Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Overcoming the Odds: She was a C student and a college dropout, but she is the CEO of Black Ambition.

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Overcoming the Odds: She was a C student and a college dropout, but she is the CEO of Black Ambition. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: I am Rushan McDonald, a host the weekly Money Making
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• 0:34
  Speaker 2: My guess is the executive director of Black Ambition. It
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: was founded by Grammy Award winning artist and producer for
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Real Williams. Black Ambition is a national initiative that funds
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: and mentors black and brown entrepreneurs to build the future
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of innovation. The program has awarded millions in capital and
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: support to founders across industries. Please welcome to Money Making
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Conversations Masterclass. The executive director, Felicia Hatcher.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Hi you doth.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Fleischer, good fantastic, Rashan, thank you so much for having.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: Me on the show.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Got to this is right in my ally, my background
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: is My degree is in mathematics. Graduated degree in mathematics.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I thought I was going to be an engineer, but
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: they physics ran me out of that class. Okay, I
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: settled them on math and people tell me that's pretty hard.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: So I got to be impressed and I got a
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: math degree. But tell us about your program.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I've been building this what I call like a rocket
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: ship with Pharrell to cry really to be able to
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: create unprecedented access to opportunities and resources and really kind
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: of close that gap. Right.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I think there's people that are too comfortable wasting.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: The time of black entrepreneurs with misaligned resources and low quality,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: low vibrational mentorship, and that's definitely not the path that
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: we are on. And so as a result of that,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: we've invested in amazing companies and they we award the
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: checks to the entrepreneurs. That's also including a fantastic conversation
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: with Pharrell and then Melanie Hobson of Area Investments also
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: was on the board of Starbucks and JP Morgan, among
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: among other phenomenal things. And then we'll also, like I said,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: award the checks of the entrepreneurs the Fundable Founder's Forum,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: and so taking this big celebration, this big kind of
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: catalytic moment for these entrepreneurs, and then creating a set
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: of master classes. So not only are you hearing inspirational
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: stories which I think are fantastic and cool, but like
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: you're leaving there with actually how to implement it. And
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: I've been to a lot of conferences ra Sean, I'm
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: sure you have as well. You leave with a notebook
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: full of notes. And then a lot of entrepreneurs just
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: don't apply it right and so taking the time instead
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: of going from conference to conference or learning to learning,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: when do you actually apply and implement what you were learning?
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: And so we've created a really unique model with the
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Fundable Founder's Forum to allow them to get the information.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: And then Louis Vuitton is a partner of ours who've
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: been creating some phenomenal pathway for a lot of our entrepreneurs.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: And that session is really kind of tailored around creating
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: a luxury retail experience. So whether you were in the
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: luxury space or not, consumers in this economy are requiring,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: they're asking for different things as a result of the
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: buying experience. They're demanding more and so knowing the language,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: the art of how to really kind of take care
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: of them. And then I think for a lot of
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: entrepreneurs that really need to raise their rates, how do
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: you do that? Like, how do you communicate the value
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: proposition of what you were building and kind of wrap
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: that around getting people what they need and ultimately from
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: a profit.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Standpoint, you get to grow and scale what you're doing
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: as well.
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  Speaker 2: Cool, miss Hatcher, I want to make sure I'm getting
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: this right, I said, executive director.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: You said CEO, which one is?
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: It's so CEO is what I'll be saying. And I
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: apologize and gave me the information as executive director of
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Black Ambition. Now if anything is, there's always categories to
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: be a participant. Can you break down the categories that
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: involved with this? It really is a competition, correct.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, Yeah, it's a national competition.
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  Speaker 3: We get between twenty five hundred and three thousand applications
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: a year, so this has become one of the most competitive,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: you know, prize competitions specifically designed for black and Hispanic
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: and HBCU entrepreneurs and so as a result of that,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: it's a competition, right, and so the competition is fierce.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: You really are looking at entrepreneurs really need to look
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: for ways in which to kind of communicate their value
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: in the marketplace and ultimately like where they will go
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: with the investment of resources and time that we do
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: as an organization. And so I think some of the
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: things that I see where entrepreneurs fall flat is rushing
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: to fill out the application and really not taking the time,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: not understanding and not participating in info sessions.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: Success leads clues.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: We've invested in one hundred and thirty one companies, right,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: that means one hundred and thirty one companies have told
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: you this is the way that you succeed and matriculate
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: through the process, and so they have social media profiles,
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: they often take office hours like these are the things
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: that I have had to learn raising capital that allow
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: me to kind of negotiate and you like navigate right
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: tap into where you know the head of marketing and
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: the where the head of communication, Like what conferences are
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: they speaking at where you can get some one on
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: one FaceTime that you may normally not be able to get.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: These are the things that I think really kind of
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: stand out in an application process. And so we go
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: from those three thousand applications rash on to about two
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: hundred and fifty semi finalists, and then we take those
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty companies through a three month cohort
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: style mentorship program. So it's designed to stretch them in
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: ways they've never been stretched before. It's been designed to
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: challenge the assumptions of what they're creating, between their target market,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: their product, their teams, what they actually need to grow
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: and scale and succeed, and just a world class group
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: of mentors that support them. And I'd say one distinction
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: of something that we do that is one from the
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: early conversations with fell and I is like, we take
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: a holistic kind.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: Of fortitude approach to entrepreneurship.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: And so through a program called Evoke, we have mentors
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: mental health and wellness team that supports these entrepreneurs. Because
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: it's one thing to go out and raise money, it's
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: a whole other thing to make sure that you are
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: whole as you're running these companies. And a lot of
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: our entrepreneurs are being interfaced with proximity to wealth and
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: power for the very first time. And if you're not
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: careful and kind of protected in how you raise money,
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: who you raise money from, the EBB and flow, when
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: things go well and things would things go horrible? How
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: to be transparent in your conversation with your investors. This
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: process of entrepreneurship can swallow you whole. Absolutely, we prioritize
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: that as well.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Cool.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I'm speaking to the CEO of Black Ambition, founded by
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Pharrell Williams. If you don't know for William Grammy, we'll
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: be happy. That's my man, among other amazing hits. And
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I interviewed a young man who is tried three times,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: he say, failed twice and he finally got in. He's
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: a graduate of the Georgia Tech and Electrical Engineering. His
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: name is Lawrence Phillips. He has a platform called green
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Book Global, which is a travel review initiative platform for
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: black travelers. Basically it launched off of the principle of
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the original green Book, but now technology.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Is tied to you.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Well, when you travel places that welcome you, cities they
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: welcome you, and they have a partnership with Expedia. That's
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: how advanced their platform is. He founded in twenty seventeen
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: and he told me they have one hundred and fifty
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: thousand downloads. So I told him that's very good. Now,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: a person like that, like you said, he tried twice.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Third time he did make the finals, but he won
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: another type honor at your event.
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  Speaker 1: What was that?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he is, he's a top prize winner, right, so
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: and then he also got the top kind of.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: Voter's choice right as well.
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  Speaker 3: Right, And so you know, and I hear there's quite
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: a few stories of entrepreneurs that have applied multiple times
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: and might to them and sometimes they don't want to
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: hear it is apply again. My mentor has always said
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: to you, if it doesn't work on you in that moment,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: it works for you in that moment. Either way it works, right.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: And I've been an entrepreneur, There's spent so many things
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: that I've applied to that I didn't want to. I
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: was just I'm not applying for this again. And it
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: was that second time. It was that third time when
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I probably said a few choice words that I won't
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: repeat here, But like going through the process, and what
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: I realized in the process is every time I applied,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I became a different type of entrepreneur. I was asked
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: questions that I was a different person the first time,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: but the second time I had much more clarity, I
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: had much more traction in what I built and so
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: whether I got through the finish line or not, I
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: was a different entrepreneur just going through the process. And
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: so we've designed our process, whether people realize it or not,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: to do the exact same thing. It's going to ask
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: you questions that you may not have asked yourself before
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: in your business. But the result of sitting and actually
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: going through the process of answering it, you have a
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: completely different frame and how to approach everything. And so
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: we have to be comfortable and we have to actually
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: start enjoying the process that is put in place with
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: a lot of the things that we do to mold
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: us and not just say, man, I didn't make it.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: I'm upset, like I'm gonna give up and close up. No,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: absolutely not, Like continue to mold yourself through the process,
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: be stretched, be cut by the process. And that's how
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: you see growth in what you're building, not when you
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: give up. But it's like the iterative process of continuing
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: to go on and on. And if it doesn't work
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: for you at Black Ambition, there's so many other organizations
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: that I want you to kind of keep up and
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: keep going and keep applying.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Now, the ultimate question of the question for me is like, Okay,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I'm applying.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Who's judging, yeah, applying?
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Well, you know who's telling me I'm good, I can
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: go to the next round, And who's telling me, hey,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: try again next year.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: You know, we have about two hundred to two hundred
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: and fifty application reviewers. Every application goes to two to
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: three rounds of reviews, and so we're getting a quite
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: a bit different rounds of feedback on every single application.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: It's a pretty lengthy process of what happens on the
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: back end, but that's how we can decipher who rises
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: to the top. And then once they get there, that's
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: how we go from three thousand applications down to two
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: hundred and fifty applications that at that point they're submitting
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: things to us. They're submitting financials as well, so that
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: we can make sure that they are doing what they say.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: That they've done and that they are set up to succeed.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: And then there's another round, which you talked about with Lawrence,
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: that gets you down to the public voting, which is
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: the top fifty companies, and one of those companies will
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: automatically get a seat into the program by having the
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: popular vote, meaning that they've gotten the most people to
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: vote for them. And then is Demo Day where we
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: take the top twenty to twenty five companies and in
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: the past thirty three companies in order to award them
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: with financial capital and about six months of really intense coaching,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: getting them follow on funding opportunities, getting them on retail shelves,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: kind of take their Christmas list for shan like three
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: things that they want us to do, and support of them.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: And it's our goal to either get them there or
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: get them one big giant step closer to what they
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: need to grow and scale what they're doing.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: We will be right back with more insights from Money
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Making Conversations master Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: master Class hosted by me Rashaun McDonald.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Let's get back into it Alesia.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: You know, this is entrepreneurship and women of color, especially
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Black women, have been the fastest growing entrepreneurs. I've been
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: doing these interviews since twenty seventeen, so I can attest
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: that's a fact. Why are black women so into entrepreneurship?
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I think it's two things.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: With that stat right, they're the fastest growing, but they
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: are also largely solopreneurs and meaning that most of them
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: are not grow and scale the company, largely because from
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: a revenue standpoint and the opportunities that have been dismantled.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: But we also need them to be people that are
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: thinking about a team. And so even in our process
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: don't we don't invest in solopreneurs. You can't apply unless
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: you have a team mindset that you're building a team
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: and you're going to become a multiple You're going to
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: become a massive employer. That's how we have a multiplier
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: effect in our communities.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Talking to the CEO of Black Ambition, I'm telling you
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: how popular lists.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I didn't know about it. I'm men just let you
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: know that.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: But obviously a lot of people know about it because
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: twenty five entrepreneurs applied nationwide. Twenty five finalists will receive
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: funding and defined categories HBCU pre Accelerated Winners, National Finalists,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Top Prize Winner, and People's Choice. How can we be
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: aware of the alert or can we go somewhere to
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: a website to get on a mailing list?
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: The best way is to go to our website, Black
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Ammission Prize dot com. When you register and you join
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: in the newsletter. They get first hand knowledge and connections
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: to the inside track of how to really be able
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: to apply and then stand out in the application process.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: But there's a ton of resources that we do throughout
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: the year to help people best position. And then what
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: we also do is we bring back a lot of
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: our past prize winners, our million dollar prize winners, we
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: bring back for info sessions. They contribute massively back into
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: the Black Ambition community because it's definitely a family, and
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: they're the best ones to tell you the things that
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: they did or almost did not do in order to
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: end up ultimately winning top prizes of you know, one
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand to a million dollars.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. You know.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: The thing about it is that I always tell people
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: first well based on the color stands, and you know, I've
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: always had to walk in the room people knew I
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: was black, so that that that can stereotype you, that
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: I will benefit you unless you're walking in front of the
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: room for the other black people because people have stereotypes.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: But their entrepreneurship space is really important because we can
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: make a decision. And I always tell people Monday through Friday,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: my wake up time at four thirty. There's a commitment
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: to being an entrepreneur. Now, with that being said, Grammy
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Award winning artist and producer for Real Williams, why is
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: he doing this?
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: You know, I asked him that question all the time,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: from the very first time we met, you know, I
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: asked him that a few times a year. It's usually
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: the question that I ask him every time we get
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: on stage, right before we present the checks. He's still
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: doing this again next year And I ask him that
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: because as a celebrity who have the heights in the
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: career that he's had, he can do so many other
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: things with his time, right, And he's had a massive
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: impact from an entertainment, philanthropic, fashion, you know, product space
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: And he's an entrepreneur that didn't really.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Know he was an entrepreneur, right, And there are people
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: that invested it in him. And he always talk about
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: like that, right, like he's his mom has a PhD
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: in education, but he's a college dropout. Because he believed
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: in a vision early on and there were so many
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: other people that at the time where he didn't have
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: the full belief in his music capabilities. He borrowed someone
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: else's belief in him until it became his own. And
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: so building black ambition is a natural extension of that belief.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: The resources that need to come together, the connections, but
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: also the doors that need to be open from the
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: gatekeepers in the entertainment industry. And so we've dismantled all
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: of that. He's dismantled all of that. And that's why
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: we do what we do because we know that talent
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: is not equally distributed by zip code, but opportunity can
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: be right if we kind of democratize what that looks
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: like for other people, especially what it looks like for
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: our people. But you know, wealth is wealth has a
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: need for speed, and the only way that we're going
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: to close the wealth and opportunity gap is we got
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: to move faster. We got to find our superfans that
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: truly came about the value that black people have always
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: brought to the marketplace. And that's why he does what
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: he does in the way that we have done it
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: and we will continue.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: To do it.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna just tell you some Felicia. You're good, You're very,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: very talented. I do a lot of interviews you you know,
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: ragistart gois you go. You know you you articulate, you
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: know the value system, the purpose and the drive. Now
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: with that being said, you the CEO Black Ambition. Okay
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: for Rell, he's the Grammy Award winning artist and producer.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: How did you two connect?
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: You know, it's it's a few different ways, right.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: I've built an organization called the Center for Black Innovation,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: and here in Miami it built a technology conference with
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: my husband called Black Tech Week that we sold a
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: few years ago. I'm a C student who was told
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: I'd never make it to a college or university, and
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: I've had the most random career in and UH Tech, NBA, Nintendo, Sony.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: But I'm a C student and a college dropout right Like, ultimately,
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I'd never let those
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: things define me because I realized that there was more
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: than one pathway.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: To success if you get creative.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: And that has been the story of my life, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: that is how I've always looked and approached entrepreneurship. And
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: I've ran a few companies, have been successful, and I've
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: been had some epic failures and probably more than I
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: will ever account and own up to. Right And because
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: of all that is why I'm an entrepreneur. I'm also
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: the da also the grand granddaughter of a Jamaican sugar
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: cane and yam farmer, and my grandfather was an entrepreneur,
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: and throughout my own life until he transitioned, I'd never
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: called him an entrepreneur. No one in our family called
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: him an entrepreneur. But like, we ate a lot of
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: sugar cane and yam because that is what he harvested,
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: right and.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: My sugarcane market biting on the end of that right now.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: And my dad and uncle have been in the construction
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: and development space for about thirty years as entrepreneurs. And
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: so my other side of the family is from South Georgia,
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: so I grew up in it without even realizing it,
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: and I probably for the longest time couldn't even spell
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: the word entrepreneur correctly. But I am the beneficiary of
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: what it means to step out on faith, to have
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: a plan, to not have any resources, but to be
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: led by a vision so that it's ultimately transformational in communities.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: And so as a result of that, I get to
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: do this work. But like that connection point to Pharrell
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: is I think people are always watching you, whether you
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: realize it or not, And it was a random lunch
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: conversation with someone not even necessarily connected to Pharrell that
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: was just like, I need you to meet someone. And
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: that ended up being a random lunch that this is person.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: And the funny thing is a person kept asking me,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: are you familiar with black ambition. I was like, yeah,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: I'm familiar with black and missions like, no, look at it.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: And I ended up having another meeting with him the
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: next day with someone else. He's like, there's someone I
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: want you to meet and it ended up being Forrell's
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: chief of staff, and then that evening it turned into
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: a zoom conversation where he was in the background, he
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: didn't speak.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: It was his chief of staff.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: And then that turned into about four months of meetings
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: and conversations and interviews, and then I got asked to
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: be asked to lead the organization I had founded. I'd
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: just raised some significant money for to kind of transform
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: the Center for Black Innovation. I got asked to come
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: leave that and kind of build this rocket ship with Pharrell.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: It wasn't an easy answer, and I can look back
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: and and say that honestly, but it was the right thing.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: I was not in a position to write checks. With
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: what I had built with Center for Black Innovation and
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: with Center for with with with Black Ambition, what I'm
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: actually directly able to put checks and financial opportunities into
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: the entrepreneurs. They need the capital, they need the capital.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: They need the capital, and then they need everything else.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: But it starts with the capital to actually actualize the dream.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: One other thing I want to say before we this,
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: we're talking like this is a closed event. Can the
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: general public come to this event?
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah? So demo day is open to the public.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I would you come to Jake Felicia. I'm establishing the relationship,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: letting everybody know about Black Ambition.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Go to the website.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Get you get fired up because it's going to be
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: a six year is going to happen. You're listening to
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: the CEO finding about how she created just a massive
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: relationship with Pharrell, why he's doing it, just saying it,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: just dropping the bread crumbs.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, come on down. That'stment well spent in your time, right.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: But also you got to ask yourself, based off of
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: where you are right now, do you want to be
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: in that same position this time next year? And if
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: the answer is no, like I need growth happening in
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: the next year. So I'm a different person. My bank
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: account looks different, my business looks different, my household looks different.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: As a result of that thing, you probably need to
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: say yes of figuring out a way to get to
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: the Fundable Founder's Forum, and now.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: It's a program for you Black and Latino entrepreneurs. It's
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: broken down into categories. Again, this is like spreading the
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: word acknowledging that this campaign has been around. That's why
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: I'm on fire to get the word out because my
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: shore it's about small business, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, tech, financial literacy,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: and this false right in line with it. But more importantly,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: for Lisha, You're fantastic. You're amazing.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for the invitation, thank you for
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: just being sacred in.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: The space of being a storyteller.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: And I saw you by your brand architect of opportunities
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: for entrepreneurs, and so thank you so much for what
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: you do and just allowing us to kind of share
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: where this can kind of impact way more entrepreneurs when
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: they get.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: In the room.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Again, our launched was amazing and you are even more amazing.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: I'm talking to the c oh A Black Ambition Felicia Hatcher.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Thanks to our guests and our audience.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com to listen or register to be
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: a guest on my show.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,