Liberation Trifecta: Money, Mentorship, and Leadership

Money. Mentorship. Leadership.

Three words that might sound like corporate buzzwords, but for those of us who grew up in poverty—who know what it means to choose between groceries and gas, who carry the weight of being “the first” in our families to navigate professional spaces—these aren’t just concepts. They’re the interconnected keys to liberation.

I’ve built Thriving Human around these three pillars because I’ve lived the reality that you can’t thrive with just one or two. They’re symbiotic, feeding each other in ways that create exponential empowerment.

And right now, in a world where 100 million Americans live below 200% of the federal poverty line, where inflation has made the middle class feel impossible to reach, we need this trifecta more than ever.

Let me tell you why this intersection is the strategy we’ve been missing—and why joining us as an early adopter means being part of something that’s about to shift how we think about empowerment entirely.

The Foundation: Money Skills as Liberation Strategy

Here’s what they don’t tell you about financial literacy: it’s not about budgeting apps or investment portfolios. It’s about dismantling systems designed to keep us broke.

When you grow up poor, money isn’t abstract—it’s survival, safety, dignity.

The lack of financial education in our communities isn’t an oversight; it’s strategic.

Research shows that financial literacy can reduce poverty by promoting entrepreneurship, improving access to credit, and enabling better financial decision-making.

But for first-generation professionals and folks from marginalized communities, traditional financial education often assumes a starting point we never had—family wealth, inherited knowledge, safety nets.

This is why I’m building a community around money skills. Not the shame-based, bootstrap-pulling kind, but the get-rich-together kind. Because when we remove the isolation and individualism around money, when we share strategies and celebrate wins collectively, we create what economists call “social capital”—the networks and knowledge that actually build wealth.

The spectrum is wide: broke for life, surviving, or building wealth. Most of us know which category our families occupied. But here’s what I learned: you can’t leadership your way out of financial instability, and you can’t get mentored into wealth if you don’t understand how money actually works.

This pillar isn’t optional—it’s foundational to everything else.

The Bridge: Reciprocal Mentorship as Mutual Liberation

Traditional mentorship assumes a hierarchy that doesn’t serve us. The older person has wisdom, the younger person needs guidance, knowledge flows one way.

I call Bullshit.

That model was designed for people who inherited social capital, who grew up understanding the unspoken rules of professional spaces.

I’m talking about reciprocal, intergenerational mentorship where wisdom flows both ways. Where a 55-year-old executive learns digital strategy from a 25-year-old while teaching them how to navigate corporate politics. Where lived experience across generations becomes shared power.

Research on reverse mentoring shows that 83% of executives believe it enhances leadership development, and organizations with intergenerational collaboration see 20% higher productivity.

But beyond the metrics, there’s something more profound: when we acknowledge that everyone has something to teach and something to learn, we break down the gatekeeping that keeps knowledge hoarded.

In my vision, mentorship isn’t just career advice—it’s cultural preservation and innovation combined. The wisdom of elders who survived systems trying to break them meets the fresh perspectives of younger generations reimagining what’s possible.

That’s where transformation happens.

The Multiplier: Embodied Leadership for People and Planet

This is a truth I hold close to my heart: leadership isn’t about climbing ladders in systems that were never built for us.

It’s about building better systems entirely.

But first, it starts with self-leadership—understanding your body as a site of knowledge, healing your relationship with power, learning to lead from a place of wholeness instead of proving your worth through overwork.

This is what I call embodied leadership: leadership that honors your humanity, acknowledges your nervous system, and operates from regenerative principles rather than extractive ones.

Research shows that underrepresented leaders need different sustainability strategies—we carry additional emotional labor, face unique stressors, and often lack the support systems that traditional leadership development assumes.

Real leadership means understanding that your liberation is connected to collective liberation. It means building leadership models that work for people, purpose, and planet—not just profit. It means recognizing that better leaders create a better world, and that leadership isn’t just about titles; it’s about how we show up in our lives, workplaces, and communities.

The Symbiotic Magic: Why These Three Pillars Together Can Change The Game

Here’s where it gets powerful: these pillars don’t just support each other—they amplify each other exponentially.

Financial literacy gives you the foundation to take leadership risks. When you understand money, you can negotiate better, start businesses, make strategic career moves without desperation driving your decisions. You can say no to opportunities that don’t align with your values because you’ve built financial stability.

Reciprocal mentorship accelerates both your financial learning and leadership development. You’re not figuring it out alone—you have intergenerational wisdom guiding you through financial decisions while you’re simultaneously developing the coaching and leadership skills that come from mentoring others.

Leadership skills help you multiply your financial impact. When you can influence, inspire, and organize, you’re not just building individual wealth—you’re creating systems and opportunities that lift others. You become someone who can advocate for pay equity, start businesses that employ your community, and challenge the very systems that create financial inequality.

Boo-friggin-ya!

Together, these three pillars create what I call liberation velocity (physics anyone?)—the exponential acceleration that happens when you’re not just surviving systems, but transforming them.

We’re one year in. Startup mode as a one wombyn show.

Anyone joining Thriving Human right now is an early adopter, helping shape something that I know in my soul has the potential to fundamentally shift how we approach professional development and wealth building in marginalized communities.

The research supports what I’ve experienced firsthand: organizations that prioritize intergenerational collaboration, financial empowerment, and regenerative leadership models see measurable improvements in engagement, retention, innovation, and profitability.

But more importantly, they create cultures where people can build sustainable success without sacrificing their humanity.

This is the work.

With economic inequality at crisis levels and traditional systems clearly failing the communities that need support most, we have a narrow window to prove that different approaches actually work.

The old models assume scarcity: limited mentorship opportunities, financial gatekeeping, leadership hierarchies that extract value rather than create it.

We’re building from a different premise entirely—that sustainable empowerment happens through community, that wealth-building is most effective when it’s collective, and that the best mentorship flows in multiple directions.

Join us if you’re ready to test whether another approach is actually possible. Help us build the proof of concept that these three pillars, working together in community, can create the kind of sustainable transformation that individual hustle never could.

Because this isn’t about inspiration or motivation. It’s about strategy, sustainability, and the kind of systemic thinking that actually moves people from surviving to thriving.

I think we’re onto something significant, and we're calling it the Liberation Trifecta: Money, Mentorship, and Leadership.