We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful LaToya Abram-Payton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with LaToya below.

LaToya, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

The most innovative thing I’ve done in my career is providing edutainment to PreK-5th grade adolescences. Merging Technology and Literacy. I have created an App-compatible with IOS/Android that goes hand in hand with the book. Each illustration is coded and once scanned the illustrations become an Augmented Reality Experience! This book series is teaching children to express their feelings in a healthy way and building Character Development! The book series is called “A Colorful Emotional Story”.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello fellow reader, my name is LaToya Abram-Payton and I am a loving wife, mom of three and entrepreneur of Payton Place LLC and Accepting Prosperity, Inc (501C3). After a near death experience I decided to invest in myself (by taking a Ecommerce course) and start to generate generational wealth for my children, children, children, children! With both of my businesses I’m solving problems. Accepting Prosperity, Inc. I provide resources for individuals, children and families. I assist individuals with filling out FASFA/college applications or guiding them with writing their business plan. I provide global tutoring that I partnered with KidsPass and tutor Prek-5th grade scholars all over the world! Also, within my nonprofit I assist families with resources such housing, rental/food assistance, etc. Payton Place provides products and services to new and experienced mothers. My very first product is “The Comfy Bath Kneeler” it’s a two part unit that it used for comfort when doing anything at the bathtub. It protects the parents elbows, knees and most importantly their back! My idea for Payton Place is be a brand that is known for “All Things” compact for on-the-go mom’s! That leads me to my second product that is hot of the presses- The Comfy Co-Sleeper Baby Bag! It’s a baby bag that turns into a bassinet for parent’s that want to keep their baby safe and sound. Payton Place has recently added Publishing within this company. Children’s book is my specialty. But, I took it a step forward and merged Technology and Literacy. Realizing children are tech savvy, and also realizing children are really having a hard time expressing their emotions; I decided to write a children’s book/ create an App. I coded each illustrations and when scanned with your phone or tablet the story become an Augmented Reality Experience! Adults and children are able to discuss feelings and emotions in a healthy way and know that it is ok to feel!

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

So, yes, I have a ecommerce site that I primarily sell my products on. But, I started out selling on both my website and Amazon. I realized Amazon was not for me. I was not seeing any profit. Matter of fact I was losing money daily. I did not know in order to stay relevant and to beat out my competitors on a daily basis I had to bet on my keywords and research what keywords my competitors were using. So, therefore, I had to add several extensions on my computer and subscribe to several programs that were costly. Amazon has this thing called the “Buybox”. So, let me give you a visual on how the buybox works: Say that your product have 30 competitors-imagine us all in a circle with they Buybox in the middle. After doing your daily research you bet on your keywords and try to outbid your competitors. Whoever pays enough money toward the keywords that day wins the “buybox” and gets placed on first page of the catalog-or better yet when a customer puts in those specific keywords your business pops up because you paid the most for those keywords. I was spending a lot of money daily just to stay relevant and I was sinking. Not to mention I still had to pay when the customer bought the product because I was FBA-fulfilled by Amazon. They picked, packed and shipped the product to the customer. Which of course was a fee. After doing this for almost a year, I decided to pivot and just sale from my website.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to unlearn-which if I knew then what I know now I would’ve found my warehouse that I have now instead of paying for my first warehouse all the way in California. My product was finished during the brink of Covid-19. So, warehouses were backed and not accepting new clients. After contacting my freight forwarder and crying on his shoulder because I knew my shipment was coming soon I agreed to having my shipment shipped to this particular warehouse 3600 miles away from me. The monthly fee was ridiculously high. When I realized my warehouse fees and trying to stay relevant with being on page one on amazon I started looking for a different plan. I finally found a warehouse close to me here in NC. The big question was “How am I going to get my 3200 units from my warehouse in California to my NC warehouse. Every company I called were giving me crazy prices like $15-25k. I mean I now its coming cross state but those numbers were heartbreaking. I finally found a broker that quoted me $11k. I was so happy and we started the paperwork the next day. I paid the initial payment and they went to pick my units up from my CA warehouse. When the drivers got to the warehouse my guys turned them down because they only had a box truck, no lift and couldn’t fit all my items properly on the truck. When I called and displayed my concern they told me if I refused them picking up the order I forfeit the contract. I explained to them they are not equipped or prepared to safely deliver my product. So, I eventually refused the company to pick my items up and they stated that if I wanted my money back I would have to take them to small claims court. I was devastated. Not only was I dooped out of my money I was in limbo with having my units being moved crossed country or going bankrupted. I finally reached out to my original broker and he heard my story felt sorry for me and found a company to move my units to my warehouse in NC. I was even able to work out a payment plan instead of coming up with the full payment upfront. Two months later I was able to get my units safely to NC.

Contact Info:

• Website: paytonplacellc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paytonplacellc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paytonplacellc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latoyaabrampayton/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AbramPayton
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/abrampayton/