Latonya Perossier: Pay It Forward

Retired Chief Petty Officer Latonya Perossier honorably served 32 years in the United States Navy, building a distinguished career in recruitment, training, mentorship, and leadership. A native of Bunkie, Louisiana, she has dedicated her life to service and to creating pathways for others to succeed. Throughout her military career, she inspired countless young men and women to pursue their dreams, guided by her personal mission to always “Pay It Forward.”
Latonya is a proud mother of two sons, Tyelin Robinson and Milton Robinson Jr., and a devoted grandmother lovingly known as “GiGi” to Makai Jordan and Jaxson Robinson. Her family remains the foundation of her strength and purpose, fueling her passion to lead by example and leave a legacy rooted in resilience, faith, and empowerment.
Beyond her military accomplishments, Latonya has shined on stages across the country, earning numerous pageant titles including Ms. Santa Clarita Valley 2010, Ms. New Orleans 2012, Ms. Louisiana State 2013, Mrs. Santa Clarita Valley Royal Duchess 2017, Ms. Freedom Women USA 2019, and most recently, Mrs. Classic Universe Louisiana 2025. These achievements reflect her confidence, poise, and commitment to inspiring women to embrace their power at every stage of life.
An award-winning author, Latonya received Author of the Year honors in 2025 for her powerful and inspiring book, Letter to the 8-Year-Old Me. Through her writing, she encourages others to heal from their past, embrace their journey, and step boldly into their future.
Today, Latonya continues to impact lives as a motivational speaker, mentor, and advocate. Through her voice and her story, she uplifts and empowers others, reminding them that with faith, courage, and perseverance, anything is possible.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Lipstick and Legacy, a podcast where your story matters and your journey has purpose. Together, we lift and inspire our communities one story at a time. Welcome, Latanya Perosier. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:18

I'm well. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

I'm so grateful that you are here. Today's guest is Latanya, and she is a retired chief petty officer. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 0:30

That is correct. Um yes. I'm trying to, I hope I didn't lose you, did I?

unknown 0:37

No.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Okay. For some reason it went off.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Okay. Hi. Yes. I always like to start here. How are you showing up in the world today? And what does this season of your life look like?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

How am I showing up today? Today I'm showing up with purpose. Um I have been teaching uh emotional intelligence to military personnel. And my it's that is the thing that you know, sometimes you you you don't know what you really were made to be. And I think that's my purpose. I think teaching people how to communicate better and be better versions of themselves is now where I am in in my journey right now. And um, and and that's that's what I'm loving. I'm loving the fact that I get to go in and uh teach people about themselves and how they move and how they work.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

And I'm sure that's really important in the military. With um I'll I'll get back to that. We'll talk obviously more about that. But can you take me back to the young Latanya? It says you were born in Bunky, Louisiana. Is that accurate? What did the young Latanya look like?

SPEAKER_02 2:01

The young Latanya was this scrawny girl who loved to run. Um I started running track at about eight years old. Um, and that was something that was like that one passion that you didn't. It's so funny. Um my little self loved to run. And then as I got grown, I would tell my friends, man, I hate to run. They're like, you run all the time. What do you mean you hate it? You do it all the time. I'm like, you know, you're right. So that little girl was um, she wanted to be a business owner, she she wanted to be Miss America, she wanted to be at an um Olympic track star. There were so many layers to me when I was a young girl growing up, and a lot of that stuff, I I I knew that I would somehow find my way to. Um, running was my my out. Um I was born in Bunky, Louisiana, but I was raised in Houston, Texas. And that was my my joy, you know, um growing up in an area that wasn't so great. Um, you find my mother, she always made sure we did something that would keep us out of trouble. So uh I was an athlete. So I did everything from being a cheerleader to running track, being on the basketball team. Wasn't that great at it, but it kept me busy. Um, volleyball, everything. I had all these things going on, and it it just gave my life purpose. And I I just went along with that role as the girl that always had something to do.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

I love that. I think it's really important, even now. I I'm a mother of many children, and keeping them busy is definitely number one on the how to keep them on a trouble, you know, list for sure. Who were the people? Was there like a specific person or a moment that really shaped you and your belief about service early on in your life?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

So I knew that I wanted to do something different. I knew I needed to get out of where I was. Um, I had gotten a scholarship for college and it wasn't a great scholarship. So I was still struggling in college. You know, you your parents don't really have the money, and you get this scholarship and you think they don't have to worry about anything, but then you find out they have to worry about everything. And I had always had that service in me. Um, I knew I wanted to do something impactful, and so um I went and talked to a recruiter, and my this was my my contribution. I said, okay, if I'm gonna do this, um, I wanted to do something big. So being in the military was gonna be my something big because my mother, I said, my mother's gonna freak out, she's gonna freak out, but I wanted it to be something that was going to um set me aside from anybody else in in my family. Because you know, people do it all the time, but in my family, the only person well, my dad was Army, um, then I had a brother that was Navy. Um, and so I wanted to be my own legacy and start my own where I wanted to be.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

So where did your pay it forward mindset first begin?

SPEAKER_02 5:36

I when I was in the military, actually, um, this uh she was a master chief and she always was very caring and supportive and she always listened, and I found that to be so attractive. Like you there's not many people that do that. There's not many people that really care, really listen, and really are engaged in you and your future. And I said, once I become a leader, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be that kind of leader, um, where I wanted to, you know, always care about people, always be in and you know, invested in who they were and invested in their future, and just you know, be the kind of person that that was somebody that they knew cared about them, they knew that they could come to anytime. And once I became that leader, I would always sit down with a young sailor and say, Hey, what I've done for you, you need to pay it forward because somebody did it for me. And you don't always have these moments, and sometimes that's all one other person needs is a moment like this, where somebody sits down with them and really pays attention and really engages and says, Hey, I care, I'm here. You and what can we do to make this right or make it better?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

I really love that. For 32 years, you were in the Navy, and that is extraordinary. And it sounds like you really took on that leadership role as you felt more comfortable and as you as you went up the ranks. Was there a moment that you can remember, or a story, or something that you can share where you felt that transfer, where you became the leader and you inspired somebody else?

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Yes. Um, I had made chief finally. Um, and I remember sitting with a friend of mine. He was we were actually first classes together, and then he he wanted to make chief, and he hadn't made it yet. And I remember us sitting in our in my kitchen in my home in Arizona, and I was telling him, hey, here's what we're gonna do to get you to that next level. And it was just it felt just innate in me. Like I just knew, here's what we're gonna do, and here's how we're gonna make this happen. And it actually, he actually made chief. So I think that was the moment when I really said, Okay, I got this. I'd always felt like I was a leader, even as a first class, because people always um came to me. Um, but once I got into the leadership role and really felt that, because I used to always say, you know, once I've become uh a chief, I didn't want those pants to wear me. I wanted to wear those pants. And I took that on as I am never gonna be the person that's oh, I'm a chief. You need to do what I say. You know, I wanted to be the person, oh, that chief right there, you need to listen to her because she's got it. She knows what she's talking about.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

You definitely wear those pants. I'm I'm low-key afraid. Like you have so much confidence, but it's like this beautiful, quiet confidence that comes out of you. It's like, I definitely get that vibe, but I also can tell that you love people and you love really encouraging. What was a time in the military that really tested you or maybe changed you? It was really difficult.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Okay. Um, we were on, so I worked with the outreach team for the United States Navy recruiting. So our job was to travel all around and we would talk about scholarships and and how people could get all this great opportunity. And and it was just a great job. I it was my favorite job. But I had a sailor that worked in my department who worked under us. He was a first class, and we were in charge of him. He traveled with us everywhere we went, and we were out one night, and you know, we had finished an event that day, and so we all went to dinner, and then we I think we went like to put putt golf or something, and then after that we went out to have drinks. And my sailor got shot that night. Someone, some strange random guy. Uh, we don't know if he thought he was somebody else or what, but he shot him. And that devastated me. Like it devastated me. Because I first of all, he belonged to me. He was with me, and I was responsible for him. And how do you call somebody and thank God he didn't die, but he was shot in the shoulder. Um and how do you call someone's spouse and say, I was responsible for your your husband, and he was with me and he was shot. How do you do that? And that's that broke me. It broke me for and and I was afraid to be in public. Um, I was always like if we went somewhere, I was afraid to be there. I would always stand in the back of the room or like in the corner to keep myself. I felt like I needed to keep myself safe because that showed me how easily things can go get out of control. Yeah. And it scared the crap out of me. Um and I had to I had to definitely go and seek counseling for that because that that that changed me a little. That changed me, match. It changed me a lot. It made me way more afraid than I should have been. Um, but it also made me not trust people as as I used to.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Well, especially when you're out there, you're just being almost civilians in that moment, you're just having a good time, you're not doing like you're not in combat or something. And then just in that moment, everything changes for everybody. I can't I can't even imagine what that feels like. But it truly ri comes back to we only it's it, we're only promised right now. I mean, things can change in in the blink of an eye.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

In the blink of an eye, they can definitely change, and you don't, I mean, and what do you do? Um, and and I knew that I didn't want to shrink into the world and shrink myself, but it did make me a little more afraid, a little more cautious. And is that a good thing? Yes, you know, is that a good thing?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

You become more aware, you also become more guarded and and all of that. I get that. Thank you for sharing that story. We're going to switch gears a little bit from the military. You have held multiple titles across the country. What drew you to pageantry? Because you're like this bad military lady that's can scare people, and then you're also a beauty clean queen. Like, what in the world?

SPEAKER_02 12:39

It's so funny you asked that. I so I had moved to California. I got stationed in California. Now, as a young girl, I was always intrigued with pageantry. And I had did the um when I was about 14, 13, 14, I had the Miss America Co-ed pageant. Um as a, you know, and of course I didn't do well. I was just, it was horrible. It was a horrible experience. But I remember saying to myself, the next time I do a pageant, I'm going to belong in that room. I'm going to belong in that space and I'm going to win. And fast forward, I was 35 years old, and I was stationed in California. This this I was in my office, and this young lady, she came in and she said, Hey, um, would you like to buy a ticket for this event we have in this in the area? Um, and I said, sure, because it was like it was like a fashion show, and I love fashion, so I was like, Yeah, of course. And then she said, you know, you could definitely do this pageant that we have. And I'm like, girl, I'm too old. Well, I'm too old. She's like, you really are not. And I looked into it and it seemed so cool. And I said, you know what? I am gonna do it. And I actually did it not thinking I would win. My purpose really was, okay, I'm new in this community, I'm I'm in recruiting. What better way to get into the community than to be in a pageant? People will know you from this point on, because everybody in the town is gonna be at this pageant. And I did it and actually won. I was like, wow, and that became my then said, okay, I'm going to make this one phenomenal year. And I just ran with it, did all kinds of wonderful things, met all kinds of beautiful, wonderful people. The director of my pageant, we still talk today. She is phenomenal. Um, and then I got the bug. It was like, ooh, that was fun. Let's see if I could do another one. And so I moved to New Orleans, I got stationed in New Orleans, and I ran for Miss New Orleans and won. And I'm like, wow, this is getting good. Because you you because I interviewed people for a living. So I kind of had the inside track on how an interview is gonna go. So I and that's where I always got the most points on my interviews. So that was always, you know, and when you get the interview part, you know, the other part kind of falls in place, uh, if you do well. Um, and then went for Louisiana State, won that, and I thought, okay, this is this is getting good. And I just kept everywhere I would get stationed, I would just do them. Um, and I didn't win them all, but I really had an amazing time. Um, I was miss uh Freedom USA 2019 out of Florida, and uh he and I talked the director, he wanted me to come out and judge his next his last pageant, but I got sick. I was supposed to judge, and then I got sick at the last minute and couldn't fly, and I was like, mmm, that was so wonderful. But I did get to judge a few times in Louisiana when I was missing um New Orleans, so I I kind of understand what the judges look for because I got to do it. So uh am I gonna do another lot by judging judging.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

And you have this kind of very unique uh you you're really you're beautiful, you're well spoken, but you're also like military. It's just the perfect package. It really is. What did pad what did the stage of pageantry give you that the military didn't? Like what void did it fill?

SPEAKER_02 16:34

In the military, you're in my opinion, you are military. You're just a woman. You're not, you know, I don't care if you're beautiful. They don't, you know, that's not important in the military. You wear that uniform, you train, you lead, you mentor. Those are your jobs. That's what you do. But there was always this part of me that liked being pretty and liked dressing up and putting on beautiful dresses and and walking in front of people and saying, you know, here I am. Here's all aspects of me. Here's my vulnerability. The fact that I'm standing up in front of you, being vulnerable is everything right now. Because in the military, you don't have to do that. Never had to do that. Um, we had a few boards you sit on, but it's more about your uniform than you actually. So to be able to get up there and say, Here's me, all the beautiful parts, the strong parts, the insecure parts, here's all of me. And it combined, I am a woman, a mother, a grandmother, a military woman, but I'm also this beautiful, fragile thing that's right in front of you that's saying, Here I am.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

So, what's harder, being in the military or being on the stage at a pageant?

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Um, I would say being on the stage, because you I've been in the military so long, it became everything was second nature to you know doing what you do in the military. But when I started doing pageantry, it's very unnerving. I don't care how many times you do it, you are always extremely nervous because you're you're standing in front of people and saying, judge me, judge all of them.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Right. Every every day, every different panel would choose a different winner. That's how I always think of pageantry. You never, it's not like you're running a race and your time matters. It's just based on somebody's opinion. So that can be, you always have to keep that in the back of your mind. What would you say to a woman who thinks it's too late to stump step into something new?

SPEAKER_02 18:36

It's never too late. The only time it's too late is when they're lowering you in the ground. There's always, always, always, always a time that you can reinvent yourself, um, create something new, be something new. Uh look at me. I'm I'm 53 years old and I'm about to go back to school. Just because I can. And just because it's something new to do, and something that will enhance me, um, challenge me, because it's gonna challenge me. I'm old, you know. Uh, but that I'm I'm up for it because it's something I haven't done in years. I haven't been to school in years, but why not? Why not go back?

SPEAKER_00 19:18

I don't feel like I feel like 50 is the new 30 these days. Like I look at all these 50 year olds and I'm like, how are they our grandma? How are they doing and inspiring? And the the thing that we have that's different than like a 20, 30-year-old woman is that we have experience and perspective. And I really believe our self-confidence in this age of life and stage just is different. It's a different level of comfort. You just feel safe and secure in your skin and like you're okay with that. And I think that really sets us apart.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

This is absolutely truth.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Let's shift a little bit into your book. The letter to the eight-year-old me. It's such a powerful concept. What inspired you to write it?

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Um, I was on a trip with my friend, and she was she was saying that I had been acting a little weird, and she was like, Listen, what's going on with you? We had gone on a vacation together. She was like, What's going on with you? You've been really acting crazy lately. What's happening? And I just broke down and told her all of this heavy, horrible stuff that happened to me at eight years old. And she was like, write that little girl a letter. She's hurt. She's hurt. You need to write her a letter. And I said, okay. And and at first I was just gonna write my write my eight-year-old self a letter. Hey, little girl, here's here's what happened and here's how so sorry I am. And and I want you to be okay, because you have to be okay. And doing that, I I don't know, I started writing because I the concept was I wanted to start it off saying why I was writing. And so I just started writing and I would send it to my friend. Actually, I told no one that I was doing it, she was the only person that knew, and I would write and I would send it to her and I'd be like, What do you think? And she was like, Keep writing, that's so good. Just keep writing. And I just in a man matter of like six months became an eight-chapter book. And on the last chapter is when I wrote the letter.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Really? So that was kind of the build-up to the letter. It was like the pre letter.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Yeah, it was it was definitely and it was needed. I had always needed to get a lot of that off my chest because I struggled really, really badly with self image. Um, you know, people can tell you you're beautiful, they can tell you all these great things, but if you don't feel it, if you don't see it, It's just words. And for so long they were just words. People would say it and I'd be like, oh, thanks. You know. Didn't I didn't feel it. You know, and I had to literally stand in my mirror with everything off and say, Love it. Figure out what it is, love it. Talk about it. Everything that you find imperfect about yourself, talk about it. Say what you like about it. Say you have to, I had to come up with so many things about myself that I loved. Because there were so many things that I could break down and tear apart. And once I once I got good at saying what was great about me, I knew that I was coming in on the other side of it.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

That's a beautiful concept. And I think a lot of women really struggle with that, whether it's privately or openly, but just their self-worth and comparing comparison and tearing themselves down. If there was a message that came from your book, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02 23:09

We all have our own traumas, big or small. And if you don't, God bless you. You have scathed the thing called life in a big way. But we all have them. And if you have it, understand that you can come out on the other side. And it's okay. And that that hurt, that hurt is supposed to be there. Feel that hurt, but make sure you walk out of that hurt. Don't sit in it. Figure out a way to get out of it. Whether it's talking to somebody, writing to yourself, or finding something that makes you feel real, whole, and good, and do that until it makes sense for you that you have gotten on the other side of whatever it is that's that's hurting you in in that small way. How did writing the book heal you? Oh my gosh, man, it when I tell you I had the best cry ever, like writing it all down was just traumatic by itself. Because you can know what you went through in your head, but when you put it on paper, and then then you get to the part where you say, Oh, people are gonna judge me so harshly. They're gonna judge me so harshly because you know, you know how it is. And I'm thinking, God, I just put all this information in writing about me, all my trauma, my triggers, and everything that happened from age eight to 48. Now I'm gonna have to deal with it. And at first I wasn't going to publish it, but I remember um I was on a flight to San Diego and I finished the book on the flight. I was just typing away, and it was two men on both sides of me, and I'm just typing away, and I remember smiling. I smiled because I finished it. I smiled and I closed my laptop. And the young man next to me, he said, question. He said, Are you writing a book? And I said, Yes, I am. Yes, I am. And I just finished it. And he was like, My God, that is so phenomenal. And I don't think I did not think how phenomenal that was that I actually wrote a book and finished it and was able to do that. But I got to my hotel and I cried for a long time. I I just I just released it all. Just one big, stupid, ugly, you know, the ugliest cry she can ever have. And I just released it and it was gone. All that stuff was gone.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Um that interesting how when you write it down or when you talk about it over and over, it almost becomes something separate. Like you can do it without emotion anymore. You can just talk about it like it happened to somebody else, and that's how you know that you're healing from something.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

Absolutely, because I could have never had this conversation and and not cry. Like I couldn't, I remember talking about it before I wrote the book. I would talk about my traumas, you know, with your counselor. And every time I would attempt to talk about it, I would just break into tears. I couldn't even finish it. And I would just cry. And I knew that I wasn't healed from it, and it was still hurting me, and it was still in my toolbox, and I wanted it out. I wanted it out. So that book got it out.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

And the women afraid to publish, like, were you afraid that it was going to offend people and your family and your in your past? Because mine's sitting in a drawer, all written, all edited, ready to publish, and I'm like a little bit afraid of stepping into it because I know it's a firestorm that I'm gonna have to deal with. How did that look for you?

SPEAKER_02 27:22

So I knew I was gonna have to deal with the firestorm. I knew that writing this book, once it was published, my family was gonna have some serious questions. And I said, Okay, this is about me. Am I gonna get backlash? Yep, I am. Um, but how much did I care? How much did I care about that? Because what was more important to me was healing, and I was gonna take whatever I had to take from them. And I remember when I wrote the book, I gave my brother a copy, and I remember him calling me saying, We need to talk. And I was okay. Yep, here we go. And it was starting, you know, and and uh, but I was okay with it because I was grown enough to stand in my truth, and I was standing ten toes down with it. I it didn't bother me that you were bothered.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

And how did that turn out? Was it better or worse than you expected?

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Um, I think he was more hurt. I think he was a lot of it was hurt, and and and why didn't I say something? And I'm like, I was eight. I was eight. You were 18. That's a big difference. You know what I mean? So actually, he was 20.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Obviously, the backlash wasn't bad. I mean, you you made it through the backlash.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Oh, absolutely. Um, now I I don't know how I didn't allow my mother to read my book. Because I was not ready for her to see that amount of hurt, and I didn't want to hurt her. Now that's the only person I protected. I protected her. I I've never let her read it.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

That's interesting because that that's one of my questions too. It's like, I'm my I don't want to hurt my mother, you know, and she's 90, and it's like, you just don't want to hurt them anymore. They did their best at the time, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Yeah, she did the best, and what helped me was my mother is going through dementia. So she, you know, it she doesn't need to know because I think with dementia, the last thing you remember is the last thing that keeps playing, and I don't want that to be the last thing she remembers, you know? So I I've never let her read it. Um, but everybody else, yeah, read it.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Wow, you are brave. You are just born, born brave, that girl. Jeez. Today you are a speaker, a mentor, and an advocate. What message do you feel most called to share right now?

SPEAKER_02 30:17

You are better than you think, smarter than you know, and you are very worth everything you are. And it doesn't matter that you don't have everything or you think you don't have it all together. That doesn't matter. What matters is you're here, you're gonna keep moving. Because the worst thing you can do is stop. The worst thing you can do is stop. If if you don't understand how important you are to the world, stop. Take a look in the mirror and say, hey, what about me is so special? And then say it. Say what is so special about you, because that's why you're here. You're not here just because, you're not here to make people miserable, you're here because God saw you and said you are perfect in his eyes, and it's okay that other people don't think you're perfect as long as you believe it. That's all that matters.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Beautiful. The last question that I have that I ask guests is what do you want your legacy to be?

SPEAKER_02 31:28

I would like my legacy to be that I was a mother, a grandmother, a chief, a wife, a friend, a sister, a cousin, an aunt. And in all those hats that I wore, all of them were important. They were all important. And I made sure that everybody that fell under that umbrella knew that I loved them, that I cherished them, that they were everything to me, and that I lived a life of giving people the grace that they needed when they needed it, giving them the grace they needed when they needed it, and also understanding that I give myself grace. Because a lot of times we'll give other people grace and we won't give our own selves grace. So I live in grace, it's hard. I live in grace, and and I also want people to know that I loved in grace.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

It's beautiful. You uh impacted me. I just met you for a few days, and you left an impact, and I've been thinking about you ever since last July, and knowing that my guests and my viewers that come on and all of that needed to hear your message and meet you. So thank you for coming on, Lipstick and Legacy, Latanya.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Thank you for having me. This was wonderful.