Machelle Foster

I got started in this field back in the early 2000s, probably the latter part of 1999 when I was in California. Some young ladies approached me and asked me to mentor them, and that was the beginning of the mentorship platform. It evolved from there. I was mentoring teenagers, age 12 through 17, 18, on a monthly basis, and then it evolved into weekly and then bi-weekly basis, individually, and as well as in group sessions. I continued to do that for a few years, and then I was sought after by some domestic violence shelters to come in and help mentor the women that were in the shelters to kind of help bring wholeness and to coach them back into their safety, their oneness, into society. I continued to do that until I shifted to Texas in the beginning of 2012. I kind of set dormant for a minute to just survey the land. Then probably in 2014, the coaching began again, or should I say it was reset. I launched shortly thereafter Pastor Baton Paid Forward mentor and coaching business and LLC in the latter part of 2015, where my primary audience was women, and then it shifted in 2017 to the broader audience, both male and female, those who sought the need for coaching and mentorship. From there, I do workshops, conferences, and that's where we are today, doing my own symposiums. We'll be hosting a symposium in Orlando, Florida, next month, which is called Elevated Tables, and then a smaller platform in California in September called Refresh and Level Up Leader.