Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Arian Simone Talks 'Fearless Freedom,' West Africa; Queen Wa, Economic Freedom, Fearless Fund, Federal Lawsuit + More

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INTERVIEW: Arian Simone Talks 'Fearless Freedom,' West Africa; Queen Wa, Economic Freedom, Fearless Fund, Federal Lawsuit + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hold up.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Every day I wake up.
• 0:03
  Speaker 3: Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. You all finished
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: or y'all done? Morning, everybody.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club. Lawn LaRose is here as well. We
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: got a special guest in the building.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Yes, indeed.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: She's the co-founder of The Fearless Fund, Arianne Simone.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome back. Aw, thank you. Good morning.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: How you feeling this morning?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. You look good.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Beautiful.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: Thank you. I spent half my time on the continent
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: of Africa, and I spend a lot of time here now.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: And America is in a very interesting place.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: So you're ready to go back?
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: You're ready to go back. So for people that.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Don't know last time you came up here, explain why
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you came up here last time and what happened there briefly,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: you know, give people an update.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: A little bit.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: Oh, I run the Fearless Fund, which is the nation
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: and world's first venture capital fund built by women of
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: color for women of color.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: It was targeted by the anti-DEI movement.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: Millions and millions of dollars. And yes, we were hit
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: with a federal lawsuit. So that's why I was here.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: And I did not know we were the beginning of
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: this anti-DEI movement. When things started off, I thought we
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: were like a isolated situation. And then it was court
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: case after court case after court case being filed.
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: And now you're telling your story. You have a new
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: book called Fearless Freedom.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: What did you learn from the Fearless Fund lawsuit that actually.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I guess, scared you?
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: That scared me?
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: One thing I learned that I do talk about in
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: the book, that when you're going through a storm, that
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: you only have time.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: To talk to people who can solve your problem. Man. Yes.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I don't need to do that in a storm. I'll
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: do that in the sunshine.
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: I don't talk to nobody that can't help me solve
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: no problem.
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: No, seriously, because you allow distractions to interrupt your result.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: So I definitely learned that. I learned that elections are
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: extremely consequential.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: I went through a federal court case and literally every
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: judge that ruled against us was a Trump appointed judge.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Every Obama, every Clinton appointed judge ruled in our favor.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: I said, can y'all give me a Bush appointed judge? Like,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: what is this?
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: But the last administration and prior to the Biden administration,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: they put in like 200 and something federal judges.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: And that's what the result of that was. I was
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: living that.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: In a Biden administration, but dealing with the consequences and
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: actions that took place in the Trump administration.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Wow, wow.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Was that part of the reason you decided to go
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: to another continent?
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: I've been back and forth to Africa for over a decade.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: And I've always, I knew at some point I wanted
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: to be in both places. And then I ended up
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: marrying a Ghanaian, too. But I actually met my husband
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: one day. I was looking for like an apartment there.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Wow. So, yes.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: What made you think, I need to have this just
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in case?
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, what I was dealing with. Oh, I got multiple
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: citizenships and everything. I got to get up out of here.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I got to get up out of here. I'm Grenadian.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I'm a lot of stuff. Because I said, if I
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: need options. I want to make sure I have them.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Was the government coming at you that bad where you said,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I'm going to need these options?
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: I mean, it was to the point where people were
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: surveilling my house. I had to have detail.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: It was a lot. I said, why is this work
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: this disruptive?
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: And then I had to remember, before the Fearless Fund existed,
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: the average fundraise for a black woman was only $ 30, 000.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: We came on the scene cutting million-dollar checks. And then
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: on top of that, there were only 34 black women
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: who ever had raised a million dollars before we existed.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: By the next year, we were at 99, and a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: lot of these people were ours.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: And I don't know why that little bit of what
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: I would consider a small piece of a pie would
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: be so disturbing, but it clearly caused all this disruption.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: What did that experience teach you about how America really
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: views targeted economic opportunity?
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: And what I mean by that is people tell us,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: to build wealth, right?
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: Black people, build wealth, build wealth, basically pull yourself up
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: by your bootstraps. Then you have an organization that's trying
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: to help us do that. But then now you're being
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: targeted because you did it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: You're correct.
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  Speaker 4: So what it let me know that it's not just
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: enough for us to build things. We have to have
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: the resources to defend what we build. And I learned
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: that because we saw Black Wall Street, but we couldn't
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: defend it. You know, so it's not just enough for
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: us to build. We're great at building communities. We're great
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: at coalition building. We're great at building systems, supporting each
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: other's businesses. But if we don't have the resources to
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: defend it, we leave ourselves vulnerable. And that's what I
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: learned from that.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: How much did you spend in defending your business?
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: You're asking them type of questions.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: No, I don't mind. It wasn't even just that. We
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: had some of our attorneys were pro bono. Some were not.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: But it was more so what it cost us in general.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: And for me, any amount of money... is worth our liberation.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: So I had to keep that in mind. But when
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: we got in the court case, I think I had
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: just closed on 23 million and I had about 100
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: plus million in diligence.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I had to risk that.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Because people, of course, didn't want to put money into
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: a vehicle that's in a legal situation.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: And I was like, oh my gosh. I'm like, you
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: can either fold right now or you're going to have
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: to be willing to risk this money. And I had
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: to take that risk.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: What were they looking for?
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: We lost a lot.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: What were they looking for?
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: They were looking to stop race-based funding, as he was
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: even stating, and even gender-based funding.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: So had we lost, luckily the case got.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: Permanently dismissed after 13 months, but had we lost at
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: the Supreme Court level, it would have done what his
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: previous case did, was when he won at the Supreme
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Court level and they eliminated affirmative action at all the colleges.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: So they were looking to stop this completely. Race-based funding
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: and gender-based funding, which would have stopped millions and millions
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: of dollars from coming into our communities.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: Can you educate the stupid real quick? And by the stupid,
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: I mean the people who will say, well, you know,
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: if you have a fund that invests specifically in black women,
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  Speaker 5: what if I had a fund that only wanted to invest.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: In white men?
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Well, the reason why it's problematic is because we're actually
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: solving a disparity. This wouldn't exist if the disparity didn't exist.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: And black people in America may be a minority, but
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: globally we are a majority. We're like around 20 percent.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: I know the Asian and Chinese community are right behind us.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: But when you suppress and oppress the majority of the people,
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: it's no good for the whole. So you have to
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: make sure that that demographic has the resources that they
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: need because they're going to be the ones who have
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: to lift everybody else up.
• 6:25
  Speaker 7: Right. But just in reading like research about you and
• 6:29
  Speaker 7: about this, I was looking up the numbers and I
• 6:31
  Speaker 7: saw that women of color make up nearly 20 percent
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  Speaker 7: of the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Population.
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  Speaker 7: But we only are point three nine percent of venture
• 6:39
  Speaker 7: capital funding. And then that money that is used in VCs,
• 6:42
  Speaker 7: which are controlled by white men, it's our money because
• 6:44
  Speaker 7: we're populating it into the economy.
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  Speaker 2: But they're putting it into white owned businesses. You have
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: it exactly right. You read it right.
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  Speaker 4: And pension funds are the largest investors in the private
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: equity and venture capital space. Pension funds are built off
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: the backs of public workers. So you're talking teachers, police officers.
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  Speaker 4: And when you look at the demographics of the people
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  Speaker 4: who made up the pension fund and then it goes
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: up into this industry, which is 92 percent white male,
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  Speaker 4: then goes.
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  Speaker 2: Up into these white startups.
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  Speaker 4: It's the circulation of wealth and it's widening the wealth
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  Speaker 4: gap and at a very rapid rate right now because
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: the tech industry is pretty much moving so fast.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask you, did you ever feel
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: like your life was threatened or was there ever a
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: threat on your life?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, plenty of threats were issued, but I don't
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: think I ever digested them as real.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Gotcha.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: For what, though? For helping people? Exactly.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: We're trying to empower people?
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: But you see, she had surveillance. She had to have details.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, it was real. It was crazy, yeah. It was real.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: And you were exactly right. I'm like, I'm not bothering nobody.
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  Speaker 2: This is actually the business of doing good.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, why are people coming for me?
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  Speaker 2: I'm actually doing something positive.
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  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: So, yeah.
• 7:52
  Speaker 7: How did it start? Like, how did the threat start?
• 7:53
  Speaker 7: Was it, like, small online stuff? Or, like, was it, like,
• 7:56
  Speaker 7: right out of town? Like, you would be places and, like, people.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Would, like.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: It came out the gate when the court case hit.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: I live also in a very conservative state in the States,
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: which is Georgia. And the moment we got sued, it
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: was all over the news. I didn't even know we
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: had a lawsuit. We found out in the news. The
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: staff is calling. There's a whole chapter of the book
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: called Emergency. And I'm like, wait a minute, what was
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: going on? So by this time, everybody who was pretty much,
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: I guess you would say, just that redneck energy, they
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: was like, get her out, get her out.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: I was like, what is this?
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: So that's what the emergency is, because I noticed that
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: you titled the first chapter Emergency.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, that's the day the court case hits. Oh, okay, okay.
• 8:36
  Speaker 6: But what was the emergency, and why do you think
• 8:39
  Speaker 6: people weren't paying attention to it?
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: I think it was an emergency. The moment I saw it,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: I saw what they were suing us for, which was
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: they were saying we were violating the Civil Rights Act
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: of 1866. And I said, OK, civil rights acts were
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: put in place to progress us, not to hold us back.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: And that's when I was like, oh, sound the alarm, somebody,
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: because if the community is not aware this is happening, this.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Is going to get out of control. And it did.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: And it got out of control.
• 9:06
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: Do you believe DEI is disappearing or is the language
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: around it simply changing? Because that's what some of these
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: corporations will say, like, we didn't actually roll it.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: We didn't get rid of them.
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: We just had to change the language because we didn't
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: want to be targeted by the federal government.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: We will know the true answer to that probably in
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: about five years when we see the results. But what
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: I can say that research has said, Harvard has studies
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: that say when you take away race conscious programming, that
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: the black race gets left behind. So we will see
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: the numbers and the effects on this very soon. But
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: while that has been true in the past, the pendulum
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: is going to have to swing only because the country
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: is becoming more black and brown. That's right. So at
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: some point, for people to survive and for companies to thrive,
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: they'll be forced to figure it out if they don't
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: want to choose to figure it out.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: What's the most difficult thing that you see for black
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and black businessmen at all?
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: It's just simply that, the access to capital.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: Is it capital or is it also the relationships?
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: I think that's the biggest pain point. You're right when
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: you say relationships. So I tell people all the time,
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: a lot of times these stats exist. Even if you
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: take racism and sexism out of it, there's proximity.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: So just the networks in itself, you may not have
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: the access to those networks.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: But the biggest pain point is still the capital.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Because when you hear somebody talk about an IPO, and
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I always wonder if those IPOs were offered to us first, right?
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Or you hear real estate industry, or you hear somebody
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: investing into a company, when you hear these brands that
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: IPO and make all this money, I'm like, I wonder
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: if that was offered to us as well as to
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: those other companies.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: I'll say this, though, and I feel very strongly about this.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: We have to solve this money problem because when you
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: come to the table with economic power, you're always in
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: a position to negotiate. The Jewish community can negotiate anything,
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: even if they're two to three percent of the population
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: because of their economic power. So when you say, is
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: it relationships? But see, that money will start unlocking some
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: relationships that didn't exist. So that's why I said if
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: we can get the money right first, it opens up
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: so many other opportunities. You can come to the table
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: and negotiate your voting rights. You can negotiate your health
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: care rights. Anything you want to negotiate, you're in position to.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: But we can't keep as a community coming to the
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: table from an inferior position because that's what happens.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: You don't have as much to leverage.
• 11:29
  Speaker 7: You know, what's crazy, too, about that is I'm seeing
• 11:31
  Speaker 7: a lot of. woman-owned businesses this year having to shut
• 11:34
  Speaker 7: down because they are getting to a point where they're
• 11:36
  Speaker 7: so successful, but they don't have the relationships to leverage
• 11:39
  Speaker 7: the success that they're having happen.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: They don't have anybody to call on.
• 11:42
  Speaker 7: So they're literally shutting down their businesses and being like,
• 11:45
  Speaker 7: we'll be back when we figure it out. But it's like,
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: when do you figure it out if the resources just
• 11:48
  Speaker 7: aren't there and they're not checking for us?
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: You talking about black women? Yes.
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: Black women going to figure it out. I mean, I
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: don't like any of the attacks, but black women going.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: To figure it out. Do you follow the brand Hanifa?
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: The clothing brand? I'm very familiar.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: And I know that it was due to the production,
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: meaning like she couldn't mass produce.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: So she was doing pre-orders.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: And then somewhere amongst that, she had to stop. And
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: she was like, I'll come back. She's going to figure
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: it out. I have full faith and full hope that
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: she is going to figure it out. It's just what
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: we do. And like I say, some things aren't by choice.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: They're by force. By force, she's going to figure it out.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: But that happens when you start off and she built
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: a quick demand and then couldn't meet the production needs.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: And that happens sometimes in business.
• 12:28
  Speaker 7: I guess it's like when do we get to a
• 12:30
  Speaker 7: point where before she got there, she had everything she
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: needed to help her figure out instead of having to
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: figure it out in a frenzy.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, I agree with that. I mean, that's why we
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: do what we do day to day.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: That's why we distribute capital. That's why we do the
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: work we do. That's why we offer the resources that
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: we offer. And I think she probably screamed for help
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: a little earlier. she probably would have been okay. But
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: people have pride and whatnot. And I don't know her
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: story personally. I don't know this woman personally. But I'm like,
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: oh gosh, you let us know on the back end
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: that it's.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: About to be over.
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: You said something just now that I feel like, you know,
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: it's something that hinders us too. The pride, right? Like
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: not being able just to reach out and ask for assistance.
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: Everybody wants to have this, let me do it on
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: my own.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: Let me figure it out myself. I'm self-made.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: Like, no, you got to connect with people. To me,
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: that's how you grow.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: It is how you grow. I even have a chapter
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: in a book called, like, The New Leader Is You.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: And I use the women of the civil rights movement,
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: the Rosa Parks, the Coretta Scott Kings, Juanita Abernathy, Dr.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Betty Shabazz, all of them just to even showcase. These
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: were all everyday people in that era.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: These are not celebrities.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: These are not people with big profiles or anything like that.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: You're talking about a seamstress.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: These are people who just knew to stand up for
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: what they believed and they have the ability to affect change.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: And it's done in community.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: So when you say that, community is key to our progression.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: It just really is.
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: Sometimes, so what you said, Sharla, like some people do
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: call on people for help, but sometimes... People like, I
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: don't really like the word gatekeep, but like everybody don't
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: help you. You can have an open mouth because they
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: say closed mouths don't get fed. Yeah, but people time
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: and time again will reach out for help and they
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: don't get it. So that may be a discouraging factor
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: as well.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, I've lived it.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: Like I'm pretty sure that you have asked so many
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: people for help, leaned on other people and they just
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: give you their ass to cancel. They don't hit you
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: back or they tell you they're going to do something
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: for you and it never happens.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: It never comes. It's true.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: And that's why community is important, only because you're going
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: to have to sometimes exchange somebody else's faith. You're going
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: to have to let somebody encourage you. But that happens,
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: and that's real.
• 14:35
  Speaker 7: How do you keep your resilience through the rejection and
• 14:37
  Speaker 7: through all the things that you've been through, though?
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I would definitely first and foremost say my faith. Community,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I believe in it.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: People encourage you. I mean, there was a time I
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: wanted to give it all up during this case. I'm
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: talking about I had to paperwork everything, just shut it
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: all down.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't want the headache. I don't want this.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: And everybody who was around me and the people who
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: could help me solve my problem, they said, not today.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: They were like, you're not doing that. Like, it's just
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: not going to happen.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: But had those people not said that, I probably would
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: have just checked out.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I'm human.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I love the title, too, Fearless Freedom, right?
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: I'm a person that feels like fear isn't always bad.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: because fear can stop you from making stupid decisions. So
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: what's the difference to you between fearlessness and recklessness?
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: I think there is a fine line. I will say that.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: I will say that.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: Your fearlessness is not going to cause harm or consequence later,
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: but your recklessness will.
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: Does fearlessness ever become a prison for you? Are there
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: moments when you want to be scared, but you feel
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: like you can't show it?
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Mm-mm. Because everybody expects you to be filled?
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: No.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: I don't buy into the narrative of got to be
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: strong all the time or any of that.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: No. Mm-mm.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: What's one financial mistake you see people make all the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: time that you wish that you could be there to be.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Like, don't do that?
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, people live beyond their means too much.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: Like, literally, in Atlanta.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: People be lying.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Not that. No, I'm just saying. Like at my house,
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: people would be like, oh, gosh, she lives in the community.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: And I would just laugh. They're like, oh, she's a millionaire.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: She lives in the community.
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: What the hell is a community?
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: The hood.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: So I'm like, oh, no.
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: When I got my house years ago, it was like $ 324.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: When it was paid off, I was like, I'm good. Car,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: eight years. I was like, I'm good.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: It was not like a thing that I was chasing
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: or anything. I've always liked nice things, had nice things.
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: But being an entrepreneur, if I can't cash out on
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: my debt in that moment, I'm not putting myself in
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: that situation.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I'm just not. I'm just not. You'll see it in
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: the book.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: I've seen too many ups and downs of life and
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: disruption in entrepreneurship, and no one's free from disruption. But
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: because I saw it very young and very early on,
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: I was like, whatever I put on a loan or
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: anything like that, I got to be able to cash
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: out immediately.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: So, yeah.
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: You said economic freedom isn't just a problem for entrepreneurs
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: and wealthy people.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: It's a problem for everybody.
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Why do you feel like that?
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Um.
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: Because of the systems that are in place and things
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: that have just taken place in history, economic freedom is
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: something that we all have to pursue. Because like I said,
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: when the biggest ethnic demographic is being suppressed and oppressed,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: it does not serve the whole. So it's something that
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: everybody really needs to get a handle of because this
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: world is becoming more black and brown, not just this country.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: That's right. Your name, is your name now, like, what's
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: your name? Queen, what is it? Queen Wah, what is it?
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Queen Wah of Dawa.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Granberry Bee. Granberry Bee. You're going to mess it all up.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Je suis la Renoir. That's what I said. I am
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: the Queen Wah of Dawa, Granberry Bee, and Cote d'Ivoire.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's right.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: And y'all just launched Fearless Fun Africa, right?
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: What are you seeing economically in Africa that black Americans
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: aren't paying enough attention to?
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, the opportunities.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, we hear about the risk in Africa, I think,
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: more than we hear about the opportunities. There's opportunities just
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: in the currency exchange. There's opportunities in the fixed deposits.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: There's opportunities in their businesses. As entrepreneurs, we can set
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: up shop there because labor is just so much lower.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Now, I don't advise that of people who have.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: Like a nine to five and they may be making
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: about like one hundred or eighty thousand dollars because you're
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: not going to get that same income.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Rate or salary over there.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: But if you are an entrepreneur, you can go over
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: there and do so much job creation and so much
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: wealth creation that's going to be so catalytic to see
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: a whole society rise. Like, I'm excited about Fearless Fund
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: Africa because while we've raised, you know, millions and millions
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: and millions in the States, to me, I feel like
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: I still can't even move the percentage. I still can't even,
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: I still can't even, like, get that 2% to move
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: for women or that 0.39% to move for women of color.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: But on.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: Say a million bucks, I could probably service a thousand
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: companies there. And then I can see a whole community rise.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: And I am excited about that.
• 19:13
  Speaker 7: Wow.
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: You know, people always talk about reconnecting with Africa, right?
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: Like black Americans, y'all talk about reconnecting with Africa. Like
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: once you started actually doing business there, what did you
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: realize that we romanticized about Africa?
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: Oh, I will say this because I live there. And
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: I live in Africa and visit in Africa. It's two
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: different things. Mind you, it's still a developing place and
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: it's still an emerging market. So, like, I do miss
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: my Amazon. I do, like, miss some of my conveniences.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: So I would think that sometimes we just romanticize of
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: going home but not realizing what is this going home
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: environment going to look like for you?
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: I loved Ghana. The nightlife in Ghana was amazing. I
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: went to Ghana.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I live in a cry. I live in airport. Oh, man.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: We had a ball. Silver Fox Script Club.
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: She like, I did.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: I'm not acknowledging. Ball.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I went there. I don't remember half the places I
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: was at, but I was there.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: We had a ball.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: We had a great time.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: Oh, no.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: The sun came up. First of all, Ghana's a vibe.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: Ghana's a vibe. I'm queen next door in Cote d'Ivoire,
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: but Ghana is a vibe.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: How far is that from, you said Cote d'Ivoire?
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: They're next door. Like, literally, I take a 30-minute flight.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: I just go back and forth. I became a queen
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: in 2022. And I talk about it in the book because-
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: I was thrown off.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I had no clue what was really going on.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: So what was going on? What is the requirement for
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: being a queen, what you just said?
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Because you've been calling yourself a queen forever.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: The traditional rulers have to basically instill you. And the
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: government has signed off on it and everything in my situation.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: So I don't have an honorary title. I'm a Royal Majesty,
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: first of my name. And this took place after I
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: had built a school there. And my chief of staff
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: called me and said, well, Arianne, when you get there,
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: you know, they're going to have a.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Stylist for you. I said, for what?
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: I'm wearing T-shirts and a jeans. I'm cutting a ribbon.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: And she was like, oh, you don't know.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: She said, they're crowning you queen.
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: And I just took it as like a joke. I
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: was like, oh, okay, whatever. They'll probably give me some
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: plaque or something. How did I know I'd be on
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: the phone to this day every single week at these meetings, right?
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: I was like, oh, this is real responsibility. But I
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: have a nephew who prophesied this when he was two.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: So five years before, he kept telling me I was
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: about to be crowned an African queen. And every year
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: he would tell me.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: And then I said, do you love your mother? And
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: he said, of course I do. I said, why don't
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: you ever tell her that? And he paused and he said,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: because she's not.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Damn.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: And I said, oh. I was like, okay, Carter, what's
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: going on here?
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: So the day I got that call and realized they
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: said the mayor, the senators, the governors, everybody's hands on
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: deck for her coronation, I was like, Kelly, you know
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: what Carter's been saying?
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: And he's in the background.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: He's like, I've been trying to tell you.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: He was seven at the time.
• 21:50
  Speaker 7: Oh, wow.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: So you did it with jeans and a T-shirt on.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: No. They redressed me. Like you said, somebody was going
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: to be there.
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: If these corporations continue to back away from DEI, Is
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: the answer to convince them to come back?
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: I don't think the answer is to necessarily convince them.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: They're going to be forced, like I said, even if
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: they don't choose it, just due to the demographics and
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: the way things are growing.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe I just don't like the posture
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: of begging.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: So maybe that's what it is. Maybe that's what it
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: is for me. So they're going to do it regardless.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: The pendulum's going to swing.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this administration is not going to be in forever.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: At some point, and even if they were, like I said,
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: we're going to be so overpopulated that you're going to
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: have to figure out how are you going to have customers?
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: How are you going to cater to this audience? You're
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: going to be forced to figure it out at some point.
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: It may be 10 years from now, but if you
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: don't choose it, you will be forced. So I don't
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: think it's a need to ask. Either you're going to
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: stand by what is a business case or not. I
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: asked actually Costco the other day, the staff there. I said,
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: what made y'all stand strong? They're investors in both our funds.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: What made you stand strong through all this? And they said,
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: we don't even view it as standing strong.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: It's just good business.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: They said, the business case itself is enough for us
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: to pursue our business this way.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Period.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: I was like, okay.
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: And I just feel like black people, that's why I
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: love what y'all do, because I just feel like black
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: people should be building enough capital that we don't need
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: corporate America's permission to do anything. Oh, yeah.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: We've got to become self-sufficient. But like I said, in
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: addition to being self-sufficient, we got to be able to
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: defend it. Because the second that you build it, If
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: somebody comes to get you, you can't be vulnerable.
• 23:29
  Speaker 7: How are you having conversations with people about the mind
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: state around money? We have these capitalist conversations and people
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: talk certain ways when you start making money, when you're
• 23:38
  Speaker 7: bringing money into your business, about you and your business.
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: How do you change that thinking so that we know
• 23:42
  Speaker 7: that we should be out here getting all this money
• 23:44
  Speaker 7: in and coming up in things and it's okay to
• 23:46
  Speaker 7: do that?
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: When you asked that question, it made me realize or
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: reminded me of how often people People call it selling
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: out when you sell your company.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Lord have mercy.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: He said, Lord have mercy.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: And it's really you selling up. You ain't selling out.
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: You're just gaining more wealth.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: You can't sell out if you want to buy in.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: But I think over time, people are starting to get that.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: I hope we've gotten out of that.
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: I still think some of it is still there. I'm
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: not in disagreement with you. But I think that our
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: level of exposure, our reach, our Internet, everything now is
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: where we can see it. We can see it now.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: I see when people set up a company, it's less
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: backlash as before. So it's getting less and less. But
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: it needs to eliminate.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Because right now, it's a blessing.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: But it goes back to the capital conversation.
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: You start a business, you grow it, you scale it,
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: you sell it, you get the capital. And now you
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: got more capital to reinvest into your community. That's my mentality.
• 24:40
  Speaker 7: Some people don't know, business owners don't know the difference
• 24:42
  Speaker 7: between having a good business and having a business that
• 24:44
  Speaker 7: is investable. Like you can invest in it. Because sometimes
• 24:47
  Speaker 7: it's different.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Well, good business should be investable.
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: Yeah, but I think sometimes people think, I mean, maybe
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: it's like a personal thing. Like I've met people who
• 24:54
  Speaker 7: have a great business.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: They have customers. They're profiting.
• 24:57
  Speaker 7: But when they go out to people for investments, people
• 25:00
  Speaker 7: are like poking holes across their business plan and their
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: business maps, and they don't want to invest in it
• 25:05
  Speaker 7: just yet. They're like, oh, come back, you know, next
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: year or Q4 or whatever when we see a bit
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: more of whatever it is that you're doing.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: That's just part of like we're saying the restrictions of
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: access to capital. That person that you're describing isn't doing
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: anything wrong. You know, the fact that somebody is not
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: willing to give them a loan or invest and whatnot,
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: that's not a signal that they're doing something wrong. You
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: can have a completely healthy business and still be running
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: up against that obstacle. Matter of fact, we've even invested
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: in somebody who's dealing with that now.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: She has a contract she.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: Recently got for 20 million ARR three years in a
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: row and looking for investors.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: So it happens to good businesses all the time. That's
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: not like a sign that somebody's not investable.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: This is my last question.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: If fearless freedom works exactly the way you want it to,
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: what does somebody stop being afraid of after they read it?
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: It's a few things.
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: Yikes.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: I would say people stop being afraid of having difficult
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: conversations because I go over what the spirit of fear
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: is costing us. And I said, if you really write
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: down what your fear is costing you, you'll realize it's
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: too expensive to operate that way.
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: Hmm.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: So that's one thing I can say.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: What I'm excited about this book doing in the earth,
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: I have a whole playbook in here. Though the court
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: case may be the backdrop, it shows you in the
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: book of how we can actually have an equitable society.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: I have policy examples. I give a roadmap for government.
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: I give a roadmap for corporations. I give a roadmap
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: for VCs. Like that this is really something possible that
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: we can actually achieve.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: So I'm excited about that.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: And for everyday person, what I'm excited about is the
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: fact that everybody's dealing with pivots right now. Everybody's dealing
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: with failure right now. We have 600,000 black women not
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: even employed right now. This book gives you that kind
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: of encouragement that, okay, if I can pivot, I saw
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: this story this woman went through, I can keep going.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: So I'm looking to see all of the catalytic inspiration
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: and empowerment that's going to come from it.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: All right, well, thank you for.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Joining us this morning.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: Go get fearless freedom right now. A manifesto for unlocking
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: wealth and equality for all.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: That's right. It's Arian Simone. It's the Breakfast Club.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: Come on in.
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: Queen. Queen.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: You say it. Queen.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: Okay. Of Dawa, Graham, Burby, and Cote d'Ivoire. What was that?
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: In the Ivory Coast. Yes, Queen for short.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: It's the Breakfast Club.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Come on in. Hold up. Every day I wake up.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: Wake your ass up. It's the Breakfast Club. Y'all finished
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: or y'all done?