Rich Lessons

Should your wealthy best friend pay for you to fly first class? This week on Rich Takes, Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor jump into the viral debate surrounding Savannah James and April McDaniel traveling in different classes on an international flight. If you have the money, should your best friend be sitting in first class with you, or is no one entitled to someone else’s wealth? That open...

If you're building something right now, this is the episode we wish we had when we started. Between the two of us we've bootstrapped, raised millions, run venture-backed companies, and started all over again. And every single one of those seasons came with a lesson we had to learn the hard way. So we sat down and went through them. The real ones. Whether you can actually protect your peace...

Are we in a recession, or are the warning signs already showing up in everyday life? In this episode of Rich Takes , Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor break down the economic headlines raising some serious questions about where things are headed. First up: Atlanta’s surge in evictions. With eviction filings climbing and Black renters disproportionately affected, Sheena and Sevetri discuss whe...

Carrita Cloud is the founder and CEO of Creativity Justified, the agency behind work for the NFL, Microsoft, Delta, Ochsner Health, the Saints and the Pelicans. Inc. named her to the 2025 Female Founders 500. Her team has managed over $800 million in advertising dollars. She started it in a closet. Seven months pregnant, just fired, insurance gone, cold calling and cold emailing people who mostly...

Everybody wants to tell you about scaling and Series A. Nobody sits down and says, "Here's what it actually costs to get one person helping you when you have almost nothing." So that's what this one is. Between the two of us, we've done it every way there is — freelancers, contractors, offshore, W-2, fractional, all of it. Some of it worked. Some of it cost us money we didn&#...

Dr. Alicia Reed is a pharmacist. She spent 20 years telling other people how to take care of their health. Then her husband died of a massive heart attack at 43, four days before Christmas — and she became a widow overnight at 40, with a four-year-old. Then the pandemic hit. She was on the frontline as a healthcare provider while her own blood pressure was dangerously out of control. It took her s...

Dolly Parton is gone, Gary, Indiana has been without power for weeks, and New York City is trying to fight rising grocery prices with city-run supermarkets. Meanwhile, a controversial surrogacy case has turned into a legal and cultural battle over parental rights, abortion, and who gets to make medical decisions for a child. Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor break down the biggest stories in...

Is work-life balance a real concept, or is it something people say when they aren’t serious about their goals? In this episode of  Rich Lessons , hosts Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor pull back the curtain on the reality of modern entrepreneurship, wealth, and scaling a business. Drawing from three stacks of unfiltered questions—Professional, Personal, and Rapid Fire—they break down the sac...

Google reportedly acquired 34 years of enterprise data from Spirit Airlines, including more than 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft messages, workflows, and code, for just $10 million. Is Big Tech getting a bargain on the data it needs to train AI? This week on Rich Takes, Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor break down the biggest stories across tech, business, finance, and culture—inclu...

Sevetri and Sheena sit down with firearms expert Bree Lee, founder of NOLA Fire and one of the few women leading firearms training in New Orleans, for an eye-opening conversation about women’s safety, self-defense, and personal protection. As two entrepreneurs who travel solo for work constantly, this was a conversation they HAD to have. Bree breaks down what women should actually know to stay saf...

AI is changing how we create, consume, and even trust information, and this week on Rich Takes, we’re talking about what that means for business, technology, entertainment, and culture. Anthropic is rolling out watermarks for AI-generated text. Is this the beginning of a new era of AI transparency, or will people simply find new ways around it? We also get into the iPhone 18, Apple’s rumored shift...

This week on Rich Takes, we're unpacking three of the biggest conversations happening in business, tech, and culture. We start with the backlash surrounding Black creators who attended OpenAI's exclusive creator retreat and ask a bigger question: When does accepting an invitation become endorsing a company? We discuss AI, data centers, representation, and whether creators are being held to...

Are bonnets appropriate in class? In this mini-episode of Rich Takes, we break down Tuskegee University’s controversial new dress code banning bonnets, durags, and slippers. Plus, we discuss why Amazon is on track to hit $1 trillion in revenue and how Jeff Bezos built a brand that spans every generation and background. We also cover the viral financial aid situation at Howard University and dive i...

On this week’s Rich Lessons mini-segment, we break down the explosive business and cultural headlines shaking up tech, finance, and entertainment.  First, the shocking fallout at Uncle Nearest Whiskey: founders Fawn Weaver and Keith Weaver have been formally terminated by the court-appointed receiver amidst deep financial turmoil and ongoing federal investigations. What does this mean for the futu...

Essence Fest 2026 recap, Trump Accounts are officially live, and Anthropic just made a $150M nonprofit play. We break down what it means for your wallet and your business. Full description: In this week’s mini-episode of Rich Takes, Sheena and Sevetri are breaking down the massive cultural, financial, and tech shifts happening right now. First up, we just wrapped up Essence Fest in New Orleans, an...

Elon Musk hits $1 Trillion on paper, inflation spikes to a 3-year high, and the Obama Presidential Center prepares for its historic Juneteenth opening in Chicago. This week on Rich Takes, we're breaking down the biggest headlines shaping business, money, tech, and culture. 🔥 Elon Musk reaches trillionaire status on paper after SpaceX's public debut, and thousands of employees become milli...

In this episode of Rich Takes , we break down the massive financial and cultural shifts redefining the business landscape: The Tech Reckoning: Did Uber just prove the AI hype train is getting too expensive to ride? We unpack how they blew through their entire 2026 AI budget in less than four months, and why enterprise giants like Klarna are quietly rehiring the staff they laid off. The Ticketmaste...

What would you do with $22,000 a year, and would your answer change if it meant letting NVIDIA build a mini AI data center in your backyard? This week on Rich Takes, Sheena and Sevetri break down NVIDIA's rumored residential data center program, what it actually costs when you factor in electricity, water, and city regulations, and why the internet is split clean down the middle on whether to...

This week on Rich Takes, we’re breaking down the stories shaping entrepreneurship, business, tech, and culture right now. We start with The Breakfast Club making history as the first daily live-streaming show on Netflix — and what it says about the growing battle between Netflix, YouTube, podcasts, and the future of content. Are we officially in the content wars era? Then we get into the rise of t...

Are you a founder or a CEO? Because they're not the same thing, and confusing the two might be the most expensive mistake you make. In this episode of Rich Lessons, Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor get into one of the rawest conversations in entrepreneurship: what it actually takes to go from founding a company to scaling one — and why the title of "CEO" means nothing if you ca...

Sheena and Sevetri are back with this week's Rich Takes — and this week it's a full-on face-off. AI is eliminating jobs by the thousands while storytellers and communicators are quietly pulling six and seven-figure salaries. We're breaking it all down. Tech companies are cutting thousands while quietly posting some of the highest-paying content and communications roles we've ever s...

Logan Gobert was still working full-time when she signed a lease, gave herself 60 days to open, and launched Matcha Magic NOLA, one of New Orleans' most talked-about new cafés. In this episode of Rich Lessons, Logan sits down with Sheena and Sevetri to discuss building a wellness-focused café brand in the South, what it actually takes to open a food and beverage business while still working a...

This week on Rich Takes — the hot takes segment of the Rich Lessons podcast — Sheena Allen and Sevetri Wilson Taylor break down the biggest headlines impacting business and culture. The Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act has red states redrawing district maps at lightning speed. Louisiana just went 5-1. Tennessee's Black representation in Memphis is gone. But the real questio...

What does it really take to become a successful NFL agent? In this episode of Rich Lessons, Sheena Allen and Sevetri sit down with NFLPA-certified agent and attorney Paul DeRousselle to discuss the business behind professional football, negotiating NFL contracts, athlete representation, sports law, faith, failure, mental health, and building a career from a small town in Louisiana. Paul shares his...

This week on Rich Takes, Sheena and Sevetri break down the headlines making noise in business, tech, and culture. The Met Gala is back, and so is the controversy. This year's backlash goes beyond the dress code: Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are now the event's biggest backers, and A-listers like Taraji P. Henson and Jennifer Lewis are speaking out. Plus, Beyoncé made her return after 10 y...