Rooting for Everybody Black [In Business]

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think black women where we live are so involved
in the community and are so community oriented that to
be able to mobilize votes, we are much more likely
to win because we already have so much. We can
already say we've poured so much into our community. I
mean we've seen it so many times. Like even with
when Kamala was running, it was like announced one day.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Next day, multiple of her communities were able to help
raise and really like stand behind her. And we do
that all the time. This is kind of what black
women do.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, I'm so interested to see how it continued plays
out in twenty twenty six. You know, we have mid
terms and then in twenty twenty eight, what are we
going to see? Are we going to see even more
black women running for office?

Speaker 1 (00:53):
What's up? Be a fam It's Brown Ambition, It's your girl,
Mandy Money, and we are here for the Brown Table.
I'm so happy to be joined by these lovely ladies.
These are two time guests of the show. We have
JQ from Vox Media. Hello, JQ, Hello, it is so
great to be back your second time guest, So I

(01:14):
can just skip to calling you JQ. Yeah, no formality.
And then we have Ev Saint Louis from Blavity. What's up?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Ev?

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Hello, Hello, good to be back.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
How are y'all doing.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
I'm coming off of NABJ in the Cleveland, so I'm like,
h yeah, I was.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
With my people, and now this feels just like.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
A continuation of getting to be with my people, and
so that's very nice.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
I know I saw you for like thirty seconds at NABJ.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I know, I think I was running off to like
grab a nap in between sessions.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, I was at NABJ. I got there on the Wednesday,
and I don't know if I'm super congested and I
sound like I've been well.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
I was up of night.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Because hashtag children, but I am so run down. I
don't know how you've you seem like your energy, I'm
not even like you seem very bright and bushy. Tailed Oh.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
When I got home Sunday, I was like, you know
what I'm gonna do. I'm going to do some laundry
and sleep, and that's what I did. I've learned to
pace myself, I think. Okay, when I was younger, I
was like I got to hit every networking mixer and
I got to hit every party. And now I'm like, hey,
I saw y'all at this one. I'm I may skip
the next one and see you at the one after that.

(02:24):
I'm going to take the time to eat. I gotta hydrate,
I gotta drink water, I gotta, you know, make sure
I get my bedtime.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
I've I've learned to pace myself through the years.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
I think that's where people go wrong, Like they don't
they feel like I have to do absolutely everything and
all the time and see all the peoples and go
to every event.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
You don't, you really do not, you really do not.
Like it's the craziest case of having fomo while you're
at the thing. Yeah, like you're there, you shouldn't feel fomo.
But because there's so much going on. And this was
the fiftieth year anniversary of Any Beach, so shout out
to our forty four founders, are founding black journalist who

(03:05):
founded it in nineteen seventy five, and it was it
felt momentous. It was also my first time going to
NABJ in about eight years. Ooh, I was like a
prodigal daughter very much.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
So yeah, I love it. I try to go every
year if I can.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
And it's also nice because it also has like like
you're networking, you're meeting people, there's a career fair that
there's like people looking at resumes and reels and listening
to your stuff and looking at your clips. But it
also has like this family reunion feel because you're like, oh,
I see you every year, and when we first met
you were in Mississippi, and now you're in Atlanta, Like,

(03:45):
look at how far we've come.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
It's like very cool.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Now, Evie, I know you weren't there, and so we
won't make you feel too much like fomo, But also
why weren't you there? Because it was a good time.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
I know.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I see I saw like so much on social and
had a bit of fomo. But usually I'm just like,
especially during the summer, this is a time for me
to do as least as possible and like home as
much as possible, and just trying to prioritize that.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
So that's basically it.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
I can't be mad at that. My selfish reason, well,
I I have like a twofold reason. I've talked about
it on the episode last week's I won't go too
much into detail, but when I sort of made a
slight pivot away from traditional media into content marketing and
podcasting full time. I sort of talked myself out of
belonging and ABJ, which was the dumbest thing I could

(04:33):
have done.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
To say, every like, people from all professions make their way.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, and there's so much, like so many. I mean,
I don't think I've been since Brown Ambition was like
really established established. I think we maybe a couple of
years in. But I could not. I barely went to
sessions for the number of people who just stopped to
say how much they love the show. And if you
stop me and you said hello, I and if I
looked really tired, I apologize. But it was just really

(05:00):
really warm, heartwarming. And I did go on my birthday,
which felt that's another reason why sometimes you're a leo.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
That's fun.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah. So did I want to go to Birmingham last
year on my birthday? Not so much, No shade to Birmingham,
but small shade. However, Cleveland surprised me.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
The city was very happy to have us there.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
I will say truly, it was like I was like, Oh,
all these installations, all these food trucks, all these things,
like you can very much tell like the city, the
entire city was hosting us.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
It felt the weather was nice, the vibes were good.
We went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I might have to take my dad there someday. It
was a it was a really good time. I don't know,
I just had a really it was small enough, but
it felt like I tried my best to stay I like,
I like to stay away from the Central Convention Center
because I'm a leo, but I'm deeply introverted and I

(05:56):
need to plug myself in somewhere. So I got to
kind of like walk around and try different spots and
restaurants and coffee shops and stuff. But next year it's
going to be in Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
That's about to be yes, hm, so are.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
We immediately registering for next year? Is that? What?

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (06:11):
Oh yeah, I mean like come on, Mavie, come on, yeah,
it's Atlanta, you have to come.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
I mean Atlanta that alone, and like, oh wow, okay,
maybe I'll look into it.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
But aniebj is lydty. I mean I bought tickets for
stuff I did not even go to.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Yeah, like the after parties.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
That's the real That's the tea that I want to
talk to y'all about, because obviously on this show we have.
You know, in this audience BA fan, a lot of
professional working women who are trying to judge which conferences
do I use my little professional development budget on, you know,
if you're lucky enough for your employerer to pay for
you amazing, please use that. But you're trying to figure
out which ones to go to. But the big thing

(06:51):
is like when you're there, how do you maximize your time?
And JQ, you've said you don't need to go to everything.
I even this time around, I still felt like it's
not that I needed to go to everything, but I
needed to talk to everyone. Yes, there's not a single
there's no misses in a space like NABJ. Everyone's got
an interesting vibe. So how do y'all sort of like

(07:14):
strategize or what tips do you'll have for listeners who
are wondering how to strategize their conference.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
The biggest tip that a lot of people don't do
and and also kind of can help with the whole
fomo situation is a lot of these conferences have apps.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
That have all the people, all of.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
The sessions like speaking, you know, like afrotech. Blovity puts
on affrotech every year. Huge conference forty thousand people black
professionals in tech that come every year.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
This year we're having it.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
In Houston, and obviously there's so much to do in
so many sessions, but we put so much within our
app afrotech Connect as an example that like there's different communities,
so like it if you want to make it to
this session, but like, actually I have a different thing
with another session, like go on to the communities for

(08:08):
like engineers or something like that, and like, oh, who
network there and like talk to people there and get
to know people there because a lot of these conferences
are already giving us all the information already for us
to be very prepared.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
So could you see other attendees or is it just
like speakers and stuff in the afrotech app so you.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Can actually see it's built for like communities.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Right, so you could engage. Oh that's kind of cool.
I don't people who.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Are either past attendees or going or current attendees that
are planning their trip and you can actually get in
and chat through like specific communities. We have a feed
so that people are actually networking and like getting to
know you know, what people are prioritizing this as a
ex professional as like if you want to learn more

(08:58):
about like AI governments, like should have a whole track
on it. But if you are on network with others
within that specific area, get on the app and do that.
And a lot of other conferences do that too, So
that helps with the foam a little bit too. You
don't feel like you have to be in a million
places at a different time.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
I will also say some of the best networking happens
at the hotel bar, Like if you're in between a session,
or if you're like, oh, there's not really a session
I'm feeling right now, go to that hotel bar. You
will run into people. If there's someone who's established most
of the time, they really do love talking to people
who are coming up. But also, and I think Isa
Ray said this, the importance of lateral networking too, like

(09:39):
people who are.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
On the same level as you.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Because one of the things I love so much about
NABJ is, you know, I started going when I was
still in like considered a young journalist. I think I'm
officially aged out now because I'm about a decade into
my career now and it's like those first.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
Career Yeah, I'm missing here now.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, And it's.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
So great, like meeting the people that I was early
career with and it's like, oh my gosh, like now
we're the ones getting go wars, We're the ones on
the panel and just like knowing and you have them
to like okay, like you want to negotiate XYZ, Like
what are you hearing over here? What's going on over here?
What are you all covering? How are you thinking of
this story? Like it really really is great. So I say,

(10:23):
Hotel bar and the people who are in the same
place careerizes you, those are the people you also need
to connect with.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, I think that's such a good point. I mean,
what the best part, even though I hadn't been there
in eight years. I mean, the friends that I made
going to NABJ early in my career and in college
are still going to NABJ. And it was one of
the most magical experiences just running into people that I
hadn't I hadn't been able to like give a squeeze
in years and years, because like NABJ is the place

(10:52):
where you would do that and being excited to celebrate.
Like you said, like the friends that have come up
with me. I mean when I was at the University
of Georgia, which is a PWI, right, it's like forty
thousand students and it's like a teeny diny, dainty diny
fraction of them are black. So black Uga really saved
me in a lot of ways, especially our tiny chapter
of NABJ. And I became as a treasurer, then I

(11:15):
was vice president, then I was president, and we had
this like small contingency of like mentors from Atlanta. So
these AABJ members who would drive an hour east for
no dann reason other than just they just wanted to
support us, and they would leave their full time jobs
in Atlanta come to Athens and just come to our
little induction ceremonies and come be a speaker at our

(11:37):
events on campus. And one of those one of those
people was Aaron Haynes. And she actually was just elected
the president of NABJ. And I mean, she's definitely a
huge reason why I came back this year just to
get to see her. You know, I'm just so proud
of her journey. And yeah, I just I feel like
if you're stressing about meeting someone and finding that mentor

(12:00):
finding that person who can give you an opportunity, it's
almost too much pressure to put on a conference. In
a way, it's more about what kind of seeds of
relationships can we plant, you know, and see where these
people go and where you go as well. And it's
almost like, maybe not this conference is going to be
the one that turns a tide for you or it

(12:20):
makes like a big career path change. But could this
be the conference where you had a conversation or you
met someone or you know, invest in that relationship and
then five people don't want to hear that. They don't
want to hear like five years, ten years down the line.
But that's the reality.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah, And experiments and you meet people where you're like, oh,
I'm applying to a job at that company. You meet
someone where it's like you know, hopefully you send that
follow up email after the conference and you can say, hey,
just checking in. It was so lovely meeting you at
such and such. Just wanted to flag for you, I
put my application in. Would love to chat with you
about the role.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Did you do any of that yet?

Speaker 4 (12:58):
Sorry I haven't. Oh I haven't sent in Actually know
because I did.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
There was a really good presentation on newsletters that was
given and.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
Red Young, who was a panelist on it was like,
you know, if.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
You all want a copy of the presentation, feel free
to ask. I went right to his Lincodlin I said hey,
and you know what he was like, yeah, of course,
Like I'm so glad you learned a lot. I'm so
glad you want to take action Like here, it is
like people are open and willing to have those conversations
and it's really great.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
That's another tip, right, like follow up, and it doesn't
have to mean this like thank you for your time,
Like it could be like, hey, great to meet you.
Love this conversation, Like if you're ever in the place,
let's get coffee. You know, just like follow up because
people want to hear from you or like people want
to either continue that interaction or continue to build up

(13:53):
on that, right, So just follow up.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, don't you see those lines for speakers at the event,
And it can feel intimidating to like you only have
twenty seconds of some person's time. I like to I
like to give it about a week because like they
need to get back to their lives, they're probably inundated.
I do like to wait until a week. I mean,
it's fine to send an excited DM in the moment,
and I've definitely done that and had that done to me.

(14:16):
But even then, like you get, I did get a
ton of messages while I was at NDBJ, like LinkedIn dms,
and then some emails coming through, and I just knew
I wasn't going to be reading them while I was there.
But I like the idea of giving it some time
and then following up. And I don't even think you
need to necessarily have gone to their talk. If there
was someone that you realized, okay, I missed this talk,
you can you know, a lie, but you can definitely say, hey,

(14:39):
you know your presentation at NDBJ was on such and
such that really resonates with me. You know, if you're
ever down for like a virtual like meetup or virtual coffee,
I'd love to ask you more about that. And chances
are if they spent an hour gabbing about it on
a like on a platform at NDBJ, then they'll probably
be okay chatting about it a little bit. But you

(15:03):
got to send those follow ups. They're so important, like
and I would even send one. A couple of months later,
I'm already trying to think about how do I maximize
it so that when NABJ Atlanta rolls around, I feel
like I'm making even more of an impact. I'm probably
gonna have a book to promote by the time NABJ
Atlanta rolls around, and I'm like, hmm, I wonder how

(15:25):
can I how can I like make a bit of
a deeper connection with people that I met there in
a relatively shorter timeframe, which is kind of hard to do.
I might be sending out some Starbucks gift cards. No, no, no,
not Starbucks. We don't like Starbucks. So some Amazon. No,
we don't. Wait, what's safe? Safe?

Speaker 4 (15:45):
I like Pete. Well, actually I don't know. Like that's
the thing. I'm actually not gonna put my name.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
I'm gonna say chickilate.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
Note I'm actually not.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
Gonna put my name behind a corporation like that. But
there's plenty of little coffee shops that are tasty.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
You're so right, there'd be some Joe's. Joe's was a
big coffee chain in Atlanta. Well, if we didn't influence you, Evie,
I hope that you'll come to you any j in Atlanta.
We've got a year to get you there.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, I mean Atlanta that's a that's a big influence.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Well, that is fun.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
I always love going there.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Maybe better not, and I hear so many good things
about Afro Tech. I need to make my way down
there at some point.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
Oh, you have to.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
He's been again this year. And that's where actually Mandy
and I met last years. It was it last year,
That is true, and that's where it helps.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Morgan and I have known each other for a long
time because when she was coming with Blavity, I was
coming up at Yahoo. We met each other, and then
a decade later she invited me to a dinner, one
of those more intimate dinners that you kind of can
get invited to, and that's where Evie and I met.
And I don't know that that wasn't what I anticipated
might happen when I covered this this black female founder
back in twenty fifteen. But it was a nice, little

(16:55):
serendipitous moment. And I love an intimate dinner at these
conferences as an introvert oof, I didn't expect to get
invited to this first. I got invited to a grown
women and media dinner the first night, and Nicolehonna Jones
was there and I was like, were you fangirl and
You're like, I was playing it cool, but I was like, Noah,

(17:17):
I'm not gonna na. I ain't gonna do it. No, no, no,
I'm gonna doctor. I'm not going to happen a little
bit more late than that, but it was nice. Hey,
ba fam, we gotta take a quick break, pay some bills,
and we'll be right back. All right, ba fam, We're back. Okay,
we got to get into some headlines. Uh, what else

(17:38):
has been happening in the world. I did see you
know Higher Heights. Have y'all heard of Higher Heights? No? Really? Okay,
so Higher Heights. I've had the founder of Higher Heights on,
Glinda Carr.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
So.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Higher Heights is a political nonprofit, politically motivated nonprofit. So
they want to basically get more women elected and off
into public offices, and they focus on office or elections
races nationwide. They also have they formed a political Action
committee so they can raise money or pack to raise
money to fund these campaigns. So they actually hosted I

(18:13):
think the cocktail reception after Aaron won the election this year.
But they put out a report recently and I was
so excited about this because it feels like in the
year that Kamala Harris lost the election, which was lessening.
I can't believe it's been less than a year since,
or about a year since her campaign started. It can
feel like black women are not winning. But they actually

(18:34):
found that in the races where black women are running,
sixty three percent of those women are winning those races,
and I just thought this was a nice little piece
of positive news. They cited the fact that for the
first time two black women, Angela also Brooks from Maryland
and Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware, are serving simultaneously in

(18:56):
the US Senate. That we've had mayoral gains, the hard
word mayoral. We got some new mayors in different cities.
We got Phi, we got Philly Cherrell Parker, Fort Wayne's
Sharon Tucker, and then Oakland's Barbara Lee. So I'm going
to post a link to that. But I just I
think I think Higher Right's doing amazing work and I'm

(19:18):
excited to see us.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
I love.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, what do you think is behind that drive?

Speaker 4 (19:24):
What do you think is causing that?

Speaker 1 (19:26):
You know, I think black women when we I think,
first of all, these are smaller races, and I think
because they are, like I think black women where we
live are so involved in the community and are so
community oriented that to be able to mobilize votes. That's
my theory is that we are just more we are

(19:47):
much more likely to win because we already have so much.
We can already say we've poured so much into our community,
and then we have those ties, whether it be churches
or sororities or you know, the small business business space.
Like that's that's how I feel. We just show up
for each other.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
Yeah, I would agree on that.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
I mean we've seen it so many times. Like even
with when Kamala was running, it was like announced one day,
next day, hold the pull of her communities were able
to help raise and and really like stand behind her.
And we do that all the time. This is kind
of what black women do. And although it didn't you know,

(20:29):
pan out that the way that we wanted with Kamala,
but with others it's bound to you know, kind of
pan out with with those, like especially some of those
smaller races where you just like have so much power
behind you, Like we're always uplifting each other. So I
think it's just it's kind of like within our nature.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Honestly, Yeah, I'm so interested to see like how it
continued plays out in twenty twenty six, you know, we
have midterms and then in twenty twenty eight, what are
we going to see? Are we going to see even
more black women running for office?

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Can we finally say we have a black woman governor?
Because it's still there has never been a black woman
that is so wild, isn't it? That should have been
staisy like justice for Stacy.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
I remember one time talking it was like back when
this was back when like Tim Scott was elected and
because he was the first black Republican I think elected
to the Senate since reconstruction. Our friend turned to me
and she's like, the thing about reconstruction, that means since
slavery ended. And just her saying that put into the
perspective of like that's wild. All of this is very wild.

(21:34):
Like whenever someone says the first such and such since reconstruction,
I'm like, oh, since slavery ended.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
This is also interesting because you know, after the last
the election black women, we were like.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
We did what we had to do.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
We're taking a break, like, but we never took a break,
like look at us now basically trying to figure it
out again or just trying to do more, and like
you said, JQ, like I'm curious to see what else,
what else are we going to do or going to
have to do and you know, just rally our community
to make more impact within midterms. So it's like things

(22:12):
like that. It's just interesting to see. It's like, no,
we actually don't do the whole break thing very well.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
We just going we just can't help it. I will
say I joined the local PTA, so you know, I'm.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Sure that is.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
You know, I'm not on the I'm not on the
PTA board. I'm like accidentally, I kind of joined it.
I just wanted to be a part of the literacy
event because I love books and babies. But now I'm
on all the email chains and uh yeah, I'm doing it.
I'm doing it hyper local. Okay. I am worried about
my school district because it is very it is very

(22:53):
one note, one queue, and even though my neighborhood was
one of the neighborhoods that they read, they'd redrew the
school district to kind of add some color to the district.
Everyone seems to know that. And sometimes you tend to
feel like people will kind of say, like, oh, so
you know where do you live, Oh, behind the school,

(23:14):
there's like the behind the school, and then there's it's
it's very coded, it's a little and with my baby
being in that school, I'm like, let me have eyes
on this shit.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah no, I get that.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
I let me put Brown Ambission podcast in my email signature.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
And Joy, are you one of those parents that like
my dad especially, he had the flexibility in his job
where he was like the type of where he's like,
I'm gonna just show up.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Oh bless, And it.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Was like both for so I knew he had the
capability to show up, but also so that teacher's administration
do he had the ability to just show up to
kind of keep everybody like keep it cute.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
Everybody needs to keep it cute.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna helicopter my son like,
I'm not gonna tell I'm not gonna threaten him, like
I'm gonna email your teacher of this, that and the third.
But I do definitely believe and making my presence know
and making sure I was I was such a shy kid,
and I think I was overlooked for a long time
for being bright and being like being really talented in

(24:10):
certain areas because I was so quiet, and because I
know and really there wasn't a lot of time or
energy put into the quiet kids. And so I see
a lot of myself and my son and this is,
you know, no shape to my mom. She was a
single mom for kids in the nineties, like she had
a lot going on, barely email, right. So but now
I feel like I'm going my strategy is to make

(24:34):
sure that I do a lot of the socializing in
advance of my son, so that at least his teacher
knows me, his friend's parents know me. And I just
feel like he can benefit a little bit from if
I feel very included and I feel very comfortable with
his school and with the other people at the school.
And I'm seeing that make starting to make a huge difference.
He feels more comfortable in those spaces, and that's the

(24:56):
kind of and I also I do like the idea
that his teacher knows. Okay, I'm not afraid to email.
I'm gonna be at the school, you know, doing Mystery
Reader or volunteering at the ice pop social These people
love them, some ice pops, whatever it may be.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
Just to keep an eye for sure, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
I did email his principle and try to get him
in the one black teacher's class, but I was not successful.
Oh yeah, mister Burton, I'm sure he gets a lot
of pressure on him. But to y'all see this crazy
headline about to pivot into from black mother and Black
women's excellence to white women shenanigans and what may probably

(25:37):
be the synopsis for the next hit Netflix series. Shannon Muldoon,
who's called a bright and vibrant media executive, was just
fired and found that she had charged hundreds of thousands
of dollars over the course of years to the company
her corporate credit card. She worked at a website called
food fifty two. She used her credit card for clothing,

(26:01):
for flights, for private gym sessions, and all kinds of stuff.
Have you all heard about this?

Speaker 4 (26:09):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (26:09):
I have?

Speaker 4 (26:10):
This is on my to read list because I love
the cut.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Full disclaimer. New York mag is also part of the
Vox Media family.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
Yeah there, let me hold a subscription real quick, I know.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
I was like every time I'm like, let me get
my little employee login, I'm like, oh, thank you. Because
they have all the good stuff. Every time something goes viral,
I feel like the cut is at the state.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Of the crime. They got the Anna Delvi story that
was them. This is another Oh that makes so much
sense because I was thinking of her.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Yeah, yeah, they also got and you know, not to
like pile on.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
But the finance expert who gave away like however many
thousand dollars in a shoe box was also a cut
article that was a first person written thing like, the
cut is always at the scene of a viral article
of white woman shenanigans, and I am forever grateful to
them for it.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
I would love them to not enrich them that bad
women after that, because you know, like Ana Delvi, I mean,
come on, now, she was on Dancing with the Stars
for a hot minute. Yeah, we took.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Care of that, but like actually on the show, and yes, in.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Her ankle brace or her not ankle brace, what do
you call it, Yeah, her ankle monitor.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yes, I did not know that.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yes, now that's wild, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
That's that's the diabolical level of the back to the
food woman, Shannon. That's a diabolical level of what is it,
like an ego narcissism. You have to really convince yourself
that you're allowed to like you're allowed to do that
to justify it.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
I would just be so paranoid of like I would not.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
I would I never live under the delusion that I
can get away with fraud of any kind. Fraud is
not for me, Like, no, it's just me. Yeah, like
the people who scam. I'm I find scammers intriguing and entertaining,
but I could never be one of them because one,
I think some of it is like guilt that has

(28:23):
been instilled to me via religion at a very young age,
and then also just kind of being a decent person
like I just it would it makes my stomach hurt.
I can't even imagine this scammers thing is actually funny
because I'm like, how do you sleep?

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Right, Like, how do you sleep at night?

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Because that's where I think she really had convinced herself that.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
It's crazy, it's audacity, and it's just it's narcissism at
the same time that's crazy. I think it's like one
month was twenty thousand dollars for one month?

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah, the total is like nothing to do what two
hundred and seventy thousand, I'm like, that's several people's salaries,
several salaries that probably you could get.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
Maybe even hold on, I'm bad at math.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
That's insane, and it would be like clothing. It's like
food fifty two. I'm assuming it's like a food magazine
or like a I.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Hadn't heard of it until this moment. So yeah, for
free press for them.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yeah, well I used to. I sometimes I follow them
on Instagram. I see the website. I'm like, oh, that's
a cute recipe. That's a good They also do like
a lot of affiliate links that sort of thing. But
to be still into and like, I don't know how
much the writers are paid, but that's like that's a
salary of probably three riders right there that you spent
on personal training sessions.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
I'm also surprised, like for a media company, how did
she get so far?

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Like that's yeah, that's egregious. There was some suckery happening
in HR. Nobody was checking those expenses.

Speaker 4 (29:57):
I was gonna say, who signed off of those expense reports?

Speaker 3 (29:59):
Because I know over here they're like, hey, you went
two dollars over that per diem. You're not getting that
two dollars back. And it's like that's fair. I'm not
getting that two dollars back. I I those French fries
probably didn't need them. That's okay, I can pay them
my own French fries.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
I will say, going to nabj on my own dime
as a business owner was weird. I'd be like, is
this a business expense? I don't know, boss, what do
you think that seems right? I kind of feel like
we need this twenty dollars cocktail right now? Yeah, sure,
this is an event. Nicle Gon of Jones's right there,
and this is best.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
It was.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, And I just kind of leave it up to
my accountant to then tell me whether or not.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
But I'm pretty sure it thinks that's a boss lady
move though, to be like, you know what, I'm gonna
let the account and figure it out.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
That is, I have to because I'm too afraid like this,
I'm with you, ev that guilty conscience, like I there,
and I have been I have been fully independent for
like how many going on for no a little over
four years now. I'm still so stressed every quarter. I'm
not even going to sugarcoat it. It is the worst part
of being a business owner is these taxes. And having

(31:07):
to figure out do I owe anything for the quarter,
and then you have to like precalculate how much you owe,
and it's nearly impossible to predict because, especially if you're
an influencer, shit can be up down sideways. You know,
you think one thing is coming, it doesn't come till
the next quarter, et cetera. And it's so stressful. I
cannot even tell you. We're still working on taxes from

(31:27):
twenty twenty four right now. Oh my gosh, hey yeah,
so yeay. Taxes and healthcare those are the business. Taxes
and healthcare are the two things where I'm like, I
like nine to five, and I encourage y'all, I'm not trying.
Do not listen to like, don't expect me to sugarcoat
none of their shit, none of it. I do get
my health insurance from my husband, and if I did not,

(31:50):
I would simply perish because I'd simply be working nine
to five. And I would you know, I would be
probably be working nine to five if I'm dead, if
I'm dead ass about it, I'd probably be working nine
to five if I hadn't had kids at the same
time as the opportunity to work for myself presented itself.
It just made it that extra bit worth it to take.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
The punge, being able to make your own schedule workaround things.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, so I mean other than that, like nine to
five Sweet four when Kate Natchez come on now, company
credit cards, just don't abuse.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Them like that lady, not like that, not like her.
I honestly, when you said account the accounting stuff I'm
thinking of, like just putting the thought of, like going
through expense reporting would literally turn me off to using
my corporate card. I can't even imagine. I can't imagine
like doing accounting on a quarterly basis for I mean,

(32:47):
my own business. And then on top of that, for
this lady just kind of going through by herself, just
putting her shopping net porter on, but like nice shopping.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
She wasn't going to like h and M. She wasn't
even doing made will.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
She's like I need to design her, like girl, what
the botox?

Speaker 4 (33:05):
Not boatogs? Oh my?

Speaker 2 (33:07):
And then sending people like messages me like should I
do it? Should I not do it? Like should I
get this or should I get this Scucci bag or not?

Speaker 4 (33:16):
I can't remember?

Speaker 3 (33:17):
And a paper trayal girl, she wanted to get hot.
That's what that tells me.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
And they'd be probably asking her for a raise, like well,
you you know, can I get a ten percent? And
she'd be like, M sorry, I just can't for this year.
Oh man, that's gonna be a morale killer.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Man.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
I wonder if people are gonna quit after this.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Oh once they get that money back, I'd be like,
so we like.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Get it back. I don't know in that kind of situation,
do they get it? Does she Maybe she'll have to
like sell her if she has a house or something,
sell it.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yeah, But that's three ninety k salaries, which isn't bad
if you.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
Live in not New York.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah, Like, they better get that back.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
If you take that and live in Kansas City, you'd
be living pretty well.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Hey, ba fam, we got to take a quick break,
pay some bills, and we'll be right back. All right,
ba fam, We're back. Oh man. Oh I totally skipped
over this, y'all Black Owned Business Month. I wanted to
see since it is National Black Owned Business Month. I
know every month is Black Owned Business Month, but August
especially we love. Do y'all have any favorite black owned

(34:24):
businesses that you want to give a little shout out,
no pressure, but it's a fun little segment I started
doing last week.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Ooh, there are two that come to mind. One is
local Saint Vincent Wine in DC, lovely lovely, black owned
wine bar. Have been to birthday parties there, have had
dinner there, very cute, excellent wine selection. And then I'm
a candle girlie, and I really like the Harlem brand candles.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
I really like those.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Oh you spend like one hundred dollars on a candle,
don't you.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
You know, everyone has their luxuries.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
I'm like, I'm going to be in the house smelling
this expensive candle.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Oh, and there's no tiny humans to knock it over.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
So exactly, you boo, exactly.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
I'm just like, let me write, let me light this
fifty dollars candle, and uh have a glass of wine
and read this books, play some jazz, set the mood
for myself.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Jq' is giving the the TikTok games, like we live
a totally different life.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
I don't have kids understand that, no, but that really is?

Speaker 1 (35:26):
That? Really?

Speaker 4 (35:27):
Is it? It really is.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
I show you that the nice things that I have
left are on the very top of my bookcases around
me because that is just where they've found. I'm like, oh,
my coasters one day, I know, it's like marble coasters.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
It's like nothing but sharp corners in my room in
my apartment.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
It's like, oh, kids have not been here. Same. I
also have two.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
I have the local coffee shop that I honestly feel
like because we're remote. So that's kind of like by
I'm going to go into the office today and I'll
walk to a milk and poll and bedstack. Love that place,
great coffee, good vibe as well. They have like an
outdoor area that's always open, So highly recommend.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
The second one.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
So it's obviously summertime, so really not doing much makeup
or anything, but Eatam has this wonderful lip glass. I
think it's the lip softening balm.

Speaker 4 (36:29):
I think it's called.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
Still Eat Them E A D E M E A
DM Okay cool. What A link of the show notes.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
For that it's two women.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
One is of Asian descent I'm not sure from where,
but Asian descent, but also a woman who is black.
So they got together and open this beautiful, like environmentally
friendly and like very good product.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
It's called Eat Them.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
It's like a beauty brand, so that lip gloss highly recommend.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
Mmm, I'll have to show that.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Well. I've got the lip bar on always. I love
my I love this sim lip yes And someone asked
the color this one? Damn it. I think this is
called unimpressed. It's my pinkish nudish color. I'm a huge fan.
But today I also wanted to shout out TikTok's algorithm
finally got me to purchase something. I have resisted because
TikTok's kind of like a mall now very much so,

(37:29):
but I finally got this. I don't know if you
guys have seen the curl, the gel that everyone's been
it's like been viral on TikTok called mesh. Have you Well,
this is the results. I just did a wash and
go before we got on the air, and any any
results that do not look amazing are just doubt due
to user error because I was rushing. But I do

(37:49):
a lot of washing gos and I love the I
love it's like very it's it's firm, but it like
you still have like a little bit of movement to
your hair. It's called meche and its texture is like
alo has alo in it actually I'm pretty sure and
like pineapple or something like that. But it smells so
good and I have been really I don't know the

(38:10):
gels that I have been using the ones that used
to work for me. I don't know what's going on.
Maybe it's the weather, my hair texture has changed. But
I've been having lots of success with Mesh and they
are Mesh was founded by Michelle Ballard and her husband
Jonathan Ballard, and they launched it in twenty sixteen for
all curl types.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
I have to try all of this out. I have
some new products. I love trying a new product.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
I really do.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Thank me too, I know you do you know? Okays
exactly I'm like, oh, I know. I'm like, this is
the same money that people go home and raise kids with.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
I know, enjoy it, don't worry. There's stuff that you know,
you just spend money on other things like thirty dollars Legos,
and it's it also sparks joy, but in a different way. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
I always try to be like, you know what, I'm
just gonna enjoy each season. I'm in there's gonna be
a kids season one day, but for now, I'm like,
let me enjoy this one, so I don't miss this
one too bad.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
Gotta you know you're always gonna yearn for something I
yearned for you.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
If you forget, well, where are you on the whole?
I mean, j Q, you said you want babies, Evie,
what about you? Are you are? You's not even on
your radar yet?

Speaker 2 (39:22):
I want babies, Yes, don't have any. I do have
a wonderful step son. He's twelve though, he's true so
he I mean, we have.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Sharp corners everywhere and oh yeah that's an age you
can put him to work.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
Okay, Yeah, he's just like I have my video games,
I have my basketball leot but yeah, not not there yet.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
So I'm I'm on Leney.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
When you said one hundred dollars, can, I was like,
I could do.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
I get Yeah, that's the best of both worlds because
you get like a little bit of like parent thing.
But like at the end of the day, I mean, Marquis, yeah,
what's your is it your mom's weekend.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
He's a good kid, so most of the time he's
just like it's just fun to have him around and
it's kind of like also makes us excited to want
me to have kids and like, you know, see his progression.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Well, she's a newlywed, y'all.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
It hasn't been a year yet.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Got the giggles a glow.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah, I know that's right. Yeah, it hasn't been a
year yet. But when when does one stop.

Speaker 4 (40:40):
Being a newlywed?

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (40:42):
I think is that the ear mark? Okay? I mean I'm.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Almost I think it's up to you when you stop
being a newlywed. I think it's a state of mind. Okay,
And the longer you can feel that way, the better.
Never listened, Never stop doing date nights. Listen to me
from the other side, don't stop doing dake nuts and yeah,

(41:07):
just put your put your relationship first, which is so
hard to do once you have kids. It's so freaking
hard because like with what energy, So me and my
husband are currently in like the phase of undoing the
damage of putting the kids in front of the relationship.
I've talked to I've talked to Bafan about that. It's
not a fun place to be. I'll tell you that.
It's like, who are you again? Did I like you

(41:30):
one time?

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Like?

Speaker 4 (41:31):
What is going on?

Speaker 1 (41:33):
We're actually about we're sending the kids to my mom's
for twelve days. I keep calling it two weeks, but
it's feeling too much. Twelve days. They're going to be
in Saint Louis and we're calling it like marriage boot camp,
like marriage for suscitation kind of vibe, and it's I'm
actually looking I'm looking more forward to it now. I'm
very much looking forward to actually sleeping a decent amount
of time. But it's like now we are playing catch

(41:57):
up on putting the marriage and that relationship. It's doable.
It's just really freaking hard.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
Yeah, y'all can like watch some R rated movies.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
You think I'm gonna stay awake for that? I think
sleep is really like sleep. We really tried to watch
The Guilded Age last night. I'm so far behind. Y'all
watch The Gilded Age? No.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
I watched the first season and literally every all of
my friends are like, did you see it?

Speaker 4 (42:26):
Did you see it? Did you see it? And I'm like,
oh my gosh, I have to catch up.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
By a girl TikTok, Black Girl, Threads, Black Girls Social
we are apparently all the girls are watching it. I'm
very but I'm like JQ, I'm a bit behind. I'm
still in season one.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
I love binging a show. So I love having a
thing to binge.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yeah, I actually love going back to shows like I
think I'm at the point where I'm re watching.

Speaker 4 (42:48):
A different World.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
I'm rewatching New Girl, like those are the things that
I love to do.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
But different World's a good one. I never really got
my a different world time.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yeah, they don't make TV shows like Dust anymore. I
just it's like comfort to me, like I've always wanted
in a in future. Lize like, oh, can I be
Whitley Gilbert. My husband's like.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
No, I have never met another woman who talks like
Whitley Gilbert. So I don't know, but you could try
your husband. That may end the newly wet phase. If
you start talking like that might do it.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, but I'll have to add the Gilded Ages. Why
did you stop after season one? Or it's on season
like three or four.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
Yeah, it's just like I just never picked it up.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
I sometimes do that where it's like I'll enjoy a
thing and then I fall off and then I'm like, wait,
I really like this time to return to it.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
Like I do that quite a bit. It drives like
people crazy.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
I've done it even with like books before too, where
I'm like, ah, this is such a good book and
then life gets in the way and it's been a
year and I'm like, oh my god, I never finished
that book. Time to finish. It's like, it's actually, it's
very diabolical my ability to do that. I gotta say.
It's It's one of the things where it's like, are
you okay?

Speaker 1 (44:06):
I get the libyalart. You know they only give you
seven days for an audiobook, and it's like the day
seven just goes so fast, and I'm like, oh yeah,
I wasn't joying that for fifteen minutes and I just
maybe maybe next time. But guilded Age has this in
a show called It's Particular, and I have not watched more.
I've watched like episode three of four of season one,
So no spoilers here. Don't worry because I can't give

(44:26):
you any But they just had their season three finale
and the fun and I think black women are driving this.
I cannot prove it, but based on the level of intensity,
Like there's a new thread category called they're calling it
dug Guild, which is where the girls get together we
talk about Gilded Age, But I think it's because they've
actually done a historical show. It takes place in nineteenth

(44:47):
century New York, so that when the huge you know,
the gajillionaires of the Upper East Side were you know,
fighting for power and for real estate and all this,
and it's all very in same dude, who did doubt
Nabby did this show, which is pretty apparent in the
first episode because it's like you get the you get
the taste of life above, you know, upstairs, and then

(45:09):
a taste of life downstairs in the servants quarters. But
they actually incorporate black stories. So we have Peggy Scott,
who's played by the beautiful Daney Benton. Is it Benton
or did just mess it up? She's a Broadway I
saw her years ago on Broadway. She's just beautiful and
very talented. But she plays a great character Scott Audre

(45:29):
McDonald in it. And because I'm so early, I don't
know who else is coming. I'm afraid to google it
because I do not want spoilers. But they've had, like
it's rare for a show to increase viewership three seasons in,
you know, so the pen the penn ultimate episode before
the before the finale, it brought four point six million views,

(45:53):
uh four point six million viewers in three days, and
it's the fourth week in a row that third season's
managed a new series high audience, it's drawing in new
viewers at a record pace, and that it's currently adding
viewers at a rate of nearly fifty percent higher than
previous seasons. Wow, so j pick it back.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
I know I'm about okay.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
Time for me to join that fifty Maybe make it
U fifty point one.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
It's got beautiful gowns, beautiful gowns.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
I love a good gown and you know Cynthia Nixon
and just like that is ending, so she'll still be
employed via by hbov.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
I like her so much better and gilded age. I
don't get he's so dumb with Miranda. I can't stand
in just like that. It makes me Corrine, were you
an algt ahbat?

Speaker 3 (46:42):
I dip in and out. I keep up with it
because things would happen.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
I'm like, what are we doing anything? But watching it
is what we should be like.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
I'm like cha, like, oh my gosh, all the choices,
all of the choices.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
I have a thing with uh remake or like sees
it like those you know stopping something that is something
that clearly ended, and then I was like, oh, let's
just let's just continue it. It's like, leave it alone,
let it be, and let us just enjoy that this
was a great thing, that was what it was. We

(47:17):
don't need to do every do everything.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
I think about hitting that twenty year mark because now
we got Freaky or Friday.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
Is h I'd go see that one though.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
I would definitely watch it on Disney Plus when it's dreaming. Yeah.
But yeah, So Gilded Age girls, if you're a fan,
let me know. Reminder, we're doing a BA Summer savings challenge.
You know, I don't know about y'all, but I'm doing
the savings challenge for myself. It's more it's not a
summer savings challenge. Summer it's almost over. It's like a
savings challenge after summer because I was outside way too much,

(47:53):
or better yet, my children were outside way too much.
Camp is really expensive. So we're doing a fun little
savings challenge. So stay tuned. We're going to talk more
about that on this Friday's episode during the Baqa Ba Fam.
For now, I'm gonna take a quick break and we'll
be right back with my co panelists for the day,
Ev Saint Louis from Blavity and JQ Hill from Vox

(48:14):
Stay Tube. Ba fam. All right, we are back for
my favorite segment of the show. This is Brown Boost
Brown Break. So just a quick reminder of the rules.
They're very easy. You're either gonna boost or break something.
So we're gonna boost something that we love that we
want to shout out that we are happy about, or
if you want to be you know, you want to
bring the vibes down a little bit there, we offer

(48:36):
space for that. We hold space for the vibes being
held down. We can break something. So brown Break is
something that you want to rant about, you're fed up by,
you're sick of, whatever the case may be. I'm happy
to volunteer to go first since it's my fault, you'll
have to do this, and I want to do a
brown Boost first for the Brown Ambition book club pick
for August slash September. I'm so excited. If you were

(48:59):
on our book club meeting from July, you already know this.
But I have our new pick. Oh it's right here
and it's behind me. I think, yes, I got two copies.
This is the book. It is The Ghost of Gwendolen
Montgomery by Clarence Haynes. One of my favorite things about
it is, look how skinny that is. We love a
quick reader, we love a quick read for our busy lives.

(49:23):
But no, this book is packed. I was actually shocked
because I listened to it on audible and then the publisher,
my publisher actually is the same publisher, Hashet was gracious
enough to send me a few copies to give away
to be a fam So the way that I'm going
to do that is the first couple of I think
I have three copies. So the first three listeners who

(49:44):
email me Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com with
I don't know book club in the subject line and
your mailing address, I will mail you a copy of
the Ghost of Gwendolen Montgomery. But this novel is hot.
It is spooky, it's sexy. It literally is about ghosts.

(50:05):
It's also it has a really beautiful story about a
woman called Gwendolyn or is she we don't know? Is
not really her name? We don't know, Gwendola Montgomery living
in modern day New York City, and some very interesting
paranormal activity starts to occur, and Gwendolen may have some
powers that she does not that she has been trying

(50:26):
to run away from. And maybe the maybe I should
do book jacket, I should do book jacket. Teetherers, this
is good. She may be the one with the day,
but it's really really good. She's like a powerhouse pr executive.
But what I love about it too is it's obviously
a strong woman of color character with like all different

(50:48):
facets and layers to her. She's stylish, she's smart, she's savvy.
But it's also got a really interesting historical reference to
Afro Latino culture into this interesting. I don't want to
call it an underworld, but maybe like a little known
spiritual power spiritual world of Afro Latino culture. So I

(51:13):
won't say much else because I don't want to get
too much away. But this is our book pick. And
Clarence Haynes, the author, is going to be on the
show next week to tell y'all all about it. So
have y'all read this?

Speaker 3 (51:25):
No, I'm going to have to read I sell it
book Club, Yes, like I need to do this often, Mandy,
I love.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Bos It is very sexy. Does someone have relations with
it with the with the with the with the ghost.
Perhaps maybe this wasn't what we all were expecting when
I started the Brown and Vision book Club.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Listen, I love. I love a romance element. I love
I love an open door romance. I admit it. I
love an open door romance novel.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
It's interesting, like there's also a great character who who's queer?
And I love that too. So we kind of explore
all these you know, they explore these little known voices,
not little known, but should definitely be more prominent in storytelling.
So Clarence Hans will be on the show. Check it
out goes to Gwendall Montgomery and Quick Brown boost for this.
I'm gonna post a link in the show notes ba

(52:18):
fam so you can get some joy too. But there
was this there's a school in Riverdale, Georgia called the ooh,
what's it called? We pull it up the Charles are
Drew High School. This is Riverdale, Georgia. One point six
percent of teachers in America are black males. One point six.
I mentioned mister Burton at my kid's school, the only one.

(52:39):
And what caught my attention was this viral TikTok that
was going around it's like, every teacher in this school's
hallway is this like beautiful black man. And I was like,
where is this school? Of course it's in Georgia, Riverdale.
Shouts out to Riverdale. I was born there actually, and
so shout out to Charles R. Drew High School into

(52:59):
the teachers there, because clearly I'll have some magic going
on and those students are so so lucky and all right,
that's my double Boost wants to go next.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
Ooh okay, my boost in general. And Mandy like that
was a perfect transition. Book clubs I am currently in two.
One is very small.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
It's three friends.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
We used to work together on some podcast stuff and
we were like, oh my gosh, we're friends.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
We need something.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
We want to get our reading goals up more, and
also we want an excuse to hang out with each other,
and so we started a book club. And then the
other my friend Asia has a book club and she
just always reads great books, and so we were like,
you should start a book club.

Speaker 4 (53:41):
And I think we're in the second year of it.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
We meet on zoo. She picks a book once a month.
For that one, we read Mama Tina Knowles's memoir, which
was a fun little one, and then the other one,
which is sort of like a mini boost in this
boost for my other book club.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
We read this.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
It's this great book that I feel like no one
is talking about. Normally, I can go on Reddit and
be like, what are people saying about this book? No
one is talking about this book on Reddit, so I
need more people to read it so I can read
what people are saying on Reddit about it.

Speaker 4 (54:12):
But it's called The Bang Bang Sisters. It's by Rio Yours.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
And it's essentially like it's imagine if it's like a
Quentin Tarantino movie put to book form. It's about these
three women who perform together in a rock band. One
of the main characters is a black woman. By day,
they travel around in this rock band, performing at small
to medium sized venues. By night, they are vigilantes and they.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
Get involved in some stuff.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
A thing goes awride, they have to get out of
a real sticky situation. And that's all I will say.
But I tore through that book in days. It was
so good. The author novel oh yeah yeah, Like the
author usually does graphic novels, but he just did a
book this time, and I felt like I was reading
a graphic novel.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
The action was phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
And it kept you entertained even though you're reading about
the action. Is it gory?

Speaker 4 (55:13):
Ah?

Speaker 1 (55:14):
I wouldn't say too quent, Tarantino, I wouldn't say too
Gory'll never forget it for scalping, Lucy Lou, Oh.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Yeah, I will say. People get got, people do get
God in this book. So if you don't want to
read a book, will people get got, don't read it.
But some of the getting got is quite satisfying, so
I say give it a read.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
I'm just imagining like like in the book being like
very gory, like very graphic and descriptive, and I'm like
when you said Quinn, oh.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
Yeah, it's more like it's more like action. I feel
like I'm reading.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
An action movie. Okay, Okay, gotcha. That sounds hella entertaining,
I get. I wonder if the audiobook is.

Speaker 4 (55:56):
Good, Oh, the audiobooks probably.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
I used to not like audiobooks for not because you
never know who the reader is going to be. I
still is like it's like touch or go, But then
I kind of want to read this one. Okay, I'm
adding it to my list. It's called The Bang.

Speaker 4 (56:08):
Bang Sisters, the Bang Bang Sisters.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Okay. Also, you should get your book club to read
it or you did read it, you just haven't found it.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
Yeah, we did read it talked about it yet. That's
going to be this weekend. We're meeting in person.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
To talk about this book, so we can I squeeze
it a bonus boost. I forgot to mention this. The
National Association of Black Book Clubs just launched this summer,
and I did not realize this that now it's called
the NAB two. So we'll post a link in the
show notes. But it's great because obviously black bookstores are
so fundamental to the success of black authors in general.

(56:42):
So we're going to post a link in the show
notes BA and that just feels like they also are
so important for like community and for giving people a
space to gather and actually find kind of these books
that you're talking about, JQ, that maybe we're not reading
because there's just so much noise out there and no
one's like curating a select action of, you know, books
that have voices like ours or people like us in them.

(57:03):
All right, as evy, you.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Know what, I'm going to add two things. I had one,
So first boost it kind of goes with the whole
book club. I too, am part of a book club.
We just finished reading Can't Get Enough obviously.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Okay, oh I saw your post about this. Actually that
was so cute. Did you guys do power points?

Speaker 2 (57:24):
I know, so that's a good Actually, what I'm talking
about is like back to you know, black women, we
love community, and I think it's just it. I love
the opportunity to just continue to foster community. So this
whole book club was one way to do it. We
got in person, my sister made slides, like she found
some information and did some things online. Like we made

(57:46):
appetizers that were related to the book.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
I won't say anything.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
We gave gave kind of like a goodie bag, like
mini whiskey things, so if you've read the book.

Speaker 4 (57:58):
You get it so people can enjoy.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
But just kind of like fostering community and like actually
texting your friend and mid let's get coffee, or like
getting three girls together and just be like, let's I
don't know, discuss whatever thing that we wanted to. We
could do via text in like three days, but like
we could do it over whine, like at somebody's apartment

(58:21):
and just be fun.

Speaker 4 (58:22):
So community. That was one thing.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
The second thing is I've been doing these morning walks.

Speaker 4 (58:30):
So I'm on like.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Day I think I'm on day like fifteen now of
like every morning I get up and I go for
a walk rain or shine just in the morning for
about like two miles, like I can either have a
podcast or not.

Speaker 4 (58:47):
I kid you not, like I'm not even.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
I'm not usually like into meditation or anything like that,
but it has been like the highlight of my mornings
that I'm like I get up and I'm like, oh,
I put my weighted vest on and go for a
morning walk or oh what.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Does the weighted vest to help you with? Like yeah,
make it more exertiony or make it.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
Yeah, Like especially sometimes if I if I just because
like weight lifting, I mean it's not a ton of weight,
but like women, you know, we want to be able
to like you know, with stay like half healthy bones
and like lift a little bit more. So just like
walking with an added weight in my mind helps with that.
And I just like take pictures of like all the

(59:30):
nice plants and bedstick, like all the brown stones that
are cute and you know, like nicely done and getting renovated.
So That's kind of been my biggest thing, just like
go outside and go for a walk.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
It means what time are you getting up? Are you
early early?

Speaker 4 (59:46):
No? No? No.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
I usually get up around like between seven and seven thirty.
Then I'll go for a walk immediately, like get dressed,
just go for my walk, and then usually it takes
me about an hour forty minutes to an hour because
I'll do like two miles. I'll try to hit like
a little over two miles, and then I come back

(01:00:07):
and that's about it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:09):
That's nice.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Yeah, that's not nice.

Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
You're doing it in the morning before it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Gets too hot, yes, like, and that's why I also
don't want to, like it's like a non negotiable because
then if I do it at lunch, I was like, oh,
I'll just do it like you know, do like thirty
minutes after lunch, and it's like you never get to
it because oh, got to answer that email and gotta
get to flag or like whatever, and then it's just.

Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
Not as hot. So that's it. That's my boost.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
It's simple. I love that, and we can you can
do it. They had they now have walking meditations. I
know Peloton has them. I really love a meditation for
my anxiety, like meditation, and like walking without music is
kind of like a meditation for me too, Is you
kind of you kind of focus on your steps or

(01:00:58):
without a podcast? Because I was in the same I
was in a similar habit of like I would do
something like physical, but I would be like I need
to listen to something or you know, be catching up
on the news or whatever. But like taking time to
like count your breaths or count your steps, or count
the number of bugs or you know, tree branches or whatever,

(01:01:19):
it really helps.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
And also just like let your mind like wander, like
just like daydream or morning dream or whatever. Just like
let your mind wander. Like the other day I was thinking,
I was like, huh, hydrangeens. I'm from Florida, And I
was like I don't understand, Like why why didn't I
like notice hydragens.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
When I was growing up?

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
And then I went to like a whole round hold
like are they not good?

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
Where?

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
Like how do you plant one? Like where do I
get the seeds? Like is it seeds?

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Like I turned into EV's new podcast Hydrangeus.

Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
Basically, but it's it's like we're.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Fresh like a little side quest for your brain.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
Yeah, I love that. I love a little hot girl walk.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
I got to send y'all a picture of the baby
watermelon I have started to that I've been growing. Oh yeah,
she's a little plant girl air.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Well, this has been such a lovely way to reset.
I feel so much calmer, even though I kind of
showed up frazzled because of school stuff. But thank y'all
so much for sharing space and time with me today.
I so so appreciate it. Will you please tell BA
fam how they can support y'all what they should go.
Click on sign up for subscribe to JQ. You want

(01:02:35):
to go first.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Yeah, one way to help me out is to subscribe
to my podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
Explain it to me.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
Go to your podcast feed of choice and just type
and explain it to me and hit that follow or
subscribe button. And also, if you want to get your
question answered by me, call one eight hundred six eight
five four five and I may be giving you a
call back.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Such a good show. What about you bev.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Biggest thing I'm I'm deep into afro Tech conference planning
and so excited, like we have such a strong programming,
like such strong speakers. So get your ticket to Afrotech.
Go to afrotech Conference dot com if you hadn't gotten
it yet, download the app afro tech Connect and yeah,

(01:03:24):
that's all.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Start building that community now.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Yes exactly, or even see start to see other people.
I feel like afrotech is always like a a reunion,
almost too, like a family reunion.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
So just this is my first time last year, so
I gotta, I gotta, you know, sew some more seeds.
But it was such a good time. I mean, it's
just always nice to be with each other. But on
that scale, zam make NABJ look like a cute little cookout.
All right, y'all, take care ba Sam until Friday for
the ba QA. Have a great rest of your week. Bye,

(01:04:01):
okay va fam, Thank you so much for listening to
this week's show. I want to shout out to our
production team, Courtney, our editor, Carla, our fearless leader for
idea to launch productions. I want to shout out my
assistant Lauda Escalante and Cameron McNair for helping me put
the show together. It is not a one person project,

(01:04:23):
as much as I have tried to make it so
these past ten years. I need help y'all, and thank goodness,
I've been able to put this team around me to
support me on this journey, and to y'all bea fam
I love you so so so so much. Please rate, review, subscribe,
Make sure you sign up to the newsletter to get
all the latest updates on upcoming episodes, our tenth year

(01:04:44):
anniversary celebrations to come, and until next time, talk to
you soon via Buy

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Host

Mandi Woodruff-Santos

Popular Podcasts

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Rooting for Everybody Black [In Business]