A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know with the award winning hyphenated Dr. Nsenga Burton. Dr. Burton, what do we need to know?

Hi, welcome to Need to Know with Nsenga. Today, I'm going to pick up where I left off the last time. We're going to talk about entrepreneurship. I am the former National Executive Director of the National Association of Multicultural Digital Entrepreneurs. And I am the former Southeast Regional Director of an HBCU Entrepreneurial Institute that worked in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and the U. S. Virgin Islands. So this topic is really important to me because I, too, am an entrepreneur.like Tony. So, um, I want to talk to you about the Fearless Fund. I talked about that in the last segment and how they have been basically told by, uh, the courts, um, that they can not, uh, target or help. Black women become entrepreneurs, right? So the Fearless Fund was founded by two black women, uh, who decided that they were going to put a dent in, um, the challenges, the barriers that black women face, um, in becoming entrepreneurs, i. e. access to capital, i. e. access to resources. Uh, I. E. access, uh, to, um, talented staff, um, because, you know, you have to be able to pay a competitive salary. You have to be able to pay the benefits, all of those things. And so the Fearless Fund was like, hey, we're gonna help, um, these women, um, who are ridiculously qualified and credentialed. As are the women of the Fearless Fund, um, you know, get a leg up, not a handout a leg up. And, uh, because of all the anti black and anti black women, uh, racism that is happening in this country. Um, They have been denied, denied, denied. So, while we talked about that in the last segment, I want to talk about in this segment, the importance of those who are running entrepreneurial centers. We have to make sure that if we are getting money, um, from various spaces, If you do have resources, and if you do have access to capital, and if you do curate programming that is supposed to help, um, you know, in my case, we were helping students, um, or trying to help students and the community, then you have to do it. Because there are so many people who are out here who are becoming disenfranchised. And one of the ways that you can counter that is to build a successful center. So like we have the Rice Center in Atlanta, they're doing amazing work. Amazing work, right? Every time they get something great, you see them roll out something phenomenal. Right. So they can get 2 million from this company or, you know, an investment from that person or donation from this person. And not even four weeks later, they're like, this is what we're doing with it. This is how we're going to help the community. This is how we're going to have measurable outcomes. Right. So that's what we need to be doing. That's how we need to be moving. Um, we don't need to be scamming. We don't need to be, um, hustling or having that type of mentality. Um, and if you are sitting on. These types of resources that can benefit the community that can benefit these women who can no longer go to a place like the Fearless Fund and we know how long it took to get a Fearless Fund together to get these venture capitalists together to actually give money. You know, when I first started, nobody was giving us money, like, no body. Nobody was giving us money. So the fact that people are actually doing it post George Floyd, unfortunately, but doing it nonetheless means that we have to be great stewards. Um, and the Fearless Fund is they absolutely are. Um, the right center absolutely is, you know, um, spellpreneur program is Spellman college is amazing. I mean, they're just lots of amazing programs out there, but you have to make sure that they are run Properly, you have to make sure that the money that is being invested is yielding benefits for the community and for the populations that you are supposed to serve. Because if we don't do that, then we can see what's coming next. If they're doing this to the Fearless Fund, which is an outstanding organization. I mean, outstanding organization, then imagine what they're going to do to. Your fund or your site or your Institute, um, when you are delivering, uh, the way that you're supposed to be delivering. So I just say that to say, I'm not calling any names. I'm just saying, this is not a hustle. This is no time to hustle. This is no time to engage scammers. This is a time to dig in and to make sure that we prove these people wrong. While simultaneously uplifting our community. Building more entrepreneurs so that we can be self sustaining as a community, as individuals, as families, and pass on generational wealth, which as you know, in this country is the only way to have any type of wealth. They don't even want to help you when you are qualified to build wealth. So you got to inherit it. You have to and that's how these fools who I will not give any names. Um, who have been coming after black and brown people coming after women coming after women of color coming after LGBTQ populations. Um, this is what they have. They have generational wealth so that they can keep you in court all day long, all day long. Um, and so we have to get that going too. I mean, we do have a little bit of it mostly in the media space, um, but we got to get it in other spaces. So please, please, please, um, for people who are listening, invest in your entrepreneurial centers and sites. And for those who actually have the tools, you have the access, you have the money, you have the power to help, um, your people and your businesses, please make sure you do it. And that is Need to Know with Nsenga on BEP. I'll see you next week.

A Black Executive Perspective