Black Girl Fly: Embrace Purpose + Build Wealth

Jill Johnson: The Journey of Entrepreneurship

March 27, 2023 Tenisha & Tashaunda Season 5 Episode 8
Black Girl Fly: Embrace Purpose + Build Wealth
Jill Johnson: The Journey of Entrepreneurship
Black Girl Fly: Embrace Purpose + Build Wealth +
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Jill Johnson co-founder/CEO of The Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), spoke with Ava and Tashauda about being from the midwest and Jill's entrepreneur journey. They discuss relocating for more opportunities and being comfortable with taking risks. Jill also shares insights on why asking for help as a business owner is essential. 

Tell us what you learned from your career journey on instagram: @blackgirlflyofficial

Want to follow up with Jill? Check out the links below: 

https://www.weareifel.org

https://www.instagram.com/weareifel/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/weareifel/?original_referer=

https://www.smallbusinessesneedus.org

https://www.woccon.org

https://www.makingblackangels.org

[00:23] Introductions

[00:42] Guest Introductions

[03:30] Taking advantage of better opportunities 

[06:42] Jills career path 

[11:19] Working with her father

[15:55] Mentoring small business owners 

[20:08] Biggest wins of IFEL

[25:20] Recession challenges 

[28:19] Resources for angel investing 

[29:50] Do entrepreneurs ask for help 

[36:10] Where can people find jill

[36:50] Outros


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05;15;37;08 | 05;15;57;01 | Welcome to another episode of Black Girl Fly, I’m your girl Ava Marie and I’m Tashaunda Dixon and today we are joined by another wonderful guest. We're so very excited to learn all what she has to share with us. So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and hand it over.
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05;15;58;20 | 05;16;25;29 | Well, hi, everyone. My name is Jill Johnson and I'm the co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership. That's just kind of the external part. I am a country girl. Sort of. Kind of. I was born in Iowa. My family's from the Midwest, but I grew up on the East Coast in New Jersey. So, you know, I have that Midwestern vibe with the East Coast thing going on.
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05;16;26;21 | 05;16;44;03 | I have four sons and I'm married, so lots of family stuff going on all the time. I'm a football mom. I've now become a basketball mom. And I love the work that I do. And I am here to change the world and make a difference. That is me.
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05;16;46;01 | 05;16;57;14 | Awesome. Sound like you sound very resourceful. We know that Joe is a midwestern. That's kind of rare in our in our circle there.
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05;16;58;01 | 05;17;20;12 | Right? That's why I usually mention that, you know, black girl from Iowa is not such a common thing, although there are many more black people there than you might imagine. And there is a wonderful woman there who ran for governor. I don't think she was successful, but she is amazing, Deirdre, this year. So be on the lookout.
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05;17;20;14 | 05;17;22;09 | We're from Minnesota, so that's why.
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05;17;22;16 | 05;17;24;17 | I love the Minnesota.
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05;17;25;04 | 05;17;42;05 | Yeah. Yeah. You know. Right. But let's dive in there. I mean, I think that's a great place to start. How did you go from Iowa to New Jersey to running this amazing climbing business? Well, I mean, how would you explain that journey?
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05;17;42;16 | 05;18;18;18 | Yeah. So, you know, I think that where I am today really started with the journey from Iowa to through Michigan to New Jersey. My parents are from Kansas and Missouri. They're really the only ones of their siblings who left Kansas and Missouri. And so I think even, you know, sort of that just risk taking in a sense. You know, for some people, it feels like a huge risk to leave where they are comfortable.
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05;18;18;24 | 05;18;44;25 | And my father had a job opportunity, so the two of them went together to Iowa. That's where I was born. And then they had an opportunity to further their education. My father had a fellowship for his Ph.D. and my mom was finishing college and did a master's at Michigan State. So that's how we got to Michigan. And then my father's first job from after he finished his Ph.D. was in New Jersey.
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05;18;45;02 | 05;19;07;08 | That's back to New Jersey. But, you know, it was that that journey seeking better opportunity. Right. And doing what was necessary to to take advantage of that opportunity. I think that's really what was instilled in me from from a very early age. You have to go to where the opportunity is.
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05;19;09;08 | 05;19;27;21 | Yeah, I think that's actually what both of us did when we when we left Minnesota were like, we we can only go so far here. So where is the place where we can, you know, go even further beyond? But that certainly, certainly resonates with us. Yeah. So I'm curious. Go ahead. I'm sorry. On that note, I was going to say that it's even more interesting.
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05;19;27;21 | 05;19;49;25 | Me, I kind of live by that that what made me more capable of taking on risk is getting out of my comfort zone and making every experience a new experience. Right. Or having to build a home in a new place. I think that just does it. It makes you so much more or less risk averse, if you will, in doing that kind of work.
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05;19;49;25 | 05;19;55;14 | So I think it's awesome that you can reiterate that in your own story and share that with the audience.
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05;19;55;27 | 05;20;15;23 | Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the ways that I try at least to look at risk is what's the downside? What is the worst thing that can happen? And if the worst thing that can happen is not so bad, go for it. You know, it's a different situation. If the worst thing that can happen is really, really bad.
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05;20;15;23 | 05;20;49;07 | But, you know, oftentimes we put ourselves in a box and limit ourselves based on this perceived risk. When the the failure alternative is, again, really not devastating or life changing or rather life altering. You know, it's something that may be a little tough to get through, but you can get through it. And again, it's not so bad versus the potential upside of going for it could be so great.
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05;20;49;17 | 05;20;51;28 | And I think so many of us limit ourselves.
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05;20;53;06 | 05;21;18;29 | Yeah, I always say I'm like every time I'm thinking about a scenario, I'm like, What's the worst case scenario? It's actually the current scenario that I think like if all else fails, I would just be back here, you know? I know, I know how to get my set of gear. And so to me that always feels like, you know, the thing that I need to be like, okay, I could do something different because I'm living my worst case scenario.
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05;21;19;01 | 05;21;19;06 | Right?
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05;21;19;21 | 05;21;51;27 | Right, right. I mean, you know, when you have that drive, the hustle, you're smart. And I don't even think it's generally about smart so much. It's it's more so about hustle, finding the opportunity, figuring things out, being willing to figure things out. That's how you make it through. So, you know, I think every single thing that happens in our lives presents an opportunity, and it's up to us to figure out how we take advantage of that opportunity or not.
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05;21;52;02 | 05;21;57;06 | So that is so good. I hope our audience caught. I mean, you're already dropping gems. You haven't even told them what you do. Yeah.
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05;21;57;24 | 05;22;28;29 | I haven't gotten to that. All right. I was just thinking that so my parents had had a business. You know, my father was in education for quite some time. Higher education. My mother was in communication and then did PR and public relations and things like that. They came together and at a point there where we live was where we lived was a lovely, lovely community.
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05;22;29;03 | 05;23;06;28 | However, it was a very diverse community and for some reason the regional paper in the area always seemed to focus on anything negative that was happening in the community. So whatever crime was happening, someone broke into a car, anything like that. And I will never, never, never forget that. There was one time I was reading through the police blotter and it said, Man seen fleeing toward the town that I live, that I said toward that person could have been going toward Pennsylvania.
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05;23;07;00 | 05;23;37;04 | They could have been going toward, you know, England, like who knows where they were going toward. But they chose to center that negative activity on the town in which we live. And so my parents saw that as an opportunity because, again, there was a lot of community spirit, but just this negative kind of aura constantly perpetuated by the newspaper and to my parents decided to start their own newspaper.
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05;23;37;04 | 05;24;09;00 | So they started a newspaper. It was local in the area. They were car show sponsors. They were super, super involved in the community. And then at a point they moved the newspaper to Newark, which is how my family and I became associated with Newark, New Jersey. They moved the newspaper to Newark, and it was called City News. They had this newspaper for, you know, probably altogether 20 years or so.
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05;24;09;27 | 05;24;32;20 | Again, great community building resource. But after they decided at a point, you know, a newspaper is very grueling, you think doing a podcast is tough. You know, you can imagine a newspaper published and this is you know, actual print, physical newspaper driving into the press and all that kind of stuff. And this was before, mind you, you could do the newspaper on the computer.
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05;24;32;20 | 05;25;11;20 | So this is like old fashioned equipment. And it was tough. So when they decided that they wanted to retire and do something different, unfortunately they had not built a business in a way that they could sell the business and extract the value and create legacy wealth from their business. This is a point that for me was was very tough because when I started my career out of undergraduate, I started in the Financial Analyst program at Goldman Sachs and mergers and acquisitions.
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05;25;11;29 | 05;25;37;21 | So I saw people there get very, very wealthy selling their businesses. And so to not see my parents be able to do that, maybe again, not at that Goldman Sachs level, but still to create at least a foundation for wealth from that business after 20 years of a lot of blood, sweat and tears. That was something that really stuck with me.
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05;25;37;28 | 05;26;21;21 | I also saw that same pattern of behavior and that same mindset with many black business owners that were their peers. And so fast forward, my father and I together started the institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership as a nonprofit organization to really try to change the mindset of black business owners, especially to think more about creating wealth from their business, to try to secure resources to help these business owners as well overcome the access to capital barriers and to facilitate and create connections to people that can help to open doors for these businesses.
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05;26;21;21 | 05;26;32;07 | So that is what I do now. I am the CEO of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership. And, you know, we have been doing this or I've been doing this now for 20 years.
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05;26;32;09 | 05;26;44;20 | So go Wow, That's a proposal. Your father actually started it with you. How how was that like like walking into it with your father? How did that impact, you know, the decision and even the knowledge in getting started?
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05;26;45;11 | 05;26;46;18 | Yeah. So a.
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05;26;46;18 | 05;26;47;07 | Lot of.
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05;26;47;27 | 05;27;18;15 | Getting started was about their journey, You know, what is the things that they wish they had known, the things that my father wished he had known, or the the access and the resources. And I will say that starting the organization with my father certainly had pros and cons. You know, a pro was that he was very well known, very well liked, just a pillar in the community.
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05;27;18;15 | 05;27;51;28 | And a lot of people looked up to him and he himself was able to open a lot of doors and he had access. Right? So I had access because he had access. Now, that kind of it was when he decided to, you know, step away from from that on a on a day to day basis, there were people who were not quite so sure that I was up to the task of becoming in transitioning to the CEO.
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05;27;52;07 | 05;28;18;07 | And there were people who said, well, isn't she a little bit young to run? I said, You know, truth be told, I was older than they thought that I was. They just, you know, we're not we're not at that clarity. But nonetheless, I had the confidence and I was the one who was actually doing all the doing in the background.
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05;28;18;17 | 05;28;48;14 | Anyway, when he was CEO, he was kind of out front and I was was doing and, you know, so there were some people who didn't have the level of confidence. And I think even for myself, I probably felt like I was operating in the shadows for a long time and I had to get comfortable with being out front and being the person who was front and center and the the real face of the organization.
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05;28;48;14 | 05;29;22;15 | So it was a great experience. And, you know, again, I am forever thankful to my father for just putting it out there that this is something that was needed and creating the foundation for this organization to get going and to become, you know, we wouldn't have what we have today if it was not for his vision for this organization needing to exist.
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05;29;23;25 | 05;29;44;29 | But I like to ask that question because I think often we forget that like across generations there's different value that can come from from individuals. And especially as we transition, I hear people say, Oh, that person's all over, all that person's young girl. And just the value in working together I think can push you so much further.
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05;29;45;28 | 05;30;13;20 | Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, when I look at just how my parents worked and that my mom, again, was on deadline, so she was that operations person. So she was on deadline every week and they had multiple publications. So just the fortitude and stamina that she had to get it done, that instilled in me, you know, the well, if you have something, do you get it done?
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05;30;13;21 | 05;30;22;24 | There is no Oh, well, I missed the deadline. I couldn't get this done. I couldn't get this. You get it done. And that's just, you know, it is what it is. You make it happen.
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05;30;24;16 | 05;30;41;28 | Yeah. So? So for a lot of our audience, small business owners, right? Entrepreneurs, this is a pillar of our belief. A black girl fly. So can you tell us about how your organization helps those businesses, those individuals specifically?
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05;30;42;13 | 05;31;12;20 | Absolutely. We really focus all of our energy on very high touch, hands on support. There are many, many, many organizations and groups that do small business training. They offer workshops, they offer maybe even mentoring or coaching or things like that. There are very few, however, that get in the trenches with you and help you to get things done.
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05;31;14;05 | 05;31;45;16 | We see business owners all the time struggling to get their financial management systems set up. So it is, you know, they might take a class on on some financial management software or they need to get a website together. So someone will offer a webinar on doing a website. Well, that is great. However, if that is not your area of expertise, that's only going to go so far and you're not going to have something that is professional.
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05;31;46;02 | 05;32;09;17 | What we do is really try to they're kind of two things. It's one, even to our knowledge as an organization, the within our team, we actually help you to get these things done and walk through here. Let's pull up the financial management software and go through it and okay, you have to do this and you have to do that.
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05;32;10;08 | 05;32;48;29 | Or, you know, our our marketing person will get on and take a look through the website and make suggestions. We also, over the last several years have developed a an amazing volunteer corps comprised of business professionals from corporations across the country and individual business people who may be, say, have their own business and they're willing to contribute, volunteer their expertise in support of our mission to help small businesses, entrepreneurs and founders, especially those of color.
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05;32;49;12 | 05;33;15;18 | And so we have these experts that are willing to help and assist people who would be so expensive otherwise, you know, these these small business owners and entrepreneurs could never afford to hire them and get the expertise without being very, very well funded. While we all know that access to capital for black founders is a huge, huge challenge.
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05;33;15;21 | 05;33;40;25 | Right. So if you don't have the capital, where how do you get this expertise? And then that becomes a vicious cycle. You don't have the expertise. You can't put yourself in a position to get capital and get contracts and other resources. So we are trying to break that cycle by bringing the experts who are willing to share their expertise to the business owners who need it.
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05;33;44;21 | 05;34;09;06 | Yeah, I was like, Oh, go ahead. I'm like, we we've been having guests on and I think for about a year now. And I remember one of our first guests, she was don't know exactly what her role is, but she was talking a lot about financing and about getting funding as business owner. And that was something that I am an entrepreneur.
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05;34;09;06 | 05;34;37;05 | I was so afraid to do. And so I think, you know, I have so much imposter syndrome and a lot of the things when it comes to running my business, because I have never learned about this stuff, like I studied engineering, I've never taken business class, and I just feel like, you know, places like yours, you know, organizations like yours are really out here to support people who want to venture into this space.
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05;34;37;05 | 05;34;53;00 | Right. But may not have the tools and resources in their toolbox to be able to be successful. I guess I'm curious, like, what are some of the biggest wins or some things that you're just like really proud of coming out of what you all do?
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05;34;53;21 | 05;35;23;07 | Yeah. So in 2018, I had sort of my personal aha moment, which then led me to change the course of the work that we were doing as an organization where, you know, I said the work that we have been doing up to that point was was good. It was important. We helped a lot of people and there were a lot of businesses who were in business because of us are stayed in business because of the work that we had done with them.
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05;35;23;15 | 05;36;01;00 | However, at a systemic level, I felt like it wasn't moving the needle, that we were still having the same exact conversations about access to capital, the same conversations about contracts or or growth of black businesses. And so in 2018, I launched an initiative within the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership called Women of Color Connecting, and the focus was on getting creating connections, stronger connections between amazing women of color, entrepreneurs and founders with people who can open doors.
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05;36;01;00 | 05;36;40;16 | So the investors, the allies to champion to all say that they care about diversity and inclusion is so important. Well, let's act upon that. Right. And we do hashtag allies act because, you know, it's one thing to talk about. It's another thing to be about it. So we provide the opportunity for all those people who are talking about it, to be about it, and connect with these amazing entrepreneurs from that, as we were looking at the path to capital, what we started seeing is that there was a gap in the black community around angel investing, and that is capital that just does not readily exist for many black entrepreneurs and founders.
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05;36;40;24 | 05;37;08;17 | So we launched another initiative called The Making of Black Angels, and that is about just creating awareness in the black community about angel investing. And so we have some introductory training and again, they're making connections to different angel groups or different resources so that more of us can really learn and understand this. And you don't have to have, you know, millions and millions and millions of dollars.
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05;37;09;18 | 05;37;33;22 | There are a lot of folks who we would consider regular kind of people who are angel investing. So, you know, we want to just get more people familiar with it and learning about it. And then during the pandemic, you know, we already knew that black businesses were struggling pre-pandemic and they struggled even more. And it was exacerbated during the pandemic.
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05;37;34;00 | 05;38;01;22 | So we kind of took what we had been doing for many, many years in the work with the small main street type businesses. We took that and that's where we grew that base of volunteers and we call that initiative. Small businesses need us. What we said is that, you know, as medical professionals were on the frontlines saving lives, we need our business professionals to get on the frontlines to help save small businesses.
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05;38;02;01 | 05;38;25;20 | And so, you know, I'm very, very proud of the work that we did, especially through small businesses need us to help more black businesses survive. We know that, you know, 40% or so closed during the pandemic. I don't believe that that's over. I think that there are a lot that were still struggling. And now we're starting to see PPE and other grants and resources that businesses had.
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05;38;25;20 | 05;38;52;08 | We're starting to see that wear thin and, you know, be completely used. So, you know, it's still a tenuous situation and black businesses are still very vulnerable. So I'm very proud of the work that we are doing to engage with lots and lots of people who have expertise to do what they can to try to help these businesses.
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05;38;53;00 | 05;39;27;22 | We are also creating greater connections and more direct connections to access to capital. So I'm excited about that work. Last year we had, I think it was 12 women of color who we helped to secure funding in 2023. We're looking for that number to double to at least 24. I think we can do a lot more. That's going to be our focus with women of our Women of Color Connecting initiative is to help more women of color get funded faster so that we are accelerating the pace through that growth scale exit trajectory.
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05;39;28;01 | 05;39;47;13 | We want to see more women of color getting wealthy through entrepreneurship so that they can in turn be the ones who are the angel investors. They become the voices who are able to put capital back into the ecosystem.
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05;39;47;13 | 05;40;07;05 | Now that is amazing work. Yeah. So you talk about the black community a little bit in kind of telling why you helped it. What are you seeing as like the year goes on? Like we're we're heading into recession now. At least that's what everyone is saying. What are you seeing as you're looking forward for this community that you serve?
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05;40;07;25 | 05;40;11;19 | What are the needs? What are the challenges that we're going to see kind of moving in that direction?
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05;40;13;06 | 05;40;48;14 | Again, I have to say that many people in the black community have been operating in recessionary like conditions for a very long time. So much of the challenge that ends up hitting the entire country again is 100 fold in the black community. And so I think that what we're seeing is that there is a need for all of us.
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05;40;48;15 | 05;41;18;17 | You know, there's so many more people who publicly are out there like you are with a platform to inform and to engage. And so I think it's really, really important for all of us to understand that we have to get involved. We have to get involved to to make a difference. We have to lend our expertise where we can, those of us that do have some financial capacity.
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05;41;18;17 | 05;41;43;17 | And again, it doesn't have to be much any financial capacity should be looking at how to invest, whether it's investing at the angel level or whether it's investing in crowd companies that are raising money, say, through crowdfunding, where on some of these platforms it could be $100, right? You could go to dinner and it could be $100. And in fact, significantly more.
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05;41;43;17 | 05;42;08;26 | You could have a couple of drinks and it's $100. You know, you can buy, you know, a blouse and it's $100. There are a lot of things that if we said, okay, let me just take, you know, a little bit of a step back and see where I can not get those expensive lattes for a month and take that money and invest it on a crowdfunding platform.
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05;42;08;27 | 05;42;30;29 | You know, of course, any money you invest, the stuff that you can always lose 100%. So you have to, you know, know that that is possible. But this is something that is critical. What we're not understanding is that the way that all these other folks who seem to get capital so easily is because they're starting from a different point.
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05;42;30;29 | 05;42;51;04 | They already had personal savings. They had friends and family money. Then they're able to get the angel money because they had the traction early on from the capital that they had. Then they got the angel money. And then when they go and talk to VCs, they have even more traction because of that early capital that they had. We do not have that.
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05;42;51;04 | 05;42;58;15 | We have to start to change that from within that awesome.
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05;42;58;28 | 05;43;12;24 | Oh wow. Well, what I feel. So tell people how where do they go? Like like if my listeners are here today and they say, hey, I have a little money, I've got to get started. What are some some platforms, some some resources that we can send them to to actually get them started in that direction?
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05;43;13;14 | 05;43;42;06 | Yeah, Well, we have aggregated some of those different resources on our website making Black Angels dot org so people can go there just to get started and get that overview. And then if you even just Google, you know, angel investing in your area, oftentimes there are different Angel groups that are geographically based. They're also associated with a lot of colleges and universities.
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05;43;43;16 | 05;44;11;15 | There are angel groups all over. There's also an entity called the Angel Capital Association, which is the umbrella organization for angel groups. We do not suggest that people just dive in and start willy nilly writing checks. People should get some education, talk to other people, you know, and learn and and get their feet wet first, understand what they're doing and and get involved.
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05;44;11;15 | 05;44;34;10 | But like I said, there are so many ways, you know, if you're not able to get involved in writing checks your expertise. So many people have amazing expertise to share. It seems small, but if you have marketing expertise just sitting down with a business owner who's struggling with their website and helping them to get their website together, that's huge.
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05;44;34;10 | 05;44;57;11 | There are so many. If you have, you know, accounting expertise, help someone better understand their numbers and what they mean anyone with expertise. There are just so many ways to get involved and you can certainly visit our website. We are iPhone dot org to see all the different ways that we have for people to get involved and then for volunteer opportunities.
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05;44;58;02 | 05;45;05;25 | Small businesses need us is a great resource to go there again and see what volunteer opportune cities we have.
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05;45;07;05 | 05;45;29;25 | Well, that is awesome. I did want to get there, but I do have one more question, one more question in there. So as you look at the the number of entrepreneurs, do you find it hard for the entrepreneurs to to ask for help? Like, are you seeing black and brown people saying, hey, I need help, or hey, you know, I'm not okay, You know, I could use assistance.
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05;45;30;01 | 05;45;31;20 | Do you see the audience there?
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05;45;32;08 | 05;46;19;14 | Absolutely. And I think the challenges is that you don't know what you don't know. So you might think that you're moving along. Okay. If you're operating in a vacuum and you don't have any frame of reference for something being, you know, on the right path or not on the right path to growth and success, what we say is that if you are an entrepreneur, business owner or a founder and you're not experiencing the growth that you want to have or you know that you want to grow, or a telltale sign is you're not making money from your business, right?
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05;46;19;20 | 05;46;46;17 | Especially if you've been in business for quite some time. Get help. And the help. Here's the thing is that type of help that we provide does not assume that the business owner knows what help they need. That's the challenge. You know, you're asked it and so many programs are asking the business owners to self-diagnose. They don't know what they need.
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05;46;46;26 | 05;47;16;26 | And so we definitely encourage people to seek out resources, their resources, through the Small Business Administration. And if you look on their website, you know, every community, every state has resources that are free, paid for by the by the government. So seek out those resources. Again, we work across all states, across the country. We do a lot of our work virtually.
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05;47;16;26 | 05;47;27;03 | So, you know, we're certainly happy to provide whatever support we can to any business owner who feels like they're stuck or they just want to accelerate their path.
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05;47;27;16 | 05;47;46;09 | So I think that's important, though. Guys like like what you just said is, hey, if you're not making money and you're in year three, you know, seek some help. If you're marketing, if you're not closing sales, you know, you can look at specifics like you should be closing. So a certain percent, right. Of all of the conversations that you're having.
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05;47;46;27 | 05;48;05;23 | So so seek help, guys. I think it's so important. In my own experience, I felt like even me getting started, I was always not apt to ask for help. Like I was like, I can figure it out. I'll get it done. And I and I do have to probably relate that to my upbringing is that we're we were taught that we can take it on.
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05;48;06;12 | 05;48;13;15 | So I do think that's so important that we really say, Hey, it's okay to ask for help and there's resources, right? So absolutely.
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05;48;13;15 | 05;48;36;10 | Well, and that's a big reason to to just get connected with other entrepreneurs because you won't know until maybe someone else brings up a point or someone else expresses a challenge or has a success. You say, well, wow, how did they get there? So having just that circle of support around you is critical to success as a business owner or entrepreneur.
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05;48;36;10 | 05;48;40;07 | Take that back. Not just if you need help. Just to create a community, is what you're saying.
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05;48;40;17 | 05;49;21;21 | Okay, So yeah, that is critical. And I think that for black business owners especially, you need to belong to all the different chambers of commerce and this group and that group. You also need to make sure that you are around people who understand your particular journey from, you know, through your lens. So whether you are a black person, if you're a woman, if you are LGBTQ, to I a you know, you need to find your people who can relate to the specific issues and challenges that you may be having.
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05;49;21;21 | 05;49;37;16 | Again, that's not to the exclusion of the general business organizations. In addition to you need to have that support because being an entrepreneur is really really hard and you don't need to make it harder by trying to do it alone.
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05;49;38;08 | 05;50;01;01 | So that is that, that that's some stuff there. That's maybe they can't even speak with now. I think that's huge. And I'm so happy that you set out with us today, Joe. I just hope that everyone has really captured all the nuggets that you dropped from the idea of having the resources right, having the capital, creating the community, giving the help, and also giving back to that.
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05;50;01;01 | 05;50;18;12 | So there are several of that. So if you have achieved some of those, give back not just your money but your talent, your skill, your experience, and actually help other people to have that community that helped you to be successful. There's so much that I hope I summarize some of that for you. Yes.
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05;50;18;12 | 05;50;49;11 | Yes. Thank you so much. And I do want to extend an invitation to your audience. We're having our Women of Color connecting Summit March 7th through the ninth, and it's a virtual summit so people can attend from wherever they are. You can visit our website loken w0c ceo and dot org to request an invitation. It's an invitation only event, but it's a great place to start making those connections if you are a woman of color entrepreneur.
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05;50;49;27 | 05;50;54;29 | Oh, that's awesome. So everybody visit now. Why not give it to us one more time?
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05;50;55;12 | 05;50;56;28 | March 7th through the ninth.
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05;50;57;11 | 05;51;20;12 | Awesome, awesome, awesome. So you have time, guys. Let's let's, let's show up there. And I think that you will gain from from being there. I mean, just like we've gained from this conversation. Witness Joe Johnson, thank you so much for for being here. Thank you so much for for your words of wisdom, but also for your resource. I mean, this is a huge, huge task.
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05;51;20;13 | 05;51;25;02 | You take it off and I think a much needed one to take on.
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05;51;25;17 | 05;51;31;29 | Well, thank you so much for having me and allowing me to share this information with your audience.
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05;51;33;27 | 05;51;49;14 | Thank you so much. I think the last thing that we can say here is where can people find you? I know you shared information about the conference that's w0cco inco r g. Yeah. Where else can people find you?
 |  | 
05;51;50;09 | 05;51;56;14 | We are i4 w e a r e i fpl dot org.
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05;51;57;17 | 05;52;01;00 | Nice and any social media handles we should be following.
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05;52;02;14 | 05;52;16;10 | Yeah. Where we are. I fall on a few platforms and then we are w0c connecting on Instagram. Yeah, I think Instagram and Twitter.
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05;52;16;10 | 05;52;57;27 | Maybe I start so folks get connected, tap into to some of these resources, these amazing resources that we've talked about today and share with the friend.
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Introductions
Guest Introductions
Taking advantage of better opportunities
Jills career path
Working with her father
Mentoring small business owners
Biggest wins of IFEL
Recession challenges
Resources for angel investing
Do entrepreneurs ask for help
Where can people find Jill
Outros