Leaders and Learners

A 10th-round pick flew to Tokyo to get noticed. A first-time author flew that story all the way to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This one is about the outsider road.

Aaron Fischman is an award-winning sports writer and the author of A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back, the true story of pitcher Tony Barnette's six years in Japan's NPB and his MLB debut at 32. The book was named a CASEY Award finalist for Best Baseball Book of 2024 and earned Aaron a seat in the Baseball Hall of Fame author series.

In this episode of Leaders & Learners, Tonya McKenzie gets into resilience, identity, the gaijin path, and what it really costs to bet on a story nobody asked you to tell.

In this episode:

• Why an unknown pitcher made the perfect first book

• The 41 saves and 1.29 ERA the league still made him wait on

• How the 2011 Tohoku disaster shaped the story

• From blank page to CASEY Award finalist to Cooperstown

Subscribe for more conversations on leadership, media, and narrative control. New episodes drop on the channel. For the full written breakdown, read CTRL the Narrative on Substack.

Guest: Aaron Fischman | aaronfischman.com  |  @byAaronFisch on X and Instagram

Host: Tonya McKenzie, Founder of Sand & Shores  |  sandandshores.com  |  [email protected]

#Baseball #JapaneseBaseball #ABaseballGaijin #SportsBooks #CTRLtheNarrative #LeadersAndLearners #TonyBarnette #HallOfFame #SportsMedia #Resilience

He was one step from the Major Leagues. Triple-A. The doorstep. Then he got cut.

No backup plan. Negative net worth. Identity shattered.

Most people don’t talk about what happens when the dream dies. Jac Oujo did.

In this episode, the founder of Oujo Wealth Strategies and author of Too Smart to Be an Umpire breaks down:
⚾ The brutal reality of professional sports careers
💰 Why hard work alone does NOT guarantee success
📉 What rebuilding from financial rock bottom actually looks like
🧠 How emotional discipline matters more than talent
📊 Why trust compounds faster than money

This isn’t just a baseball story.
It’s a masterclass in reinvention, resilience, and learning how to win after public failure.

If you’ve ever had to pivot, rebuild, or quietly start over while everybody thought you were “doing fine,” this episode is going to hit different.

👇🏾 DROP A COMMENT:
What’s one setback that completely changed the direction of your life?

And if you’re serious about leadership, business, sports, money, and controlling your narrative:
✅ LIKE
✅ SUBSCRIBE
✅ SHARE THIS WITH SOMEBODY STUCK IN THEIR “WHAT NOW?” SEASON

#Leadership #SportsBusiness #FinancialLiteracy #Baseball #Entrepreneurship #CareerPivot #Mindset #WealthBuilding #CTRLtheNarrative

Eight Candidates. Two Debates. California Governor's Race Roundtable.

California's gubernatorial race has all the ingredients of a political drama. A billionaire self-funding at $132 million. A Fox News host leading in a blue state. A scandal that reshuffled the entire field. And 26% of voters still undecided with the primary weeks away.

Host Tonya McKenzie sits down with scholar and actor Jeff Sneed and author/podcaster Myron Clifton to break down what the debates revealed, who has a real shot in the jungle primary, and what none of these candidates are saying that voters actually need to hear.

SUBSCRIBE. SHARE. CTRL the Narrative.

They opened the first urban day spa in California in 1984, convinced an entire culture that rest was medicine, and built a skincare line that has touched over 5 millionfaces.  Bill & Theresa Armour are the Co-Foundersof Burke Williams and the people behind H2V, and in this episode of Leaders and Learners we get into everything: the early days of building an industry from a parking garage, the shift from pampering to preventative wellness, why yourskin barrier is basically your body's first press conference, and what 40 years of real-world results look like when you lead with science and human dignity atthe same time.  This is not a spacommercial. This is a leadership and longevity conversation. 

Subscribe. Press play. CTRL the Narrative.#LeadersAndLearners #BurkeWilliams #H2V #PreventativeWellness

In this episode of Leaders and Learners, host Tonya McKenzie sits down with award-winning actor, director, producer, and author Blair Underwood to talk about his new book A Soldier's Wife: My Mother, the Marvelous Mrs. Marilyn A. Underwood (April 14, 2026).Marilyn Ann Scales Underwood was the first Black female executive at Barmon Brothers Company, a trained fashion designer, a military wife who moved 22 times, a 30-year MS warrior, and the woman who quietly built the foundation for one of Hollywood's most enduring careers.This conversation covers grief as a love language, Black motherhood as unrecognized leadership, what it cost Blair to write this book, and the fraternal bond that makes this interview unlike any other.Like. Comment. Share. And come back for more. Subscribe to the CTRL the Narrative Newsletter: https://tonyamckenziepr.substack.com

She grew up under the Duvalier regime. She survived an earthquake that shook an entire nation. She uncovered a family secret that changed everything she thought she knew about herself. And then she wrote the book.

Monique Clesca's memoir Silence and Resistance: A Girlhood in Haiti is about growing up where fear, silence, and family secrets shaped everything (Busboys and Poets) and then deciding that silence was no longer an option. On this episode of Leaders and Learners, we go there. Identity. Trauma. What it means to CTRL the narrative when the narrative is your own bloodline.

This one is not for the faint. It IS for the ready.

Listen now. Leave a review. Share with somebody who is carrying a secret that is carrying them.

Tonya McKenzieFounder, Sand & Shores PR | Host, Leaders& Learners Podcast
🌐 sandandshores.com| 🎙️ Leaders & Learners Podcast

💻 Editor, CTRLthe Narrative Newsletter 

Black women have always led. The question is, who benefits from our leadership?

The authors of The Next Little Black Book of Success break down the new rules of power, strategy, and sustainability in a climate that feels increasingly hostile to progress.

Kudos to the authors:

• Elaine Meryl Brown
• Marsha Haygood
• Rhonda Joy McLean

If you are ambitious, exhausted, brilliant, and ready to stop shrinking, this episode is your blueprint.

Subscribe. Share. And let’s control the narrative.

They won a conference championship. They graduated. And then the sport they gave everything to had nowhere for them to go. Getting On Base is a documentary that follows the Cal State Fullerton Titans through their championship season and asks the question women's softball has been waiting for someone to ask out loud: why doesn't elite talent have a professional destination? I sat down with writer and director Carolyn Coal for 40-minutes that will change how you think about Title IX, women's sports, and who we decide is worth investing in.

Watch the full episode now. Like, subscribe, and drop a comment: what do YOU think a real professional pathway for women's softball looks like?

#LeadersAndLearners #GettingOnBase #WomenInSports #Softball #TitleIX #GenderEquity #Documentary #CTRLtheNarrative #SandAndShores

She didn’t wait for access. She created it.

On this episode of Leaders & Learners, I’m joined by Kelsey Nicole Nelson, award-winning sports journalist, professor, founder, and full-on table builder. From launching Listen In With KNN to leading internship pipelines and founding Books Breaking Borders, KNN is proof that legacy beats labels every time.

We talk:
• Building power in sports media as a Black woman
• Creating opportunity when the gatekeepers stall
• Balancing academia, entrepreneurship, and brand
• Why being humble is different than being humbled

If you’re in sports, media, leadership, or trying to bet on yourself louder this year, this one is for you.

🎧 Watch now on YouTube
🎙️ Listen on Spotify
💬 Drop a comment: Are you waiting for a seat, or building the table?

#CTRLtheNarrative #WomenInSports #BlackWomenInMedia

Everyone says they’re evolving.
Few actually are.

I’m sitting down with Steve Goldstein, author of Blogosphere Five: Evolver and LA's Graveside Companion: Where the V.I.P.s R.I.P..

He’s not just an author, he’s a respected business owner and was named Man of the Year in Redondo Beach. That’s community and credibility.

We’re talking evolution in business, staying relevant, and why some leaders adapt while others get stuck telling stories about “back when.”

Here’s the question:

Are you building for what’s next, or protecting what used to work?

Watch. Subscribe. Then tell me in the comments where you really stand.