Elevathers

Send us Fan Mail This week on Elevathers, we're celebrating love, new beginnings, and the beauty of letting life surprise you. After seven years together, Krystal is stepping into her fiancée era, and we're getting into ALL the details of the surprise proposal that left everyone speechless (including her best friend)! 🥹 From the romantic proposal and designing the perfect engagement rin...

Send us Fan Mail How do you set friendship boundaries without feeling like a bad friend? And what happens when different expectations around time, money, travel, and generosity start creating resentment? In this episode, we’re talking about adult friendships, people pleasing, friendship boundaries, communication, and money between friends — especially when being the “giving friend” starts to feel...

Send us Fan Mail Your money habits might not be a “discipline problem” at all, they might be a nervous system pattern. We sit down with Jessica Bayers, founder of Bougie on a Budget and a neuroscience-trained personal finance educator, to explain why so many smart women know what to do with money and still overspend, avoid their bank balance, or self-sabotage right when things start going well.  W...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever felt like you’re making money but it’s still not turning into wealth, this conversation will hit different. We’re joined by Quiana Shante, a top-producing Atlanta luxury real estate broker, founder of Watch Reality Co., and a woman who’s turned a $5,000 move to Atlanta into a career spanning luxury listings, education, media, and now real estate development. She bre...

Send us Fan Mail The worst thing you’ve lived through does not get to be the last word on who you are. We sit with entrepreneur, speaker, and execution strategist Yocairys Diaz as she opens up about a tragedy at 17 that led to incarceration and the death of her brother, the moment she dropped to her knees in Rikers Island, and how faith slowly rebuilt her identity from shame into purpose. If you’v...

Send us Fan Mail What if the reason networking feels so exhausting is because we’ve been doing it all wrong? This week, we sit down with Imani Ellis, founder and CEO of CultureCon , for an honest conversation about what it really takes to build relationships, community, and a career that feels as good on the inside as it looks from the outside. Imani takes us behind the scenes of building CultureC...

Send us Fan Mail Solo travel sounds glamorous until you picture the logistics, the safety questions, and that first dinner reservation for one. We sit down with Gabby Beckford, the creator behind Pax Light, to make solo travel for women feel less like a dare and more like a learnable skill. She shares how she went carry-on only for peace of mind, why her brand is about packing light and bringing l...

Send us Fan Mail A listener asks a question that stops us in our tracks: Has your definition of success changed as you’ve gotten older? And that was just the beginning. In this episode, you asked, and we answered. We’re taking voice notes and questions directly from our listeners and getting into the conversations so many of us are having privately—about success, career changes, content creation,...

Send us Fan Mail “I did it all myself” might get applause, but it could also be the reason your business isn’t growing. In this episode, we’re talking entrepreneurship, business growth, collaboration, partnerships, delegation, and the myth of being self-made. There’s a difference between being independent and isolating yourself—and for ambitious women, entrepreneurs, and creatives who are used to...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Elevathers, we're diving into the future of journalism, the creator economy, personal branding, and how media is evolving in the age of influencers and social media. We kick things off with a nostalgic conversation about the possible return of MySpace, why internet culture used to feel more personal, and whether nostalgia is holding us back from embracing w...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we dive into the rise of women owning their narrative through authenticity, confidence, and intentional personal branding. Whether you're an entrepreneur, content creator, corporate professional, or building your next chapter, this conversation is packed with practical strategies to help you grow your career, increase your visibility, and define success beyon...

Send us Fan Mail “Low maintenance” gets applauded like it’s a flex, but we’ve learned it can come with a real price tag, just not always on a receipt. We’re Amanda Booz and Crystal Baka, and we’re getting honest about how presentation becomes currency: the way you show up affects respect, confidence, service, and even the opportunities that find you. We warm up with some summer joy and a quick unf...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “Do we even need each other anymore?” you’re not alone and we’re not sugarcoating it. Amanda Booz and Crystal Vega dig into the question behind so many modern relationships: when women don’t need men financially and men don’t need women for traditional roles, what’s the point of partnership now? The answer isn’t in outdated rules or social...

Send us Fan Mail Someone can feel like your exact match and still be the wrong person to let in. We start with a real weekly reset conversation: the post-vacation bounce back, getting back in the gym, meal prepping without burning out, and how small routines like planning outfits or setting out workout clothes can protect your time, money, and energy. If you’re trying to stay consistent with healt...

We trade summer travel updates and get real about what major festivals look like when you are actually trying to build relationships and land brand work. From Cannes to Essence Fest, we share what surprised us, what felt worth it, and what we are leaving behind as we head deeper into Q3.  • what Cannes is for creators and entrepreneurs versus pure spectators  • why access is layered and meetings n...

Ruining your reputation sounds reckless until you realise how many of your choices are being made for an audience that is not even watching. We get honest about the invisible pressure to stay “on brand,” stay likable, stay polished, and stay available, and how that pressure can make you overthink yourself into a smaller life.  We break down the difference between your professional reputation (prot...

Your vacation can be fun and still feel like you. We’re sharing the real habits we use to stay grounded while traveling so we come home energized instead of depleted, broke, and scrambling to “get back on track.” If summer travel usually knocks your routine out, this conversation is your reset. We get into the practical wellness travel tips that make the biggest difference: keeping your “before th...

Miami was doing what Miami does best: stacking major weeks on top of each other. Between Miami Swim Week activations and the American Black Film Festival closeouts, we were outside, on our feet, and paying the price the next day, including Amanda’s voice getting taken out by secondhand smoke. That “city never sleeps” pace is fun until it isn’t, and it’s the perfect lead-in to the bigger theme we c...

We bounce from pop culture chaos to real-life lessons, unpacking how hype, power, and money influence what people buy and what stories people believe. We keep it honest with our own not-so-elevated moments, then pull out the practical rules that help us move smarter in dating, work, and friendships.  • reactions to the AP x Swatch collaboration and why some luxury collabs feel tacky  • camping out...

Luck looks glamorous from the outside, but we wanted to talk about what it really costs to build a big life. Amanda Booz and Krystal Vega sit down with Les Alfred, media entrepreneur and cultural storyteller behind She’s So Lucky (formerly Balanced Black Girl), for a podcaster-to-podcaster conversation about growth that actually lasts. Les shares how her podcast started with a simple idea at work,...

You can feel it when a habit stops being “just a thing you do” and starts shaping who you are. We sit down early and get honest about the patterns we’ve had to outgrow, from overthinking and people pleasing to staying up too late and waiting for the “right” time to start. The big takeaway we keep circling back to is identity: when you change how you see yourself, the behavior finally has somewhere...

She started by packing boxes as an intern. Now she’s the Global Brand President of NYX Professional Makeup. Denee Pearson joins us for a candid, laugh-out-loud, notes-app-worthy talk about what it really takes to elevate in the beauty industry and in corporate life when you’re building from the ground up. We get into the career climb the unsexy parts and the strategic parts: how purpose and values...

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The internet loves a meteoric rise—and an even faster takedown. We open with a raw look at BBL reductions and what this reversal says about influence, body autonomy, and the unseen costs of surgical upkeep. Then we make a sharp turn into the realities of building a luxury brand: preorders that aren’t instant, production cycles that break if a batch fails quality control, and timelines shaped by gl...

We trade party recaps and food festival finds for a deep dive into the ANTM docuseries, weighing representation, power, and what accountability should look like on and off camera. We end with three takeaways on exposure, inclusion, and the value of attention. • balancing celebration with rest and refuel time • South Beach Food & Wine highlights and why experiences matter • DIY theater rental a...