theforcedpivot Podcast welcomes Kim Battle.

Kim Battle, Owner and Founder of Kandy Apples by K.  They sell incredible and beautiful candy apples in order to enhance the typical candy apple experience.

Kim grew up in Raleigh and graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in Business Management with a concentration in Finance.  After 19 years as an accountant, she took a leap of faith and launched the first Candy Apple-focused shop in the area.

Kandy Apples by K has received numerous awards and recognition in the area and has also been featured in the Food Network magazine and Al Roker’s Family Style show on The Today Show platform. 

On April 13th Kandy Apples By K will celebrate its 5th year of business!

www.KandyApplesByK.com

Music Credits:
CellTower

theforcedpivot Podcast welcomes Barron Damon.

Barron Damon is a Certified Philanthropic Coach through the International Coaching Federation (ICF) with over 20 years of experience working as a Non-Profit Executive.  Barron is currently the Managing Partner of the Business of Life Coaching and Consulting (BOLCC) a service and education company.  As a philanthropic coach, Barron teaches donors how to Live their Legacy through strategic giving that aligns with their deepest values.   

Barron has coached and trained thousands of people during his professional career and has been featured in national magazines as well as a special guest on TV, radio shows, and podcasts discussing topics related to philanthropy, business, youth development, and travel.  Barron is a nationally syndicated radio host and the host of Live Your Legacy and Giving While Black Podcast, He is the author of Monday Morning Manna and a collaborative book "Transforming Lives" which will be released this summer. Barron is the CEO of the BK Damon Foundation whose mission is to make a difference in the lives of young people and adults through philanthropic acts of kindness.

Giving While Black Podcast

Music Credits:
CellTower

theforcedpivot Podcast welcomes Ron Brade.

As Senior Vice President of Administration & Chief Operating Officer, Ron Brade supports the President of Xavier University in Louisiana, in strategic analysis and planning. He oversees the daily operations of the university, ensuring administrative units fulfill the mission of the university. This includes overseeing infrastructure, the university Master Plan and its execution, finances, IT, facilities operations, human resources, campus safety, risk and insurance management, compliance, and satisfaction of internal and external stakeholders.

Before his appointment with Xavier, Mr. Brade was the Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Sourcing & Chief Procurement Officer at the University of North Texas (UNT) System. In this role, he provided strategic direction, leadership, and supervision of strategic sourcing, the Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Program, contract management, credit card services, and accounts payable functions across the system’s member institutions in Denton, Dallas, and Fort Worth. Most recently, Mr. Brade led the transformation of UNT System's procurement infrastructure, including the automation of its procure-to-pay processes.

Prior to joining UNTS, Mr. Brade retired as a member of the Senior Executive Service, having spent 29 years working in the federal government. While he completed his federal career as the Associate Center Director for NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, his federal career included center and agency-level leadership responsibilities covering Human Capital, Procurement, IT, Strategic Infrastructure, and Protective Services. In addition to NASA, Mr. Brade worked for other federal agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency at the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Institute of Standards & Technology.

Mr. Brade is a native of South Boston, VA, and received his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and his master’s degree in Public Administration from George Washington University. He is married to Angela LaCroix Brade, and they have three children: Bianca, Beau, and Brielle.

Music Credits:
CellTower

theforcedpivot Podcast welcomes Grammy-nominated R&B Artist Eric Roberson.

As a GRAMMY Award-nominee, Singer, Songwriter, Producer, and Howard University alum, Eric Roberson continues to break boundaries as an independent artist in an industry dominated by major labels, manufactured sounds, and mainstream radio. Described as the original pioneer of the independent movement in R&B/Soul music, Eric has achieved major milestones in his career, from being a successful songwriter and producer for notable artists such as Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, Dwele, Vivian Green and countless others, to headlining sold out tours across the country.

Eric is celebrating over twenty years as an independent artist, creating “Honest Music” since 2001, which has afforded him the artistic freedom that isn’t typically offered in the mainstream music industry. Throughout 2021, Eric will be sharing his creative thought process and the work he’s done on his last 13 solo albums. “I was more than willing to take less to enjoy my passion. I was fortunate to be rewarded with a career...a career that I never dreamed of.”
In June 2021, Eric will release a new single, entitled “Lessons”. Ironically, the song was recorded on the morning of his 12th wedding anniversary to his wife Shawn, with whom he credits as his inspiration. Eric says, “Being blessed to be with a woman who has had my back and who completes me, helped put me in a special mood to create”.

As Eric reflects on his new single release, he said, “I thank God for not having my temporary prayers answered. We have to have the heartbreak, the roadblocks and [other] things to not work out as planned. There's a lesson in just being patient and swimming against the current to get to your destination. That's the lesson for me. Knowing that there's a reason for setback, for failure, for all of it."

While recording the trilogy album Earth, Wind & Fire in 2017, Eric created “The Process”, a forum in which he invites fans to navigate through his creative experience. It allows fans to listen and comment on unreleased songs, thereby being a part of the “process” of making music. “We are losing so much of the culture that went with listening to music. Letting the fans watch us create the albums was our way of bringing some of the old music culture back,” says Eric.

Eric was nominated in 2010 and 2011 for a GRAMMY award in the “Best Urban/Alternative Performance” category and continues to blaze trails unheard of as an independent artist. He was the recipient of the “Underground Artist of the Year” BETJ Virtual Award, with Rahsaan Patterson in 2008, and he became the first independent artist to be nominated for a BET Award in 2007.

The portal for all things Eric Roberson
 https://ericrobersonmusic.com/

Music Credits:
CellTower

theforcedpivot Podcast welcomes Greg Hedgepeth.

Greg Hedgepeth was born and raised in Halifax County, NC, and was a first-generation college student that attended East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. There he received his undergraduate degree in Economics with a minor in Business Administration. He later received his Masters in Management and Leadership from Webster University. Greg is also in the early stages of his doctoral pursuit in Learning and Organizational Change. 

Greg currently serves as the Director of Marketing and Communications for the NC State University Graduate School and is the President and CEO of Substantial Media, LLC an award-winning minority multimedia platform that seeks to amplify the voices and stories of black and brown communities and bring awareness to important issues that impact these communities on a local, state and national level. Greg has been in the field of higher education marketing and communication for over 16 years, serving in leadership roles at the divisional and university level. Greg is a certified digital marketing professional, a husband, a father of two beautiful little girls, a professor within the Mass Communications and Digital Technology Department at Shaw University, and a social entrepreneur. Greg has presented and facilitated at conferences, summits, and workshops all around the country and has been awarded for his service work within the minority community and the field of education.

Substantial Magazine
https://www.facebook.com/SubstantialMagazine/
https://twitter.com/substantialmag

Music Credits:
Interlude 2 (KillMyVibe) by Dj DCM

theforcedpivot Podcast creator Antoine Medley shares his thoughts on loss and how one deals with the changes in their life after loss. 

Medley is joined briefly by special guest Licensed Clinical Social Worker Dekevias Atkinson, Sr.

Music Credits:
Interlude 2 (KillMyVibe) by Dj DCM

theforcedpivot Podcast chats with guest Brenton Logan on his life journies and how the pandemic affected him.

Brenton Logan is a native of Richmond, VA.  He received his undergraduate education from Shaw University where he studied sociology. Brenton serves as a board member of The Tulsa Initiative, Inc. a non-profit organization which utilizes mentorship and education to cultivate young minds, preparing them to change lives. In addition, Brenton is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American Men.

Brenton is the CEO and founder of N-Tech-U where he provides professional preparation, coaching, and networking in the tech industry for HBCU students. Brenton has worked in community engagement, sales, and process improvement. Prior to joining Capital One Brenton led 30+ employees at AT&T doing escalations and technical troubleshooting. He has also worked at Lenovo, leading education sales and creating process improvement strategies. Brenton most recently worked at Amazon Web Services where he was program manager in the business operation organization. 

Brenton describes himself as a master relationship builder and servant leader. He subscribes to Dr. King's philosophy “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."

Music Credits:
Interlude 2 (KillMyVibe) by Dj DCM

theforcedpivot Podcasts sits down with Natalie Bullock Brown.
Natalie Bullock Brown is an award-winning producer, an Assistant Teaching Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies at North Carolina State University, and a 2021 Rockwood Institute JustFilms Fellow. She is director/producer of a documentary work-in-progress that explores the impact of the beauty standard on Black women and girls; and is a producer on award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt’s PBS documentary, HAZING, as well as his upcoming NOVA film, Lee and Liza’s Family Tree.

Natalie is also a proud member of the Documentary Accountability Working Group, which released a values-informed framework for documentary filmmakers that emphasizes care, consent, and collaboration as a pathway to ethical storytelling. Natalie was the StoryShift Strategist for Working Films, where she guided the organization’s work in promoting accountable documentary storytelling.

Natalie was also a regular guest and contributor for #BackChannel, a monthly segment on North Carolina public radio’s The State of Things. And for nearly 12 years, Natalie was an assistant professor of film and broadcast media in the Department of Media & Communications at Saint Augustine's University. She also served 12 years as co-host of Black Issues Forum, a public affairs program on UNC-TV, North Carolina’s statewide public television network. Natalie was also an associate producer on documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ 10-part PBS series, Jazz. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film Production from Howard University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Northwestern University. Natalie is a native Chicagoan but a New Yorker in her heart.

Natalie Bullock Brown
http://www.NatalieBullockBrown.com

Music Credits:
Interlude 2 (KillMyVibe) by Dj DCM

theforcedpivot Podcast welcomes Dwight Vick.  Vick shares how life took him from Tidewater, VA to helping others.  How from the gridiron to counseling.

Dwight is a proud graduate of Virginia Tech. While at Virginia Tech, Dwight played for the legendary Coach Frank Beamer as an offensive lineman from 1994-1999.

He helped lead the Virginia Tech Hokies to five consecutive bowl game appearances and two consecutive Big East conference championships. As a senior in 1998, Dwight was selected All Big East and served as team captain. Dwight was also a three-year letterman and received numerous athletic team and individual awards. In May 1999, he earned a B.S. in Sociology and a B.S. in Family and Child Development. Upon graduation, he attended the Baltimore Ravens mini-camp as a free agent before returning to Virginia Tech as a Strength and Conditioning Coach for the football team.

In August 2010, Dwight graduated from Liberty University with two Master’s degrees: one in Marriage and Family Therapy, and the other in Human Services with a Specialization in Family Therapy. Dwight is a columnist for 247 Sports VTScoop.com where he writes a weekly column covering the Virginia Tech football team. In 2017, Dwight became a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and now working on earning a Doctorate degree.

Over the last 27 years, Dwight has conducted motivational presentations and workshops focused on empowering youth and their families to become successful in all their endeavors. Dwight is committed to assisting with the educational, spiritual, mental, and physical development of all young people. In an effort to help youth achieve their dreams of becoming successful, he created Victory Life in 2018 and works as the Director of Student Development. In this role, he provides therapeutic mentoring to at-risk youth focuses on goal setting, career development, time management, and life skills.

Vicktory Life
http://www.vicktorylife.com

Contact the show [email protected]
Website:  http://www.theforcedpivot.com
Music Credits:
Interlude 2 (KillMyVibe) by Dj DCM

theforcedpivot Podcast welcomes Vonda Paige.  Paige shares her ups, downs, and opportunities that allowed her to thrive.

Paige has over 25 years of experience in non-profit management, marketing, social media, and public relations. She is an award-winning journalist and the founder of The First Black Woman, a digital media project recognizing the historic contributions of Black women.

She is a life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Vice President of the Virginia Tech Black Alumni Society. She is co-founding member of 2CHi Entertainment, an independent film production company. She is the executive producer of the independent short film, “UH-OH” (2018) which was selected by the Pan African Film Festival and the Roxbury International Film Festival. She is also the executive producer and producer of The Woodstock of House (2021), a documentary that tells the story of Chicago house music. The film has won 9 awards and has been screened in 17 film festivals.

More Info:
First Black Woman
The Woodstock of House (2021)

Contact the show [email protected]
Website:  http://www.theforcedpivot.com
Music Credits:
Interlude 2 (KillMyVibe) by Dj DCM