Lola C. West: What It Costs to Be You

"Because of Adele and the women in my family, I can stand in the trenches and be as much steadying balance and the wind beneath people's sails as I can. And because of me, I would hope that my granddaughter will stand to do the same." Lola C.

West What does it cost to be you? Lola C.

West arrives at the Highland with an answer she has lived her whole life, and it is not a number. In this conversation, Lola calls in her lineage as the daughter of Adele V.

West, the only person she was ever afraid of, and explains how a mother whose standards ran that high made her fearless: five careers, every one of them by her own choice. She names the sign she saw at nine in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the vow that set the course of her life.

She walks the careers that carried her from an antique store to Nelson Mandela's fundraising plan to Merrill Lynch, where she met the moment: the market is the only place of equity, because the money in the market does not know your color. Lola shares how she came to be led by her gut and her spirit, and offers the line she sounds like a broken record repeating: you have to figure out how much it costs to be you.

She names debt as the way this society controls you, warns that for ease and convenience we give up our freedoms, and tells us she never had a number. She wanted to do what she wanted to do and have enough money to pay for it, and she has riches untold because she has peace of mind.

Together, Gabrielle and Lola explore wealth as a practice rather than a sum, the Black art and family pictures where Lola says her wealth resides, the business and the granddaughter she is protecting, and what it means to be a legacy architect: not the billions, but all of the choices, the self-study, the accountability, and the uncertainty it took to get there. Seed wealth and legacy across generations.

No one is coming to build your legacy for you, and enough is a form of wealth. Connect with Lola C.

West Website: Instagram : LinkedIn: Connect with Meet Me at the Highland™ Full episode and companion content: https://meetmeatthehighland.substack.com/p/lola-c-west-what-it-costs-to-be-you? The Legacy Studio: Instagram: YouTube: Meet Me at the Highland™ is listed on Feedspot's Top Black Women Podcasts ( ) (00:00) - Welcome to the Highland (02:27) - Honors and Naming Rooms (03:35) - See and Be Seen Lineage (05:20) - Adele Wests Standards (08:44) - Fearless Career Shifts (14:32) - The Sign That Changed Everything (20:02) - Finding Finance and Equity (25:00) - Responsibility Over Debt (28:44) - Trusting Your Gut and Spirit (32:55) - Miracles and Close Calls (37:20) - Gut Instinct Saves Deal (41:33) - Speak It Into Reality (42:22) - Money Talk Begins (43:51) - Know Your True Costs (46:02) - Debt as Social Control (51:13) - Redefining Wealth (54:43) - Legacy Through Culture (57:10) - Breaking the Cycle Now (01:00:18) - Protecting What Matters (01:03:44) - Mad Libs Closing Ritual (01:07:12) - Final Gratitude Farewell