Black Girls Rock

Welcome to today's conversation... USA at WAR and they're losing! Justice for Da' Quain Johnson! Amanda Seales is sealing it up!  Is your business ready to Scale or Sail?  Jackie Joyner-Kercee honored. 

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Transcript

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Welcome to Latia in the Lead Podcast, a podcast where we lead meaningful conversations that intersect the block and the boardroom. From pop culture to politics through ethical entrepreneurship, we are laying the groundwork for unity in our community. We're glad you're here. Enjoy the conversation. Good evening. Welcome to Latia in the League Podcast. My name is Latia, and I'm your host. Thank you so much for joining me again, guys. It is March, and as you know, March is women's history month. So all month long, in our black fact segment, we're going to be highlighting the contributions of women to this country and to this world. Y'all, it is a lot going on, and we have to get into it. So let's get started. We're talking current events. The United States is now in the midst of a proxy war on behalf of Israel because Donald Trump is so enamored with Benjamin Netayahu, who is a war criminal. There's a lot of reasons for this war, none of which has anything to do with the United States of America. Donald Trump, who ran on being the anti-war president, has shown himself to be exactly who most of us knew he was a pathetic liar. In the interest of his pockets, in the interest of power, in the interest of domination, in the interest of aligning the United States of America with Israel, the United States has committed the most egregious act without the consent of Congress. I think it is very important that we understand how the United States of America can go to war or is supposed to go to war. The United States of America, according to the Constitution, is the executive branch, does not have the authority alone to wage war with anyone. This is supposed to be an act of Congress. However, this regime is totally subverting any kind of normalcy in terms of the order of operation and how things are supposed to work. This is literally a rogue administration doing what the fuck they want to do. Pete Hexath, the Secretary of Defense, with all his chess on national television, said, not verbatim, but in summary, the decision to go to war is Donald Trump's alone. We will end the war when America is finished. Period. Hard stop. There's so much wrong with that, y'all. No one person should have that amount of power. And this president, this administration is dripping in power that is going to have an effect on all of us. Making the citizens of this country prisoners of this country. Because we are not going to be able to go anywhere. Because America is now so hated by so many countries. The Iranian regime is known to be horrific. It oppresses its people, particularly women. It's vile and depraved. We know that. However, as a sovereign country, we, the United States of America, has no business waging war and trying to overthrow that regime. It goes against all international law, which at this point we might as well throw any international treaty we've ever had out the window because clearly this president is not playing by those rules. Let me remind you that eight months ago, the United States of America waged a 12-day war with Iran, in which they said we obliterated was the term. We obliterated any capability of them making nuclear weapons. That was the mantra. We obliterated it. We never have to worry about it. So if that was true then, how is it now, only eight months later, that we have to get rid of Iran because they have the ability to make nuclear weapons? Really? Or is this one big distraction from the latest drop of the Epstein files, which I'll talk about in a minute? The United States bombed Iran, and guess what? Iran came right back. And right now, Iran is playing a different strategy because Iran is located in the Straits of Hamoos, and the Straits of Hamous is where 20% of the world's oil comes through. And what they are trying to do right now is block up that strait. What Iran wants to do is disrupt the world's oil supply. This is nasty work, y'all. We have next to no allies, and those countries that ever thought that they would be an ally with the United States of America, they may be shaking our hand, but trust me, they have gloves on. Because what we just did to Iran in the middle of negotiation. If you're in the middle of a negotiation, everybody is supposed to be at the table in good faith. And in good faith, supposed to be trying to come to a resolution. However, what this administration has recently said is that they have been planning this for months because Yadatola had a hit on Donald Trump. That is what was stated. Now, the reason for the United States of America actually bombing Iran, we don't know yet. Because they have come out with three, four, five, six different reasons as to why we did what we did. And it is horrendous. It is horrendous. Make no mistake about it, America is an imperialistic country, and I don't trust any of them as far as I can throw them. However, there used to be honor amongst thieves, and that was led by international laws and all of these peace treaties that we've had over the years with all these different countries. And now we're not positioned to be an authority in the world. We are losing our standing as the United States of America because we simply, as a country, cannot be trusted. This president cannot be trusted. His word is no good. He is loyal to no one. So, I mean, it's a sad, sad day. What I'm most sad about is those young people that went into the service really, and many of the minority that went into the service for a better life, there weren't many other opportunities, and college was not foreseeable. Many of those young people saw the armed forces as a path to a future. Never did they think that we would come to this in terms of how this country is being ran. Now, we've had some trash precedents. We have. However, the way in which this administration is moving is unprecedented. And I feel so badly for our soldiers. I want to say, rest in peace to the five soldiers that we've already lost. I want to say, hold your head up to those of you who are in the armed forces and everything looks unstable. We are on the verge of unfortunately putting boots on the ground in Iran because there's not going to be a way to transition this smoothly. And if history has shown us anything, anytime we start a war in the Middle East, that's a 10, 15, 20-year process. Donald Trump was on corporate media saying that, oh, this is going to be about five weeks. It's not going to happen that way. I think the United States of America still has a stick up its ass for how Iran embarrassed them in 1979. In 1979, Iranian students and militants stormed the U.S. Embassy and they captured, I think, 66 Americans and they held 52 of them for like 444 days. That was an embarrassment to the United States of America. And I think every president that has come into office has had that in the back of their mind. So this coming to war with Iran, in my opinion, has always been something that was on the table. But I just feel like in this moment, it is definitely a proxy war for Israel, who thinks that Israel is the holy grail of land, and that Israel and its people are chosen specifically by God and in being so they deserve everything. Point blank period. That's as simple as it can get. That's as simple as I can put it. And this is dangerous because that thinking is very problematic. And it's problematic because it is seeping into US politics because the white Christian nationalists in this country, all of those people that voted for Donald Trump, they voted for Donald Trump thinking that he was their God and he was their savior. And they think that that man was supposed to restore morals and values back into this country. With all the hate he spews, with all the vile things he's done, with all the baggage that he has, which makes him a trash human being. These people believe that he is their savior. And this ideology is aligning with Israel. And that puts us all in danger. So I feel bad for I feel really badly for the troops. I pray that this is short-lived. Did y'all hear this? In Michigan, two weeks ago, a black man was shot and killed by police while being mauled by police dogs. 32-year-old Jaquan Johnson was shot and killed while he was handcuffed and being mauled by dogs, according to witnesses. Of course, cops said that they were in fear for their lives, but witnesses said that Daquan did not have any weapons. His hands were handcuffed behind his back. Same story, different black man. This country has a problem with seeing black men as human. Since its inception, been able to remove humanity from black Americans, particularly from black men. When you remove humanity, you can do anything to a person. When you can't see that a person's heartbeat like yours, when you can't see that a person has a mother, a father, that person could be a father, that person is a human being that breathes the same air. When you can't see that, then it turns off your empathy and it enables you to see a person as just trash. Videos have surfaced that does not show Daquan pulling out a gun as he was being mauled by dogs. Daekwan's mother, Angelica Johnson, wants justice. And we should want justice for Daekwan. His mom has hired Lee Merritt to help her with the justice that she's seeking for her son, and we wish her much success on the journey for justice. We need to make sure that we're talking about these stories because United States media has been captured. I want y'all to be aware of something. We are on the cusp of having state-run media. And what state-run media looks like, because we've never seen it in this country, what it looks like is the people or person, in this case, family, because we're talking about the Ellison family, who is pet to buy Paramount and everything under Paramount, which is essentially going to make them the most powerful family in this country because they will own more than half the media. The Ellison family supports Donald Trump and they padded his campaign with money for a lot of different reasons. So that some of these mergers can happen that's happening right now. But the problem with this centralized power is that we're not going to be able to trust anything that we see on television because they're only going to show us one point of view. They're only going to show us one perspective, they're only going to propagandize us. They're only going to build narratives that they want us to believe. And sadly, a lot of us are going to believe it. There's not going to be any way to tell the truth from a lie. State run media in countries like China and Russia, they push a pro-government narrative that instead of informing the public uses the media to propagandize. And that is very much what corporate media is today. So I encourage you all, while you can seek out independent media because you cannot trust what you're seeing on your television. Now, y'all listen to me closely. Right about the time that Donald Trump decided to bomb Iran, NPR reported that the DOJ withheld documents from the Epstein files that accuse Donald Trump of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in the 1980s. At the time this young lady was 13 years old. This young lady accused Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of forcing her to engage in oral sex. This young lady accused Donald Trump of after forcing her to perform oral sex on him, either slapping or hitting her. This woman had been interviewed by the federal government four times back in 2019. All of this documented in the Epstein files. Now, only one of those interviews were available in the files. Where are the other three interviews? And I have another question. And please, I don't want to sound insensitive with what I'm getting ready to say, but it is, I cannot help but think it. All of these young women who were assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein and this whole ring of perverts, including Donald Trump, these those girls are now women. Who did what when? I don't understand. Like time, the time is now. If it was so many of them, there was there was thousands of these young women. Where are they? Why is no one talking? I don't understand. I mean, I would guess that there is a level of fear that has to accompany being in this situation with these powerful, powerful, powerful men who essentially run the world. Because this is not just a United States of America trafficking ring. This is an international trafficking ring. And I would guess that if you were going to come out against this, there would be a level of fear associated with it. But, ladies, this power in numbers. I think you all need to come together as a unit and come forward as a unit. Because you can put all of this secrecy out in the open. Again, this goes back to Pam Bondi. I talked about it last week. This goes back to her and how she is choosing to etch her name in history because she is the head of the DOJ. And she is allowing, she is allowing this to happen. And it's a shame. Can we get into some culture? So Amanda Seals announced last week that she is ending her show, Views from Amandaland, at the end of the month. I'm sad about that. The one thing that really annoys me about us is we have a terrible habit of allowing other people in other cultures and tell us who we should be listening to in our own culture. Like we're literally listening to the oppressors. Amanda Seals is important for black culture. Amanda Seals loves black people. Amanda Seals tells the truth. It is what it is, y'all. Y'all have allowed this fractions of this established country to tell y'all that Amanda Seals is problematic. We are going to need the Amanda Seals of the culture, y'all. We are going to need people who know, who have been studying in conversation and in spaces about around international politics as well as domestic politics. We are going to need the voices of the Amanda Seals of our culture. They prop up our celebrities, prop up our entertainers, prop up our athletes, and they say, this is who you should be listening to. No, it's not. It's not who we should be listening to. We should be listening to people who are well-versed, who are educated, who are well-cultured, people like Amanda Seals. But I do believe that she's brokenhearted. I believe that she is brokenhearted. And as a people, I believe that we have broken her heart. Because for someone who really does a lot of work around the importance of blackness and black people, we never have her back. And I'm sad about that. So I'm sad to see her show go. I know she's gonna be available still on Substack, and she's going to um be still putting out her art. And I wish her much success in that endeavor. So on the heels of being called a nigger at the BAFTA Awards, a Michael B. Jordan wins Entertainer of the Year at the NAACP Awards. I am so excited and proud of this brother. Michael B. Jordan is from North, New Jersey, y'all. Michael B. Jordan went to arts high school. This is a young boy who had a dream, who the culture rallied around, who chased his dream, and who and who ended up an A-list actor in Hollywood. We have to be proud of him. Not only do we have to be proud of him, that should encourage us all to realize how many more Michael B. Jordans is in Jersey City, is in Newark, is in Elizabeth. How many more Michael B. Jordan's is out there? As a culture, we need to rally around our young people, particularly when we see something. Rally around them, provide them opportunities, nurture them because we never know who we're nurturing. Congratulations, Michael B. Jordan, on all your success. I am super proud of you as we all are. And you deserve all that you're getting right now. And you are not a nigger. Pinky Cole, entrepreneur, founder of Sluddy Vegan, has filed bankruptcy. Now, Pinky Cole started Sluty Vegan in 2018 selling vegan burgers from her apartment in Brooklyn. And by 2019, she had her first brick and mortar in Atlanta. And then she went through a period where she opened up a lot of locations, like 14 locations, in a few years. And she outpaced herself. And so she got into some financial trouble where she ultimately had to relinquish control of her company for a short period of time. But then in 2025, she came back and rebought Sluty Vegan. And now, um, while she doesn't have all of those locations, I believe she has five locations now. So now I'm saddened to hear that she is filing for bankruptcy. Apparently, she owes 1.2 million to the Small Business Administration and something like $190,000 in taxes. While I'm not looking down on her for the bankruptcy, um, we're going to call this a restructure, just like they call it when the white people do it. We're going to call this a restructure. And for all intents and purposes, she is restructuring. Now, sis, my advice to you is this go back to basics. You don't need 14 locations. You don't need five locations. You need two locations that you make pop. You need two locations that you make the demand so intense that there are waiting lists for months to get in. That's what you need. That's it. You don't need five locations. You need two good ones. And create yourself a five-year trajectory plan where you have five million dollars in profits. In profits. That means all of your operating expenses have covered, all of your salaries covered, all of those things are covered. And you're still and you're still in a black five million. Then look at another location. But you're only looking at the location as to where to send a truck. Put a few of your best dishes on that truck and see how it does. If that does well, you get a really small single non-eating spot. See how that does. And grow from there. There's honor in keeping your business small. You don't have to go, you have, you don't have to go full-blown conglomerate because we don't have the capital. We don't have the capital. And while there, I'm sure, I mean, I don't know about at this at this point because you've had so many hiccups financially. I don't know how many investors you would be able to get while maintaining control of your business. So you're going to have to do this by yourself, likely. We just, with all of the great ideas, we simply don't have the capital. They're not giving the money to us. So, in my opinion, the best strategy is to maintain control over your product, keep it small, but profitable. One step at a time. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. Our counterparts do it all the time. They file bankruptcy all the time. The president is the president of the United States has filed bankruptcy how many times? Don't worry about that part. Focus in on your product. Scale down and make those two locations really profitable. And you'll be alright. I'm happy to see that you're part of the new cast at the Real Housewives of Atlanta. I'm excited to see that. So you're going to be okay. You're going to be fine. I know it's hard. Anytime we take a step back in business as an entrepreneur, it is hard. Trust me, I am going through that right now. But you're going to be fine, sis. Keep going. Keep doing what you're doing. On to more sisters doing the damn thing. Did y'all know that there's a black-owned olive oil company in Atlanta, Georgia? These sisters, Malatrice Montgomery and Ayana Nikki Carver, are the founders of Olives and Oil, which is a black-owned olive oil company, y'all. In Atlanta, Georgia, they have like three or four locations and they make their own olive oil and red wine vinegar. So if you are in Atlanta, Georgia, support these sisters. They have multiple locations, and we need to be supporting our own. Go, Ayana, and Malatrice. I hope I'm saying your name correctly. It's winding down, y'all. Moving right along, we're talking ethical entrepreneurship and anti-capitalism. As a successful entrepreneur of almost 20 years, I mentor a lot of entrepreneurs. Many of these entrepreneurs are in the one to five year business startup phase. Many of these entrepreneurs are in the one to five year business startup phase. They are either establishing, maintaining, or seeking to scale their businesses. One of the things that I teach in my worthy women's entrepreneurial seminar series is the method of scale or sale. Number one, first and foremost, you need to determine how much money you're making. This is critical. A lot of times, as entrepreneurs, particularly new entrepreneurs, when we start making money, we don't realize how much money we've put out to make the money that's now coming in. So in this process, you have to determine how much it costs to operate your business versus how much you're making in your sales. The difference between how much is costing you to run your business and how much is caught how much money you're bringing in is going to be your profitability. You need to understand what that number is in a realistic way. The next thing that you need to do, number two, is to make sure that you have a contingency fund set up for your business. Generally, this is going to be 15 to 20% of your budget. This is important because as an entrepreneur, I can absolutely guarantee you that there are going to be things that happen that you have not planned for. There are going to be things that happen that you have not accounted for. There are going to be things that are going to happen that you could not see coming. And this contingency fund helps to allow your business to continue to operate should those things happen. It's very important because you cannot operate a business without a contingency fund. Your business simply won't survive. Number three, assess your demand. Is your business in demand? As an entrepreneur, you know if your business is in demand. You know if your services are in demand. You know if your products are selling. Assess that in a real way. If you cannot keep up with the amount of customers that you have or the amount of requests you have for services, your business is in demand. If you are selling out your products as fast as you put them on sale, your business is in demand. You need to assess this really well before you look at scaling your business. Look at the trends in that demand. Is this a seasonal spike? Is this something that's happening over time? Is it an upward trajectory? Were you looking at the total year? What is the trend? What is the trend? Identify what your growth trend is and note that. Or will you be out of business if the expansion doesn't work? The decision to scale your business has to be based on more than popularity. It has to be based on real numbers. A lot of times, as entrepreneurs, we're excited, we're energized, we're motivated, and we want to see our business grow so fast that we don't give it time enough to settle. Your business needs time to settle, it needs to gain its customer base, it needs to be able to identify its customer, it needs it needs to make sure that it has satisfied that customer base and that those customers are repeatedly coming back. I talked earlier in the show about Pinky Cole and the mistakes that she made as she was scaling her business. The scaling part of your business will happen. However, you cannot rush the process. If you scale before you're ready, you're going to fail. I'm gonna say that one more time for the people in the back. If you scale before you're ready, you are going to fail. And you're going to find yourself back at square one multiple times. Last but not least, step number five is once you have assessed steps one through four, you are now best informed to make a realistic decision as to whether you should scale or sell. And selling means that your business is profitable moving forward, it has slow growth, but growth nonetheless, you can meet your monthly obligations, you're seeing projected growth in your business. That is where you want to be in that one to five year mark because it takes maybe upwards of 10 years before you start seeing a real profit in your business that will prepare you for scaling in terms of additional locations, bringing on staff, that kind of thing. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. The goal is for your business to be around in 20-30 years. And in deciding whether to scale your business, you want to make sure that you're best positioned to make a successful scale. Other than that, is nothing wrong with the sale. All right, y'all. We are at the end of the show. Moving right along, we are talking about black facts. In today's segment of Black Facts, we're honoring Jackie Joyner Kersey, a legend in track and field. Jackie Joyner Kersey, considered by many to be the greatest multi-event athlete of all time, man or woman, was born in 1962, East St. Louis, Illinois. Accepting a scholarship in basketball to UCLA, it was there she met her future husband and assistant track coach Bob Kirsey. Recognizing her untapped talents, he began preparing Jackie to become the world champion in the heptathlon. 200 meters, high jump, long jump, javelin, shot put, 100-meter hurdles, and a hundred-meter run, all taking place over two days. Had it not been for a hamstring injury, many believe she would have won the heptathlon gold medal in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. She lost by 0.6 seconds and settled for the silver medal. Redemption occurred during the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games as Jackie won gold in the heptathlon. During the 1988 Olympics, she also won goal in the long jump. She was not only winning, Jackie was completely dominating the heptathlon. In 1986, at the Goodwill Games in Moscow, she became the first woman ever to score over 7,000 points, finishing with 7,148. Three weeks later, she broke the barrier again by scoring 7,161 points. In the 1988 Olympics, Jackie set an Olympic and world record with 7,291 points, which still stands. At the age of 34, she won a bronze medal in the 96 Olympics in Atlanta. Jackie was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1987 and became the first woman ever to win the Sporting News Athlete of the Year Award in 1988. The incomparable Jackie Joyner Kirsty is indeed the greatest athlete of all time. So that's it, y'all. That is today's show. Today's Black Fact was brought to you by the Heritage App. While this is not an ad, I do support the Black Heritage app and I encourage you to download it because the Black Heritage app provides black facts for every day of the year. That's it, y'all. That's today's show. Last but not least, T's takeaway. The takeaway for today's show is this we will all encounter adversity no matter what we're doing. Just remember this. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. I love y'all. Thank y'all for coming. Thank y'all for listening. Thank y'all for watching. Thank you for liking, subscribing, and sharing, doing all the things, helping us grow. I appreciate y'all. Y'all don't have to spend y'all time with me, but you do. And I love you for it. Take care of yourselves. Until next time, keep your head on a swivel. Peace.