07/31/2026
🎓 I Did that and I'm finally saying it out loud!
I graduated from the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women in Business Program — Cohort 9. Let me sit in that for a moment — because sitting in my wins has never come easy.
This program is part of Goldman Sachs' $10 billion investment commitment to Black women entrepreneurs. It's 12 weeks of intensive online learning combined with an all-expenses-paid experience at Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York — developed in partnership with NYU Stern School of Business.
It was hard. I wanted to give up. There were nights I thought I wouldn't see another day in this program. But I kept going — not because it was easy, but because it mattered.
"Ain't nobody clapping for me, so I'm clapping for myself..." 🎵
That line from IngaRose's "Celebrate Me" hit differently when I heard it. Because here's the truth — I do have people clapping for me. My sisters, my children, my friends and my colleagues. They are my biggest fans, cheering louder than anyone, but somewhere along the way, I stopped clapping for myself.
I got so used to grinding in silence, pushing through pain, surviving — that I forgot I'm allowed to be proud, out loud!
"I celebrate me / For everything I survived / All the nights I cried, but still I stayed alive..." So today? I'm clapping for myself. Loudly. Awkwardly. Unapologetically.
To every Black woman reading this: We are being undervalued, questioned, and erased in so many spaces right now. Which makes it even more important that we celebrate us. Not arrogance — acknowledgment. Not ego — honor.
I owe it to my ancestors to celebrate myself. I owe it to every Black woman who came before me and every one coming after. Our joy is resistance. Our success is legacy.
"I celebrate me / For the woman I became / Through the hurt, through the pain / I still found my way..."
And speaking of things I've been too afraid to celebrate… My sisters and I wrote a book. 📖 It's called Diva Five Alive: Letters to My Sisters — and I've barely talked about it because I convinced myself it wasn't good enough, polished enough, worthy enough of attention. But it's our story — five sisters triumphing over tremendous adversity. The Gibert and McBride girls. Every scar, every fall, every storm we weathered together… it's all in there. Real, raw, and something I believe a lot of people can relate to. So I'm finally asking: will you support us?
👉 Get your copy here https://amazon.com/dp/1732657009
"You gotta do it for yourself, ain't nobody coming through / You gotta find your strength even when you don't want to..."
This is me clapping for myself.
This is me honoring the journey.
This is me — finally — celebrating me.
💛🖤
is the story of five sisters who triumphed over tremendous adversity. It is the story of the Gibert and McBride girls: Marilyn, Brenda, Carolyn, Julie, and Evette, women whose lives are tainted by dysfunction, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness. After years of struggle and pe...
