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Speaker 1: No, has nothing you know has nothing to do with me,

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Speaker 1: So that that's the lesson know is about that person's

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Speaker 1: ability to respond.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with

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Speaker 2: women who dared to pivot out of one career and

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Speaker 2: into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted

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Speaker 2: these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Fitting Omi

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Speaker 2: Bell into one intro just might be impossible. The CEO

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Speaker 2: and founder of Black Girl Ventures is no stranger to pivots.

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Speaker 2: She started her career studying computer science as a single mom,

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Speaker 2: later going into teaching as a K twelve educator. She

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Speaker 2: founded her first side hustle, developing websites, and from there

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Speaker 2: she just couldn't stop. Despite the multiple challenges life has

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Speaker 2: thrown her way, She's handled each with grace and determination.

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Speaker 2: Omi is a community builder, mom of three systems disruptor,

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Speaker 2: spoken word artist, nonprofit executive, educator, and so much more.

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Speaker 2: Despite Black women making up the majority of entrepreneurs and

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Speaker 2: small businesses in America, they only receive point zero zero

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Speaker 2: zero six percent of venture capital dollars. Through her company,

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Speaker 2: Black Girl Ventures, she has transformed the way black and

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Speaker 2: brown women founders get access to social and financial capital.

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Speaker 2: A quick note before we jump in, Omi asked us

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Speaker 2: to preserve some details about her children that we had

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Speaker 2: discussed in the interview, so to respect their privacy. You

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Speaker 2: might hear some quick cuts in the audio where we

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Speaker 2: had to take out identifiers. Enjoy.

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Speaker 1: I am Shelley Owe, me La de Bell, but I

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Speaker 1: go by Omi. I'm the founder CEO of Black Girl Ventures.

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Speaker 1: And you know it's always so trucky to say, what

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Speaker 1: do you do? I do so much, We'll like black

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Speaker 1: Girl Ventures, the company I started. Also just a huge

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Speaker 1: advocate for women, so women being empowered me and I

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Speaker 1: love that it's is she pivots because I'm fiviting a

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Speaker 1: million times. But I've been thinking a lot about that.

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Speaker 1: How do I when people say who are you? Because

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Speaker 1: now I'm thinking about, like, who am I outside of

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Speaker 1: this work that I do? And am I constantly defining

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Speaker 1: myself by the work and like and then how does

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Speaker 1: that make me feel about the achievements?

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Speaker 3: Right?

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Speaker 4: Whereas like, oh, no, I want to win this award.

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Speaker 1: I'm hoping that Forbes come out with a fifty on

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Speaker 1: the fifty because I missed the thirty under thirty.

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Speaker 4: Time frame you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: It's like that kind of stuff where you just get

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Speaker 1: sort of obsessed with the achievement from the work.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so let's just let's do a quick like stage setting.

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Speaker 2: So and backup, Where did you grow up? How did

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Speaker 2: you grow up? Give us, give us some childhood background.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I grew up in North Carolina, from Durham,

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Speaker 1: North Carolina originally, and I grew.

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Speaker 4: Up very middle, middle of the middle, middle class. That's

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Speaker 4: not funny.

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Speaker 1: It's like very middle middle two parents, a little brother,

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Speaker 1: you know, the like two parents, one point five kids,

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Speaker 1: dog house, Like that was really how I grew up.

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Speaker 1: It's funny because like I grew up in a very

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Speaker 1: middle class environment and then as an adult because of

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Speaker 1: my life, vivoted because I had a child at seventeen

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Speaker 1: so and part of that was rebellion. My mom became

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Speaker 1: very religious, So I had a pretty free childhood, just

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Speaker 1: do what I want. So, you know, like my mom

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Speaker 1: was never like a cause I told you so, or

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Speaker 1: my dad was never like a stop talking kind of person.

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Speaker 1: Like they let me talk as once as I wanted to,

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Speaker 1: and my mom would answer all of my questions. So

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Speaker 1: it was a pretty free childhood, and then somewhere around

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Speaker 1: middle school, my mom became very religious and she started

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Speaker 1: going to Pnecosta Church.

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Speaker 4: So I thought, okay, well, like if this is what God.

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Speaker 1: Wants from us, like women don't were bands, women don't

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Speaker 1: look like this or say this, so act like this.

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Speaker 1: So the time I was in maybe seventh grade to

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Speaker 1: like ninth grade, I didn't wear pants. I was the

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Speaker 1: girl at school with the long skirts and a tendis

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Speaker 1: shoes on who didn't curse so do anything bad because

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Speaker 1: God was just gonna damn me to hell. And so

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Speaker 1: I followed that for a long time, and then finally

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Speaker 1: I started thinking, like, God can't be this small, Like

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Speaker 1: you mean to tell me, out of all the billion

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Speaker 1: people in the world, you just checking out for me.

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Speaker 1: And then the one thing I do is gonna send

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Speaker 1: me to hell, Like come on, y'all for wearing pants, Yes,

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Speaker 1: and that would be the one thing. Like that's not

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Speaker 1: gonna So I started I went through a phase, actually

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Speaker 1: are really challenging. So later in like after college, challenging

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Speaker 1: everything with the Bible, Like so if you say man

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Speaker 1: should look like a man or woman should like a woman,

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Speaker 1: because that was a scripture that I used to say

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Speaker 1: women shouldn't wear pants. I'm like, but if I wear

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Speaker 1: women's pants, so I still look like a woman.

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Speaker 4: Like what are we talking about? Right? So high school

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Speaker 4: I just started rebelling.

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Speaker 1: Forget that, you know. I started like school all the time.

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Speaker 1: I was smoking weed every day. I was wrong, crowd,

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Speaker 1: I was. It was just wild, and I did what

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Speaker 1: I thought was the thing that my mom told me

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Speaker 1: to do.

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Speaker 4: You would have sex. Comes talk to me. So I did.

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Speaker 1: I say, Hey, I want to have sex, and she

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Speaker 1: was like, well, let me pray about it. So while

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Speaker 1: she was praying about it, I was doing it. And

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Speaker 1: I got pregnant, and it really changed my whole world.

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Speaker 2: When I first spoke to Omi, one of the things

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Speaker 2: she said was that she had something inside of her

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Speaker 2: that just made her believe that things would work themselves out.

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Speaker 1: And then there's like a rhythm that we have that

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Speaker 1: we don't know we have, like this formula that we

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Speaker 1: lives inside of us. I think I wasn't thinking about

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Speaker 1: my future. I was just thinking it will work out,

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Speaker 1: Like whatever's going to work out. I'm gonna go hard

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Speaker 1: on whatever I want to do right now, and then

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Speaker 1: it will work out when I actually think about that mindset.

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Speaker 1: I probably had that a couple of times throughout my career,

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Speaker 1: right throughout my life, where I'm like, I don't know

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Speaker 1: what's about to happen, but I know all I'm about

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Speaker 1: to put all.

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Speaker 4: Into what I'm doing right now.

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Speaker 1: And I'm never actually articulated in that way, but like,

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Speaker 1: if I think about that feeling of right now is

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Speaker 1: what I have. Right now is what I'm going to do,

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Speaker 1: and you're not going to tell me how I'm going

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Speaker 1: to live my life. I think I've carried that throughout

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Speaker 1: my life, this moment of like, no, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: go hard here and we'll see where it goes.

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Speaker 4: It'll be fine.

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Speaker 2: But after her conservative upbringing, getting pregnant at seventeen created

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Speaker 2: complications and strains in her family.

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Speaker 1: So my dad was very upset and he blamed my

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Speaker 1: mom and it was kind of the beginning of the

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Speaker 1: end for them. And so my mom and I drew

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Speaker 1: closer because of my dad and my mom kind of

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Speaker 1: being in os over this pregnancy because my dad did

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Speaker 1: not want me to have it, but my mom was

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Speaker 1: super religious, so she's like, no, no, we can't do that.

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Speaker 1: We can have an abortion and So after that went

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Speaker 1: on and I just went hard. I negotiated with my

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Speaker 1: teachers like, hey, I need to pass. I was dedicated

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Speaker 1: to graduating on time. I went to summer school, night school,

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Speaker 1: everything I could do because just because I had been

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Speaker 1: skipping school so much and got it all back together

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Speaker 1: graduated on time. My mom was like, you're not going

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Speaker 1: to be statistic. You're going to college. I'm like, oh okay.

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Speaker 2: So she attended North Carolina A and T University in

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Speaker 2: HBCU and settled on studying computer science.

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Speaker 1: I like computers. I want to make money. They're gonna

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Speaker 1: probably make money.

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Speaker 4: Let's go. And that was pretty much it.

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Speaker 1: But everything went into That's when that switch flipped of

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Speaker 1: like hardcore. I'm gonna go hard. I'm gonna get what

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Speaker 1: I'm coming for. I want everything that I want to achieve.

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Speaker 4: I want success.

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Speaker 1: It started there. It was like I'm not gonna fail.

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Speaker 1: Nobody's gonna tell me I can't be something.

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Speaker 2: So I imagine there were very few women, very few

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Speaker 2: women of color, very few mothers going through that.

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Speaker 4: What was that like?

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Speaker 1: Well, one, computer science is nothing like this game that

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Speaker 1: you're having your head. It is super hard, and most

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Speaker 1: people were dropping out in the first semester, and it

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Speaker 1: was other kids that came from similar backgrounds to me.

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Speaker 1: And actually in Maryland they teach computer science in high school,

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Speaker 1: and like as an adult, I taught computer science at

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Speaker 1: in the city of Alexandria at TC Williams High School

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Speaker 1: because I saw the power of the kids that came

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Speaker 1: from Maryland to school.

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Speaker 4: They already knew how to program and.

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Speaker 1: So it was like, oh wow, like I knew nothing

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Speaker 1: about programming or that even computer programming existed in that

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Speaker 1: way like the way that I actually learned it. And

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Speaker 1: so it was community funding students, other students that was

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Speaker 1: staying in it.

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Speaker 4: We were like, hey, we're going to bind together.

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Speaker 2: Between all the ones and zeros of coding. Only still

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Speaker 2: had to juggle the demands of motherhood and child's care.

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Speaker 4: Well.

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Speaker 1: The first year, my oldest son stayed home with my

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Speaker 1: parents and Durham and Greensboro's maybe like an hour away

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Speaker 1: from each other, so I was able to like drive

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Speaker 1: back home, come back, drive back, that kind of thing.

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Speaker 4: Between my parents and my oldest.

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Speaker 1: Son's dad, they would handle the childcare and it was

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Speaker 1: kind of like weekend visits and like maybe come up

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Speaker 1: sometime during the week.

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Speaker 4: But that bar was a.

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Speaker 1: Little hard, right because now there would going on two

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Speaker 1: and I'm one or two, and I'm like in school

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Speaker 1: and trying to manage that. By the time I got

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Speaker 1: to my junior year, I ended up staying getting my

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Speaker 1: own place.

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Speaker 4: The roommate, who just so happened to like.

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Speaker 2: Kids, Omi did what she did best. She created a

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Speaker 2: community using the resources that she had at her disposal.

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Speaker 1: So I went and I found got government assistance for

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Speaker 1: like a childcare voucher research.

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Speaker 4: And found a random lady. So between daycare.

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Speaker 1: And if I had to take a night class, and

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Speaker 1: I can remember this woman's house and everything in my head,

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Speaker 1: found her. She took my voucher, and so that was

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Speaker 1: the way it was like going and getting as much

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Speaker 1: assistance as I could. So it's funny, you know, you

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Speaker 1: grow up feeling like you have to not ask for help,

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Speaker 1: and then when you do ask for help, you may

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Speaker 1: be shamed. So you don't want anybody to know you're

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Speaker 1: own public assistance. You don't want anybody to know you

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Speaker 1: getting like social services and things like that. So I

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Speaker 1: just went out and got every available service I could

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Speaker 1: get food SAMP Section eight, childcare, vouchers, like everything I

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Speaker 1: could do to keep myself afloat throughout my career, just

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Speaker 1: for anybody listening as things I've done to get child care,

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Speaker 1: like actually enter into groups or put my children in

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Speaker 1: sports because of children in sports, and there's other.

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Speaker 4: Parents I would keep their kids, they would keep my kids, And.

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Speaker 1: So you actually end up networking your way through it

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Speaker 1: in a way, and like figuring out when you know

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Speaker 1: nobody in the city, you end up developing light levels

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Speaker 1: of trust, networking your way through and finding a new

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Speaker 1: community for yourself.

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Speaker 2: I do find that that there's like a real bond

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Speaker 2: among parents that your kids get along with, that you trust,

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Speaker 2: that you can like the feeling that you feel good

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Speaker 2: about leaving your children with them and knowing that they

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Speaker 2: will be cared for, and the reciprocity in it, I

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Speaker 2: think does make for a very bonding relationship and community

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Speaker 2: one percent.

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Speaker 1: And I think you understand each other in a way

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Speaker 1: that maybe other people don't, especially like it was a

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Speaker 1: single mom, So a single mom you kind of like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm dealing with that same thing.

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Speaker 4: I also couldn't make it pick up my kid, could

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Speaker 4: you keep my kid? Oh?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 1: Like my kids coming out the bus, will you go

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Speaker 1: to the bus? So even now in the building that

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Speaker 1: I live in now we have a group of moms

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Speaker 1: and so some of us do mourning bus duty and

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Speaker 1: some people what we do afternoon bus duty. Or it

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Speaker 1: was like, hey, like can you get my child from school?

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Speaker 1: You're going to the school. All those kinds of things.

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Speaker 1: Community is so important to me. It is like the

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Speaker 1: number one thing I've learned to always build no matter

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Speaker 1: where I am.

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Speaker 2: And she did build. Even after graduating and becoming a

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Speaker 2: teacher at a K twelve school, she continued to find

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Speaker 2: new side hustles, and so.

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Speaker 1: I started teaching computers. I started my first company with

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Speaker 1: the other computer teacher. We started a well development company.

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Speaker 1: And this is back in the day. I'm not trying

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Speaker 1: to date myself, but this is back in the day

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Speaker 1: when Adobe didn't own the suite of things. It was Macromedia.

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Speaker 4: I don't know we.

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Speaker 1: Remember it, but it was Macromedia back then, Okay, And

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Speaker 1: so you had the sweet dream. We were flash that

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Speaker 1: kind of thing, and so we would build websites and

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Speaker 1: use flash or animation. But even during teaching, I worked

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Speaker 1: so many different kinds of jobs. I was a nanny,

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Speaker 1: I mean, as a teacher, you have to have a

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Speaker 1: zize because you're not making enough money. America is not

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Speaker 1: set up for you to be one person with kids.

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Speaker 1: You need multiple adults. And it doesn't even have to

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Speaker 1: be marriage. It can be grandparents whoever. But you need

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Speaker 1: more than one adult to raise even one child in America, right.

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Speaker 1: And so a lot of times when I tell this story,

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Speaker 1: I always say, like, my story is not a black

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Speaker 1: story or a woman's story or a person from the South. Story,

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Speaker 1: is an American story. There's so many people who are

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Speaker 1: dealing with the challenges of I didn't marry, but I

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Speaker 1: wanted a kid, right, and then what did that mean

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Speaker 1: for what I had to set up for myself? And

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Speaker 1: so that challenge that I was facing around like I

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Speaker 1: can't just be a teacher. Even though it's one of

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Speaker 1: the most like appreciated, at least verbally appreciated jobs in

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Speaker 1: the country, it's most underappreciated, I think when it comes

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Speaker 1: to the work that we're doing with America's children, and

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Speaker 1: the pain that you get.

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Speaker 2: Will only continue to hustle and find her purpose. Her

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Speaker 2: kids were also on their own journey.

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Speaker 1: I have two trans children. My son transitioned right after

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Speaker 1: high school, which I was really nervous about because going

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Speaker 1: into college just so many changes, and they're like, are

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Speaker 1: you sure you want to do it right now while

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Speaker 1: you're also going into college.

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Speaker 4: I'm glad you asked me about it, though.

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Speaker 1: So my other child is non binary, but bro now's

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Speaker 1: day and she honestly, for me, my biggest fear when

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Speaker 1: my son decided transition was I didn't raise you to

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Speaker 1: be a black man, and so I didn't get an

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Speaker 1: opportunity to like instill these you gecided by the beliefs.

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Speaker 4: You need to do these things.

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Speaker 1: You see these things happening, so where you need to

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Speaker 1: move this way, you need to be this kind of

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Speaker 1: proximity to women or not this kind of proximity to women.

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Speaker 4: You need to think about when a woman is saying

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Speaker 4: this is what you mean?

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Speaker 1: Like I didn't get that space, and so I felt

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Speaker 1: handicapped a little bit in my motherhood because now I'm like, oh, gosh,

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Speaker 1: what if it gets wrong as a black woman. Not

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Speaker 1: to say that police won't harass you as much, but

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Speaker 1: you're still a woman, and so I think there's certain

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Speaker 1: things that you can feel through and not maybe experience

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Speaker 1: the same way men will and so that really scared me,

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Speaker 1: and I think for my child who's non primary, I

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Speaker 1: was more worried about scrutiny and like, you know, whether

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Speaker 1: or not they would be accepted and like how that

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Speaker 1: would look.

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Speaker 4: There are two different schools.

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Speaker 1: Somebody said and graduated from North Carolina Anti, which is

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Speaker 1: where I went with a SBCU. My other pot they

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Speaker 1: are at George Mason. Totally different environment. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: a PWI predominantly white institution, so it's totally different. Even

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Speaker 1: the level of acceptance is different or the level of

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Speaker 1: questioning is a little different because it was also being

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Speaker 1: in the South, so getting access to tea like getting

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Speaker 1: access to as South around getting access to the doctors.

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Speaker 4: That would like be able to do the blood.

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Speaker 1: Tests and things like that, like you would have to

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Speaker 1: come back home to kind of get easy access to

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Speaker 1: it and not kind of like where could I go?

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Speaker 1: Even the down to things like the you know, the

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Speaker 1: gender gender neutral bathroom situation.

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Speaker 4: Right, It's like now he has.

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Speaker 1: To be on campus while bunch of students are just

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Speaker 1: feeling like, you know, no, I don't want to I

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Speaker 1: want to go to this bathroom.

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Speaker 4: I don't think it should be gender, nuture, bathrooms.

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Speaker 1: For whatever reasons, other oppression and trauma that we've dealt

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Speaker 1: with just as black people, right, I mean both. I

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Speaker 1: would say it's the same generation, so everybody's a little

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Speaker 1: bit progressive, so it's not so bad in the differences.

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Speaker 4: I think interestingly enough.

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Speaker 1: Though, my middle child, they're dealing with more race things

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Speaker 1: versus my oldest son, who didn't have to deal with

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Speaker 1: more race things, but maybe had to deal with more

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Speaker 1: gender or LGBTQ things, So it's like they're both having

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Speaker 1: to deal with things in a way. I don't know,

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Speaker 1: it's interest in journey as a mom, you know, Yeah, did.

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Speaker 2: You have that same feeling when your child came out

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Speaker 2: as non bordinary did you have that same feeling of

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Speaker 2: not preparing them? I honestly don't know how I would

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Speaker 2: prepare a child for the world as non binary.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, oh lord, we need a couch, So I am.

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Speaker 1: They're so different in the way that they are with

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Speaker 1: other child it was like, oh, I'm gay, and I

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Speaker 1: don't think you're gay, but I also don't think it's straight.

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Speaker 1: Like I kind of knew that already before coming out

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Speaker 1: a non binary, and I would tell them that and

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Speaker 1: they would get offended. Oh well, mom, I'm identifying his gay.

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Speaker 1: You should respect that. And I'm like, I do respect it.

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Speaker 1: I mean I identify his bye to I'm like, I

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Speaker 1: respect it. But I just don't think you're either one.

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Speaker 1: And I would say that for a while.

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Speaker 4: They would just kind of like whatever.

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Speaker 1: And then finally some when they came out as non binary,

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Speaker 1: I think it's funny I'll say this and they know this.

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Speaker 1: I think I'm having more challenges with moving the pronoun

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Speaker 1: to she than I am about they, And I don't

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Speaker 1: know why. That's something I need to think through what's

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Speaker 1: happening with me, because I mean, like even with them,

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Speaker 1: they always been mistaken for a woman, Like people have

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Speaker 1: always thought that, and it's nothing.

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Speaker 4: Wrong with that. Like I'm fine with them identifying as she.

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Speaker 1: It's been a harder transition for me than my older son,

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Speaker 1: where like first things first for me was the pronounce

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Speaker 1: then the name. So it's like, let's work on me

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Speaker 1: saying he, which it took a while to change it over.

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Speaker 4: This is the person that you here.

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Speaker 2: It's right, you've known every minute other life.

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Speaker 1: Every minute you know, it's kind of like the switchover.

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Speaker 1: I think if the detrimental feeling that some bears are having.

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Speaker 1: Then they're talking about it is this is the part

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Speaker 1: that I wish the would talk about.

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Speaker 4: I wish they would talk about like.

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Speaker 1: Hey, I respect what you did, but these pronouns are

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Speaker 1: hard to switch over.

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Speaker 4: I need your patience right totally.

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Speaker 2: We had a guest on last year who's one hundred

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Speaker 2: and one.

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Speaker 3: I'm Betty Red Saustin and I'm one hundred years old.

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Speaker 5: I started my life out as her son David, and

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Speaker 5: in the last five years I discovered that instead of

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Speaker 5: a man that had feminine traits, that all my life

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Speaker 5: I've been a woman pretending to be a man.

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Speaker 6: So that's been a difficult transition for myself, but also

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Speaker 6: with my mother, who understood my oldest brother being gay,

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Speaker 6: but this isn't a sexual thing. It's an identity thing,

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Speaker 6: which is a different, totally different concept for her to grasp.

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Speaker 3: I know that it probably is just just as hard

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Speaker 3: for you as for me, and you were someone else

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Speaker 3: for most of your life and became a daughter in

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Speaker 3: the last three years.

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Speaker 7: It's hard for me in many ways, but not the

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Speaker 7: ways you expect. I don't have trouble accepting I have

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Speaker 7: trouble because after all these years of calling you David,

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Speaker 7: I expect you to call you Diana. That's that's That's

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Speaker 7: about the hardest thing for me.

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Speaker 2: It's just the adjustment period. I feel like it's actually

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Speaker 2: the conversation I hear among parents more so.

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Speaker 1: The adjustment period includes okay, let me lay some of

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Speaker 1: it out. It includes the pronouns, it includes the name.

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Speaker 1: It includes talking to them, and it includes talking to

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Speaker 1: their siblings, and it includes talking to other people. And

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Speaker 1: then literally people will in conversations tell you that's a boy,

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Speaker 1: that's a girl.

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Speaker 4: Now you know what I mean. It's like I birth

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Speaker 4: this person.

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that it's okay if I tell you

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Speaker 1: who it is, and so that transition it can be.

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Speaker 1: It's an adjustment period. My son was a lot more lenient.

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Speaker 1: I get it, mom, It's cool.

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Speaker 4: I am who I am. Other child was up and down.

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Speaker 1: Some days they might be leaning. Some days they're like, no,

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Speaker 1: you're getting it wrong, and I'm like okay.

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Speaker 2: Onmi talks openly about the need for disruption in one's

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Speaker 2: own life to create new experiences. In twenty fifteen, her

415
00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:08,040
Speaker 2: life was thrown into disruption, forcing her to pivot but

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Speaker 2: not after experiencing what she calls her quote rock bottom.

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Speaker 2: I want to share this short excerpt from a profile

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Speaker 2: on Omi in Refinery twenty nine. They write quote, In

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Speaker 2: the next two months, her entire life flipped upside down.

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Speaker 2: Her engagement ended, leaving her on public assistance as a

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Speaker 2: single parent of three, which she considers her rock bottom.

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Speaker 2: So she went into fight mode, even pitching a tent

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Speaker 2: in her living room to rent on Airbnb for extra income.

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Speaker 1: And I also get some contexts as so why I

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Speaker 1: think it was such an anchoring moment. Right, So, like

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Speaker 1: I am working this job at some patent search work

427
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Speaker 1: and my boss caused me in as I say, I

428
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Speaker 1: think you're amazing, but this is not for you.

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Speaker 4: Lays me off. I go home.

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Speaker 1: I call California psychics because it's some like somebody got

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Speaker 1: to tell me something. It out money to hear from

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Speaker 1: a universe, because now my life is like it's falling down.

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Speaker 4: It's the second time I've got laid off. And that's

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Speaker 4: not what I do.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:09,440
Speaker 1: The woman she told me, when you find a thing

437
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:10,960
Speaker 1: you want to do, the money will come, and you're

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Speaker 1: not going to be with that guy, which is my

439
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,880
Speaker 1: fiance at the time. Oh gosh, so now I'm like yay,

440
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:17,160
Speaker 1: but like what yeah?

441
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:22,120
Speaker 4: What? So within two miles my entire relationship breaks down.

442
00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:26,199
Speaker 1: And that was where I felt the most rock bottom

443
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,240
Speaker 1: because it wasn't just a relationship rock bottom, which was

444
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:33,040
Speaker 1: that first relationship. This was my I'm not gonna get married.

445
00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 1: I now have three children. Now I'm a single band,

446
00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:37,600
Speaker 1: which I never wanted in terms of like being a

447
00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:39,680
Speaker 1: single band with three children, I never wanted it.

448
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 2: I want to pause here because between it all only

449
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:47,160
Speaker 2: had her third child. The story leading up to her

450
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:51,439
Speaker 2: third child is funny and complex and nuanced, and she

451
00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:55,120
Speaker 2: shares her experience of choosing to have an abortion so

452
00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:58,359
Speaker 2: that she had the ability to family plan, something that

453
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:00,800
Speaker 2: is common but not share nearly enough.

454
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:05,240
Speaker 1: So I'm in a club, all right, That's that's where

455
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:11,879
Speaker 1: the best started. Yes, Yes, ultimately, I've been doing performance poetry.

456
00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:14,240
Speaker 1: I was well known and burnt out like I was tired,

457
00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:16,399
Speaker 1: and I said, I'm not doing I'm done last event.

458
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:16,879
Speaker 4: I'm doing.

459
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:19,200
Speaker 1: My mom and I were bar hopping in Anams Morgan

460
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:22,120
Speaker 1: in DC because my mom is my rider Dough and

461
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 1: I meet this guy. We have a one night stand.

462
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 1: I will go to this morning, like, why are you

463
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: see her here? I don't understand.

464
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:28,520
Speaker 4: I need you to go.

465
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:30,920
Speaker 1: I gotta go walk my cat or wash my tire

466
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:35,200
Speaker 1: or something like that. So he leaves, he leaves, I

467
00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,760
Speaker 1: don't talk to him again. Two months later, I'm like,

468
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:43,800
Speaker 1: wait a minute, some is not right and I'm pregnant,

469
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:45,439
Speaker 1: so I have to call this guy out of the

470
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:46,960
Speaker 1: blue and say hey.

471
00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:49,159
Speaker 4: He's like, oh, I'm so glad you can't text me.

472
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 4: I lost your number or whatever. He was surprisingly cool

473
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 4: the entire time we met. We talked.

474
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:56,639
Speaker 1: We agreed that we did not want that to be

475
00:22:56,760 --> 00:23:00,240
Speaker 1: our child's story, but we would not have that child,

476
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:02,359
Speaker 1: and if we liked each other, we would continue to

477
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:04,760
Speaker 1: date and we would plan a child. And that's what

478
00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:08,240
Speaker 1: we did. So I had an abortion with that child,

479
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:10,680
Speaker 1: and then we didn't talk for like maybe a month

480
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:12,680
Speaker 1: or two, and then he caught me out of the blue.

481
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:14,000
Speaker 4: We started dating again.

482
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,359
Speaker 1: We kept dating, dating, dating, light each other, hit it off,

483
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:20,199
Speaker 1: and we planned my youngest chiall Skyler.

484
00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 2: So it was twenty fifteen and Omi's engagement had just ended.

485
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 2: She was a single parent of three just looking to

486
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 2: make ends meet. So she did what she does best and.

487
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,879
Speaker 1: Built and now the life I thought I was about

488
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,360
Speaker 1: to live or thought I wanted. And to be honest,

489
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,400
Speaker 1: he was a settle. I mean, he's an amazing, amazing dad.

490
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:43,480
Speaker 1: I would never take that away from him. But we

491
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 1: weren't necessarily right for each other. But it was a

492
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,159
Speaker 1: settle because I was just like, I'm getting older, you

493
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 1: know now I've had this child over thirty, which I'm

494
00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: happy about, but like, it's time to just get with

495
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:58,240
Speaker 1: the best thing. You know that I you know, it's

496
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:02,720
Speaker 1: an okay thing. The greatest is not you know, all roses,

497
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:07,159
Speaker 1: but like and to have that break down was like,

498
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:10,200
Speaker 1: oh no, I don't know if I'll ever find that again,

499
00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:11,679
Speaker 1: or if I ever get married.

500
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 4: So you know what if it, I'm going all the

501
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 4: way in. What can I do in my hands? What

502
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:16,080
Speaker 4: can I Like?

503
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,919
Speaker 1: At that point, I was like, I'm not gonna fail.

504
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:20,880
Speaker 1: I'm not going to sit around. I didn't grieve that

505
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: until about three years later because I was just like,

506
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 1: I'm not doing I'm not sitting around and crying about this. Listen,

507
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 1: at this point, I'm feeling like there is no plan

508
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,280
Speaker 1: in life ever right Like I'm at my lowest of

509
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:37,000
Speaker 1: low I am still on government assistance, and I don't

510
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,320
Speaker 1: want to be And I'm like, what, there's nothing Like

511
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:43,440
Speaker 1: if I don't do something, nothing's gonna happen. And when

512
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:46,240
Speaker 1: I say every available skill from doing the T shirt

513
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,320
Speaker 1: shop that I built to building a tpe in my

514
00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:52,920
Speaker 1: living room to like I was creating my own furniture,

515
00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:55,399
Speaker 1: I was creating my own greeting cars. I was selling

516
00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,880
Speaker 1: whatever I could think of the sell like. And it

517
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,640
Speaker 1: was like, by any means, that's I'm going to be successful.

518
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:04,080
Speaker 4: What else can I do?

519
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:06,880
Speaker 1: And I came up with a T shirt line, first

520
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 1: one it was then LGBT line. It sucked, nobody bought

521
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:12,640
Speaker 1: it. It bombed, and then I was talking to the printer

522
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:14,400
Speaker 1: at the time and I said, you know what, it's

523
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 1: made by a black woman.

524
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 4: I should put that on the shirt.

525
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: So I took the Maid in America logo pattern it

526
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:21,160
Speaker 1: and I made made by a black women pattern. After

527
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 1: the Maid in America logo put it on the shirt.

528
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:25,800
Speaker 1: People loved it. It took off. My mom was my

529
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:28,119
Speaker 1: first investor. She gave me about ten thousand dollars of

530
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: a retirement to put into the business. I used my

531
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 1: tax return to buy my own machines, and now we're off.

532
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: At first, it was just the made by Black Woman line,

533
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: and then I said, you know what, I'm going to

534
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: actually start a print shop and then I'm going.

535
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 4: To print for myself and print for other people.

536
00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 1: So first I'm making like starting to make like about

537
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 1: five figures just with a T shirt line itself. And

538
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:50,879
Speaker 1: then when I started doing printing for other people, this

539
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,840
Speaker 1: is when I started breaking six figures and getting.

540
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 4: More and more more capital and men.

541
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: I also started doing like merchandise, like print merchandise were

542
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:00,600
Speaker 1: like Google and Amazon, and those deals.

543
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:01,440
Speaker 4: This is why I'm so.

544
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 1: Big on supplied diversity, because those deals are really what

545
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:07,280
Speaker 1: took me to higher six figures. Those deals is what

546
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: got me out Section eight. And so I spent an

547
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: entire year twenty fifteen, working my ass off to make

548
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: as much money as many revenues. I made my own

549
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,199
Speaker 1: greeting guards, We vended as many places we could with

550
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:20,880
Speaker 1: the T shirts with the med and by Black Women

551
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,879
Speaker 1: T shirts. I started printing for like small festivals, like

552
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,359
Speaker 1: smaller influencers that were growing at that time. We had

553
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:29,000
Speaker 1: their own T shirt lines, and I just started raking

554
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: in as much revenue as I could to work myself

555
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: off a section and I successfully did that, thank god.

556
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 4: And from there.

557
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 1: I ended up getting a contract with Google doing some

558
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:41,520
Speaker 1: community teaching people about marketing things like that, and then

559
00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:44,400
Speaker 1: we're just now the trajectory is just going up.

560
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 2: How big was your team as you grew? Like what

561
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:48,879
Speaker 2: you said that you were in all these different like

562
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 2: I feel like you would need like a sales team

563
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 2: or operations again, a variety of industries to get into

564
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 2: all of these places.

565
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:55,199
Speaker 4: Yeah, you would think so. Right.

566
00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 1: Actually, we're talking about my brother and my mom at

567
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:03,000
Speaker 1: that time and me and I'm dedicating all of my

568
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:05,640
Speaker 1: day to it, right So I'm doing the sales, I'm

569
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 1: doing the emails, I'm doing the searching for the product

570
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: that the people asked for. I'm doing the presentation I

571
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: have to send them with the product on it. I'm

572
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 1: doing the print. Like Luckily, with that first investment and

573
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:18,120
Speaker 1: my mom gave me, we printed like two thousand Made

574
00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 1: by Black Women shirts and so we never had to

575
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:24,399
Speaker 1: actually do another run of those shirts because then I

576
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:27,200
Speaker 1: started using like Shopify and print for which could print

577
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 1: it on his own.

578
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:29,960
Speaker 4: And in our first full year.

579
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,679
Speaker 1: We ended up making Essence magazine Holiday Gift Guide, We

580
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,880
Speaker 1: had a baby infant one body suit and said made

581
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: by Black women on it, and people just loved it, like, oh,

582
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:40,680
Speaker 1: I'm black, my baby's back, the baby's made by black women.

583
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 4: I'm like, that's not what I meant.

584
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,119
Speaker 1: But yes, run with it, go buy it, you know,

585
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:49,679
Speaker 1: And so they were eating it up. And so it

586
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,919
Speaker 1: was that Black Friday and that like Christmas sale just

587
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 1: went crazy wild in sales. So were you always cash positive?

588
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:00,399
Speaker 1: Like did you get loans or take investment for that?

589
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: I did not other than my mom giving me that capital.

590
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:05,639
Speaker 1: I dan'te loans. Is that because at that time my

591
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: credit wasn't great. I didn't feel like anybody would give

592
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 1: me a loan. I did use scenes like a thirty

593
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:13,800
Speaker 1: day net with my manufacturers. I did use like business

594
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:18,800
Speaker 1: credit at Costco. I did use credit, but loans note

595
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: and then the only capital I took was from my mom.

596
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:24,120
Speaker 2: So how did that transition? You transitioned pretty quickly from

597
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:26,520
Speaker 2: that into launching Black Girl Ventures.

598
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:28,680
Speaker 1: So one of the things I say is interesting, I

599
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:30,760
Speaker 1: don't know if I ever articulated like this, but like

600
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:35,719
Speaker 1: there was something about the mechanism of making money that

601
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: probably started while I was teaching, right which was just

602
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: like I'm a money maker. Like I can make money,

603
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,160
Speaker 1: give me a couple of tools. I'm a money maker.

604
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 2: She shared in a Forbes piece, how just do it

605
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 2: is more than a mantra, It's a way of life.

606
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 2: She goes on to say, quote, my story of what

607
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 2: I've built with Black Girl Ventures is the epitome of

608
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 2: just do it. It would be hard for someone to

609
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:02,479
Speaker 2: believe that a woman who had had a child at

610
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 2: seventeen and another child at twenty one, graduates and becomes

611
00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 2: a computer scientist, but doesn't work for a tech company

612
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 2: but rather a school system, works multiple kinds of jobs,

613
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 2: and then one day grows a multimillion dollar nonprofit is

614
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:19,719
Speaker 2: going to change the world.

615
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: The news came out black women ever started business at

616
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:26,120
Speaker 1: six times in national average, yet receiving less than one

617
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: percent of venture capital. So people aren't getting money to

618
00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: raise businesses to grow their business, but they are actually

619
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 1: starting them right, And so I'm like, I could do

620
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:34,960
Speaker 1: something about that.

621
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 4: So they were got.

622
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: Rent parties, so doing a great migration when black people

623
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: migrated from the South to all different parts of the

624
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 1: country and Harlem. In fact, whiteland owners raised the rent

625
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 1: and black people would throw parties in their homes now,

626
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 1: and these weren't like any shabby little parties.

627
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 4: They would have like you're talking about, like.

628
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:58,480
Speaker 1: Duke Ellington, lang Sy Hughes, fat Swaller, like Langsy Hughes

629
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:00,719
Speaker 1: at a little car that they would pass out with

630
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 1: like little rhymes on it to invite people to come

631
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: to the parties. And then they would charge at the

632
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,360
Speaker 1: door and they would use that money to pay the rent.

633
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:08,200
Speaker 4: And so this.

634
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 1: Mechanism of like community centered crowdfunding essentially right crowdfunding.

635
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 4: Crowdsourcing was innate because where were you gonna go?

636
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 1: Right, You didn't have anybody, You weren't getting a loan

637
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 1: let alone, if you were even able to enter a bank,

638
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 1: you know, so those kinds of things. So that, yeah,

639
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 1: it came from next.

640
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 2: Her launch plan for Black Girl Ventures was second to none.

641
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 2: She put her idea up on meetup dot com and

642
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 2: hoped a few people would show up.

643
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:37,200
Speaker 4: None of this was deep thought.

644
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 1: So like when I was going back to like being

645
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 1: that teenager that's kind of rebellious, I've probably been doing

646
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 1: that the whole time.

647
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:45,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, because none of it was deep thought.

648
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: It wasn't like, oh, how can I change the world.

649
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: About thirty women showed up. We voted with marbles and

650
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 1: goffee mugs. You like this person put your mom with

651
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 1: marble in their goffee mug. I gave the money from

652
00:30:57,440 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 1: the door right back out to the lady. I honestly

653
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 1: didn't think much about it.

654
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 2: But she had set something great into motion, and one

655
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 2: thing after another it started to grow.

656
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:18,840
Speaker 1: Creates access to social and financial capital for black and

657
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: brown women founders. There's lots of initiatives out there for

658
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:26,480
Speaker 1: minority founders underrepresented founders. We specifically focus on black and

659
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 1: brown women. Another thing that makes us unique is that

660
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: our event is specifically focused on assets of capital. So

661
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: it's like Shark Tank with an audience, except everyone's a shark.

662
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,360
Speaker 4: So everyone in the audience votes with their dollars.

663
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:41,840
Speaker 1: So you could come and pitch a three minute pitch

664
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,320
Speaker 1: and walk away with two thousand dollars for your business.

665
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: How would you guys experience here on black old bitchers.

666
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 4: I can't make it popularity?

667
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 1: And then I gotta deal with Google, another part of Google,

668
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 1: not the one I had a contract with. I gotta

669
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,400
Speaker 1: deal with Google Cloud for startups. And then we started

670
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 1: traveling the country, and so we went from like thirty

671
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 1: women in the house, forty forty five women in like

672
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:08,280
Speaker 1: different spaces, eighted one hundred people, and we work to

673
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 1: like two hundred and fifty three hundred people in Chicago,

674
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 1: New York, in Atlanta.

675
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 4: Detroit, and really just the scale started happening from there.

676
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:21,720
Speaker 2: Were you keeping track of your portfolio? Were you operating

677
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 2: like a VC and taking equity as you were funding them?

678
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 4: We were not.

679
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:29,000
Speaker 1: Taking equity as we were funding them. It's been all

680
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: grant so far. We absolutely count because when I look

681
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 1: at the people that we funded now, so our twenty

682
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:40,720
Speaker 1: eighteen cohort in twenty nineteen cohorts, they're taking off. I

683
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:44,760
Speaker 1: mean I'm talking thirty under thirty getting bigger investment, answering

684
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 1: it to the biggest accelerators on the planet. The companies

685
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 1: are scaling like they're really taking off. And so now

686
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: I'm looking at launching a fund because one we're proven

687
00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 1: we funded over three hundred women at this point. Two

688
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: I now know, hey, if I look in my twenty eighteen,

689
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen coores and now we're in twenty twenty three,

690
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 1: I could prove that like with that consistent funding and

691
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:12,240
Speaker 1: resources they can scale.

692
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 4: Had we gotten equity, then what would we be now?

693
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty had an impact on every business. I imagine

694
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 2: both with the pandemic and with the murder of George

695
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 2: Floyd that your business was probably kind of at the intersection.

696
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:29,840
Speaker 2: What was the impact for you?

697
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, So twenty nineteen we got our first six figure believer,

698
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 1: the You and Mary and Kaufmann Foundation. And a lot

699
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 1: of times when people apply for grants, they apply with aspirations.

700
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 1: We didn't. I applied with my actual business plan for scaling,

701
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: and so when we got the grant, we were already

702
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:47,880
Speaker 1: full of force and like what a meant to scale?

703
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 1: And at that time, scale meant I'm going to train

704
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,080
Speaker 1: a bunch of different women in different ecosystems on how

705
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 1: we do what we do, hand them a tool kit,

706
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 1: and let them start doing it for themselves.

707
00:33:57,360 --> 00:33:58,760
Speaker 4: And so people.

708
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:00,120
Speaker 1: Thought I was crazy, like, oh, you're gonna ge if

709
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,920
Speaker 1: your idea away, I'm like, listen, if everybody started to

710
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 1: crow fund to pitch competitions, I could back up and

711
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:05,480
Speaker 1: do something else.

712
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 4: I've created an immense amount of change in the world.

713
00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:11,359
Speaker 1: Right, So I recruit twenty five women, five from five

714
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 1: different cities, bring them to DC, We train them, show

715
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 1: them the competition, everything we're ready to go to get ready,

716
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 1: everything boomed.

717
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:21,920
Speaker 4: We quarantine, and I'm like, oh my god, what are

718
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 4: we gonna do?

719
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:27,240
Speaker 1: So we start offering coworking on Wednesdays virtually, which still

720
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 1: happens to this day. We start offering monthly support programs,

721
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:36,160
Speaker 1: support sessions for people in business. We start offering virtual

722
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,280
Speaker 1: bitch competitions at that point, and this actually the scale

723
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:41,719
Speaker 1: of service just went to a whole another level because

724
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 1: now we can reach everybody on the planet. When George

725
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 1: Floyd was murdered, it was the response, this is something

726
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 1: I've never seen before in my life.

727
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 4: Like when I tell you, we was on calls all

728
00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 4: day long.

729
00:34:56,320 --> 00:35:00,080
Speaker 1: I was on calls from like eight am to like

730
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 1: seven BM ketchup people from the West Coast. We want

731
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:04,280
Speaker 1: to give you money. We want to give you thirty thousand,

732
00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: forty thousand. On top of so that maybe that then

733
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:12,359
Speaker 1: there was moments of almost playing therapists to some white

734
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: people who realized I had done enough. So I had

735
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:16,880
Speaker 1: people who are like, oh my god. I looked around.

736
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:18,799
Speaker 1: I realized my whole team is white. I have no

737
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,319
Speaker 1: people of color on my team at all. And I'm like,

738
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 1: I don't know what could have prepared me for this

739
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:27,120
Speaker 1: except for the life that I've had. We were already

740
00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:30,360
Speaker 1: ready as Black or Adventures. Our programming was solid. We

741
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,359
Speaker 1: knew our offerings, we knew what we wanted to do,

742
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 1: we knew like the mission was tight. We were already

743
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:37,239
Speaker 1: offering the program like we were tight. So we were

744
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 1: ready for all of that. But the level of conversation

745
00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 1: that I had, I don't know that I thought that

746
00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:45,200
Speaker 1: that would be.

747
00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:47,479
Speaker 4: What I was going to be talking about. Just people

748
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:49,920
Speaker 4: realizing like, I haven't done enough and I want to

749
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 4: do more? How can I right? What can I do?

750
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 2: The influx of investors created opportunity after opportunity for her

751
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 2: not only to grow Black Girl VREs, but to leverage

752
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 2: her community building skills.

753
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 1: My relationship building muscle got stronger because I had to

754
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:09,280
Speaker 1: have empathy, but I also had to tell the truth

755
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,839
Speaker 1: just because it's me like and be authentic. So it's like, Hey,

756
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: we're going to have this conversation, and here's how we're

757
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: going to have it. I understand you looked up and

758
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 1: now you realize, yeah, I've been doing enough.

759
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 4: What could that mean for how you could do?

760
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 1: What? You view as enough, like what is an I

761
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:30,800
Speaker 1: don't know that there's enough right that could have saved

762
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 1: George Floyd that wasn't policy related, right, Like, so from

763
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:38,200
Speaker 1: an individual standpoint, let's think about what you can do.

764
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 4: And I think we became a thing to do.

765
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 1: But we also became like like coaching people in a way.

766
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 2: Like a thought partner, a thought partner.

767
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:48,919
Speaker 1: A problem solving partner, a partner that I wasn't going

768
00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 1: to ding you or you know, give you what you

769
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 1: should have. I was going to shake my finger at

770
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:56,560
Speaker 1: you because that's not productive, because I really do want

771
00:36:56,600 --> 00:36:59,399
Speaker 1: you to have long lasting shifts and how you think

772
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 1: about this right? Then there was places where I just

773
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 1: pushed ass that I would have never pushed, like doing

774
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:06,799
Speaker 1: a Nike deal. They were presenting to me like, Hey,

775
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:08,359
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna do this.

776
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:10,239
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have this billboard, we're gonna have visit it.

777
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:12,319
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna put you in the

778
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,360
Speaker 1: app like it was an amazing partnership. I said I

779
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:17,480
Speaker 1: want to be in a commercial and they were like,

780
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:19,680
Speaker 1: oh no, I don't think we can do that.

781
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:21,919
Speaker 4: I was like, so what you're saying is not right now,

782
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:24,440
Speaker 4: and it just kind oflive. But I ended up in

783
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:25,480
Speaker 4: a commercial, right.

784
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:27,440
Speaker 1: It may have been like three seconds, but I was

785
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:32,279
Speaker 1: in there again, Yes you were, so. I think that

786
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 1: it really caused me to dig into and I still

787
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 1: have relationships with those people to this day.

788
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,880
Speaker 4: Just good people, Be a good person.

789
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 1: Be good people right, like in what the label good

790
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 1: people means, like good hearted, cool, down to earth, able

791
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:51,880
Speaker 1: to talk to people, be empathetic.

792
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 4: You know that. I think that matters so much.

793
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,839
Speaker 2: The Nike deal that only quickly mentioned is an incredible

794
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 2: mural that is inspired by her poem Entrepreneurship is a

795
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 2: boxing match.

796
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:07,799
Speaker 1: It's a eren It's three to four feet taller in reality.

797
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:11,600
Speaker 1: Its ropes are red, white, and blue. Its platform is

798
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 1: blank stretched canvas. Commentators say, is.

799
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 2: Boot Forth being the brilliant and creative woman that she is?

800
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 2: Omi made a short film about the poem and the

801
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,720
Speaker 2: five incredible black women business owners featured in her Nike mural.

802
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:29,000
Speaker 2: The mural is featured at Union Market in DC, and

803
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,440
Speaker 2: it's a constant recognition of the tireless work of black

804
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:34,280
Speaker 2: and brown female entrepreneurs.

805
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 4: Why is being a black woman entrepreneur different?

806
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:43,800
Speaker 1: Entrepreneurship is a boxing match, So people don't know that

807
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,279
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs are always dealing with all these things. But in

808
00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:51,200
Speaker 1: addition to doing this, you know, you're still a mom.

809
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 4: And I'm still never done. Entrepreneurship is a boxing match.

810
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 4: We the women know how to say lights on our feets.

811
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:06,799
Speaker 2: Was there a point that you can think of when

812
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:08,759
Speaker 2: you look back when there it was that moment when

813
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:10,879
Speaker 2: you thought, oh my god, I'm done. I can't get

814
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 2: out of this moment, And now in retrospect you see

815
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:16,720
Speaker 2: it as the thing that helped you move forward and launch.

816
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: Probably my first fundraising call, I am right out in bush.

817
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, and we do this and we have

818
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:26,880
Speaker 1: that and you know, and I'm like, I'm delivering what

819
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:27,359
Speaker 1: I feel like.

820
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:29,360
Speaker 4: Is my best full arm pitch.

821
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,560
Speaker 1: Okay, And the person, the Asian man at a Fortune

822
00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:36,080
Speaker 1: five hundred company said, why would I fund you? I'm

823
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:40,640
Speaker 1: not a diversity and I'm like, the only initiative job

824
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: is women. But it's all white women. So there's room

825
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 1: for it to be all white women if that's what

826
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: you want to do, and for it to be all

827
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,560
Speaker 1: black and brown women, then right, because I know that

828
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:57,040
Speaker 1: if you have room for this part. Then guess what,

829
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: We're going to be a great ad to your portfolio. Right,

830
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:02,759
Speaker 1: he wasn't here, and he's like, I'm in a diversity

831
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,200
Speaker 1: and I just don't see why this is different when

832
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:07,359
Speaker 1: I'm already funding and I just don't.

833
00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 4: No, No, that sucks. You suck. This sucks, and.

834
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 1: I'm trying to do everything, like, well, you should think

835
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:14,839
Speaker 1: about it this way. What is this He's like, no, no, no, no, no,

836
00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:17,799
Speaker 1: that set me up for now.

837
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:18,279
Speaker 4: I was.

838
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,040
Speaker 1: I felt terrible after that. I want to be clear.

839
00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 1: I was like, I suck at this. I don't think

840
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,160
Speaker 1: I'm ever going to be able to raise a dollar.

841
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 1: But now, in hindsight, I'm like, that set me up

842
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:31,080
Speaker 1: for Like when people don't get it one you don't

843
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 1: take it personal. A no means it's not the right person,

844
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:36,359
Speaker 1: not the right time, but not the right ask. Your

845
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:38,759
Speaker 1: no has nothing to do with me. And I take

846
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 1: that and I teach that and I coach on that

847
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:45,120
Speaker 1: like no is not your seb effocacy needs to break down.

848
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:47,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it's not against your confidence. Yeah. So it

849
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:51,280
Speaker 4: was like, no is about that person's ability to respond.

850
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:54,880
Speaker 2: So much of it is timing. Also, whether it's funding

851
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 2: or partnerships or whatever. It is so much of it

852
00:40:57,680 --> 00:40:59,879
Speaker 2: as timing that has nothing to do with you. When

853
00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:03,000
Speaker 2: I had the concept for this show, it's the first

854
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,799
Speaker 2: thing I've ever done that's personal. And even though I

855
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,239
Speaker 2: had raised money before, I had had a show before

856
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 2: all of that, this felt so vulnerable to go out

857
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:14,440
Speaker 2: and pitch this show because I wasn't sure if a

858
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:16,480
Speaker 2: media partner would want it. I wasn't sure if sponsors

859
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 2: would want it. I wasn't sure if an audience wanted

860
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:21,920
Speaker 2: to hear me talk about anything personally. That felt so

861
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:24,480
Speaker 2: vulnerable that it still is a little hard, but like,

862
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 2: I have to separate the business from the content, and

863
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 2: the content is me, but the business is the business,

864
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,480
Speaker 2: and the business can be about everybody else around me exactly.

865
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 1: And I think like being able to like just reshape

866
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 1: perspective quickly is an entrepreneurial thing, right, because you got

867
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:42,680
Speaker 1: to be able to move quick. I don't have time

868
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 1: to waddle in that but for so long, Hey give

869
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:48,160
Speaker 1: me forty eight hours that I'm over it. So I

870
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 1: have a book. It's called Originate, Motivate, Innovate. Seven Steps

871
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,120
Speaker 1: for building a billion dollar Network. And I think that

872
00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:59,279
Speaker 1: when when I think about the network is everything? I

873
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:03,279
Speaker 1: tell people like, the network is everything, right, We're like,

874
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:05,960
Speaker 1: you're the When you get to a certain level of capital,

875
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Speaker 1: your worth is the deal, not money in your bank account.

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Speaker 4: You know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: It's your worth is the deal. It's about the deal.

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Speaker 1: But the deals come from the relationships, right exactly.

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Speaker 2: Okay, thank you so much. Can I give you a hug? Yeah,

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00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:30,319
Speaker 2: I'm Omi continues to thrive, building Black Girl ventures and

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00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:34,520
Speaker 2: giving out millions of dollars in grants. She just released

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00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 2: her book Originate, Motivate, Innovate. Seven Steps for building a

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00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:43,000
Speaker 2: multimillion dollar business. You can find that anywhere you get

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00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 2: your books. She was named one of the one hundred

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00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:50,320
Speaker 2: most Powerful Women in Business by Entrepreneur magazine and acknowledged

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00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:53,680
Speaker 2: as a Rising grand Star by Adweek. She continues to

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00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:58,759
Speaker 2: be featured in publications like Forbes, Fast Company, Marie Claire, Inc. Magazine,

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00:42:58,800 --> 00:42:59,279
Speaker 2: and more.

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00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:00,080
Speaker 4: For her work.

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00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:04,120
Speaker 2: Omi is also the host of Omi's World, a serious

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00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:08,360
Speaker 2: XM show that has authentic conversations about business, culture and finance.

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00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 2: She lives with her children in the DC area, making

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00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:15,000
Speaker 2: sure to regularly check in on her mural at Union Market.

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00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:18,680
Speaker 2: You can Find all things Omi on Instagram, at black

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Speaker 2: Girl Ventures and at Omi Bell Thanks for listening. She

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Speaker 2: Pivots is hosted by me Emily Tish Sussman, produced by

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00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:36,280
Speaker 2: Emily eda Veloshik, with sound editing and mixing from Nina Pollock,

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00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:40,160
Speaker 2: and research and planning for Christine Dickinson and Hannah Cousins.

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Speaker 4: I endorse che Pivots