206: Champions of Change: Black Men Leading with Purpose

Monique:
You’re listening to the Black to Business podcast, an educational podcast providing black entrepreneurs with the tools and resources to start and grow their businesses. We chat with vetted black entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and business owners as they provide tips and resources to help take your business to the next level. I’m your host, Monique T. Marshall. Welcome back to the Black to Business podcast. I’m your host, Monique T. Marshall. And today’s episode is a remix.

Monique:
So if you’ve been following us for a while, you’ve been listening to the podcast throughout the month of June. You know that every June, we dedicate this to our black men who lead series. And it’s a series where we highlight black men who are leading in both business and community. So throughout the month of June, we have dedicated each weekly episode to featuring a black man who’s leading. In addition to that, we’ve also done our list that we feature 30 black men who are leading in both business and community as well. So you can check out that full list@blackmenwhoolead.com. we have so many amazing individuals, and so we wanted to switch it up a little bit on the podcast for our last episode of the month. So this episode is going to be dedicated to featuring snippets, seven snippets of episodes that we featured with black men throughout the years of the podcast.

Monique:
And I’m so excited about this one because we actually went into the archives, can rewind some of those snippets from our earlier conversations with entrepreneurs who we spoke to in the early days. So you’re going to get a little bit of some of the early episodes and some of those later episodes. And I also love the fact that oftentimes when I hear some of these conversations, I’m like, we had them on the podcast before they, like, blew up. And that’s a good feeling because they were here first. And so, without further ado, we’re going to dive into the first one. So the first one is with someone who I truly, truly admire. That is doctor Dennis Kimbrough, and that’s from episode 112. And we’re talking about black America’s guide to thinking and growing rich.

Monique:
And I probably featured this episode so many times because Doctor Kimbrough’s work is something that I have admired. He’s a person that I’ve admired for years. I’ve read his books, and I really believe that he is a true leader. And so this snippet is so, so good. And I think that the most important thing is it’s actionable, it’s not just about emotions. It’s showing how can we as a community think and grow rich? So let’s get into this snippet.

Dennis:
So I’m a Johnny come lately, but that’s a critical factor. Why? Because what thou seest, that thou beest.

Monique:
Yeah.

Dennis:
What are the words, pictures, and images going through the mind of the successful individual? Well, they think about dreams. They think about vision. They think about productivity, they think about yield. I think about doing something and going somewhere. What are the words, pictures, and images going through the mind of the unsuccessful person? Well, they think about lack and they think about scarcity. They think about what was me. I can’t do that. The only thing I wanted my readers to do is just, you know, change the data, just flip the script, you know, ascribe to a completely and different paradigm.

Dennis:
Yeah, Monique, what the hell’s the paradigm? It is a set of ingredient born beliefs. And what we know about inborn beliefs, that’s what you learned. It might take you a long time to change it, but it can be changed. It’s not completely and totally innate. You can change it. Economics 101, microeconomics. It’s all about choice. There are 50 million different choices that, you know, as soon as we wake up in the morning, as soon as your lovely feet hit that cold ground, you’ll be bombarded with 50 million different choices.

Dennis:
And the overwhelming majority, you don’t have to. You don’t have to ascribe to. You don’t even have to choose. You don’t even have to face. But there are two choices that you must face day in and day out. And what are they? You can accept the circumstances as they are, or you can take the responsibility to change them. And this is African Americans. This is what we need to know.

Dennis:
Am I saying it’s been easy for black Americans?

Dennis:
No.

Dennis:
Am I saying discrimination and racism and marginalization and white supremacy has taken a toll on us? Hell, yes. But it was Booker T. Washington said, the circumstances that surrounds a man’s life are not important. It’s how that individual responds. So I got some good news, and I got some bad news. Here’s the bad news. Nothing will change until you change, Monique, and I’m using you rhetorically now. And unless you change, nothing will change.

Monique:
And next up, we have a true throwback. This is from episode number 23 with Malcolm Harris. And we’re talking about living your best life. And we wanted to feature this because Malcolm was dropping so many gems throughout this episode. And I think the gist of the conversation was really around because a lot of us are building businesses. Oftentimes it could get lost that we have to make sure that we are living and doing things for ourselves, because that’s truly what leads to happiness. So check out this snippet.

Malcom:
Think about the current state of your life. The state of your relationships, how you allow people to treat you, the state of your financial, your finances, the state of your health, the state of how you feel about yourself. All of that comes down to how you feel and think about yourself. Right? How you’re living today is a direct byproduct of how you feel and think about yourself. What allows one person to achieve extraordinary success and have extraordinary relationships and maintain their health is not luck or favor. And it’s certainly not that they have more than 24 hours in the day. They’ve got the same amount of hours in the day that you and I both have. The reason why they’re able to live a life that you like and that you yourself desire is because they believe that they deserve that life.

Malcom:
Here’s the thing I’ll tell you. Within our lives, we will always, always, always go after creating the life that reflects what we believe that we deserve, even in negative ways. Have you ever seen someone where they believe such negative things about themselves, that even when good things come along, they somehow know they find a way to self sabotage that good thing out of their life? They say, oh, I want a partner who’s going to treat me fabulous, who’s just going to treat me great and love me, love me, love me, who’s going to give me attention. And they get that partner, and that person calls them every day, checks on them good morning texts, all that other good stuff. And next thing you know, they’re saying, girl, he doing too much. I don’t know about all that. It’s just too much for me. You know? They find a way to sabotage it.

Malcom:
It’s no different in business. An opportunity comes up for them to expand and grow, but maybe they got to go and take some classes or go to school to do it. Oh, I don’t know about that. That’s just too much. I don’t have the time to do it. They sabotage it, you know? And so what I know to be true is that our level of accomplishment within our lives is a direct byproduct of what we believe that we deserve. And what we believe that we deserve out of life is a direct byproduct of how we feel and think about ourselves. The better we feel about ourselves, the higher the expectations are that we place on what we believe that we deserve in life.

Monique:
And at number three, we have the importance of access to funding for black entrepreneurs with Armon Davis. And that is episode number 70. This was such a good conversation because Armon really put a lot of things into perspective when it comes to funding. And I think it’s very important to be transparent and lay things out and know that our fight, our path, might be a little different as black entrepreneurs, but there are ways that we can get creative. So, here we go.

Malcom:
If I’m going to talk specifically about private equity, you know, venture capital, by their nature, they are elitist investments. Investment is an elitist investment class. It was really designed to benefit ultra high net worth people in their families. It is. It’s definitely a who, you know, kind of business. And we have not traditionally had access to that kind of a network. Right, right. And so we have to be a lot more creative when it comes to raising capital, when it be.

Malcom:
When it comes to access to funding. And sometimes that works against us because we. I know I couldn’t go to my friends at the country club or my father’s friends in the country club and raise a capital to start my business or raise the capital to start a fund. I have to leverage relationships that I’ve built up over time. But there’s no family friends kind of situation that allows for me to be able to just immediately put my hand on $20 million to start a business and grow a business. Now, the trickle down effect of this is that a lot of us, when we first start our business, one, are starting already underfunded when we start. And so you aren’t able to necessarily build and set up the infrastructure that you need for your business to help to position it to grow. It’s almost like that’s the backbone of your business.

Malcom:
If you think about it as your business, as a person, as a human being. Right. You don’t have. If your backbone isn’t strong, you can’t stand up straight, you can’t run. There’s a lot that you can’t do. And so when you can’t establish that. That infrastructure there in the beginning, then you. It’s already more difficult for you to be able to grow as fast as you otherwise would be able to.

Malcom:
Right. The second thing is that in terms of accessing capital, because you don’t have access to large sums of money on that friends and family, almost friends and family kind of arrangements, most black people end up running up credit cards. Right. You fund your business with your credit card. You’re probably paying 20% interest. If you got a platinum card, a great card, you’re probably paying 17, 18% interest on that card. If you got a first time card, you know, type of, you might be paying close to 27, 28% interest on that credit card. That immediately puts you at a disadvantage.

Malcom:
Right?

Monique:
Agreed.

Malcom:
And so it makes it to where you’re extremely sensitive to fluctuations in the market. If you have a downturn in the market, you have a bad couple of months, and you have problems making those minimum payments on those credit cards at 27% interest. Right. It puts you really behind the eight ball. Maybe the cart, maybe the credit card company closes your account, you know, or maybe you did have it at 17 and 18%, but because you missed a payment, now you’re up to 27. And so these are all factors that create headwinds for us as entrepreneurs. And what I really want to try to do is to help to alleviate some of those things through access to funding with my fund, but also to help to navigate some of those. Some of those things are going to be there.

Malcom:
Right. And I’m not arrogant enough to sit here and say that I’m going to be able to single handedly remove all these obstacles, but what I can do is help a founder to navigate them because I had to deal with them myself.

Monique:
And now we have, from episode 83, the power of betting on yourself with Benny Pugh. And this is so powerful because each and every day, as an entrepreneur, it is not easy. And you really have to understand why you’re doing things and know that oftentimes you’re taking a risk. But you know deep within your gut that you can do this, you will do this, and you are made to do this. And so in this conversation, Benny shared his own personal journey as he’s worked with so many celebrities. And even when it looks like he had the ideal, perfect life career, he still took another risk and bet on himself and leaked. And a lot of people could have thought that he was crazy. But he talks about how it’s so important to really believe in yourself.

Monique:
So this is a good snippet.

Benny:
The concept of betting on yourself may not necessarily lend for everyone the same way. Betting on yourself may not be to become an entrepreneur. It may be to get the promotion at that job. It may be to switch careers. It may be, you know, what, I need to go back to school. It may be, you know, what, I need to do something on the side. So betting on yourself is what’s going to be your purpose for what’s important for you on this journey that you have in life. For me, it was really important as I started to grow, you know, you get it in your belly.

Benny:
And ideally, for me, having the success and being a part of successful teams, I always wanted that level of success on my own. During my time in corporate, I also started my own business, a real estate business, which I at one point, had, you know, over 100 and plus doors. So it was always the entrepreneurial aspect for me and preparing for rainy days, which was really important. And always just like in the bibles, seven years of famine, seven years of harvest right. You got to be prepared for the famine and make sure that you work the harvest right. And while you have things in the silo, know what you can and what you can’t do. So it was. It’s.

Benny:
It’s been a great journey for me on, on knowing that having the opportunity and the liberty to go out every day, be happy every day, and enjoy life on a different level, like just working for, you know, as you asked me earlier, what’s it like for people, you know, leaving, leaving. Leaving the corporate and working with these artists? Well, guess what? Artists are artists. Companies are companies. And at some point, there’s an expiration date on all of them. Why not be in control of what’s important for you? You know, it wasn’t so much for me about getting past the velvet rope as much as it was on acquiring the knowledge and the information and the know how on how to feed myself.

Monique:
And next up, we have the psychological price of entrepreneurship with Ryan Mundy from episode number 126. And we know that it’s a price to pay to be an entrepreneur. And a lot of times, that’s a mental, physical, financial, all of the things that comes with being an entrepreneur and taking a risk, leading others, encouraging others to get on board, all the things that go into running a business and really trying to see your vision through. And so in this snippet, Ryan really talks about that. Here it is.

Ryan :
If you’re starting, if you started a business, if you’re running a business, then nine times, probably ten times out of ten, you know, you’re going through some things as relates to managing your mental health and wellness. And that shows up in, like, stress and anxiety, worrying about the business, thinking about other issues as well around. There’s a lot of imposter syndrome that shows up. Where am I qualified to do this? Should I be here? So on and so forth. And so, you know, navigating those challenges as an entrepreneur is something that’s always top of mind for me, because the reality is when you’re starting something from nothing, that is really, really hard to do, you’re thinking about, like, financing, you’re thinking about money, you’re thinking about your team. Like, all these factors kind of weigh on you on a daily basis, particularly when you’re leading the company. And a lot of times, like, I’m a solo co founder, excuse me, I’m a solo founder. So I don’t have a co founder to my right or to my left to kind of share the load with and have, like, some really, really intimate conversations about the business.

Ryan :
And so, like, a lot of times I have to kind of sit with it myself or find somebody externally to kind of get that stuff out of me and get some. Some insights and learnings. But ultimately, it all rose lead back to, like, look, if you really think about it from. From idea to bringing it to life, to getting people to believe into your vision, growing the company, scaling the company, financing it, I mean, it is taxing like 1000% tax. We’re just talking about on a. It starts with the mental aspect, but then it really starts to show up in your physical activities as well. So I always talk to entrepreneurs and always reminding myself around, like, look, the business goes as you go, and if you’re not good, then more than likely your business may not be good.

Ryan :
Right?

Ryan :
So you always got to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself. And the most important thing is with that, too. Rest. We don’t talk about that enough, particularly in our community. But as entrepreneurs as a whole, rest is important. And rest is essential to you being successful at your, quote, grind. Everybody talks about the grind. Everybody talks about working hard, but nobody tells you what enables you to work hard.

Ryan :
If you just grind, grind, grind, you’ll grind yourself into an unsharp tool that is not useful and can’t help anybody. You got to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself. Resting, recovering, so that when you. When it’s time for you to show up, you’re showing up as your best self.

Monique:
See, I’m such an amen corner. Okay, so next up, we have from episode number 127, the importance of centering black voices and creating unfiltered content with James Dubose, who is really talking the talk and also walking the walk and making sure that we own our narrative that whatever is being pushed out there about the black community is from us and by us. And I think that this is so important. And what I love from this snippet is that he puts things into perspective from. For those who are building platforms, to look at it from a lens of the different customers, the different readers that you might have. So this is really good.

James:
Social media now is how most people get their news or get their information. But what it has done, in my opinion, it has stopped people from studying, from reading, from researching, from figuring out themselves and thinking for themselves. And I think that is the power that media has. But where it should be is giving you an opportunity to say, I never thought about that, or is that true? And ask the question, why? And hopefully, what I think is, what I would love for Fox. So, in essence, and black media in general, is to just be able to have people think about the why. And I say this to say, I felt like I would hope that we could do what foxhole, what hip hop did for the music industry. Remember when that came out, they thought it wasn’t going to last. It was only coming from.

James:
From the hood, and it was gonna go away. But now everybody, all cultures appreciate hip hop. And actually, cultures that are not of the black community probably consume and buy more hip hop than we do as a culture. But it speaks to the power of our stories, it speaks to the power of our voices when we tell it authentically and from our own perspectives and our own POV. And so I think black media, once we are able to do that, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a separation. White media, black media, and so forth. It just becomes a respect factor, and a factor where people actually respect your culture because they’re starting to understand it and hear it in an authentic way. But you cannot expect people who don’t know your culture or respect your culture to help you enhance your culture.

Monique:
And last but not least, from episode number 90, is why knowing and committing to your why is important for success with Steve White. And I put this one last because Steve really gave out some step by step tips on actually why the commitment is so real. And I also wanted to end this one with this because it’s so important. We talk about this all, all the time on the podcast to know why you started, because that’s what’s going to keep you going when those times get tough and when there are some highs and you’re thinking about, oh, what’s going to happen next. So understanding that why you started is so important, but then also know that you are meant for great things to happen. So this is a really step by step. You might want to even get your notepad out for this one. So here we go.

Steve:
Number one is you got to find your fight. And people say, well, Steve, how do I find my purpose? Here’s where I, I’m going to give you three questions, and hopefully our listeners are writing this down. Number one is, what do you think you’re good at?

Steve:
Now?

Steve:
Get some feedback. I think I’m a good singer. My wife has convinced me I’m not. But whatever you think you’re good at, some people are good at sports. Some people are good at interviewing people. Some people are good at writing. We all have a gift. I truly believe we all come in this world with a gift.

Steve:
And then it’s up to us to develop. Number one, what are you good at? Number two is what are you passionate about? And number three, what would you do if you had to do it for free? Would you still do it? And I don’t need to tell you, Monique, when you’re writing a book, none of us are getting rich here. This is a love affair that you’re doing it. So when you can answer those three questions, then you start to look for the themes that pop out. What are you good at? What are you passionate about? And then what would you do for free? If you can answer those three questions? And you’ll start to find some themes through, as you answer those three questions, that will set you on the path of finding your purpose, of why you’ve been placed on this cert. Now, it’s not an easy process. It takes reflection. Sometimes it takes people a year or six months or maybe even longer.

Steve:
Sometimes they, they’ve got to stumble along the way. But that’s, number one is find your fight. Number two is, in life, there are a lot of distractions. Focus on the real prize. Let me give you an example that you can try. Build two columns, put in the right column, things that are valuable to you. Then, Monique, in this second column, put is what is priceless to you. So my relationship with my wife and my son, Stevie, that’s priceless.

Steve:
So how do I make sure that I don’t lose sight of that prize? And that’s why it’s so important to understand your purpose and why. So now you know what to focus on, because there’s so many distractions in life. That old adage, look over here, don’t look over here. Number three, live your life as a learning lab. Life is a journey. Find opportunities to learn. Stepdad, who’s no longer with us, he was taking spanish lessons at 75 years old.

Steve:
Who does that.

Steve:
Desire to learn? And when you can focus your learning on your why, that’s critical. That’s why pathway number one, finding your fight is critical. Number two is focus on the real prize. Number three, live life as a learning land. Number four, think and act like a business. And here’s what I mean by this is, yes, I work for Steve White Incorporated. I’m chairman and CEO. Comcast purchases my services.

Steve:
And for the last 22 years, I’m very excited about that. But by changing my mindset, Jay Z says, I am a business, not a businessman. I am a business. Not to, not to break off Jay Z here, but think about your business. You’re a company, your CEO. So how do you find ways to constantly pour into your company? So for our listeners that are listening to this session, you’re pouring into your company. You’re here because you’re trying to find ways to invest in your company. And you’re hopeful that you, this conversation will enrich you and help your company be more successful.

Steve:
Number five, you only own two things, attitude and effort. Control what you can control. I can’t control people. I can’t make people like me. Condoleezza Rice had a great quote. She said, if somebody doesn’t want to sit by you, make them move. Don’t you move. You can’t control how they feel.

Steve:
All you can do is control you. Number six, navigate uncertainty. Because if you think success is a straight line, I’m here to tell you somebody’s lying to you. Success is never a straight line. It is always a crooked road. So how do you learn to embrace and navigate uncertainty? Because I promise you, you will be impacted by adversity. And then number seven is commit to road dog relation relationships. Making deposits always yields big dividends.

Steve:
So invest in people and you will find they will invest in you.

Monique:
And there you have it. Some of our favorite snippets from our black men who are leading in both business and community. We appreciate all the work that they are doing. And to check out the full episodes, you can always go to blacktobusiness.com that episode number. Or you can actually go to blacktobusiness.com 206 for the show notes to this episode and we’ll also link them there. So before I let you go, I want to give you some few announcements. So one, be sure to check out our list of black men who are leading our list of 30 men@blackmenwholead.com. and when you go to the website, you’ll also see that we’re having our annual black men who lead eventually on September 4 in Brooklyn, New York.

Monique:
So it’s an event that you don’t want to miss. So you can actually sign up for the mailing list to learn more about what’s going to be happening, how to get reminders, and we hope to see you there. And lastly, I want to say thank you for being a listener of the Black to business podcast. Thank you for continuing to support, promote, share all the things, and also thank you for allowing us to be a part of your journey. We cannot thank you enough, and I can’t wait to see you back here next week. As I always say, same time, same place.