Chris Cate: Welcome to the Fluent in Floridian Podcast, featuring the Sunshine State's brightest leaders talking about the issues most important to the people of Florida and its millions of weekly visitors. In this episode created by SalterMitchell PR, our executive producer, Heidi Otway, the president of SalterMitchell PR, talks to lobbyist, Yolanda Cash Jackson. In their conversation, they discuss Jackson's journey from growing up in Liberty City to being named Floridian of the Year by Florida Trend Magazine. Jackson also shares initiatives she's worked on, such as installing a sculpture of Mary McLeod Bethune in Statuary Hall at the United States Capital and securing record funding for Florida's historical black colleges and universities. Enjoy the show.

Heidi Otway: Yolanda, thank you so much for being a guest on this Fluent in Floridian Podcast. I am so thrilled to have you here today.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So good to be here.

Heidi Otway: Well, let's just kind of dive in and start way back at the beginning. And you grew up in Liberty City. And in interviews, you talk about ... Everyone talked about how you're an amazing lobbyist, but you always say, "You know what, I'm just a girl that grew up in Liberty City," so let's talk about that. Let's talk about those beginnings. Tell me what life was like growing up in South Florida.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Life was like growing up in South Florida, I was a Girl Scout for 17 years, and so scouting was a big part. So much of my growing up in Liberty City was mixed. I came at an era that Miami-Dade County was getting out of segregation, and so I was the first a lot of times. I was the first, one of the first Black girls who got a chance to be on the Jordan Marsh school team board.

Heidi Otway: Jordan Marsh.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Jordan Marsh.

Heidi Otway: My mom worked at Jordan Marsh.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: That was my first job at 13. I still gift wrap excellently today. I got a chance to get involved in scouting. We had one of the first Black Girl Scout Troops, and the troop leader was a woman named Elizabeth Jones, who was my dad's secretary at [inaudible 00:02:02]. He was the administration. They called him assistant principal for administration of pain. He paddled. So that was my introduction to fighting and self defense. I look very much like my father. We lived across the street from the school that he paddled kids, so I'm still a pretty good fighter.

Heidi Otway: Good.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I will cut you, yes.

Heidi Otway: Yes.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And so I grew up being many firsts. I attended Edison Middle, so I was the first in my family to catch the bus to school.

Heidi Otway: Really?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Because it was not in my neighborhood, it was Dade County's attempt at integration by what we would call now magnet programs, was the study center. And so I caught two buses to school every ... Well, my mom took us in the morning. She clarified that. She never dropped us. We were not latchkey kids. She took us to school and I caught the bus home. But one of the biggest impacts coming home in the afternoon was that the number 14 bus contained all of the women who did day's work on Miami Beach. And at that time, you still had to have an ID card if you stayed past sundown. And I still have my grandmother's ID card today.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: My first recreational summer job was sweeping the streets of Miami Beach. My grandfather was a gardener. And so they were entrepreneurs early on, so that that was really my life. It was church. It was-

Heidi Otway: What church did you go to?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: AM Cohen Temple Church of God in Christ. Bishop Jacob [inaudible 00:03:51] was my pastor.

Heidi Otway: Really?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes.

Heidi Otway: Oh, my God.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes. And my parents met at that church when they were probably six years old. They got married in that church. I was baptized in that church. And I was christened. I learned later I wasn't really baptized. I was christened in that church. My dad's funeral service was in that church, my brother's funeral. It was our whole family on both sides, and that's where I got my beginning, my first speech, my first leadership role, and where I spent most days because we went every day.

Heidi Otway: You went to church every day.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Almost every day. We were laughing about it because that's what you did. If someone would ask me, "What is something that somebody would never know about you?" I can still cut up collard greens because that was my job, to sell those church dinners on Saturdays. So I spent Saturdays helping my grandmother prepare those dinners that they would sell. And on Friday nights, we cut up barbecue, so I can cut up ribs too. But that was your recreation. And it was a time when Miami was still Miama, and it was before those things that impacted community overall, the Haitian boatlift, the Mariel Boatlift. And my dad ended up being the principal at Edison Middle when the first influx of Haitian children came, when the first influx of Mariel Boatlift when those children came. And a lot of those immigrant children ended up at Edison where he was. So that was my time in Miami.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. How many siblings do you have?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Right now I have none.

Heidi Otway: You had [inaudible 00:05:41] growing up.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Had one brother, who died about nine years ago from diabetes. And I have a host of first cousins, many of which I don't know so many. I am the product of very large extended family, so my dad was one of 10. My mom was one of nine, so I have a lot of aunts and uncles who I don't call that because they're very close in age to me. But that was fun growing up in a very big immigrant family, which I didn't understand at the time. My family is Bohemian on both sides. If you talk to me 10 minutes, I'll tell you about my family history because I've traced it. I have about 3000 names of ancestry, and I am that person that goes up to you at family reunions and say, "Spit in this. Do you mind if I send it off?" So yes, I spend a lot of time in the Bahamas. And recently, we were retained by the Bohemian government to do some work.

Heidi Otway: That's great.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So I'm very, very excited about that. My background as a Bohemian is very, very, very important to me. It's proven to be extremely important to my understanding exactly who I am, so I can't switch accents, especially if I've been over there for a few days. I was just over in Eleuthra, if you ever have been there, one of the family islands.

Heidi Otway: I have not.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes, my grandfather was one of 23.

Heidi Otway: 23.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: 23.

Heidi Otway: Kids.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And my great-grandfather had his last child at 69 years old.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So we come from a long line of producing children.

Heidi Otway: That's good.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And so I've gotten a chance to meet all of those cousins.

Heidi Otway: That's wonderful.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And take my American cousins, who for African Americans, is really important I think for, particularly for young people to understand where they come from. And we didn't know until I started doing the research. Now I know everybody and exactly where we came from, how we got there, and still uncovering. Go back to the early 1800s. But now I'm at the Africa stage.

Heidi Otway: That is so fascinating.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: It is fascinating.

Heidi Otway: It seems like everything you learn, as you just said, you know who you are.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: You know who you are. I understand why my father was the way that he was, being the oldest. Men are very, very strong in our family, the Cashes, I had to learn how to pronounce my name. It's Cash.

Heidi Otway: It's Cash.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Cash, yes.

Heidi Otway: Good to know.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Not cash like the money cash.

Heidi Otway: Right, right.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And the pride, so I've spent a lot of time in the Bahamas. And so while we're going through this discussion about immigration, it makes you think. My great-grandparents were teenagers when they came, and some of their experiences were experiences that people have now. My grandmother was born a year after my grandmother came, and from someone who was from her country, very much the same story. But it's a reminder how blessed we are to be in this country.

Heidi Otway: Yeah, yeah. And especially with what's going on right now. I mean, even now, we're seeing lots of people coming in from the various islands around the state of Florida.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Right, for different reasons.

Heidi Otway: For different reasons, so I'm hopeful that they could hear this interview and know that there could be some hope for them too.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And it gives me hope as being the first to make sure that you aren't the last. And I say that all the time. I don't ever want to be, okay, she was a Black woman lobbyist, she was Floridian of the Year, and guess what, we haven't had any more Black women. Women, by the way, they've never had a woman Floridian of the Year.

Heidi Otway: You're the first.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: They've never had a woman.

Heidi Otway: Well, congratulations for that.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes, yes. So what does it mean to be the first if you're the last one?

Heidi Otway: Yeah, I understand that. So it sounds like you were definitely influenced by your family.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes.

Heidi Otway: Where you came from.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes.

Heidi Otway: Who else inspired you when you were growing up in South Florida that brought you, that has helped you get to where you are today?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I would say I grew up several times.

Heidi Otway: Let's talk about that.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So certainly, my experiences growing up in Miami was one stage. My experience going to the University of Florida was certainly another. I had the first experience of living with someone of another race. There was no such thing as integration, remember I told you. My first Anglo teacher was in fifth grade, Mary Jane Holland. And I mention her because she definitely influenced me because I had never had a white teacher before. And she was four 11, now I've been five nine since I was 12.

Heidi Otway: I was going to say you're very tall. You're very tall.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So that experience was, the integration of school certainly helped me understand my next phase, which was going to the University of Florida, where one of my classes, I was the only Black student in the class. And I kept looking at the door. I can remember vividly looking at the door waiting for somebody else to come in that looked like me, and it never happened after 500 students. And so that was quite an experience. My roommates moved out once they saw me.

Heidi Otway: Really? How old were you at that time?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I was 18.

Heidi Otway: 18.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I had just turned 18, so graduated at 17. And I didn't understand that. The one roommate that remained, her name was Susan. She was a nursing student from Orlando, explained to me that her parents told her she didn't have anywhere to go, you have to stay.

Heidi Otway: Really?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: My other two white roommate moved.

Heidi Otway: What was the relationship like with you and that roommate who stayed?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Well, so if you understand college life, particularly Black college life, you become a little sister. And so I became a Kappa kid and so did she kind of vicariously through me.

Heidi Otway: Really?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And so we found ways to bond, so she was all into the fraternity life and wanted to know all about the Kappas and going to the interests, and that just wasn't her background, she was very poor, and she was the first in her family to go to college. And so we remain friends. I haven't talked to her probably in about maybe about 10 years, but we remained friends throughout their career. So the University of Florida was the second time I grew up, being away from home.

Heidi Otway: Speaking of firsts, were you the first person in your family to go to college?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I was not.

Heidi Otway: You were not. Okay.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I was not. Even though my grandparents never had any formal education, on my mother's side, they all went to college, all nine of them.

Heidi Otway: Good. That's remarkable.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Not all finished.

Heidi Otway: Yeah, but they went. They all went.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: They all went. So both my parents have their master's degrees, and that's probably my second growth as I got ready to go to law school and realized that my dad really wanted to be a lawyer. But the state of Florida paid for him to go to Indiana University, where he got his master's. My mom got her master's because that's what they did if you were Black and you wanted to go to graduate school, you could not go to University of Florida. So the rest of my interaction with the University of Florida was spent trying to get people to attend the University of Florida.

Heidi Otway: Really?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So that was something that I worked on later on in life, establishing a scholarship at UF, mainly for Black students that graduated from HBCUs so they could go to Florida like my dad never was able to. And that was [inaudible 00:13:38] named the Cash Fellowship.

Heidi Otway: That's great. That's great. So you went to University of Florida. What did you study while you were there?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I was a journalism major. I really wanted to be a business major, but my parents were like, "Listen, four years," which I tried to explain that to my daughter, but she didn't understand that concept. It took her a little bit longer. Yes. So I majored in journalism.

Heidi Otway: What'd you do when you graduated?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I worked at Sears, where America used to shop.

Heidi Otway: Where America ...

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And I wanted to be a buyer. I told you I started at Jordan Marsh, so I love fashion. I still am an avid bargain shopper, and so I wanted to work retail. Sears at that time had not had a Black woman as a store manager, which is the level you would go to. They had only had one Black man, and his name was Al Dotson Sr. And he was the manager of the Westland store in Miami. That was the first time Sears had a Black store manager.

Heidi Otway: Westland Mall.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And that was in 1980.

Heidi Otway: Oh, my goodness.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So I was going to be the first Black woman. Well, I got passed over for a promotion. And I quit and went to law school.

Heidi Otway: Okay, so you quit and went to law school.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Right.

Heidi Otway: And what was your law school experience like at University of Florida?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: It was the best. I was grown. I was one of the older law students [inaudible 00:15:04].

Heidi Otway: Yeah. Seriously. You were-

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I wasn't the oldest, but I was one of the oldest.

Heidi Otway: One of the oldest, okay.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: At 29 I decided that I would go to law school. I owned my house, so I bought my first house at 22. I owned my house. I just didn't shop for a long time. And I took some courses at the community college because there was this imposter ... Whether or not I really belonged in law school, I didn't know if I would be serious. I did well in undergrad, but I wasn't really a serious student. I just had a really good time, a real-

Heidi Otway: I had a great time too, yeah.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: My parents, I don't even want them to know.

Heidi Otway: Okay, good.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Which, you don't think about until you have your own children. I had a really good time at UF. So law school was a second career move for me.

Heidi Otway: Did you know what you wanted to study when you went to law school?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: No. I just knew I didn't want to do criminal. I didn't want to do child support. Those are the areas that Black lawyers have been in, I didn't want to do that. I wanted to do commercial. I wanted to be a commercial litigator. I didn't really know what that was. The first time I ever visited a law firm was when I went to interview for the job, but I had to pretend that I wasn't intimidated by the firm. I took a job at the oldest law firm in Florida, which is Shutts and Bowen. I worked there.

Heidi Otway: Did they recruit you? Did you apply?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: They recruited me.

Heidi Otway: They recruited you.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I didn't even know what that was. So I was like, "Who is Mr. Shutts and who is Mr. Bowen?" I had no idea that law firms kept the name after people die, so it was hilarious. So I knew nothing, I had never even walked in a law firm before. I knew one lawyer. His name was George Allen, and he was the first Black graduate from the University of Florida Law School. He wrote my recommendation.

Heidi Otway: And was he at that same law firm?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: No. He was in Broward, but my dad had pledged him when he was an Alpha. And I don't want to just say, Black parents, but as parents do, go see so-and-so, that's my friend. And I went to see George Allen, and he wrote my letter. I had no idea that the first Black graduate of the University of Florida Law School was writing my letter.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I was clueless. So but anyway, George wrote my letter of recommendation. We came fast friends. I got the job at Shutts. I was the first Black woman that they hired. There are two Black women in the firm, me and Glenda, who worked in the kitchen. And she went to my church. She still goes to my church. You just don't know what you don't know.

Heidi Otway: You just don't know what you don't know.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Don't know what you don't know.

Heidi Otway: So how did you get to where you are now?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I found myself trying to fit within the mold of what a white male litigator was because that's who was around me. And I hated it. In the meantime, my husband and my dad passed away 12 days apart. And if you can imagine anybody have any kind of major loss like that, you reevaluate life. And at that point, I think I decided I just was only going to do what I wanted to do. I like what I do. There's a partner there named Mick Maspons. And I don't know if I should've said his name, but anyway, he was a young partner. And one day he said to me, we were just talking, and he was like, "Yolanda, you really don't like this." And I thought, "What do you mean I don't like this?" You don't ever want to admit. I thought, "Hell, yeah, I hate this." And he said, "Why don't you ... You're really good at connecting people. They pay people to do that." And so I thought about it, and so he encouraged me to kind of make a presentation to the firm about starting a government practice.

And of course, they say no. So I had run a campaign, a good friend of mine decided to run for a state senate, and I had run his senate campaign and got the bug. And so someone told me, another lawyer at the firm that I was now at, this was the third firm I had been to, and he told me about this firm that was looking to expand government practice. And so I said, "Okay." And Alan Becker hired me. He paid me $20,000 more than I was making.

Heidi Otway: That's great.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I had two car notes, two mortgages, and a step-daughter who was now 12 years old, that I had to figure out how to survive.

Heidi Otway: And you're a single mom.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes.

Heidi Otway: Wow. Was that a life-changing experience for you, all of that?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I can't even tell ... I got hired 24 years yesterday.

Heidi Otway: Congratulations.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And they sent me up to Tallahassee. Do it. And I was like, "Okay." So I got my first client, the first, the second week I was up here. The one Black woman lobbyist that I knew, that I'd met kind of hanging out with a friend of mine, who was in the legislature, called me and said, "Do you know Senator Hosendorf, who was the first Black woman senator out of Jacksonville?" And I was like, "Yeah." And he said, "Well, we've been trying to meet with her and she won't meet with us." And I said, "That's because she don't meet with anybody. Where'd you try to meet her?" And so I said, "Well, she cooks. And she'll cook for you." And he said, "She'll cook for us?" I said, "Yeah. Come on over." And she cooked for the head of government affairs in [inaudible 00:20:50] and they hired me.

And the thing that I learned from that is the value. I had no idea what value I had. So she said, "We'll pay you $5000." I said, "Wow." No, a month. A month, they're going to pay me $5000 a month to have dinner with this lady. She was doing her cooking. It was just that important.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I didn't know. And so that was my first commercial client, and so fast-forward 24 years later, we're in the top 10, 12 ish producer, revenue producers of lobbying in the state.

Chris Cate: The Fluent in Floridian Podcast is brought to you by SalterMitchell PR, a communications consultancy focused on helping good causes win. We provide strategic insight and guidance to organizations seeking to make an impact in the nation's third most populous state. Learn more at smprflorida.com. Now back to SalterMitchell PR president Heidi Otway's interview with lobbyist, Yolanda Cash Jackson.

Heidi Otway: And you are on the cover of Florida Trend as Floridian of the Year.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Now that, I could not tell you how that happened.

Heidi Otway: Well, I can probably write a checklist for you. And really, I've been following you on LinkedIn. And we've met before and everything. And I can't tell you, I got goosebumps because I did not know the role that you had in the Mary McLeod Bethune statue. You were very much in the background, at least for those who are not in that vein there.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes.

Heidi Otway: So tell us about that, because when I saw the post, and I said, "Wait, what? How did I not know this?" It was almost like either from my perspective, this veil was lifted about who was making this happen.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: When you are an advocate, a paid advocate, you're supposed to be in the background.

Heidi Otway: That's right.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: It's not about you.

Heidi Otway: Yes.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And I think that lobbyists sometimes forget that it's not about them. I very seldom take pictures with my client. I took one today. I think that was the only one I took today. I very seldom do that because it's about what they are entrusting you with. So when Bethune-Cookman University through their head of government affairs, and the then president of the university came to me and told me that their priority was to get Mary McLeod Bethune in Statuary Hall. I said, "What the heck is Statuary Hall?" I mean, I-

Heidi Otway: I didn't know about it until this happened.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I didn't know the significance. And simultaneously with that, there was this movement of removal of Confederate statues all over the country. And in fact, Florida removed their statue of [inaudible 00:23:56], who's no longer in the legislature, response of the legislature to remove Kirby Smith. And that's when alumni and friends of Bethune-Cookman said, "You know what, they should have Miss Bethune," and that's how it happened.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Somebody comes up with an idea. It's like, "You know, that's not a bad idea." And the friends and supporters and family, the Bethune family, this community, no matter what school you went to, got together and said, "Yeah, that's a really good idea." Senator Perry Thurston was one of the sponsors in the Senate. And of course, we had Patrick Henry in the house. And now Representative Leek, who's now the appropriations chair, carried us through because we had to do it a couple times. We had no idea what all that would entail, and then COVID happened in the middle. We visited the woman who did the sculpture. We didn't get to choose the person that was going to be doing the sculpture. There was the selection done by the Department of State, so that whole process.

And when the bill passed, the chorus came and sang. It was just such a beautiful experience. Now I had no idea we were going to Italy. So once we met the sculptor, she told us where she was getting the the rock from, the quarry she was getting it from, and it was going to be in [foreign language 00:25:36]. I didn't even know how to pronounce it. And I got a chance to go and to witness the first unveiling.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Before anybody else could see it. The experience was amazing. But at the end of the day, it was the people that decided that Mary McLeod Bethune should be the representative of the state of Florida. I don't know that it would've happened today.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. I'm going to stay way away from that.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Okay.

Heidi Otway: But what I do want to talk about is staying power.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Staying power.

Heidi Otway: We've been at Becker for 24 years. And we have this new generation of folks that we know that kind of ... They move around a lot. And I know that people probably look up to you, especially the things that you've accomplished. And so for those that are listening that are just looking for some ideas, best practices, to reach whatever they achieve, what they want to be when they grow up. I always say, "I'm still not what I want to be when I grow up." What would you say to them about the power of being rooted in who you are, or in a place where you see an opportunity to thrive, or to carve a path?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: First, I would say that you have to be your authentic self. When you try to be somebody else, it doesn't work. I'd love to be Beyonce. It's not happening. I try every day. But it's not happening, just like it wasn't going to be beneficial to me to try to be a white male litigator. I'm not that. Now when I went into be Yolanda from Liberty City, and I say that because people need to understand not for those people that are going to get there anyway, it's for that little girl that was in Girl Scout Troop 409 like me, that little girl who mom cleaned Miss Panko's house. And they put you in a room and said, "Don't you touch nothing." I'd go to work with my grandmother when she went on day's work, and she would say, "You stay in that room. Don't you touch that." It's for those little girls that I would just tell them that you have to be your authentic self because at the end of the day when you are given choices, that some of them are moral choices, you better know where you stand.

So I'm unapologetic about my faith. I think that you have to hold onto something, mine happen to be the word. And I'm very much rooted in my spirituality. That's been my strong power and I don't apologize for that. And some people find that offensive. I hope not. But that's who I am. I try to be honest. And I won't ever have to guess ... I've had interviews that have been a little bit unnerving by governmental agencies, I'll just put it that way. And I can say, "No." Well, how do you know? Because I don't do that. How do you know? I don't. I don't do that. I talk to legislators about their conduct, about how to carry themselves. I don't have to do that, but I know I've seen it, and it's painful to watch the sacrifice that lawmakers make, their families make, when they make stupid decisions just because they stop being who they really were. So I'm very committed to that, and that's advice I would tell anybody.

I'm the same person. I try to be. Now I may shop at Neiman-Marcus now instead of Anne Taylor, but I'm the same person. I'm still going to look for a sale. I'm still that person. And I pride myself on being authentic and being true to myself because at the end of the day, that's all that matters. That's all that matters.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. So you've just taken on a new position with the Beacon Council.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Yes.

Heidi Otway: Tell me about that. How did that happen? I know that we have the passing of the gentleman who was leading it, unexpectedly. I saw the post and my heart dropped because I was trying to get him to be a guest on the Fluent in Floridian Podcast.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: We will soon have a new CEO for you to interview. We'll be glad to share.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. So tell us about the Beacon Council and your role there.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: My Beacon Council role, I mentioned Alan Becker, who was a mentor who hired me. And he was also chair of the Beacon Council. So it is an economic development arm of Miami-Dade County. Also, first, they've never had a Black woman, which they've had African Americans that served, Jared Davis, Robert Beatty, Sheldon Anderson. And so I'll be the first Black woman, so I'll do it the way that I do it, period.

Heidi Otway: Period.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Period. And I'm very excited because we have some initiatives that are very much in line with my vision of what Miami-Dade should be. I've established three points because I am a PK. I have my three points.

Heidi Otway: Yes, yes.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I have three points, that of inclusion, and I know we've had a lot of discussions about being woke, but it's not even about being woke. It's being inclusive and knowing, just like the governor says, that we're open for business, that Miami-Dade County, that Florida's open for business, Republican, Democrat, green, yellow.

Heidi Otway: For everybody.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Everybody.

Heidi Otway: Everybody.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: And so we take those wins and strides that we made through COVID, we survived it. We thrived through it. And I think that is what the message that we're hearing at the [inaudible 00:31:32]. That's fine. But inclusive, meaning that we are open for business for the person that lives in Homestead, to the person that lives in Miami Gardens, from county line to county line, if you want to do business here, we are ready for you. And so we know, and I saw an article yesterday that Florida's the fastest growing state, economy's the fastest growing. That's very exciting because all the points are suggesting that we may be in for a tough time. But we've been there before. We're resilient people, the state is resilient. We have the biggest surplus we've ever had, and that makes it all hopeful for organizations like the Beacon Council.

So first, we want to include, second, we want to add value. We want people to know what resources we bring to the table to help people come to Miami and stay. And then the last part is sustainability. We want to add some resilience to those small businesses and other people that want to do business in Miami-Dade County, no matter what you look like or where you come from.

Heidi Otway: That's good. Well, that's my hometown, so I love hearing everything that you're doing. Well, I could talk to you for hours and learn more and go a little bit deeper into your life, but I've got to wrap it up. So we always wrap up our interviews with four questions, so I'm going to ask you the first. Who is a leader in Florida that you admire? It could be someone from any industry or field, from the past or someone who is still active in their work.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Oh, well, I admire a lot of people. My person I admire the most is deceased, and that was Carrie Meek. She was my oldest friend, and we spent a lot of time together. We shopped together. She gave me man advice, which I can't repeat right now, which made my face turn red and I'm very [inaudible 00:33:26]. But what I learned from her, I will never be able to replace. She was 67 years old when she went to Congress, yet she had the heart of a 20 year old.

Heidi Otway: That was one of the most strongest women I've ever met in my entire life.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So I learned the lessons learned from Carrie, I did her eulogy for the sorority, Omega Omega, which was such an honor. And her children remain to be very, very close to me, and her grandchildren are my godchildren.

Heidi Otway: Oh, wonderful.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: So she's someone who I admire for her tenacity, for her wit. She was funny. Oh, she was funny. But most of all, she was relevant throughout generations. Gosh, isn't that a great legacy? So I admire her the most.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. What is a person, place, or thing in Florida that deserves or attention that it's currently getting?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Miami Gardens.

Heidi Otway: Miami Gardens, I'm from Carol City, which is down Miami Gardens.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Not so much cities, Miami Gardens the city, but what Miami Gardens stands for. It's 15 years old, a community that came together saying, "You know what, we don't like this. We're going to start our own thing," and they created something called self-governance, and they started governing themselves and they're thriving. And I've represented them since they've had one employee, and they have such an amazing story, the families, the history, the inclusion, the neighborhood feel, jazz in the gardens, Formula One, the Superbowl. They don't have a deficit. They're thriving. I love everything it represents.

Heidi Otway: What is your favorite Florida location to visit?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Sawgrass Mills.

Heidi Otway: Sawgrass Mills. [inaudible 00:35:23].

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Sawgrass, I have been going to Sawgrass since they opened and I like shopping, I like bargain shopping, so yes.

Heidi Otway: Good. Okay. And finally, do you have a favorite Florida sports team?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Is there only more than the Florida Gators?

Heidi Otway: So I take it you go to every football game.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I do not go to every football game, but up until the pandemic, I had not missed at least one home game.

Heidi Otway: Home game, yeah.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Even though I lived in Miami, so something like 20 some years.

Heidi Otway: That's amazing.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: My husband played for the Gators.

Heidi Otway: Oh, he did.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: I just last year sold my house during the pandemic, the same house I bought in 1982, '81, that I told you about when I was working for Sears. I just sold it. I bleed orange and blue, yes.

Heidi Otway: Good. And then did your daughter go to the University of Florida?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: No.

Heidi Otway: Where'd she go?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: She went to FAMU.

Heidi Otway: Okay. Rattler.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: My dad was a Rattler. And true story, I would've been a Rattler if it wasn't for Reverend Miles.

Heidi Otway: Really?

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Who was the dean. Was he there when you were there?

Heidi Otway: No.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: But anyway, he was there when my father was there. And so on our college visit, he said, "Reverend," my dad was a pastor, "Reverend, don't worry. We'll take good care of her." And my little brother looked at me and said, "If you go to this school, you're crazy." And so I ended up at the University of Florida, where they knew no one because there weren't any Black people there. There you go, that's the story. I'm sticking to it.

Heidi Otway: Okay. Well, Yolanda, thank you so much for being a guest on this podcast. I've learned so many things about you that I didn't know, which was why we do this podcast. And I know that people are going to get so much joy from hearing our conversation today, so thank you.

Yolanda Cash Jackson: Thank you for the invitation.

Chris Cate: Thanks for listening to the Fluent in Floridian Podcast. This show is executive produced by April Salter, with additional support provided by Heidi Otway and the team at SalterMitchell PR. If you need help telling your Florida story, SalterMitchell PR has you covered, offering issues management, crisis communications, social media, advocacy, and media relations assistance. You can learn more about SalterMitchell PR at smprflorida.com. You can also learn more about the Fluent in Floridian Podcast and listen to every episode of the show at fluentinfloridian.com or by searching for the show using your favorite podcast app. Have a great day.