Need to Know-Empowering Black Women Entrepreneurs

BEP Narrator: 00:00:02

A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know

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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Dr.

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Burton, what do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Hi, welcome

to Need to Know with Nsenga.

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Today, I'm going to pick up

where I left off the last time.

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We're going to talk

about entrepreneurship.

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I am the former National Executive

Director of the National Association

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of Multicultural Digital Entrepreneurs.

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And I am the former Southeast Regional

Director of an HBCU Entrepreneurial

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Institute that worked in Georgia,

Florida, Alabama, and the U.

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S.

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Virgin Islands.

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So this topic is really

important to me because I, too,

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am an entrepreneur.like Tony.

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So, um, I want to talk to

you about the Fearless Fund.

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I talked about that in the last segment

and how they have been basically

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told by, uh, the courts, um, that

they can not, uh, target or help.

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Black women become entrepreneurs, right?

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So the Fearless Fund was founded by two

black women, uh, who decided that they

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were going to put a dent in, um, the

challenges, the barriers that black women

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face, um, in becoming entrepreneurs, i.

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e.

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access to capital, i.

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e.

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access to resources.

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Uh, I.

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E.

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access, uh, to, um, talented staff,

um, because, you know, you have to

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be able to pay a competitive salary.

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You have to be able to pay the

benefits, all of those things.

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And so the Fearless Fund was like,

hey, we're gonna help, um, these

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women, um, who are ridiculously

qualified and credentialed.

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As are the women of the Fearless

Fund, um, you know, get a leg

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up, not a handout a leg up.

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And, uh, because of all the anti

black and anti black women, uh, racism

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that is happening in this country.

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Um, They have been denied, denied, denied.

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So, while we talked about that in the

last segment, I want to talk about in

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this segment, the importance of those

who are running entrepreneurial centers.

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We have to make sure that if we are

getting money, um, from various spaces, If

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you do have resources, and if you do have

access to capital, and if you do curate

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programming that is supposed to help,

um, you know, in my case, we were helping

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students, um, or trying to help students

and the community, then you have to do it.

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Because there are so many people who are

out here who are becoming disenfranchised.

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And one of the ways that you can counter

that is to build a successful center.

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So like we have the Rice Center in

Atlanta, they're doing amazing work.

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Amazing work, right?

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Every time they get something great, you

see them roll out something phenomenal.

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Right.

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So they can get 2 million from this

company or, you know, an investment from

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that person or donation from this person.

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And not even four weeks later, they're

like, this is what we're doing with it.

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This is how we're going

to help the community.

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This is how we're going to

have measurable outcomes.

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Right.

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So that's what we need to be doing.

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That's how we need to be moving.

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Um, we don't need to be scamming.

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We don't need to be, um, hustling

or having that type of mentality.

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Um, and if you are sitting on.

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These types of resources that can benefit

the community that can benefit these

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women who can no longer go to a place

like the Fearless Fund and we know how

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long it took to get a Fearless Fund

together to get these venture capitalists

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together to actually give money.

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You know, when I first started, nobody

was giving us money, like, no body.

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Nobody was giving us money.

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So the fact that people are actually

doing it post George Floyd, unfortunately,

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but doing it nonetheless means

that we have to be great stewards.

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Um, and the Fearless Fund

is they absolutely are.

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Um, the right center absolutely is,

you know, um, spellpreneur program

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is Spellman college is amazing.

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I mean, they're just lots of amazing

programs out there, but you have to make

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sure that they are run Properly, you

have to make sure that the money that is

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being invested is yielding benefits for

the community and for the populations

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that you are supposed to serve.

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Because if we don't do that, then

we can see what's coming next.

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If they're doing this to the

Fearless Fund, which is an

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outstanding organization.

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I mean, outstanding organization, then

imagine what they're going to do to.

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Your fund or your site or your Institute,

um, when you are delivering, uh, the way

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that you're supposed to be delivering.

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So I just say that to say,

I'm not calling any names.

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I'm just saying, this is not a hustle.

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This is no time to hustle.

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This is no time to engage scammers.

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This is a time to dig in and to make

sure that we prove these people wrong.

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While simultaneously

uplifting our community.

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Building more entrepreneurs so that we

can be self sustaining as a community,

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as individuals, as families, and

pass on generational wealth, which

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as you know, in this country is the

only way to have any type of wealth.

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They don't even want to help you when

you are qualified to build wealth.

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So you got to inherit it.

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You have to and that's how these

fools who I will not give any names.

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Um, who have been coming after

black and brown people coming after

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women coming after women of color

coming after LGBTQ populations.

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Um, this is what they have.

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They have generational wealth

so that they can keep you in

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court all day long, all day long.

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Um, and so we have to get that going too.

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I mean, we do have a little bit of

it mostly in the media space, um,

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but we got to get it in other spaces.

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So please, please, please, um, for

people who are listening, invest in

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your entrepreneurial centers and sites.

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And for those who actually have

the tools, you have the access, you

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have the money, you have the power

to help, um, your people and your

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businesses, please make sure you do it.

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And that is Need to

Know with Nsenga on BEP.

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I'll see you next week.

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BEP Narrator: A Black

Executive Perspective