in on that Saturday morning and I said, I need you to call for meetings and don't tell them what I'm calling them about because I knew they wouldn't come. I asked for a meeting with Republican leadership, with Democrat leadership, with the congressional delegation and with a group of community leaders.
And when I met with them, I said, at three o'clock today, I'm going to call for the Confederate flag to come down. And if you will stand with me, I will forever be grateful. And if you won't, I'll never let anyone know that you were in this room. And I've kept my word to this day.
I had my husband with me because I honestly thought he was going to be the only one standing with me at 3 o'clock. But on that day, we had everybody. We had blacks. We had whites. We had Republicans. We had Democrats. We had women. We had men. We had a senator who had his whole office was filled with Confederate memorabilia. We had Strom Thurmond's grandson.
who was there. Everybody was there, but that was the easy part, was to say we wanted that to happen. The harder part was how do we do it? In South Carolina, the Confederate flag meant multiple things to people. You had half of South Carolinians who saw the Confederate flag and they saw it as a symbol of tradition and service. You saw the other half of South Carolina saw it as a symbol of slavery and hate.
My job wasn't to judge any of them. My job was to get them to see how we could go forward and not get into that divide. And so it was, how do you do this without South Carolina just breaking apart? And, you know, the goal was we didn't have riots, we had vigils, we didn't have protests, we had hugs.
But we had to get through the process. What made it hard is two-thirds of the legislature had to vote to bring this down. Two-thirds was a lot. And it was two-thirds because it was written into law that you couldn't do this easily. The Confederate flag was put on top of the State House.
by a Democrat governor who said he was just putting it for an anniversary for one year back in the sixties and they never brought it back down. So, you know, in the Senate, they took the bill up first and they quickly passed it because one of the senators was a pastor at the church of Mother Emanuel Church. And I remember calling him the night of the shooting.
And I said, Senator, I just heard about what happened. I will be there first thing in the morning, anything your families need. I will be there. And it haunts me to this day that that phone was ringing in his pocket after he had been shot. And so the Senate passed it quickly because they looked at the black drape over his desk. That was their brother that had been killed. They immediately felt the gravity of it. The house was very different.
I told a speaker of the house, I need you to get this done. He came back. He's like, I can't do it. And I said, this has to happen. You've got to get it done. He comes back. He says, OK, I think we've got it. He said, they just want to put a different flag up. It's related to the Confederacy. I was like, no, the flag has to come down. He's like, I don't know if I can get it done. I said, make it happen. He goes back. He comes back and he said, we did it.
I said, finally, you know, what did they do? He said, they're going to take the flag down. I said, any issues? He said, no, it's a small thing. And I said, what? And he said, they just want to leave the flagpole up. Politics in South Carolina is a blood sport. I knew that. And I knew what that meant. That meant that as soon as everybody went away, there was another flag that was going back up.
And I said, Mr. Speaker, the flag and the poll have to come down. He said, why you can declare when? And I said, because I don't want any other governor to go through what we're going through right now. I said, the flag and the poll have to come down. He said, I can't do it. I said, then let me talk to them. So I went over to that House Republican caucus. And I said, I want to tell you a story. I said, when I was growing up, I would love when my dad would let me ride with him to the big city of Columbia.
And on that ride, he would always stop at produce stands. He loved buying directly from farmers. And I remember on one of those rides, he stopped and we got out. We were getting produce. Now my father wore a turban until the day he died. We were getting the produce and I saw the two people at the register look at each other, get concerned. They picked up the phone.
And the next thing I knew, two police cars drove up. My dad went and got his basket. He took it to the register. He thanked them. He paid them. We got back in the car, and he didn't say a word to me the whole way home. He was hoping I didn't notice what just happened. I knew exactly what happened.
And I told the caucus that day. Every time I have to go to the airport to get on the governor's plane, I have to pass that produce stand. And every time I pass that produce stand, I feel pain. I said, don't let a single child ride past the state house and see that flag and feel pain. Get the flag and the pull down.
At 1 AM that night, they voted to have the flag brought down. And in that moment, South Carolinians stepped up and they showed the entire world what strength and grace look like. I want to follow up to that because many times in crisis, you don't know how it's going to play out, but you have to make a decision.
What would you tell leaders something practical they can hold on to right now? Because that's so powerful. But they're going to make decisions that won't have that kind of emotion around it that represent everybody of a state and largely a nation because it represented the nation.
When you know it's right and you knew it was right, but you don't know how it's going to play out, how does a leader resolve to just go into the unknown there and make the best decision, not knowing if it's going to play out or how it will play out? Don't judge. I mean, had I judged and said you're right or you're wrong, we never would have gotten it done.
People believe what people believe. Your job is to show vision. Your job is to show them that their life will be better after making this decision. And the too many leaders think they decide what's right and wrong.
That's not you don't judge the people that you serve. Instead, you take them with you on the journey to get to where you needed to go. I needed every South Carolinian invested in that. I needed every South Carolinian to know you can still believe what you believe about the Confederate flag, but let's put it in a museum. That's where you can see it.
You know, a flag is a living breathing symbol that represents everybody. This isn't the case. You can do it on your private property, but not on a public. So I had to get them invested in. And I think the hardest decisions can make the biggest difference.
But you have to do it in a way that everybody feels invested. And the only way everybody's going to feel invested is if you're not judging them. Yeah. I think that's great. I'm learning right here from you. What you did, we don't see much in politics, which is vision casting.
In fact, that language is never used in politics. You use it, but I mean, it is as simple as where we're going. That's what politicians have to do. Politicians have to, your servants, your servants that are supposed to lead, but you're also supposed to take our states and country to a place that's better and you have to give people hope. They have to know life is going to be better for them and they have to want to be a part of it.
And I think right now, in a time of peacocking from both sides, all they think about is having that great sound bite on TV and networks reward them for it and people on social media reward them for it. But what did it do to make us better? It didn't. No, you're right. Listen, if you're leading a company, you're leading a state, a country, people want to know the answer to these questions. Where are we going?
How, why are we going there? And then how are we gonna get there? Those three things. And you did that. It's really remarkable. As a leader now on the other side, what would you say to leaders about developing that muscle? Like, does it develop the more you do that and take those really scary stands and say, I'm gonna do what's right, does it get easier? Even though the situations may not get easier.
So let's take that playground lesson of, you know, don't talk about how you're different. Talk about how you're similar. So you saw that in the corporate world where we kind of had one scenario of it. You saw it in Governor's office where, you know, we had to show people that we were all South Carolinians, not what divided us. Now let's, you know, take it to the UN situation.
you're dealing with a bunch of countries that hate us, right? Every day I felt like I was putting on body armor. I knew there'd be a fight that day. I just didn't know which country we're going to be fighting. But without realizing it, that same playground lesson plays in again. You've got North Korea testing ballistic missiles every other weekend. We had to figure out a way to get it to stop.
The only way to do that was through China, which was a tough go. I had to convince the Security Council, all these countries, to go along with sanctions on North Korea, because we knew that the money that was coming into North Korea wasn't going to feed its people. It's going to feed its nuclear program. So I told the Security Council, look, let
me and China work this out and we'll come back to you and they were happy to do it because they didn't want to deal with it and they just wanted the US and China to deal with it. In dealing with China,
I needed to know what they were afraid of. You know, the best way to take on a challenge is you have to understand what your opponent's fears are. So I knew China was afraid of two things. They were afraid of war on the peninsula. And they were afraid that if Kim Jong-un of North Korea fell, that all those North Koreans would come into China and they didn't want that. So if I knew that was their fears, the next thing I said was,
Look, you need to know the US does not want war. That is the last thing we want. This is what we're doing in the name of peace. And the second thing is you need to know that by us putting these sanctions on, it is sending a message, but we in no way want regime change.
We're not looking to replace Kim. We're not looking to bring him down. We're just looking to get him to stop. And that's when the negotiation started. Then they let their guard down. And then we passed the toughest set of sanctions that we had seen on a country and a generation.
wasn't that that was easy. You had two countries that weren't necessarily friends. But once we got our settled what we agreed on, then we could kind of get to the nuts and bolts. And so I think it really does apply in every aspect that you have to really listen more than you speak to understand where are the divides. And if you can push those divides or convince them that there are things you have in common,
There's a trust that builds there. And trust in relationships, that matters in every aspect of every job, is that you have to have trust in relationships to get anything done.
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When you have crossed over into the business world in leadership, did you find it? This may even be a silly question, but I'm truly curious. Did you find it almost easier because of your political background, having to learn how to compromise, communicate, always get a little here? Was it easier? Was it similar, the business world? In the business world, I look at it as results.
What results are you bringing in? How are you changing things? But I do think that the culture that you bring, it has to be in everything, in every aspect from the governor's office to the UN to running for president. I always told my team.
We either win together or we lose and we don't lose. We have to do this. You're picking up if somebody's feeling like they can't do it, you help them pick up the slack. We all have to be in this together. It was never like pitting people against each other. It was we got to ride this out together. And I think that that really does apply that people have to feel like they're a part of something. You know, when I was governor,
I was known to be a union basher because we didn't have unions in South Carolina, but people never took the time to find out why I was a union basher. We brought in a lot of companies in the South Carolina and I would go to each company and I would say, okay, a couple of things. One is
You know, I need to know that if you're coming into South Carolina, you're coming in, taking on our values. So all of your work that you're getting done, I need you to find South Carolina businesses to get it done. All your small business needs, I want my small businesses to feed into it. The second thing is, I would say I need you to take care of your people.
so that we don't have unions. And I said, and the way you do that is, number one, I need you to have a family picnic once a year where the family members come in and they see what their loved one is doing, what they're building, what they're making, how they're contributing.
I said, the second thing I need to know is that any problem you have, that you include your workers in the solution of that problem, they need to feel like they're part of a family. And the third thing is, if you're gonna make them work on Sunday, you gotta give them notice, because in South Carolina, we go to church. And I said, if you do those three things, we will not have a union. And that is how we were union busters, is by them taking care of their people.
Let's go right here for a question, John. Governor Haley, it's no secret that you and President Trump have had your differences, but you also worked for them as the UN ambassador to the everyday American. What would you say that you learned about how to still get the job done despite your differences and not letting that get in the way of being successful? That's a good question. We all have to work with people, maybe we don't like. First of all,
I think before you take a job, you have to set yourself up for success. So when Trump originally asked me to be a part of his first administration,
I remember getting a call from Ryan Spreibis and he said, you know, President-elect Trump wants you to come to New York. He wants to talk to you. And I said about what? I loved being governor of South Carolina. I had no want to leave. And he said, he wants to talk to you about Secretary of State. And I said, Secretary of State, I said, Ryan, I'm a governor. I can't be Secretary of State. And he said, well, he wants to talk to you. You need to come.
So I go meet with Trump and I had known him before. We had known each other for years. He had been a supporter of mine in the governor's race. We've been friends. And so I went and I said, look, first thing is I'm not your person. I'm happy to help you find someone, but we've got a lot of issues in the world. You need someone that doesn't have a learning curve, but I'm going to be here to help in any way I can. So we chatted about foreign policy and some things. So riots calls me a couple of days later and he's like, don't say anything. Just listen.
By the way, I want to point out to our audience, Ryan's free business chairman of the GOP at the time on Trump's staff. Yes. Went on to be his chief of staff in the first. That's right. That's right. So he said, don't say anything. US ambassador to the United Nations. I said, Ryan, I don't even know what the United Nations does. I just know everybody hates it.
And he said, he's gonna call you, I need you to be ready. So I go and I tell my husband, my husband's looking at this. He's Nikki, I think you'd be good at this. So President calls, he says, all right, Nikki, you're gonna do this.
And I said, well, sir, there'd have to be conditions. He said, OK, what? I said, well, I'm a policy girl. So I'd want to be on your National Security Council so I can be part of when you make decisions. He said, done. And I said, well, I'm a governor. I don't want to work for anyone else. I want to work directly with you so it needs to be a cabinet position. He says, done.
And I said, look, I'm not going to be a wallflower or talking head. I need to be able to say what I think. And he said, that's why I want you to do this. And he was true to his word from the first day to the last day. So he and I had a great working relationship in the first administration. If he was, you know, everybody says, well, how'd you get out of there without a tweet?
And the answer is, I told him the truth. He was doing something good. I supported. I worked hard. I made it happen. I made America look good. If he was doing something wrong, I showed up in his office or I picked up the phone and said, you cannot do this. But instead, you could do X, Y, or Z. I always gave him options.
And he would say, well, how do you see that playing out? And we would talk through it. He respected the fact that I would tell him the truth. And he knows I saved him sometimes. So we actually got along very well. When I ran for president, it was, you know, we had seen the fall of Afghanistan. We had seen all of these issues playing out around the world. And I knew that the country was craving someone younger.
They had just gone through Joe Biden. They had just gone through all of this. And so, you know, what people don't realize is I called him first.
And I called him and I said, look, this is, you know, I'm going to run. I think that, you know, we need a newer generation. We need someone that can go in and get these things done. And he was like, well, you know, I love you. He said, but, you know, I really, you know, I hate that you're doing this, but you have to do what you want to do. And the reason I called him was because one, he gave me the job out of respect I wanted to call him. And secondly, it was the right thing to do.
And so then, you know, we get into a campaign. Campaigns are better. You know, campaigns can be. It's very different. It is. But, you know, at the end of it, the reason I came back and said that I was going to vote for him and that I supported him was it's not on. You can either vote on personality or you can vote on policy.
I didn't agree with Trump on everything, but I agreed with him on most things. I didn't agree with come on anything. So, you know, I was always very true to myself on what I thought I needed to do. And so that was kind of my relationship with Trump. And we should all pray for him to do well. I mean, that affects our country at this point.
I love what you said that people don't realize that you called him ahead of time, but there's a theme here that in working with him that first time around, you were just very honest. Number one, number two, I took away that you did it in private. There was no grandstanding. And to this question, I think that in the corporate world or in the small business world, if you're in an office setting, this is real for a lot of people watching this,
I love the job or I at least like it. I need it. But I'm dealing with a manager who's a jerk. This is real talk. I'm dealing with some coworkers who may be gossiping or they're not kind or whatever.
And you've got this tension between, I need this job, I got to be an adult. And I learned something there that certainly in the world of politics, you were very clear, but you also showed some honor there by going privately to him going, you can't do this, you're doing this wrong. And I love this question because I think that so many people are afraid to confront because confrontations become a dirty word when in all reality, if it's done well in your world of politics,
We call that being a good ambassador, right? We call that diplomacy.
And I think there's a few things here. I mean, the first I'll say to the drama, don't ever get involved in office drama. You know, I would my office at the US mission was in New York. You know, the White House is obviously in DC. I would go for national security council meetings and I would turn around get back to New York as fast as I could. I didn't do the parties in DC. I didn't do the drama in DC. I didn't want any of that. I was focused on my job. If I had done that, there was a whole Trump world
that had all kinds of things going on. I didn't want that. The second thing is when you're dealing with a boss that can be challenging.
They are the boss and you have to respect them for being the boss. That's why if you have a disagreement, give options. Let them be the one. The reason it worked well is I didn't just tell Trump, no, don't do this. I would say you can reach the same goal by this or this. Give options so that you can show that you're not just saying, and that's true for anything. Don't just say no to something. Okay, if you're gonna say no, what's the yes?
How do you do it instead? You can't just go and say no to everything. And so I think that's the lesson in it. And it'll make your life better and it makes the person you work with feel better. Sorry. And you get more wins. Yes. And you really prove that. That's so good. Okay. Another question back here.
Awesome. Hi, Governor Haley. So you talked a lot about your appearance being immigrants, minor as well. I'm curious how that has influenced your leadership style along with specifically how you work a lot with men for women coming up in this corporate environment. How do we balance as you talk about having grit and grace? How do we balance that in a male dominated space along with staying true to your roots as the daughter of immigrants?
My parents always reminded us every day how blessed we were to live in America. So in our world, it was always about you have all of these opportunities. Go make the most of the opportunities. And I think watching their struggle and
seeing how well they did through all of that. That was more the work ethic I feel like I got. I got my strength from my mom. I got my grace from my dad. But you always had to work hard. You always had to show what you were capable of.
there were never any lines to the women's bathroom in any of the jobs I had. You know, in the corporate job, I was only female executive, you know, as governor, first female governor at the UN on the security council, I was the only woman sitting on the security council when I got there. So I've always been used to there being men all the way around. But I think that is all the reason why
You know, when you walk into a room, you deserve to be in that room, but you have to prove it. And proving it doesn't mean you talk on everything that's being said. Proving it means pick and choose your battles. And when you do something, do it right. Make sure people remember you for it. Make sure people are better because of you. And I think that's part of it. You're not always going to have people respecting you every step of the way. That doesn't mean you have to be disrespectful.
It almost means you have to show people how to act, show them what you expect. You never put up with anything you don't want to put up with. It was my second book with all due respect where that came from. And it was, you know, we were sitting in a national security council. President Trump had decided he wanted to put sanctions on Russia.
for some poisoning they had done of some people in Europe. And, you know, that was decided. And President Trump would change his mind. So I spoke with him on Thursday. He had made the decision. I spoke to him again on Friday just to make sure the decision was going to hold. On Saturday, they would always have me do the hard news shows. So I did what was a Sunday show. We taped it on Saturday.
And I said, I was on this newscast and they said something about it. And I said, well, you know, President Trump is going to put sanctions on Russia. You know, that will be announced if it hasn't been announced already. And then on Sunday morning, I get a call from Steve Mnuchin, who was the Treasury Secretary at the time. And he said, Nikki, we've got a little bit of a problem. And I said, what's that? And he said, well, you know, Trump now doesn't want to put sanctions on Russia.
you know, and this is aired. And I said, you know, that's not a problem. Just tell them that, you know, he's shifted. He's going to wait. He's not going to do this. And he said, well, just he said, no worries on your part. We just want you to know we're going to put something out. I said, fine. They end up putting something out.
that doesn't even deal with it, like doesn't even answer the question. So what does the press do? The press comes down on Monday. Why did she say it? Is he going to put sanctions? Is he not going to put sanctions? So I call John Bolton. I call Mike Pompeo and I talk with John Keller, Chief Staff. I tell them all,
Look, in these situations, best thing is to be transparent. Just tell them the president has decided to wait. He has changed his mind, who doesn't want to do this. I said, there's no issue. There's nothing wrong. The president has the right to change their mind. That was all the time.
Okay, okay, okay. They don't do anything. Press is getting worse. Come Tuesday morning. The press is like not letting up on wait. We're not getting an answer. So I called them and I said, look, the press is coming through. You've gotten till three o'clock today. Either you answer this or I'm going to answer this, but somebody's going to answer this. We'll deal with it. We'll deal with it. 255, 355, whatever. Larry Cudlow comes out, does a press conference.
First question he's asked, Nikki Haley said there's going to be sanctions. You know, are there sanctions or they're not sanctions? He's like, you know, Nikki Haley, she got momentarily confused. Wow. That was. Yeah, trademarks like tire treads on you. And I'm looking at it. I'm going.
Damn it. Like seriously? Isn't that hard? Just tell the truth. It's not that hard. So I go and at that moment.
I know that the five on Fox is coming on. I text Dana Preno. And I said, can you just put a statement out for me on the record that says, with all due respect, I don't get confused. I remember that. Dana called me and she goes, OK, I just want to make sure I have this right. She said, what do I suggest that?
Just put that out there. She goes and she puts that out.
Next thing you know, everybody's calling like, oh my God, what happened? You know, all of this. And you know, it was one of those things that, look, you're not making me your scapegoat. You're not going to turn around and put this at my feet. Tell the truth. You didn't tell the truth. I'm going to make sure I told the truth. And Larry Cudlow called and he goes, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You know, I love you. I wouldn't have done this. And I said, I said, yeah, you need to go fix it.
And he goes, what do you mean fix it? I can't fix it. I said, well, I'm not confused. You need to go fix it. And he's like, Nikki, I said, you can and you will. In 10 minutes, he went out there and said, I was wrong. She wasn't confused. President decided not to put sanctions at this time.
And, you know, that's what happened. But you have to always defend yourself. You always have to stand up for yourself. So when someone tries to go and do something that you know is not right, if you don't advocate for yourself, no one else will.
Yeah, there's the last one. That's absolute gold. And again, this is the pattern we're about the flag story. You're like, go get it done. You're going to do it. I mean, I just think. And I'm in it with you. It's not like you're I'm telling somebody you're I'm in it with you, but do it right or don't do it. Yeah. I mean, I don't know when the last time somebody told you this because you're a public figure.
but you're very courageous. You need to hear that. Like these stories, like that takes a backbone, takes a backbone in the workplace too. And I hope women and men as well take something from this. Like your person, it seems just says, you know what? I know what right is and I'm gonna go all in on right. You would be just a vicious poker player. Have you played poker before? If you put your chips in the middle, I think I'd fold. I think you would.
I think so too, and I enjoy playing poker. I love that. That's so great. Alright, let's go over here.
Thank you. I've also sat in a lot of rooms that are mostly filled with men in leadership roles and received feedback that my style was quite different from theirs. How have you kept your unique style in environments where it's not the norm or it looks different than your peers? It's a great question.
When I say that you can be different and make sure that everybody sees your similarities and not your differences, the similarities are that you want to get something done and they want to get something done. The difference is that you celebrate is you have a different way of doing it. I think that what is when people say your style is not
My style, if you're getting things done, it doesn't matter what your style is. So that's the first thing I would say is always point to the results. And if you're not proving results, then yes, you change your style. But if you are proving results, you do that. But you do it in a way you can be strong and respectful. I think that's the biggest thing is when someone offends you, you don't have to be offensive.
When someone talks down to you, you don't have to talk down to them. Your strength actually comes from not going to their level. But when you hit, I always say, I wear heels, it's not for a fashion statement. It's for ammunition. When you kick, kick hard and make sure they never forget it, but have a smile on your face while you do it. Oh my gosh, that's phenomenal. I always kick with a smile.
Yeah, oh, I saw it. I mean, you did it. There were some moments in the debate where it was really refreshing just to see you go, okay, I see where this is going. Because you have a lot of grace, your style, your personality is very different than some of those folks. But there were times where you really did dig in with the heels. And it's really interesting to see because they respect that. And you don't always get it right. That's right. You don't always get it right. You don't always know the best way to do it.
But you do, at the end of the day, you want to leave your respect intact. Your dignity has to be there. And you can't force people to respect you. You can only earn respect. And so you earn it based on how you act and how you present yourself. And there's going to be challenges. People are going to question you. People are going to say you're not good enough. Or they're going to say you can't do it. Your only job is not focus on that energy, but focus on proving them wrong.
I want to ask you about the American dream. You have a unique view of it with your story, but also as a governor and a presidential candidate. I think the American dream was alive and well. I think we see evidence of it every day, but to be honest, to be real, even in candid conversations with my oldest son who is learning his own identity and beginning to see his own beliefs and he sees the world certain ways as we talk about it. There are a lot of young people for sure.
A lot of people still represented in a presidential election who think America's best days are behind us, that the dream is not equal, it's not fair. This is a show that is about seeing people reach their dreams, make that contribution to their professional life as a worthy thing. What do you think? Good, bad, ugly, the American dream, address it. Whatever angle you want to, I'm curious what you think.
I mean, I'd like to address it from Gen Z because I think that the one thing I don't want to see is people go and criticize Gen Z for feeling that way. I agree. They've been through a lot. And I think that you have to appreciate that, you know, my son,
High school senior year COVID hits, missed his prom, missed his graduation, freshman year of college, he was stuck in a dorm room wearing masks, didn't get that first year. All of that. Then they go and they look at the fact rent is high. They don't ever think they're going to own a home.
They look at, you know, a lot of kids still don't have jobs if they just graduated college. They're desperately looking for jobs. They can't find it. And they don't think they're going to live as good of a life as their parents did. That's a lack of hope. And what we need to do is first see it for what it is. They don't watch the news because they think both sides are crazy. I don't think they're wrong.
And all they know is what they see on YouTube and social media. And in social media, they can scroll and everybody's life is better than theirs. So if you take that and look at it, that's not their fault. That's the world in which they live in. What we have to do is give them hope is to let them know one day you are going to own a home.
One day you are going to have a job that you love, but these are steps that you get there. And yes, you are going to have more money in your pocket, you know, a few years from now, but today you got to work and make that dollar stretch. You just have to kind of walk them through it instead of saying you shouldn't feel that way. And the one thing that I have done with my kids is I have said before you go to bed, when you say your prayers,
Don't ask God what you want. Go through every single blessing of your day, because when you count the blessings from, I'm so glad that, you know, that traffic jam didn't cause me to be late at work, or I'm so glad that, you know, I got this done, or I'm so glad that this worked out, or I'm so glad that, you know, my grandmother's gonna be okay, count all those blessings from the smallest to the biggest, because when you do that,
All of a sudden your blessings are a lot more than your prayers. And that's where you can go forward on how do you capture the American dream is you have to appreciate your blessings first before you can take on the challenges that come next. One of the things that I admire about you and I think as professionals we can learn something is discourse.
And we've kind of talked around it, but I made a mental and I want to get your thoughts on this because I think you've done a great job. I thought you've modeled it very well on the national level is discourse. It feels as though, and this is real for everyday people, they want to go do their job. They want to get paid.
They want to pursue their dreams, whatever that is, put the kids to college, Disney vacation, whatever it is. And yet it feels like because of the media and social media that is so prevalent now, when we were growing up, we had three stations. And every once in a while, you went over to PBS, right? But now it's so in our face and it feels like the environment
is working against all of us to create this, everything's identity, politics, instead of what we share as it relates to dreams and challenges, but people who lead companies and there's this temptation to be political versus just do your job. Customer doesn't care how you vote. They just want their thing. Thoughts on how the business community can help with the discourse
The first thing I always say, just in public life in any way, I'm more than a label.
I'm more than any label you can give me. I'm more than just a woman. I'm more than just being Indian. I'm more than a mom. I'm more than a politician. I'm more than all of those things. I'm more than a label. And so no one, you are demeaning people the second you give them a label because there's so much more than that. And I say that in politics, I say that in the corporate world and everything else is, you know, we're all Americans.
That should be a label we're proud of. And then the rest of it doesn't do us any good to go and get into that. And I counsel CEOs all the time on how to move forward, how to better their business. And the first thing I tell CEOs is in your company, you should take the Dolly Parton approach. Everybody loves Dolly Parton. No one knows what she stands for. No one. And in a company, what Americans want is they want a company.
that treats their consumers right, gives a good product, takes care of their employees, and they don't care what you think politically at all. And from a CEO's perspective, why would you go and put a political view out there and isolate any percentage of your customer base? You need 100% of your customers. If you go and make a political view on Israel, you've just limited a percentage of your base.
So make sure no one cares about your politics. They don't want to know. They just want to buy your product. And they just want to know your product's going to be good quality. Now in your business where you have employees that have all kinds of
issues, whether it's remote or wanting to be treated fairly, go to the heart of every employee wants to feel like they're a part of the business and every employee wants to know they can move up. That's what employees want. So rather than saying you're gonna have quotas of anything, have mentorships, some people, women and minorities, don't always move up because they don't have advocates. If they had people mentoring them,
on what they can do and how they can get better. That is the best thing you can do for an employee basis. Make sure everybody has the ability to be mentored so that they can look at that next job promotion. That's what you need. And if you do those things you're going to make profits, you're going to take care of your people and life is just going to be a lot easier. I love that. This show, we kind of have an informal theme. We want to get better.
as people. And you said that earlier, I love that you said, if I'm a great wife and mom, I'm going to be a great better governor. And I love that. So our theme here is we want the audience to get better, right? We want them to level up whatever that looks like for them professionally as they move up. And eventually they're going to level up in the leadership and lead well. And I know you're a politician by trade. I'm not labeling you. See, I'm paying attention.
What is, what are you thinking about? You're a young lady. I've mentioned earlier, we're both very similar in age, so you're a young lady in my opinion. You got a lot of time left, Lord willing.
What are you thinking of? This is kind of an interesting season I would guess for you. You've accomplished so much. And I think our audience, you know, people that are middle age going, okay, what is the next season? Are you able to share anything that you're thinking about? And I'm not looking for a breaking news item. I wouldn't expect you to give it to me. So I'm not asking that, but what is next for you? Are you done politically? Are you open?
So I think once we suspended the campaign, it was, OK, what do we want to do in the short term? And so I have three buckets. So I'm a policy girl. So from the policy bucket, I became one of the chairs at the Hudson Institute, so I can still get my policy fill into all that. I have always loved business.
So, I'm vice-chair at Edelman, so I love to counsel CEOs on how to better their business and maneuver through the politics or lack of politics they should be having and what they're doing. And then SiriusXM approached me to do a radio show podcast from the time mid-summer to Inauguration Day.
So that allows me to talk about whatever I want to talk about. So those three things right now have kind of gotten me to this place. The rest, I'm going to let God decide. I've always at every point in my life, God has opened the door. I've just had to have the courage to walk through it.
So, you know, we'll see where it goes. I'm not worried about it. It's not something that I'm obsessing with. I know that, you know, whichever door is open, I'm just going to have to push myself to go through it, and then we'll figure it out from there. If you were the type of person to make predictions, what would your prediction be on how many years or cycles before we see a female president?
Again, I think it is about the person, the time, and where the American people are. Do you think we're getting closer and closer to the time? I've always thought we were close. I've always thought that it could happen. It's just one of those things that you had a lot of men run for a long time.
You haven't had that many women run. So I'll say it again. It's not because America doesn't want a female present. It's because women don't run for it. I mean, you can count on a hand.
the women candidates that we've had. It's not that many. So I think, I don't think we're far from it. I think we absolutely are going to have it. I think it'll be a great day when it happens, you know, because then they'll stop talking about it. Right. Yes. But it also, it gives us an opportunity to see
As you said multiple times today, I love women and what they bring to the leadership table. I do think it will be fascinating to see the greatest country in the world have a very different style of leadership. Oh, I mean, I think you, you know, can look at so many, you know, around the world and see, you know, how they've... And I was going to ask you that. So I'm interrupting, who are some female politicians and leaders from history or currently that you admire?
I mean, I think you look at, you know, the Iron Lady. You always think of her and Margaret Thatcher. I think you remind me of a more gracious version of her. Oh, she was amazing. Like she was fearless and she, you know, she came and took over Britain at a time that they were financially hurting. And she said, all of these things don't need to be in the public sector. They need to be in the private sector. And she privatized a bunch of things. And, you know, I remember that,
You hear the story that the Parliament came back to her and they were like, this is wrong, this is wrong, because things went down before they went up. And they said, you know, it is time for her to take a U-turn. And she said, you know, you can turn if you want, but this lady is not for turning. And she held her own.
You know, you look at gold in my ear and she was able, the way she was able to help Israel get on its feet. And she was able to not only fundraise, but to lead and do all these things. I mean, it's just been fascinating to watch women leaders and how they take on challenges and what they do. And they're fearless in the way that they do it.
I've read a biography recently about Reagan, and I didn't know this. I don't know if you know this or not, but where you two remind me of each other is this anecdote, apparently when she first realized that Reagan was going to win, or he won shortly after he wins, and she knows I'm going to meet this new US president.
You know, he was considered a lightweight by his opponents because he was an actor. And she kind of was like, made some comments privately that are now public record that she was like, I don't know if I can take this guy very serious. So she was a real straight shooter, but they became the best of friends, the best of political friends for sure. And it's fascinating how what a straight shooter she was. And she commanded so much respect on the world stage. And another lesson in all of us don't judge. Yeah, that's right. Well, I got to tell you folks,
It's been the privilege of my life to get to sit with people like Nikki Haley. And I hope you've enjoyed this conversation as much as I have. I got to tell you, I've learned so very much. And so to our audience, I want to say thank you for tuning in to Nikki Haley. Thank you for being a part of front row seat here. And to our audience, what would you like to share with her? Can we give her some love for being with us so fast? Thank you. So awesome. That was so fun.
Well, I always want to give you something, the audience, that I learned while sitting here with our guests, and today it's clear to me that I need to, you need to, do what is right. Not what other people think is right.
And not what we think is right after we've overanalyze it, do what we think is right. Trust that gut feeling. So many times in life, we allow outside forces to make us feel guilty or to push us off a position. And so I'm going to take away that when I believe it's right, I'm not gonna judge others, but I'm gonna do what I believe is right and let the chips fall where they may. So if you're facing a big decision or action right now, do what you think is right. And it's gonna work out.
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