I grew up on the north side of St. Louis. It was me and my mom in a two-family flat in the heart of the city. My dad wasn't in the picture. We didn't have a lot, and neither did anybody around us. But I had a voice, and I had a hustle. The get it out the mud kind.

Then we moved to St. Charles. It was mostly white, and I felt the difference the first week. What they had. What we didn't. In high school, some people already had a list of what a girl like me would turn out to be. I made it my business to be the opposite. I helped raise my two little sisters. Responsibility found me early, and it made me strong.

I went to college for criminology and sang on the side. I thought I was going to be famous. Then I got pregnant, and the dream changed overnight. I wasn't chasing a record deal anymore. I was feeding a baby, mostly on my own.

I worked in mortgages until 2008 took that away. A bartending license kept the lights on. I got good. Then women started asking me to teach them. So I taught bartending. I did makeup and taught makeup and lashes. Then I took a job at a micro lender in St. Louis. Women would sit down at my desk with an idea and a name and no idea what to click next. I walked them through it. The Secretary of State website. The LLC. The loan papers. I called them about every document and every deadline. One of them got funded for a laundromat. I watched her hold up that big cardboard check, and her whole face lit up.

That's when I knew. The steps aren't hard. Nobody had ever shown me.

This year I secured funding for my own bar. The day before signing, the owner backed out by text. I was furious for a day. Then I hired a commercial realtor and kept going. I am buying my bar.

My kids are 17 and almost 16 now. I learned raising them that the more together I was, money, mind and spirit, the better off they were. That's why I teach women of every background. You don't need a business degree. You don't even need money for an LLC to start. If you can read and click a mouse, you can run a business. I'll show you the steps, and I'll have your back.

That's what Always Amazing Academy is for.

I speak, I teach, and I tell this story anywhere women are ready to hear it. Book me for your stage, your podcast, your interview or your workshop. Let's get you out the mud.