Elizabeth Keckley did it, then went on to build a million-dollar clothing empire. Born enslaved in 1818, Elizabeth watched her enslaver force her mother to work as a seamstress to support his entire household. When she was old enough, Elizabeth asked to take on the work herself — to spare her mother. Her enslaver agreed, but not out of kindness. He sent her to work in a dress shop where she served clients, built a reputation, and generated enough income to support a 17-person household — but legally, every cent belonged to the people who owned her. She had clients. She had skill. She had a business — but couldn't keep a single dollar she earned. When she asked to buy freedom for herself and her son, they named an impossible price: $1,200 — around $45,000 in today's money. But what he didn't expect was this: Keckley was so good at what she did that her clients loaned her the money to buy her freedom. Her needle created INCOME for others. Her relationships created FREEDOM for her. Once free, she moved to Washington, D.C., built a luxury dressmaking business, hired around 20 seamstresses, and dressed Mary Todd Lincoln and the political elite on both sides of the Civil War. She paid back the loan, but it took years. She exemplifies how UNSTOPPABLE Black women really are. Here's the framework I want you to steal from Elizabeth: The Keckley Leverage Method™ 1️⃣ Be great in any state. Your environment can be unjust, but your performance standard is about you. 2️⃣ Relationships are currency. Elizabeth's clients became her "investors" — the bridge between no legal wages and a $1,200 freedom loan. 3️⃣ Don't build a one-woman factory. Once she was free, she hired ~20 seamstresses and scaled. If you're the most skilled and still doing everything, you're capping your revenue at your energy. 4️⃣ Market your proximity to power. Elizabeth didn't stay a secret. She intentionally served high-profile women; their visibility became her marketing. If your clients are heavy hitters but no one knows, you're hiding your best proof.

Hello My Fellow Trailblazers, I am creating a leadership offer for 6-figure earners and I want to ensure that I am building it out based on what they need and not what I think they need. So I am conducting a short market research for this offer. I am specifically speaking with professionals who earn six figures or more, to better understand the pressures, goals, and private challenges that come with high levels of success. It is only five short questions. Your answers would stay general and only help me understand this audience better. Would any of you be open to answering five quick questions? It should take less than 10 minutes via ZOOM platform. If so, Let's connect. I can't wait to meet you.

Hey y’all I’m planning our next two-day intensive and I’m looking for the best days to plan an event like this. What are the two days that you think work best for people to attend a two-day intensive?

Apollo was mentioned in the LBC trainings and it’s a bit out of my budget at the moment. Are there other platforms that would be a good idea to use? I also use social media like Instagram for majority of my creative contracts with NPOs and CBOs and which just wondering if there was any recommendations for that.

I’m watching the Trump administration tell nurses they’re not “professional” anymore. And all I can think about is Mary Eliza Mahoney. Not a policymaker. Not a lobbyist. A Black woman born in 1845 who decided she was a professional long before the government had language for it. Her story didn’t start with a white coat. She got a job at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. Not as “Nurse Mahoney.” As a janitor. A cook. A washerwoman. A nurse’s aide. For more than 15 years, she worked behind the scenes of a system that did not see her as equal. Most people would’ve called it “entry level.” Mary treated it like a paid residency. She watched how the hospital ran. She studied patient care. She learned the rhythms of birth, illness, and recovery from every angle. Then she made a move. She applied to the hospital’s 16-month nursing program. Dozens started. Only a small group finished. Mary Eliza Mahoney graduated in 1879. She became the first Black woman in the United States to complete formal nurse training and earn a professional nursing license. No shortcuts. No “influencer” title. Just work, rigor, and standards. And after all that? Public hospitals still didn’t want her as an equal. So she made another decision: She focused on private-duty nursing. She built a premium practice serving mostly white, wealthy families. She became known for efficiency, discretion, and extraordinary bedside manner. Families requested her by name. No algorithm pushed her content. Her name was the algorithm. And she still didn’t stop with herself. In 1908, she helped co-found the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. She took private success and turned it into public infrastructure. Now put that next to 2026. Nursing gets moved off the “professional degree” list. Loan caps tighten. Graduate programs get harder to afford. A woman-dominated field—especially filled by women of color—gets quietly downgraded on paper. They say, “It’s not a value judgment.”