The Next Best Thing

A growing number of women are choosing single motherhood by choice. Richelle Carey’s journey to motherhood began in her early 40’s. After a failed IVF cycle, she turned to adoption. That posed even more challenges, as she lived in Qatar as a network news anchor. To improve her chances, she quit her job and returned to her parents home in Texas. Now she’s a self described "boy mom" to her sweet son...

Burned out? Overwhelmed? Does the idea of Black Excellence need to be redefined? Stephanie Perry is a professional house sitter, the creator of House Sitter School and the co-founder of The Exodus Summit, with a community of more than 11,000 Black women. She champions taking a career break, sabbaticals, moving abroad and living life with ease. In this episode she takes us through her own personal...

Are you using a system that was never designed for your to define your level of success or determine your failure? Are you living your values? In this episode, sustainable fashion designer Aurora James discusses her memoir Wildflower. She disects the risks she’s taken in her career, how she measures success and her call to action through The Fifteen Percent Pledge. Join the Next Best Thing communi...

They say big risks lead to big rewards. But there has to be a strategy behind taking the leap. Brandice Daniel calls this a cliff jump. As the founder and CEO of Harlem’s Fashion Row (HFR)she’s a force in the fashion industry, disrupting the status quo to make room for designers of color through partnerships. Now Brandice is also investing in future generations of industry leaders. In this episode...

You can’t make progress without analyzing where you are, what’s in and out of your control. The SWOT analysis is a framework that’s commonly used to determine the viability of a business idea. Cate Luzio uses it as a way to assess individual careers. It answers questions like what are your super powers, where do you need growth, and it forces you to anticipate volatility in your industry. This is...

Money is often the barrier to people getting to their NEXT. In this episode, personal finance expert and author Dominique Broadway outlines how to literally fund your dreams. Dominique explains how she overcame mountains of debt to design a life that aligns with her values. She created an eight figure business that started with having an abundance mindset. Then she got very honest about what she w...

Changing industries? Your resume and mindset may need a makeover! In this episode of The Next Best Thing podcast, learn strategies to best position yourself for your NEXT. From using key words in your resume to stand out and make it past artificial intelligence screenings, address your self talk so you don’t stand in your own way, and remain open for abundance (and love) to find you. Episode Log:...

Are past offenses triggering you in your new season? Don Champion climbed the ranks to become a television network news correspondent before he was let go in 2017. He says he was questioned about his voice, asked about his weight and told to “butch it up” during his last few years at the network. Champion says those critiques served as ways to question his identity as a Black gay man. In this epis...

What happens when life throws you a devastating transition. Your NEXT becomes the worst case scenario but you don’t have another choice but to go through it. When Neysa Taylor got married to her college sweetheart Christopher, she had no idea the rollercoaster that was in store. Their marriage had very high, highs and extremely low, lows. But nothing was quite like Chris’ multiple bouts with cance...

Your NEXT doesn’t always require blowing up your life and starting over. What if the changes you desire are not only in your current industry but within the company you work for right now? Mandell Crawley went from the west side of Chicago to becoming one of the most influential people on Wall Street as the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Morgan Stanley. He started wi...

It’s been one year since I blew up my life and I’m still standing! In this solo episode I break down how things have REALLY been, what freedom means to me and what I hope to tackle in the next year. Also, my birthday is coming up and I have thoughts, lots of thoughts!

Your first draft is never final. Award winning mystery author Kellye Garrett knows that all too well. But there are some things she isn't willing to change, like centering Black women characters in her lighter weight cozy mysteries. It created challenges to getting an agent and getting published, but now her work is being widely recognized. When she didn’t see more people like her getting a chance...

What if I told you you’re trying too hard? Worrying and white knuckling circumstances may be the thing standing in your way of a transformative opportunity. Four time Emmy Award winning national television news journalist Mara S. Campo says the pandemic put her at a painful crossroads. Surrendering changed her life and more importantly gave her peace! In this episode we talk about her very succres...

How would you move through life if you knew time was running out? Would you stay at that job, in that relationship, or continue delaying pursuing your dreams? Bozoma Saint John was prepared to learn new skills, climb the corporate ladder and change careers. But life also forced her to prepare for her husband’s death, to grapple with the loss of a child and her college boyfriend. In this episode Bo...

Have you really given yourself space to dream and execute a life that allows you to show up fully, grow and enjoy financial abundance? It’s not just a hope, it can also be a reality. Ariane Hunter is a lighthouse for dreamers. Her coaching company helps clients buck the status quo, shift to an abundance mindset and muster the will to leave toxic environments. It’s not a theory for Ariane, she oper...

Layoffs can trigger anxiety, make you question your abilities and threaten your financial stability. But if you let it, it can also create the disruption your life needs to take you to the next level. That was the case for Dawn Kelly. A seasoned public relations veteran, Dawn was a Vice President at a large financial services company when she was blindsided by a layoff. Her optimism wasn’t immedia...

Venture capital can do more harm than good. The best founders are the ones who figure out how to get funding. Rudy Cline-Thomas (my brother) returns to break down all things entrepreneurship, scaling a business and finding the RIGHT funding. Rudy is the co-founder of MASTRY Ventures with a portfolio that includes Coinbase, Robinhood, Dapper Labs, Uber, PagerDuty, Zoom, Cloudflare, Qualtrics, DataD...

They say you can’t be what you can’t see. Good thing I didn’t have to look far to see success modeled in my family. I also saw the intense strategy and sheer work that it takes. To you, Rudy Cline-Thomas is the co-founder of venture capital firm MASTRY Ventures. He’s transforming the sports landscape and has graced the covers of the financial industries biggest magazines. To me, he’s just my big b...

How can you do what you love without it requiring you to be watered down? Does passion and purpose have to come at the high cost of your personal identity? As a master storyteller, those are the questions Jenna Hanchard is on a journey to answer. Jenna spent years as a local news reporter, setting herself apart by centering marginalized communities with depth and context. But after earning various...

Are your metrics of success even leading you to a life that honors what you value? What happens when your identity is rooted in your job title? These are the questions Janet Kim had to grapple with as a successful on air news reporter who knew she wanted more. In this episode Janet shares how motherhood put her priorities into perspective, and the advice she gives to others who are trying to navig...

After spending her career in medical device sales and therapuetics, Nia Watenza had enough. She quit in November 2019 with plans of exceuting a career transition the following year. But first she wanted to create some breathing room by taking voice over lessons for fun. We know what happened in 2020. With a pandemic, no job prospects and a dwindling bank account Nia turned to the only thing she ha...

I had made my way up the career ladder as a local news reporter only to ask myself, "is this it?" What I did next wasn't a career transition, didn't implement a Plan B or a career pivot. It's what I call The Next Best Thing. You don't need to wait for others to give you permission to get to where your heart desires, even if there are big obstacles in your path. Let's lay the foundation for getting...