Ep 13: These are not Headlines... Black Women are Being Warned

We are currently witnessing a massive wave of layoffs, lawsuits, funding challenges, and unprecedented scrutiny across industries—and yet, almost no one is connecting the dots. For Black women, the pressure to perform, succeed, and secure our own financial future has never felt more intense, yet the traditional paths to stability are rapidly shifting underneath our feet.

In this episode of The Bougie Expat Podcast, Sable breaks down the quiet storm happening in entrepreneurship and education, and why the current economic climate demands a complete shift in strategy. She pulls back the curtain on the credibility and income conversations that no one else is willing to have, exposing the truth about "promised" income versus structured, reliable wealth.

This is not a conversation rooted in fear. It is a masterclass in strategic positioning.

Sable shares actionable insights on why relying on a single stream of income is no longer a viable option, and how to begin building a foundation for stability rather than mere survival. Whether you are planning a move abroad, looking to build robust income streams before you buy a plane ticket, or simply trying to navigate a volatile corporate landscape, this episode is a blueprint for designing your next chapter with intention.

This episode is for Black women over 40 who are ready to stop relying on broken systems, take control of their financial destiny, and strategically build the multiple streams of income required to fund a life of freedom, security, and peace.

In This Episode

• Connecting the dots on layoffs, lawsuits, and industry funding challenges
• The rise of Black women in entrepreneurship and education—and the unique pressures that come with it
• The credibility and income conversation that is currently being ignored
• The crucial difference between "promised" income and structured income
• Why one stream of income is a major risk in today’s economy
• Transitioning your mindset from survival mode to strategic stability
• How to begin building reliable income before you relocate abroad
• Why multiple income streams are the ultimate foundation for freedom
• Designing your next chapter with clear intention and foresight
• Practical steps to protect your peace and your pocketbook in volatile times

Thank you for listening to The Bougie Expat Podcast.

If this episode spoke to you, subscribe to the podcast and share it with another Black woman over 40 who has been thinking about relocating abroad, retiring overseas, or designing a new chapter with more freedom, peace, and intention.

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Transcript

Sable 0:00

As black women, we have always known that we had to be two times, ten times better, hundred times better, just to get not even sometimes the same distance in our careers or not our business. She's done waiting. She's done shrinking, and she's done building empires in rooms that were never designed for her. This is the Bougie Expat, the podcast for black women over 40 who are ready to reinvent their lives, rebuild their income, and relocate with intention. If you're done settling in corporate, tired of environments that no longer feel aligned, or quietly planning your next move, you are in the right place. Hosted by Sable, live from Panama City, Panama. Seven countries, four continents, one move she made in five months flat. Income strategies, exit plans, a life designed to actually fit you without starting over broke. Let's get into it. Now we have all seen the headlines. We have seen their names, names of people we adore, names of people who we kind of even aspire to be, mentors, people who we have actually bought their products, love their products, use their services, and maybe you even despise some of them. But regardless of what you feel about those headlines, you better know they're more than headlines, they are warnings. They are warning signs of what is happening, what continues to happen. It's a pattern. This is not something that's just happening to some of them. This is happening to almost all of us. Look at it. The layoffs. 700,000 black women as of date sent home from their workplace. Because why? Because they weren't qualified when we are the most educated group? When we see that lawsuits are happening over and over again as if we are the only ones who somehow don't understand how to keep our books? Are we the only ones that make promises that sometimes are bigger than actually the outcome? Are we the only ones that said perhaps maybe didn't run our business perfectly? I don't think so. I don't think so. I see this as a pattern for black women economics. It's our money they're coming for. Because think about it. Who was out there, out there with the picket signs? Out there pushing for candidates to get voted, out there on every front, not only just political but climate, the DEI front. Our voices were loud and proud. But if our money is not right, we don't have time for that. And I think somebody knows that. I think someone is purposely, I don't know, call it a conspiracy theory, going after our money. I'm not quite sure what you would say about it, but I am saying this is not a coincidence. If you think about what's happening over the last decade, black women have been the number one economic source when it comes to entrepreneurship. And so let's not say source, but we have been the fastest growing demographics when it comes to entrepreneurship. We lose jobs, we start a business. They are microaggressive at work, we start a business. They try to silence us at work, we start a business. We don't like what's going on because we can't take care of our kids, because we can't get them in daycare and do the job at the same time, we start a business. We have been starting businesses in almost every industry. And so what happened? Hmm. Fearless fun all of a sudden begins to see lawsuits funding black women businesses, that has started to go away. I don't know. Maybe perhaps it's a coincidence. But I see that when there's growth, when we are visible, when we are thriving, then yeah, there has been major consequences. And this is not just new. I mean, come on, let's think about Black Wall Street. Have we really forgotten about Tulsa, Oklahoma? I know we have not. And so what we are seeing is absolutely a pattern. We have seen this pattern, and we see it not only happening just in entrepreneurship, but these layoffs, this disproportion of sending black women home. When you hit the federal government, yes, it was black women who were the number one group that went home. And so I want us to think about what is going on? This high level of visibility and scrutiny that's happening to the people who are leading industries in our community. And you may say, well, I don't know, that's their business. Is it really? Is it really not our concern of what's going on? Because when we see things like Pinky Cole having to buy back a business that she started, and I don't know all the details, and neither do you. We just know what they tell us in the news. But I want to say that as long as they can keep us fighting lawsuits, then we're not focused on the business. Because when is it that it's okay to come for our personal products, our personal items, when they are separate from our company? But if they can just put us in a court for foolishness, then do we have time to focus on growing the very business that we just brought back? Or if they have, do we have time to be focusing on our business to grow in an industry that absolutely at this particular time is suffering? And so I don't know the details of what happened with Fawn Weaver and Uncle Nearis, but I cannot imagine she is the only CEO that has been in this position. I cannot imagine that Stormy Wellington is the only person who has told us that we could be millionaires in 90 days. But you know, if you look at the industries that each one of these women come from, are they really doing something that is so different or so illegal? Because most of these things are not illegal, but are they really failing as entrepreneurs? Because we see it also even in the football realm with black football coaches. Their team lose, they're out. While other people get chances over and over and over again. So the scrutiny is high for us. As black women, we have always known that we had to be two times, ten times better, hundred times better just to get not even sometimes the same distance in our careers or in our business. But right now, with this continuous pattern of seeing of lawsuits constantly attacking us, it is a distraction. It is absolutely a distraction. Because I'm telling you, this is not just something that is just happened isolated. Why? Because you think that the whiskey business is not affected? Of course, it has been affected, absolutely. I mean, we saw what happened with Jack Daniels. We know this is a billion-dollar business. We know that the numbers are not the same as they have been for various reasons, but yet are we hearing about their losses loud and clear in the newspaper? Are we? Are we hearing about the fact that, hey, everybody should have a pink Cadillac? Does everybody have a pink Cadillac? Because last I checked, the average Mary K rep is not earning a living off of those products. And the money that she's earning is mostly from the sales of her buying her own product. So when we see this, we have to ask ourselves: these isolated incidents, are they really isolated? Because the claims and the lawsuits that are coming for these women are not just frivolous lawsuits, or are they? Are these claims that they're making against these women to exasperate their funds in court, to take them off course of looking at their business and not focusing on expanding and growing? Is it to put fear in you who are thinking about starting a business and not wanting to play large because you're afraid of the visibility that this may be you next? I don't know. I don't know what it's saying to you, but I would tell you this: if you think for one moment that this does not pertain to you, I want to tell you a story. I want to share a story with a woman, just like each one of us, very comfortable, sitting in our homes, everything being fine. Her name is Esther. She was in her house, enjoying all the luxuries that that house was given while her people were being executed. And her mentor said to her, Is that what you're gonna do? Just kind of hang out here, enjoy everything, and not even try to stick your neck out. Hey, you're in a place of influence. You right now are in a stable position. You right now are in a stable position. And so, are you gonna sit there like Esther and just say, Well, that's them, not me. Well, that's what's happening to them. It could never happen to me. But as you realize, even as she sat in that palace with all that comfort, knowing that something else was happening to other people, you can't just sit there and not do anything. And so when she heard that story, when she heard how what was happening to her people, she realized she had to do something and she stood up to protect her people. Now I'm not asking you to go out and protect all the people, but I am asking you to make a decision because I want you to know that the comfort that you're feeling right now around your job, around your business, whatever that is, it could crash at any time. For whatever reason. And believe me, I am not hoping for your crash, I don't want your crash, I want you to succeed, but I also want you to be aware of what is happening. Because if you think about your clientele right now, who are your number one buyers? Are they not black women? Who is buying your business? Who is buying your products? Who are buying your services? Right? When we have laws and things put in place to say that companies who now engage in anything that looks like DEI, so even if you're doing government contracts, you are on the list of you could actually be affected by this. So I want to say this to you. I'm not saying this because I want you to get all riled up and nervous and afraid and what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? I'm gonna tell you what you're gonna do. What I need you to do is start thinking about other streams of income. Now I know we all talk about multiple streams of income. I'm not talking about it from a cliche point of view, I'm talking about it from a survival. This is about survival. This is about the fact that if any one of these women had only one stream of income, will we even be still talking about the fact that they're making comebacks? Because when your major source of income or one source of your income is attacked so heartily, so so deeply, and you have nothing else, not only are you emotionally affected, financially, security, you can't function. You can't even fight back in court because you don't have anything left to fight back with. So having a multiple stream of income, it is no longer a cliche. This is a survival. And so, what I'm talking to you is I need you to think about yes, you have earned income for your job, yes, you should have business income, leverage income, asset income, you know, all of these various types of income. And maybe you're saying, Well, I'm not an entrepreneur. Many of you are talking about you want to travel. This is what's holding you back because you are holding on to a job who may not be even holding on to you. So I need you to start thinking about how you will have multiple streams of income, not for the zip code that you live in, but noticeable streams of income that you are going to take globally around the world. How you will not be affected by when you hear another 30,000 layoff, another 50,000 layoff, if you are swooped up in that, you have another set of incomes, another set of income that you can travel with. But I also want to say this when I talk to women over and over again, the number one reason why they are not moving and relocating right now is money. It is money. So if you think that money is not what's getting in your way, I don't know. I don't even know how you're thinking that. Because this is what I hear. I need to retire, I need to get my last three years, I need to cash out my 401k. What all these other things, it's about money. So when I'm telling you that there is a pattern of where they are attacking our economics, you better believe that your money is also on the line of attack. Yeah, it's a pattern, it is a pattern, and so I don't know how you may or may not be affected by this pattern, but I'm telling you, it is a pattern. You could be affected by layoffs, you could be affected that by your sales of your business going down, you could be affected because your product could all of a sudden be banned, your product could be also excluded. I don't know. There's so many things that are coming at us so many different ways. So, what I want you to think about is how else can you earn money? What else can you do to start earning money? Not in a year from now, not oh, once I retire, not oh, once I relocate. I'm talking about right now. You need to start finding additional income. This is something that we have continuously talked about in our collective. It was just only last weekend that we sat down with women who also wanted to relocate and help each one of them draw out income strategies that were going to keep them no matter where they lived. And that is what I want for you. I want you also to have an income strategy that is going to keep you no matter where you live. I need your relocation not to be based on one sole income stream, but I need it to be based on the fact that you will have multiple streams of income and that you can leave when you are ready to leave, not when someone has asked you to leave. That's too late. That is too late to start trying to figure out where extra income is coming from. You need to be figuring that out yesterday. Because this pattern, yeah, we see it here, we see it there. I don't know what else is being cooked up, and neither do you. And so, what I'm telling you is before your name is on the chopping block, before you look at your PL and recognize that the fact that your sales that used to come in are different this quarter than it was last year, this time, this quarter, start looking at different ways to build your income. I'm Sable, your bougie girlfriend. I am always here to make sure and help you relocate with cash flows. So if you're a high-earning woman, if you're a woman who knows absolutely you need to get out of this place and you want to get out of this place, and you want to get out and know that you have a cash flow when you go, there is a link in the description. Contact me. Let's figure out how you can have multiple streams of income. Not as a survival, but as a thriving mechanism. As a way that you are not a cliche, you will not be another statistic, and you will not be a lawsuit. But it cannot happen if you don't take action. Take action today. I don't want to see your name in the headlines. I don't want you to be distracted from your goal. Your goal is to relocate. Let's do that. But it's going to take some money. So let's talk about how you can get some. I will see you on the call. I will see you in the session. I'm Sable, your bougie girlfriend. I'm here for you. That's a wrap. And if this episode resonated with you, go ahead and follow the podcast and share it with another woman who's ready for her next chapter. And if you're ready to move beyond thinking and start building your exit strategy, I invite you to join me inside my live experience, the Elevated Exit Masterclass. You'll find the link in the show notes. Until next time, make your next move a bougie one.