- Just ahead on Black Issues Forum, we're kicking off Black History Month with an eye on entrepreneurship - taking the leap, overcoming the hurdles, and thriving on the other side.

Stay with us.

[upbeat theme music] ♪ - Happy Black History Month, everyone.

Welcome to "Black Issues Forum," I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

Since 1926, time has been set aside in February to celebrate Black history.

How that happens is up to interpretation, and that is a beautiful thing.

So, today we're highlighting Black entrepreneurship with our panelists who each have a business of their own.

We'll get into the uphill battle facing Black businesses, best practices for getting over, under, and through some of those hurdles, and in step with this year's Black History Month theme: health and wellness, managing your head space as you grow your business.

I wanna welcome Tivi Jones, CEO and founder of Hey Awesome Girl, a business consult enterprise building to a community of 10,000 female entrepreneurs and women owned businesses.

Greg Hedgepeth, president and CEO of substantial media, Professor La'Meshia Whittington of Advanced Carolina, and mental health therapist and life coach Jason Phillips, AKA the confidence expert.

I am so excited to have all four of you here today to dig into entrepreneurship during this Black History Month.

But first, I just wanna ask each of you; sometimes the question continues to arise, why do we still celebrate Black History Month?

Greg, let me open with you.

- Hey Deborah.

Thanks for having me.

Listen, and happy Black History Month to you all, I believe that Black History Month is so important because it is a recognition and acknowledgement of the legacies and the substantial contributions of Black people to our country, to the world.

And it is a constant reminder, if you will, that while we celebrate in February, we advance society 365 days of every year, and for my daughters, right?

I've got a nine year old and a three year old.

Black History Month is so important because it allows them, in these moments, again, to look back on and to celebrate all that is of our culture.

- Hey, those are great reasons.

And Tivi, how has it kinda manifested in your life, and why do you celebrate?

- That's a great question.

I'm from Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, I grew up celebrating Black History Month.

My dad infused that into us to just celebrate the richness of our culture, our uniqueness, and as someone who works in branding and communications, I know that you uniqueness is key to positioning your business.

It's been essential for me in differentiating myself in the market as a Black owned business and bringing all my intersectionality to that.

And I couldn't do that without the foundation of celebrating and honoring Black History Month as a child.

- I love that.

LA, some would say that setting aside time to focus on Black history keeps it boxed in, keeps it marginalized, but what are your thoughts on that and why you celebrate?

- Sure.

So let's briefly take a step back in history.

And so, Black History Month began as Negro History Week that was created by the father of Black history, Carter G Woodson.

And so the creation, the impetus of this week was actually to ensure that Black history, right, the foundational inventions, the creations, became a part of the public education system here in America.

That was impetus of the week.

And then 40 years later, the students of Kent University, the Black students, and Black teachers called for it to become a full month, in February.

And then guess what, President Ford then recognized it as a national holiday.

Because of that, Black History Month not only took, of course, wildfire here with Black history clubs being created.

It also created months in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Germany, that acknowledges our U.S. civil rights here, but also acknowledges the Black people of their own countries.

And so why do we celebrate it?

It's because it's who we are.

And now, 52 years later, we have to ask ourselves "Why do we need to keep pushing forward?"

Because we're still fighting for Black history to become a part of American mainstream history.

And that's why I celebrate.

It's my people, but I understand the legacy and the baton that's been passed.

- Thank you for bringing that history.

That's incredible.

Jason, let me get your thoughts on this.

Why you celebrate and the value of Black History Month.

- Yes, thank you Deb for havin' me.

And I wanna add that representation matters.

So we know we make up 14% of the U.S. population.

However, when it comes to Black mental health and wellness, we only represent less than 4% of mental health professionals.

And that number is even lower when it comes to primary care physicians.

So when we take the time to highlight our Black practitioners, it gives us a chance to know that there are people who look like us, who are doing amazing things, and it gives us inspiration and hope that we can change those numbers in a positive direction.

- I mean, I have to concur with all of you and I consider the fact that we have some conflict today about what we're teaching in our schools, and so there is not a need to stop doing this at all.

There's even more need, today, than perhaps there was a long time ago, many years ago.

We've got to recognize the contributions of African Americans to this great nation and also to the entire world to your point, LA.

So thanks each of you for your responses on that.

- We're talking about the value of remembering and knowing Black contributions to America and we know that it is Black businesses that have long undergirded Black people and communities and institutions to be able to make those contributions.

It continues today and the strength of Black businesses has ebbed and flowed pretty dramatically in the last few years.

In 2018 before COVID hit, Black businesses we knew, according to Census Counts, Black people comprised approximately 14.2% of the US population.

But of the nation's 5.7 million employer businesses, Black businesses were just 2.2%.

58% of Black-owned businesses were at risk of financial distress.

Enter COVID 2021 and in 2020, 41% of Black-owned US businesses were forced to shut down.

And since that time, there has been a resurgence with a 38% increase in Black businesses in the last year or so.

But what I wanna know is, we share all of these numbers, panel.

I'm gonna open with you, Greg.

We share all of these numbers, but what does it indicate?

Are Black businesses in a good place if we look at that 38% growth?

- No, I'm gonna just go ahead on and say it.

And the reason I say that is because of the great resignation, right?

We've coined this particular moment in time, the great resignation, folks leaving jobs to jump out there and make that leap.

But I will share with you that, of that 38%, I'd be interested to see what that statistic looks like next year, right?

And the year after that, right?

Because the fundamental piece here is that funding is so vital to the success of any business.

And I think any of these panelists will agree with me that there is a lack of funding as it relates to Black businesses, right?

Whether that be venture capital, whether that be access to capital through CDFIs or if you will, any particular large scale or big brand bank.

And so, when I think about the numbers that you just rattled off, the statistics, while it sounds great on paper and as numbers, I think there is still quite a bit of work that needs to be done in order for us to forge ahead and be truly able to say that we are sustaining, scaling and growing Black business and Black entrepreneurship.

- Yeah, the numbers say one thing, but it's reading behind the numbers and in between the lines because you look at that 38% and it's like, wow, you Black businesses or Black businesses are doing really well.

So, I think we don't need special programs.

LA, what are your thoughts on that?

- Sure and so there's a quote that comes to mind that says necessity is the mother of invention.

And so, that's exactly what happened to Greg's point.

There were necessity startups as their term that are businesses and firms that people start to survive a layoff or cut-off hours or income.

So, the surge that we're seeing of the businesses, Black businesses being open, are a combination of Black businesses that closed in COVID and new businesses.

So, we also have to be realistic what's in that percentage and also the fact that Black businesses, just like our community, were in pandemic before pandemic.

There were loan discrimination practices before pandemic.

There were barriers to being able to access approximate locations that would increase business flow.

So then, what we saw in COVID that actually impacted Black business was the fact that Black communities had the highest rate of COVID contraction.

Well, guess what?

Black businesses were located in Black communities.

And so, those forced mandates, those forced shuttering, of course, that shut down a lot of businesses to the statistics that you mentioned before.

So, when we're looking at the reopening of businesses and the new opening of business out of necessity, we have to be realistic that the programs, our State Department of Treasury did have a recent business grant that closed January 31st.

Folks should still email because they may do another reassessment of funds.

We have to look at that businesses like PNC has now contributed $2 million or at least promised to HBCUs, five of them.

But we also have to be vigilant in the fact that institutions, banks and corporations that have promised money haven't actually given the money.

And so, that's another thing we have to be vigilant about, is where's the support coming from?

$50 billion has been pledged, but only 250 million has been spent in two years to that pledge and promise of increasing Black business support in the form of loans.

- So, we've gotta get past the feel good and we also gotta get past the promise.

Let's see those dollars actually coming into Black communities, is what I'm hearing you say.

And we have to watch for those things because we've heard about all of the great programs, Citigroup, PNC, the national government with a $8.7 billion treasury kind of contribution.

And there was also the Goldman Sachs, One Million Black Women.

So, all of these different opportunities out there and I wanna ask you Tivi, you actually took the leap to start your own business not long ago.

We talk about funding these businesses and the capital needed, but another piece I understand is the mentorship and I want you to talk a little bit about that because you were part of a Blavity cohort and you've grown your business.

Can you tell us a little bit about the journey and what it took it, in addition to funding, to really thrive?

- Yeah, happy to.

I think my journey is a testament to the fact that entrepreneurship doesn't have to look one way.

I think it's great that we have all of these programs that help with funding, but a lot of times, as someone who works in communications, works in equity, equitable communications for large entities, including the government, I know sometimes these messages are positioned as mainstream, which means they're centering Whiteness.

They're not going into Black communities, they're not communicating directly with Black people.

And so, one of the things that I did in my business in 2020 is I like to study success even before we became successful.

I would follow people on social media.

It came to a point in 2020 where I was able to hire a mentor, work with Morgan DeBaun, the CEO of Blavity.

And that was one of the things that she said to me, like figure out who is where you wanna be, get feedback from them, listen of them and also build a community and build a tribe because that's how you can sometimes hear about different visibility opportunities, different financial investment opportunities, access to things.

A lot of these doors are mostly close to us.

And so, being able to get into the room, sometimes you have to get outside of your comfort zone, hire a mentor, humble yourself, listen to their feedback and advice and then go out there and get it.

- I want you to talk a little bit more about this idea, centering Whiteness.

What does that mean and is it a good thing, is it a bad thing, what is that?

- It's definitely...

I'll come out and say it's a bad thing for us in the Black community.

I've been in rooms where I'm consulting on health equity in COVID-19, I'm consulting on entrepreneurial equity before the pandemic and after the pandemic.

When you have these big organizations that have these programs, but the only people in the room who are doing the communications don't look like us, they can't inherently understand what messages are gonna resonate to us, how to reach us.

And so, it takes an integrative approach, pun intended, to reach our communities and have the impact that we need.

It has to be people at the table, it has to be people reaching into communities to share the opportunities.

It can't just be Goldman Sachs made an announcement about this program and we expect Black people to flock to it if the messaging isn't reaching them and resonating with them.

- Wow.

That is so key.

Jason, I wanna get your weigh in on this because there are companies out there that have the good intentions and the sincere intentions toward DEI say, but you look at who is orchestrating everything and then they might have one or two African American employees or employees of color sitting alongside, is that centering whiteness and what do companies really need to be looking at?

Because of course there's gonna be the pushback about, well, just because you're black, now we're discriminating against white employees, and assuming that they don't have the capacity to understand and represent interest beyond their own.

- Yeah.

They're a great question and great point too.

I'll say that companies need to look further at their hiring practices, how they're promoting people, how are they making people feel safe in their work environments and cultures?

Because what can happen is if there's not a lot of people who look like me at the table or in the break room, or at these staff meetings, imposter syndrome can take over, where now I'm thinking am I really supposed to be here or did somebody pull some strings?

So it can be tough when you're, whether you work in a corporate, private sectors, we can question ourselves and our abilities but when we don't have safe spaces to talk about what we're questioning, then we'll go home and sit with those feelings and then that'll sink in.

- How do you create safe spaces in a corporate environment?

- We need more clubs, more efforts, more strategic efforts to have people who look like us not only talk with us, but be a part of the table.

- Hmm.

Greg, let me get your thoughts on that.

We're talking about creating safe spaces at companies, also the whole idea of representation.

What have you encountered as you've worn several hats, not only as a chief communications officer at NC State University for the Institute for Emerging Issues but also as an educator at Shaw University and now president and CEO of Substantial Media.

- Yeah, no listen, I cannot look past the the brilliant points that have already been made regarding imposter syndrome and the points that have been made regarding not being at that table and having that authentic voice there.

So let me just pause and I wanna applaud what has already been said but I will share that it's real, you know, Deborah, it is real.

When we start to think about entering into spaces, being in rooms and we are the only one and we have to answer to some degree for the culture or we are now looked at as the one that may make it.

And I say may make it because we are now, and it's cliche to say, but we now and will always have to work twice as hard to ensure that we should be there.

- And then also making sure that you're representing because to me that is almost a disservice to the diversity of the African American community.

There a range of thoughts.

- That's a heavy, and that's a heavy load, that's a heavyweight to bear, right?

When you walk into spaces and you have to continuously have validation, you continuously have to look to the left and right of you to ensure that you're walking the walk, talking the talk and that you are showing up, unapologetically your authentic self, but then also if you will fall in in line and ensuring that you are creating a space, or if you will, an atmosphere by which more folks can have those same opportunities.

- La'Meshia, let me ask you something.

I mean, you have your own business and feel free to share what that venture is.

But you've been entrepreneurial since college and can you share best practices as you are making sure that you are a strong entity and avoiding some of the land mines out there as a black entrepreneur or maybe even just as an entrepreneur and who's not African American, any entrepreneur.

- Sure, sure.

So in honoring Black History Month, I have to honor my own people.

And so my family, we have a long legacy, especially my mother's side, of entrepreneurs.

Back in the day, we owned clothing stores, juke joints if y'all know what that is.

And so these other black owned businesses that were unique to the community that was about an activity, I'ma use your word, the village.

If it was helping folks actually be employed or the mutual aid of making sure folks were sheltered in place.

We had a society of the necessity deep in the mountains where it was literally out of the church, carrying around a wagon to give elders food or medical care in the absence of medical physicians because of segregation.

And then I grew up under my mother who as a divorce single mother of two went back to college to then become the first black person in the Southeast United States to operate an international Korean owned business.

And I grew up seeing that, that tenacity.

We didn't always have a lot, we sometimes we struggled to put food on the table but it was this combination of village that loved us.

And my mom would always say, "As long as you have family, you'll survive".

And sometimes family isn't blood.

Sometimes it's the village that you create.

And we oftentimes say, and Greg I really appreciate what you said, Jason, the same, about the imposter syndrome.

We always talk about a seat at the table, we need a bench at the table.

When we're talking about policies, when we're talking about a room, we need to make seats, because when you come in, it is the load of carrying a black culture when we're not a monolith but it's also the load of being siloed, of being isolated, and that on our mental health, you won't know what I'm going through unless you're sitting beside me and I can't know what you're going through because we're facing it together.

And so we have to dismantle this seat at a table as if it's a privilege, honey, it's not a privilege when the pursuit of happiness is now the burden of the plight of our people in our backs in one room by ourselves, and then I come out and it hurts.

So that's what I would say is business practices.

And also too always having flow of income.

You have to have a village that has your back, your three, your six, your nine, but you always have to have multiple streams of income.

My mom worked a third shift paper route at the same time that she operated a business.

It was always the hustle.

So when my brother and I opened our music business, The Scale Academy, we were still working at part-time jobs, guess what?

While going after school to teach children in over 10 different community centers and over 10 different counties because we had to be our own loan.

When a bank won't give you the loan, you have to be it.

- That speaks to the resilience, it speaks to the nature of the hustle, and knowing that you have to, as you said, have those multiple streams.

Tivi, talk a little bit more about the importance of diversifying your streams of income and perhaps even your funding, what you've experienced, how you can do that.

- Yeah.

So I started my own business in 2010 and I primarily functioned as a freelance consultant for many, many years.

And it wasn't until 2020 where I said, I actually wanna have a company, I don't wanna be an outsourced freelance resource for other businesses.

And that was in an effort to scale my revenue, to diversify my income streams.

I didn't want me as an business owner to be the sole provider or the sole thing that's bringing in revenue for my business.

At this point, over the past two years we've grown to a dozen employees, we have product lines including the jewelry that I'm wearing today, we have a - - Which is beautiful.

- Thank you.

- We have a social media management platform.

We have a show that's coming out in the next two weeks.

And so it's really important to diversify your income because if you're operating just based on your output on a day-to-day basis, you got 24 max hours and you gotta sleep, you gotta eat, if you have a family, you gotta spend some time with them, so that really limits your income opportunity.

So it's super important to diversify no matter what that looks like.

Real estate, products, hiring other people to help you do the work, whatever it takes.

- What I'm hearing is a lot of juggling.

So Jason, how do we manage all of, I mean, this has gotta be stressful on anyone's and how do you manage this?

And I wanna bring up a point, one of the things that I'd read preparing for the show is the fact that on the loan side just getting the funding for your business the low African Americans have the lowest application rate of would be business owners.

So just the whole idea that you're gonna face rejection is a hurdle.

In addition to all of the things that Tivi talked about multitasking, diversifying.

So, you know how do we manage this and keep our minds together?

- Well, as Tivi said you're juggling a lot.

So I would always recommend having a therapist because when you're in the startup phase and even as you scale your business you're wearing multiple hats in your business.

You also wear multiple hats at home.

So now you are just one person but you're trying to manage so many different things and it can become overly stressful.

And you may look at somebody else who's seemingly doing better than you.

And start to compare and say, well, he or she can do it, how come I'm having a hard time?

But when you sit down talk with the professional, have a mentor, have a coach because you need a whole tribe to support you, so that you can stay strong and resilient, but also take care of your own mental health and wellness throughout the process - I wanna take just the last minute to give you a few seconds each to share, what do black business owners want?

What do they need Tivi?

- I'll say what we want is freedom.

We want spaciousness in all the ways that that shows up or that, that desire shows up for us and what we need, I'll go back to all the points that LA, Greg, Jason made like we need community, black people, we thrive in community.

We gotta have that tribe.

We gotta have support of one another.

So we need freedom, true freedom.

And in order to get that, we gotta have community.

- Freedom and community, Greg.

- Hey, listen, I was always told there are so many more important things than money, but it takes money to do all those very important things.

So we've gotta have resource.

We've gotta have capital to start, grow, scale our businesses and at the end of the day, we need the attention.

We need the validation.

We are just as good as our white counterparts.

- There it is, freedom, community, money, attention, validation, LA.

- Definitely policy, huge on policy.

Because again, how do you enforce a promise?

And it's not our business to run a business and have to enforce a bank to give us a loan, that's not in our jurisdiction and authority.

So policy, we're not post-COVID, and I have to debunk that narrative.

We have different variants coming out and the impact of what did happen in COVID is going to reside for many years, right?

Even when we are post-COVID.

So policy that is in place to ensure the flow of resources it's equitable and communication is accessible to communities in our language, right, policy, and two, I'm just gonna have to plus one what everybody said, village, mutual aid is what we do best.

And that's still entrepreneurship.

When we ensure our folks are fed, clothed, have shelter, that's entrepreneurism.

Even if it's not given value.

Our mutual aid has always been our entrepreneurship.

- LA Whittington, Jason Phillips, Tivi Jones, and Greg Hedgepath, thank you so much.

- I want to thank today's guests for joining us today, and thank my mother Laverne Lane for designing this one-of-a-kind dress for me to proudly wear on this Black History Month episode.

We invite you to engage with us on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #blackissuesforum.

You can also find our full episodes on pbsnc.org/blackissuesforum or listen anytime on Apple iTunes, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.

For Black Issues Forum, I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

Thanks for watching.

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