Speaker 1: This November, more than twenty thousand black techis from all
Speaker 1: over the world will converge on Austin, Texas for afro Techo.
Speaker 1: Afro Tech is the largest series of multicultural tech experiences
Speaker 1: in the United States, bringing together engineers, venture capitalists, recruiters, technologists,
Speaker 1: and cultural enthusiasts from all over the world. It is
Speaker 1: the definitive conference that brings leaders in technology and business
Speaker 1: together to exchange ideas and build a strong black tech community.
Speaker 1: In short, afro Tech chase my life and I'm not
Speaker 1: the only one. People come to afro Tech and leave
Speaker 1: with jobs at some of the largest tech companies on
Speaker 1: the planet. People come to afro Tech and find venture
Speaker 1: funding for their startups. People come to afro Tech and
Speaker 1: find employees to join them on their company building journey.
Speaker 1: People come to afro Tech and find a new boat
Speaker 1: who can write some mean code. Anyway, Look, I do
Speaker 1: hope to see you at afro Tech twenty one too.
Speaker 1: It's our first time as a conference in Austin, Texas
Speaker 1: and he I got some bottom fold were ready to rock.
Speaker 1: So you know it's on check out experience dot afro
Speaker 1: tech dot kind of learn more. I'm will Lucas and
Speaker 1: this is Black Tech, Green money. I'm gonna enso you
Speaker 1: to see to some of the biggest names, some of
Speaker 1: the brightest minds in brilliant ideas. If you're a black
Speaker 1: and building or simply using Texas and kick your back,
Speaker 1: this podcast is for you. The Tshu Banks is an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: content creator, founder and editor in chief at the YBF,
Speaker 1: which is to go to site to learn the scoop
Speaker 1: on your favorite celebrities. Young Black and Fabulous is one
Speaker 1: of the hottest Black celebrity gossip sites on the planet
Speaker 1: and millions of readers per month. Sip the tea on
Speaker 1: her platform at afro Tech twenty and the Metaverse. We
Speaker 1: talked him the Tosh about building an imprint that you're
Speaker 1: stay in the test of time, content creation and the
Speaker 1: amongst black women. Black women are starting businesses at the
Speaker 1: fastest rate of any racial group, but we are still
Speaker 1: the most underfunded female demographic impair. But the fact that
Speaker 1: over sixty of new businesses are digital based, we've either
Speaker 1: got a black tech crisis on our hands or the
Speaker 1: most bomb opportunity to make you successful in your space
Speaker 1: for a very long time. So we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: ways to ensure your business is legacy aligns with that
Speaker 1: last category. Okay, my name is Nisashi you Bates and
Speaker 1: I'm the host of the Lobby of podcast and the CEO,
Speaker 1: founder and editor in chief of Young Black and Fabulous,
Speaker 1: or as you may know it, the Lobby of dot com.
Speaker 1: Fifteen years ago, I stepped away from what has become
Speaker 1: an eternal right from law school to chase my true passion.
Speaker 1: So that true passion went from mom, I wanna leave
Speaker 1: law school because I want to blog to world. I
Speaker 1: want to become the largest household name in digital media
Speaker 1: that centers on culture, is black owned, and push our
Speaker 1: own narratives in non traditional ways. So what I didn't
Speaker 1: know was that this blog would be a disruptor that
Speaker 1: develops into a multimedia platform. Even with having a mass
Speaker 1: millions of readers and followers across multiple yb of platforms,
Speaker 1: I'm still on my journey and based on what I've
Speaker 1: learned so far, I will always be so. With that said,
Speaker 1: I have fifteen years of experience, successful moves, failures, everything
Speaker 1: in between that leads me on this journey. And I've
Speaker 1: built a business from nothing, not a penny of investments
Speaker 1: lending or a penny of my own money, and I've
Speaker 1: built it into a budding media empire. It's possible a
Speaker 1: promise because because I've had the most roller coaster style
Speaker 1: on the job training experience imaginable, it's been crazy. I'm
Speaker 1: giving you the keys for you to build your own
Speaker 1: legacy while jumping over a few hurdles that would break
Speaker 1: even the most credential entrepreneur. So you're about to find
Speaker 1: out why experience is the cheap code you've been looking
Speaker 1: floor and that will get you success. You might say,
Speaker 1: I don't have experience to leverage, so leverage someone else's.
Speaker 1: And after today you can leverage my decade and a
Speaker 1: half's worth of experience owning one of the largest and
Speaker 1: one of the most respected digital entertainment platforms. So I
Speaker 1: mentioned legacy earlier, you might be wondering what that has
Speaker 1: to do with starting a business. The key to business
Speaker 1: longevity for me is identifying your legacy. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you six steps to do just that based on
Speaker 1: what I've learned these last lump teen years, and that
Speaker 1: will be your blueprint for a successful business. But first
Speaker 1: I want to talk about something UH missed opportunities and
Speaker 1: the life lesson and taught me it's at the worst
Speaker 1: Category five hurricane in history at that time, Katrina to
Speaker 1: make me realize life is actually bigger than solely following
Speaker 1: a plan you set out when you were just a team,
Speaker 1: A plan you know will make your parents happy and
Speaker 1: others happy. And people are kind of the way they
Speaker 1: see you based on aspirations and goals you talked about
Speaker 1: since forever. So it's hard to kind of change from that,
Speaker 1: and I get that you feel like you're letting people down.
Speaker 1: But learning that a change and plans is not a
Speaker 1: failure unlock something in me. It allowed me to unapologetically
Speaker 1: go towards my goals, but it took a minute. In
Speaker 1: that minute definitely cost me some valuable early growth opportunities.
Speaker 1: I feel would I be further along had I known,
Speaker 1: had I taken those opportunities, maybe, But turning down a
Speaker 1: book deal because I thought the person offering it must
Speaker 1: be a fraud if they're asking LUO me to come
Speaker 1: to a meeting in New York to talk about a
Speaker 1: book deal, spoil alert. She was not a fraud. She's
Speaker 1: actually a broker for the most bomb book deals for
Speaker 1: our faiths like Mr Copeland, and I also didn't follow
Speaker 1: up on offers to create digital based shows within a
Speaker 1: network of a then rising star who is now IMM nominated,
Speaker 1: because I just couldn't fathom what I, a blogger, could
Speaker 1: possibly bring to the table, and even the opportunities that
Speaker 1: were a little bit more technical. So like I turned
Speaker 1: down a twelve K offer thirteen years ago from a
Speaker 1: domain holder who wanted to sell me a three letter
Speaker 1: domain addressed that better represents my business, but I turned
Speaker 1: it down because I didn't trust myself to do a
Speaker 1: deal that was based in an arena that I was
Speaker 1: so unfamiliar with. And I killed to have only paid
Speaker 1: twelve K for a three letter domain today by what?
Speaker 1: But at years old, I was just still pretty unsure
Speaker 1: with myself, my abilities, my everything. We know, everything is
Speaker 1: about timing, and I definitely missed some opportunities that I
Speaker 1: just wasn't mentally and emotionally ready for because I still
Speaker 1: hadn't convinced myself that I deserved them. I still battle
Speaker 1: feeling like a failure and not completing law school versus
Speaker 1: the idea of simply being just a brave entrepreneur. I
Speaker 1: didn't look at myself that way until years later, and
Speaker 1: it could be in part because entrepreneurship, which needs to change.
Speaker 1: While there are business owners in my family, it's not
Speaker 1: something that was ever put on a pedestal in my
Speaker 1: life as a kid or even within my school. I
Speaker 1: was taught that traditional routes of academia lead to amazing
Speaker 1: jobs and that leads to an amazing life. Successful business
Speaker 1: owners and entrepreneurs were kind of the outliers, but certainly
Speaker 1: not the rule. It's a reconditioning of my mind that
Speaker 1: I had to that had to happen to me for
Speaker 1: me to truly step into my purpose. How do you
Speaker 1: do that though, And that's the tricky part. How do
Speaker 1: we how do we follow our passion and and make
Speaker 1: sure it's that has the longevity that we crave. We
Speaker 1: start with what we want our legacy to be. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about long life. Should it be your business,
Speaker 1: your product, or you and a longlife. Who are what
Speaker 1: gets the spotlight? It's a tough decision, but your decision
Speaker 1: definitely can change based on your needs as your business growth.
Speaker 1: So back in two thousand five, when I started the
Speaker 1: ybs dot com, I was a fresh college graduate waiting
Speaker 1: on a law school to start. Facebook had just kind
Speaker 1: of come on the scene in my circle, and it
Speaker 1: was still mainly just for college students and alumni at
Speaker 1: that time, and you were really only Facebook friends with
Speaker 1: people you know well, so your classmates or friends or
Speaker 1: family and other people. So when people posted status updates,
Speaker 1: it was seen by a small group of people and
Speaker 1: you already knew them, so nothing was a shock. It
Speaker 1: definitely felt like people were and you're we're not in
Speaker 1: your business per se, or trying to get things to
Speaker 1: hold against you like they kind of do now. So
Speaker 1: I would post anything in everything, and even on my site,
Speaker 1: I would use it as sort of a personal diary
Speaker 1: in between all of the celebrity news that I was posting.
Speaker 1: That's technically what blogging means, right, online journalize. So I
Speaker 1: was giving detailed updates within celebrity news, post on moving
Speaker 1: back to New Orleans for Loyola Law and was stressful
Speaker 1: a f I would include in the post about what
Speaker 1: I was personally watching and loving, and I would talk
Speaker 1: about partying and school and Marty Gras And I was
Speaker 1: the sole person posting on this site, so it wasn't
Speaker 1: even a business yet anyway, So I thought I could
Speaker 1: get away with it. So I thought, in my head
Speaker 1: it was my small number of loyal readers, college roommates,
Speaker 1: a couple of family members who were reading the site,
Speaker 1: and that's it, and that is who I was talking
Speaker 1: to and divulging things to. In my head had already
Speaker 1: decided that I wanted the website to be the star
Speaker 1: if it ever grew into anything. So I never posted
Speaker 1: pictures of myself, never did interviews, and was totally just
Speaker 1: the girl who was obsessed with celebrity tabloid gossip, just
Speaker 1: like every other person my age that I knew. And
Speaker 1: after all that, started to site solely because the Perez
Speaker 1: Hilton's and pincause of new blogs and people magazines of
Speaker 1: the world not talking about black celebs outside of a
Speaker 1: Beyonce mentioned here and there. So I decided to teach
Speaker 1: myself the basic the basics of coding and how to
Speaker 1: read other people's page source code in order to create
Speaker 1: a blog spot page, remember those of freeings, so I
Speaker 1: could eventually become like they're super of successful pages. I
Speaker 1: was just a fan scouring the internet and every tabloid
Speaker 1: for any type of info or any pick involving any
Speaker 1: black celebrity, and I would compel everything I found into
Speaker 1: this one huge, endless post, and I just couldn't get enough.
Speaker 1: My opinions were front and center, unfiltered, reckless, often borderline
Speaker 1: slanderous in defamatory. But I wanted the site to be
Speaker 1: a star, so I hid myself because I didn't fit
Speaker 1: the aspirational vibe. I hadn't even set for the site.
Speaker 1: Who wants to see a curvy black chick who's broke
Speaker 1: and in school? Anyway? The site was my hobby, so
Speaker 1: why wouldn't I post about the fantasy life we all
Speaker 1: would want? Red carpets, hot bodies, hot celebrity relationships, tons
Speaker 1: of money, mega mansions and drama for days. I too
Speaker 1: was aspiring to have that life, so I didn't actually
Speaker 1: have it, though who did The editors that People magazine didn't,
Speaker 1: and but they were allowed to write about celebrity life
Speaker 1: without someone questioning why they had audacity to do it.
Speaker 1: Never did I think I had to live the life
Speaker 1: of something I spoke about in adding racially curi curiosity.
Speaker 1: So then things changed as the site grew, which I
Speaker 1: wasn't even truly noticing myself, yet so did my audience
Speaker 1: and on multiple platforms too, So Facebook had opened up
Speaker 1: to anyone and everybody that wanted to do acroless of
Speaker 1: academic status, and I started to see random people requesting
Speaker 1: to be my friend in plenty and they have polity
Speaker 1: to say about my personal life that I was sharing.
Speaker 1: So I started to see pushback from readers, likely the
Speaker 1: new ones, who criticized the way I wrote my opinions,
Speaker 1: my audacity to even talk about things like this luxury
Speaker 1: life and things like that. Who was I to do this?
Speaker 1: I mean, there was no other digital only celebrity gossip
Speaker 1: site out at the time sitting around black people, and
Speaker 1: there wasn't for another year or two. So out of
Speaker 1: all the horrific things said and even having my life threatened,
Speaker 1: at one point, someone belived me and my taste and
Speaker 1: TV shows, and that's where I drew the line. It
Speaker 1: was hurtful, and it made me kind of withdraw even
Speaker 1: speaking about myself, and my skin just wasn't as sick yet.
Speaker 1: So it seemed like making a site the star was
Speaker 1: going to be a little bit harder than I thought,
Speaker 1: but I noticed it's star potential when I quit for
Speaker 1: a few weeks. Katrina had come after everybody's life up
Speaker 1: ruined our first couple of weeks of law school, and
Speaker 1: I hated everyone and everything, especially our government for the
Speaker 1: horrible response to my city, the people who were black
Speaker 1: like me, who were being obviously treated the worst. And
Speaker 1: I was fed up, so I stepped away from everything
Speaker 1: while trying to figure out what to do next about
Speaker 1: school and life. Then something happened, the outpouring of emails
Speaker 1: and messages and comments and pleading to know if I
Speaker 1: was safe during this whole, big, huge flood in Katrina craziness.
Speaker 1: My regular readers have formed a bond with me that
Speaker 1: actually was real, and despite me saying f everybody because
Speaker 1: of a few critical apples in a bunch, their love
Speaker 1: and support brought me back. Maybe the site was a
Speaker 1: star in the making even with all that bad inch happening.
Speaker 1: Maybe I started back blogging as Katrina up ending my
Speaker 1: life and forced me into attending schools mandated and a
Speaker 1: whole another city in Houston, as if you're one al
Speaker 1: year isn't impossible enough as is, And after completing my
Speaker 1: first year, I said, you know, and basically being in
Speaker 1: a depression, I said, you know, I'm just not gonna return.
Speaker 1: I saw value and what I was building for myself,
Speaker 1: and it was only growing even with me giving a
Speaker 1: fraction of time to it. That's when I saw an
Speaker 1: opportunity to become the face of my business and still
Speaker 1: didn't take it, fear thinking in my head, if I
Speaker 1: failed at my goal of completing law school, I would
Speaker 1: feel at everything else in life. Those few critical bad
Speaker 1: apples will grow into a million who would just I
Speaker 1: just knew would hate me. So here I am scared
Speaker 1: to put myself out front again. I don't deserve the
Speaker 1: shine or attention. So I passed up multiple opportunities that
Speaker 1: were Natasha focused, taking only about two that I can
Speaker 1: even recall, one a multi page spread and Bob vit
Speaker 1: and magazine chronically my nightlife and this one woman show
Speaker 1: blogging business. My face, my voice, my body. Me was
Speaker 1: out there for the very first time in that way.
Speaker 1: And oh the opinions, and they happened to be I mean,
Speaker 1: they happened at an even more furious rate. And I
Speaker 1: was already met with you know, all the craziness from before,
Speaker 1: and here are other people saying, you know what, if
Speaker 1: you condition to celebs, you have to take it to
Speaker 1: really okay. So after a few public fights with celebs
Speaker 1: at that time and being upset about things they were
Speaker 1: being up. They were upset about things that I posted
Speaker 1: and fights that were orchestrated by someone I thought was
Speaker 1: actually my friend. In this business, I lost hold in
Speaker 1: myself and this business. It felt like it was me
Speaker 1: versus the world every day, in a business that had
Speaker 1: no blueprint already. And why am I being criticized for
Speaker 1: not looking like an aimless actress when I'm still just
Speaker 1: that regular girl, just like y'all, just like anybody walking
Speaker 1: down the street who like celebrity gossip. And I was
Speaker 1: in school and I just stopped by town boys and
Speaker 1: I love celebrity culture. Why am I held to a
Speaker 1: different standard. I truly believe the way that I viewed
Speaker 1: myself in the way that some people viewed me, painted
Speaker 1: askew picture of what was real, but actually what was important.
Speaker 1: It's why I backed away from amazing growth opportunities and
Speaker 1: TV appearances in a book deal all at twenty five.
Speaker 1: I didn't feel like I deserved them. Deep down, I
Speaker 1: didn't see anybody who looked like me taking this exact path,
Speaker 1: so I didn't think I should either. I shouldn't be
Speaker 1: in the spotlight. But the fact of the matter is
Speaker 1: I had way more love than hate and way more
Speaker 1: people relating to me in my journey than not, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't bring myself to realize that until the light
Speaker 1: went off. A pivot is not a failure. That's what
Speaker 1: I had to tell myself. Pivoting to follow a passion
Speaker 1: that I had a strong convictional work is the definition
Speaker 1: of not failing. It's winning. Pivoting within your business is
Speaker 1: the definition of not failing. You're adjusting to stay alive.
Speaker 1: Even today, it's still a balance and that for me.
Speaker 1: Over the years, without a manager or publicist or agent
Speaker 1: or anything, I've become a correspondent for a nationally syndicated
Speaker 1: TV show in the room I enter development deals. I
Speaker 1: have done countless appearances on shows like Extra, and became
Speaker 1: the correspondent for four years on a nationally syndicated great
Speaker 1: radio show, Big Boys Morning Show. Became a brand ambassador,
Speaker 1: which obviously takes a lot more, showing yourself to the
Speaker 1: world for amazing companies like Samsung, Gate through Seven, all
Speaker 1: while still pulling back a little bit on what I
Speaker 1: give and what I show myself. It's still always in
Speaker 1: the back of my mind to this day, all the hate,
Speaker 1: all the critiques. The critiques hit a little bit differently though,
Speaker 1: when youre getting paid to do this showing off and
Speaker 1: this organic stuff, so you're not just doing it for likes.
Speaker 1: And I will say that helps. But what I've learned
Speaker 1: is it takes both. It takes a dose of you
Speaker 1: and a dose of your business, both sharing the limelight.
Speaker 1: People don't buy merchandise and don't consume content and dependent
Speaker 1: of who is selling it to them or who is
Speaker 1: creating that content. Remember that and finally, healthy balance that
Speaker 1: works for both you and your business. Evolution, staying true
Speaker 1: to your purpose while constantly evolving is probably the biggest
Speaker 1: hurdle entrepreneurship, except nothing less than what you actually need
Speaker 1: in order for you to flourish, in order for you
Speaker 1: to stay in the note in your business. So when
Speaker 1: it comes to running a business, you should have multiple
Speaker 1: partners to help you keep on top of the next
Speaker 1: big thing. Your business evolves when you bring in the
Speaker 1: right components to make it evolved. Keeping your company fresh
Speaker 1: and nimbless key. So every partner you have demand to
Speaker 1: have a dedicated account manager who access a direct liaison
Speaker 1: between you and that partner company. This account manager should
Speaker 1: have weekly or bi weekly check ins with you, telling
Speaker 1: me what their company is doing and how will how
Speaker 1: will it benefit your business. You partner with these people
Speaker 1: because they know more than you in a certain area
Speaker 1: and their experts and set area. So make sure you're
Speaker 1: getting all the value you can from that partnership because
Speaker 1: they're getting paid in one way or another from you.
Speaker 1: I work with experienced partners and who have been around
Speaker 1: for longer than five years. And you don't have to
Speaker 1: be a tech genius to be in the tech game.
Speaker 1: You just have to hire one. So I hired a
Speaker 1: mobile website development company because of their cutting edge technology
Speaker 1: that basically optimizes us for everything that we will need
Speaker 1: to day now that over people are accessing content Solio Mobile.
Speaker 1: I partner with companies like with with cutting edge advertising
Speaker 1: technology to optimize our revenue model, and developers and server
Speaker 1: text and people who put foundational aspects of our business first.
Speaker 1: Since it's your company's home, you should always know always
Speaker 1: next in your field, and using these account managers like
Speaker 1: members of your personal board of directors is keeping. They
Speaker 1: should see you as a value client too, though, so
Speaker 1: they may be willing to bend some rules or some
Speaker 1: fees when necessary to keep you on board. If are
Speaker 1: you what you need client for them and you have
Speaker 1: you shown them that, or do you have a unique
Speaker 1: audience or or something some type of unique goals, So
Speaker 1: offer that perspective to them if they're unaware there's something
Speaker 1: that they you have something of value they can use
Speaker 1: as well. For while we have three point oh It's coming,
Speaker 1: we are working with the powerhouse development company crowd Favorite
Speaker 1: because they are the best of what they do and
Speaker 1: it's more than just them designing a new site for us.
Speaker 1: They are invested in actually seeing as succeed. We have
Speaker 1: established a true partnership over the last year or so,
Speaker 1: so that includes business advice from one business to another, connections, introductions,
Speaker 1: and partnering together on things outside of this one project.
Speaker 1: And partnerships like that are gold plus. They get to
Speaker 1: work with a unique client like us. We're a small business.
Speaker 1: We're not their Disney client, but we also have a
Speaker 1: big digital presence and the super hands on CEO and
Speaker 1: a diverse demo. It's like having relationships, you know, and
Speaker 1: for me, like having a man. You want a man
Speaker 1: to bring some benefit to the table and bring something
Speaker 1: that I can't go get anywhere else, just like I
Speaker 1: bring a benefit to the table for them. Same thing, guys,
Speaker 1: same thing. With that said, hiring can be tricky. Knowing
Speaker 1: how to do everything at least at the basic level,
Speaker 1: but still out source what you can is important. You
Speaker 1: can't hire properly if you don't even know the basics
Speaker 1: of the job yourself. Another way, evolution in business manifest
Speaker 1: itself is where you fit in with your business. I
Speaker 1: learned very early, but I could be a machine. I
Speaker 1: used to stay up thirty six hours at a time,
Speaker 1: often just to figure out coding myself before I could
Speaker 1: afford a team for that. I have this instatial appetite
Speaker 1: for discovering things. And this was all fine and good
Speaker 1: when I was twenty five and had time and energy. Now,
Speaker 1: with the business that has like ten platforms to maintain
Speaker 1: and growing and a small but dynamic team of employees freelancers, partners,
Speaker 1: correspondence everybody to manage, I simply can't be the machine anymore,
Speaker 1: at least not at all times. So like you think
Speaker 1: you're being the energized or bunny, the quality of your
Speaker 1: work false because you're actually exhausted trust me, you miss
Speaker 1: out on major growth opportunities because you're too busy working
Speaker 1: in your business and you don't see the bigger picture
Speaker 1: from the outside. You're only thinking how much bean with
Speaker 1: you have to give, and you can't make that growth
Speaker 1: happy with that small amount of bandwidth, So start wating
Speaker 1: the benefits of expanding your team. The difference between self
Speaker 1: employed and entrepreneur is self employed, you're working in your
Speaker 1: business and out, but you can only grow so much
Speaker 1: as you only have so much bandwidth. But as an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: you know when to pull yourself out. You work on
Speaker 1: the business from the outside to grow the business. It's
Speaker 1: tricky for us who build something from the ground up.
Speaker 1: Though it's our baby. Would you let somebody come in
Speaker 1: and raise your human baby? Not so, it's hard, but
Speaker 1: businesses are not human babies. And eventually growing personally and
Speaker 1: professionally to a point where you are just the decision
Speaker 1: maker and you delegate the inner workings of your business
Speaker 1: to others, it will be necessary and I struggle with
Speaker 1: this every day to this day. I have set an
Speaker 1: exit plan for myself on no less than two occasions,
Speaker 1: and it clearly has not happened yet. But working on it.
Speaker 1: But if you don't grow, you die. What I've learned
Speaker 1: after fifteen years also is the return on an investment
Speaker 1: does not have to be dollar to dollar. Instead, I
Speaker 1: ask myself that if I invest in this other human
Speaker 1: on my team, does it render them and being a
Speaker 1: more of a well rounded person that benefits both you
Speaker 1: and them forever? Is my r O. I gonna come
Speaker 1: back maybe in a year or two if I put
Speaker 1: in a couple of thousand dollars here for this maybe,
Speaker 1: And it's certainly something to consider when if your goals
Speaker 1: are achieving longevity and legacy, let's move on the gift.
Speaker 1: Identify your gift. What's the innate gift you have to
Speaker 1: offer to the world. Who do you move and when?
Speaker 1: And how does that align with your passion? Your passion
Speaker 1: is what you would do and chase for free. I
Speaker 1: did it at the very beginning for a few years.
Speaker 1: I know I love politics and always have. According to
Speaker 1: what others tell me, my gift is in moving people
Speaker 1: to take action and making people feel seen. I use
Speaker 1: my gifts to put Black Hollywood on a pedestal because
Speaker 1: I know that that spotlight that I give to those
Speaker 1: people who are usually not talked about, will always trickle
Speaker 1: down and affect the entire Black community and fabulous ways.
Speaker 1: And recently I've been able to circle back to my
Speaker 1: original path action with the launch of y By of Politics.
Speaker 1: So joining two of my favorite passions in one place amazing.
Speaker 1: Added up authenticity plus aspiration plus tax. Advertisers are now
Speaker 1: spending a hundred and nine billion more on digital advertising
Speaker 1: then on print, so what you charge needs to reflect
Speaker 1: that fact and the fact that digital media is now
Speaker 1: keen for advertising. You don't have to play small anymore.
Speaker 1: Your authenticity is something that advertisers pay top dollar. Four.
Speaker 1: You have aspirations to new businesses down the line, longevity
Speaker 1: not cut short by legal woes. And then you add tax.
Speaker 1: You have bills, you have experienced, and your unique individual
Speaker 1: You deserve to monetize all of that charge properly so
Speaker 1: you can fund your business properly. I got my first
Speaker 1: lawsuit a little over ten years ago, and it was
Speaker 1: from a stripper in Atlanta who swore that out of
Speaker 1: fank or character by calling her a stripper on y
Speaker 1: B up and a story about cheating with all despite
Speaker 1: the fact she worked in a strip club and was
Speaker 1: topless and dancing. She was mad. I quickly learned that
Speaker 1: my business will now face latitious people just out for
Speaker 1: a quick dollar, or people overly sensitive about their own brands,
Speaker 1: and they see you in your business with a large
Speaker 1: voice and some change in your pocket as a target
Speaker 1: to hit. So I beefed up my legal budget so
Speaker 1: my longevity is not affected by legal woes. Have a
Speaker 1: team of lawyers I can go to for various business
Speaker 1: needs now and trust it comes in hand. You protecting
Speaker 1: your cash flow as well with loans, credit lines and
Speaker 1: for growth is also key. I'm doing this because I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: In doing this, you become your own bank, and that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And this is that tricky conversation circling back to where
Speaker 1: we first began that talked about how black women in
Speaker 1: particular are the most underfunded group and business. So this
Speaker 1: is definitely the case in the investment capital side of
Speaker 1: things and on the lending side of things. So the
Speaker 1: other route we end up taking is credit and loans.
Speaker 1: Finding an amazing banking partner is one of the best
Speaker 1: cheat codes I learned. I will say, established credit line
Speaker 1: and credit cards when you don't need them while you're
Speaker 1: at the top of your revenue making and at the
Speaker 1: top of your credit that is when you get the
Speaker 1: best offers and best interest rates and the best limits
Speaker 1: and you can tap into them whatever you need to.
Speaker 1: The revenue component of blogging and content arena is also
Speaker 1: really tricky, and it's this constant game of proving the
Speaker 1: worth of yourself and your audience. Budgets are often divided
Speaker 1: into mainstream and multicultural, and you, as your guests, who
Speaker 1: are you know? Multicultural is always drastically smaller than mainstream budgets.
Speaker 1: Breeds and companies know that it's multicultural media and the
Speaker 1: black consumer base who make them hot in the first place.
Speaker 1: Yet we're often paid out the least or if it all.
Speaker 1: Until we can adjust that blaring issue systemic racism within
Speaker 1: corporate brand marketing. We have to become our own banks
Speaker 1: so we can live to fight another day. Conquered competition,
Speaker 1: compete with yourself. I spoke earlier about the mindset of
Speaker 1: I've felt it one thing, and they're for I don't
Speaker 1: deserve and can't win at anything else. That mindset has
Speaker 1: to be defeated. Was it really a failure or was
Speaker 1: it a pivot? There's a difference. Don't outlist yourself, the
Speaker 1: pro and con list, like the advantages and the disadvantages.
Speaker 1: I mean, they just keep you in this never ending turnstyle.
Speaker 1: I was and still am Mary Jane. From being Mary Jane,
Speaker 1: I admitted posting notes everywhere, posting note acts, real life,
Speaker 1: posting notes all man. A lot of it is working
Speaker 1: out that self doubt in your head by trying to
Speaker 1: find the weak spots in our own arguments or for like,
Speaker 1: for ourselves or against ourselves or our business. But at
Speaker 1: some point you have to just get out of your
Speaker 1: head and just do it. You want to start running
Speaker 1: ad promos for your business and do marketing, start with
Speaker 1: a super small budget, do some a B testing, Just
Speaker 1: try it. Nothing is better, nothing is a better teacher
Speaker 1: than hardcore experience. I'm learning at myself. I needed to
Speaker 1: take my own advice with their the past for the
Speaker 1: past few years when I was so hesitant to expand
Speaker 1: my writing team and the most overwhelming content ever, it's
Speaker 1: terrifying to let people that, I mean, even if you
Speaker 1: train them, it's to come in and take the reins
Speaker 1: of one of the most important aspects of your business.
Speaker 1: But what my hesitation is caused is us not growing
Speaker 1: content wise. At the rate that we could have. I've
Speaker 1: learned my lesson now and that's changing. Yes, your biggest
Speaker 1: competition is yourself, but it's not the only competition. There
Speaker 1: will be others who rise up in your field as well.
Speaker 1: I never mentioned others, and I don't pay attention to
Speaker 1: what others are doing, but I might hire people to
Speaker 1: do that. Having the right people keep an eye out
Speaker 1: on what's happening in your landscape is healthy, it's needed,
Speaker 1: But obsessing over what others do is not. Why what
Speaker 1: is your wife my wife? Because I want to provide
Speaker 1: an aspirational yet relatable space for the culture. Nailing both
Speaker 1: is my goal, and being highly respected in both is
Speaker 1: my goal. Yes, it's tricky, but let's look at it.
Speaker 1: That's who I am. I'm both and and you're both
Speaker 1: and people like both. Who are we to not try
Speaker 1: to get what we all like? Why do we have
Speaker 1: to give something up? I've been blessed to have bought
Speaker 1: my dream condo at twenty seven and maintain a hundred
Speaker 1: percent ownership of my business with the zero investors, made
Speaker 1: deals with political campaigns and invites to the White House,
Speaker 1: and live the lifestyle that from the outside looking in
Speaker 1: look glamorous, but people do not see the incessant hard
Speaker 1: work and sacrifice that goes into it. So I'll talk
Speaker 1: about it and talk about the unglamorous side. I want
Speaker 1: my business is to reflect that same vibe. Why do
Speaker 1: we have to ignore any part of ourselves? We love
Speaker 1: aspirings and lives of young black and fabulous people. We
Speaker 1: can still be completely down to earth and relatable about
Speaker 1: our life experiences, relationships and the way we move. Finally,
Speaker 1: I leave you with this, what shines in your limelfe?
Speaker 1: How have you already evolved personally and professionally and in
Speaker 1: what ways do you still need to How are you
Speaker 1: honing your gift, aligning it with your passions and sharing
Speaker 1: it with the world today? Are you charging what you
Speaker 1: are worth? What doubts do you still need to conquer
Speaker 1: to reach that longevity and those legacy goals? Why are
Speaker 1: you starting your entrepreneurship journey? Like I said earlier, this
Speaker 1: is a journey that will be on for life. I've
Speaker 1: learned very quickly and never end. And you never truly
Speaker 1: reach any goal that you have because you always create
Speaker 1: a new one. That's what an entrepreneur does. You have
Speaker 1: more experience than you think so, use it. Use it
Speaker 1: to make decisions quicker and more substinctly. Let your experience
Speaker 1: guide your instincts. Experience tells me to have faith, Let
Speaker 1: it live and create my legacy. Black Tech Green Money
Speaker 1: is the production of Blackty, Afro Tech Who, Black Effect
Speaker 1: Podcast Network, and iHeart Media. It's produced by Mortgage A
Speaker 1: barn In Me Well Lucas, with additional productive support by
Speaker 1: Love Beach Me Rissa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis,
Speaker 1: Jermaine Hall, and Vanessa Serrano. Learn more about my guests
Speaker 1: and other tech destructors and innovators at afro tech dot com.
Speaker 1: Enjoying Black Tech Green Money. I think it's a five
Speaker 1: star rating on iTunes. Cook Get your money, Piece of
Speaker 1: Love