Speaker 1: At both the beginning and end of the day. This
Speaker 1: podcast is about helping you find your way as a
Speaker 1: black person to wealth, generation of wealth, in fact, wealth
Speaker 1: that allows you to employ people, acquire assets, leave inheritances,
Speaker 1: and liberal phenomenal life yourself. And we can't have a
Speaker 1: conversation about wealth in the black community without highlighting how
Speaker 1: black women build it. As there's nuance it's different for
Speaker 1: Black people to build wealth and it is for white people,
Speaker 1: and it's different for Black women than it often is
Speaker 1: for black men. So today's conversation is one between more
Speaker 1: and the bond who see your at Bravity And she's
Speaker 1: talking with Samantha Tweeting, the Black Economic Alliance Foundation, the
Speaker 1: coalition of black leaders and aligned advocates who are committed
Speaker 1: to economic progress and prosperity in the Black community, and
Speaker 1: the Trevia Smith Wilson, chief Marketing Equity Officer at Horizon Media,
Speaker 1: which is the largest US media agency. Let's listen to
Speaker 1: this conversation. So this is Samantha Tweetie um that she
Speaker 1: is the first president of the b A Foundation. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you explain a little bit about b
Speaker 1: A and b A Foundation so people know what's going on. Well, First,
Speaker 1: thank you Morgan, thank you, Apporte, thank you, beautiful room.
Speaker 1: It's so good to be here with you all today.
Speaker 1: The Black Economic Alliance Foundation is focused on building generational
Speaker 1: wealth for the Black community at large. We do it
Speaker 1: through policy work, we do it through partnerships that cross
Speaker 1: public private sectors. And what we're trying to do is
Speaker 1: flip the infrastructure. We're all living within the current economic
Speaker 1: infrastructure of this country that as we all know, has
Speaker 1: been set up since the beginning to leave us behind.
Speaker 1: And that's the most play way that I can talk
Speaker 1: about it. And so what we're trying to do at
Speaker 1: the b A Foundation is to figure out how we
Speaker 1: build a new economic infrastructure, one that PRIORITIS has is
Speaker 1: building black wealth. Amen, we can get a clap for
Speaker 1: at you don't have to be shy. And next I
Speaker 1: have lab Triette Smith Wilson Welcome, good to see you,
Speaker 1: Thank you, and please introduce yourself. I am Latreviette Smith Wilson.
Speaker 1: I am currently Chief Marketing and Equity Officer at Horizon Media,
Speaker 1: which is the largest US media agency and the largest
Speaker 1: independent in the world. So helping marketers drive business outcomes.
Speaker 1: If you are familiar with media agencies and what they
Speaker 1: do that is horizon. UM and I am in what
Speaker 1: is an industry first role that is focused on bringing
Speaker 1: and putting d E and I at the core of
Speaker 1: the business. So rather than sitting it in HR as
Speaker 1: it has historically set as an enterprise function, it is
Speaker 1: in the marketing function under me, so that we can
Speaker 1: actually show how it's driving business outcomes. So powerful, these
Speaker 1: are two powerhouses right here. So for before we get
Speaker 1: into it all and we're gonna talk about wealth, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about our own career journeys because we
Speaker 1: both have had quite the careers before your current roles today. UM,
Speaker 1: what were your biggest takeaways from that incredible conversation with Ursula?
Speaker 1: There were so many, but what Yeah, what's sticking with
Speaker 1: me is basically, you can do what you want. You
Speaker 1: can show up, you can sit at any table, and
Speaker 1: you can do it in the way you want to.
Speaker 1: But don't call yourself a black director, don't call yourself
Speaker 1: a black CEO, don't call yourself a black foundation leader
Speaker 1: if you're not about it for our people. And I
Speaker 1: think that was so strong because it just gave all
Speaker 1: of us permission and in different times, in different spaces
Speaker 1: to do different things, but also to note if you're
Speaker 1: claiming it, then you have to be bringing the rest
Speaker 1: of us along with you. That's right. We are at Blavity.
Speaker 1: When we were first starting the company and we were
Speaker 1: building out our team, we had this metric that we said,
Speaker 1: is this person about it? About it? That was what
Speaker 1: we said. You know, we've been sitting in a room.
Speaker 1: We'll be like, Okay, they have the technical skills, yes,
Speaker 1: the chrismatic, can they leave people, etcetera, etcetera. And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: but are they gonna be about it about it at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. And some people were not
Speaker 1: and they did not get the job. You know, that
Speaker 1: X factor was really important that you were going to
Speaker 1: bring other people with you along the way and that
Speaker 1: you were motivated by that because we knew that this
Speaker 1: job was a privilege. You know, the work that we
Speaker 1: all do is a privilege, and it's our responsibility to
Speaker 1: bring people with us to who much has given much
Speaker 1: is required. That's it And that's one of the things
Speaker 1: I loved most And just how always shows up right.
Speaker 1: She called it like I'm real right, but there's there's
Speaker 1: something to that, and and she even said, you know,
Speaker 1: if this is not you, don't try to be me, right.
Speaker 1: So I think so often we we feel as though
Speaker 1: we have to assume other personalities right to succeed, or
Speaker 1: we say, okay, this is how this person did it,
Speaker 1: and that has to be the recipe, right, that has
Speaker 1: to be the map to get there. And really the
Speaker 1: map to get there is what you saw sitting in
Speaker 1: the seat when she said, if this doesn't work for you,
Speaker 1: don't do it right, just be you. When there's something
Speaker 1: in that that is so you know, we hear all
Speaker 1: the time authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. Okay, what does it really mean?
Speaker 1: In a world right where we're told right, we're pushed
Speaker 1: often to be something else. And I think that was
Speaker 1: just one of my biggest I was like, yes, please,
Speaker 1: can we get more of that? It is be you.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be Ursula, you don't have to
Speaker 1: be La Tribe yet. You don't have to be Samantha,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be Morgan, be you, and and
Speaker 1: I promise you it'll be more than enough. Absolutely. So
Speaker 1: let's start with wealth. This is a conversation about um
Speaker 1: black women not being rich but being wealthy. What does
Speaker 1: wealth mean to both of you? I'm sure it's financial security,
Speaker 1: it's generational wealth. It is the ability to wake up
Speaker 1: in the morning and to do what we want to
Speaker 1: do and not what we have to do right, um
Speaker 1: and and for me, the generational wealth pieces is the
Speaker 1: biggest That's what I'm working for right now. Right. It
Speaker 1: has so little to do with the individual sitting here
Speaker 1: or the immediacy of oh oh I can know m.
Speaker 1: My thinking is real different now, um and I wish
Speaker 1: I had the benefit of the knowledge that I have
Speaker 1: now in my mid twenties versus my late forties, right,
Speaker 1: and so having the opportunity and the benefit to hear
Speaker 1: from people like us and so many more who are
Speaker 1: awakened right to what it really means, to to why
Speaker 1: we have had the plight that we have had, and
Speaker 1: what we have to do to change it going forward
Speaker 1: to ensure rich means nothing right. Wealth is the goal,
Speaker 1: So yes, all of it. I think for me, it's
Speaker 1: really about that agency piece. It is the agency to
Speaker 1: do what you and your family need and want. And
Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest problems is that still
Speaker 1: when folks think about wealth and let's be real. Particularly
Speaker 1: when they think about black wealth, black women wealth, they're
Speaker 1: thinking about vacation houses, right, They're thinking about fancy cars,
Speaker 1: And when it comes to our community, they're thinking about
Speaker 1: things that they don't think are good. And so long
Speaker 1: as we allow that to stay as the definition of wealth,
Speaker 1: we're just going to be adding to the uphill battle
Speaker 1: that we're fighting. We need to be really clear when
Speaker 1: we talk about wealth. We're talking and it's simplest terms
Speaker 1: about owning more than you owe. How can that be
Speaker 1: something that's still is the exception instead of the rule
Speaker 1: for any community in this country in how can that
Speaker 1: be the case? So I think a part of this
Speaker 1: is in our conversations with each other, because even there
Speaker 1: is necessary. But certainly anytime we're talking to anybody who
Speaker 1: has the influence and the power to make systemic change,
Speaker 1: what we have to be saying is, let me spend
Speaker 1: twenty seconds on what I mean by wealth. Right, It's
Speaker 1: being able to buy at home and pass it on
Speaker 1: to your kids. Right, Maybe start a business where you
Speaker 1: can hire folks from your community, pay them well. And
Speaker 1: let's just not pause when we say wealth, because we
Speaker 1: know the pictures that are in folks heads when we
Speaker 1: do that, especially when we talk about it for us,
Speaker 1: and we need to change those pictures if we're going
Speaker 1: to change the way that people are prioritizing generational wealth
Speaker 1: building and what is right for our community. Absolutely, okay,
Speaker 1: So walk us through your career and the work that
Speaker 1: you've done to get to where you are at b
Speaker 1: a foundation. So I'm going to just make a bunch
Speaker 1: of assumption assumptions here, But I would assume that, like
Speaker 1: many of you, you know, in my house, education was
Speaker 1: it and it wasn't just it for us. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was the legacy of our family. My grandmother left
Speaker 1: home and put herself through college when she was sixteen,
Speaker 1: went on to get married, have five kids, raised those kids,
Speaker 1: and then go back to law school, and then spend
Speaker 1: her legal career litigating to make the school system in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia more just right for kids who look like us.
Speaker 1: And so it just was the expectation and such. It
Speaker 1: was so rooted in all of us that education was
Speaker 1: path to liberation and freedom for black folks. And I
Speaker 1: spent much of my career fighting for that, you know.
Speaker 1: I went off and went to law school and litigated
Speaker 1: to make the school system more fair I opened a school,
Speaker 1: all girls school. I became an executive, you know, at
Speaker 1: a big organization that was building school serving kids. It
Speaker 1: is from the lowest income communities across the Northeast who
Speaker 1: were graduating from four year colleges right at rates that
Speaker 1: were as high as kids from the highest income households
Speaker 1: across the country. But the data kept slapping me in
Speaker 1: the face, because what the data tells us is that
Speaker 1: to date, right our average black college graduates are earning
Speaker 1: less and amassing less wealth than our average white Americans
Speaker 1: who dropped out of high school. So something is wrong
Speaker 1: in how we are approaching fixing the problem. And it's
Speaker 1: not just about what we earn and about how much
Speaker 1: wealth we have. It's about every aspect of our well being,
Speaker 1: in our livelihoods. Right in the city we're in right now,
Speaker 1: one of the wealthiest in the country. Black women eight
Speaker 1: times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy
Speaker 1: related causes than white women. But again same trend. Black
Speaker 1: women who have graduated from college more likely to die
Speaker 1: than white women or women of any race who have
Speaker 1: not graduated from high school. So what that says to
Speaker 1: me is we can't keep expecting to educate our way
Speaker 1: out of this. All right, it won't work. It won't work.
Speaker 1: That's a tough reality for many of us, it is,
Speaker 1: and so Black Economic Alliance Foundation, what we're trying to
Speaker 1: do is say, you got to be laser focused on
Speaker 1: asking the question around wealth building. You can't look at
Speaker 1: all the other pieces and expect it to get us there,
Speaker 1: because with the data tells us is that if you
Speaker 1: apply a solution across everyone in this country, it's going
Speaker 1: to keep leaving us behind. Also though, and this is
Speaker 1: the harder part. I gotta be honest. I got a
Speaker 1: six year old daughter named Stokely, I got a three
Speaker 1: and a half son named Ever. Guess what what do
Speaker 1: I clap for them for their school work? Right? What
Speaker 1: do I talk to them about college? Right? It is
Speaker 1: so ingrained in us that that is how we as
Speaker 1: individuals and we as a community you're gonna thrive. And
Speaker 1: so what I'm trying to also do is figure out,
Speaker 1: as a mama, how do I change that for my
Speaker 1: kids so they see the world and have that leg
Speaker 1: up to know that that can't be It's necessary, but
Speaker 1: it's not sufficient. How did they know that from the start?
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, Well, we can come back to that. That
Speaker 1: was a lot. Vitrio. Well, no, I wanted because you
Speaker 1: are from the on the private side, right, and I
Speaker 1: think that your career, um, you know, you've advocated for
Speaker 1: black women consistently through your career sun Dial and as ventures,
Speaker 1: and so walk us through your career choices as well. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Um So I always say that if someone in any time,
Speaker 1: I'm asked, you know, how did you get here? I
Speaker 1: did not have a roadmap, right, There was nothing that
Speaker 1: said I'm going to make this choice and this choice
Speaker 1: and this choice to get here. What I've always done
Speaker 1: is follow my purpose first and then my passion. Right.
Speaker 1: So I actually started my career in journalism, and in
Speaker 1: the late nineties when this noble profession that I thought
Speaker 1: was there to serve others and tell the stories of
Speaker 1: those untold, right, was really about sensationalism and sweeps and
Speaker 1: everything that I was seeing in the news room at
Speaker 1: the time, I just decided, I have to be able
Speaker 1: to look at myself in the mirror when I wake
Speaker 1: up in the morning and I'm not feeling this, right,
Speaker 1: So what is it? What's next for me? And I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a skill set that I have right strategists, communicator,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll try this agency pr thing, and I thought
Speaker 1: I'd be back in the newsroom in six months because
Speaker 1: there is nothing about me that was appealing to go
Speaker 1: to a nine to five right, So not necessarily an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: but always had quite the entrepreneurial spirit and joined an
Speaker 1: agency that thankfully also was rooted in entrepreneurialism. It was
Speaker 1: the largest private agency, it's actually the largest our agency
Speaker 1: now in the world, and I was able to follow
Speaker 1: my purpose and my passion there right. So it was
Speaker 1: in corporate for a while. Then I built up what
Speaker 1: they were then calling the Diversity Solutions multicultural practice. But
Speaker 1: for me, it was always about how do I use
Speaker 1: what I have to serve the community that I love,
Speaker 1: and that's really the place in the center in which
Speaker 1: I sit. UM went on heading Global Diversity and Inclusion
Speaker 1: for American Express. Um father passed, decided I was taking
Speaker 1: a sabbatical, started a consulting company, did that for a
Speaker 1: couple of years, and then joined friends of mine at
Speaker 1: Sundial Brands if you're familiar also the makers of Shame moisture,
Speaker 1: and I joined about six months before we did our
Speaker 1: first p deal and that was bringing Bain on in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. UM from that continue to grow the company scale,
Speaker 1: expand Africa Nigeria. We were kind of the growth of
Speaker 1: that company in five four years was phenomenal. A lot
Speaker 1: of you know the story UM, but what was it
Speaker 1: that drove us right? That was the story of when
Speaker 1: you are serving and of service and building community, right,
Speaker 1: you you can sell any we were making soap, in lotion,
Speaker 1: in shampoo, in conditioner, right, but there's this amazing community
Speaker 1: of people that we were in service to who rallied
Speaker 1: around us, right, and so everything from you know, UM
Speaker 1: co ops in in Ghana who you know through the
Speaker 1: work that we were doing with them and producing the shape,
Speaker 1: but are we're able to to start their own micro
Speaker 1: lending right within their communities, to bring running water in,
Speaker 1: to send you know, an education right for their girls,
Speaker 1: to all of these things. But it was rooted, right,
Speaker 1: if you see a threat, it's rooted in passion and
Speaker 1: in purpose. And so following the seal of of sund
Speaker 1: Out to Uni Leaver, we started another company called Essence Ventures,
Speaker 1: used that to acquire Essence UM and I spent the
Speaker 1: last four years helping to stand essence Again, this is
Speaker 1: about community, right, This is about serving us. This is
Speaker 1: what is the content that we need? It's not just
Speaker 1: the products that we need. What is it that we
Speaker 1: need as a community to be feel okay? Right, and
Speaker 1: not just to survive, but but to thrive. And so
Speaker 1: that is what I have spent my career, in all
Speaker 1: of its various iterations doing because that is my my center, right,
Speaker 1: that is the place and every decision that I make.
Speaker 1: Can I really make impact? Here's impact and its people
Speaker 1: And it's especially that at this point, right, Like, if
Speaker 1: I can't make impact and it's not with people who
Speaker 1: I believe believe in what I'm doing, I'm not interested.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to Horizon right, very different um than Sundial
Speaker 1: in essence and essence ventures, but with people who I
Speaker 1: believe believe in what I'm doing and who are going
Speaker 1: to allow me to take the fullness of what my
Speaker 1: experience has been to impact, right, not just their agency
Speaker 1: but an industry. How do you feel like you had
Speaker 1: to convince people that it was important for your role
Speaker 1: to exist because the role didn't necessarily exist before you
Speaker 1: were there. No, So they were separately looking for CMO
Speaker 1: and a cdo and they had called me about the
Speaker 1: CMO role and after learning about my background, said you know, hey,
Speaker 1: are you interested in the CDO role? And I told
Speaker 1: them no. And I said no because you know, we
Speaker 1: always say the definition of insanity is doing the same
Speaker 1: thing over and over and expecting a different result. And
Speaker 1: I said, if you look at the trajectory of of
Speaker 1: D and I, over the last thirty years, companies right
Speaker 1: have been doing the same thing right and then question
Speaker 1: why there's not the return that they thought or why
Speaker 1: this didn't happen and stuff. Then it becomes a failure
Speaker 1: and so there's less investment in there versus saying, maybe
Speaker 1: we're just going about this the wrong way, right. And
Speaker 1: so I wrote a whole kind of um uh, my
Speaker 1: hypothesis on what it should be and what the role
Speaker 1: should be, and I really I was like, I think
Speaker 1: I probably just stalked myself out of a job. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I was okay with it though, because again, I
Speaker 1: only want to be someplace where I feel I can
Speaker 1: make the impact. And they came back and they were like,
Speaker 1: if you are willing to do what we are willing
Speaker 1: to do it with you, Oh wow, that's beautiful. I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about passion and purpose.
Speaker 1: You know, many of us, you know, we all went
Speaker 1: through a pandemic. Um for a lot of us, we
Speaker 1: probably thought more and more about the work that we
Speaker 1: do because of that. And um, how many of you
Speaker 1: all switched jobs sometime in the last two years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: keep your hand up if it was because you wanted
Speaker 1: to feel more connected to the work that you did
Speaker 1: every day and get paid more. Right. Also that I
Speaker 1: cannot raise my hand, but I wanted to say that
Speaker 1: because I think that a lot of us, especially Black women,
Speaker 1: we want to feel good about the work that we
Speaker 1: do every single day. It's not just about having a
Speaker 1: job and collecting the check and then going home. Every day.
Speaker 1: We throw our hearts into it. And so I wanted
Speaker 1: you to share some advice with those women in the
Speaker 1: room who are in their early thirties who are balancing
Speaker 1: a lot, maybe some life decisions, some family decisions, um,
Speaker 1: and also still are very committed to living their life
Speaker 1: and purpose in the work that they do every single day.
Speaker 1: What advice would you share to her? So, I think
Speaker 1: one of the things that we have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: do in this moment is to redefine some of the
Speaker 1: pieces that we have been forced to run away from. So,
Speaker 1: for example, this idea of being strong right in so
Speaker 1: many places that has been used to malign us. But
Speaker 1: let me tell you now, I am committed to when
Speaker 1: my daughter is our age, Yes, I'm I'm taking the
Speaker 1: hour on this our age right, that she's not running
Speaker 1: away from strong black woman because strength is power, it's beauty, right.
Speaker 1: And so in this moment, what I'm thinking a lot about,
Speaker 1: and hope we're all thinking about, is there was this
Speaker 1: you know, there was this crack. COVID brought the country
Speaker 1: to its knees, right, COVID brought the Black community doubly
Speaker 1: to our knees. Right. COVID just crushed black businesses. But
Speaker 1: are other folks in here from Bedstide living in bedste right,
Speaker 1: Tompkins Avenue, Tompkins Avenue in Bedsta right, Okay. As the
Speaker 1: community has gentrified, Tompkins Avenue has continued to flourish as
Speaker 1: this gorgeous, vibrant right business community led by black people,
Speaker 1: led by black women. What happened in when COVID wiped
Speaker 1: out of black businesses by April, the women right, the
Speaker 1: black women of Tompkins Avenue banded together, work collectively, called
Speaker 1: each other and said, here's how you get those loans,
Speaker 1: coached one another through the loans, helped each other figure
Speaker 1: out how to change their businesses. Oh, you make clothes,
Speaker 1: let's talk about making masks. We gotta figure out how
Speaker 1: to be outside. Let's get creative about outdoor seating. Right
Speaker 1: and fast forward. Now, Tompkins Avenue is thriving. Now if
Speaker 1: we think about that and what it means for each
Speaker 1: of us, look at the data and look at what
Speaker 1: people think women behave act, work at home, at play,
Speaker 1: more collaboratively in our at a collaboration is seen as weak. Right,
Speaker 1: it's go at it alone, right, be at the front
Speaker 1: of the pack, be the one individual who came up
Speaker 1: with the idea, right, which so often is associated with
Speaker 1: men and is more male behavior. Data shows right, that's
Speaker 1: seen its strength. What is Tompkin happens Tompkins Avenue prove? Right?
Speaker 1: Is there a stronger definition of strength than what happened there?
Speaker 1: And so, just as we're all moving into new jobs,
Speaker 1: or new roles within jobs, or just new ways of
Speaker 1: thinking ourselves in the work, I would just push all
Speaker 1: of us to think about how instead of needing to
Speaker 1: run away from some of those things. We can lean
Speaker 1: into redefining it, but we have to do it together.
Speaker 1: So when after this there's like a happy hour and
Speaker 1: a DJ right, okay, so right, we know people are
Speaker 1: gonna ask who are you? To each other? Wait, we're
Speaker 1: gonna go, We're gonna ask what do you do? Right?
Speaker 1: We know, especially post COVID, a lot of us ask
Speaker 1: how are you? Let's all also ask what do you need? Yes,
Speaker 1: and let me tell you what I need? How can
Speaker 1: I and how can you help me? And let's not
Speaker 1: see that as anything other than strength. That is not weakness,
Speaker 1: That is strength. Beautiful. So in my early thirties, what
Speaker 1: I wish someone had stressed for me was self care,
Speaker 1: and I just I have this thing now, right. I
Speaker 1: actually repeat it to myself almost on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: Self care is not selfish, right, It's just in my head.
Speaker 1: Self care is not selfish. Self care is not selfish.
Speaker 1: Self care does not mean that I'm going, you know,
Speaker 1: any less hard. It doesn't mean that I'm any less committed.
Speaker 1: But there is as hard as we go and as
Speaker 1: much as we pour right into other things and other
Speaker 1: people and even the goals that we are striving for
Speaker 1: it's so critical to maintain your center. It's so critical,
Speaker 1: um because it's so easy to lose, and it's so
Speaker 1: easy to get off balance, right, and you can't be
Speaker 1: your best, and you can't show up in the way
Speaker 1: that it is that you want to show up, in
Speaker 1: the way that it is that you need to show
Speaker 1: up to win. And often it becomes the last thing.
Speaker 1: Right again, Black women, that's what we do right for
Speaker 1: ourselves last, And somehow it's a badge of honor. It's not,
Speaker 1: it's not, it's not. I wish someone had told me
Speaker 1: that fifteen years ago, right, ecstatic at this point that
Speaker 1: I learned it, because now that I have, there's no
Speaker 1: going back, right. But I think that is critical. And
Speaker 1: the other part would probably be that you have a vision, right,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, whether it's your founder, CEO, whether it's
Speaker 1: your leadership at another company, what effort If you have
Speaker 1: a vision, and it's okay if other people can't see
Speaker 1: your vision, even our families, right, Like I'm as close
Speaker 1: as they come. Like my family we ride or die, like,
Speaker 1: we go hard for each other. But it's okay that
Speaker 1: all of them don't understand my vision. Even sometimes my husband.
Speaker 1: I will be like hey, I and he's like, but
Speaker 1: I don't understand, Like this is good, And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is good. But the vision, right, if you think
Speaker 1: this is good? Way to use the vision? Right? And
Speaker 1: if I thought for a time I was like, there's
Speaker 1: something wrong with me? Like am I just asking for
Speaker 1: too much? Like? Is it? Am I just not you know,
Speaker 1: I consider myself a grateful person, right, I live in gratitude.
Speaker 1: But am I just not satisfy them? That's not it?
Speaker 1: Because the vision that God gave me, he's not given
Speaker 1: to anybody else. And I'm okay with that, So be
Speaker 1: good with the vision that He gave you. We get
Speaker 1: a hand clos So I'm looking at the clock and
Speaker 1: it says one minute left. So and I didn't go
Speaker 1: to any of my questions. Um, so I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: the last question on my card and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: open up to questions from you all. So what do
Speaker 1: you want to see in the next ten years in
Speaker 1: terms of changes in black women's wealth and health and
Speaker 1: financial empowerment? So as a starting place, we need to
Speaker 1: be at a point where the investment matches the talent,
Speaker 1: drive excellence of black women. Right, We're we're coming out
Speaker 1: of COVID and black business ownership thirty percent higher than
Speaker 1: pre pandemic rates, led by black women. New study out
Speaker 1: this week. Point four percent. Let's pausive. That's less than
Speaker 1: half of a percent, right, A venture capital investment in
Speaker 1: when everyone was russiing to support black folks, less than
Speaker 1: half a percent went to black women. Yes, so it's
Speaker 1: not surprising at all. It's also something we need to
Speaker 1: say out loud and to think about because we are
Speaker 1: in post times and that is what the data tells us.
Speaker 1: We have to flip the entire infrastructure. We have to
Speaker 1: say that we are going to talk explicitly and directly
Speaker 1: about wealth when we are talking about anything that we
Speaker 1: need to change in this society, and we have to
Speaker 1: match the investment with the talent. The one thing I
Speaker 1: want to say, because I know is our last question is,
Speaker 1: you know, basically the real answer should just be Whateversla
Speaker 1: Burns would do, That's what we all should do, and
Speaker 1: like that's let's be clear, but we also need to
Speaker 1: recognize it's hard. Like we're all sitting in here right
Speaker 1: saying be yourself, purpose, self care, right, balance, come in
Speaker 1: take others with you, right, bringing you be a boat
Speaker 1: about it, right, bring the multiplier effects, and none of
Speaker 1: us can pretend that that's not hard. And to what
Speaker 1: I carry with me. My grandfather he was in World
Speaker 1: War two. He went and he enlisted. Like he he
Speaker 1: went from running sit ins at the Walgreens counter when
Speaker 1: he was in Springfield, Illinois, twenty years old, right to
Speaker 1: war because he believed in this country. Now. He was
Speaker 1: one of those warriors who's going in and fighting with
Speaker 1: the double V right in his pocket, the double V
Speaker 1: that said we're gonna be victorious abroad and warri are
Speaker 1: going to be victorious in beating racial terror at home.
Speaker 1: He got wounded in Italy. He went to the hospital,
Speaker 1: he saw they had a blood drive. He tried to
Speaker 1: give blood to contribute, and they would not take his blood,
Speaker 1: not because he was sick, not because he had been,
Speaker 1: you know, out in the battlefield, because he was black. Now,
Speaker 1: the only remarkable thing about that story is what he
Speaker 1: would say when he told it to us. He would
Speaker 1: say that and list a host of other stories quite similar,
Speaker 1: and he'd say, that's what made my resolve stronger. And
Speaker 1: I think we have to remember that we are in
Speaker 1: this new place, in this moment in time, and we
Speaker 1: need to embrace hashtag what would Ursula Burns do? Right,
Speaker 1: But we also can't pretend that it's not hard, and
Speaker 1: we have to be able to have those conversations with
Speaker 1: our community and with each other about yes, that happened
Speaker 1: to you. Yes he said that, Yes she did that.
Speaker 1: Yes I saw their face that you were right, and
Speaker 1: how you read that. It needs to still make our
Speaker 1: resolves stronger. Yeah, I think for me over the next
Speaker 1: ten years, right, I could offer, um, you know, some
Speaker 1: grandiose you know, into racism, right, all of these things, right. Um,
Speaker 1: What I hope to see in Earnest is us step
Speaker 1: into our power as we never have. Something happened in
Speaker 1: a lot of things happen in right. But I really
Speaker 1: believe there there was a shift, or at least I
Speaker 1: cannot not believe right that a shift didn't happen. Isn't happening. Um,
Speaker 1: I keep saying that we can't go through the things
Speaker 1: that we've been through and come out the same, and
Speaker 1: we shouldn't. Right for us, what I'm hoping that means
Speaker 1: is a recognition and realization not only of our power
Speaker 1: but of our value. Right, because it really does start there,
Speaker 1: um and how we truly do have to lock arms
Speaker 1: literally and figuratively, right, because sometimes it's just locking arms
Speaker 1: to keep each other, you know, held up and standing.
Speaker 1: Other times it's using the resources that I have to
Speaker 1: put you onto whatever it is that you want to do.
Speaker 1: But there is is there is a palpable power that
Speaker 1: we have in that collaboration that we don't see as
Speaker 1: much in our community as right because again, you know,
Speaker 1: we all know the history because it's the competition we
Speaker 1: bring each other down. Um that collaboration. There's something there,
Speaker 1: the spirit of it. There's a something there that I
Speaker 1: believe if we just if we nourish it right, if
Speaker 1: we nurture it, what we will see happen in business
Speaker 1: in our communities and what this generational wealth actually looks
Speaker 1: like and being able to begin to experience in mass
Speaker 1: that's what will change for us in our communities. Beautiful.
Speaker 1: I love these visions for us. All Right, We have
Speaker 1: some questions. Do I see ouh, Mike? Maybe I'll give
Speaker 1: my Mike will has got me? Hello, ladies. My name
Speaker 1: is Monica Monique, and I'm a fashion designer and I've
Speaker 1: been in the retail industry for about seventeen years, on
Speaker 1: my brand for fourteen years, and had my clothing store
Speaker 1: for seven years. In the pandemic, just like you said,
Speaker 1: I kind of my specialty was evening where gowns, weddings,
Speaker 1: specialty suits, all those things. Though, see you I need
Speaker 1: one bus. We're lucky, so you know I needed a
Speaker 1: Ladybugs suit. Um. But yeah, So in the pandemic, I
Speaker 1: had to pivot and I started developing an app where
Speaker 1: it's basically like door Dash but for retail stores, where
Speaker 1: it's called shop Mo and Mo's about M A U
Speaker 1: X and basically you find local retail stories through the app.
Speaker 1: You shopped their collection and get it delivered or or
Speaker 1: you can pick up and and we're launched in this summer.
Speaker 1: But the difficulty I'm having with investors is them saying
Speaker 1: it's too soon for me to invest in the amount
Speaker 1: of money that I'm asking for or valuing my company
Speaker 1: or the concept with the amount of money that I
Speaker 1: feel like I would need to compete with the other company.
Speaker 1: How much are you raising? I want to raise five thousand. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's not too much, And I don't feel like that's
Speaker 1: too much. I don't know, like that's too much. But
Speaker 1: a lot of the people that I'm speaking to are saying, like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: this is your first tech tech company, even though retail
Speaker 1: is what I've been doing for a long time. How
Speaker 1: do I secure and ask for the investment that I
Speaker 1: feel I need to actually give myself some leeway to succeed.
Speaker 1: So I have this conversation with every single person in
Speaker 1: this room. Seriously, this is where it starts. Right, Look,
Speaker 1: we know the problem. The problem is that we all
Speaker 1: are expected to raise end some family money because venture capitalists,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that risky investments is the whole name
Speaker 1: of their game, right, they look at this room and
Speaker 1: they say, oh, that's too much risk, right. And then
Speaker 1: we also know that we are just barred in so
Speaker 1: many ways from traditional commercial lending. Right, So it is
Speaker 1: that it's the burden we bear, right. And then we
Speaker 1: don't come from communities of wealth, and so friends and
Speaker 1: family money is really hard to raise, right. So that's
Speaker 1: the whole issue. So I'm not saying again it's not easy,
Speaker 1: but you got to say that to every single person here,
Speaker 1: because you saw Morgan's reaction wor It's like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: not that much money, right, We can get that, We
Speaker 1: can get that done right. But again it goes back
Speaker 1: to we got to ask ask everybody you know. And
Speaker 1: if you see somebody who doesn't look like us who's
Speaker 1: raising all that money, we need to go ask them
Speaker 1: too exactly what those intent secrets are that we aren't
Speaker 1: talking about. Right. So my point here is these things
Speaker 1: are hard, they're not impossible. We got to change the
Speaker 1: system so they're no longer hard. But until we do,
Speaker 1: and as we do, this is the room. Walk around. Hi,
Speaker 1: this is who I am. What do you need? Right?
Speaker 1: This is high This is who I am. This is
Speaker 1: what I need. Get the question. Hold on one second.
Speaker 1: Will I think we might have some angel investors and
Speaker 1: investors in the room. Give me a big hand raise
Speaker 1: if you've an angel invested before in this room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we got a couple of people in the room. There
Speaker 1: you go, so we'll start here. Awesome. Um, Hi everyone,
Speaker 1: my name is Rebecca Gordon. I'm from Brooklyn, New York,
Speaker 1: off of Tompkins Avenue. Saw that story is right for me. Um.
Speaker 1: I actually graduated Northwestern School of Law in the pandemic
Speaker 1: and thank you, cool blood, I got honors, Thank you.
Speaker 1: I worked for that. UM. But like many people during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, it just shifted the world upside down. So
Speaker 1: I had a whole vision of my graduation, and graduations canceled.
Speaker 1: I was like, wait a second, I'm creative. So I
Speaker 1: designed my whole virtual graduation by myself and did everything
Speaker 1: production and music artists, all that stuff. Um. But one
Speaker 1: thing about law school. They farmed you right into law firms.
Speaker 1: Worked at a law firm for two years, made good money,
Speaker 1: but was like eating at my soul, and finally decided to, um,
Speaker 1: just put into my company, which is digital marketing media,
Speaker 1: a brand management in our business, and legal advisement. UM.
Speaker 1: So my question to you is for those who are
Speaker 1: in seasons of transition and pivoting, what are some of
Speaker 1: the markers you consider when you're about to make that
Speaker 1: next business move or that next transition. What are the
Speaker 1: markets you're looking for as you're forecasting your next move? Okay,
Speaker 1: that one I'm trying. I'm going through. Um, this is
Speaker 1: gonna sound well, I don't know my gut. I will
Speaker 1: tell you, UM, I know things here oftentimes before I
Speaker 1: know them here. So I'm gonna start there right Because
Speaker 1: sometimes we don't listen to this and we will intellectualize,
Speaker 1: rationalize everything, and you know it's what I call paper
Speaker 1: perfect in real life crazy. Right, So this for me
Speaker 1: is where it's arts. And then there's kind of the
Speaker 1: analysis right of the things that So it's is this
Speaker 1: getting me closer right to where I want to be? Right?
Speaker 1: So for me, my want to be is it's I'm
Speaker 1: of service. I believe that's my purpose. Right. Is this
Speaker 1: brooting you and centering you and your purpose or is
Speaker 1: it taking you from that? Right? If it is, I
Speaker 1: want to be of service to my commute, is this
Speaker 1: helping with that? What? And I can't answer that what
Speaker 1: for you? But I'm just saying some of the questions
Speaker 1: to ask, um, I'm gonna throw one back at you
Speaker 1: really quickly. Do you feel like you know what your
Speaker 1: purpose is? Okay, boom? That's it if it's getting you
Speaker 1: closer there? And if it's not. They're always pivots, right,
Speaker 1: we pivot and everything. And in that pivot, I think
Speaker 1: one of the other things I want to make sure
Speaker 1: the stresses. We often sit so long and I don't
Speaker 1: want to make the wrong decision, right, what if I fail?
Speaker 1: What if this? Like it's called we're human? Right, the
Speaker 1: best of us don't get it right all the time.
Speaker 1: Fail fast, learned, pivot right, but stay centered because whatever
Speaker 1: that purpose in that north star that's guiding you, as
Speaker 1: long as you focus on that, I promise you the
Speaker 1: individual steps and pivots they'll fall into place because you're
Speaker 1: looking there and you know that the path. You know
Speaker 1: what the path is to get you there. Right. You
Speaker 1: might not be able to map it out, but you
Speaker 1: do know the steps when they're in front of you. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Next question right here, this is our last question. Hello, greetings, um,
Speaker 1: Siva Morrigan And before I say anything else, I would
Speaker 1: like to thank you sisters. But what do you guys
Speaker 1: are doing right now? Um? I really wasn't sure if
Speaker 1: I should attend AFRO Tech or not because I was
Speaker 1: separating from the corporate world. Um. I'm currently a sales
Speaker 1: force developer for a Healthy, Healthy and Health I t UM.
Speaker 1: But I did start my own LLLC Nano Tree LLLC
Speaker 1: as a health coach. My masters is from Georgetown and biophysics,
Speaker 1: and I did not want to go the medical route anymore. Latrevia, latrevia, latrevia.
Speaker 1: I see you and I'm very grateful that you're on
Speaker 1: the stage walking in my purpose and finding exactly what
Speaker 1: am I supposed to do for the corporate world. And
Speaker 1: that's why I was worried about attending afro Tech conference,
Speaker 1: because I do feel like a lot of black wealth
Speaker 1: and black important people means your corporate and that's I
Speaker 1: want to find a way that I can still be
Speaker 1: impactful to the community very much, very much stay in
Speaker 1: my purpose as a health coach and self care like
Speaker 1: you've mentioned, but I still will like to be find
Speaker 1: a way to be financially stable and make that difference
Speaker 1: if I if it's possible for someone like us to
Speaker 1: still stay in our purpose while in that place beautiful,
Speaker 1: we see you, We see you, and it is possible.
Speaker 1: You have three examples here and so many more in
Speaker 1: this road Ye Black Tech, Green Money is the production
Speaker 1: of Black atiafro Tech, Black Effect Podcast Network and I
Speaker 1: Hurt Media, and it's produced by Morgan Dabon and me
Speaker 1: Will Lucas, with additional productions supported by Love Beata Merissa Lewis.
Speaker 1: Special thank you to Michael Davis, Jermain Hall, ne Van
Speaker 1: neces Serrano. Learn more about my guests and other technics
Speaker 1: innovators at afrotech dot com. Enjoy your black tech, green money.
Speaker 1: It was a five star raping on iTunes. Go get
Speaker 1: your money. He's in love.