Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Creating Access to Capital: Nikoa Milton Gulstone's Mission for Black Women Entrepreneurs

Transcript

Creating Access to Capital: Nikoa Milton Gulstone's Mission for Black Women Entrepreneurs · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:14
  adversity. My name is Anthony Codospodi and
• 0:17
  today's guest is Nykoa Milton Call Stone.
• 0:20
  She is the Co founder and CEO of Level, a startup focused on
• 0:25
  building a racially diverse network of professional women
• 0:29
  working to tackle the racial wealth gap by investing in Black
• 0:33
  women. Under Nikoa's leadership, Level
• 0:36
  continues to expand its community, offering support and
• 0:39
  resources for women of color. Nikoa holds an MBA from Columbia
• 0:44
  Business School and a bachelor's degree from Howard University.
• 0:48
  She has shared her insights at Forte Foundation events, and her
• 0:52
  background in finance and real estate includes roles in major
• 0:55
  companies where she oversaw significant investments and
• 0:59
  managed complex portfolios. Through her commitment to racial
• 1:03
  equity, she has helped shape Levels vision to empower Black
• 1:06
  women entrepreneurs worldwide. She also collaborates with other
• 1:11
  leaders to advocate for inclusive economic advancement.
• 1:14
  She is recognized for her dedication in supporting Black
• 1:17
  women entrepreneurs and for her advocacy work in closing
• 1:21
  economic gaps. Now before we get into all that
• 1:24
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• 2:04
  All right, back to our guest today, Co founder and CEO of
• 2:07
  Level IKOA, Milton Goldstone. Thanks for making the time to
• 2:10
  Share your story today. Oh, of course, Anthony.
• 2:13
  I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in here right now.
• 2:15
  All right, let's get into it. So Nikola, before we get into
• 2:19
  how the idea to start level came about and what it is that you're
• 2:23
  doing there, give us a little history about what you were
• 2:26
  doing leading up to this so we can kind of lay the groundwork
• 2:30
  for what your skill set is. Oh wow, I don't even know where
• 2:36
  to begin. I almost feel like I have to
• 2:38
  begin with my upbringing because I've gained so many skills just
• 2:42
  by growing up in the family that I grew up in.
• 2:45
  So I am originally from Toledo, OH and my parents were or are
• 2:52
  blue collar workers. So I'm first generation college
• 2:55
  graduate and from that family environment, my parents taught
• 2:59
  me like a very strong work work ethic.
• 3:01
  They taught me how to, they showed me how to be scrappy and
• 3:04
  so to figure things out. And so from there, I went to
• 3:10
  Howard University where I initially majored in chemistry
• 3:13
  because I thought I wanted to be a doctor.
• 3:16
  The only exposure I really had was, you know, either be a
• 3:19
  doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher. My first semester as a chemistry
• 3:23
  major ever. Not so much for me.
• 3:27
  So I went over. Not my thing.
• 3:29
  Hey, we try on different. Hats to figure out which ones
• 3:32
  fit. And which ones don't?
• 3:34
  Seriously. And that's been like the through
• 3:35
  line of my life really, which I think has lent itself to my
• 3:39
  entrepreneurial pursuits. But I went.
• 3:42
  Over to the School of Business, I knew that I was good at
• 3:47
  finance and accounting. I mean, my favorite project in
• 3:49
  school when I was in fifth grade was looking through the Sears
• 3:52
  catalog. We had a certain budget that we
• 3:55
  had. We had to like pay our bills and
• 3:57
  also buy presents for our our families for Christmas.
• 4:01
  And that was, I still remember that project to this day.
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  So I went over to the School of Business and changed my major to
• 4:08
  finance. And from there, I landed in
• 4:13
  Chicago on an internship at LaSalle Bank.
• 4:17
  And another through line in in my life is how black women have
• 4:20
  supported me along the way. So a black woman hired me to an
• 4:25
  internship at LaSalle Bank and she mentored me while I was
• 4:28
  there. When I was deciding whether or
• 4:31
  not I wanted to come back into either finance or capital
• 4:34
  markets. She pushed me to capital markets
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  because she said, you know, they're not a lot of black women
• 4:41
  in capital markets. They're not a lot of us who who
• 4:44
  do that. And you will develop a really
• 4:46
  deep skill set if you go she. Wanted you to be a trailblazer.
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  She did and and I listened to her and and that's what I did.
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  So I landed on the debt syndicate desk where I learned
• 4:59
  how to underwrite corporate bond deals for major corporations.
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  And in 2008, you know, I graduated from undergrad in O
• 5:09
  five, 2008 housing market crash, big financial crisis.
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  Those of us who were in finance were, you know, really at a
• 5:18
  point where there was no certainty.
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  So I learned very early on in my career, three years, and that
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  there really is no more certainty in a, a stable job
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  than there is in entrepreneurship.
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  I watched my mentors be fired with no notice and we just kind
• 5:40
  of had to figure it out. I, I was able to stay because I
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  was young and like cheap labor in a sense.
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  So through that process, you know, I learned very quickly how
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  to pivot. So I, my mentors actually guided
• 5:57
  me towards investment consulting.
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  So I went into investment consulting, but my focus was in
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  fixed income because that's where I had come from.
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  So you were able to kind of leave on your own terms as you
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  found another opportunity. And in 2008, 2009, not everybody
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  had that luxury. Like you said, a lot of your
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  mentors, a lot of you know, the folks that you were reporting
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  to, they were asked to leave, but but you, you were kind of
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  able to, to, to guide your own transition there.
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  I was and I was, I was lucky in that front and I was, what I
• 6:30
  will say is that I was able to form relationships that were
• 6:33
  able to help me pivot into an industry that I knew nothing
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  about. So as I mentioned in first
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  generation, so everything that I learned about finance and
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  learned entrepreneurship, I've learned just by kind of jumping
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  in and having mentors along the way.
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  So I pivoted to investment consulting.
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  We're still in fixed income but wanted to figure out how to get
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  onto the real estate side of things and couldn't really
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  figure it out. I had interviews with folks and
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  everyone told me that I needed to go back to Business School or
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  if I wanted to pivot to something else in finance, I
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  would need to get my CFA. So I decided to go to Business
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  School because I thought that the network would provide
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  opportunities that a CFA could not.
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  A CFA designation is very limited in terms of like if you
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  want to pivot to do something else outside of finance.
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  So I decided to go to Colombia to get my MBA and after my MBA I
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  went to work for a real estate private equity firm.
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  So I was able to make the transition to real estate.
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  So interesting that you were choosing to go into real estate
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  at a time or shortly after a time where the bottom fell out
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  of that market. What was drawing you to that?
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  So I started Business School in 2012.
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  So I saw the bottom fall out and I saw that people were coming in
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  and buying up all of these distressed assets.
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  I also when I was a little girl, my mom used to take me to the
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  parade of homes. I don't, I don't know if that's
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  a Midwest thing, but on after church on Sundays, we would go
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  to the parade pole where you look at real estate that we were
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  never going to buy. But I, I developed an interest
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  in real estate really young, but never knew how to like make
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  money off of it. But then I saw the opportunity
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  and the investment consulting wanted to transition to real
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  estate. And it just so happened to be at
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  a time where, you know, the bottom had fallen out.
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  There was so much opportunity and I.
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  Myself had bought a. Condo in 2006 and was personally
• 8:45
  impacted because the value of my property tanks.
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  So went to Business School, met my Co founder at level in
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  Business School and we'll we'll get back to that but I
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  transitioned. To.
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  Real estate at a private equity firm in Chicago and this is
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  another time where this is a black woman who I'd worked with
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  at a previous job. I was having trouble finding a
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  job in real estate because of nepotism, because of, you know,
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  real estate is a very white male dominated field and that's who
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  they typically hire. I didn't have a background in
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  real estate, but I had a background in finance.
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  It was just really difficult for me to find employment after
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  graduating from Columbia Business School.
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  So. So where did you?
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  Land. So my friend Lynette, who was
• 9:38
  working for a small private equity real estate shop, I was
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  talking to her about like what I was experiencing.
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  And she was like, OK, I'm going to talk to the owner.
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  So I, I landed at Newport Capital Partners in Chicago
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  because Lynette, a black, another black woman connected me
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  and pulled me in essentially. So that is where.
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  It's sort of this theme, like a, you know, recurring theme of
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  mentors of, you know, folks that were looking out for you kind
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  of, you know, helping you get connected and, and into the
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  right seat so that you could then prove yourself.
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  Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely.
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  And in that role, because we were a shop of only nine people
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  including like our receptionist, I was underwriting.
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  So New per Capital Partners is a boutique boutique firm that
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  invests in grocery anchored shopping centers across the
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  Midwest. So we raised in Chicago, we were
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  nine people. So I, you know, was doing the
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  underwriting, I was doing asset management, property management,
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  acquisitions, dispositions, I was doing the portfolio
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  management. So doing all of the numbers
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  behind the scenes. So I did it all because I was, I
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  was the person with, you know, the knowledge or at least the,
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  the, all the pieces that could come together to support the
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  acquisitions guy and the accounting folks and the
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  property manager. So I cut my teeth there and then
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  I transitioned to well tower in Toledo, OH.
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  So the story behind that is I, my husband and I or my
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  ex-husband and I had two children at this point in
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  Chicago. All of our support was in Ohio
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  because where you were from Toledo.
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  I did not. I never planned to move back to
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  Toledo. And I said there's only one
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  place that I can work and if I get a job there, I will move
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  back. Just so happened to be that the
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  CEO and then CFO were both Columbia Business School alone.
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  And I knew that nobody wants to move back to Toledo who had all
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  of this like life experience. And I knew that I could connect
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  with them in that way and proved to be an asset to them.
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  And I had also, it's so funny and I forget about this.
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  When I was in Business School the summer between 1st and 2nd
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  year, I couldn't find an internship in real estate
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  because I didn't have experience.
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  I didn't know anyone. So I took the one internship
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  that offered me something in Houston.
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  It was CBRE and their seniors housing group.
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  So well, tower is a seniors housing reef.
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  So I was able to connect the dot from the only internship that I
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  was able to get to get this job in Toledo and and really.
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  Be able to. Sell myself in it in that way.
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  So I went there. Isn't that interesting how you
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  can kind of look in the rearview mirror and be like, man, those
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  dots really connected? And and it was in a.
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  Point in my life where I was like stressed because of like
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  the lack of opportunity, but the opportunity that I was able to
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  like create ended up being a catalyst for my future, which is
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  really interesting and not something that I've ever thought
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  about. So so how did the idea to start
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  level come about you, you mentioned that you met your Co
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  founder back at Columbia Business School.
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  Was it was this an idea that had been percolating over the years,
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  or was there sort of like a light bulb moment where the idea
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  came about? So this is another you know this
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  the dots connected. So my Co founder Jenny, we were
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  in the same cluster. So we got to know each other
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  very quickly at at CVS and in full transparency, prior to
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  Business School, I did not have I had maybe one or two non black
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  girlfriends. It was hard for me to connect
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  deeply with women who were not black, but.
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  Jenny and I. Were able to do that because she
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  grew up in a household where her parents really and I should
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  mention that she's a white woman who grew up in the Upper West
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  Side of New York so we have very different.
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  Very different backgrounds. Backgrounds, very different
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  family histories, but her parents really instilled in her
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  the value of diversity. And not just by like telling
• 13:59
  her, but by exposing her to diverse experiences like their
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  close family friends. And when I say friends, like
• 14:04
  close family friends are are are black.
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  So we were able to have. Conversations that I had not
• 14:11
  been able to have with other non black women.
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  So the idea was not percolating, but the connections were being
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  made, you know, starting in 2012.
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  So Fast forward to 2019, we both were either recently back or
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  going back to work after maternity leave.
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  So she has three boys, I have 4 boys.
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  And you know, she had been going to these events in New York City
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  that were being put on by these women's networking groups that
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  said they cared about diversity, had a really hard time
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  attracting and retaining women of color.
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  So because Jenny and I had a friendship that we maintained
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  post Business School, she called me up and she's like, you know,
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  I'm like, well, what do you think about starting a company
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  that's really diverse, like from the ground up where we bring
• 15:08
  women together to to network? Like, yeah, I work in like
• 15:13
  commercial real estate, I work in finance.
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  Like I'm just not interested in that.
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  Like my group chats are like my black girlfriends so that I can
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  download on my all of the things that I don't feel comfortable,
• 15:24
  you know, doing in settings that are not that don't feel safe for
• 15:28
  me. But I said what I am interested
• 15:31
  in is starting a company for women like me, women who are
• 15:37
  smart and resourceful and scrappy and, and, and black but
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  don't come from wealth. So can't just like up and quit
• 15:47
  their jobs to pursue their entrepreneurial drinks.
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  So you know, Jenny and this idea Jenny has like an annual
• 15:56
  Christmas party. So we were talking about it at
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  the Christmas party after 11 because I live in Ohio at the
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  time we were talking about it in February, she came down to Ohio
• 16:04
  and we like whiteboarded like what this could look like.
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  So what level is is a marriage of our two ideas.
• 16:12
  So it is a network of professional women who come
• 16:15
  together for the purpose of investing in black women.
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  And we are intentionally made-up of 50% black women and 50% non
• 16:23
  black women. And we take the women through a
• 16:27
  10 week experience where they're they're in a cohort of 10/10
• 16:33
  folks who are led by women who have already gone through the
• 16:37
  experience. And we really get to know each
• 16:41
  other because we think that, you know, the foundation of creating
• 16:46
  any change is going to come. You know, you need to have
• 16:49
  empathy. And if you don't know each
• 16:51
  other, it's hard for you to have to have a empathy, which it
• 16:58
  shouldn't be. But it's easier to have more
• 17:00
  empathy when you actually know someone's story.
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  So we get to know each other. We talk about like, how do you
• 17:06
  have these hard conversations about grace and the racial
• 17:08
  wealth gap across race because, you know, it's uncomfortable.
• 17:15
  And we do that and we we teach the women or refresh the women's
• 17:21
  knowledge on the history of the racial welfare.
• 17:23
  Because we think it's really important for everyone to have a
• 17:26
  baseline understanding of why the work we're doing is so
• 17:29
  urgent and so important. And we need them to understand,
• 17:33
  you know, how we got here. And then we teach the women how
• 17:36
  to become Angel investors. And one thing that we're also
• 17:40
  doing is trying to make investing in private markets
• 17:44
  more accessible so we don't require that women be accredited
• 17:50
  investors. Yeah, I kind of want to let's
• 17:55
  put a pin in this and kind of come back.
• 17:57
  And I'm sorry to kind of jump in sort of the middle of the story
• 17:59
  here, but I want to rewind a little bit and better understand
• 18:03
  because, you know, your own comment, you said, hey, in full
• 18:05
  transparency, I had not had friendships with, you know, non
• 18:10
  black people before. And I'm curious, was it the
• 18:14
  environment that you grew up? You just like there wasn't the
• 18:17
  opportunity, you weren't interacting with people who
• 18:21
  weren't black or the opportunity was there, but you didn't feel
• 18:25
  safe or it just felt more comfortable to be over here.
• 18:29
  Because I, I want to understand that first and then understand a
• 18:32
  little bit more about how, you know, the transition to being
• 18:36
  more comfortable around Jenny and, and other white folks kind
• 18:40
  of came about. And you, you mentioned a little
• 18:43
  bit about that because you know, it's like, hey, Jenny, she, she
• 18:46
  had a, a great background of, you know, growing up with a lot
• 18:49
  of diversity, you know, around her.
• 18:51
  And so that seeing that kind of made you comfortable.
• 18:54
  But I kind of want to understand a little bit more about your
• 18:56
  background like KOA. Sure.
• 18:58
  So there were seven. I went to an all girls Catholic
• 19:03
  High School. There were 7 black girls in my
• 19:05
  class. I think there were 187 girls.
• 19:08
  But we all sat at one table and all the black girls sat together
• 19:12
  in the lunchroom. And I'm sure people can resonate
• 19:14
  with that. Like if you think back to your
• 19:17
  high school days or even your even like if you're at work,
• 19:26
  black people kind of, I mean, you, you notice that we, we
• 19:29
  congregate because that's where we feel, we feel safe.
• 19:31
  That's where we feel like we can be ourselves, You know, going to
• 19:36
  work in corporate America. I could never show up as my
• 19:39
  authentic self. I can never wear my hair like
• 19:41
  this or big poop earrings. I, you know, I'm always
• 19:46
  conscious of if I say this, what are they going to think?
• 19:50
  How are they perceiving me? Not because of what I am saying,
• 19:54
  but because of what I look like and that, I think, is a story
• 20:00
  that many black people in this country have.
• 20:06
  And I I always say like. If you feel.
• 20:08
  Like somebody who looked differently could say some of
• 20:11
  the things that you are thinking but don't want to say.
• 20:17
  And not have. And not have a negative
• 20:20
  reaction. Exactly.
• 20:21
  OK, exactly. Exactly because you know, women,
• 20:29
  specifically black women, you know, we get the angry black
• 20:32
  women. Well, title like no, I'm just
• 20:35
  pushing back. I'm just a person who sometimes
• 20:38
  gets angry like everybody else, or I'm not.
• 20:41
  Even. Angry.
• 20:41
  I'm just pushing back and you're perceiving that to be combative,
• 20:45
  but now I'm just asking a question.
• 20:48
  And if it were a white man asking you this question, you
• 20:50
  would not have the same response.
• 20:53
  So it's, it's, it's all of that. Yeah.
• 20:58
  In, in corporate America. So.
• 21:00
  And I think that's why it's so necessary to have these affinity
• 21:02
  groups in these in these companies because it offers the
• 21:06
  a space for folks who are not, you know, cisgender white men
• 21:14
  to, to have a place where they can feel like their voices and
• 21:17
  are heard and their experiences matter.
• 21:21
  So yeah, like you said, you grew up, you know, you went to an all
• 21:24
  girls Catholic school, there were 7 black girls in the class.
• 21:28
  You hung out together because you felt safe.
• 21:30
  You felt like you could be yourself.
• 21:32
  That was that. That was where you felt most
• 21:34
  comfortable and relaxed. And then come Columbia Business
• 21:39
  School, you meet Jenny, who is very different background.
• 21:42
  She's white. Did it take a while for her to
• 21:46
  kind of win you over or soften you up or no?
• 21:48
  You guys kind of clicked pretty fast.
• 21:50
  We clicked in orientation and, and this is like before class
• 21:54
  even started. And the story behind that is
• 21:56
  that Jenny will always show up late.
• 22:00
  And if you showed up late, you have to get in front of the the
• 22:03
  class and like do a dance. And Jenny lived down the street.
• 22:06
  I lived all the way in Riverdale in the Bronx.
• 22:10
  So I asked her whenever, like, why are you always late?
• 22:13
  Like, do you live really far? It seems like I'm so
• 22:16
  embarrassed, Like, no, I just live down the street.
• 22:18
  But like, that's something that I could never do.
• 22:19
  Like I'd be so embarrassed as like a black one because the
• 22:22
  stereotypes that were always late.
• 22:24
  And then I could never be in the front of the class like being
• 22:27
  the black girl who's like dancing so.
• 22:29
  We. Like we we talked about that and
• 22:33
  talked about it openly. So it like she was really a fast
• 22:38
  friend. Very.
• 22:39
  OK, OK, so let's get back to kind of where we were in the
• 22:42
  story. So you she had one idea, you
• 22:45
  kind of had a different idea. You like you sort of married
• 22:48
  them together. And so I think where I, I kind
• 22:50
  of cut you off was we were talking about, you know, how you
• 22:52
  want to teach people to become Angel investors.
• 22:58
  Sure, I mean. So we do look at you know
• 23:00
  revenue, we look at expenses and we look at like the traditional
• 23:04
  finance like metrics. But we don't necessarily make
• 23:08
  that be the end all be all. We understand that the ways that
• 23:14
  traditional VCs and traditional Angela investing has been set up
• 23:18
  has not worked for Black women entrepreneurs.
• 23:23
  We understand that not all companies are VC scale, but they
• 23:27
  are. They can be on track to be
• 23:29
  profitable or may already be profitable.
• 23:32
  So we take a creative approach to how we invest in these these
• 23:36
  women and how we evaluate them. We also want to empower the
• 23:42
  women who are coming into our women's equity circles.
• 23:47
  To. Decide how they want to invest
• 23:51
  their money and what is important to them to look for.
• 23:54
  So is it, you know, a company going and and scaling at 10X?
• 23:59
  Or is it a mom and pop shop who employs, you know, 50 black
• 24:04
  people in the community and it's profitable, but just needs like
• 24:09
  a, a working capital loan. So we, we take a completely
• 24:12
  different approach and it's worked well for us.
• 24:16
  We've done this at this point, we're on our 19th cycle and
• 24:20
  we've had acquisitions happen, we've had loans pay back early.
• 24:26
  So you know we. Are we we're?
• 24:29
  Proving that the traditional models don't necessarily work
• 24:32
  for us, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money.
• 24:39
  Sorry, when you say that you're on your 19th cycle, is that like
• 24:42
  your 19th fund? Like what does the cycle mean?
• 24:45
  So each, each women's equity circle is made-up of 10 to 12
• 24:50
  women and each of those circles invest in one entrepreneur.
• 24:55
  So we've made, we're in the process of making our 19th
• 24:57
  investment. We've made 18 to date.
• 25:01
  Great. OK.
• 25:03
  And so it may not check the boxes for a traditional VC,
• 25:08
  private equity, or, you know, Angel investor, but these are
• 25:12
  models that you've already proven out can still be
• 25:16
  profitable for the investors and still really helpful as a
• 25:21
  leverage point for the companies that they're investing in.
• 25:24
  Absolutely. And that and that's not to say
• 25:26
  that we have not invested in VC scale companies because we've
• 25:30
  done that too. But that's not the only
• 25:36
  companies that we we target. And so is this mostly just like
• 25:42
  making an investment and you know, they're kind of using your
• 25:46
  capital in judicious ways that they determine or do you get
• 25:50
  involved with any kind of operational support?
• 25:53
  So it's, it's making the investment and I'll say that
• 25:56
  we're not a fund. So the women in, in who are
• 26:00
  community members of level, they invest through third parties
• 26:04
  like we funder or they, we facilitate, facilitate the loans
• 26:08
  through a platform called pigeon loans.
• 26:10
  So they make those individual investments.
• 26:13
  And we also because the women are across industries.
• 26:18
  So the women who make up the circles could be doctors,
• 26:21
  lawyers, they could be in VC themselves.
• 26:24
  We have educators. We.
• 26:26
  Try to provide a a very wide range of expertise so that when
• 26:32
  we provide the support to the entrepreneurs, not just
• 26:35
  financial investment but we also provide pro bono.
• 26:38
  Services for them. We want to make sure that we
• 26:40
  have a diverse skill set, so. We stick with.
• 26:44
  Them for about 9 months and work on any project that they just
• 26:50
  might need an extra set of of hands for.
• 26:54
  OK, here we are on day two-part three of our recordings because
• 26:59
  we've been hammered with some technical issues, mostly some
• 27:01
  Internet connection things. So we're going to pick back up
• 27:04
  where we left off yesterday, which was Nikola.
• 27:08
  You were explaining how you use a couple of different platforms
• 27:11
  for investors to get money to the companies and you
• 27:16
  specifically use these platforms because it allows people who are
• 27:20
  not accredited investors to participate.
• 27:23
  And one of the platforms you were starting to explain to us
• 27:25
  is something called pigeon loans.
• 27:27
  And how did this come about? So this came about because we
• 27:32
  were interested in facilitating loans for companies that weren't
• 27:37
  interested in raising BC capital but just needed maybe some
• 27:42
  working capital to buy more inventory.
• 27:45
  So we were looking for a platform that would do the legal
• 27:48
  work for us. So they draft the promissory
• 27:51
  notes, the lender can go on and set up the loan between
• 27:56
  themselves and the entrepreneur and it takes level out of that
• 27:59
  process. We've worked with other like
• 28:04
  crowd equity platforms as well because they allow for non
• 28:08
  accredited investors to be on their platform.
• 28:10
  So we've, you know, consistently looked for creative ways to
• 28:17
  solve for the access to capital for black founders and the
• 28:22
  challenge of the expense of setting up, you know, special
• 28:26
  purpose vehicles and all the the the legal work that goes behind
• 28:29
  that. Lawyers are very expensive.
• 28:31
  So these platforms take that burden off of the entrepreneurs
• 28:36
  and it takes the burden off of us and it allows us to focus on
• 28:39
  what we really do well. OK.
• 28:41
  So with the funds going directly from the investors to the
• 28:45
  companies and Level kind of being like a relationship
• 28:49
  manager here and and providing a lot of training to folks who you
• 28:52
  know want to kind of get their feet wet in all of this, what's
• 28:56
  the revenue model for Level? How do you guys make money?
• 28:59
  So we make money by folks coming and joining our courses.
• 29:04
  So we charge a fee to participate in the circles.
• 29:08
  And we've expanded our curriculum.
• 29:10
  So now we don't just offer the women's equity circle that
• 29:14
  focuses on entrepreneurship, but we also offer a circle that
• 29:18
  focuses on policy. So instead of learning about how
• 29:22
  to become an Angel investor, we're learning how policy is
• 29:25
  written and how different policymakers impact our our
• 29:31
  local elections and our national elections.
• 29:33
  So instead of bringing in entrepreneurs, we bring in black
• 29:36
  women who are running for office.
• 29:37
  And then we decide which woman we're going to support her
• 29:43
  campaign and we charge for for that course.
• 29:47
  Our third course offering is a real estate course.
• 29:50
  So my background again is in commercial real estate and
• 29:53
  finance. And there are a couple of other
• 29:55
  level members who have similar backgrounds that I we actually
• 29:58
  worked with in commercial real estate.
• 30:01
  And we've come together to build a course that discusses the
• 30:05
  history of land theft and gentrification and redlining in
• 30:08
  this country. But at the end of the course,
• 30:10
  after we teach them how to become commercial real estate
• 30:12
  investors, we form an LLC and then purchase the piece of
• 30:17
  property. So those courses we all we
• 30:20
  charge for, we also host live events.
• 30:23
  Our next one is actually in Chicago and we charge for those
• 30:27
  events where we bring level members, entrepreneurs,
• 30:30
  potential level members and other folks in the community to
• 30:33
  come out. It's a dinner party series.
• 30:36
  So we have dinner, we have drinks, and we come together to
• 30:39
  to work on solving a solution or solving a problem.
• 30:44
  So that is. Essentially our revenue model
• 30:46
  and we don't have a ton of overhead.
• 30:48
  We have a really lean team and we all work remotely, so we
• 30:51
  don't have to pay for real estate and and whatnot.
• 30:56
  So. And you're not collecting like a
• 30:58
  management fee for the the funds that are being invested.
• 31:00
  We are not collecting management fee, no.
• 31:03
  Because we're not a fund. So right we're.
• 31:05
  Kind of bypassing that model, yeah.
• 31:08
  And you and so you've mentioned obviously your business partner
• 31:11
  is not black, but are all of your members black?
• 31:14
  No, no. So we're very intentional about
• 31:18
  being made-up of 50% Black women and 50% non black women because
• 31:22
  we think that it's going to take our collective effort to close
• 31:25
  the racial wealth gap. And we think that the
• 31:28
  relationships that we build across race, it's really going
• 31:32
  to be what is the driver for the change that we're all looking
• 31:36
  for? Because we think that the
• 31:37
  conversations that we have at level, you know, our black
• 31:40
  members and non black members can take them back to their
• 31:42
  workspaces. They can take them back to their
• 31:44
  communities and start having open dialogue about about things
• 31:48
  that impact all of us. But we're like scared to talk
• 31:51
  about. So no, we are very intentional
• 31:55
  about not being just black and. So if someone were interested in
• 32:00
  the courses, sort of joining, becoming part of what you're
• 32:02
  doing, how do they get more information?
• 32:05
  So our application is on our website levelleaders.com.
• 32:10
  You can find us on Instagram at Let's level LETS level.
• 32:15
  My LinkedIn is Nikola Milton Goldstone, where I have a lot of
• 32:20
  information about what's going on at level.
• 32:21
  We also have a LinkedIn page. And then when when you go to our
• 32:26
  LinkedIn page and you click on employees, they're not actually
• 32:29
  employees, but they're level members.
• 32:30
  So you get an an opportunity to see the the women who are a part
• 32:35
  of the the community. And so how do you spread the
• 32:39
  word? How do people find you?
• 32:41
  What's kind of been the most effective method to date anyways
• 32:44
  for how you've been growing the community?
• 32:46
  So we have done no PR. We've done no marketing.
• 32:49
  The most effective way that we have grown this community has
• 32:52
  been word of mouth. Our members tell their friends
• 32:56
  about us, the entrepreneurs to come and pitch.
• 32:57
  They tell their entrepreneur friends about us entrepreneurs
• 33:01
  who have gotten funding or may not have gotten funding, then
• 33:05
  come and join the community to support other entrepreneurs.
• 33:08
  It's been 100% word of mouth from the women in our community
• 33:12
  because they feel so deeply about the work that we're doing
• 33:16
  and they've had such a good experience that they refer their
• 33:18
  friends. We'd like to change that.
• 33:20
  So we are working on B to B partnerships and we think that
• 33:27
  if we gain these partnerships and it'll be much easier for us
• 33:31
  to to grow at scale versus the the word of mouth.
• 33:37
  What do you think one of those B2B partnerships looks like?
• 33:40
  What kind of a business would you target?
• 33:44
  So we have had partnerships with large tech companies, with large
• 33:51
  financial services firms who could benefit from their
• 33:55
  workforce having had these conversations.
• 33:58
  Because what what happens is is, you know, it's a training for
• 34:02
  how to have really difficult conversations across teams, You
• 34:06
  know, something that could be beneficial to to any
• 34:09
  organization because a lot of times we leave our full selves
• 34:16
  out of work. But if we could bring our full
• 34:19
  selves to work, the workplace could extract more value.
• 34:24
  And by extract more about, I mean, that sounds predatory, but
• 34:27
  we'd be more open to giving more value if we felt like we could
• 34:31
  have these conversations across teams.
• 34:33
  And, and because we're having these really difficult
• 34:36
  conversations, it helps for these women who go back into
• 34:39
  these corporations to have difficult conversations, maybe
• 34:41
  not about this, but it gives them practice to have
• 34:44
  conversations across difference. And that is something that any
• 34:48
  company could could benefit from.
• 34:51
  You mentioned earlier and I could that you offer pro bono
• 34:54
  services to the companies that get invested in at least for the
• 34:58
  first several months. What does that look like?
• 35:00
  So the women in the circles, the circles are made-up of 10 or 12
• 35:03
  women across industry who are interested in in doing the work
• 35:07
  that we're doing. And we meet with the
• 35:11
  entrepreneur during our ten week sessions to do a deep dive into
• 35:14
  our business to understand like what her needs are outside of
• 35:17
  the financial needs. And these women who are fully
• 35:21
  capable of doing lots of things really rally around as
• 35:25
  entrepreneur and put their heads together to help her come up
• 35:27
  with solutions for how to move our business forward.
• 35:30
  And those conversations and those projects have looked
• 35:33
  different depending on what the business is.
• 35:37
  Sometimes it's just they want to have connections with other
• 35:43
  funders, so we make sure that we connect them with other people
• 35:46
  who are interested in investing in companies like them.
• 35:49
  They also we've done research projects.
• 35:54
  There was one woman who an entrepreneur who was looking to
• 35:56
  do some rebranding. So we did a focus group.
• 35:59
  We had a researcher in our circle, so we did a focus group
• 36:02
  to help her with the rebranding. Other entrepreneurs have wanted
• 36:05
  like help with refining their pitch so that they can go and
• 36:10
  source other capital. So we we do a myriad of things
• 36:16
  and it looks different, you know, depending on who the
• 36:18
  entrepreneur is and what help that they need.
• 36:20
  But we have been able to use our resources and our networks to
• 36:24
  help the entrepreneurs and meet them where they are.
• 36:26
  What's the biggest area of need that you see typically?
• 36:32
  I mean outside of capital. Yeah, outside of the obvious of,
• 36:35
  you know, they've come to you because they need cash, are they
• 36:40
  still trying to prove like, you know, the minimum buyable
• 36:44
  product? Are they, is it just all about
• 36:46
  sales? Hey, we need more customers, you
• 36:48
  know, are they? About the release relationships,
• 36:51
  honestly, it's about being having them be in the right room
• 36:55
  to get the right help that they need.
• 36:58
  And it's something that level thinks a lot about in terms of
• 37:03
  like relationship building, because we know that the flow of
• 37:05
  capital, it moves. It's all based on who you know,
• 37:08
  it's, it's based on your network.
• 37:10
  So a lot of our entrepreneurs need just those doors to be open
• 37:16
  because they, they have a lot of them are, you know, producing
• 37:20
  revenue, they have the patents, they have, you know, the team.
• 37:26
  But they just need more doors to be open so that they can access
• 37:31
  more capital. So that if they need, you know,
• 37:36
  one of our companies is a medical device company and she
• 37:43
  needs more creative ways to raise capital.
• 37:47
  She doesn't know the right people to talk to you.
• 37:49
  So they come to us and, and we reach out to our network to to
• 37:53
  connect them with the people that they need to to know to
• 37:56
  move their business. I quote when you speak at events
• 37:59
  like Forte Foundation, which focuses on women in business,
• 38:04
  what's the message that you're delivering that you think really
• 38:07
  resonates the most with these current entrepreneurs or
• 38:12
  aspiring entrepreneurs? So IA lot of entrepreneurs feel
• 38:19
  like if they share their ideas, someone's going to like take it
• 38:24
  and do something within like steal their idea.
• 38:30
  And I constantly say that you are the secret sauce, you are
• 38:34
  the special sauce. Even if you share your idea, no
• 38:37
  one is going to put it out in the market like you would.
• 38:41
  And you need to like hone in on that and dig deep and like
• 38:44
  believe in that and believe in yourself.
• 38:46
  And know that you know you can't get the help that you need if
• 38:51
  you don't share your ideas. And if you do share your ideas,
• 38:55
  just know that no one else can execute it in the way that that
• 38:58
  you can. Yeah.
• 39:00
  It's interesting that that you bring that one up in particular
• 39:03
  because this is something that as an entrepreneur, I've
• 39:05
  wrestled with myself over the years, developed a number of
• 39:09
  products, have some patents to my name.
• 39:10
  And, you know, I would always want to protect myself before I
• 39:13
  went out and had those conversations.
• 39:15
  At least file a provisional patent, which is very
• 39:18
  inexpensive. You can often do, you know,
• 39:20
  without an attorney or, or an expert that just kind of gives,
• 39:23
  you know, a little placeholder to say that, hey, this is
• 39:26
  protected for the next 12 months.
• 39:28
  But you know, the older that I've gotten, I, I, I've kind of
• 39:32
  come a little bit more towards, you know, the advice that you're
• 39:34
  providing because I realized that just an idea, not to
• 39:40
  discredit an idea, but they're a dime a dozen.
• 39:43
  It's the execution that really matters.
• 39:45
  And there aren't a lot of people who will stick with a new idea
• 39:52
  to bring it to fruition because you run into so many hurdles, so
• 39:56
  many challenges. So the great unknowns, you know,
• 40:00
  you don't know what you don't know when you're starting
• 40:02
  something new. And so, yeah, I, I'm a little
• 40:07
  bit more towards the other end now like you're talking about.
• 40:09
  I I would say open up you, you're going to get more help
• 40:14
  than you are risk of something happening to you.
• 40:18
  Absolutely. I mean, entrepreneurship is
• 40:20
  hard. It's hard.
• 40:22
  And I couldn't imagine like taking someone else's idea and
• 40:25
  trying to like figure it out. It's hard enough to figure out
• 40:28
  how to execute your own ideas. So I always encourage folks to
• 40:34
  to just go for it and ask for help and ask for help, no.
• 40:42
  Let's see, I want to shift gears now.
• 40:44
  I want to talk about a serious challenge that you've overcome,
• 40:49
  Nyko. And you might choose something
• 40:51
  personal, you might choose something professional.
• 40:54
  How'd you get through it? What did you learn?
• 40:58
  Oh boy, I've had so many challenges just in the past five
• 41:07
  years since I've launched level. And I, I guess I'll just go back
• 41:10
  to, you know, how we decided to launch level when we did.
• 41:14
  And you know, think back to March 2020, that was like the
• 41:20
  start of COVID. We were intending to launch in
• 41:27
  person. I don't really know how we're
• 41:29
  going to do that because I lived in Ohio and Jenny lived in
• 41:31
  Brooklyn, but we were going to launch in person.
• 41:34
  And then COVID happened, and it was when I was in the midst of a
• 41:38
  lot of chaos with my then employer.
• 41:45
  My father was the first confirmed COVID case at the
• 41:48
  hospital that he was in. And Jenny came to me and she's
• 41:53
  like, we can just wait. We can just pause to see like,
• 41:57
  you know, what happens with your dad.
• 41:59
  And that was like, no, like, let's move forward.
• 42:03
  We are going to move forward and do the same because that is what
• 42:07
  he would want me to do. During that period, I was
• 42:11
  working from home. I had three children.
• 42:13
  My youngest was maybe 4 or five months.
• 42:17
  I had decided to quarantine with my ex-husband and start to build
• 42:24
  this business. Was he your ex-husband at the
• 42:27
  time? Huh.
• 42:29
  Was he your ex-husband at the time?
• 42:31
  Oh, boy. Yeah.
• 42:33
  This is a tornado. You've got a four month old.
• 42:36
  Your dad is one of the early COVID cases in all of this.
• 42:39
  You want to launch this business you're sheltering in place with
• 42:43
  your ex-husband? Wow.
• 42:46
  With my ex-husband and so we didn't really know much about
• 42:50
  COVID at the time. I, you know, and this is another
• 42:52
  testament to relationships because my best friend that I've
• 42:57
  known since 7th grade was she's an ICU nurse who was treating
• 43:01
  COVID patients at the time. So she was on calls with my
• 43:05
  dad's care team twice a day. So every shift she will report
• 43:08
  back to me, I'll report to my family.
• 43:11
  And while I'm building level our second, we were in our pilot
• 43:15
  phase. So our 2nd circle was made-up of
• 43:17
  seven women, one of which who it's from the same town that I'm
• 43:23
  from, and her dad happened to sit on the board at the hospital
• 43:27
  that my dad was in. So I was experiencing all these
• 43:29
  things. They had called us in to say
• 43:31
  goodbye and I was like no, no, no, no, no.
• 43:33
  Because Ashley has called twice a day.
• 43:35
  Like I know what his care is supposed to look, I know that
• 43:38
  he's improving. And I called the woman who was
• 43:44
  in level, whose dad was on the board, and I said this is like
• 43:47
  he's not receiving the best care.
• 43:49
  Like I know that they're calling us to say goodbye because it's
• 43:51
  day 21. So she called her dad and he
• 43:56
  made a call to the rest of the board and my dad's care turned
• 43:59
  around and we were in, we were in a session actually with that
• 44:05
  particular circle when I got noticed that he was being
• 44:08
  released from the hospital and it's been on the news.
• 44:11
  So he was like on a ventilator for 21 days.
• 44:13
  He had to go to rehab for a couple of months.
• 44:16
  Like my uncle, his brother died during that time of COVID.
• 44:20
  And we had to like share that with him while we were standing
• 44:23
  outside of like, so and in the midst of all of that level, I
• 44:28
  was like, it has to move forward.
• 44:32
  It has to move forward because what else am I going to do?
• 44:34
  Sit in the house and like just worry and be sad?
• 44:38
  No, I need to continue with the idea that we have because it's
• 44:44
  very purpose driven. And this will be the fuel that I
• 44:48
  used to keep going. And these relationships have
• 44:52
  gotten me to this point where I can call people up that I didn't
• 44:55
  know before, they can make a call to someone higher up and
• 45:01
  they they literally saved my dad's life.
• 45:06
  What kind of care was he not getting that they were then able
• 45:09
  to to switch and help with? So they were lying to us about
• 45:13
  his care. They were saying that his kidney
• 45:15
  function wasn't what we knew that it was.
• 45:17
  They were saying that his oxygen levels were lower than they
• 45:20
  actually were. And I and you know, I think that
• 45:23
  at that time the doctors didn't really know he was the first
• 45:27
  covet patient. So they were like at 21 days,
• 45:30
  you know, we can't do anything else.
• 45:33
  Because that was the belief like right, 21 days and like.
• 45:37
  And that's it. And switch flips and you're done
• 45:40
  with. No, this is not and I don't, I
• 45:44
  don't know if other patients got that care, but I know that I was
• 45:48
  not going to take no for an answer when I had been super
• 45:53
  involved in knowing about his stats and his doctors were just
• 45:57
  lying to us. They were just lying to us so
• 46:00
  that. Like knowingly lying or just.
• 46:02
  They were not. They were not informed and they
• 46:04
  were. No knowingly lying like his
• 46:06
  creatinine level is his oxygen level.
• 46:08
  Like we knew them because my friend was calling the nurses
• 46:12
  every shift change. So we had a log of what was
• 46:16
  going on. We had a log of where his levels
• 46:18
  were and when they called us to say goodbye, they told us that
• 46:22
  his his levels were much different than they actually
• 46:26
  were. Why would they do that?
• 46:34
  Well, you know. Did I just pick at a really big
• 46:37
  scab? At a higher rate in childbirth
• 46:40
  than white women do. Why tell me?
• 46:46
  I want to hear it. We're not taken seriously.
• 46:51
  We're just we're considered disposable and we're discarded.
• 46:56
  We have to advocate for ourselves a million times more
• 47:01
  than any other population. Well, maybe not any other
• 47:03
  population, but then white people in this country.
• 47:08
  And I firmly believe that the only reason why my uncle died is
• 47:13
  because he didn't have an advocate like my father did.
• 47:18
  My, my, that's heartbreaking. My cousins and my aunts saw
• 47:22
  tears rolling down his face when they said that they were going
• 47:26
  to take him out of the ventilator.
• 47:28
  He knew what was going on and he died because he didn't have the
• 47:32
  advocates that my father did. Where did you go for strength
• 47:38
  during this time? You know, a lot of times when I
• 47:41
  hear stories where, you know, people are just dealing with
• 47:46
  multiple tornadoes at a time. It's a spouse, it's a loved one.
• 47:49
  But here we are in the midst of COVID and you're with your
• 47:53
  ex-husband. And I have to imagine that the
• 47:55
  dynamic there is not, tell me if I'm wrong, but not one of sort
• 48:00
  of love and support. Like what?
• 48:04
  What did you do? So I went within for sure.
• 48:08
  And I also have an incredible village of girlfriends who have
• 48:14
  helped me through every stage of my life.
• 48:17
  When pre COVID, when I was, you know, going through the
• 48:20
  separation and I had moved and I was trying to figure out how to
• 48:23
  take care of all these kids, my girlfriend moved.
• 48:25
  Her life approved. Her life came from Nashville, TN
• 48:28
  and lived with me for six months.
• 48:29
  I didn't have any furniture. I didn't know what I was going
• 48:33
  to do with these kids. She came and lived with me for
• 48:34
  six months to help me like figure it out.
• 48:38
  So I've always had a group of girlfriends who have done life
• 48:43
  with me through the good, the bad, the ugly and they 9.9 times
• 48:48
  out of 10 have been black women. That's your inner circle.
• 48:53
  Yeah, their circle of strength. So let me now turn this around
• 48:58
  and I go and ask, what's your superpower?
• 49:01
  Oh, no one's ever asked me that before, huh?
• 49:07
  What is my super? So I feel like I've just like
• 49:16
  tapped into it, but for whatever reason, people feel really
• 49:21
  comfortable being really comfortable with me.
• 49:26
  Maybe it's my vulnerability, like I I just am who I am and
• 49:31
  that makes other people feel really comfortable.
• 49:35
  That's part of my leadership style.
• 49:37
  I allow people to be who they are without judgment and I think
• 49:43
  people really gravitate towards that because it is pretty rare.
• 49:49
  A lot of our listeners are, you know, they're tuning in, they
• 49:52
  want some advice, some guidance, some insights into maybe what
• 49:58
  has helped you. Is there a particular book, a
• 50:01
  podcast, of course, something that has helped you either
• 50:04
  personally or professionally that others might benefit from?
• 50:19
  I don't think that it's like 1 particular thing.
• 50:25
  I'm not big on like self help books or like industry books.
• 50:34
  I'm really big on accountability and like I wake up every morning
• 50:40
  and I do a brain dump. So I do, I struggle with the
• 50:44
  depression, anxiety and ADHD. So when I wake up, like my mind
• 50:49
  is racing. So I do a brain dab.
• 50:52
  I write everything down and then that gives me like a breath of
• 50:57
  fresh air. Like OK, like I've written it
• 50:58
  down. Then I can figure out like what
• 51:00
  to do with it later. And that's helped me a lot with
• 51:05
  my anxiety. I do try to stay like in a
• 51:12
  certain routine, so when I wake up and after I do my brain dump,
• 51:15
  I'll listen to the daily and up first.
• 51:19
  Those podcasts are favorites of mine and then I have coffee and
• 51:23
  then I get to work. So I think routine has
• 51:27
  definitely helped me and that looks different for everyone.
• 51:30
  Like I'm not an early riser so I don't get to work until 10:00
• 51:34
  AM. But I think leaning into your
• 51:37
  strengths, even if other folks have told you that they're not
• 51:43
  your strengths, like, you know, you know, just just lean, lean.
• 51:47
  Into that and that has been really.
• 51:50
  Really helpful for me. Are there specific things that
• 51:54
  you've tried which have helped you kind of manage the
• 51:57
  depression, the anxiety, the ADHDA?
• 52:01
  To Do List a written To Do List. So I have to like write things
• 52:06
  down. I can't do the the online, the
• 52:10
  notes, I can't do that. I have to write it down.
• 52:12
  Therapy, medication and also going to the gym.
• 52:18
  So I, you know, have 4 kids, married like I'm managing, I'm
• 52:23
  running to businesses. I've been responsible for a lot
• 52:25
  of things. But the gym is 1 hour that I get
• 52:29
  to myself where no one can reach me because my phone is in the
• 52:32
  locker and I don't have to think about anyone else.
• 52:38
  And I'm also releasing endorphins, so that really has
• 52:42
  helped me as well. I think you hit on some really
• 52:44
  great ones there. I love that you gave voice to
• 52:46
  the therapy to the medication, which is really important and
• 52:49
  helpful for so many people. The physical activity critical
• 52:54
  for everybody. I don't care what what state
• 52:56
  you're you're in and the the fact that you're creating these
• 52:59
  to two lists are are are you traditionally creating them in
• 53:01
  the morning? Is that part of the brain dump
• 53:03
  that you were talking about? I wish I had.
• 53:06
  My To Do List handy but I think. Anytime you can get it out of
• 53:11
  your head that there's, there's. Something really out of my.
• 53:16
  Head and then I categorize it later.
• 53:19
  I just need to get it out of my head and then I'll find time to
• 53:21
  like figure out what to do with it later.
• 53:23
  And I use a tool called dashboard.
• 53:26
  It's an amazing To Do List organizer that keeps me on track
• 53:31
  and it's been the the one thing that has helped me keep things
• 53:37
  compartmentalized and also like work through my To Do List in a
• 53:41
  way that doesn't feel so overwhelming.
• 53:42
  So you write it down 1st and then you transfer it into this
• 53:45
  application. It's not an application, so I
• 53:48
  write it down just like as a list, OK.
• 53:51
  And then I categorize it later on my written dashboard.
• 53:55
  So dashboard is like a written. Old school, I love it.
• 53:59
  Old school. Old school.
• 54:01
  That way if the electricity or the Internet goes down like we
• 54:04
  had yesterday, like you can still operate.
• 54:11
  So like, oh, as you look back, what's the best decision you've
• 54:14
  ever made for your business? Oh, for my business?
• 54:17
  Umm, hiring my director of Community Operations, she was
• 54:28
  our first hire. She's incredible, she's
• 54:32
  adaptable, she's been able to like, and I think that's
• 54:36
  important to an entrepreneurship because you can't necessarily
• 54:40
  afford to hire like the entire C-Suite, but you need someone in
• 54:44
  there that can do a lot of things.
• 54:46
  And Michelle has been that for us and she's been able to do so
• 54:52
  many things and go through go with us through all of the
• 54:55
  changes in the organization. And I don't think we would still
• 54:59
  be here if. We're not for hiring her.
• 55:02
  So we made a really good decision at hiring.
• 55:03
  I mean, I know a lot of entrepreneurs like their first
• 55:06
  hires do not work out. Michelle is going to go with me
• 55:08
  everywhere. You're joined at the hips now.
• 55:12
  Yes, there's. There's no separation here.
• 55:15
  Yeah. You know, this next question I I
• 55:17
  think is a fun one to sort of think about because as we're
• 55:20
  going through our lives, our careers, and a lot of times we
• 55:26
  make mistakes, we trip up, but then when we Fast forward a few
• 55:31
  years, we kind of look back in the rearview mirror sometimes.
• 55:33
  The thing that at the moment seemed like a big mistake, we
• 55:37
  can now look back at with a lot of gratitude because it actually
• 55:40
  helped to propel us forward in some way.
• 55:42
  Can you think of something like that where it really felt like a
• 55:47
  huge debilitating mistake at the time, but now you're like, oh,
• 55:51
  so glad that happened? A.
• 55:56
  Huge debilitating mistake. You know I don't.
• 56:01
  And maybe it's not as dramatic as that.
• 56:03
  Maybe it's maybe it was a smaller mistake, but something
• 56:06
  that you were kind of beating yourself up for at the time.
• 56:09
  And now you look back and you're like, you know what?
• 56:11
  That taught me this, which led to that.
• 56:14
  And I'm so grateful it happened. So early on we were trying to do
• 56:22
  a lot. We were doing this curriculum,
• 56:26
  we had a book club, we were doing just a lot of a lot of
• 56:32
  stuff. And it was great because that's
• 56:36
  what the community needed during COVID.
• 56:38
  But then the post COVID, we kept trying to do that where folks
• 56:42
  were like more interested in getting together in person
• 56:47
  because we had been, you know, on lockdown for so long.
• 56:50
  So while it seems to be like, great at the time, we learned
• 56:56
  that, OK, we're spending a lot of effort doing things that our
• 56:59
  members no longer value. And I think we did that for too
• 57:05
  long. And once we had the epiphany, we
• 57:09
  were able to pivot and offer them more in person events and
• 57:14
  more things that they did value now that we're outside of COVID.
• 57:17
  And it ended up being an additional revenue stream for
• 57:20
  us, which has been great. And it's not only an additional
• 57:25
  revenue stream, but also a different way to recruit new
• 57:27
  members. So it's turned out to be a, a
• 57:31
  blessing in disguise. I wish that it had not taken us
• 57:34
  as long to get to that point. But you know, my Co founder and
• 57:38
  myself, we, this is the first time we've started a business.
• 57:41
  So you know, we're, we learn as we grow and as we go.
• 57:46
  And we've had several hiccups. And I don't know if that's like
• 57:49
  our greatest one. But in entrepreneurship that's
• 57:54
  just, you don't know what you don't know.
• 57:57
  You do the best you can and hopefully you you move on sooner
• 58:00
  rather than later. Where do you want to take level
• 58:03
  here? You, Jenny.
• 58:04
  What do you want to take it the next few years?
• 58:07
  So I'm really excited about these new offerings that we
• 58:10
  have. I'd like our members to own real
• 58:15
  estate and to be backing candidates who are interested in
• 58:21
  supporting the initiatives that are important to our community
• 58:24
  members. And I'd love for more
• 58:27
  entrepreneurs to be funded and also increase the pipeline that,
• 58:31
  you know, we have entrepreneurs that come to us.
• 58:33
  I'd love to introduce them to more funding and more resources.
• 58:37
  And it's hard for me to quantify what I want level to be in the
• 58:42
  future, but I want to do more of what we're currently doing and
• 58:49
  at a larger at a larger scale. Let's see, Niko, I think I've
• 58:54
  just got one more question for you.
• 58:55
  But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
• 58:57
  First of all, everyone listening, go ahead and hit the
• 58:59
  subscribe button on your favorite podcast app.
• 59:01
  We've had a great conversation here over the last two days with
• 59:05
  Nikoa, and I want you to get more great content like this.
• 59:10
  Akoa, can you let people know how to get in touch with you or
• 59:13
  continue to follow your story? Yes, you can please reach out on
• 59:19
  LinkedIn. I am very interested in in
• 59:23
  knowing folks who are interested in the work that I'm doing.
• 59:26
  So don't be surprised if you reach out and then I follow up
• 59:30
  with like an e-mail wanting to connect with you.
• 59:32
  So that's Nikola Milton Goldstone on LinkedIn.
• 59:36
  We are at let's level on Instagram level leaders on
• 59:41
  Instagram or on LinkedIn. I'm sorry and our website
• 59:44
  islevelleaders.com. And we'll include links to all
• 59:48
  those in the show notes for folks.
• 59:50
  But last question for you, Nikoa.
• 59:52
  You and I, we reconnect in a year and you're super excited.
• 59:55
  You're celebrating something. What's that thing that you're
• 59:57
  celebrating? We're celebrating multiple
• 1:00:03
  assets in our real estate portfolio.
• 1:00:05
  We're celebrating building our team, we're celebrating
• 1:00:10
  supporting. So we've we've run 19 cycles.
• 1:00:13
  So we've, we've, so we've invested in 19 black women owned
• 1:00:17
  businesses. I'd like to double that in the
• 1:00:19
  next year. And I'd like to get folks more
• 1:00:25
  involved in the local level politics.
• 1:00:31
  And we are. We're bipartisan for sure, but
• 1:00:34
  we want folks to be involved in policy because we know that
• 1:00:39
  closing the racial wealth gap isn't just about money, but it's
• 1:00:43
  about policy as well. Nikoa Milton Gallstone from
• 1:00:47
  Level. I'm going to be the first to
• 1:00:49
  thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us
• 1:00:51
  today. I really appreciate it.
• 1:00:52
  Thank you so much for having me, Anthony.
• 1:00:54
  It's been a wild ride with these technical difficulties, but.
• 1:00:59
  Hey, and just like any entrepreneur, we persevered, we
• 1:01:01
  pushed through it and we made it work.
• 1:01:04
  I. Appreciate it.
• 1:01:06
  Absolutely, folks. That's a wrap on another episode
• 1:01:08
  of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
• 1:01:11
  today.