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Strawberry Letter

Uplift: Former Coca-Cola executive created over 325 women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa.

Strawberry Letter

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Relationships

4.51.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Reverend Dr. Adrian Booth Johnson.

  • Founder of the Woye Bra Initiative under the nonprofit Infinity Global Empowerment.
  • Former executive at Coca-Cola and U.S. Department of Energy.
  • A passionate advocate for women’s empowerment in Africa, especially in Ghana.
  • Known affectionately as “Reverend Granny” in African villages.

🌍 Key Accomplishments

  • Created over 325 women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa.
  • Launched a program to produce and distribute reusable sanitary pads to combat period poverty.
  • Travels to Africa twice a year to train and support women in business, marketing, and financial literacy.
  • Developed partnerships with organizations like Zeta Phi Beta, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and The Links, Inc. to support her mission.

🧭 Personal Journey

  • Became a mother at 17, earned her GED, and later a business degree from the University of Louisville.
  • Worked her way up from secretary to project manager in nuclear energy and later to corporate leadership at Coca-Cola.
  • Inspired by a lifelong dream to go to Africa, which she fulfilled in 2001 and has continued annually since.

💡 Programs and Initiatives

  • Woye Bra: A program that empowers women in Ghana to make and sell reusable sanitary pads, helping girls stay in school.
  • Youth Engagement: Connects U.S. students (e.g., from Cass Tech in Detroit) with African youth through Zoom and cultural exchanges.
  • HBCU Engagement: Took 21 HBCU students to South Africa during the 2010 World Cup as part of Coca-Cola’s “Open Happiness” campaign.

🗣️ Inspirational Quotes

  • “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.”
  • “The question is not who is going to let you be successful, but who is going to stop you.”
  • “Sometimes it’s just a bend in the road, not the end of the road.”
  • “When I walk into a dark room, I don’t look for light. I know God is there.”

🌐 How to Support

  • Website: www.woyebra.org
  • Donations support training, materials, and expansion of the Woye Bra program.

#SHMS #STRAW #BEST

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is an IHeart podcast.

0:04.6

Hi, I'm Roshan McDonnell.

0:06.4

I host a weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show.

0:09.4

The interviews and information that this show provides are for everyone.

0:12.9

It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and start living your own.

0:17.4

If you want to be a guest on my show, please visit our website, Moneymakingconversations.com,

0:23.5

and click the be a guest button. Press submit and the information will come directly to me.

0:28.7

Now, let's get this show started. My next guest is in studio. She's Reverend Dr. Adrian Booth Johnson.

0:35.8

And one of the things, we don't talk about a lot of things.

0:38.0

Okay.

0:38.2

One of the things that you're doing that's really noteworthy is that you've created over 325. That's right. Women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa. That's great. Please welcome the Money Making Conversation Master Class, Reverend Dr. Adrian Booth Johnson. How you doing? I'm blessed. I'm blessed and highly favored. Should I do Dr. Johnson or Reverend Johnson?

0:56.3

How about Reverend Johnson?

0:57.2

Okay, we're going to ride off that. Good Johnson. How you doing? I'm blessed. I'm blessed and highly favored. Should I do Dr. Johnson or Reverend Johnson?

0:56.3

How about Reverend Johnson? Okay, we're going to ride off that. Reverend Johnson, which I'm

0:59.2

comfortable with saying because of the fact that, you know, a friend of mine in the studio

1:03.6

brought some information about you to me and said, Rashon, she'll be a great guest.

1:08.2

Good.

1:09.0

And why are you doing something and go? And for

1:13.6

real, where are you from? I was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. My dad was in the Navy for 25 years,

1:20.1

whatever, and he graduated from Norfolk State University. And my mama went to St. Paul's College,

1:25.8

HBCUs. And we moved to Louisville, Kentucky.

1:28.9

Daddy became an internal revenue agent. All right. I don't know. Was he, did people like him? No, no, no. Well, if you're doing right, he did. But if you're doing wrong, no. They're like, well, great. So I'm from Harris Creek, Kentucky. Harris Creek, Kentucky. I hear a little Kentucky

...

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