(upbeat music) - [Narrator] A Slice Of The Community is made possible by the support of the First Horizon Foundation.

- Hello and welcome to another episode of Slice Of The Community, I'm Jerome Moore, and today we're joined by Carlos Partee and Javvon Jones, the founders of Nashville Black Market.

How y'all doing?

- Good, good.

Thanks for having us.

- Nah, thanks for y'all bein' here.

You know we gotta talk about the empowerment of black owned business in Nashville.

And firstly, congratulations on five years, - Thank you.

- with the Nashville Black Market.

How does that feel, Five years in business amplifying and impacting black owned businesses in Nashville?

Just middle Tennessee.

'Cause I know y'all travel too.

- Yeah.

- It's exciting.

I don't know, just the work that we doing it just motivates us every day just to kind get up and kinda figure out how we can kinda keep amplifying.

Also, sourcing and cultivating the businesses.

We talk pretty much all day, every day about it.

So it's just, I think it's something that's really big on our minds right now.

- You know what I feel like?

There's a lot more to be done.

- Yeah.

- It's like we just now gettin' started, even though it's been five years.

- Yeah.

So, as far as like a lot more to be done, y'all are working with entrepreneurs, black owned entrepreneurs, like all day every day.

That's what y'all do.

What are y'all hearing from the city right now, from black entrepreneurs and black small business owners in the city?

- It's a lot.

- Yeah, tell us.

Unpack it a little bit.

- It's a lot of different perspectives, especially businesses that are at the development stages and businesses that have been, together for a few years or a multitude of years.

So, you hear a lot about funding.

You hear a lot about scalability.

You hear a lot about partnerships.

You hear a lot about sponsorships.

It's just so much, it's so much that needs to be covered.

And I think that's one of our parts is helping these businesses navigate through the marketplace, but also finding ways that we can kind of help them, bridge the gap between whatever that they're missing.

So, Jay's perspective might be different.

But these businesses are growing.

They're profitable.

They don't sleep on these mom and pop businesses.

They're million dollar businesses.

And a lot of the times they don't have the access to scale them or they don't have the access to have these multiple locations or whatever it is that they may need to continue their business to grow.

And I think it's a disconnect.

It's missing there between the hierarchies and whoever makes that channel and that flow, because a lot of these businesses didn't get those recovery funds or those PPPs and different things of that nature.

A lot of those businesses didn't have access to 'em or didn't have the proper knowledge or education or paperwork for them to sign up and get it and access it.

But also they just didn't have the connection that these other businesses or the counterparts that we have in business do.

- How about you Javvon?

- I'm looking at a different perspective, like you said I may be doin'.

So, I look at it as, what I've been hearing is a lot of inspiration, a lot of motivation that we're giving these mom and pops or these young entrepreneurs or these business owners that been around for a long time.

I hear a lot of thank you.

A lot of just aspiration that they give us to keep going because they're saying, hey, you guys had a marketplace that you guys started.

You guys are young.

We had an event for four hours and I was able to make these type of dollars.

You know what I'm sayin'?

That's gonna benefit not only my business, but my family.

So, I'm hearing a lot of like success.

A lot of impactful conversations and things like that.

- You brought up, Carlos, you brought up funding.

Which is important when you're talking about scalability and sustainability with any business.

But we know there's discrepancies when it comes to black owned businesses and their counterparts when it comes to finding funding, finding sponsorships.

Whether you're a small business or nonprofit, that funding thing there's always disparities.

Talk to us a little bit about that.

Of how you all have been able to work with some of the small business owners, black ones here in Nashville around finding funding or even just doing the Nashville Black Market, enabling businesses to make that extra $1,000 that they may need that month or $5,000.

- Yeah.

2021 to, what is that?

2000, - [Javvon] 22.

- 22, we put over $700,000 back into the community.

- [Jerome] $700,000?

- Yeah, just by circulating the black dollar, these businesses that we have in our marketplace month to month or these multi festival, cultural festivals that we have, being able to empower these businesses, bringing people to the marketplace, bringing them customers, consumers, lifelong business, businesses are being able to scale their business.

So, we have businesses that have come to our events that are able to get their own brick and mortar now or they're able to continue to build their business.

And I think that's been our goal is to figure out how we can bridge the gap between those disparities and those things that these business owners are not having access to or being able to create those proper channels through the people that we partner with that may have FDIC or these different banks or whatever the case may be.

So, I think that's been our goal is just to how can we continue to empower these businesses.

- I'm gonna ask you a different question, Javvon.

What are some resources, specifically, especially when it comes to funding, that you all see that black-owned businesses do not, are just not aware of when it comes like, oh, I didn't even know this was available.

I didn't know I could, I'm eligible to get this grant or there's funding here.

Can you talk to us a little bit about some of that, those resources?

- There's a lot of partners that we work with, like Urban League, Corner to Corner, Pathway Lending that hone in on certain different resources, as part of their program.

And for them to work with us, we are able to communicate that to the vendors or the business owners that wasn't aware of that.

If that makes sense.

- What are the two dynamics that you see, especially with like new entrepreneurs, that that makes them succeed and then makes them maybe like fail?

What are the two or some characteristics or dynamics when you all are working with these small businesses or just some people say, hey, y'all doing this?

Help me.

(laughs) What are some of those characteristics of, okay.

'Cause entrepreneurship is not easy.

And people see it and it look great.

It look fun.

Like, ah, okay.

They doing they thing at the farmer's market or the fairgrounds, But they don't see all the work that goes into it a lot of times.

They just see the end result.

Talk to us a little bit about those characteristics that you see, those traits that help some succeed and the others not so much.

- I don't really see one failing.

I just I see one learning slower, Slower than the next person.

I feel like every step towards a business step is like a process.

So, some might catch on quick.

Just like in school, some might catch on quick, some catch on a slower or whatnot.

Might take 'em a little more time, but they still get there at some point.

So, I always tell 'em, as long as you keep that mind strong and your business strategy and keep working on your business strategy to get to a certain point, to where a point your level is, you gonna end up being successful, as far as the characteristic of learning how to have a good setup at a pop-up shop or learning how to have communication, being organized.

A lot of these business owners lack in some of these places because, and they're a part of their life.

That's what they lack at.

You know what I'm saying?

So, it's a workin', it's always a workin' consistent situation.

- Hey, Carlos, in your own way or form, what does it mean to be a black entrepreneur?

A black small business owner?

What does that mean?

If you had like a value statement or a mission statement, like what does that mean?

- I wouldn't say it would be like a mission statement or like a, Yeah, I mean I'm an entrepreneur just like any other, my other counterparts.

I just happen to be African American or I may be a different ethnicity or whatever the case may be with a minority owned business, but it's just the, some of these businesses or a minority owned business or a black-owned business, they might have been born in a zip code that may make their business a little bit more lesser than the next business.

Or it may be their credit or whatever it is upon their presentation may make them slower to the next business.

Or it's always been put in a box to where it's like a black entrepreneur, black artist, black this, black that.

And it's just, at the end of the day, we're all the entrepreneurs and creatives and business owners.

But what makes us different is the innovation of what we've been able to create with the lack of access and tools that these other business owners are able obtain.

And that's what always makes us a a little bit more unique or it makes it like, oh wow, that's a black owned business or you need to support these businesses.

And I think it's been like a really, it was a really big way after the George Floyd.

You know, a lot of people were supportin' and raisin' these businesses up and what can they do?

Can we donate?

Can we do this?

And it kinda started to simmer down after so long of not being able to, it being in the forefront.

It started to just become this thing of where you're a black entrepreneur, you're a black business owner, and it just kind of labels and puts us in a box to where we're not able to create, or it cuts us off at the legs to be able to get other resources and tools that we may need as well.

- I wanna, You brang up a good time point that George Floyd 2020 also during the pandemic.

A lot of businesses will birth that opinion because of the need of necessity and needin' a side hustle or just needin' extra income or loss of employment.

Have y'all seen Nashville black entrepreneurs and business owners bump up or scale up, even during the pandemic, because it's thriving?

I think I seen some, you had said it went up from, it went up 15% or something like that, from 13 to 15% or something like that.

Those stats when it comes to the number of black-owned businesses now in Nashville.

- Yeah.

I think the pandemic birthed a lot of creative entrepreneurs.

A lot of businesses were birthed during Covid.

And I think it was a really good thing, but it also kind of gave these people to be put on pause to be able to whatever it was in their life to search for their talents and find those things that they've always wanted to do and what they were credible at doing but weren't getting paid for it to do.

And I think it was a, I don't wanna say, I don't think it was a good thing.

I think it was a, it was able to give these people the chance to put whatever it is out there into the universe and see how it comes back to 'em.

And I think Nashville, at the time, was ready for it.

This birth of like new entrepreneurship to where it was people selling stuff on Facebook or people selling stuff on Instagram or shipping their products from here to there or influencers or you just creatin' this product out of desperation and it shocks the world.

I think it gave entrepreneurs the chance to see, okay, I can do this too.

I can create this or I can build my business and scale it from here to there.

I think it even gave us the idea of we have to go to marketing, we have to go online, we have to make our products available for everyone, but also be able to teach and scale other businesses how we're doing it and give the operating and processes and systems and stuff like that.

So, it put us on halt, but it also gave us the chance to open up new doors and see things that we weren't able to see because we were always in the ground, we're always focused and we always had this freedom of being out in the open without any quote unquote "consequences".

And I think that just gave us the chance to see, okay, these entrepreneurs need a chance to keep scaling their business.

- Yeah.

I kind of felt like I was like in the escape game.

We was like in the escape game where it's like, we're gonna put you in this room, and you gonna have to figure out how to get out.

You know what I'm saying?

It make your mind even more stronger when you are in a smaller space.

- Space.

- Mind space as well.

It just, it really, you know, like you're tied up.

It's like it, and there wasn't anything nobody could do.

And it was a time, - [Javvon] Survival mode.

- Yeah, it was like a survival mode, especially for these businesses, because imagine a brick and mortar location, somewhere you go to every day or something.

We deal with people.

And so, us not being able to have our marketplace, it cut us off at the legs to where we were like, okay, what do we do?

What's next?

What do we, What's the next step for our business?

- [Jerome] How do you pivot?

- Yeah, how do you pivot?

And I think it also just, imagine Instagram or social media stopping for 10 weeks.

It's like, what would businesses do?

- [Jerome] Get a billboard.

(all laugh) Get television.

- It would go back to traditional marketing, guerrilla marketing.

And so, I think that's what it gave a lot of people to understand.

It's like, okay, everything, you gotta value what you have at the moment.

- In the black community, this black culture, a lot of times, we always hashtag and support black owned businesses, support black businesses, but a lot of times it doesn't happen consistently.

It's something tragic happens or it's some type of an event and then like you kind of mentioned it, it goes up and then it simmer down.

How can we, or what are strategies the community can use, black folks or just allies, everybody, to consistently support black owned businesses in Nashville.

I'll start with you Javvon.

- Hmm.

I think marketing's big.

Just like puttin' it out there.

A lot of people say, oh, I didn't know I was able to do that.

I didn't know I was able to volunteer here.

Or I didn't know about this right here going on.

There's still people that don't know about the Nashville Black Market and we've been doin' it - What, for real?

- five years.

- I don't believe that.

- No, I'm serious.

(laughs) And we've been doing it five years, so it's like, never stop.

That's what I was telling the other day.

We need to think about going back to our roots on how we begin to start and goin' the traditional way more than the, and doin' a little bit of both.

Balance it out, to get the word out.

So, to answer your question, just more so word of mouth and just more so getting your brand out there to realize that, hey, you can sign up right here to be a part of this.

- What about you Carlos?

What are some strategies that people can use to consistently support black entrepreneurs, black small owned businesses here in Nashville?

And not just do it, like, I'm gonna do it this one time because something happened.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- But something on a consistent basis to where like, okay.

- Yeah.

Honestly, shop.

Shop with them.

Support them.

You can repost their stores, you could tag people in their posts.

There's so many different ways that you can support without even have to spend your money.

It's letting your coworkers know, letting your staff know or having your business sponsor something that they're doing.

I mean, it's just so many different ways that we can support one another here in this community.

And there's so many more ways that we are probably not even thinking about.

It's just the collaboration that, We really think that the Nashville Black Market wouldn't be where it was without the people.

And so, if you don't have the people and you don't support those people, it doesn't continue to grow.

And so, that goes for the same thing with the people that support our businesses.

If you don't keep supporting, stuff doesn't grow.

And that's really the key is supporting, figuring out what way you can support.

So, if it's not money, support in sharing.

If it's not sharing, support in telling somebody else about whatever it may be.

You have to communicate that and you gotta keep pushin' it.

And I think we also are trying to find different ways to engage with different communities and different people to understand we're inviting everybody out.

This is a festival, a cultural festival and you should come and you should support, but also support after the event as well.

Support the retail store.

Support these businesses on their websites.

Support businesses that are also brick and mortar locations that are surrounding.

And I think it's gonna take a lot more work within Nashville, in general, whether it's tourism, whether it's us coming together and finding more ways to kinda support us as a whole.

But I think it's definitely happening here in Nashville.

It's starting to become this thing where we see it at the events and we're like, oh wow, we weren't expecting that.

Or Oh wow, we weren't expecting that repost or that tag.

So, we're appreciative of what Nashville is becoming.

- And so, speaking of Nashville as this, let's look at Nashville as a system With different governing bodies.

I know like the mayoral administration is real important as far as decision making when it comes to how we spend our dollars economically and who they impact.

What are some strategies, the city as a whole and these entities and these bodies, what could they do to better support black owned businesses and making sure they can have that impact on the city, especially with all this economic growth and be a part of that?

And get a whole big slice of the pie that's happenin' here in Nashville?

- (Sighs) It's so much.

- Yeah, name 'em.

Name some.

Go back and forth.

Because I think, one, people need to hear this and know where to start also, but like from a city-wide thing, if you're from here, you're like, well, we already know kind of the areas that have been historically neglected, but we see this growth that's happenin' in those same areas.

If I don't have a brick and mortar, how can I get some of that business?

Well, we know the stadium is happenin'.

Okay, I'm not a construction worker.

- How can I be a part?

- But how can I be a part of the Titans and what they're doin'?

And so, what are some systems that can be built or what are the things that systems that are already built in tech can do in order to support black owned businesses?

- So yeah, we've been knowing about like Nashville's buzzin' economy, downtown honky-tonk, it's a billion dollar industry.

They talk about 22 million made every day or whatever those numbers theoretically are, but 74 million for these events that are coming through.

And so, we need a piece of that.

I think Nashville, black Nashville, whatever part of Nashville, we need a piece of that.

It doesn't just need to be centered or focused around just one area when, whether it's country music or these events to where it's Music City this and Music City that when Fisk is Music City Jubilee.

We need a piece of that.

We all need a piece of that to where we can figure out how to circulate it.

Because if we have these bigger events that are coming into town, we can look at different cities and strategies that they've done where New Orleans really eats during NFL when the Super Bowl is there because it's the city.

They have to make sure that these are put in position in place.

But we can also look at different cities like Atlanta where they create the belt line or they create these different strategies to where they're helping these black-owned businesses succeed and not just give a dog a bone and you gotta, We need more things set into place to where we can orchestrate and build and continue to build.

We need places for incubation.

We need places like, I don't want to give away too many ideas and stuff because it's like they need to come and talk to us.

Because there's so many different things that we could figure out and we could do that can really enhance and empower our economic, We can stimulate it.

We could really do some really big stuff here in Nashville.

And I think it's just given the chance to make it happen.

- I mean, just to piggyback on what you're sayin', we said not too long ago, a couple minutes ago, that from 2021 to 2022, $700,000 was circulated throughout black business throughout our events that we do once a month.

Nine to 10 times out the year.

- That's amazing.

- $700,000.

I need some of that.

- And if we had a warehouse, or if we had a place and that's like Mark had a warehouse or a place that we can do this on a seven days a week, - It'd be crazy.

- It'd be way more money and way more, - The tourism rate would be crazy.

People come here anyway just to come to the events, but also, just imagine all our counterparts that are people that we are in business with or people who have nightclubs or restaurants.

They're also missin' a piece of what Nashville has as a whole too.

So, it's a disconnect somewhere.

- But then also, what I love about that is, one, it's not about y'all.

It's about truly the amplification of other black-owned businesses.

And it also gives them a consistent place to sell if they don't have a brick and mortar, but it gives a consistent place for community from all ethnic groups and walks of life to come and support if they want to in one big hub.

And so, I'm gonna go ahead and manifest it.

I think, 2027, 2028, whatever that new dome stadium is finished, doin' a Nashville Black Market inside the Titan Stadium would be amazing.

Or at the soccer stadium.

So, I think those things are definitely possible and we can make it happen.

I wanna pivot into the success stories.

If you all could share just one success story each of a business that worked with y'all and y'all seem kind of just grow and blossom and they started just coming in, didn't know if they could do it, but then was able to evolve and guide it and due to the Nashville Black Market or just through the mentorship or advisement of you all has been able to do great things.

- We always tell the businesses start small but start now.

Get it together and figure it out.

Because your ideas are priceless.

So, some of the stuff that I know I've seen is like, a mom came to us and was like, hey, I made my brick and mortar rent.

I made my money.

I'm able to pay for my kids food.

This month I'm good.

Thank you for that.

I appreciate y'all continuing to do this.

And it just warms our heart.

Warms mine for sure just to be able to know that we're like this connecting piece to helping other businesses, but also people and community, as well.

So, it just gives us joy to consistently be able to bring people together for a good reason.

- How about you Javvon?

You got a story?

- I like to hear, I like to make a shout out to a business owner named Kevin Covington.

So, he's from Memphis, Tennessee, and he creates, during Covid he created different type of cocktail drinks and things like that.

So, he wasn't really unsure and he came out to the Black Market, and ever since we had the Black Market, he wants to be a part of it every first Friday that we have it.

But he makes like triple, triple, quadruple of what, of income, with us having an opportunity.

He also gained clients to be able to do weddings, be able to do prime events and a different variety of situations to now he was able to quit his job to do this full time.

- I'm gonna ask both of you this kind of the ending question to cap it off.

So, I really want y'all to think about this.

Why is it important for Nashville to support black owned businesses?

And if we don't, what happens?

Y'all take 30 seconds a piece.

- Why is it important?

- Why is it important to support black-owned businesses in Nashville?

And if we don't, as a city, what happens?

- It lose.

- Why is it important, first?

- It's important to support black-owned business because it's important to support any business in the world.

When you got a creative mind that someone may take time out to take a chance on doing it and is successful and it's like you're giving hope into somebody.

You pushin' more than just supportin' a business and they get, they're making money.

There's so many people that gets depressed or have anxiety over them thinking that I set up at a place or I put my talent in front of someone and they walk right by me.

It does more than just supportin', finances.

It's supportin' mentally.

You being here and havin' us on here, you took your time out to have these questions for us to be here to not elevate your platform, but also give us a chance, our opportunity to grow our business.

- 15 seconds.

- It's important to support black-owned businesses because they need the chance and opportunity to grow their businesses just like everyone else.

- I wanna appreciate both of y'all.

Keep doing what y'all doin'.

Keep empowering black-owned businesses and empowering lives and empowering community.

All right?

I wanna thank all of you's at home for tuning in.

Thanks again.

And that's your episode with A Slice Of The Community.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] A Slice Of The Community is made possible by the support of the First Horizon Foundation.