No business talk today. Just warrior woman stuff. I’m feeling good about this heat wave -- I know I may be alone -- but this is better than February.  I want you to feel good too, and see possibilities as wife, mom and budding or growing business owner. It’s important to savor your greatness. 

Fact: no one has it all together 365 days a year. As we are more than halfway through 2019, we all have asked ourselves at some point since January: “when am I great?” I know it’s in me even when I’m exhausted from 'wifeing', mothering and working, but thankfully I also know the exact time that I’m gonna shine every calendar year. Late July and all of August.

Finding your season means understanding when you're at your strongest. For me, it's definitely my birthday season. I'm a Leo and when summertime carry and Leo season hit, I feel unstoppable. It's important for me that in Leo season I act like the Lion King. (Haven’t seen the new...

A little secret here: I'm a baseball mom. Okay, maybe that's not a secret because those of you who know me know that. Not only do I love baseball, but my sons happen to be pretty darn good players, too. We've spent the last 10 to 11 years chasing him around the country as he pursues his dream. I'm a big believer in chasing your dream. (I even love Meek Mills’ Dreamchaser series, but that's a whole other topic.) Today, I'm going to talk about running through the bag.

Running through the bag is what I often tell my son he must do when he runs down to first base. It means finishing what he started. If you're going to hit a ground ball, I don't care if it's back to the pitcher or to a shot into left field. He better run through the bag as hard as he can and then make the decision on what to do next. Don't get up to the plate, hit the ball and then jog like you don't really want to be there. You go hard or you go home. Run through the bag and finish what you started. We use this...

this week's dope chick
#deardopechick:
meet Keri Herndon-Brown

what makes you dope:

i'm a 43 year old woman who survived being raised in Harlem during the crack epidemic.

my daddy was a hustler during in the 80s in Harlem, so unfortunately after his untimely death, i grew up raised by a single mother.

i quickly realized that the odds weren't stacked in my favor so i learned to do the opposite of everyone around me.

i decided i wasn't having kids out of wedlock as a first in my family, i was headed to Howard University + was going to learn to hustle for my last name.

currently, my husband + i have been married for 19 years, have 4 kids together + run a successful six figure business for the past 13 years together.

i've learned to use the hustle i was raised with to win at this business game.

what are some of the challenges you faced in finding your dopeness + how did you overcome those challenges?

when my husband + i decided to walk away from his role as a educator + a...

While it’s not my birthday or Christmas,  it’s Mother's Day, and for four reasons it’s super special for me.

Motherhood is the realization of a dream.  On one of our first dates, my husband and I went to the village in New York City and we sat and we had lunch. I remember telling him very flatly that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and that was my dream. He coughed up his drink and wasn't quite sure I meant. It's something that’s unfamiliar to many in our young, Black community, but I was adamant that I wanted to be the mom who was available to her children whenever they needed me and especially immediately after school. I wanted to make sure that I was at all my kids events. I wanted to make sure that I was the one they could see as a consistent support in their lives.

So for me, Mother's Day is much more than a spa and brunch and flowers - although I like all those things -  it's also a celebration of a dream that gradually becoming more...

These past few weeks have been hard for me. I have to admit that I never would’ve thought that the death of a rapper 3000 miles away from where I live would affect me the way it has. But yes, I’m still thinking about a person I never met. It’s probably because Nipsey Hussle, AKA Ermias Joseph Asghedom, was not just a rapper; he was an entrepreneur, a community servant and an activist. So while many people may say "Oh well, another rapper got shot. What's the big deal? That's the lifestyle they portray and you get what you give," that doesn't sit well with me. He was more than just a music artist, and it's horrible to see his life taken away from him prematurely.

I grieve for Nipsey Hussle, his significant other, Lauren London, and for their children, not just because they were in the public limelight, but because once upon a time I too was the daughter of a murdered man. For those of you who don't know this about me, my father was murdered when I was eight years...

I have this song on repeat in my head right now. Does anyone remember that song by Anita Baker, “You Bring Me Joy”? It was one of my favorite songs growing up and I remember my mom dancing around the house drinking wine and singing it. Sometimes she would kiss me on top of my head while she was singing and then stare at me in the eyes and make me feel as if she was only singing it to me. I think, as an adult, that Anita Baker was singing it to her husband, boyfriend, man-friend, but I completely understand as a mom now how you could take a song like that and sing it passionately to your child. I have four children, and I love them all equally, but admittedly I look at my son, my only son, and I say, "you bring me joy."

Birthing my son was not easy, and I know a lot of women can relate. Whether the struggle of getting pregnant, having a miscarriage, or miscarriages plural, to having his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and then needing an emergency C-section, I look...