Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Build Generational Wealth with Dr. LaTanya White

Transcript

How to Build Generational Wealth with Dr. LaTanya White · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Biz Chat podcast today.
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  Hi there, and welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, small biz lady, your host, and I'm America's number one small business
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  expert.
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  We're gonna be talking about the truth about generational wealth and debunking myths that
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  unlock real strategies to build long lasting financial success.
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  It is time for me to introduce my guest, Doctor.
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  Latonya White.
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  There she is.
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  She is a thought leader on wealth equity.
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  She is a trailblazing researcher whose work is dismantling systemic barriers.
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  She is the founder of global professional development firm Concept Creative Group.
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  And over the last decade, she has established herself as a leading force in advancing racial
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  equity by helping more than 10,000 black entrepreneurs.
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  Her work has been recognized by the State Department, the Department of Commerce, and the
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  US Senate, and she feels her purpose in life is to help close the wealth gap and the skill gap
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  for Black and Brown families so that they can go beyond generational wealth and build their
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  family dynasties.
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  And you can learn more about her at meetdrwhite.com.
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  Latanya, welcome to the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
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  I'm so excited to have you here.
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  Thank you so much, Melinda.
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  I'm trying to contain my excitement and keep the smiles down, thank you for having me.
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  I want you to tell us about your background.
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  How did you become a researcher about generational wealth?
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  Because that's a real specific topic.
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  I want you to help us understand how you got on this journey.
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  Yes.
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  And I've been I've been a fan of yours for so long.
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  I actually taught entrepreneurship at a historically black college, Florida A and M
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  University for eleven years, and I would incorporate a lot of what you were sharing with
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  my students.
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  Really the path that got me here.
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  So I remember being in the classroom, why the enrollment was so low.
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  There were maybe be 10 or 12 students on a campus where the enrollment was 10,000 for this
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  entrepreneurship class.
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  And I could not figure out how to speak the language of the administrators and the deans
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  about why entrepreneurship education was so important, especially for the student
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  population that we were engaging with, first generation college students, who more than
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  likely were going to be first generation wealth creators.
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  So I went to grad school to find the most logical way to make the connection between
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  entrepreneurship and wealth.
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  And where I landed, Melinda, was this idea of wealth dynasties.
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  And that's that's the deep dive that I took.
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  I learned that there are families who have controlled their wealth and their assets for at
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  least three generations, and that's what makes them a dynastic family.
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  I learned that these families are packaging, protecting and transferring five forms of
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  wealth, right?
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  And they're transferring it in four different directions.
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  And so when we talk about all the excitement that we have about generational wealth,
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  especially in communities that have been historically excluded, communities and families
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  who've experienced financial trauma, we are literally exponentially behind.
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  And so I work with an intellectual property attorney, Nady Hornsby of NORIP, to trademark
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  the term dynastic wealth because it looks at the wealth building experience for families who
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  have faced financial trauma, families who are in their first generation of creating wealth?
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  How do we use some of those strategies but make it speak to our own lived experiences?
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  And that's what dynastic wealth is.
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  It incorporates the family and not just the founder.
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  So help me understand, you spoke about financial trauma.
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  Tell me what you mean by that, because I read that in your bio and I was like, okay, wait,
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  I'm not sure I know what exactly what that is.
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  So can you explain that for my audience?
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  Absolutely.
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  And sometimes we don't have the language.
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  We don't even know that we are carrying that with us.
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  And even from a social sciences perspective, sometimes the experience hasn't even been our
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  own.
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  So from a historical perspective, let's look at the failure of the Freedman's Bank.
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  Eighteen seventy four, right?
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  One hundred and fifty years ago, where $3,000,000 of Black wealth from newly, freely,
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  formerly enslaved people had been earned and deposited into banks, the money disappeared.
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  Dollars 3,000,000 in 1874.
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  Dollars '3 million today is a lot of money.
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  But now we can make a connection between why some people in 2025 are still unbanked, why
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  some people still feel nervous and this sense of mistrust when they have to speak to
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  financial services professionals.
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  And so how that lived experience of our elders and our ancestors, it comes with us.
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  And we walk through the world making money decisions, wealth decisions with that kind of
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  narrative in our bones and literally in our DNA.
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  So help me, I mean, I get that, that Freedman's Bureau Bank that they let go bankrupt, like
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  that was ridiculous because somebody basically stole the money, but how does mindset and
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  financial literacy impact business owners trying to build wealth?
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  Yes.
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  So many of us are consumers.
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  We experience more economic mobility.
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  We have more money in our bank accounts than we've ever even been socialized.
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  Right.
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  We've never even talked about this much money.
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  But I know there are things on my wish list that I have to get because that's what's going
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  to make me feel like I made it.
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  But when we're talking about preserving wealth and really using money to work for us instead
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  of us working as hard as we do for money, that's where financial education and financial
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  literacy comes into play.
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  From a business perspective, you make money and you reinvest it back into the business through
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  retained earnings.
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  But are you paying yourself?
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  Are you on salary?
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  And from your own salary from the business, how are you investing that?
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  Is it in stocks?
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  Do you have a real estate investment portfolio?
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  Do you have index universal life insurance to help grow your money?
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  So these are some of the nuances that your typical technical assistance, a small business
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  development center, minority business development agency, and I work for both, but I
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  never had the capability or the capacity to talk about what the founder actually should be
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  doing with the money that they're making, let alone how do I engage my family around this new
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  identity as wealth creators and not just consumers.
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  Well, how do you define wealth though?
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  Because I feel like you have a more expansive definition of wealth than just how much money
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  you got to make, how many stocks you have, what your house is worth.
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  Like, I feel like your definition is a little bit wider than that.
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  Yes.
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  Yes.
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  And that's really where those other forms of wealth come into play for our high net worth
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  and ultra high net worth counterparts.
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  So remember, said five forms of wealth.
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  Right?
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  Of course, there's this foundation, the financial, real hard tangible assets that you
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  can deposit into a bank.
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  But there's also these qualitative forms of wealth that have been studied.
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  Because if we look at the Rockefeller family, one of the most celebrities families when we
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  say generation of wealth, they are in their eighth or ninth generation of massive wealth.
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  Can we really think that over 200 people can maintain that much money just from it being
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  passed down?
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  Right?
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  Like just because your last name is Rockefeller.
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  From a qualitative perspective, this is where we talk about family identity and that falls
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  under this spiritual wealth.
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  Like what are your family's values and how is that being communicated to you?
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  And dynastic wealth we're looking at.
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  So not just me as the first generation founder and not just my daughter.
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  What about my sister?
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  What about my cousins and my aunts and uncles?
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  And really getting the entire family or as many people that want to be involved because not
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  everybody wants it, right, and bringing those lived experiences into play.
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  So we have our financial wealth, there's spiritual wealth, which is the family identity,
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  family values.
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  There is the wealth of knowledge.
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  So family recipes and family history, those things are wealth because we can connect the
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  Heinz ketchup family recipe and Campbell's soup family recipe to tangible financial wealth.
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  It's just that communities from historically excluded backgrounds hadn't been exposed to
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  these principles.
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  So it is a much more expansive and holistic definition of wealth when we're talking about
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  dynastic wealth.
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  So what are some of the myths about wealth creation that are out here?
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  Oh my goodness.
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  One of the myths that that stays with me so often is that our stories have no value, that
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  our histories have no value, that are again, with the family recipe.
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  I mean, because my aunt makes the best macaroni and cheese, right?
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  Needless to say that we can't find a co packer for that recipe and get it on the shelves just
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  like we see Stouffer's and all the other brand names inside stores.
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  So one of the biggest myths is that money is the only form of wealth and that as long as you
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  make enough money and you pass it down, that everybody will be taken care of.
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  That's a misnomer because there's so much more to the story.
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  What we have to make sure that we're doing is first giving space for their identity, for
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  their interests, their passions.
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  But we use our passions, skills and abilities within the family to lift each other up.
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  All right, so if I am a first generation wealth creator, right?
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  I'm the first person in my family to really start a business.
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  What are the first steps that I need to take to build legacy wealth?
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  And this is going to be a hard one.
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  It's going to be you are going to have to start the conversations.
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  They are probably going to be the most uncomfortable conversations that you'll ever
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  initiate within your family.
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  Because as a business owner, you're used to having these crucial conversations.
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  You're used to being rejected by prospective customers.
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  But now we have to bring that skill and transfer that stick to itiveness into into our
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  family.
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  So the deeper skill is listening to understand a person's experience before trying to put on
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  and push forth this approach.
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  And one way that that happens is starting with your family history.
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  The National African American Museum, they actually have a genealogy program.
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  You can take some of your family information and start building out your family history.
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  And then when you're together for Thanksgiving or for the Super Bowl, you can start up a
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  conversation.
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  Hey, did you know that grandma's house, it was formerly owned by great aunt so and so?
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  But now the questions become, well, who's on the deed to the house now?
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  How do we protect that asset now?
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  So it really begins with this family history and it can start to open up avenues to talk
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  about the financial wealth.
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  I love it, I love it.
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  All right, so I only have time for two more questions with you.
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  What is the final piece of advice you would give to a first generation wealth creator who's
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  struggling to figure all of this stuff out?
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  What should they be doing?
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  So one of the things that I love to do is help these first generation founders facilitate
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  these conversations.
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  So the first place that I would start, I mean, I'm a reader, I'm a researcher, but the first
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  place that I would start is this book titled The Whiteness of Wealth by Dorothy A.
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  Brown.
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  And what it does is it you'll feel like Paul on the road to Damascus.
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  The scales will just fall from your eyes and seeing all of the things that the missed
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  opportunities that now we have these pathways to create more conversations and build dynastic
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  wealth in our families.
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  I appreciate that.
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  Last question.
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  What is the best business advice anyone has given you?
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  It would have been from you, Melinda.
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  And it was really lock in on your sales, like know how to run a sales machine because that's
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  a reflection of the impact that you're creating.
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  Listen, thank you all so much for joining me on the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  If you want
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  to learn more about how to run a successful business, please head over to Small Biz Lady
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  University, where we have lots of tools and tips and courses to help you move your business
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  much faster.
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  And if you're a woman or a Chica, I want to invite you to check out Small Biz Lady Academy.
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  It is our private exclusive membership site for women entrepreneurs.
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  We designed it with you in mind.
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  We have two pathways: How to Start and Ready to Grow.
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  So if that describes any of you, come holler at the Small Biz Lady.
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  Y'all know I've been doing this for a long time and I put all of my best information and ebooks
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  and trainings in this site.
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  Plus I coach people live once a month.
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  So I want to make sure that you know that Small Biz Lady Academy is built for you.
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  If you're ready to make more money, you need to be in my community, honey, because that's all,
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  if it don't make money, it don't make no sense.
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  All right, thank you so much for being here for another episode of the Small Biz Chat podcast,
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  and I will leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
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  more fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.