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Speaker 1: Afro Techy eighteen, Oakland, California, common the Grammy Award winning

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Speaker 1: rappers on the main stage, answering your question from someone

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Speaker 1: in the audience about the importance of not leaving behind

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Speaker 1: or neglecting the talent towards opportunity and text from those

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Speaker 1: who are incarcerating why so many of us seek to

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Speaker 1: find ways to evangelize this moment. In text for black

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Speaker 1: people to create wealth and legacy, he reminds us not

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Speaker 1: to forget those behind bars. I mean, from my experience,

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Speaker 1: I've been able to go to some visit individuals who

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Speaker 1: are in prison and just sit down and talk with them,

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Speaker 1: and I think one of the things that they really

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Speaker 1: value is just being able to be heard and be

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Speaker 1: recognized as human beings. I think you making an effort

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Speaker 1: to show them that in technology that they deserve to

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Speaker 1: have the chance to be colders and be a part

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Speaker 1: of the tech industry is a is a statement in itself.

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Speaker 1: You um, you also have to make it like not easy,

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Speaker 1: because it's not gonna be easy, but understand give them

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Speaker 1: the path to know that they can do it. But

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Speaker 1: you got you find some incredible women and men and

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Speaker 1: it's locked up in prison. It's doing life without parole

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Speaker 1: and and been through a lot of stuff that are

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Speaker 1: just bringing incredible ideas and humanity. So if they get

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Speaker 1: a hold of and I did go to a prison

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Speaker 1: where they are coding, and I actually met a guy

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Speaker 1: named Charles who I sat in the sale with him

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Speaker 1: one one month and then five months later he was

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Speaker 1: out in prison, out of prison and coding for a company.

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Speaker 1: So I think it's a it's um something that we should.

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Speaker 1: I think if we bring that to our juveniles that

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Speaker 1: that are dealing with incarceration, and bring that to people

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Speaker 1: who are incarcerated, we would give them a whole another hope,

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Speaker 1: a hold another aspect of hope. So one of those

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Speaker 1: questions that came earlier about what we could do socially,

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Speaker 1: I think that would be a great idea from the

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Speaker 1: tech industry is to make sure we go look out

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Speaker 1: for those who are who are cast out, that are

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Speaker 1: locked up and isn't and thrown away. We should really

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Speaker 1: take care of them. I'm will lucas this is black tech,

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Speaker 1: bring money. I'm gonna introuce you to some of the

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Speaker 1: biggest names, some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas.

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Speaker 1: If you're black and building or simply using tech to

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Speaker 1: secure your back, this podcast is for you. How Flimmings

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Speaker 1: is a leading brand strategist, speaker, and tech entrepreneur that

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Speaker 1: travels nationally inspiring people and brands to build, lunch and

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Speaker 1: grow their ideas. As founder of re Brand Cities, he's

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Speaker 1: on a mission to get ten thousand local small businesses online.

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Speaker 1: Eyes Howes about Silicon Valley, namely about the idea that

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Speaker 1: just about using sheer numbers in a bit of math,

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Speaker 1: not all of us are gonna move to Silicon Valley,

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Speaker 1: Miami or Atlanta, And if not, how do we build

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Speaker 1: strong tech ecosystems wherever we are? You know, I think historically,

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Speaker 1: if you look at the DNA of black and black

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Speaker 1: next people, right, we have always had the creative DNA

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Speaker 1: and s. And typically we're in a situation where there

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Speaker 1: are high barriers of entry, there's access issues, but we

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Speaker 1: always seem to be able to figure out a way

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Speaker 1: to do more with less, right and so and so,

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Speaker 1: what I've always found is that I believe, and I

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Speaker 1: used to trade as any example Detroit, I believe the

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Speaker 1: barriers of entry are lower here than any other market.

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Speaker 1: So I can go to another market where they don't

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Speaker 1: know me, and there's and everybody is scrapping for you know,

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Speaker 1: trying to find their place, and they want to be

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Speaker 1: the only black solution in the market. But why not

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Speaker 1: be a big fish in a small pond and put

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Speaker 1: my city on And that's the way I looked at it,

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Speaker 1: the same way. You know what I'm You know, I

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Speaker 1: know that you're from Toledo, right, and so you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So so we have you know, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it's a chip on our shoulder and

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Speaker 1: we're like, you know, like there's great stuff that comes

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Speaker 1: out of the Midwest or or where we're from. And

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Speaker 1: I just looked at it as more of an opportunity

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Speaker 1: versus saying I have to go travel someone I can

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Speaker 1: learn from somewhere else. But why can't I bring that

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Speaker 1: stuff back home and then try to do economic guarding

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Speaker 1: and stuff in my own community. So so if we

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Speaker 1: do decide to stay in a place where technology isn't,

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Speaker 1: actually let me take that back where where the idea

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Speaker 1: we have of technology, Because technology is every industry, whether

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Speaker 1: you're doing HR for a health care system, where you're

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Speaker 1: doing law for an automotive. You're still working with technology

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Speaker 1: every day, So how do we start to change our

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Speaker 1: minds and the narrative that we're being taught um that

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Speaker 1: you know, if you want to build an app, you

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Speaker 1: need to be somewhere else. How do we change that

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Speaker 1: narrative in our local community so that we can start

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Speaker 1: to perpetuate and get more of us doing this type

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Speaker 1: of work. So I think some of it is a challenge,

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Speaker 1: right because you know, so there are like real challenges

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Speaker 1: that exist in our community. So so there is more

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Speaker 1: BC funding in you know, in place like Silicon Valley

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Speaker 1: and Austin and Boston and stuff like that. So we

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Speaker 1: do have to figure out, like what are those challenges

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Speaker 1: and how can I, in the space that I'm in

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Speaker 1: maximize that and so and so for me, like what

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Speaker 1: I tried to do is say, okay, um, I wanted

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Speaker 1: to look at what do I do well? What do

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Speaker 1: I focus on? What are the things that I was

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Speaker 1: created for? Sometimes we have this shiny object like mentality,

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Speaker 1: and so we see something happening somewhere else, we see

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Speaker 1: somebody doing something cool, and then we want to go replicated.

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Speaker 1: Like I'm sure as soon as people saw Afrotech and Blackty.

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Speaker 1: Everybody's like, well, I can become the next Blab, I

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Speaker 1: can come the next Africa without understanding all of the

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Speaker 1: stuff that has been happening behind the scenes to get

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Speaker 1: to this point. And so and so what I've done

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Speaker 1: is like, let me just double down in the space

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Speaker 1: that I'm in and try to be an expert and

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Speaker 1: not just and not just jump and try to be

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Speaker 1: the next Will Lucas. Let me just be the best

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Speaker 1: highs that I could be in my market and try

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Speaker 1: to make an impact there and see where that leads me.

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Speaker 1: And I think we get into this comparison thing because

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Speaker 1: of social media and we're trying to become something that

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Speaker 1: would you know what I'm saying that we were never

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Speaker 1: called to be, and I think that tarts to take

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Speaker 1: us places that we don't belong. And so I try

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Speaker 1: to I try to really major majors and minor and

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Speaker 1: minors and do what I do and be the best

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Speaker 1: at it in the space that I'm in. So let's

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Speaker 1: talk about you talked about there's there's less venture capital

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Speaker 1: funding in cities, I think the cities that we're from,

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Speaker 1: and there's these certain economies, geography, geographies where those they

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Speaker 1: do have that funding. Let's talk about how we make

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Speaker 1: those these cities real then, Like what needs what needs

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Speaker 1: to happen, What are the actual things that need to

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Speaker 1: happen to build a bigger entrepreneurially friendly ecosystem in community?

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Speaker 1: Like what do universities need to get involved? Do the

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Speaker 1: big corporations lead? Like what needs to happen to make

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Speaker 1: these cities better for entrepreneurs? So I think that all

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Speaker 1: these cities there are anchors. So we have university anchors,

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Speaker 1: we have organizational anchors. I think also too, we have

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Speaker 1: to hold cities and we have to hold big brands accountable. Right,

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Speaker 1: So when I looked at uh Um George Floyd's death

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Speaker 1: and so on, I saw all these black boxes posting online,

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Speaker 1: and I was like, that as great that you support,

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Speaker 1: that's great that you are with us. But what rain

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Speaker 1: in my mind was, this is the time we have

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Speaker 1: everybody's attention. How can we now focus on really trying

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Speaker 1: to drive or or or really adjust what's happening from

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Speaker 1: an economic standpoint, because it's not just a social issue.

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Speaker 1: You know, what they like to me and so and

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Speaker 1: so and so. What I've tried to do is in

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Speaker 1: my market, what can I do to try to get

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Speaker 1: at the table? For many of us were really not

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Speaker 1: at the table. And so when these decisions are made,

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Speaker 1: So when Chase brings a hundred million dollars into your

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Speaker 1: community and you're not a part of that conversation, and

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Speaker 1: by the time they get to you, when we have

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Speaker 1: a five thollar grant, I'm not knocking the five dollar grant,

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Speaker 1: but how do we get up highering the food chain

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Speaker 1: so that when the real dollars are allocated, they go

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Speaker 1: to the real organizations that are close to the problems,

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Speaker 1: that understand and are empathetic towards that community. And it's

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Speaker 1: typically people to look like us. But by the time

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Speaker 1: we get it, we should be happy for five And

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Speaker 1: I'm not knocking to five grand, but if I can

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Speaker 1: get a million, ten million, or you know, I'm that's

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Speaker 1: where those are the spaces that I want to play.

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Speaker 1: So let's go in on that, like what kind of

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Speaker 1: person do I need to be to get at the table?

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Speaker 1: Like what what do I need to do with even

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Speaker 1: my personal brand or what kind of what is my

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Speaker 1: resume need to look like to get at the table? Yes,

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Speaker 1: so so there's a narrative that says that you have

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Speaker 1: to go to you know, Harvard or Stanford and so

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Speaker 1: and so there's certain things that happened, right, there's pattern

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Speaker 1: matching all of these things where the people who are

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Speaker 1: making those decisions happened to be happened to look a

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Speaker 1: certain way, and they kind of and they kind of

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Speaker 1: green like certain projects. So I'm giving example. So when

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Speaker 1: we started Rebrand Cities, we started out as Rebrand Detroit

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Speaker 1: and we're part of UM. So there was a call

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Speaker 1: from or from from the Knife Foundation. It was the

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Speaker 1: night of the Night City channel. There was seven thousand

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Speaker 1: people that applied. We were one of thirty two winners, right,

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Speaker 1: and so we had a better chance of hitting hitting

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Speaker 1: like the actual lottery. But we took that idea and said, okay,

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Speaker 1: how can we pilot this to figure out how we

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Speaker 1: can turn this into something even bigger. So, so we

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Speaker 1: wanted to rebrand a neighborhood, a black neighborhood, the same

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Speaker 1: way the city had already did our Midtown area, and

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Speaker 1: so we and so we took that and then we

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Speaker 1: started to look at what is a business model for

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Speaker 1: us to be able to follow, right, So we looked

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Speaker 1: online and we saw that you know what, saying that

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Speaker 1: there was twenty million small businesses had no website. We're

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Speaker 1: cash only, all right, and so and so we started

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Speaker 1: to do this accelerator in the neighborhood and we realized

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Speaker 1: that nobody had a website, or almost almost nobody had

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Speaker 1: a website. So we said, okay, we have we have

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Speaker 1: to address this issue. Then we started looking at city

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Speaker 1: So there's there's approximately nineteen thousand, four and nine five cities, towns,

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Speaker 1: and villages in the United States. And then we paired

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Speaker 1: it down and we found out that there's three and

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Speaker 1: ten cities that have a hundred that have a population

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Speaker 1: of a hundred thousand or more. And so we said,

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Speaker 1: let's focus on those cities and addressing a problem that

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Speaker 1: every single city has. So we looked at a problem,

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Speaker 1: we found an addressable market and um, and then we

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Speaker 1: figured out who do we need to talk to? So, okay,

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Speaker 1: so we need to talk to people who are in

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Speaker 1: economic development, we need to talk to mayors, we need

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Speaker 1: to talk to people who who have the bag right,

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Speaker 1: and so we had an issue that we know all

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Speaker 1: of them were concerned with. We knew that if they

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Speaker 1: addressed that issue, it was going to be able to

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Speaker 1: impact their cities, and so we knew that we were

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Speaker 1: onto something, but some of that happened by trial and error. Right.

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Speaker 1: The other part is having the opportunity to be on

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Speaker 1: a platform like this. Many of us don't have media connections, right,

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Speaker 1: and so you contacting me and giving me this opportunit

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Speaker 1: unity is a lifeline for me. It's I mean, it

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Speaker 1: means everything. Not because I love what you guys do,

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Speaker 1: but I know that you have a why, you have

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Speaker 1: a huge community that's going to support and so those

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Speaker 1: are a couple of things that we thought about in

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Speaker 1: terms of kind of how we want to focus on it.

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Speaker 1: So you, let's talk about you. What you noticed as

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Speaker 1: an issue is a lot of these small businesses didn't

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Speaker 1: have websites. They weren't technologically solving. Let's start with just

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Speaker 1: the website. Why is it important for that small mom

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Speaker 1: and pop who might do you know dry cleaning or

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Speaker 1: might have you know a restaurant? Why is it important

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Speaker 1: that they be online and with an actual website? Why

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Speaker 1: is that important in first place? So ninety the center

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Speaker 1: people who make a buying decision go online first, right

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Speaker 1: and then and so when you're going to set the stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to Google Maps if you're not in Google Maps,

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Speaker 1: or or if the information is wrong, if it says

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Speaker 1: that you're open to five o'clock and you closed at

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Speaker 1: three o'clock, and then you know and so and and

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Speaker 1: now I'm going somewhere else. I'm going I'm spending money

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Speaker 1: somewhere else. And so we become invisible in the digital economy.

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Speaker 1: So then COVID hits right. And then now people who

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Speaker 1: weren't online, you're I mean, you were really in a

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Speaker 1: tough situation because now people couldn't buy your project, you

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Speaker 1: couldn't buy your services. And then even when you got online,

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Speaker 1: you then had to then take another step of pos

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Speaker 1: you had to have you had to operationalize the business,

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Speaker 1: right and so those are the things where now we're

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Speaker 1: putting all Now we're stacking all these problems on top

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Speaker 1: of an access to UM capital, on all these other things.

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Speaker 1: And then now for us, like we did a project

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Speaker 1: locally called UM it was called Digitality Trade and in

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Speaker 1: that project we work with the City, UM and the

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Speaker 1: Rocket Community Fund to work with a hundred businesses. We

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Speaker 1: had to do all of this virtually. One of the

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Speaker 1: challenges we had is that we had to have the criteria.

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Speaker 1: People needed to have some kind of device because we're

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Speaker 1: doing this stuff remotely. Everything was remote, and so that

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Speaker 1: we had people who didn't know how to screen share,

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Speaker 1: and digital literacy became a major issue, and so those

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Speaker 1: things stacked the deck against us, and so it just

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Speaker 1: creates this another challenge, you know, that we had to

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Speaker 1: overcome basics. So, if I'm hearing you correctly, there are

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Speaker 1: instead of always trying to build the next Snapchat, instead

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Speaker 1: of always trying to build the next Instagram or whatever,

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Speaker 1: they are real core issues that these smaller cities and

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Speaker 1: not necessarily always smaller, but you know, not unless than

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Speaker 1: the all Silicon Valley. There are real issues that create

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Speaker 1: opportunity for entrepreneurs. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and

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Speaker 1: so and so, you know, so we don't have to

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Speaker 1: solve the biggest problem in the world. I know, if

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Speaker 1: you're getting BC funding, you know what I'm saying, they

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Speaker 1: want ten x plus return, right, um, and that's not going.

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Speaker 1: But everybody is not venture Everybody doesn't have a venture

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Speaker 1: backable idea. But the idea that you have can be

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Speaker 1: something that can scale. It can be an idea that

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Speaker 1: can also allow you to be able to create a

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Speaker 1: nice lifestyle and to be able to generate the kind

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Speaker 1: of return so that you can do this full time

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Speaker 1: and so and so I think just trying to figure

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Speaker 1: out what that is because also too, I would much

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Speaker 1: rather work with somebody who has a passion for what

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Speaker 1: they're doing and they love what they're doing and their

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Speaker 1: whole goal is I'm not creating this because I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to get an exit. I'm not knocking that strategy because

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Speaker 1: there are people getting great returns. But but I mean,

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Speaker 1: by how many of those unicorns do we have? How

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Speaker 1: many people like Delane Parnell, Like do we have Who's

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Speaker 1: gonna raise a hundred and seven million? And that's gonna

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Speaker 1: happen for that's my guy. I'm happy for him. But

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Speaker 1: that's not gonna be everybody. But that's okay, and we

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Speaker 1: have to be okay with the fact that we can

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Speaker 1: do something that could be that could be transformational for

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Speaker 1: our community. There was a young lady during the pandemic

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Speaker 1: who was braiding hair, who who um and all the

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Speaker 1: barbershops and salons were closed down. She started teaching people

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Speaker 1: how to braid hair on Zoom and she was charging

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Speaker 1: people how to braid hair, and and it began to

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Speaker 1: expand her community and her reach. That's innovation to me,

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Speaker 1: that's innovation. I want to talk about, you know, just

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Speaker 1: the actual direct rebranding of a geography, rebranding a city,

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Speaker 1: you know, branding as you know, I know, it's what

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Speaker 1: other people say about you, not what you say about yourself. Right,

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Speaker 1: how do you change the narrative about a community? Um?

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Speaker 1: And what are the tactical things you need to do

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Speaker 1: to make other people say something different about that space? Yeah? So,

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Speaker 1: so I think you have to have an inclusive lens,

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Speaker 1: but you need to have people who are in a

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Speaker 1: decision making position. People who are in i mean, public

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Speaker 1: policy drive so much of what happens in our cities.

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Speaker 1: And I know we love to, you know, vote for

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Speaker 1: the presidential election and that's great, but what happens in

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Speaker 1: the local community and so and so trying to get

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Speaker 1: buy in from from that kind of leadership becomes critically important.

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Speaker 1: And what we've tried to communicate to the cities that

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Speaker 1: we work with, because we're doing stuff in nine cities

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Speaker 1: and in two different countries, is that is that we

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Speaker 1: try to have the conversation to say Look, what if

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Speaker 1: people could navigate your city based upon small business owners.

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Speaker 1: What if in Detroit, if they needed to go to

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Speaker 1: a coffee shop and and we could say, okay, you

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Speaker 1: can go to Narrowey Cafe, which is a black owned

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Speaker 1: coffee shop on the Liberois Avenue of Fashion, and you

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Speaker 1: can now explore that looking at looking through a small business,

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Speaker 1: supporting that small business. It's a different lens, right, And

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Speaker 1: so a lot of the stories that I see, even

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Speaker 1: in my city, I've seen stuff where they talk about

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Speaker 1: small business. Oh, we love being in the city of Detroit. Yes,

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Speaker 1: But if you came from the suburbs and you went

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Speaker 1: to an Ivy League school and you were already set

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Speaker 1: up with all this stuff, of course it's amazing for you,

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Speaker 1: Like there's no question it's amazing. It would be amazing

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Speaker 1: for me too if those things were all in place,

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Speaker 1: right and so and so, what we've tried to do,

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Speaker 1: and we're working on a project right now, and it's

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Speaker 1: called Rebrand Black and so we have an accelerator where

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Speaker 1: we're working with um twelve small business that are all

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Speaker 1: black owned. And what we've tried to do with the

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Speaker 1: stakeholders and the people that we're working with is let's

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Speaker 1: focus on making sure that we are including businesses that

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Speaker 1: don't get the same coverage, right, And so I think

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Speaker 1: when cities are looking, they have to they have to

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Speaker 1: take the blinders off and look at how do we

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Speaker 1: create a city for all people and not just for

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Speaker 1: homogeneous community of people that are going to be okay

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Speaker 1: regardless of what you know. And so those are things

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Speaker 1: that we've really tried to hammer and and for us,

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Speaker 1: it's been it's been, um, it's been uh, it's been

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Speaker 1: a labor of love. Love. You know, I'm you bring up.

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Speaker 1: You talked a lot about you know, these small businesses

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Speaker 1: and historically having been you know, online not very sophisticated

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Speaker 1: in the age that we live in, and I think

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Speaker 1: specifically about the Midwest. You know, we come from a

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Speaker 1: place where manufacturing drove the day, and you know, so

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Speaker 1: a lot of these folks you're talking about, maybe first

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Speaker 1: generation entrepreneurs, mom and pop shops and et cetera. How

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Speaker 1: do you, at the same time of helping them, you know,

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Speaker 1: be more sophisticated with their technology, also help them along

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Speaker 1: the way where they don't perpetuate some of the stereotypes

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Speaker 1: about working with black owned companies. You know, like you

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Speaker 1: talked about it says you opened the fire type but

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Speaker 1: you left at three. You know, you didn't say hello

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Speaker 1: to me when I walked in the door, or all

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Speaker 1: all these things. How do we because these folks don't

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Speaker 1: have you know, like you and I like lineage of entrepreneurship.

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Speaker 1: We gotta learning stuff on the fly. How how do

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Speaker 1: we get those business principles as well for your programming? Yeah, yes,

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Speaker 1: I think like part of it is is that we

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Speaker 1: have to be willing to give each other a chance.

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Speaker 1: We think everybody's the isis coder and so somebody would

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Speaker 1: do something wrong and and it will be okay. Or

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Speaker 1: if somebody goes to the club and somebody steps on

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Speaker 1: your shoe, you still go back next week or whatever.

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Speaker 1: But if one thing goes wrong with supporting a black

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Speaker 1: owned business, then that's the end of the world. And

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Speaker 1: we just wanted to throw our hands up, right, And

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Speaker 1: so we understand that we have a tremendous we have

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Speaker 1: tremendous economic buying power. What if we took some of

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Speaker 1: that and we began to support each other. And so

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Speaker 1: that's part of what we do, like through our community,

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Speaker 1: is that all right, how do we support to people

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Speaker 1: who are in this course the business that we're working with.

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Speaker 1: When we buy something, let's post something online, let's share

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Speaker 1: so when you know someone pandemic started last year, we

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Speaker 1: took an entire week and we just we're just supporting

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Speaker 1: black businesses and we posted, we tagged online, we showed

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Speaker 1: the product. Part of that was to encourage other people

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Speaker 1: to say, hey, look, if you're gonna buy something, let's

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Speaker 1: share that you're actually doing that. There's a great platform

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Speaker 1: it's called Spendified. Spendified in the platform m um has

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Speaker 1: ran by Antoine Davis, and it is a list of

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Speaker 1: black owned businesses, right and so and so and so

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Speaker 1: we try to partner or try to share these kind

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Speaker 1: of opportunities because people will say, well I don't know

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Speaker 1: where to go, and I find that like disheartening, right,

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Speaker 1: But so we tried to demonstrate from example and then

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Speaker 1: share what other people are doing. For sure. We got

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Speaker 1: a question that I came in on stable um. It says,

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Speaker 1: what should you do first? A business plan or product development?

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Speaker 1: All right, So, so I remember doing a business playing

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Speaker 1: years ago. I had this this big stack of paper.

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Speaker 1: It was like, I don't know a hundred pages after

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Speaker 1: I developed it. I couldn't even tell you how many

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Speaker 1: times I looked at the business plan after I developed it.

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Speaker 1: What I think is more efficient is now getting and

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Speaker 1: looking at UM creating UM your business model. Everybody has

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Speaker 1: heard of the business model campus, right, and so I

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Speaker 1: think developing a canvas, which is the sheet it goes through,

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Speaker 1: revenue streams, customer segmentation, um UM, the uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: the you know what, like the problem that you're focused on.

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Speaker 1: I would say developed that that is something, but that's

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Speaker 1: a living document. Is something that you can continue to update.

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Speaker 1: That will be something that as you're pitching or sharing,

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Speaker 1: it will allow you to be able to pull the information.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's most important right in terms of

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Speaker 1: you understanding the business. At the end of the day, though,

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Speaker 1: you have to have a product or service that people want, right,

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Speaker 1: So and people talk about, oh, I want to go viral. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we'll create something that people want, right, That's the That's

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Speaker 1: the first thing. If it's not something that people want,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't matter about You can go hire all the

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Speaker 1: marketing companies and you can do crazy stuff. But at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, create something that people want.

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Speaker 1: And I would say, and again, I know all the

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Speaker 1: NBA programs are gonna be like, Hi, don't say this,

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Speaker 1: but the canvas to me is gonna be more value

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Speaker 1: than this. Um, you know the big business plan that

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Speaker 1: you're never going to update because the canvas is a

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Speaker 1: living document. So I would start there. And then we

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Speaker 1: always talked about in design thinking serviles, that getting in

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Speaker 1: front of the customer, taking an idea and getting in front. Well,

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Speaker 1: I remember when you were doing podcasting prior to getting

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Speaker 1: on this, right, you started something and you just started

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Speaker 1: just doing your thing, and look at what you're doing now, right,

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Speaker 1: that's right, that's right, because I'm a testament. I'm a

431
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 1: testament to do the work and do the work. Um.

432
00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,040
Speaker 1: There's another question that came in which I think I

433
00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:33,840
Speaker 1: may have to rephrase it because I'm not sure I

434
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:36,800
Speaker 1: understand it, But it says, should you bother with physical

435
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:40,280
Speaker 1: goods or must it be software or be a software

436
00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:43,040
Speaker 1: as well? When scaling? And what I think they're trying

437
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,560
Speaker 1: to say is, when you're trying to scale a business,

438
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 1: is it better to do it with physical goods or

439
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,760
Speaker 1: build a software? So I think they're trying to say, yeah,

440
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,920
Speaker 1: so you know what I'm saying. So I'm forty nine

441
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,160
Speaker 1: years old. So I remember when you could buy software.

442
00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:01,280
Speaker 1: You could get buy illustrator. I get the disk, I

443
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:03,520
Speaker 1: pop it in, and I would have Illustrator, you know

444
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:06,359
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, like forever until you know, to a

445
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:08,760
Speaker 1: point where I was forced to go change. Now you

446
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: can't do it anymore. They created sass products. I mean,

447
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:13,919
Speaker 1: all of this stuff to where now you have to

448
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:17,600
Speaker 1: get this membership. So I think that there's an opportunity

449
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:19,399
Speaker 1: to be able to how do you how do you

450
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:23,480
Speaker 1: become a tech enabled company? Right? And so if you're not,

451
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 1: I mean if the if the product or the or

452
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 1: the thing that you're working on isn't a technology only

453
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:32,880
Speaker 1: play trying to put a round peg into a square hole.

454
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the thing. But I think figuring

455
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,919
Speaker 1: out what you want to create and then making it

456
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,679
Speaker 1: easy for people to be able to connect to that idea,

457
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 1: and if there is a way to be able to

458
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:47,920
Speaker 1: have people continue to pay for this product or you

459
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, whether it's a membership box or

460
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,320
Speaker 1: things like that, I think those things are great, But

461
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,119
Speaker 1: I don't think you should try to create something and

462
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,680
Speaker 1: just try to be like the sass thing when that's

463
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,240
Speaker 1: not really what you are, right, And so I think

464
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,520
Speaker 1: I think being very clear on that and testing it

465
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,760
Speaker 1: out and figuring out what all entrepreneurs understand is that

466
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 1: the thing that you start with is never gonna be

467
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 1: the thing that you're in with. So you start doing

468
00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 1: something and the customer will let you know, Okay, all right,

469
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,119
Speaker 1: I see it like this, or what if you offered

470
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:19,359
Speaker 1: it this way or if you packa did that way

471
00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:22,880
Speaker 1: and um, And I think those where the natural pivots

472
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:27,960
Speaker 1: will allow you to be able to reach these unaddressable markets.

473
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 1: You know, it's so interesting, you know, talking to you

474
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 1: because you know, having known you for goodness has been

475
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:36,920
Speaker 1: a while. Now you're like you, You've been really good

476
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:39,399
Speaker 1: at your personal brand. And I do think that small

477
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:43,120
Speaker 1: business today is very personality driven in a lot of ways,

478
00:24:43,119 --> 00:24:47,159
Speaker 1: Like how do you advise folks? How do they how

479
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,480
Speaker 1: do you build a personal brand? I guess it's the question. Yeah,

480
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:52,320
Speaker 1: so you know what I'm saying. So I look at

481
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: brands and I've seen people who would who will be authentic,

482
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,240
Speaker 1: and then I see stuff that's not authentic, but but

483
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:01,840
Speaker 1: they've developed something that people want to connect you. So

484
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:06,000
Speaker 1: for me personally, especially being black, I think it's super

485
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:08,640
Speaker 1: important for me. I want to be authent because my

486
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 1: word is my bond. So if I say I'm gonna

487
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 1: do something, I have to deliver, even if even if

488
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,400
Speaker 1: I need to take an ail on certain on certain projects.

489
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 1: The other thing is being consistent online. And so I

490
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,239
Speaker 1: grew up and I remember when we used to so

491
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:27,520
Speaker 1: we call it captain growing up, so you know, whether

492
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:32,199
Speaker 1: it's Captain joning, it's the dozens or whatever. So online

493
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,640
Speaker 1: I can't say what I really really want to say

494
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,199
Speaker 1: because we grew up and we were going for the

495
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 1: juggler all the time. So what I realized that online, Um,

496
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 1: I mean, I just I mean, I'm playing with kid

497
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:47,520
Speaker 1: gloves in terms of stuff that I say because I

498
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 1: can't say everything that I want to say. But I

499
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:54,480
Speaker 1: think being on message, being consistent so that when people

500
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: see you all right, they can they can vouch for,

501
00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:58,919
Speaker 1: they can validate what you're doing, or they want to

502
00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: connect with you. I think that's super important. And I

503
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: think we we just start jumping to compare to other people,

504
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 1: and we keep switching and the other things that I

505
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 1: think work against the versus working for us. If I'm

506
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: a small business owner, talk about some of the technologies

507
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 1: I should have in place that helped me at least compete,

508
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,160
Speaker 1: Like the actual technology that I should have to help

509
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,199
Speaker 1: me compete with people who have scaled before I was

510
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 1: able to, whether that be you know, a digital POS system,

511
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:32,359
Speaker 1: like what what kind of things that probably generally across

512
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 1: the board, these are some things that should have at

513
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 1: core to help me build their sustainable, longal term business. Yeah,

514
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 1: you know what I say. So you don't have email,

515
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: you don't have email like database. It's great to have

516
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: all the followers online, but you have a million people

517
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,879
Speaker 1: are following you, and I g that's great. How do

518
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 1: you now connect directly to that customer? So having their

519
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: direct information so that you can communicate with them becomes

520
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:01,560
Speaker 1: critically important. How do we automate tass? So you know,

521
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,000
Speaker 1: we grow up and we're like, I gotta hustle, I

522
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: gotta work harder, and we understand that we have to

523
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: work hard. But there are certain things that we can automate.

524
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 1: We can use platforms like safe here, and you can

525
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: and you can put things in place that will allow

526
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 1: you to focus on what you need to focus on.

527
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,199
Speaker 1: What I try to spend my time on. Is I

528
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: need to be out there raising money and generating revenue.

529
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: So these tasks that are repeatable, I need to be

530
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 1: at to outsource those or have other people do that,

531
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,639
Speaker 1: because I need to focus on bringing in the money.

532
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: And those are certain things that I think that we

533
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:36,919
Speaker 1: that become a lost art. And we can go on

534
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,199
Speaker 1: and on and on if we have more time, but

535
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:40,920
Speaker 1: I'll probably stop with those two points because those are

536
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 1: really really big things that people need to think about.

537
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,720
Speaker 1: I'm gonna blend these two questions because they're somewhat similar

538
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:49,639
Speaker 1: and I want to make sure we get to an

539
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 1: adequate closes. The first one says, can you get funding

540
00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 1: on a business plan, prospectives or doesn't have to be

541
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,879
Speaker 1: an operation? And the second question is where do we

542
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 1: it funding? No strings attached like grants. Okay, so there

543
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 1: are people, um, they might not all all look like us,

544
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 1: and they can go in there and they can go

545
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: pitch something with flip flops on and uh, you know,

546
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 1: and no slide deck and they gonna get money. So

547
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 1: everybody can't do that, right, and so your history all

548
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: the other kind oftuff that does playing through so people

549
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 1: it has happened. Um, I don't know how repeatable that

550
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: is for all of us, but it has happened. I

551
00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 1: would not I would not lean upon that right um.

552
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:34,679
Speaker 1: So now um in the air of COVID and all

553
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: things that are going in, there are a lot of programs.

554
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:38,480
Speaker 1: There are a lot of things, whether it's the Entrepreneur

555
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: of Color Fund, there's all kind of things out towards.

556
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: There is grant money also p p P. A lot

557
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: of us didn't apply hold on so a lot of

558
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:54,160
Speaker 1: us and that was my daughter, So a lot of

559
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:56,840
Speaker 1: us did not apply for p p P. That was

560
00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: free money. So you can still up why it was

561
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 1: extended to the end of May. And if you put

562
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: all the paperwork in and you follow the guidelines, that's

563
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 1: free money as well too. And we can't lose out

564
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 1: or miss out on that. And and lastly, UM, I

565
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 1: love to ask this question of people like you and

566
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 1: this how important is this moment for us in business

567
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: when you think about, you know, coming off of our

568
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 1: social unrest over the last year, sixteen months or whatever,

569
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,920
Speaker 1: the pandemic, so many corporations and organizations paying attention to

570
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: what black people need and who have historically probably overlooked

571
00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 1: or didn't believe we were going through what we were

572
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: going through now and actually seeing that it's real. How

573
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 1: important is this moment in our history that may not

574
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: be here a year from now that we take advantage

575
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 1: of what's happening right now. I am so glad you

576
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: asked that question. So so right now we have everybody's attention,

577
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:59,080
Speaker 1: right and so now what are we doing in this

578
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:02,640
Speaker 1: moment so that we can now capture that. Part of

579
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 1: what I think becomes important is how can we hold

580
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,920
Speaker 1: the brands and other organizations that have benefited from Black culture.

581
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: So when we did our rebrand Black Um Peace, we

582
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 1: reached out to Cadillac and Thriving and in the conversations

583
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 1: we had were, Okay, what can we do to put

584
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 1: money back into our community? And they were there to

585
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: be able to to work with us hand in hand.

586
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: But we had to be bold enough to ask the

587
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 1: question and to reach out to these brands because there's

588
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 1: a lot of brands that have benefited from us for

589
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: up to four hundred years and now this is a

590
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 1: time where I don't know whether they feel guilty or

591
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 1: whatever it is that I'm not talking about cat like,

592
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, this is a moment where let's take

593
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,960
Speaker 1: this moment because it's not coming back again, folks, because

594
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 1: we're all gonna be outside traveling and doing stuff. The

595
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 1: only reason that this was a real opportunity was because

596
00:30:53,880 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 1: everybody was at home. Black Tech Green Money is a

597
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: production to Black of the Afro Tech, Black Effect Podcast

598
00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 1: Network and I Heart Media, and it's produced by Morgan

599
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 1: Dabon and me Well Lucas, with additional production support by

600
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 1: Love Beach and Raven near Port. Special thank you to

601
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 1: Michael Davis and Sakarsa von Jan you know like the Wine.

602
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 1: Yes that's his real name. Learn more about my guests

603
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 1: and other tech dis represent innovators at afro tech dot com.

604
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 1: The video version of this episode will drop the Black

605
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 1: Tech Green Money on YouTube next week, So tap in

606
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: enjoying Black Tech Green Money. Leave us a five star

607
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 1: already on iTunes, Go get your money. Peace of Love,