The Power Table

Nationally syndicated radio host DeDe McGuire shares how working two jobs in secret for five years built the leverage that launched her own show, and why she's now trademarking her way toward full ownership and independence. She also opens up about the loneliness of leadership and why she leads with a relaxed, mistake-friendly style.

• How DeDe secretly worked two radio jobs for five years to build leverage, using lessons from Tom Joyner and Doug Banks to eventually launch her own syndicated show, DeDe in the Morning
• Her current push toward full ownership of her show — including years of proactively trademarking her name, segments, and brand so her intellectual property stays with her, not the company
• The discipline shift once syndication hit: cutting out late nights, protecting her voice, and treating show prep like a full-time craft
• The mission behind the DeDe McGuire Foundation — starting with scholarships for mothers on the theory that "if you want to change a child's trajectory, change their mother's first," then expanding post-COVID to serve the whole family
• Her leadership style — relaxed, mistake-tolerant, and rooted in "plot, plan, strategize, organize, mobilize" — plus her closing advice that leadership can be lonely, and to take your seat anyway

The Power Table is brought to you by the California Black Women Collective Empowerment Institute. Learn more here.

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Civil rights attorney, advocate, and media personality Areva Martin traces her leadership journey from a young entrepreneur building her own law firm to founding Special Needs Network, now a statewide organization serving Black and brown families affected by autism. She reflects on the difference between being liked and being respected, and why building a bench is both a leadership and financial imperative.

• The early lesson that reshaped her leadership: realizing not everyone shares her work ethic, and learning the critical difference between being liked and being respected as a leader
• Her "no job too big, no job too small" philosophy, rooted in her upbringing in St. Louis, and why leaders should know and value the people they lead regardless of title
• How her son's autism diagnosis led her to co-found Special Needs Network out of a law firm cubicle, growing it into a statewide organization with 7 locations and 600+ employees
• Navigating the "why tax" — constantly having to justify why underserved Black and brown communities need dedicated advocacy, from early regional center pushback to current work on neurodivergent hiring for LA's 2028 Olympics
• Building her bench intentionally through S&N's NextGen initiative, mentoring Gen Z and millennial leaders (including her daughter Morgan), and restructuring the nonprofit's revenue model so it can outlast its founder

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Kellie Todd Griffin and Lynn Richardson close out the season by tackling the money shame so many Black women carry: the belief that struggling financially is a personal failing rather than the result of a system that was never built in their favor. This final episode reframes money as something to master together, in the open, rather than something to hide from.

• "I'm just bad with money" is a lie worth retiring. Knowing how to earn money doesn't automatically teach you how to grow, invest, or protect it — that's a separate skill set anyone can learn, at any age.
• Understanding and controlling money is like any relationship: if you don't learn how it works, it ends up controlling you instead of the other way around, and there's no shame in starting that education later in life.
• Lynn's 8-step money mastery framework: spend less money, get more money, get your money back (via tax strategy), make your money grow, protect your wealth, own where you live, leverage your credit, and give.
• Protecting wealth means real safeguards: sufficient life insurance, a properly structured estate plan, and choosing an executor deliberately to prevent wealth from being lost through poor planning rather than external circumstances.
• Talking about money shouldn't be reserved for moments of crisis. Building it into everyday life through book clubs, family conversations, and community gatherings turns financial education into something shared and sustained, not isolated and shameful.

The Power Table is brought to you by the California Black Women Collective Empowerment Institute. Learn more here.

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Kellie Todd Griffin and Lynn Richardson break down how a home-based business can legally unlock hundreds of tax deductions most people never learn about: turning the tax code from an intimidating obstacle into a tool for keeping more of what you already earn. This episode makes the case that the fastest money you'll find this year isn't a raise, it's the money you're already owed.

• The tax code isn't a fixed burden. It's a system with rules the IRS has made public, and living your life "like a business" unlocks deductions on everyday spending like meals, mileage, and phone use when they're tied to business purposes.
• Everyone needs a home-based business (a sole proprietorship or LLC filed on Schedule 1) to access deductions that W-2 employees and even traditional storefront businesses can't claim, from Uber driving to consulting to selling products.
• A legitimate home office lets you write off a proportional share of your rent, mortgage, utilities, and other home costs based on how much space it occupies.
• Hiring your own children (or grandchildren, nieces, nephews) to work in your home-based business turns money you're already spending into a tax write-off for you and tax-free income for them, echoing Shaquille O'Neal's strategy of paying his mother a salary instead of buying her a house outright.
• Running a business "like a business" means documenting every expense since without real records and profit intent, an activity is treated as a hobby and the deductions disappear.

The Power Table is brought to you by the California Black Women Collective Empowerment Institute. Learn more here.

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Kellie Todd Griffin and Lynn Richardson dig into the affordability crisis facing Black women in California — where rent, childcare, and the cost of "keeping up" often collide with a paycheck that was never built to cover it all. This episode offers real, actionable strategies for restructuring costs and turning freed-up money into wealth, without waiting on a broken system to catch up.

• The crisis is systemic, not personal: Black women in California earn about 60 cents to every dollar paid to white men (56 cents for single mothers), over 80% of Black households are led by women breadwinners, and Black women in LA County are evicted at nearly double the rate of any other group.
• Reevaluating "sacrifice" is key: Lynn shares her own turning point during the 2008 recession when she had to tell her kids there was no money for Christmas toys, and how that honesty gave them a financial education more valuable than presents.
• Rethinking what "the best" costs: private school tuition, elite daycare, and expensive extracurriculars (like $1,400 cheerleading fees) often reflect price, not actual value, and there are strategic alternatives, including hiring your own children in a home-based business as a tax-advantaged way to cover costs.
• Community and communal living is a practical, historically-rooted strategy for closing the affordability gap right now.
• Facing a layoff or income loss requires immediate action, not business as usual: treat potential unemployment like a state of emergency, preserve reserves as a last resort, and consider strategic moves like refinancing before a crisis hits rather than after.

The Power Table is brought to you by the California Black Women Collective Empowerment Institute. Learn more here.

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Kellie Todd Griffin and Lynn Richardson tackle the biggest reason Black women have been locked out of generational wealth, and the biggest way to reclaim it: homeownership. From busting down-payment myths to building family compounds, this episode makes the case that ownership isn't out of reach, it's a decision away.

• Black homeownership has hit its lowest point since 2021: 45% of Black Americans own homes versus 74% of white Americans, and in California only 24% of Black women are homeowners, down from 49% before the 2008 housing crash.
• Estate planning gaps are erasing generational wealth: Lynn shares how her husband's grandmother worked until 84 to pay off her home, only for it to be lost after her passing due to a lack of estate planning.
• Turning rent into a mortgage is the biggest lever available: a $4,000/month rent payment adds up to nearly $200,000 lost over four years, while that same payment as a mortgage builds equity and can qualify buyers for a home well over $1 million in California with less than $30,000 down.
• Strategic real estate investing: buying a multi-unit property, living in one unit while renting the others, then using that equity to fund the next purchase is a realistic path to funding retirement now that pensions and 401(k)s are no longer dependable safety nets.
• Owning together (siblings, friends, multi-generational compounds) and treating fear as "false evidence appearing real" rather than fact are key mindset shifts — homeownership isn't locked away; it's a strategy anyone can build toward.

The Power Table is brought to you by the California Black Women Collective Empowerment Institute. Learn more here.

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Kellie Todd Griffin and Lynn Richardson kick off a raw, no-sugarcoating conversation about why one paycheck is no longer enough for Black women — and what to do about it. Drawing on Lynn Richardson's own journey from debt to financial mastery, this episode breaks down the real risk of relying on a single income stream and how to start building a second one, starting with what you already have.

• The wage gap is real and worsening: Black women in California earn just 60 cents to every dollar a white man makes, and single moms drop to 56 cents while the average net worth of a Black woman between 35 and 55 is just $1.
• One income stream is a genuine financial risk: as companies lean further into automation and AI, no job is guaranteed, making a single paycheck "hazardous to your wealth."
• Reframe the "side hustle": treating extra income like a side chick means it never gets the structure or attention it needs — it deserves the same strategy as your main job.
• Finding your next income stream starts with what you already have: ask what you're good at, what you're passionate about, and what you've already been trained to do.
• Money habits matter as much as income: Lynn Richardson's 10/10/30/50 budgeting rule (tithe, save, incidentals, bills) and the mindset shift from working for money to making money work for you.

The Power Table is brought to you by the California Black Women Collective Empowerment Institute. Learn more here.

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Join the Power Table with our President & CEO Kellie Todd Griffin and this episode's guests Dr. Elaine Batchlor, MPH, President and CEO of MLK, Jr. Hospital and Dr. Medell Briggs-Malonson, MPH, MSHS, Chief, Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UCLA Health.

Join the Power Table with our President & CEO Kellie Todd Griffin and this episode's guests Teah Hairston, Owner and CEO of Be Love Holistic and Sonya Young Aadam, President of CA Black Women's Health Project. 

A conversation with two dynamic Generation Now Black Women sharing their thoughts and experience in the way in which they are navigating the world. Social Influencer Lucky Kyles and Music Licensing Executive Jasmine Smith join Kellie Todd Griffin for this episode that is focused on uplifting the voices of young Black Women.