Reika Marshall

I would attribute my success to the struggle. You know, if I had to do it all again, I wouldn't take away the scars, because I know they made me who I am. Yeah, and that's it, right there. My resilience, just everything that I went through, you know what I mean? Because like, you're coming in on a double negative kind of spectrum, you know, just to be a minority. It's just a double negative. But it's definitely opportunity out here. African Americans are not the minority, but women, we are the most preyed on. We just, as a woman, you're already preyed on. We just need our own ceasefire. The corporate world wants to come for us, the husbands want to come for us. It's just, we just need our own ceasefire.

If I had to give advice to a young woman entering adulthood, I would say don't lose focus of your purpose. And what I mean by this is because as women, when I was a young woman, there are a lot of bumps and cracks in the road. They try to just knock you off your direction. Yeah, I don't understand which way is up. And it's like, people will come into your life for reasons and seasons. They'll try to disrupt your flow, they'll try to disrupt your plan, they'll put obstacles in your road, but if you stay focused on your purpose, just remember why you went outside. Just remember why you stepped out. Because you're gonna meet men, you're gonna meet women, you're gonna meet friends, you're gonna meet foes, and all these people is gonna have a part to play in stopping you from getting to your destination. Because, I mean, you can get lost along the way and forget your purpose. A lot of times, what I've noticed about women and motherhood, everything else has had to take a backburner. All your dreams, your dreams and your admirations, everything had to wait. It's like, I gotta put the kids first, I gotta wait. And then something else came up, then you had to wait. Then, pretty soon, you're just sitting there, and you're just trying to figure out why you forgot to chase your dreams. You were so busy raising kids, or you were so busy cooking dinner, or you just were so busy working at Target that you forgot. Dang, I had a dream, too. So my advice to her is, when you step out, don't forget your purpose. Just don't forget it, because it'll be a lot of people just trying to help you forget it, your purpose, that sensibility, that self-worth, that type stuff, just because, you know, it's just stuff always comes up. Something always comes up.

I think the hardest part for me, the hardest obstacle that I faced was not having the network. And what I mean by that is, because I didn't come from old money, and I didn't know anyone with money. A lot of the cost, just for just production, book production, everything was paid for out of pocket. Another thing, the brand, everything, the reason why I had to launch that is because you have to give that same performance, but you have to put the money into it. So I think that's the biggest obstacle, just not being born with the golden spoon. By not having those networks, the ones that I needed, it kinda delayed me. Like, you know what I mean? Most of my family, they come from, they're more workers. And when I say this, it's not to disregard them, it's just they are some people that are content with clocking in and clocking out. They got IRAs, they got pension plans and stuff like that, but, you know what I mean, they just believed in, and another obstacle that I ran into with dealing with my family, as far as the support, is they believe if you work hard, you make a lot of money, but that's not the case. It's about working smarter, not harder. The new norm is, it's about who you know. It's about who you know, and it's about the service that you could provide. That's just it.

I'll just say family and leadership. I'm just out here right now, I'm just leading by example. You know, like, when my brother, he passed away, he had 4 kids. He passed away in 2018. And he wasn't nothing but going on 25, but he left behind 2 boys, 2 girls. Now, the girls was like 6 months when he died. But it's just, I had to pick up that responsibility. You know what I mean? Like, because I know if my brother was alive, he would have married their mom just because he had such admiration and stuff, but it's just, like, family. You know what I mean? For me, it's family and leadership. And it's just like, you know, I have to answer questions, the hard ones. You know, because kids these days, they got iPhones. So they're a little bit more advanced. You know, what they don't ask you, they're gonna ask Siri, so you might as well give them a pretty straightforward answer. So, you know, just leadership, leadership and family.