Photo by Tom Jenz
LaTonya Baker
LaTonya Baker
LaTonya Baker is a powerful presence, speaking through a potent but pleasant voice and dressed in the colorful designs of African fashion. She could have borrowed her personality from Oprah Winfrey and with the same head for business. Her life? It’s an open book with many torn pages. Her successful business? It’s about helping young mothers, young children, and “sisters” who are afraid to speak out. Baker is 45 but has already lived a full lifetime of up and down drama.
She was born in Ethel, Mississippi, a little southern town of 500 mostly Black folks. When she was two, her mother moved the family to the Milwaukee North Side. She attended public schools and graduated from North Division in 1995. North Division had a great marching band, and Baker loved performing in the band. She played trumpet, but liked percussion better, the cymbals. “Me and another girl danced and marched, twirling our cymbals,” she said. “The summer of my senior year, I had a child, a son. My boyfriend was the drum major and the father. He also impregnated two other girls at school. I was overweight and insecure. But I was funny, and guys thought I was the cool girl, but they did not flirt with me. Anyway, I gained a lot of friends.”
She writes about her painful childhood experiences through her book, When She Speaks. “It’s about my early journey,” she told me, “even the difficulties. When I was in the second grade and living on the North Side of Milwaukee, my 18-year-old babysitter was molesting me, her little sister looking on. I remember her saying a lot of inappropriate things during the molestation. They warned me not to tell my mother, and I did not. I actually was protecting my babysitter. My long-term lesson was that I seemed to protect people that hurt me, hang onto toxic relationships. For instance, I made some bad choices in men. When I was 22, I finally told my mother about the molestation. She was so very sorry. The audience for my book, When She Speaks, are women who have experienced hurt.”
When Baker and I met at her Trendsetters offices on 66th and Mill Road, she showed me around. It took a half hour for her to guide me through the sprawling complex before we settled into a conference room for a conversation.
Tell me more about your struggles, your family, the places you’ve lived.
My mom was one of the oldest of 14 children. Her father went to jail when she was 13 years old. Her mother died in her sleep when Mom was 17 and pregnant with me. My mom died in her sleep in 2012 when we were living in Memphis. Three generations of mothers in my family died in their sleep. They all suffered from hypertension, obesity, and stress. I was in my early 30s when Mom died, and I suffered from the same symptoms. She had run a daycare center but it’s not what she wanted to do. I decided I didn’t want to just settle for life like she did. I left my husband, the drum major, in 2016. I was driving for Uber in Memphis, but I moved to Atlanta and produced fashion shows. Then, my dad died. I ended up broke and broken.
When did you come back to Milwaukee?
In 2017. I came back to help my sister in her new business. My mom had been bad with finances. I never knew about saving money, concepts like credit, retirement, investment. Our family never talked about it, and this I find true in most of the Black community.
Tell me about your business, Generation of Excellence Trendsetters, which has been described as Wisconsin’s leading prenatal care company. I believe it’s about prenatal care for both mothers and fathers. How does your business provide the prenatal care?
Our clients are state Medicaid recipients, no out-of-pocket costs to them. Since Trendsetters is a state-licensed vendor, we enroll clients when they are pregnant or when they deliver a baby. We have prenatal care coordinators, independent contractors who do an assessment to find out our clients’ barriers—could be jobs, housing, mental health, alcohol abuse, smoking, counseling, and getting access to a doctor. We provide health and nutritional training. We make sure our clients are stable. Then, we create a care plan, set goals, do home visitations. Trendsetters has about 225 prenatal care coordinators on staff. They are independent contractors, and they are paid commissions based on the number of visits per month. They bill us, and we bill the state, the Department of Human Services. We try to pair coordinators who look like their clients, Blacks counseling Blacks, Latinos counseling Latinos. People are more comfortable being with people they look like.
If I’m a 17-year-old pregnant woman, and I’m looking for help, how do I make contact with you?
Most of our clients refer other clients. We also partner with organizations in the community who are aware of our services. We appear at a lot of community events. We also have a Facebook page, a website, and a toll-free number.
From 2017 until now in 2023, you have made sizable progress in your business. How did you do it?
I did something different. Most prenatal care agencies offer the bare minimum. We created a one-stop shop. During the COVID pandemic, we found ways to operate virtually through counseling and training sessions on Zoom. We offer our clients more options. We can provide childcare coordination for up to seven years old. We offer services to the father and to the entire household. Even cooking classes. And we have partnerships with day care providers. We even have housing programs, access to nine transitional housing units. And we offer financial literacy training for our clients.
In my experience, I’ve encountered so many young Black mothers, many who are teenagers, even as young as 14. What is causing this?
I had my child in high school when I was 17. There were a lot of girls at North Division who were pregnant, and their mothers and fathers were not very supportive. And this has continued in the schools today. Children having children, babies growing up alongside their moms as they both mature. These young moms barely know how to raise a child or about financial literacy and parental responsibility. And this lack of financial literacy is part of our Black culture, community, and neighborhoods.
Besides your Trendsetters prenatal care clinic, you also offer transition housing for men and women who have been released from incarceration or domestic violence charges. How do you go about securing housing for these people?
Some of our staff own houses. I met with them, and we created a housing navigator program. So far, we’ve been strategizing and looking for funding. Through my Trendsetters nonprofit, people can donate to the housing program. Right now, we have a house that gives shelter to women and children. We have two other houses that will be group homes for ex-inmates: reentry for men, reentry for women. We have a house for domestic violence victims, a house for mental health, and a youth group home. In the future, we will have 12 houses to serve different needs.
If a woman has gotten out of the House of Corrections or jail or prison, how long can she stay at a transitional house?
Most of our homes allow a six-month stay, but generally the clients will stay from one to three months because they are probably working at a job through their reentry process.
Besides being a successful businesswoman, you are a motivational speaker. What do you speak about?
I speak about my life and what I’ve gone through in order to motivate others, about my background, my mother, my marriage, my failures, my success and my health issues. I lost over 120 pounds before I took myself seriously. My message is that practicing self-care is essential to your growth. I mainly speak at empowerment conferences. I also partner with North Division High School and will be partnering with other schools and colleges. I want young people, especially people of color, to know about the opportunities of entrepreneurship, being potential business owners.
You sell boutique women’s clothing through your company, Tyresia’s Boutique Too. Can you describe the clothing?
Tyresia was my mom’s name. We have a store front at the Collective in Bay Shore shopping center. I love fashion, and with my sister, we’ve produced fashion shows all over - Jamaica, Atlanta, Milwaukee. And we include awareness information regarding domestic violence and other social issues.
You are an author, designer, community leader, and host of Trendsetters Podcast. That’s a lot of work to keep track of. How do make that happen?
I can’t take all the credit. I have an amazing team. It’s a blessing to have a vision, but it’s also a blessing to have others line up with your vision. Some of my team members are loyal friends I grew up with. I tell my staff, “You don’t work for me, you work with me.” People are often referring our services. Kind of like the Chick-fil-A story and their reputation where they rely on referrals.
You wrote: ‘Over the years, I have achieved much success by turning my pain into my passion.’
I feel that everything that happens to you is supposed to happen, but it’s up to you what you do with your experiences, how you can make yourself stronger. I try to go through life trusting my process.
What about your own family?
I have two sons who both work here. My oldest son is my Executive Assistant, and he also has prenatal clients, and my youngest son runs our maintenance department.
You know, it would take a special man to be with you, given your strong confident personality. Some men can be threatened by that.
It’s been hard for me to find a man companion. Some men are intimidated by my drive. I stopped wearing insecurity and have been wearing confidence. You attract what you are wearing.
I pray that I will find a guy who does not share the same flaws as mine. It can be hard to be an empowered woman who has been successful and independent.
You can reach Latonya Baker and Trendsetters at latonyabaker.com.
