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Your
Next
Level
Life
Your
Next
Level
Life
7 Rules of Power, Confidence, and
Opportunity for Black Women in America
KAREN ARRINGTON
Copyright © 2019 Karen Arrington.
Published by The Tiny Press, an imprint of Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.
Front Cover design by Joanna Price | joannapricedesign.com
Cover illustration: Jag_cz/Shutterstock
Layout & Design: Roberto Núñez
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Your Next Level Life: 7 Rules of Power, Confidence, and Opportunity for Black Women in America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: #######
ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-032-5, (ebook) 978-1-64250-031-8
BISAC category code: SOC010000, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Foreword
The year was 1977 when I first met Karen at the University of Maryland, College Park. She and I had decided to pledge the sisterhood of Zeta Phi Beta that fall. She was line sister one and I was line sister two. When I tell you it was friendship-love at first sight, please believe me. We made an instant connection fueled by our wit, stubbornness, and insatiable sense of humor. You see, Karen was very comfortable with the pledge process as her older brother was a Phi Beta Sigma man and went to the same college. I, on the other hand, knew very little about how and why being a part of this sisterhood could go on to shape the rest of my life.
Karen was also the daughter of the mayor of Seat Pleasant, Maryland. She came from a prominent family where both of her parents were high achievers and expected the same from their children. As Karen’s friend, I had no choice but to adopt those same high expectations and tried dearly to keep up with them. Truth be told, this was the foundation that carried me through to graduation when many of our freshman friends dropped out of college and went home early. Before either of us really could define what going to the “Next Level” meant, Karen was already taking me there.
Soon after graduation, Karen and I went in different directions. Her entrepreneurial route started with creating the Miss Black USA Pageant, an institution that is determined to, in Karen’s words, help “Black women to claim their power, redefine their destinies, and defy expectations.” Karen went on to create her own women’s leadership coaching, consulting, and luxury travel company where she continues to teach, groom, inspire, and support all who come into contact with her passion and brilliance.
As for me, I was determined to kick down doors to the boardrooms of corporate America and started my professional career in the pharmaceutical industry. Twelve years there—followed by twenty-five years in tourism marketing—enabled me to do my Next Level work as an advocate, educator, mentor, and, more importantly, hiring vice president at one of
