CTP (S3EMarSpecial9) What If Empowerment Beats Handouts Every Time

CTP (S3EMarSpecial9) What If Empowerment Beats Handouts Every Time
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond   
We talk with Elaine Lankford (her husband: aka: LankChevy, LOL) about building She Steps Forward International and why small seed money grants paired with coaching can launch sustainable Christian women-led businesses. We dig into dignity, work ethic, and what real empowerment looks like in the US and across Africa. 
• Elaine’s background in Virginia and a long nursing career 
• What She Steps Forward International is and who it serves 
• The four-part model: conference, group coaching, membership, grants 
• Seed money grants at $500 and $1,000 and how eligibility works 
• Why “teach them to fish” protects dignity and avoids dependency 
• How small grants can trigger creativity and better decisions 
• Charging reasonable fees to increase commitment and follow-through 
• Lessons from nursing on self-reliance, education, and debt 
• Firsthand concerns about socialized medicine and supply shortages abroad 
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CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE 
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https://TerrorStrikes.info/charity  

A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

Meeting Elaine Lankford

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Hello, welcome to another episode of Prostitutionals Podcast. I am your host, Joseph M. Werner. That's L-E-N-A-R-D at Love Frank. It's not it's wonderful down the O. Thank you for tuning in. As Bram Norton used to say on his show. Let's get on with the show! Special segment for February and March. Midweek drops. Normally Saturday monologues and normally a guest appearance on a Wednesday, February and March, two a week, Tuesday and Thursdays, in order to get caught up on some interviews that have been stacking up. Enjoy. Joining to join. Here we go again. I hit record and the mouse stops working. Back that up and try again. Joining me today is Elaine Lankford. And I first want to joke with her. Okay, E, not quite in the fat lane. Are you indeed tall and lanky and drive a Ford vehicle?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Absolutely not. I am short and uh we prefer Chevies in this house.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Yeah, my dad used to work for GM. My grandfather on my mother's side, though, was a Ford guy. In fact, he you know, my grandfather Keeler worked at the Ford Rouge bomber plant during the war. So we've had that Chevy Ford argument divide.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Well, believe it or not, quick note my husband actually changed his email to Link Chevy at the Chevy fan all his life. So anyway.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

So officially welcome to the show, Elaine. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right. And before we get into the why, who, what, where, when, why, and of why you're here, let's get into the who part. Where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Where, you know, significant places you've been in between. How much time did you spend in prison and for what? You know, that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

That's on a need-to-know informational basis. I'm just saying. You know, I am actually born and raised in Virginia. I've been here my whole life. I um am here in the Hampton Roads area. We call it the 757. We're the proud um place of our U.S. Navy. And so uh my husband and I were both uh born in the city of Suffolk. And yeah, so we're I have a great husband. I've been married for over 34 years. I have one son who's 27. I have some bonus kids that I helped raise along the way. And uh my past adventures were in the nursing profession, so that's a little bit about me.

What She Steps Forward International Does

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Okay, yeah. Well, there's an obvious joke in there somewhere about suffering fools, suffolk fools. Okay, no, no offense, Sufolk. It's just a lame word association pun. Just lame, stupid humor the way my OCD brain goes. Uh, at any rate, you're here to discuss SF S there goes the mouth again, not cooperating with the brain. SFI. So, first let's explain what is SSFI. It's not a subdivision of former SA Nazi troopers, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah, yeah. No. So um SSFI stands for She Steps Ford International, and it is my nonprofit arm. Um, I also have she steps forward coaching, which is my private coaching practice, but she steps forward international is our nonprofit, and we are here to help Christian female entrepreneurs in that zero to year, three-year range of launching their businesses, get off the ground, get strategic, and become sustainable.

Seed Money Grants And Eligibility

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Yeah, another obvious joke, right? She steps forward. Be careful where you're stepping. We don't want you to step in it. Put on phone. Oh, okay. I'll try to resist the lame humor going forward. I no promises. And the what most intrigued me about your profile and the program was money grant money program supporting rising Christian female entrepreneurs in the US and Africa. So let's explain a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Absolutely. So we actually have a four-pronged approach. The Seed Money Grant program is one piece of our nonprofit approach. We do host an annual conference. This is where we find a lot of our ladies. We have group coaching programs that they can enter, and then we have an online membership. And anyone who's in our world and has been a part of our services, which are mostly mentoring and coaching services in the entrepreneurial lane, can become eligible for a seed money grant. And the seed money grants are um either$500 for a very new startup who's just getting started and need um, you know, to pay for their LLC or pay for some registration or pay for some small supplies, or we have a$1,000 seed money grant program, and we are using that for outstanding um entrepreneurs that are just rising, they may be in their second or third year, and they're really starting to have some wins and make some community impact. And we want to help them scale up a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Exactly. And uh this being a Christian show, a big uh recognition of the need to provide hands up, not hands out, and do not want to create dependency, but create uh potential for indeed creativity and opportunity, and as you said, entrepreneurship, like Bono of U2, who uh still of the left, but finally woke up under the G.W. Bush administration when he got him involved in efforts in Africa and the distinction of we want to teach people to fish so they can feed themselves, not become dependent on us constantly needing to give them a fish. Just teaching someone and help them understand how to make an arts and crafts business with what little you have there can create growing economies, which lifts up whole communities.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Yes, yes, and I was gonna say that is the exact phrase that we use, especially when we're out of country and in Africa, and they so appreciate that terminology that we're coming to teach you the fish and not give you the fish, and it is so dignifying for them to feel empowered that they do have something to share that's worthy and that they can do it with the right instruction, and so we've absolutely that is absolutely resounded not only here, but definitely over there, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

And that is biblical community versus worldly communism, and indeed giving them self uh the word I'm looking lack of self-esteem, giving them tools to feel good about themselves and to be able the Bible, doesn't say God helps those who help themselves, but it is implied in the context between the scriptures. You have to want to. Jesus said the poor will always be among us. That wasn't a governance statement, it wasn't an economic statement, it was a human nature statement, and we are to be our brother's keeper, but the distinction between those who are unable to help themselves, we owe an obligation to try to help them, put them in a position where they can help themselves, as opposed to the unwilling who just aren't willing to help themselves, and we have no Christian obligation to those.

Work Ethic And Biblical Empowerment

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Well, you know, the Bible says that the worker is worth its wages, so we need to work in order to earn our wages. And I one of the ones, one of the things that really struck me when I was traveling to Africa, one of our outreaches that we are a part of, because we also um look to support a uh orphanage that's there. We support something called the Moses Basket Initiative, which is a female, uh teenage female outreach program. And we also go to the Umajo Disability Center. And when I first met Wilson and Mary, I fell in love with Wilson because Wilson, who is the husband, has a little bit of a physical disability. And he said, Elaine, I'm not disabled, I'm able differently. And if we all saw ourselves that way, we're just able differently. And how can we put those abilities to work? Um, it's just uh it just makes the world better.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Yeah, I did a video exclusive show uh because Jasmine Crockett announced a Senate run, and she said of Governor Abbott of Texas, called him Governor Hot Wheels. Well, personally, with a sense of humor, I thought it was hilarious, right? He's not handicapped, he's handy capable. He may not run a marathon anytime soon. So what? He is very capable of doing other things, and also the Bible sets versus a oh, woe is me, victimhood mentality, because I can't do one thing, just let me roll into the corner, curl up, and whine and die. No, can't have that attitude. The Bible also says those who do not work shall not eat. Now, again, you can't take that out of context either. Those who are unable, we are still to take care of. So it's contextual lacking. That's why I started this show, the whole Bible in full context, not one scripture versus another, the whole full context. And I made the very bad, probably shouldn't have gone there, right? The SSFI, I the the Nazi SS joke I shouldn't have made, but this relates now. The Nazis putting work sets you free above the concentration camps. That is a biblical statement. They worked, they weren't talking work for your own and everyone's benefit's sake, they were enslaving people. That isn't work that sets you free, that's slavery. There's a big distinction in everything, and exactly the distinction you're making, wanting to help others to be able to help themselves.

Africa Cohorts And Creative Problem Solving

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Absolutely. And I think from my perspective of the ladies that we're working with, they are passionate, they they know that they have a purpose. Isn't it good to know that you have a purpose? I mean, God put us here for a reason. We need to find that and live that out. And when we take that first step, which is why we call it She Steps Forward, when we take that first step, God always will open the doors for us. He's waiting for us to take that first step. You know, I when you were talking earlier, I was thinking about Jesus at the pool of Bethesma and how he asked the lame man there, to get well, right? Right, right. When he asked them, do you want to get well? And and what he was really saying was, Do you want this? You've been here for 34 years. Do you want this? Yeah. And so um it, you know, one of the things when I first started my nonprofit, um, people were like, Wow, are you gonna do all these services free? And I said, No, absolutely not. And it wasn't because I don't want to give back, we give back in different ways. Um, for instance, we do do tangible things for women-led nonprofits or other organizations out of our proceeds. But the point of that was to again help that woman invest in herself and raise her level of dignity. And what we found is that by raising and having a small price on things, and our nonprofit is very reasonable, it's nothing crazy. Uh, we have found that level of woman who's motivated and ready to do for herself. She just wants the guidance and then she's ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Yeah, I I uh I forget what it was, a video exclusive. I was talking also, I don't remember uh who said it. I think it was Lincoln, but whomever, whatever, who said it is an important that the importance is the quote you can't lift up by tearing others down, and it's not a dirty word, capitalist breed, blah blah blah, for you to help yourself while helping others. You can't help others if you allow your own self to be destroyed in the process. You're then destitute and in need of help, right? It's one hand washing the other, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

I mean, you think about the airplane. What did they tell you? They tell you to put your oxygen mask on first before you can help anybody else. And being a former nurse, I'll lean back into that. Like, people need that ability to be whole and healthy. How else are you going to be able to give from a cup of overflow? And so, um, no, I am all for empowerment and for encouragement. And I think there just needs to be more of that in the world because people are extremely creative when you let them be. Um, one of the things we did in our um with our African cohort that we just had, we had a small group of ladies that we did have people on the ground in Africa, thank goodness to help me. But I go online with them and I train them when I'm not in country, and then I go back in country to see them. And we only gave them small seed money grants, very comparable to what we would give Americans. We're not cheating them because they're in Africa, but when they go US dollars go a heck of a lot farther there, obviously. They don't need to go a little bit further for us, but for them, they're still they're still struggling, but um, their economy, but but but my point is when we gave them a small portion of the grant first, uh, we helped them register and country, we made sure they got their paperwork straight. But the second round, they were hoping it was going to be bigger and it wasn't. But what happened was they had to step back and say, okay, how am I going to multiply this? And the creativity that came out of them when they were faced with that was a beautiful thing because they started putting on their own thinking cap and they figured it out and they started making steps that were making them um go forward. And so it was so great to see that creativity and that ingenuity come out of them. But had I given them$2,000, would and they admittedly said later, oh Miss Elaine, if you'd have given us something like that, we may have squandered it. We may have squandered it. Thank you for like holding the line with us and making us think for ourselves. And we're so excited and we're we're so appreciative of what came out of this. And so, um, yeah, we have to give people a chance.

Nursing Career And Student Loan Dependence

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Exactly. As well as a financial investment, you're using your brain and making them use their brain and creating an intellectual investment. It is why things like the projects in the past were a complete failure. If people don't have their own real skin in the game, then they don't respect it, they don't appreciate it. And it becomes a handout rather than a handout, and they become dependent with the handout wanting more of it. And I'm so glad you use the oxygen mask thing. I I thought I was potentially the only one to use that. I keep trying to spread that because it is, although I like to joke, I'm too clever for metaphors as an author. I use meta sixes. Put a bum, right? But yeah, the oxygen mask thing is a perfect analogy. You have to put on you your oxygen mask first. You have to make sure you're okay enough to then be able to help others. Because if you put a mask on someone else and you're then flopping around the floor because you've got no oxygen, you can't help more others. Putting your mask on first assures you take care of yourself first, then you're in a position to help more of others. It's a perfect analogy in so many situations in my mind. Do you got another brilliant one?

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Well, I just wanted to say, because I I love you know, within this conversation, and I and again, I've been uh a nurse, uh, have a long-standing nursing career of 16 years. And just to bring it to modern day, we know there's a discussion going on right now where the nursing profession is being reclassified. Um, we are a profession. I will say that. I I think the class I understand why the reclassification is going, but what I hear is a cry for, oh, I won't be able to get loans to get through school. Uh, ladies, I worked my way from uh nurse's aid all the way in through nurse practitioner. No one paid for me. I worked it one year to the next until I had the money to put myself through the next level of education. And I am so excited that when I graduated, I was debt-free because I worked for it. Now, I get there are some people that may need some assistance, but I'm a little bit critical of the way that we have become dependent on someone giving us all of these loans to get through school. Now, I I'm ever since you were saying that, yeah, right. We don't want to see our healthcare system go down, right? We want good people in the healthcare system, but but uh, you know, there's a lot of people who've come to our country, including immigrants who got here legally and they have worked their way up, and they are a beautiful example that the American dream is still well alive when we put our ingenuity to it.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

And both of these issues, the student loan and the healthcare system, both attempted to be nationalized under Barack Obama. Both. And the student loan situation, of course, gotten when you just handing out free, well, it's not free money, you're supposed to be able to afford to pay it back, but when you're handing out easy money, right, like that, to to get whatever degree that isn't gonna ever be able to pay that amount back, then of course you're creating a problem. And the same with nationalizing, I hate to go there, the the Wilson rule, eventually in every discussion, someone will go back to Hitler, right? But just as the Nazis nationalized health care in Germany in the 30s, because it wasn't about health or care, it was about power and control over people. So uh all this makes perfect sense. So, yes, just handing out the money and say whatever you want it for, we'll let you borrow it for school, just drove the inflation rate of tuitions through the roof. We need tuition reform. And I hate government.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Well I can say I know there's this whole discussion going on in our country about socialism versus not, and I can say as someone who has been in other countries, um, even even down to Nicaragua doing missions for nine years, um, we do not want socialized medicine. Um, I've seen the backside of that, I've seen the shortage that it creates, and I know that the control that the government can have over that. And it's really we really don't know how blessed we are to be in this country. And I challenge anyone who um feels like that may be the solution, and you've not traveled to another country where that rules, that that is a that is a life lesson that you need to go and experience.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

There's a reason why so many from Cuba, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Canada all want to come here for healthcare.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Absolutely. When I when I travel down to Nicaragua, I had the pleasure, because I had the nursing background to go to one of their hospitals. And um, you know, when I walk into an OR where there are bed sheets dividing out the rooms, when I walk into rooms where a little child has a G tube sticking out of uh a gastrointestinal tube sticking out of his chest tube to plant a chest tube, when they tell me there is one ventilator in the whole hospital, who gets the ventilator in a crisis situation? And when I walk into a room and I see a mom holding her child's hand to make sure that the IV stays in because there's no tape, I promise you this is not a road that we want to go down. Um and it we just don't understand how bad it can get um if you turn down that path.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Okay, and by ramp, I don't mean bad rhymes. I've already got bad rings. Especially with my bad things. And repeat that again that she can forward coaching for the benefit of the twenty-five plus audio only platform. And anyone who may be reading the transcript. Thank you, Elaine. We're really a Chevy family, Langford. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure being here. Take care, God bless.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

We choose to be by choice, not by force, we honor our Christ Jesus and righteous commands. Even strongest hearts need a hand off the ground. If I've got a little, if you're running dry, I'll share this cup of mercy that it multiply. We shouldn't be the keepers by choice, not by any store When we get the kindness, the giving time for you and use a helping hand sometime. We will show Let our kindness and our giving shine. Groceries on a doorstep, a late night for letterings. We're called to the corners where the hurting eye Security one another for the glory of Christ We choose to be a keeper But joy Not fighting so where we can We'll need the kindness that are giving time for you to help me sometimes We will answer We will show That our kindness and our giving shine Freely you gave freely we give Every small since you still live Hearts in your hands Feet on this road Honoring our Lord in the love we show we choose to the others keep us by choice from a grateful heart when in a way we care we'll leave them that our kindness and our giving shine for you brother or sister can use a helping hand sometime. We will answer, we will show up, let our kindness and our giving shine, let our kindness and our giving shine. We all need a helping hand. Some days we just can't stand alone. I've been weak, I understand how it feels to stumble on your own. So when I see that tired face, I remember grace that carried me. We give we share, we open our eyes. When and where we care, we let a lot eyes. We choose to be others eat all we have kindness I give it, we are small sequences, turns into a forest over time. Quiet work, a simple smile can lift a heavy heart back into life. Every need is holy ground. I hear his voice in every cry. We give, we share. We open our lives everywhere we can. We let love arise, we choose to be others keepers by We are our kindness by giving time. We are all the love Strangers world is day by someone being there. So I'll be the answer I once looked for. Hands and feet are the one I thought. We give we shared, we open our lives where we can We let the rise We choose to be others keepers. My choice, my choice, not by force, we let our kindness and dog We honor us.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned in to another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the Christitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.