WEBVTT - Study Hall: Business Blueprint with Kezia Williams 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:04.280 You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:09.000 How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy? Just use 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.360 Indeed stop struggling to get your job posts seen on 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.360 other job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your post jumps 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.720 to the top of the page for your relevant candidates, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.000 so you can reach the people you want faster. According 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.680 to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:29.840 forty five percent more applications than non sponsored jobs. Don't 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.519 wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed, 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.200 and listeners of this show will get a seventy five 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.440 dollars sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:45.320 at indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen. Just go 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:50.120 to Indeed dot com slash pod katz thirteen right now 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.040 and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.400 on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:58.040 all you need. 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.400 Hi, Alena, it is your term. That's right, Eyl takeover. 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:02.520 Will we come into Atlanta y'all? 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.400 Yes? January twenty fifth. January twenty sixth two day event 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.760 we have Starting out January twenty fifth, live podcast. We 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.479 have PTG boys. They're killing the car industry right now. 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.760 Brandon Medford EYL alumni and his two partners will be there. 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.520 Mister and missus two weeks out killing the fitness game 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.000 in Atlanta. Yeah, the first couple of Atlanta. They will 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:29.600 be guested none other than one of the top realtors 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.680 in Atlanta, Keanna Watson, top five percent realtor in Atlanta, 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.200 will be there to talk about Atlanta real estate. And 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:41.080 also the legend himself, Curate Burns Curative Culture Kenny Burns 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.640 EYO alumni will be our guest. We will have other 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.959 alumni in the building. We will have following the live 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.040 podcast is an open bar, private dinner, private networking event. 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:51.080 It's going to be crazy. 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:51.920 That's just day one. 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:55.800 Day two we have a workshop planned for you guys. 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.960 We have Alex good Energy, the King of Trucking EYOL alumni. 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:02.840 We have Andy from Y two K Credit Solutions about 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:07.160 credit around EYOL alumni, MG, the mortgage Guy EYOL alumni 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.160 will be in the building to talk about real estate 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.360 for financing your real estate deal. And then also the 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.080 King of Wholesaling, Max Maxwell and EYO alumni himself be 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.000 in there to teach real estate wholesaling. So today event 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:21.680 All the information is on our website. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:21.880 And over now. 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.280 Don't wait till it's too late. Get your tickets Atlanta. 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.000 We will see you soon. Can't wait to touch the TEMs. 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:29.760 Right, don't wait, don't hesitate going on lead your dot 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:30.960 com right now, hit events stap. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:31.880 We'll see you there. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:43.160 All right, guys, welcome back, ey L Maryland Edition. DC Edition. Actually, yeah, 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.600 shout outs to DC, shout outs the District of Columbia 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.519 for sure. So before we start, we just got to 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.560 think you guys, we had a crazy event this morning 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.120 and you also had a crazy event as well, so 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.840 don't talk about that for sure. But yeah, yeah, we 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.240 had a crazy, crazy event. Day two will be tomorrow, 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:01.760 will by the time you hit it'll be over. But 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.880 the DC Weekend d MV Weekend with a tremendous success 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.560 in Atlanta. We're coming next. That's our next stop. January 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.480 twenty fifth and January twenty sixth, we headed to the 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:13.200 A going our way. We're going to do it big 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:14.360 out there for the whole weekend. 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.480 So a big shout out to Capital Events Group Man 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.960 Sharani Tiarhani Ida Man. He did an amazing job putting 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.000 that together. So definitely shout out to him. Man, if 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.400 you're in the DC area and you need an event plan, 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:30.120 hit my man out man. 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.320 The most the most important person. Yeah, sure, that's that's 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:37.200 a fact. That's the fact. So all right, I'm excited 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.440 about this episode for a few different reasons. A lot 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.920 of people they always tag us like who they want 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:50.720 to see that we try to accommodate as much as 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.960 we possibly can. So Keezier Williams if you don't know, 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.720 she's the CEO of Black Upstart And yeah, she has 0:03:58.760 --> 0:03:59.440 that signature. 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.760 Man, listen, you got drag it out man. 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.240 It's like seven a's and then the end it's like three. 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:08.760 Inns and then like another. 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.680 Now she's really dope. She's a big proponent of financial literacy. 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:19.120 She's a big proponent of entrepreneurships, definitely in our community 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.440 and teaching, teaching entrepreneurship. She has a whole program. We're 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:26.000 gonna talk about that. So one of the things I 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:27.960 like about her, like if you follow her Instagram page, 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.680 is that she always like posts like these Twitter posts 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.000 that she puts up and it's like seven different ones, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.200 so you always got to go to the sextual. But 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.800 it's like real life you got slots to left left. 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:48.160 But it's real life, common sense stuff that people can use. 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.479 And a lot of times people they've been asking us like, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:52.840 you know, we love all of this high finance and 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.080 stuff like this, but how do I pick my full 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.800 one k? Or like how do I budget? Prop? How 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.320 do I start a business? So these are all things 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.240 that she posts, like on a daily basis on Instagram 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.600 and I'm sure all other social media outlets. Is why 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.640 I follow on Instagram and also with her company, the 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:13.280 Black up Start. They help people start businesses, like they 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.680 give them the fundamentals of how to start a business so. 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.040 Employed people, Like that's one of the things like we 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:20.279 have a lot of entrepreneurs, but how many can employ people? 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.560 I think that's that's commendable that point. 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:25.640 But I love it though. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.760 So so all right, so first and foremost, thank you 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:32.440 for joining us. Appreciate it, thank. 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.560 You for having me. I have said congratulations to you, 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.200 vote on your events, and I feel like I saw 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.800 the Instagram stories and it was like people upon people 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:41.440 all this black excellency. 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.920 Yeah, so we had too. You you had an event, 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.000 Black Upstart had an event, and then your lesion had 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:47.560 an event. We didn't know we was having events, and 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:49.880 so the events was already set, but we had events 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:54.880 at the same time pretty much. Yah. But but it 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:55.279 was dope. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:55.440 You know. 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:57.919 That's just that's just that's just that just means that 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.760 the energy is out there and you know, it's the 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.240 time for financial literacy and entrepreneurship. 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.440 The communities already, man, so that's even more so. 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.919 Can you tell us your journey how you became an entrepreneur, because, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:11.680 like I said off camera, but you, I like for 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:13.279 a few different reasons, but one of the reasons is 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.359 that you you have it what we call like a 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.440 traditional job. We'll talk about that, but you have a 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.440 company as well. A lot of time people feel like 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.040 it's one or the other, right, and it's not true. 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.920 Like even Troy Chroice is an educator and he's an 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:32.479 entrepreneur as well. Entrepreneur So, but the hardest part, I 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.560 think for most people is mindset. Like we will talk 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.680 about strategy and all that all day long, but the 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.640 mindset is the most important thing. And it's very difficult 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.479 for somebody to leave or to jump off the porch 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.320 and to land into somewhere where it's kind of unknown. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.440 You don't really know. It's like type walking with no 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.920 safety net. So how did you start your entrepreneur journey? 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.039 Okay, that's a great, great question. So I like to 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.799 tell folks that the nine to five is a fixed 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.880 and come. So, you work eight hours, you get paid. 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.680 Eight hours, you work ten hours, you get paid, eight hours, 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.120 you work twelve hours, you get paid. How many hours 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.880 you get paid? Hey hour. It's a fixed income. And 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.600 it's one of those things that I wasn't taught growing up. 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.240 So like I was taught that the definition of success 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.120 was you go to high school and you get a diploma. 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.360 You go to college, you get a degree, and then 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.600 you go and get a good government job with benefits, 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.840 and then you retire. And that's the definition of success. 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:31.720 Yeah. 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.720 So when I graduated from college, I did exactly what 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.240 my mother told me to do, and I spent six 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.400 years working for the federal government and I worked in 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.960 counter intelligence, counter weapons, and master instruction counter terrorism. I 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.640 had a clearance, a top secret sci full scope polygraph. 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.880 Only thirteen thousand people in the nation have that clearance. 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.800 But I would go to work every day at nine am. 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.560 At five pm, I would run out as fast as 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.000 I could, and during the time when I would be 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.760 off of work, I would participate in endeavors that I started. 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.800 And at that point I didn't consider myself an entrepreneur. 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.160 So one of the endeavors that I participated in was 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.240 Young and Power for Obama, which I was telling you about. 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.680 And this was an initiative that galvanized young black professionals 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.280 across the country to raise money for then Senator Obama. 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.040 This was in two thousand and eight, Yeah, when he 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.160 was Senator Obama, and it was young Black professionals from 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.320 six different cities. We would host fundraisers. The fundraisers would 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.680 cost anywhere between twenty to fifty dollars and we would 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.640 donate one hundred percent of the money to the campaign. 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:40.480 Before he was elected, we raised a quarter of a 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.840 million dollars. And when he was elected and became President, 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.680 Barack Obama mathro President. We hosted a collection of innaugural events. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:54.000 Reverend Al Sharpton came, We had Jesse Jackson, he was there. Oprah. 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.240 She drove by the car, she waved the wave, counted 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.000 I want to open one day, shake her hand. We 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:01.880 all going to shake her hand. 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:03.240 Yeah, But it was. 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.920 A great event. We raised another quarter of a million dollars, 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.160 so I was about half million dollars by time everything 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.640 was said and done. In the entire time, I was 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.680 working nine am to five pm, and I was working 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.960 young in Power for Obama from six pm to about 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.600 one am in the morning. But when everything ended, folks 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.080 started saying, you know what I mean, Raising money for 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.360 President Obama was great, but I was only interested in 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.160 politics just because of him, And so folks began to 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.640 really ask the question like what was next? And what 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.360 came from that? Is a nonprofit that I started, Capital Cause, 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:38.360 where I trained young black philanthropists to raise money for 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:43.520 startup nonprofit organizations, and we had five thousand members. We 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.280 raised about sixty thousand dollars and gave away five thousand 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.679 dollars grands to these businesses. And still throughout all of that, 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.200 I did not consider myself an entrepreneur. 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.200 What inspires you to take that route? 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:54.320 Right? 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:56.520 You raised money for politics? What said? You know what 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:57.960 entrepreneurs are? Yes? 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.720 Yes, So it was a six your work for the 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.640 federal government. And as I was telling Rasha, my boss 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:08.679 is switched up and I was working for white men 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:10.959 at that time. I switched up to a white woman, 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.600 and we sat down and she said to me that, 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.120 you know, I don't think that you're qualified to do 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.040 this work. And I was like, well, why don't you 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.000 think I'm qualified? And she was like, because you don't 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.120 have a PhD, you don't have a master's degree, you 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.840 have a bachelor's degree, and here you are writing national 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.880 security reports that the Vice President of the United States 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.079 are seeing. So I'm about to switch up your job responsibilities. 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.200 And she changed our responsibilities from writing these reports to 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.880 organize and travel for the office. So I would go 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:41.760 to work at nine am. If I get out of 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.280 a five VM and still get paid six figures, then 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.280 this will be okay. But then three months later she 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.840 switched up my job responsibilities again. She was like, I 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:52.960 just think organized and travel is too complicated for you, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.240 just like national security reports is to complicated for you. 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:58.760 So now you're going to be printing badges for people 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.800 in the office when Nazi people come and visit. And 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:03.800 so I was like, okay, well, am I still going 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.120 to be getting paid like six figures. I'll work from 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.439 nine am, I'll leave at five pm. And so did 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:11.680 that for three months, and then three months later she 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.839 came back and she was like, making badges was also 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.200 too complicated for me and above my pay grade. And 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.760 she asked me to take my chair and follow her 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.560 down a hallway and we stopped outside of a bathroom. 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:23.640 Oh, like, literally, take the chair. 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.640 Take the chair had wheels on it. We was walking, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:28.160 she was tipping, I was tippling with my chair. I 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.000 was like, oh, Laura, where are we going? And we 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.960 ended up outside of a bathroom and she said, well, 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.320 I want you to sit down and for every non 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:37.760 clear person that comes in, it'll be your job to 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:39.600 buzz them in and out of the bathroom. 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:40.360 Oh. 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.560 And I remember asking myself and asking her, am I 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.800 still gonna get paid six figures? But at that point 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.200 question changed her never changed because I was there nine 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.360 am five pm. I was walking out the door. But 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.040 I asked myself, like, Yo, it was great being paid 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.120 six figures, but you know, work to me meant more 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:00.000 than that, Like the value that I was creating outside 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.600 out of work, raising money for Obama, helping young black 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.120 philanthropists give back, that was the work that was really fulfilling. 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:06.800 And coming to work every day and sitting outside of 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.000 the bathroom watching people, well, I want to watch people 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:10.719 do their business, but they were going there watching the door. 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.800 When hit it out, they did their business. But so 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:15.599 after about two weeks, I called it my mom and 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:17.600 I was like, Mom, like, I can't do this anymore. 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:19.199 I need to quit my job. And she was like, 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:20.960 do you have anything saved up? At that point, I 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.240 had about three months worth of savings and she was like, well, baby, 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.120 I think you should have another job lined up. And 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.280 I was like, I don't think I can do it, 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:29.120 Like I can't come in here every single day and 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.720 open this door for people. Yeah, exactly. And she was like, well, 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:34.559 if you want to quit, baby, like I got you. 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:36.720 And I remember quitting my job, like I quit my 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:38.439 job and I was so excited. Have you'all ever quit 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:39.720 it off before you could job? 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:42.560 No, you could, Joab, I did quit. 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:43.320 How did you feel? 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:44.880 It was great? Yeah? 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.240 I mean I felt excellent, Like I went running out there. 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.160 I was like, oh my god, I am so free, 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.960 like no more than nine of five right, Yeah? But 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.400 then Friday hit It's like her friends time that I 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.840 wasn't getting paid. I was telling me shod I called 0:12:57.880 --> 0:12:59.480 up unemployed and I was like, I guess I better 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:01.160 get on this on deployment to get this check. I 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:02.800 remember talking to the lady and I was like, yeah, 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:04.600 I quit my job and I heard did y'all like 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.720 pay fifty percent of your paycheck? So I'm just trying 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:08.400 to figure out, like how do I submit this paperwork? 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:10.040 And she was like, you said you quit? And I 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:11.760 was like, yeah, I said I quit. And she was like, yeah, 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.160 you don't get unemployment when you quit your job. 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:15.760 Yes. 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:17.280 I was like, did I say I quit? Like what 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:17.760 have meant? 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:17.920 Was? 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:19.800 Right? 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.640 Could I have fire? And so she was like, yeah, 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:23.160 that's the uneployment for you, and if there was, you 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.120 wouldn't getting fifty percent of your paycheck. So I was 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:28.480 unemployed for six weeks. And during those six weeks, a 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.480 woman who worked with me with Younger Power for Obama 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.360 called me and she was like, I have a job, 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.400 and the job is launching a national Entrepreneurship initiative where 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.080 you would teach African American undergraduate students how to start 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.560 a business before they graduate from school, especially since a 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:47.720 black undergraduate student's college degree is equivalent to a white 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.000 person's high school diploma. 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:50.560 Can you talk about that? You talk about that? 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:51.880 Yeah? Absolutely? 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.839 So about what a black college degree is equivalent to 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:58.120 a white high school diploma. 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.520 Yes, a black person's college degree is equivalent to a 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.120 white person's high school diploma, which means that a black 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.000 person can go to the same high school as a 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.800 white person, go to the same college as a white person, 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.000 and apply for the same job as a white person, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:16.000 but when they get higher they're pay is separate and unequal. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.160 So yeah, I think I read a statistics somewhere. It's 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.840 very similar. It was like middle class black family is 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.280 equivalent to a poor white family, poor white family. 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.920 Yeah, and black women especially, I mean black people in generally, 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.160 our parents teach us to work twice as hard, to 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.080 be twice as smart, to go into work and be 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.600 twice as exceptional, and somehow, some way will be the 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.280 same as a white person. At the end of the day, 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.200 black women especially will lose eight hundred and forty thousand 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.640 dollars over their working career, not because they're not smart, intelligent, 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:44.920 or well equipped to do the job, but simply because 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:46.000 they're black and they're women. 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.840 So black women graduate college at the at the fastest rate, 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:51.560 at the highest rate out of any ethnic group. 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.840 I think that's what analysts say yeah. 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.920 But they're not paid obviously at the same level they're 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:57.320 not paid. 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.160 And I think that that's why it's no question. And 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.320 while black women are the fastest growing segment of entrepreneurs, 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.120 like I like to tell people that, like, I don't 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.200 think that black people are starting businesses because they want 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:10.720 to be the next Black Bill Gates love Beyonce, but 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.040 the next Black Bill Gates or the next Steve Jobs 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.160 or the next Mark Zuckerberg. They're starting businesses because they 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.360 want to be economically free. They want to be able 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.480 to pay themselves with their companies refuse to pay them 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:25.280 despite being qualified for them. That represents economic freedom and 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:26.200 economic liberation. 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:28.800 We had a guess who actually was talking about that 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:31.360 exact topic, and they was saying, even with that, the 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.680 entrepreneurism getting loans to start venture capital. 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.280 So black women are starting businesses at the fastest rate, 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:42.520 but they get venture capital at the smallest rate out 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:47.160 of any ethnic group, gender group in America. So doesn't 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:48.720 really make sense if you think about it, because it's 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.000 like you would figure more entrepreneurs, you would get at 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.840 least some sort of venture capital. That's what venture capitals. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.560 They lend money to entrepreneurs. But they get the least 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.320 amount of funding from venture capital. 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.120 I think what's interesting is that black people need to 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:05.080 have a more dynamic conversation around funding, and so I 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:09.080 think when it comes to VC, that percentage is absolutely true. 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.600 But that's not the only type of business that black 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.280 people are starting. Isn't innovation driven enterprises, which is what 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.240 that is the type of businesses that qualify for venture capital. 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:19.800 There are two types of businesses that you can start. 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.360 There's a SME and there's a ide. There's a small 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.440 medium sized enterprise where you can raise a friends and 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.080 family round. You can go on to razoo if you're 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:31.720 starting a nonprofit. If you're starting a Razoo is a 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.840 crowdfunding platform for five on one c three nonprofit organizations 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:38.040 where you can invite your friends to go on and donate. 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:40.320 The only way that you can qualify to get on 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:44.120 raezoo is if you have an IRS designation. If you 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:45.960 have a for profit or let's say you are a 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.640 sole proprietor, which means that you do business as yourself, 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.080 you can go on to Indiegogo. You can go onto 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.160 what a lot of people think it's an unpopular site, 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:56.920 but go funding and you can do the same thing. 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.560 You can ask your friends and family essentially to invest 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.600 in your business idea or to contribute towards your business idea. 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.080 But for a small medium sized enterprise, in addition to 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.000 doing crowdfunding, you can also do bank loans and you 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.520 can also fund your own business. That's fundamentally different than 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.920 an ID an innovations driven enterprise. We're essentially going into 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.200 debt by soliciting guess angel investment and also venture capital, 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:20.439 and those people are betting on you to serve a 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.680 global market, while small medium sized enterprises serve a small 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.880 or regional market. So those are your nail saligns, those 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.800 are your hair stylists, those are your local coffee shops. 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.720 So all right, that's interesting. What's it called a ib ID? 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.840 So that is an innovation driven enterprise and as me, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.200 which is a small or medium sized enterprise. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.320 Okay, So do you think that that's an issue though 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.359 with Black community as a whole, where I see most 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.480 businesses and the business ideas are small. The problem with 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.560 small businesses that for the most part, they stay small 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:55.960 and you can't scale it. They don't really make that much. 0:17:56.240 --> 0:18:00.840 Most majority of business owners don't make money like we 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.439 know that like the average employee makes more than a 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:07.399 business owner, like per average. One of the reasons is 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.679 that most businesses are small, very small, right, like one person, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:17.320 So like the grocery store, well not the grocery stores, 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:21.040 but the delis, the bodegas, if he was in the youngdegas, 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:22.199 the is that. 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:30.960 Yore I have a seven girl from Virginia. 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:33.840 The barbershops, the local restaurants. Do you think that that's 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.680 an issue with black entrepreneurship that it's always a lot 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:41.399 of times not on a bigger global vision, it's more 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.200 on a community based, small vision. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.600 I think it's important to know the data. So currently 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.120 there are two point five to six million black entrepreneurs, 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.679 but only one hundred and ten thousand of them have 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.600 the capacity to employ a least one person. Now, what 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.800 you're speaking about is probably the two point four million 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:00.960 people who can't write. The hundred than ten thousand black 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.560 entrepreneurs who are employers employ less than a million people, 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.879