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Transcript

The Truth about Entrepreneurship · RUN YOUR MOUTH

• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Ring of My Podcast with your girl Key, where you know I have honest conversations about life growth and things people would rather dress up than discuss.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Today's topic, we are talking about the unrealistic idea placed in minorities' head about entrepreneurship.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do y'all think that was the biggest lie ever sold to us?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself that question.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Slavery for 400 years.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Brought to a country, enslaved and then captured, working for free, or minor labor.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: All of the black and minority citizens who already had set up house and shop in this country, flourishing businesses, farmland, stripped of it, taken, destroyed.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like starting from scratch again.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: What we should have come to as an inheritance, we came to with scraps and had to start over.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So today I want to ask a question that might make somebody uncomfortable.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if it does, it should.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is entrepreneurship one of the biggest lies sold to minorities in America?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Before you answer, hear me out.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Judge me if you will.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's my opinion, it's my show.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear this, and I want you to know that it's coming from a place of love and concern.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: That we have these conversations.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: We put this in the back of our mind while everybody's in this rat race.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Even myself, to start our own businesses.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But what are we really starting?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And how are we starting it?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: It gotta be bigger than the hustle, right?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: It ain't we we hear that in our heads all the time that oh you gotta hustle, you gotta grind.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But what else do we have to do?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Every day we're told as children, start a business, be your own boss, build generational wealth, start working for somebody else, bet on yourself.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't all that sound so familiar?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then somebody gets online and makes it sound like all you need is a phone, a business name, and enough confidence to post every morning, every day, every evening, every night, share it, and hope and pray that you get 30,000 followers and above, and they're actually buying into your product.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Go figure.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: But where is the conversation about capital?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Where is the conversation about assets, relationships, business knowledge, and somebody who can help you survive the months when the money is not coming in?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The months when your followers are not following.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're sitting there, but they're not buying anything.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: The months when there are no shares, the months when you have no money for ads, you have no marketing money.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Who's talking about that?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: How are you supposed to bootstrap your way into wealth when you are still trying to afford the boots?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Your boots ain't on the ground, they floating in the air, right?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Waiting and waiting and waiting for somebody to find a good fit.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I believe ownership can change lives, yes.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the version of entrepreneurship we keep telling people leaves too much out.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: You got your apps, you got your tutorials, you got everybody selling you some big dream, but yet you look around.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And even with multiple, multiple millionaires in America who are minorities, black business owners still own less than 1%.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, mate, numbers may be 1.9 by now.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: 1.3, don't quote me on it because I haven't I haven't looked it up recently.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: But last year, we were at like 1.2% of actual ownership, land ownership, releasing buildings.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: We don't own these buildings, we're leasing space, we don't own this space.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: You got celebrities who are leasing jewelry, you don't own that jewelry.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why you do you even need it anyway?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: We have to ask ourselves these tusk these tough questions.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's made us to believe, especially in the social media world, that we can do it alone.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can start with nothing.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can work your way around every barrier, and it does not work.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Your mindset must be the problem.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can wake up, lay down, sleep, eat, breathe your business, quit your job, go all in, pull out your assets, investments, full 1k, stock, whatever have you, and still don't make it because we have left out the key ingredients to entrepreneurship.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And white America has sold us a lie.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing good and well.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Most Americans, minorities, blacks, they're not going, they're gonna be workers in a in a system, in a country that was designed to make us work.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was never designed for us to own a part of it.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Own have ownership of your land, have ownership of your business, create legacy.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: You were meant to work.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: You were brought here to work, to build a country for somebody else to enjoy, and hope that your kids get a little piece of the pie.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they left out, right?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: We can't do it alone.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So make it make sense if you're being told from the time you're school age until you graduate, go off to college, military, or what have you, start your own business, don't work for nobody, but you're handed debt, you're handed school loans, you're handed bills, you're handed out on your own, because that's what we we think 18-year-olds are supposed to be, right?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Out on their own.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: No, they're not.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're handed a lie.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time you figure out that that was not the truth, and that lie didn't benefit you, your children struggled, you struggled, your parents struggled, everybody before you struggled because we kept keeping the cycle the same.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: We kept sharing the same information generation after generation, and we left out so many crucial parts.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because today I want to talk about the difference between having a dream and having the resources to build it.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: We can all close our eyes, go to sleep, and dream big.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: But when you wake up, it's your reality that you gotta go to your job.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a job, that your bank account is empty, that you have nothing to start, you have nothing to build off of.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like saying, I this is my dream house, but I never owned a brick.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have no concrete, I have no cement, I have no foundation.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even have nowhere to build the house, but this is my dream house.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now is it kind of making sense?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And why partnership needs to become part of our conversation about legacy?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that's left out.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneurship cannot be attained by you alone.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: You need partners.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Your vision may be yours alone, your dream is definitely yours alone because ain't nobody sleeping in your head but you.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: But entrepreneurship, true entrepreneurship, requires partnership.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because history did not give everybody the same starting point, and I just said that a minute ago.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are 400 years behind, and I know this is gonna be very uncomfortable, but for people who don't believe slavery existed, don't believe that black people were um a part of disparities, don't believe that we're purposely impoverished.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: It may be hard for you to hear, but it's the absolute truth.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't have the the Rockefeller money, we didn't have the connection and the ties, we weren't a part of the banking institute, we weren't a part of financial growth, and those who were here and who already were, it was taken from them.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Black Wall Street, destroyed, Rosewood, the homes, the land, the farms, the legacy that should have gone down generations after generations after generations was taken, destroyed, stolen, erased, deeds were removed from courthouses.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is the reality that we live in in America that nobody wants to talk about.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: You talk about it in your house, probably, you talk about it on your post, but what are we doing to combat that issue that we didn't have the same starting point?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: For black Americans, that conversation includes generations of people whose labor created wealth that they could not claim.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can't go back and look in your courthouse and and know that, oh, Uncle such and such farmed this land, auntie, grandma, great-great, great, great-grandmama did this, that, and such.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: For one, your name has been erased.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's been changed.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: You don't even know who you're connected to, you don't even know who your relatives were before you got here on this land as a slave.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know who your connections are back in Africa, Spain, or wherever you can't want to claim you came from, because your identity has been discombobulated, it's been taken.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you connect to your roots and your generational wealth?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: People who could be bought and sold could not freely negotiate their wages, protect their families, protect their land, protect their businesses and their homes, or pass down the value of that labor.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: They learn how to work, they learn how to live, they learn how to survive off of mediocre funds, off of the bare minimum, off of food that wasn't even healthy.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: They learn to survive, not create, generate, and pass down.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to speak precisely.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Slavery and the discrimination that followed are connected.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we love to separate that?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, people love to say, don't listen, don't don't worry about this, don't worry about that.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is it kind of hard to speak on one and not the other?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And while they are connected, they are not the same.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865, but freedom did not automatically deliver equal access to our land, our money, education, or opportunity for minorities who were enslaved.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: The National Archives also documents how free people were evicted from the very land distributed under special field orders, number 15.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: How do you give somebody a chance to establish a foundation and then you take it back?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say it again.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: How do you give somebody who did did not necessarily you had to give, it was taken from them in the first place?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: They earned it, it's theirs.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you say you're gonna give it back, but then you take it back.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Minority communities do not all have identical histories, and we should respect those differences.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: But when we discuss entrepreneurship, we have to ask what resources a person actually inherited.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of us inherit debt, a lot of us inherit miseducation, a lot of us inherit no financial guidance, a lot of us inherit struggle, and then we're trying to navigate how to live between that struggle.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Did you inherit property?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or did you inherit debt?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Did you inherit a business?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or did you inherit the responsibility of helping everybody else survive in your family?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Going to work, paying bills.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Those are different starting points.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: When one person can borrow against family assets and another person is using grocery money to buy inventory, telling them both to just take that risk ignores what the risk could cost.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: We do not lack the ability to build.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: We lack a starting point.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And let me say something else.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I am not suggesting our communities just discovered entrepreneurship because we've been entrepreneurs forever.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: We built this freaking country and many more.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Many third world countries have entrepreneurs who get up at 4 o'clock in the morning, they hit the ground running, they boots are on the ground.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: But then they're buying back their own product.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: They sell it and they gotta buy it back at high cost just to make it generate again for the next day.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Make that make sense.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Our people been building.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't just start today.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't have to always get it out of the mud.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: We was thrown in the mud.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we had to fight our way out, like quicksand.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: But we've been building.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Selling food, doing hair, repairing cars, cleaning houses, running shops, creating product, inventors and innovators, providing services, turning skills into income when other doors were closed.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: There has never been a shortage of inequity.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Never been a shortage of ingenuity.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a shortage of inequity.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't equal.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Without having to worry about my patent getting stole, without having to worry about financial growth.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And can I pass this down because there were some technicalities back in 1900s when when there were black bankers and there were black moguls, but time went on, documents changed, and those people that you deprived from reading and writing didn't necessarily have the tools they needed to secure what was rightfully theirs.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: We've been know how to get to it.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've always known how to get money, we've always known how to create a legacy.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: But can we pass it down?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can it sustain generationally?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody can be talented, disciplined, and committed, and still be operating so close to the edge that one emergency changes everything.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: A broken vehicle, a sick child, a delayed payment, equipment that stops working.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Lord knows I could have invested in high-end equipment many, many, many years ago when I first started podcasting.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I said, why?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now I gotta get an engineer.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now I gotta do this and I gotta do that.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna keep the bare minimum because I'm I'm struggling with my capital along with my message.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: My work may be good and it may be generating, it may be going into the ears and causing or creating positive, effective information, but I can't throw the glitz in a glare and sit on couches.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I can't I can't do Cam Newton couches and um still pay my bills.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: When there is no cushion, an ordinary business problem can become a household crisis.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when people say everybody has the same 24 hours, huh?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I used to say it too.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you got the same 24 hours in your day, but your 24 hours might not look like my 24 hours.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: My 24 hours may mean I have three, four accounts over here that I can dig out of on a rainy day.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your 24 hours might look like you got one.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: My 24 hours might look like somebody on the back end being quiet and actually being a silent partner and helping me, and somebody else's 24 hours might look like ain't nobody giving them information, ain't nobody trying to pour into them, nobody's helping them or pulling them up by the boot straps because they don't even have boots on.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to be mindful.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I had to start being mindful about saying that.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Who is helping you during yours?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: During your 24 hours, who's really helping you?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Who's watching the children?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Who's covering the mortgage?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Who is introducing you to new customers?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Who can let you fail without losing your housing, your car, even a meal?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Time matters, so does support.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: We can celebrate personal responsibility while still telling the truth about unequal resources.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to stop confusing somebody's lack of financial protection with their lack of ambition.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: People out here working.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're working hard.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have that financial stability, but we have that ambition.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have that hustle, but we don't have that hoo-ha to lift us up and help us along the way.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Social media sells the reveal and skips the work.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we make posters, we make memes, we create AI, pretty um flyers and structured business plans.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: But where is the work?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's just a reveal.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I started this business, I did this business, but then your business never makes revenue, never makes a dime, never never grows because you didn't put in a work.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: You just create a flyer for social media.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about social media a little bit.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all know I love to go on social media, I love to share my views and my thoughts, and sometimes people receive it, and sometimes people misunderstand.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe it's the delivery.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not sure.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: I try to be very concise, but sometimes it goes over some heads.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what it's for.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's social media outlet to be social via media to the world.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: But let's talk about it.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Social media can help you find customers, it can introduce a good business to people who would never have discovered it otherwise.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's using social media at one point.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was I was looking at D uh D Fat's page.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Department of Family Inch and Services is really using a lot of social media.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why they it's supposed to be protected information, da da da.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: What do they need it for?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: But every company and every entity in some fashion or form are using some type of social media, whether it be Facebook, um, Instagram, TikTok, um what's your other one?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh threads, um, LinkedIn, all of those are forms of some type of social media, even when we just was using email, we still was connecting with several people at one time, sending out blast emails and trying to stay connected to a broader aspect of people, and it can be very helpful.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we see entrepreneurs um utilize social media to not just introduce their business and grow it, but also to keep it relevant.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it can also turn an entrepreneur into a performance.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're so busy trying to outperform one another, outpost one another, outcreate one another, they're not focusing on the project, you're not focusing on the work.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have followed people who will view timelines of people who have started 15 things in one week, and it's okay if you can actually juggle that and you can actually do that and support that.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: But realistically, you're not gonna start 15 businesses, you're not gonna start three in one week.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Take your time, slow it down, focus on something you're good at and do the work.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: We see the lunch party, we see the packaging, we see the logos, we see the photo shoot and the announcement.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that looks so cute.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: We don't always see the bookkeeping, the returns, the unpaid invoices, the tax debt.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, I got some.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or the owner wondering how to cover next month's expenses.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing it by ourselves because we can't afford.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: To pay people.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're struggling in this business called entrepreneurship because we're doing it all wrong.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody posts a sales total, and the audience assumes that is what they took home.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I and I don't understand why people do that anyway.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, your business is your business.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's growing, it's not growing.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever is your business, your finances is your business.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: You want to sell you people wanna take heed and take from a prosperous business, but at the same time, everything that you make and everything that you lose is not for the world.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta go through your struggle alone and you gotta meet your business where it's at.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: When you in that growth spurt, you share that and say what you did to get there.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you fall off, share that.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: But your numbers, your numbers should always be private.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's between you and your accountant.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: You and the IRS, they're gonna know them anyway.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because it ain't gonna always look like that.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if you just because you made$50,000 that year selling plates or shirts or boots or socks or hairbows or whatever it is, where's your overhead?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: We don't think of it.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Did you pay yourself?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: We don't think about that.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: In my first three years of business, I didn't think about that.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I just took the money and put the money back into the business, and I didn't think about growing, hiring somebody to do some of this work, and I got burnt out.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to literally pull my store back um offline so that I can get my finances in order so that I could learn how to pay my taxes on time and do what I need to do because I'm like I'm seeing these sales, and these sales are now turning into a nightmare.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can't manage all of this by myself, but I asked for it.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm asking God now to show me how to manage so that I can stay afloat and I can grow, not just look like money, actually maintain the money that I'm making.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because how much did your product cost?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: What did advertising cost?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: What is your marketing budget?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: What about shipping?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Software, labor, taxes, all that stuff comes into play.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Money coming in is only one part of the story, y'all.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's only a very, very small part of entrepreneurship.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody jumps in it with the expectation that that's all they want to do.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Does that all you want to do is make money?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you can make money a whole bunch of ways.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: You ain't gotta actually start an LLC, be a sole proprietor, start a corporation, and pour into your life savings into a vision just to make money.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can make money quick without doing all that.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's not really true entrepreneurship.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: You wanna entrepreneurship, the way it's been sold to us and told to us, is all it takes is for us to have an idea.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: All it takes for us is to put in the hustle and the grind.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, you have to understand the business.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: The business has to has to actually work for you.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: You have you have to actually like what you're doing, even if it isn't making money.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta stick with it, you gotta be patient, you gotta be knowledgeable.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: More so than anything, you have to be knowledgeable about what business you're doing and how it flows and how it works every quarter.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Your ups, your downs, your costs, your marketing, your taxes, how to pay yourself, how to pay your staff, when to hire staff, when to do this shit alone, when to move on, if it's just not working.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: You have to ask yourself that.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can be popular and very poor.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: That does not mean anything.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther King was very popular, man, but he died poor.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe by choice.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, churches tend to back in the day, they um they didn't want to yield a lot of money.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't like today, everything is about tithing and give, give, give, and and take your whole check and give to the church.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were actually about service.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: The servitude was their their gratitude.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it may have been something that wasn't, he wasn't focused on being rich.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: But in today's world, gas too high.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: We want we want to be rich.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be wealthy, we want to leave generational wealth to our families, we want to get back what was promised to us, taken from us, told us, sold us, stripped from us.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: We want it back.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And to get it back, you gotta first understand entrepreneurship.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying I know it all.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't learn as I go, learn as I go every day, and I'm sharing every day what I know with those who want to know it, who want to look deep inside and say to themselves, I fucked up, I'm doing this all wrong.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to sit up and be a facade and you want to get on social media and you want to pretend you want to go work a job, work yourself to death, be taxed to death, and by the time you take your money, you're too old to do anything with it, that's you.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's your prerogative.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if you actually want to start a lucrative business and you actually want to see something that's gonna grow over time, and you're gonna be able to leave the generations and you're gonna be able to teach them how to continue this generational wealth for their next generation and so forth and have you, then you have to be willing to accept your failures, and you have to be willing to learn, and you have to be willing to unlearn everything that we have been told about entrepreneurship because it's been a lie.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Ain't no way you're gonna catch up after all them years of deprivation.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Ain't no way you can use the same recipe and formula to catch up with a person who started racing 400 years before you.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta think different, you gotta move different, and that's why we get frustrated with advice that sounds like just post consistently and watch your life change.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Post what?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sell what to whom at what price?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as you post something and you get an idea, you see somebody that's already making a million dollars, go do the same damn thing.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Remember when podcasting wasn't that popular?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: I used to listen to podcasts growing up on the plains.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: My mom would send us out of town, and I would I would tune in.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I wanted to hear because they didn't even have all the movies and live streaming and stuff like they have now.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: In the car, you had the radio.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't have Apple Music and all these other streaming platforms, and then we we had CDs and um cassettes and and um eight-tracks, and I'm telling my age, yeah.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: But we listened to the radio, so the radio was a part of that broadcast that's stuck in your mind that operates like an audio podcast.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I like audio.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need you to see me, I need you to hear me.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to throw up balloons and have strippers coming down the pole and put every word in a caption behind me.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Listen.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you listen, you will learn.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Just listen.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're visual characters and we need to conform ourselves to be audible characters again.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: We need to learn how to listen.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just close your eyes and listen.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll learn a whole lot more than just looking for something to entertain us all the time.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because visibility needs something solid behind it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to stay tuned in to something that has no no solid background.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can't watch people eat.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I can't, I can post my food, I can share it, I can share the appearance and and give ratings to restaurants, but I don't, I don't, I can't sit there and just eat my whole plate and and and share it.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't watch people do it.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like that that doesn't entertain me.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it entertains many.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a viral thing right now.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: How long will that last?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um the sustainability is probably not that not that great because the next generation won't care nothing about that.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: They won't probably won't even be eating solid food.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to have something solid behind visibility, but when you have your voice, it'll sustain.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can spend so much time looking successful that you do not have the time to understand whether the business is actually working.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: We all have uh access to pretty flyers and stuff now.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: We all have access to AI.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone doesn't use AI as much as they should.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think artificial intelligence is great uh when used properly in the right hands, and you still use your input.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let them people write everything for you and design everything for you.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Have some creativity and some input.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: But it's no different than using Canva.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was no different than with when we edit, when we had automatic editing, no different than the squiggly line when people couldn't spell.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: They had something artificially intelligent catching their mistakes.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: But people love to downplay it and oh well, you that's the people who aren't using it wisely and who are overusing it, and they're not creating and having input for themselves.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't I I absolutely love technology, but I absolutely will not ever let it replace me.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you start having a problem.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking like money, but you don't even know if your business works.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Your goal should be a business that serves customers and supports your life and your lifestyle.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ain't no sense on you going trying to do everything that everybody else is doing just because it's it's making them money.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's their life and their lifestyle, and it doesn't support what you do.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't go and start selling cigarettes and have cigarette commercials, and it may be very lucrative, but that's not my lifestyle.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't smoke.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't support smoking.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Think it's stinky and it's very, very, very unhealthy.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that I wouldn't do.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: But could I?
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Could I generate revenue?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Could I probably make a good ad in a commercial?
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: But is that really supporting my lifestyle and what I want?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: And does it behoove to serve the customers that I want to serve?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: The announcements can be exciting, but the work after the announcement deserves just as much attention.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just be all hoopla on social media.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta actually do the work behind your social posts.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the question that I have at heart.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: How are people encouraged to start business when they cannot access a reasonable line of credit?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh now, this is gonna have to be a whole nother topic because y'all know I'm gonna give it to you in less than an hour.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: That credit.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't always been told the truth about credit.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: I used to be told, as long as you got money, you ain't got you ain't gotta worry about no credit.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: And as long as that money was coming and flowing, I didn't worry.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: As long as I was connected to people who had that type of bread, I wasn't worried because I was able to get everything that I wanted and never have to concern myself with whether or not my credit was a 300 or 800 until I started into business and I realized that in America and this Western country that has been built on credit and debt, it's everything.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now you go off in other countries and you don't need credit.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Africa never even had credit.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Many countries there never had credit.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can do business, you can export, import, but you gotta think about how much it's gonna cost you as well to do that.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I lived that life trying to get my product exported with a reasonable overhead where I would actually see revenue on my investment.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's difficult, people.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hard.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not it's not easy, it's very hard, it's very, very hard, and it takes money to make money.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: You need money to buy equipment, you need equipment to serve customers, you need customers to establish revenue.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Then somebody wants to see established revenue before lending you money on top of the credit that you already ain't got.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: They want you to have good credit, personal credit to get revenue, to get credit, to borrow money, to build the business that you're struggling to keep together.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Where is the bridge?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey has repeatedly found greater financing challenges among businesses owned by people of color.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: But you always hearing, oh, go to SBA, go here, go there.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Including higher denial rates compared with white-owned businesses.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know people who use their EIN number for everything.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: But a minority, they want you to come in and use your social.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can be in business for five, six, seven years over the hump, have revenue, and still can't use your EIN number where it doesn't associate with your private credit.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: But you go in some of these establishments as a minority, and that's exactly what you have to do.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you're required to do.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's no, no, ma'am, no sir.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Your credit score is not high enough.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I've already been in business, I've already made such and such.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I have product, I have good product, I'm doing this and I'm doing that, and I'm not in debt, and I don't owe nobody.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, ma'am, no, sir.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Your personal credit is not high enough for me to give you a loan to build the business credit that you need to make more revenue to elongate your business life for you to be around in the next five to ten years and be able to create that generational wealth that you've been working so hard for.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, no, no, we're not gonna do that.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: We we can't give you this money to do that.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what does that do to your business ego, your entrepreneur dreams?
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't even tell you why.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: They don't tell every individual application was denied and why.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: But it does tell us that these concerns deserve more than motivational speeches, it deserves more than a podcast, it deserves more than our politicians telling us that we're gonna we're gonna make sure everybody has equal opportunity and we're gonna make sure that your visions and your dreams and your posts and your viral content actually makes you more than a dollar and twenty-two centre all day doing it, because now you're doing all that and now you ain't doing nothing else.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Believe in yourself cannot substitute for access to capital.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I believe in myself.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I believe in my product, yes, I believe in my vision and my dreams, yes, I believe in my goals, but I still don't have the capital to make those things come true.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: To turn that dream and that vision into frustration.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have the capital to build on these blocks that I'm standing on, I'm crumbling.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what makes a lot of us stand still.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: And owning a business does not mean the business automatically qualifies for credit.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: A registration document LLC cannot answer every question about repayment, revenue, or risk.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we also need to ask whether promising businesses are receiving a fair opportunity to demonstrate what they can and can't do.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Both questions belong in the conversation.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: When you're sitting down at these tables, don't just ask them for the money.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them for the plan.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're asking you for the plan.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're asking you what's your ROI, they're asking you for your business plan.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: You ask them, what's the plan?
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: I bank with you, I l I get this money, I you lend me this money, we do business.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: What's your plan for my business?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: It belongs in the conversation.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneurs need useful pre preparation and presentation.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: In lending institutions, they need accountability.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: Communities need stronger pathways between an idea and substantial financing.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: If it's not sustainable financing, it's gonna fall.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: If all we do is tell people to start a business without discussing how they will fund the start, we are giving them encouragement with a missing page, and in most cases a whole missing document.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Three or four missing pages.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go in there with their business plan, you're gonna have all your pages, you're gonna have your LLCs, your EINs, you're gonna have everything all I need.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna post every day, you're gonna share it all the time, and they're gonna tell you what's the sustainability in five years.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you see this company going?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: And most minorities don't have a plan.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have an understanding of a futuristic plan, they don't have an understanding of the window of building, losing, financial growth, revolving money, assets, capital, don't have it because we wasn't taught that.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: We were stripped of that, and we jumped right in because that's a lie we've been told.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now I posted along with this conversation, and I'm about to be done, um, how Kylie Jenner wore the got the runway with uh Victoria's Secret to wear the$50 million bra that was so unnecessary.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's speculation that she bought her way in.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: She probably paid for it, who knows?
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and even if she did, she loves to portray herself as a self-made millionaire.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Self-made millionaire, you're not self-made.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: You had a starting point.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're not a self-made millionaire.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Self-made is nobody gave me capital, nobody started me with the brand.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: My name didn't take me anywhere.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: I built it.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: Rockefeller started from the bottom, not here.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: That family built built what they got from scratch, and now it's here, and it ain't went nowhere, and still one of the wealthiest families in this country.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: Those are not, those celebrities and and and social media people are not self-made.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody handed this to you.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: You walked into this, your daddy had money, your mom and them was already on TV.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your sisters, you this is not self-made.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is trust fund, this is inheritance.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't start trust funds because we think we gotta have a whole bunch of money to do it.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta start, we gotta have a whole bunch of money to save money.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I ain't telling nobody to save billions and billions just to be looking at it.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: But save for your next generation, build generational wealth for them.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Start getting those CDs, give them to your kids and your grandkids and let it go on and on and on.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Take what you need, roll the rest of it over and keep it moving.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you're you're borrowing from yourself at this point.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because just putting the money in a bank and saving it, come on.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's not we all know that's not beneficial.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: It ain't doing nothing.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just sitting there looking at it, what you gonna do with it?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Growing a little bit of interest.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, you gotta learn how to invest, you gotta learn how to start up your company and actually pour capital into your company so that you can have those assets to pass down generation after generation.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only way.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneurship is not just you starting a business by yourself.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta ask yourself the obstacles that you'll have.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Ask what information is missing and what do you need to change?
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: Get help.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Understanding the answers that you don't have.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to ask people for help.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because no finance sources promised to you, and money that arrives quickly can still create a difficult repayment burden.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: The Federal Reserve's 2026 Employer Foreign Report found that 60% of online lender borrowers reported borrowing costs higher than they expected.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And most of them borrow more money than they need and get in more debt than they had to have because they end up spending the money somewhere else, anyway.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: That deserves attention.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: So before celebrating an approval, understand what you are agreeing to repay and when.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: Look at those interest rates, people.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what you're going to pay, how long you're gonna pay it, and look at your company and what you actually plan to get out of that company, what you plan to to yield in year one, two, three, four, five.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: Before you go, oh yeah, they gave me.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: See, I remember getting approved for a$400,000 house.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I asked myself, I say, you know, my my house is not gonna be$2,700 a month.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right now I can make it.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: But what if something happens?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I ain't saying be scared and be fearful and be stuck, but what if something happens and then what?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need$400,000 worth of house?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need in and something happened immediately after I think I lost my job?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, the hell would I have been doing?
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Struggling.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'd had to go work somewhere I didn't want to work, take jobs I didn't really want, do a whole bunch of stuff that was gonna stress me out.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: Tire me out just because I overborrowed what I didn't need at the time.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: Desperation can make an offer look so so good.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it looks like rescue.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: But that's one of the reasons a trusted person who understands the numbers can be so valuable.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you need somebody beside you who can ask questions.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: You are too exhausted, too, or too excited, or too uneducated to ask.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to admit when we're ignorant.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: People get so emotional and they get so caught up in thinking, oh well, every little thing is about breaking me down.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's okay to be ignorant.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ask somebody to give you the knowledge that you don't have.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: The self-made story needs more names in it.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can't do everything alone.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want to hear more honest success stories.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: Who helped you?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: Who gave you room to learn?
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: Who provided the introduction?
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: Who paid the bill when you couldn't pay the bill?
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Who watched your children?
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Who offered space and didn't want nothing in return?
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Who taught the owner how to price the service?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Who kept celebrating you even when things weren't always flourishing and growing?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: Who helped you create the images?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: Who helped you along the way?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: Who motivated you to do what you do?
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want to hear more of that.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't never talk about that.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: We'll never give the pat on the back to the people who you're watching and you're mimicking and you're trying to be just like, but you won't ever say, Oh, thank you.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: How did you do it?
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: And God forbid, a minority starts charging for their product.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: But you'll go and pay the white people, you'll go and pay the Asian people, you'll go and pay everybody, but you won't pay your people once they perfected their craft, and now they want to actually charge for it because we gotta make money too.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's too much.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, right.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, we have to ask whether the business is supporting the owner or consuming the owner.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: A team doesn't have to be mean and have a large payroll.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: It could begin with a reliable bookkeeper, one piece of software, an experienced mentor, a contractor.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in mentors.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: Get a contractor for the specific task, or another business owner who shares useful knowledge, who shares useful knowledge, not gatekeeps.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Support can take different forms.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the expectation that one person should already know everything and perform every task well is unreasonable.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: Learn to ask yourself: Do I need help?
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to talk business skills with somebody that has a business?
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to stop sitting around tables and jawjacking and we're not learning anything to help us afford the business talk that we're talking about?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: I believe we need to partner together more intentionally.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: But partnership needs to be more than a shared dream and a group picture.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: We need clear responsibilities.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: Who handles operations?
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: Who manages the money?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: Who brings in customers?
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who makes decisions?
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who owns what?
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: We can't all be the boss.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody ain't gonna be the chief.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: What Indian do I need to place at this gate?
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: What one do I need to place at this gate?
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the conversations we need to have as black entrepreneurs.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: We can't all do the whole job.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody contributes money and somebody contributes labor, how will those contributions be recognized?
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: If the business loses money, what happens?
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do everybody not get paid?
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: How do we break it down?
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna stick it in thick and thin?
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or are we gonna fall apart?
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start accusing each other of stealing.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, this one did this one did more than this one, and this one did more than that one.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody wants to leave, what happens then?
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: How do we delegate the task?
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where are our strengths and our weaknesses?
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those questions deserve answers before the disagreement.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't fall out with your partners.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: Don't assume everybody is hating and everybody is jealous and everybody wants to steal your idea.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: Communicate, conversate, and delegate.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you build business.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: Start with who can manage well, build that trust through consistent behavior, clear communication, and then the work gets completed.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine three people interested in providing services for events.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: One understands scheduling logistics, one is strong in sales and customer relations, one has creative skills to deliver service.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: They could each try to learn and perform every role alone, or they could explore a project together with clear responsibilities, a budget, and agreed payments.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: They could begin with one manageable event because you see people who plan in multiple groups a lot fall apart because everybody wants to be doing everything.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, I learned every aspect of my business from the sales to the marketing to the creativity to the publishing of my books to specs, everything.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's because I want to know.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: But do I want to do it all?
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to delegate this work out to others, but I want to also be informed of how my business is running so that I will know when there are loopholes or when I need to jump in.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I self-taught just because of that, not because I want to control the whole entity, but because I want to know my whole entity.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when I delegate work out, when I delegate my illustrations out, when I delegate editing or when I delegate shipping or anything that needs to be off of me, I delegate that to trusted partners who know what they are doing in the area in which they are doing it.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how we learn, that's how we build.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we build valuable businesses.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: Legacy requires relationships that can survive ordinary business conversations.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: Can we discuss money without taking offense?
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: Can we acknowledge a mistake?
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can we let somebody else lead in the area where they have more experience?
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it is your company, even if it is your idea and your vision, can you let somebody else lead?
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you sit back and y'all have those conversations in the boardroom, but you know that person is great at PR.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know that person is great at marketing.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know that person is great at creating logos and flyers.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know that person is great with the public.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this person doesn't really like being out front.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're great with the books, they're great with the money, they're great behind the scenes, and that's where you utilize them.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that entrepreneurship is no longer a one-man show.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a group.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you gotta support the group.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: Families, you gotta support each other.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: You ain't going in restaurants and not seeing Asian families, cousins, relatives, we don't know what they are, in-laws.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: You ain't going to your nail salon and seeing a whole bunch of nobody that don't look like them.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going in your hotels, not seeing a whole bunch of family working.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: You ain't going to your gas stations, not seeing a whole bunch of people that look just alike.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we ain't looking alike nowhere we go.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: We by ourselves.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: We ain't looking like family.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: We ain't looking like a group.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: We ain't looking like a team.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: We ain't looking like we own nothing.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because we want to do it by ourselves with this fake entrepreneur dream that we've been sold and we struggling.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: Get it together, people.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: Band together.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we do it.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: Change your definition of entrepreneurship.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: I had the vision by myself.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: I started it up by myself, but I got partners.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how we grow.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody walk away with a piece of the pie.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: Go plant you a seed, go plant you a seed, go plant you a seed.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna be around for a while.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how you make it happen.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let's tell the whole story.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want us to do with this conversation.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Before you let launch that next idea, sit down with the numbers.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_00: What does it cost to deliver the product or service?
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: What can customers realistically pay?
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: Remember where you are when you start your business.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: Who are your customers?
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: What the money is like in your area.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself what remains after expenses.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then identify where you need support.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you understand your craft, but you need help with finances.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your product is strong, but your customer process needs work.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_00: Name the need.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: Find the credible person, organization, or professional who can help you understand your next step.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do it all alone.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are considering collaboration, start with a specific project and clear expectations.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: A team cannot remove every barrier that you may have, and your team may not be a good team all the time.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: You may have to cut some family off.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: You may have to cut some friends off.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: You may can't get in business with people that you know all the time, but you can get in business with people that you trust and people who know their role.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's called professionalism.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we need more of.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: Accountability and support.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want our communities to own businesses.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: I want to look on social media and see us more creative for what we actually own.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not sharing a whole bunch of products somebody else owns and buying a bunch of stuff to resell it and relabel it.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see us actually going to other countries and finding our vendors and our resources and making these connections for ourselves, for our for our families and our legacy.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to establish something that we can build on.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that requires an honest conversation about money, history, and access, preparation and cooperation.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: The entrepreneurship story becomes harmful when it promises wealth on demand and treats every struggle as a personal failure.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we've been told.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: We deserve better than that story.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: We deserve practical education, fair opportunities, useful relationships, and room to grow without pretending our journey is always so easy.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that we don't need support.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the expectation that people know most entrepreneurs ain't gonna uh uh minorities ain't gonna support one another anyway.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just debunk that idea.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: So before you sell somebody your hustle harder story, consider what would actually help them move forward: a referral, a freaking purchase, a useful introduction, a paid opportunity, a clear answer.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes support needs to become an action.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: You ain't always gotta even buy nothing from these people.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't always buy everybody's stuff that I share, but I believe it ain't gonna share nothing or get involved in nothing that I don't believe in and don't like.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: But if I see a person with an honest, good product, honest, good service, word of mouth is the best, best advertiser ever.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Always will be.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm not serving plates and I ain't cooking and I ain't boxing up nothing, and I know somebody over here that do it, why not drop a word?
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why not go ahead and refer them?
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even eat seafood, but I refer a seafood place in a minute.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody said it was good, I used to, I used to be able to eat it because I wasn't always allergic.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_00: But if I if I see it's full all the time, oh well, you know, yeah, that place keeps a lot of customers, maybe want to go over there.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: What is it taking from me to do that?
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm blessed.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: So remember, change the narrative of what we've been told.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: Stop out struggling yourself to death.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: Stop holding on to hardship because it's right, it's it's probably not you.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably not anything that you're doing wrong.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: You've just been told a lie.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna unlearn that lie.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this is your girl key, and you've been listening to Run Your Mouth Podcast.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what your biggest barriers are in building your business.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about it and revisit this again.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_00: Stop expecting everyone to carry the whole dream alone.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: And don't you carry it alone.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all tune in next time wherever you listen to your podcast, make sure you download, support, and visit Reader Group if you need a consultation.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: I offer 40-minute sessions for$99 because I did learn everything that I'm talking about primarily on my own.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I know the struggle is real, and everybody can handle that struggle.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot out of you to bear that burden on your back by yourself most times.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's blood, sweat, and tears.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why would I let somebody else go through it?
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't give it to you free though.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: But y'all come on over there, get your 40-minute segment, and um let me design an individual, customized plan for you that works for you and your business.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to make lollipops, blow plops, biscuits, or goddamn boats, whatever it is you want to do, there's a plan for you.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a partner for you, and there's prosperity for you.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_00: So y'all keep dreaming, keep envisioning, keep growing, keep supporting, and most of all, keep believing in yourself.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you again.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm out.