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

LaToya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Milestones Elevation Community Development is serving African American families by providing education and the opportunity to create a sustainable plan of succession for economic growth. Beginning with slavery the African American family has always been a target and has been forced to choose between each other, and the God-given birthright of family. It has even been so extreme as to have to choose between family and life. Men have been separated from their wives and children have been separated from their parents. This is still a very dominant issue being carried out through programs, such as welfare, and the rising rate of incarcerated African American men. Families don’t have many options for support, especially financially. This dilemma has lasting effects on the community emotionally and mentally, sometimes causing trauma that individuals never are able to get over, and unfortunately pass down to future generations. Our organization is diligently working on breaking generational curses and showing families not only how to reconnect with each other but also how to take their triumphs and use them to change the narrative of their lives and their future. We encourage our audience to learn and understand emotional intelligence, and concepts such as forgiveness, and encourage second chances. We offer financial literacy programs, societal peer-to-peer counseling, and opportunities in STEM and Business management fields. We also encourage our audience in effective ways to use their voices to inspire and strengthen transformation.

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?

My name is LaToya Ball, and I am a mother, wife, entrepreneur, and servant. Most importantly at first glance, you can’t help but notice that I am a proud African American woman. I have been an entrepreneur for a little over two years but have always had a passion to serve. This passion came from my religious background and also my educational studies. I learned early on that your life is not for you or about you but about and for those you will impact and influence. What will people remember about you and what have you done for someone? This is where my gratification comes from. I never put a price tag to my life’s mission but as I began to really emerge into life and adulthood I began to understand and value that there will always be a price tag on every action you do. Whether it is financial, or not, you will always reap what you sow. By that same token, I started to see the advantages of a team, and your very first team is your family. The family is the foundation of our moral beliefs, behaviors, and strength. When it was my turn to create a family and raise them in society I knew I had to face my fears and the doubts that often held me back from my greatest potential. As I began to do the real work for the root cause of milestones in my life and society, it all boiled down to the beginning of our time, which starts with the family. It was then that my lightbulb went off and I realized in order to fearlessly reach goals and give my offspring a fair chance at happiness and true joy their foundation has to be unbreakable and solid. Hence Milestones Elevation Community Development. I wanted to expand my work for happiness and joy for not only my family, but to all families who were often ignored, a target for disruption, and not given equal opportunity. I wanted to provide a space for encouragement and success. I was determined to use all community resources to uplift and educate each other to fill in those gaps. I wanted each of us to recognize unity and its benefits and to help progress our social, mental, and emotional advancement. The vision is that through financial empowerment, the comprehension of emotional intelligence, proper nutrition, and a community of grace and forgiveness we are prepared to offer and opportunities for families that will prepare them for a lineage of change and purpose.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Being as though this business is based on helping to build families, it only seemed right to bring in my family as a business partner and co-founder of this organization. My husband, Frankie Ball is my right hand in this business. Through his own story, I was able to see a different perspective from my own experience, and also able to lead by example. I have been married to my husband for 20 years and since the age of 18 we knew that our relationship was not only a strong passion but a foundation for business. Together we are able to acknowledge and congratulate individual growth but the force that we present as a unit is much more of stronger unit.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I think the key to managing a team and maintaining high morale is understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses and allowing people to lead in their strengths. If that means taking a back seat to learn and allowing for the goal to get accomplished, then that’s what a great leader does. There is no I in the team and the mission has to always remain the number one priority. Now I also believe in building with friends and family first which means we have to find a way to balance work and play to maintain healthy relationships. I also believe in healthy and effective communication, my team is my customer and I want them to have the same faith and to keep coming back just like an external customer, so I believe in public praise, where there is an opportunity to grow and excel, they are presented to the team, it’s all about unity. What I want for myself, is the exact same that I want for my team, and I do what needs to be done to show them that. Everyone is not the same, so everyone is not approached the same but understanding them as a person is vital in our success together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mecomdevelopment.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m_then_e/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/passionpurposepeace
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC310lyCYXzexfgwub8bVl8Q

Image Credits
Photographer: S. Damone Photography & Kevin of @Kreative71