Cool Soror would like to pay homage to our sisters of AKA! 

 

Cool Soror would like to pay homage to our sisters of DST!

Tamekia Flowers-Ball is a Cool Soror of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and graces us from the great city of New York. 

This ageless beauty is a Marketing graduate of Syracuse University and has always had the desire to create and be the visionary she always knew was deeply rooted. 

She took her talents to Atlanta, Georgia to work with former LaFace Records Executive (and future Cool Soror podcast guest) Sheri Riley’s company, GLUE INC. 

It was there that she was able to implement her marketing knowledge and get the itch to move back to her hometown and start her own business. 

And she did just that.

Epiphany Blue was birthed in 2006.  This multi-faceted event management company and personal as well as professional development company’s mission is “To Bring Our Client’s Vision to Life.”  

Her professional development program includes YOGA-which has been a long time outlet to impart the beauty of mindfulness and so much more to students and clients. 

Tamekia is also the founder for HIP HOP 4 LIFE - a nonprofit organization that encourages and empowers youth who are committed to their own personal growth and academic aspirations. 

After serving more than 16,00 youth, she graciously stepped down as Executive Director in 2015 to place her focus on Epiphany Blue full time.

Mrs. Flowers-Ball knows she is constantly on the forefront of servitude and also believes that in this life all we have is our word and our character.  She stands by that and it rings true in everything she does.

Twitter / IG @epiphanyblue

FB: Ephiphanyblue06

www.epiphanyblue.com

www.hiphop4life.com

Our host, Rashan Ali, a Cool Soror of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. steps in front of the microphone to share with us the art of her vulnerability.  This Atlanta native had two recent experiences that found her questioning the success of her future and her role as a parent.

Many times in life, we find our spirit in constant battle with our flesh.  Rashan discusses how this battle is ever present and how it is our own responsibility to allow the spirit to win. 

This episode is filed with directives to challenge us all to take who we are and multiply ourselves to greater heights.  We will be better for it.  The space in the middle: the dash: the hyphen is the most important opportunity of our free will personified.

Rashan mentions four books that she has read or is currently reading again.

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

Daring Greatly by Dr. Brene Brown

The Year of Yes Journal by Shonda Rhimes

Exponential Living by Sheri Riley

She is taking the mandated steps to grow her 2016 to levels unimaginable. Understanding the reason for her life’s passion is bigger than her, she is ready.  And she hopes you are ready to take control of YOUR Greatness!

IG and Twitter @rashanali

Rashan Ali on FB

www.coolsoror.com

Connie S. Falls is a Cool Soror of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and is a business mogul and philanthropist. 

She is the CEO & Founder of Precise Business Solutions as well as her non-profit, We Are Global Champions. 

She kicked off her entrepreneurial journey writing business plans and starting businesses for other people, which she did exclusively for five years.  She took the knowledge she gained and began consulting.  This led her to the infinite business of government contracting.

Connie tells us all about the behind the scenes workings of securing government contracts and how the process of securing business can be daunting. 

But not so much for this “go-getter!”  She has worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Navy, Department of Justice, U.S. Department of the Interior and the Army National Guard.  She is the conduit for so many small businesses.

She also has a heart for young people, African American boys specifically. 

After launching “Not So Gangsta,” she landed a chance meeting with a businessman from Africa which completely changed the scope of her nonprofit work. 

Now called, We Are Global Champions, Connie’s nonprofit was catapulted into the global space. The organization’s mission is to educate, challenge and engage Black Youth in Africa and North America, ages 10-18, as academic and social leaders within an international context.

Connie talks about a deep conversation she had while traveling in Africa and how it prompted her to think of many of her own ancestors and all they endured. 

He posed a question: “Why don’t you all come back home?” It changed her perspective and her intention to do more and she is doing just that in the United States and well….at home.

website: www.conniefalls.com

IG: loveandmoneyradio

LinkedIn: Connie S. Falls

Tenisha Bell joins the show as we kick off the new year with a slew of amazing guests! 

She is a Cool Soror of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and is the President and CEO of Perfect Pitch Media Group.  This Chicago native knew she had the gift of writing and researching at an early age.  So much so that her mother walked her into one of the only Black newspapers in Chicago and did what many mothers would do. She bragged on her child and asked the publisher, William Garth, Sr. to “give her daughter a job.”  Surprisingly, the very next day Tenisha started at Citizen Newspaper.

This job would spark a deep love for the world of media for Tenisha.  She was awarded a full scholarship from Mr. Garth in honor of his deceased son to attend Clark Atlanta University. He would continue to me a mentor and father figure up until his passing in 2016. 

Tenisha had a very successful career as an Executive Producer for many of CNN’s top anchors including Wolf Blitzer, Fredricka Whitfield & Don Lemon.  She goes in depth about how she was able to navigate her role as one of the very few women of color in her position.  But there was a nagging in her soul that would not let up.  She knew there was more for her life and more she had to offer the world.

In 2014, she walked away and started Perfect Pitch Media Group.  Perfect Pitch is a boutique public relations and media training firm that offers high quality multi-media services which include: custom communication strategies for corporations and individuals, media training seminars, public relations support and crisis management. 

Tenisha shares her deep love for her deceased father who was shot and killed when she was five-years-old in her hometown of Chicago.  Because the number of Black on Black crime  in Chicago is continuing to increase, she founded The Ezekiel Taylor Scholarship Foundation.  The mission of the foundation is to ensure that young African-American men lead better lives, make good 'life' choices that impact their entire community and have opportunities for higher education. 

This media and philanthropic heavyweight is just scratching the surface of her amazing journey.  She’s doing it exactly how she wants to.  If anything or anyone tries to stop her, Tenisha will always “find a way or make one.”

Websites:

www.perfectpitchmediagroup.com

www.eztaylor.org

Joyce Estrada Bailey is a Cool Soror of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and she has been a mission to bridge the STEM and language gaps among girls in the Latina community. 

This “Honduran-born in Jersey-from Atlanta”  native (a moniker she came up with herself) has been able to accomplish so much in the field of education, but her latest entrepreneurial venture, “Miss Maestra” is the one that will set her apart and fulfill that urge that is finally lit.

With an affinity for education since nine-years-old, she attended Georgia Southern University to major in Special Education, which she later changed to Public Relations. 

Sparked by a middle school teacher who spoke life into her, she gravitated toward teaching middle schoolers.  Upon graduation, she worked in the public school system before a chance opportunity that would allow her to see another level of education.

She was offered a job to work at The Ron Clark Academy.  This gave Joyce the opportunity to work around innovative educators.  Her new position gave her the much needed armor to jump out and start her own thing. 

Joyce stepped out and started Miss Maestra with two main programs: ATLatina & STEMChicas. With a passion for Latina girls and Latina people, she does not stray away from the tough topics that face Latina people in this country.

Included in this episode, Joyce addresses the difference between Latina people and Hispanic people and what that relationship truly is.  She also talks about what Tump’s election means to her family and so many more people in the Latina community,

Joyce Estrada Bailey has always been determined to go after what makes pure and perfect sense.  Teaching has given her that purpose through language, one student at a time

Social:

FB@ MissMaestraATL 

Instagram/Twitter @miss_maestra

Website: missmaestra.com

Author and Certified Life Coach, Shonda Brown White joins the Cool Soror podcast today. 

A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Shonda has a passion for empowering women not only through her latest work, “Don’t Be A Wife To A Boyfriend” but in the way she chooses to live her life.

She was raised in a single parent home and the absence of her father caused her to look for love in all the wrong places. 

Many times she would find herself changing who she was to fit the characteristics of her current boyfriend. 

After many failed relationships, she realized that she had to face the real elephant in the room.  She had to face herself.

Healing from her past hurts, Shonda pressed forward and eventually married the man of her dreams. 

She was compelled to write about her past mistakes to help someone else on their relationship journey. 

She got the opportunity to write a blog for XONecole.com that would garner 100k shares and likes.  The name of the blog: “Don’t Be A Wife To A Boyfriend.”  She knew she was on to something and decided to make the blog post into a book. 

In this episode, Shonda discusses some of the 10 lessons she learned in her single life.  Here are a few:

-Be okay with where you are.

-Don’t make excuses for people who need to be excused out of your life.

-Don’t confuse love with lust.

Shonda’s engaging, real-life scenarios can truly make us reevaluate where we stand in our current or past relationships. She does it in a candid and unapologetic way. 

The beauty in her advice is that she can speak it because she has lived it.

And there’s no better lesson than experience.

Follow Shonda on Instagram & Twitter: @ShondaBWhite

FB: Life And Love Shonda Brown White

www.shondabrownwhite.com

This very emotional episode with Sesily Coleman, a Cool Soror of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., will leave you wanting to say a prayer for anyone who is grieving during this holiday season.  

While many of us are getting ready for this special time of year, there are millions of people who are grieving and trying to figure out how they are going to simply make it through.

Sesily’s husband, Antonio Coleman was a “Cool Bruh” of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. who she met in 1999 in New Orleans.  

They were married a year to the date that they met. Their love story was written out of book.  After 8 years of beautiful marriage and two beautiful children later, her life changed forever.

On January 20, 2008, Sesily received a phone call that her best friend had been shot and killed while on an Educational Enrichment Trip to Orlando, Florida. Antonio was tremendously loved and adored by many, so this devastating news came as a shock to communities near and far.

During this episode Sesily paints the terrifying picture of having to unexpectedly kiss her husband goodbye for the very last time and the pain she and her kids experienced.

While juggling the heartache of losing her best friend and the role of motherhood, Sesily discovers the integral levels of grief.

 

Sesily made it her mission to share this knowledge in hopes of helping families across the world cope with the loss of a loved one, especially during this holiday season.

 

Although many of us won’t be able to relate to Sesily’s pain, she does a phenomenal job using her story to prevent families from suffering with depression or a psychotic break (similar to American hip-hop artist Kanye West) by highlighting the importance of therapy, positive support systems, and staying busy when dealing with a loss.

Sesily’s strength in this episode is absolutely admirable, but her desire to help families around the globe with her story is simply angelic.

Please keep our “Cool Soror” lifted in prayer as she continues sharing her testimony to impact families and heal hearts with her Five Levels of Grief.

Ig: sesicol