Speaker 1: You guys, this is a momentous day for Brown Ambition podcast.
Speaker 2: It is we have the most brownest, the most ambitious
Speaker 2: person that I think my life joining us.
Speaker 1: She personifies Brown Ambition and I want to do a
Speaker 1: little intro because she deserves it. I mean, come on.
Speaker 1: Our guest today is Levey Ajaye. She is an award
Speaker 1: winning writer. If you do not read her blog awesomeilovey
Speaker 1: dot com, I don't know what is going wrong with
Speaker 1: your life, but you must do it now. But she's
Speaker 1: not just a blogger. She is a writer, a speaker,
Speaker 1: a digital strategist, and she says she thrives at the
Speaker 1: intersection of comedy, technology and activism. Lovey is a thirteen
Speaker 1: year thirteen year blogging so basically since the Internet was born.
Speaker 1: Levey as a blogger. She is the voice behind Awesome
Speaker 1: Me Levey. Of course, it's a humor of block that
Speaker 1: covers everything pop culture. She also has a new book
Speaker 1: out now called I'm Judging You, The Do Better Manual,
Speaker 1: which is going to be released in September twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Unless you want to get out of the game, you
Speaker 1: can pre order it right now wherever books are sold.
Speaker 3: So I.
Speaker 2: Do and she's best friends with Oprah.
Speaker 1: I mean, this has been I feel like this has
Speaker 1: been the year of lovey. But lovey, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming on Brown Ambition.
Speaker 3: I am glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Are you calling us from Chicago?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: I love the Shy only in the summer though, because
Speaker 2: the winter is ignorant.
Speaker 3: Our winter is stupid.
Speaker 2: Yes, So tell us, like, you know what has been,
Speaker 2: because honestly, this has been the year of lovey. Every
Speaker 2: time I turn around, I'm like, well, gosh, darn it,
Speaker 2: this girl is just killing it in these streets. I mean,
Speaker 2: you were killing it before. And I hate when people
Speaker 2: tell me it's your year, girl, I'm like, it's my life.
Speaker 3: But es come on to say that.
Speaker 2: Yes, but definitely this year, you've got some major milestone.
Speaker 2: What probably is your what was your favorite or your
Speaker 2: most like momentous milestone that's far this year?
Speaker 4: Probably interviewing Oprah that would do it. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 4: gotta say that that must have been it. And when
Speaker 4: she grabbed my head, I was like, well I saw
Speaker 4: that picture.
Speaker 1: Wait, So for me, who's not an inner of this world,
Speaker 1: I'm like a hanger on. So I just ride Tiffany's
Speaker 1: delightful coattails. No, tell me how did this happen? How
Speaker 1: did you get to sit next How does one sit
Speaker 1: next to Oprah and get to ask her questions?
Speaker 4: So first Oprah did this, She chose one hundred people
Speaker 4: to be a part of her Super Soul one hundred lists,
Speaker 4: her first Super Sol one hundred lists, and I was
Speaker 4: one of them. That was in April, so that was
Speaker 4: when I first met her. And then her team at
Speaker 4: Owned was just like, you're dope and we think you're
Speaker 4: pretty cool. So they had me come to LA for
Speaker 4: the premiere of their latest show, Green Leaf, that Oprah
Speaker 4: stars in and executive producers and they were like, yeah,
Speaker 4: so we want you to interview our.
Speaker 3: Cast while you're here. What And I was like okay, cool.
Speaker 4: I didn't think the cast will involve would include Oprah.
Speaker 4: I was thinking it was everybody, but Oprah the first person, right,
Speaker 4: Oprah was the first person who sat next to me.
Speaker 1: They probably purposefully don't tell you though.
Speaker 3: Well they told me the day of.
Speaker 4: They were like, yes, so you are going to be
Speaker 4: intervening Oprah and I was like wait what.
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm going to be interviewing who?
Speaker 2: Oprah, Yeah, what did what did your mom say?
Speaker 4: She was watching because it was all going down on
Speaker 4: Facebook Live and she was watching it on Facebook Live
Speaker 4: as it was happening, and she was like.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: I found out from my sister that she was texting
Speaker 4: my sister like, oh my god, I'm watching her right now.
Speaker 4: Like they all stayed up late because in La it
Speaker 4: was eight o'clock in La time, which was ten pm.
Speaker 4: Actually was yeah, eight o'clock La time, so ten pm
Speaker 4: Chicago time.
Speaker 3: But it was incredible, It was It was incredible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I could only imagine, you know, when
Speaker 2: you went down this journey. So, for those of you
Speaker 2: who don't know, Luvey is Nigerian.
Speaker 1: Yes, a blog. You know.
Speaker 2: So growing up in a niger household where like you know,
Speaker 2: your your choices for careers are doctor, lawyer, engineer, pharmacists
Speaker 2: in that order.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: How how was that transition like being allowed to kind
Speaker 2: of be yourself and do this. Was it easy where
Speaker 2: your parents are always kind of on board or was
Speaker 2: it something you had to fight for?
Speaker 4: I think for me, so when I started college, I
Speaker 4: said I was going to be a doctor. My my,
Speaker 4: my watch, McCall it my major coming in was psycho
Speaker 4: g pre med. But then I dropped that pre med
Speaker 4: after first semester of college when I got my first
Speaker 4: d of my whole academic career, and I was like,
Speaker 4: I don't even like hospitals. But I didn't actually tell
Speaker 4: anybody in my family that I dropped the pre med.
Speaker 3: They just came to graduation. What they just came to graduation.
Speaker 4: I got my degree in psychology, so I kept the
Speaker 4: psychology piece.
Speaker 3: But then I think the whole time at that.
Speaker 4: Point, I basically proved that, like, I'm not ridiculously irresponsible,
Speaker 4: and I hadn't done anything up to that point that
Speaker 4: was crazy. So I was kind of left to my
Speaker 4: own devices. But of course, when you when you were
Speaker 4: trying to be a writer, I mean, even though I
Speaker 4: was still fighting at tooth and nails, people just think
Speaker 4: you're playing on the internet. So I still had a
Speaker 4: full time job for up until twenty ten.
Speaker 1: That's how did you balance them both?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: I would come home at night and write because honestly,
Speaker 4: I just love writing and I love marketing, which is
Speaker 4: what I was doing full time. So it was like
Speaker 4: I was kind of enjoying both of it. But really,
Speaker 4: writing is what I was supposed to be doing, and
Speaker 4: I think it became really really real probably twenty twelve,
Speaker 4: when I did press coverage of the Academy Awards red
Speaker 4: carpet and backstage.
Speaker 3: That's when of them.
Speaker 4: It actually kind of like solidified for my mom that oh,
Speaker 4: she's not just playing on the internet.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: I mean you're the first person I go to when
Speaker 1: I'm looking for like a pop culture wrap up like
Speaker 1: your game. I found you through your Game of Thrones
Speaker 1: reviews that, oh, like my favorite thing. I just love
Speaker 1: how you embrace the nerd, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you're so yourself, you embrace all like the little quirks.
Speaker 1: And then you were doing the Scandal reviews for was it?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: I actually started Scandal reviews for myself, like I and
Speaker 4: then Comcast had me do it for them for like
Speaker 4: six months. So I just everything I've been doing has
Speaker 4: kind of happened organ So I just paid attention to
Speaker 4: what I loved doing, and I did it even when
Speaker 4: I wasn't getting paid to do it.
Speaker 2: That's an AHA moment for those of you guys who
Speaker 2: know what that means. Oprah lovers aha moment. Ah.
Speaker 4: I feel like everyone's always like, oh, how did you plan?
Speaker 4: I didn't plan anything, which is interesting. I didn't plan
Speaker 4: any of it. I didn't have any type of strategy
Speaker 4: on this time. I'm going to become an amazing writer.
Speaker 4: I was just doing it every day. I was writing
Speaker 4: every day. I was blogging before it was popular to blog,
Speaker 4: just because I had things to say and I wanted
Speaker 4: to say them.
Speaker 3: So I did.
Speaker 2: Let's get to like the real liitty gritty, because I
Speaker 2: think people look and they think, like, oh, well, love,
Speaker 2: he's funny and she knows all these people, and it
Speaker 2: seems like it's easy. But I always like to know
Speaker 2: what's the hard part, what's the part that you're like, yo,
Speaker 2: I still struggle with this, or if this part is
Speaker 2: not that fun to give people like that it's obviously
Speaker 2: it's awesome, but there are parts that are not so awesome,
Speaker 2: And how do you deal with them?
Speaker 4: With everything, people always see the glory without the that
Speaker 4: the grit behind it. You know, it's when you're a writer,
Speaker 4: there's no straight path, there's no blueprint. You don't necessarily yeah,
Speaker 4: you can get a degree, that doesn't mean you're going
Speaker 4: to get a job. I think it comes down to
Speaker 4: pushing past those hard times and really standing in your
Speaker 4: worth because one of the things about being a creative
Speaker 4: is people will constantly challenge you on your pricing. Photographers
Speaker 4: feel this, you know, artists feel this. Anybody who's working
Speaker 4: for themselves feel this. People feel like they can always
Speaker 4: negotiate you down. Like you can't walk into H and
Speaker 4: M and be like, hey, I know this your cost
Speaker 4: seventeen dollars.
Speaker 3: Can I pay twelve dollars for it? Now?
Speaker 2: Can you preach it please? I'm like Jesus, So it's.
Speaker 4: Just like, no, you have to accept people's value is
Speaker 4: what it is, and it it got easier for me
Speaker 4: to say no to people and say no, but if
Speaker 4: you ever have the money, come back. And you know
Speaker 4: what's funny is a lot of times people are afraid
Speaker 4: to say no because they're afraid that they'll lose money.
Speaker 4: But a lot of the people who I've said no to, hey,
Speaker 4: come back, have come back just because they're like, you
Speaker 4: know what, I've got my money together and I understand
Speaker 4: that you are worth what you are charging because you
Speaker 4: have proving this over and over again.
Speaker 1: I hear some is that a little person in the background.
Speaker 3: That's my niece.
Speaker 2: I was just saying I have no babies. I know,
Speaker 2: I just closed the door. Kids are like, damn your life.
Speaker 5: I'm over here.
Speaker 1: That's your niece. So what's your family like, let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about your family. They can switch scars
Speaker 1: for a little bit.
Speaker 4: I have a Nigerian family, I am. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 4: it's just regular, like I don't know. They are interesting,
Speaker 4: they're funny, they're shady. I have a very Nigerian mom
Speaker 4: who is amazing that cooking gel off rice.
Speaker 2: Because ye better than Ghanaian rice. That's not even let's
Speaker 2: not even start because right, Jeff right. So there's a
Speaker 2: war going on.
Speaker 1: Man, No I know about that Ghandians and the Nigerian wars.
Speaker 1: Two friends in college.
Speaker 2: Nobody somebody had the nerve to post y'all don't know nothing.
Speaker 2: Liberian jellup I said, whoa librarian? Jealof right, don't even
Speaker 2: You're not even in this.
Speaker 3: You don't even go to the same school as.
Speaker 2: You still take it the short bus. What no offense
Speaker 2: to liberrians. I love y'all, we're talking about your rights.
Speaker 1: And wait, wait, lovey, you just said school.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: I heard a rumor that you went to school with
Speaker 1: none other than Michelle Obama, not with Michelle Obama, but
Speaker 1: the same school as Michelle Obama.
Speaker 3: Can you confirm school Whitney Young.
Speaker 1: So this school is the part well of course, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my god. So this school is like what the
Speaker 1: Golden School.
Speaker 4: It is actually like Whitney Young is known for being excellent.
Speaker 4: It's one of the best city high schools in the
Speaker 4: in the country. It's actually been ranked every year since
Speaker 4: its existence. So yeah, like I think one of the
Speaker 4: first black astronauts went to Whitney Young too, So we're
Speaker 4: just amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just pushes out in winter. So I want to
Speaker 2: learn more about this book. I know, like I already
Speaker 2: pre ordered mine and I'm excited. So tell us about
Speaker 2: like your book and what people can expect and when
Speaker 2: they can expect it.
Speaker 4: So my book is called I'm Judging You, The Do
Speaker 4: Better Manual, and it is a collection of essays on life, culture,
Speaker 4: social media and fame and why we are all ridiculous
Speaker 4: and why we can do better. So, and I include
Speaker 4: myself in that, I'm also ridiculous and I can do
Speaker 4: better because as a Nigerian, I can't be on time
Speaker 4: for nothing. What I can't I'm terrible. I'm late for
Speaker 4: the most random things. I'm late for conference calls. I'm
Speaker 4: just terrible. So this book is just me turning the
Speaker 4: mirror on all of us. And it's basically my blog
Speaker 4: on steroids, but it's brand new content.
Speaker 3: It's like me, my best, So I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I don't think people get you, know, as I'm a writer.
Speaker 1: I studied journalism, that's my background. But what you do, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't want people to think that it's easy, Like
Speaker 1: it's not easy to be funny and smart as a writer.
Speaker 1: So who were some of your influences? Like when you
Speaker 1: sit down to write, Like who taught you to be
Speaker 1: funni or to see humor in your writing?
Speaker 4: Honestly, my writing is who I am in real life.
Speaker 4: Like people who know me very well in real life
Speaker 4: will read my blog inside I heard your voice because
Speaker 4: it is truly me, Like you can see you can
Speaker 4: read my blog and be like, this is a conversation
Speaker 4: I would have with her over brunch. So honestly, it's
Speaker 4: been me just being true to myself.
Speaker 3: And my voice.
Speaker 4: But I of course have people who've inspired me, and
Speaker 4: one of them is Angela Nizzle.
Speaker 3: She wrote The Broke.
Speaker 4: Diaries like ten or fifteen years ago, and I remember,
Speaker 4: back when I still had a full time job, I
Speaker 4: found her book and I was reading it on the
Speaker 4: bus cracking up, like you know, one of those laugh
Speaker 4: where you can't keep yourself from laughing and everyone around
Speaker 4: just looking at you, funny.
Speaker 1: One of the bog Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was one of those where I was just like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, I don't even care because I just
Speaker 4: found myself gafoy in different places. And she ends up
Speaker 4: being like one of the writers of one of my
Speaker 4: favorite shows ever, Scrubs.
Speaker 3: She's a black woman.
Speaker 4: Her and I end up actually finding each other online
Speaker 4: because I was like, I'm a huge fan. We actually
Speaker 4: end up becoming friends, so it's kind of crazy. It
Speaker 4: was like a full circle moment for me.
Speaker 3: She's one I'm inspired by.
Speaker 4: Anybody who really stands in their power as critics, as
Speaker 4: smart people who live in the world that has a
Speaker 4: lot to criticize, and just smart people in general inspire me.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite of your recent stories has been, well,
Speaker 1: you're really protective of the Obamas, as I think we
Speaker 1: all should be. Yes, but your post about Malia and
Speaker 1: what she's gone through because she live why do you
Speaker 1: feel protect I mean, I can kind of guess, but
Speaker 1: why do you feel protective of Malia and Sasha and
Speaker 1: the Obamas in general?
Speaker 4: So I'm protective of black girls in general because I
Speaker 4: think the world is too critical of black people, especially
Speaker 4: black girls, Like we get the brunt of everything. We
Speaker 4: are torn to pieces even more than anybody else. So
Speaker 4: for me, I want to be one of the people
Speaker 4: who's balancing it out, you know. So when black girls
Speaker 4: are being when people are calling them some types of names,
Speaker 4: I'm over here like, no, that's not fair because when
Speaker 4: you compare the way people treat us how they treat
Speaker 4: other people, you see the discrepancy. So for me, it's
Speaker 4: a matter of oh no, oh no, I think standing
Speaker 4: up for black girls is one of my favorite hobbies.
Speaker 2: No, I love that. So where do you see yourself?
Speaker 2: Like what I know you said, you don't really plan.
Speaker 2: I remember hearing Oprah say that wants to think and
Speaker 2: she was bugging like she just kind of like leans
Speaker 2: into the experience's life throws her way in. But I
Speaker 2: totally get it now. But sometimes you do have an
Speaker 2: overarching like, well, this is kind of like what I'd
Speaker 2: love to do, Like is there anything huge or major
Speaker 2: that you have that accomplished that you're like, you know,
Speaker 2: this is on my vision board that I'd like to
Speaker 2: do in the future.
Speaker 4: Honestly, my book was like the biggest goal I had
Speaker 4: set for myself thus far, and for me, that goal
Speaker 4: was to become a bestselling author. So I'm hoping by
Speaker 4: the end of this fall, I will say check. Now
Speaker 4: what comes after that, I'm not sure because again I
Speaker 4: haven't planned for any of this, and thus far I've
Speaker 4: done pretty well by just kind of waiting and seeing
Speaker 4: what the universe has for me.
Speaker 3: So maybe TV's next.
Speaker 2: I saw that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're sitting to Oprah. Now Oprah and Ava
Speaker 1: Duverne are creating original content featuring you know, all black casts,
Speaker 1: mainly black cast. I mean, do you see yourself getting
Speaker 1: into that world. There's been so much talk about the
Speaker 1: need for more black female writers, especially.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I think so. I think that might end
Speaker 4: up being the organic next step for me. That's the
Speaker 4: feedback I keep getting from people. People who are even
Speaker 4: in TV have been like, you should be writing for TV.
Speaker 4: So I'm open to it.
Speaker 3: I am very open to it.
Speaker 2: You know, Shanna is like your bff two I was like,
Speaker 2: look at Shanda, because you know, so.
Speaker 3: A Shonda Rhymes is Bay. Like I actually called her
Speaker 3: fairy Bay mother.
Speaker 4: Because she she has taken a liken to my work
Speaker 4: that is like it's beyond flattering, Like there needs to
Speaker 4: be a different word beyond flattering.
Speaker 3: She shared like my she's tweeted randomly by my book.
Speaker 4: She's talked about my while she's been in rooms on panels.
Speaker 3: So it's been it's been crazy. Yeah, has it sunken in?
Speaker 2: People ask me sometimes when something big happens, like how
Speaker 2: do you feel? And honestly, I don't know. Has it
Speaker 2: Like has it sunken in? You know that these things
Speaker 2: are happening or are you still kind of like yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm just like, you know, living life. This is how
Speaker 2: it is. Or do you actually feel the magnitude of
Speaker 2: like what's happening.
Speaker 4: I don't feel the magnitude of what's happening, which sounds
Speaker 4: weird to even say I don't, because I I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't think I take enough time to sit there
Speaker 4: processing like holy smokes, that just happened, like last night,
Speaker 4: for example, the head of the Writer's Guild of America,
Speaker 4: and like I think Northwest tweeted that he loved my
Speaker 4: book and I was like what, And I did what
Speaker 4: for like ten minutes and then moved on. So I think, one,
Speaker 4: I don't want to be I don't want to lose
Speaker 4: myself in the magnitude of what's happening. And I don't
Speaker 4: want to be like oh Man, spending days congratulating myself.
Speaker 4: But I do sometimes kind of scroll through. I use
Speaker 4: my Instagram in my face with account now kind of
Speaker 4: like a yes. And honestly, there are some evenings when
Speaker 4: before I go to sleep, I scroll through my Instagram
Speaker 4: to remind myself of what's happened, and that those moments
Speaker 4: I'm like, wow, okay, we're like now wow, like.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, that's crazy. It's just yeah, it's crazy
Speaker 2: but awesome. And when I look at what you're doing,
Speaker 2: I was I was telling her Mandy, I was before
Speaker 2: we had our little mixed up in earlier. I was
Speaker 2: just telling Lovely like it's that lovey like when you're
Speaker 2: a Nigerian kid, like your parents don't want to hear
Speaker 2: anything about any other possible major, but when you can
Speaker 2: show another niger kid that had succeeded without going to the
Speaker 2: traditional ride of doctor, lawyer, engineer. Then they give you
Speaker 2: kind of like, well, okay, so Lovey, like literally, there's
Speaker 2: gonna be hundreds of thousands of kids, Nigerian kids in
Speaker 2: the next unforeseeable future, saying like, but Mommy, look at Lovey.
Speaker 2: She didn't go to medical school and she's killing it.
Speaker 2: And you know, Mom's be like, oh, well, you know, okay, Lovely,
Speaker 2: that's real.
Speaker 4: Because part of the reason why I thought being a
Speaker 4: writer for so long is because I hadn't seen anybody
Speaker 4: who had made a great living at it while they're
Speaker 4: not like writing if they're not Tony Morrison, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. So not having that example was part
Speaker 4: of the reason why I was like, nah, I can't
Speaker 4: do this. So like the idea that I could be
Speaker 4: somebody's example of like I can do this, that's that's incredible.
Speaker 1: Now, speaking of making a living as a writer on
Speaker 1: you know, you have you have a couple of different
Speaker 1: websites now awesomely Techie, which focuses more on tech entrepreneurship businesses.
Speaker 1: Then you have your pop culture blog Awesomely Lovey. But
Speaker 1: I mean, as you're scaling up to business and like
Speaker 1: earning an income, how do you learn how to manage
Speaker 1: that and budget when you're you know, going from a
Speaker 1: full time job to just you know, owning your own business.
Speaker 4: Well, you learn quickly because if you spend your money.
Speaker 4: If you get a check and you spend your money
Speaker 4: and the next time you get a check is in
Speaker 4: four months and you're like, oh, shoot, I shouldn't spend
Speaker 4: all that money, you will learn quick to manage your
Speaker 4: cash flow that like, you might get windfalls of money,
Speaker 4: but you better save that money so you're not you're
Speaker 4: not gonna be broke and eating romen noodles three months later.
Speaker 4: But that's also one thing that people don't teach enough
Speaker 4: is when you work for yourself. You might feel like
Speaker 4: you ballin when you get a check, but you just know,
Speaker 4: thirty percent of that check does not belong to money.
Speaker 3: Y Like, thirty percent of that check is not yours.
Speaker 3: That is the IRSs.
Speaker 4: But one of the hardest things I would say about
Speaker 4: being an entrepreneur is when you get your tax bill.
Speaker 3: Holy smokes.
Speaker 4: You know it's cool to get money taking out your
Speaker 4: check every two weeks, you don't feel it as hard.
Speaker 4: But when you see a like a bill that is
Speaker 4: over five figures then you have to write a check
Speaker 4: for the irs.
Speaker 3: That stuff will make you sit down real quick.
Speaker 1: Do you have help there or do you have accountants?
Speaker 1: I mean, how much of it is you and how
Speaker 1: much of it are you getting helpless?
Speaker 4: Or I have an accountant that I've been using for
Speaker 4: the last seven years. I haven't really.
Speaker 3: Use her like a bookkeeper like I should.
Speaker 4: I was actually talking to somebody the other day that
Speaker 4: I need to do that next, like because.
Speaker 3: She probably needs to like check me on my spending.
Speaker 3: So yeah, well.
Speaker 2: You can even get a separate because my account was like,
Speaker 2: oh these receipts, that's cute. But I don't do that.
Speaker 2: And so I have a separate bookkeeper where literally she
Speaker 2: lives in La. Once a month, I mail her all
Speaker 2: of my receipt I'm petty, like if I go through
Speaker 2: the toll for fifty cents, I'm like a receipt please.
Speaker 2: I send all my receipt and then if somebody sends
Speaker 2: me an invoice, let's say I pay like my designer
Speaker 2: to make up of to make like a logo or something,
Speaker 2: then I forward her those email invoices and then I
Speaker 2: send her the receipts and every month she puts together
Speaker 2: a quarterly report or monthly report, and then every quarter
Speaker 2: a quarterly report. And I sit with my accountant every quarter,
Speaker 2: Like I just sat with him literally last week, brought
Speaker 2: the report and that I was able to pay because
Speaker 2: I pay every quarter now to write a check and say, okay,
Speaker 2: because it's easier to write, you know, like a three
Speaker 2: thousand dollars check or four then like at the end
Speaker 2: of the year you have, like, you know, a twenty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars check.
Speaker 3: So that's what I did.
Speaker 4: Actually, I've been saying that I was going to I'll
Speaker 4: send that I was going to be on quarterly, but
Speaker 4: I just haven't done it. It's been such a crazy
Speaker 4: year that I've been like, oh man, shoot, I just
Speaker 4: missed three quarters.
Speaker 3: All shoot, we'll see it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now that's normal, but you the sooner, especially once
Speaker 2: you get to a certain tax bracket, you literally you're
Speaker 2: gonna have to pay quarterly because yeah, because the government
Speaker 2: is like, that's now, we want our money upfront. He
Speaker 2: told me that last year was the last year that
Speaker 2: I could get away with my cake. If you're looking
Speaker 2: for a bookkeeper, just let me know, because I see
Speaker 2: too many entrepreneurs who are so dope at what they do,
Speaker 2: but their business failed because of the back end, not
Speaker 2: because of their talent. You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, see who I was like, uh uh I rs
Speaker 4: I did not play with them.
Speaker 3: They'll will get your money. Yes, here you go.
Speaker 1: Who taught you about money growing up? What was that?
Speaker 1: Who are your sort of financial influences?
Speaker 3: None? I had zero.
Speaker 1: I don't feel a long anymore.
Speaker 4: Having having conversations about money was not really what I
Speaker 4: did growing up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I kind of self taught on that.
Speaker 2: She was like, Nope, Nope, they didn't talk about in
Speaker 2: my household except for to say there's no money exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't wanna. I don't want to let you
Speaker 1: go before we talk about a project that's really near
Speaker 1: and dear to your heart and I want to hear
Speaker 1: more about it. It's the Red Pump Project, which correct
Speaker 1: me frame wrong, but it benefits HIV AIDS for women
Speaker 1: and girls.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so reference the nonprofit that I co founded seven
Speaker 4: years ago with a friend of mine. And yeah, we
Speaker 4: do raise awardeness by the impact of HIV and AIDS
Speaker 4: on women and girls.
Speaker 3: And we started.
Speaker 4: It because I met somebody who had twenty cousins who
Speaker 4: were living with her grandmother in Malawi because their parents
Speaker 4: had died from age related complications, and she had a
Speaker 4: friend who had told her a close friend who told
Speaker 4: that he was HIV positive, and we were like, oh, man,
Speaker 4: we didn't even know this epidemic was still this bad
Speaker 4: because we don't even hear about it anymore. So for us,
Speaker 4: it was important to generate conversation. We wanted to decrease
Speaker 4: stigma about it because we're like, if we're not hearing
Speaker 4: about it, everyone else isn't hearing about it, and nobody's
Speaker 4: talking about this issue, So let's do it. And we
Speaker 4: started as a social media campaign. We started by getting
Speaker 4: bloggers to talk about it on National Women and Girls
Speaker 4: HIV and AI's Awareness Day, which is March tenth every year,
Speaker 4: and that first year, which was in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 4: we had like one hundred and thirty five bloggers join us,
Speaker 4: so that was cool, and then it became a nonprofit
Speaker 4: organization and we've been going for seven years. We do
Speaker 4: events around the country around like safe sex and teaching
Speaker 4: women and girls that it's okay to be sexual, but
Speaker 4: here are the tools you need to know to be
Speaker 4: safe and we would have red shoes, by the way,
Speaker 4: So that's why we call the red punk projects. We
Speaker 4: use red shoes to kind of grab people's attention. So
Speaker 4: a lot of people see me in red shoes and
Speaker 4: they're like, I.
Speaker 1: Gues, well, I mean I heard you might like shoes
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yes, I have a shoe problem.
Speaker 4: In fact, my accountant Okay, see I think it's my
Speaker 4: accountant's fault too.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you why.
Speaker 4: Because she told me that red shoes are tax deductive
Speaker 4: expenses for me, now yeah, And I was like, well,
Speaker 4: then I am doing business every time I buy a
Speaker 4: pair of red shoes.
Speaker 2: Now. But she's right though, like you, yeah, just being
Speaker 2: able to write off every little thing.
Speaker 3: Is right off.
Speaker 4: Like I can write off certain clothes up by because
Speaker 4: I'm always speaking so haircut, My haircuts are now business expenses, y'all.
Speaker 4: What I'm like, if we talk about business, eat ice cream,
Speaker 4: I'm like, I need that cone receipts. You're like, that
Speaker 4: was part of my business meeting, thank you.
Speaker 2: No, that's just dope. I just I just more more.
Speaker 2: My dad would say more grease to your elbow. And
Speaker 2: you know you make such a nice thing, Oh my god,
Speaker 2: to your elbow, and we're just like really really like
Speaker 2: proud of you. And just because when when I'm most
Speaker 2: about you, I forget where I was. I was just
Speaker 2: it was a group of black women. I don't know
Speaker 2: where I was, but your name came up and oh,
Speaker 2: you know what, I don't know if you know a
Speaker 2: Vita from No Madness. Oh yeah, yeah, so she she
Speaker 2: just moved. She had a housewarming, and there were so
Speaker 2: many dope women in the room. Glinda from Black Girl's
Speaker 2: Rock was there. Oh, just a bunch of doulpt black
Speaker 2: women here because Avita moved to Newark where I live,
Speaker 2: and your name came up and across the board, everyone
Speaker 2: was like, you know, what's so dope about Lovey like yo?
Speaker 2: From people who knew you from way back to people
Speaker 2: who know you now, just always the same, funny as hell,
Speaker 2: cool as hell, just never any heirs or arrogance or
Speaker 2: any of that. And you know, and that's saying a
Speaker 2: lot for that, Jerians, because I mean, if we if
Speaker 2: we're nothing else, we're prideful and yeah, so it's just
Speaker 2: dope to like when I first met you, because Mandy,
Speaker 2: I first met love you in person in Barbados last year. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 2: my cousin had a She owned this bridal magazine called
Speaker 2: Munda Luchi, and she had this retreat and oh my god,
Speaker 2: I never laughed so hard.
Speaker 3: We had a good time, we did.
Speaker 2: And I can't wait for it to do it again
Speaker 2: in November. I mean November this year in New Orleans.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I just want to one thank you for
Speaker 2: always just being so down to everything cool and just
Speaker 2: continue to rise. Where can people find you? Like, if
Speaker 2: they want to follow you, they want to follow your shoes,
Speaker 2: if they want to get your food.
Speaker 3: On the down to earth thing.
Speaker 4: People always tell people that, Like, honestly, it's what happens
Speaker 4: when you don't take full credit for everything that's happening
Speaker 4: for you. It is basically when you understand that you
Speaker 4: are standing on the shoulder of gods and goddesses and
Speaker 4: basically you're a product of God's great So I don't
Speaker 4: have a right to be all arrogant and trifling because
Speaker 4: I have enough people in my life who'll be like, girls,
Speaker 4: sit down. So but yeah, so everyone can find me
Speaker 4: on the interwebs. I am all over the place, lovey
Speaker 4: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Speaker 3: And that's l u v v I e.
Speaker 4: I've actually trained Google to where if you actually type
Speaker 4: in just my first name, all my stuff comes up.
Speaker 3: So that's cool. But yeah, I'm easy to find.
Speaker 4: And then I have my shoes to gram My Shoes,
Speaker 4: my Instagram account that is dedicated to my addiction.
Speaker 3: To shoes, shoes, m U, S T, l U v
Speaker 3: V shoes.
Speaker 4: So yeah, people can see my kicks of the day
Speaker 4: and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I need to follow that right now, lovey, before we
Speaker 1: let you go, I want to do a quick, little
Speaker 1: rapid fire question round. This is the first time. This
Speaker 1: is the first time we're doing it, and I feel.
Speaker 2: Like I went to hell.
Speaker 1: This is new or I got ideas. I got lots
Speaker 1: of ideas behind the scenes. Okay, so got about I
Speaker 1: don't know eight or so questions, but you have to
Speaker 1: answer the first thing that comes first, first thing that
Speaker 1: comes to mind? All right, you ready? Yep, Baracco and
Speaker 1: Michelle fierce game of threat Phones or scandal unmissible? No, no,
Speaker 1: oh no, I didn't explain the rules of the game right.
Speaker 5: Here, gagging, love.
Speaker 1: Sorry, it's my fault. I said the first thing that
Speaker 1: comes to night, but I meant choose one.
Speaker 4: This is that first thing that comes to mind, and
Speaker 4: I was like, hilarious.
Speaker 2: Sorry, here my face like, wait, what's happening?
Speaker 3: Freaking hilarious? Okay, let's do it. That's funny.
Speaker 1: Don't worry. This is what the start up phase.
Speaker 4: This is.
Speaker 1: This is We're still in beta testing. We're still in
Speaker 1: a b testing. All right, try again, all right, Barack
Speaker 1: or Michelle.
Speaker 3: Michelle Game of Thrones or scandal, Game of Thrones?
Speaker 2: Why keep going?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay, this is gonna be easy for your
Speaker 1: probably new shoes or.
Speaker 3: Food, new shoes unless the food is rice.
Speaker 1: All right, Oprah, Oprah or Gail?
Speaker 3: Oh, come on Oprah for Gail?
Speaker 1: All right? Nighttime or daytime? Nighttime, text or call, call,
Speaker 1: Instagram or Facebook, Facebook, breakfast or brunch ooh brunch.
Speaker 3: Yep, because I'll be late to all the types of breakfast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, last one, Kim or Taylor?
Speaker 3: Oh hell no, neither question right? Like what neither one
Speaker 3: of them?
Speaker 1: Okay, fine, there's an answer. Answer B is none of
Speaker 1: the above.
Speaker 2: Yes, you keep you have to keep the misunderstanding in
Speaker 2: the beginning.
Speaker 4: That's just oh yeah, no, please do your people gonna
Speaker 4: be like why are people who are supposedly so smart? Oh?
Speaker 2: My god, this was like my favorite interview ever. Thank
Speaker 2: you so so so so much for joining us, Lovey.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, this is super fun.
Speaker 1: You just made my day. Thank you, Lovey. Everyone go
Speaker 1: to awesome ilovey dot com right now.
Speaker 5: Indeed, all right, so you're.
Speaker 1: Welcome for that interview. I feel like we just made
Speaker 1: your Tuesday. So we're gonna piece that a little bit
Speaker 1: early on this week's episode. But before we go, Tiffany
Speaker 1: has a reminder for you all.
Speaker 2: Remember we have a contest in that we want to
Speaker 2: know what is Brown Ambition mean to you? And we
Speaker 2: are going to pick anywhere from five to ten listeners
Speaker 2: to join Mandy and I for dinner in New York
Speaker 2: City on us. I mean, the transportation is on you,
Speaker 2: but the dinner is on us, and we're just gonna
Speaker 2: sit talk be brown and fabulous and fun. So if
Speaker 2: you can email us at.
Speaker 1: Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: What Brown Ambition means to you? You and I guess
Speaker 2: in the subject line what should they put?
Speaker 1: Just like put anything you want contest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so yeah, we want to eat because it's
Speaker 2: our one year anniversary, returning one soon and we want
Speaker 2: to meet like some of the listeners and just have
Speaker 2: a good time with y'all. So make sure that you
Speaker 2: email us, make sure you share you know what Brown
Speaker 2: Ambition means to you, not necessarily the show, just in
Speaker 2: general what Brown Ambition means to you. And we will
Speaker 2: pick our top faves and we'll have dinner.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. Food, booze Brown.
Speaker 2: I don't even drink, but honey, I don't need to drink. Man.
Speaker 2: Today was just such an awesome day that was just
Speaker 2: so so much fun with Lovey. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I hope you guys enjoyed for making it happen.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no problem. Honestly, I didn't even have to do anything.
Speaker 2: She was looking to be interviewed to. Okay, all right, y'all,
Speaker 2: we will see you next week. And I don't know,
Speaker 2: keep it brown, keep it ambitious.
Speaker 1: Look a look. Okay, bye bye,