# Selling The Vision w/ Arian Simone

An episode of [Keep it Positive, Sweetie](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1689495115), 23 Mar 2025, 58 min.

Audio: https://pdrl.fm/1504e6/podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/44f61442-7ba4-4250-b406-b35901038504/4e333f0c-ae69-431c-922c-b35901072d77/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=2cfaa2b1-0f12-4656-aec3-b3590103850e

This week on Keep It Positive, Sweetie, I’m joined by the powerhouse herself — multi-hyphenate entrepreneur and co-founder of The Fearless Fund, Arian Simone. We dive into a candid, no-holds-barred conversation about Selling the Vision, her relentless fight for women entrepreneurs of color, and the landmark federal court case that thrust her into the national spotlight — igniting a much-needed conversation around the future of DEI in America. From sitting at the feet of legends like Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks as a young girl, to being crowned a real-life Ivorian Queen, Arian’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary. Her story is bold, brilliant, and deeply inspiring. Grab your pen and paper — class is in session. You’re about to be educated, empowered, and reminded of the power of purpose. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Calling all my sweeties to the forefront.
[0:03] Speaker 2: I'm your host, Christophe.
[0:04] Speaker 1: And this is to Keep It Positive Sweetie Show. Hello
[0:09] Speaker 1: and welcome to this episode of the Keep It Positive,
[0:11] Speaker 1: Sweetish Show. I'm your host CHRISTOPHINEE. Hazelt, and today we
[0:15] Speaker 1: have a powerhouse joining us. She's an entrepreneur, investor, author,
[0:20] Speaker 1: and co founder of The Fearless Fun Kiss Family. Let's
[0:23] Speaker 1: give a warm welcome to Arian Simone. Arian, thank you
[0:27] Speaker 1: so much for coming by, literally coming by because you're
[0:30] Speaker 1: right there. Yes, Oh my goodness, I know you were
[0:33] Speaker 1: so close. Yes, and you have to come by more often.
[0:37] Speaker 2: Yes, I'd love to. But thank you for having me.
[0:40] Speaker 2: I've been wanting.
[0:41] Speaker 1: To talk to you. I've been so fascinated with everything
[0:44] Speaker 1: you had going on. So to get yes you so
[0:48] Speaker 1: to get this opportunity, I'm just super grateful. So thank
[0:51] Speaker 1: you so much.
[0:52] Speaker 2: Thank you.
[0:53] Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely so. There's been so many things that people
[0:57] Speaker 1: know about you, from your your story to what you've
[1:01] Speaker 1: done lately with the Fearless Fun very dynamic woman, but
[1:04] Speaker 1: I want to get to the root of who you
[1:06] Speaker 1: are from the beginning. You've been very open about going
[1:09] Speaker 1: from homelessness to being an entrepreneur. Tell me about that journey.
[1:15] Speaker 3: She didn't took me back. Okay, christ take it bag
[1:18] Speaker 3: and they were gonna come. Yes, it was truly a
[1:22] Speaker 3: moment where how should I put it, I was just
[1:26] Speaker 3: more so out of alignment with my assignment and what I'm.
[1:31] Speaker 2: Supposed to do in the earth.
[1:33] Speaker 3: Yes, I was a college student at Florida and M University,
[1:37] Speaker 3: and I owned a store while I was there in
[1:41] Speaker 3: the mall, and I made a promise to myself while
[1:44] Speaker 3: I had the store that one day I was gonna
[1:46] Speaker 3: be the business investor I had been looking for.
[1:49] Speaker 2: The promise.
[1:50] Speaker 3: Of course, looks like the fearless fun today. But the
[1:52] Speaker 3: journey there, of course, took a lot of adventure. And
[1:56] Speaker 3: there was a time when I gave up.
[1:58] Speaker 2: On the store. Days you'd have fifty thousand dollars.
[2:01] Speaker 3: Some days you're kind as negative, and I'm like, am
[2:04] Speaker 3: I good at this? Or what is happening here? And
[2:07] Speaker 3: I stopped, and I keep that on my computer, the
[2:11] Speaker 3: financials from the store. Because business was actually profitable. I
[2:16] Speaker 3: look back now and laugh because I wasn't failing.
[2:20] Speaker 2: I just wasn't patient.
[2:21] Speaker 3: Who ooh, And I just needed patience. But what clothes
[2:26] Speaker 3: women's apparel amazing. Yes, in college, Yes, that's huge.
[2:31] Speaker 1: Yes, I was working at the clothing store. I didn't
[2:32] Speaker 1: own one. Yes, it was a.
[2:35] Speaker 3: Lot being a colleerepreneur. It was definitely a lot. And
[2:40] Speaker 3: me giving up on that, I moved to Los Angeles
[2:43] Speaker 3: actually with the job. The only job I've had in
[2:46] Speaker 3: my adult life, cause everything else I've done, I've worked
[2:48] Speaker 3: for myself.
[2:50] Speaker 2: And it was Nellie's Apple Bottoms and I worked for
[2:52] Speaker 2: thirty days. Yes, those Apple Bottoms boots.
[2:55] Speaker 4: With the first yes what And I worked for that
[3:00] Speaker 4: company for thirty days doing product placement, placed product on
[3:03] Speaker 4: Jessica Simpson and Tyra Banks, and I even found Oprah
[3:06] Speaker 4: put the genes on her and she had 'em on
[3:08] Speaker 4: the show.
[3:09] Speaker 3: So when the president said, Harry and we I'd like
[3:11] Speaker 3: to meet with you, I'm thinking, like, of course I've changed,
[3:14] Speaker 3: I've turned the company around.
[3:15] Speaker 2: You wanna meet with me? And she said, unfortunately, have
[3:18] Speaker 2: to let you go. And I was like, let me go.
[3:21] Speaker 3: She said, if it was based on performance, you'd be
[3:23] Speaker 3: the first to stay.
[3:23] Speaker 2: I said, what is this based on I was twenty
[3:26] Speaker 2: three at the time.
[3:27] Speaker 3: Yeah, she said, well, the company's being sold. Everybody has
[3:32] Speaker 3: to go. We're g they're having a new team come in.
[3:34] Speaker 3: You just having to be the last hired, you're the
[3:36] Speaker 3: first fired. So yes, And at that time, my parents
[3:40] Speaker 3: were in an unfortunate divorce case called back and I
[3:44] Speaker 3: never knew I would never be able to not call
[3:45] Speaker 3: back home. I grew up middle class, so I was like,
[3:48] Speaker 3: what do you mean. They were like, hey, finances are
[3:51] Speaker 3: not good here right now. And I said, you know,
[3:53] Speaker 3: don't worry about me. I'll figure out life.
[3:55] Speaker 2: Ye y'all worry about my sister. I'm i'm'a keep going.
[3:59] Speaker 3: And I ran out of cash and then they put
[4:02] Speaker 3: on the notice on the door that says pay rent
[4:05] Speaker 3: or quit.
[4:05] Speaker 2: I said, well, shoot, I guess I gotta quit.
[4:07] Speaker 3: I don't us to give you wow, And I moved
[4:11] Speaker 3: from my apartment to my car.
[4:12] Speaker 2: My mom's best friend paid for my storage. I was like,
[4:15] Speaker 2: I'll just figure it out. Do I look sad? I'm here,
[4:19] Speaker 2: you are here.
[4:21] Speaker 3: And I was without a place to stay for seven months, welfare,
[4:26] Speaker 3: food stamps, selling my clothes so I could eat, put
[4:29] Speaker 3: gas in the car, et cetera. But my optimism, for
[4:33] Speaker 3: the most part of my faith kept me. I never
[4:36] Speaker 3: knew it was gonna take seven months. I get up
[4:38] Speaker 3: every day time, but oh, this is the last day.
[4:40] Speaker 3: This the last day, This the last day. And I
[4:43] Speaker 3: have a whole bunch of funny stories I tell about
[4:45] Speaker 3: what happened during that time. There was a moment where
[4:49] Speaker 3: I did do I did crash Like. I was like,
[4:51] Speaker 3: this cannot be happening to me. Yeah, this is not
[4:54] Speaker 3: I'm probably you know, months in and I'm like, wait
[4:56] Speaker 3: a minute.
[4:57] Speaker 2: I went to school, I got good grades. What did
[5:01] Speaker 2: I do wrong?
[5:02] Speaker 1: Yeah?
[5:03] Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, am I being punished? What
[5:05] Speaker 2: is this? So?
[5:08] Speaker 3: But luckily somebody called me. They sought me out to
[5:10] Speaker 3: do some PR marketing work. They saw my work at
[5:12] Speaker 3: Apple Bottoms. So I'm like, but you've called months ago, right,
[5:16] Speaker 3: And it was to do some PR marketing work for
[5:18] Speaker 3: their spouse. And they referred me to somebody, who referred
[5:21] Speaker 3: me to somebody who referred me to somebody I looked up.
[5:23] Speaker 3: I was like, okay, I got a business mm. And
[5:27] Speaker 3: I found that so interesting because the moment that got started,
[5:30] Speaker 3: it happened with such flowing ease MM. And I said,
[5:34] Speaker 3: there and you were creative to do business in this earth,
[5:38] Speaker 3: and the moment you stepped out of that, you caused
[5:40] Speaker 3: yourself more chaos and more headache than when you had
[5:44] Speaker 3: the store.
[5:46] Speaker 2: Like, the ups and downs at the store.
[5:48] Speaker 3: Were nothing like me having no trying to figure out
[5:50] Speaker 3: how i'm'a eat the next day, right, you know?
[5:53] Speaker 2: I was like, you have to stay.
[5:55] Speaker 3: In alignment with your purpose and you're calling in this earth,
[5:58] Speaker 3: cause even if it has ups and down, it's nothing
[6:00] Speaker 3: like being outside of that.
[6:02] Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. So what happened after you got that call?
[6:05] Speaker 3: Oh? I ended up building a pr and marketing company
[6:07] Speaker 3: from the ground up, servicing clients like from the Sony
[6:10] Speaker 3: Pictures to the Walt Disneys of the World and what
[6:14] Speaker 3: Universal and everything else. Yeah, we worked on Blockbuster movies.
[6:17] Speaker 3: So Will Packer at the time was not the Will Packer.
[6:22] Speaker 3: I called him when I was living out of my
[6:24] Speaker 3: office space. So I went from the car to the
[6:26] Speaker 3: office and I said, well, I've started this company.
[6:31] Speaker 2: This is what I do.
[6:32] Speaker 3: I found out that Studio was actually outsourced PR and
[6:35] Speaker 3: marketing companies. He said, Aaron, your timing couldn't have been
[6:38] Speaker 3: more better. Wow, And I said, what's going on? He said,
[6:41] Speaker 3: we are getting ready to release our first big theatrical
[6:45] Speaker 3: movie and we're going to produce it in Atlanta and
[6:47] Speaker 3: I said what is it? And he said Stepping. That
[6:50] Speaker 3: was the working title. It's known as Stop the Art.
[6:53] Speaker 1: Which was my first and that was.
[6:56] Speaker 2: Their first big theatrical release. Wow, exactly. So she had
[7:02] Speaker 2: The Gospel before me.
[7:03] Speaker 3: That was the first big one and the movie was
[7:06] Speaker 3: number one two weekends in a row. So my phone
[7:09] Speaker 3: starts ringing with all the studio.
[7:11] Speaker 2: I bet they're like, she did this. We need what's
[7:14] Speaker 2: going on? So?
[7:15] Speaker 1: Yeah, that is incredible.
[7:17] Speaker 2: Thank you.
[7:18] Speaker 1: So at that point, did you move from Los Angeles
[7:20] Speaker 1: to Atlanta or did you stay?
[7:22] Speaker 2: No, I had to come out.
[7:23] Speaker 3: To Atlanta to for when it was being filmed, but
[7:27] Speaker 3: I didn't just move to Atlanta from there.
[7:29] Speaker 2: Now.
[7:29] Speaker 1: Yes, oh my goodness. It's funny because Will Packer's married
[7:33] Speaker 1: to my cousin now and Heather's my cousin.
[7:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, oh Tennessee, yes, Oh my god.
[7:39] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like, yes, oh my gosh, yes, I love that.
[7:47] Speaker 1: She's she is she that is my girl, She's everything.
[7:51] Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Wait a minute.
[7:53] Speaker 1: Yes, small word, very small world, but something. R two
[7:57] Speaker 1: the sequel was my very first film that I worked
[7:59] Speaker 1: in as an extra. I'm like, so, yeah, I got
[8:02] Speaker 1: my star with That was before Heather and it was
[8:04] Speaker 1: years later when we found out that they were together.
[8:07] Speaker 1: But yeah, small world.
[8:11] Speaker 2: I worked many in films with Packer. Yes, he's incredible.
[8:14] Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. So what was the pivot to
[8:18] Speaker 1: what you're doing? Now? How did you even get into
[8:20] Speaker 1: venture capital?
[8:22] Speaker 2: Okay?
[8:22] Speaker 3: So I started meeting people who were in the space.
[8:26] Speaker 3: I took a meeting at Gary Vaynerchuk's office, vayner Media,
[8:30] Speaker 3: with Gary v himself.
[8:32] Speaker 2: He's a social entrepreneur person.
[8:34] Speaker 3: Known on even you know, on the Internet, And in
[8:39] Speaker 3: the meeting, me and my friends were pitching to him
[8:41] Speaker 3: a ten million dollar basically pitch, wow, girl, we ain't
[8:45] Speaker 3: get it, but it's okay, she's a wow. And we
[8:49] Speaker 3: did not know at the time he only had a
[8:51] Speaker 3: twenty five million dollar fund and the fun had been deployed.
[8:54] Speaker 3: So we find us out after the pitch, which was
[8:56] Speaker 3: so funny. But afterwards, remember standing on the streets in
[9:01] Speaker 3: New York just froze and my friend he looked at
[9:05] Speaker 3: me sitting here in he said, you want to be
[9:07] Speaker 3: on the other side of the table.
[9:09] Speaker 2: I said, I do. I said, this is.
[9:11] Speaker 3: How I get to make good on the promise I
[9:13] Speaker 3: made to myself in college.
[9:15] Speaker 1: Come on.
[9:16] Speaker 3: And from there, having that awareness, I just started meeting
[9:19] Speaker 3: other people in venture capital at different events. I started,
[9:22] Speaker 3: let me tell you, it's fearless, funy with people. Know
[9:24] Speaker 3: today it was words.
[9:25] Speaker 1: Wow.
[9:26] Speaker 3: I was like, I'm building a fund. I'm building this fund.
[9:29] Speaker 3: It's for women of color. I was going around telling everybody, Girl,
[9:32] Speaker 3: there wasn't a cent in the bit, right. I opened
[9:36] Speaker 3: a bank account at Citizens Trust. This is a true story.
[9:40] Speaker 3: I went there and met with the manager and I said,
[9:43] Speaker 3: I'm building a multi million dollar fund and.
[9:45] Speaker 2: I told her all about it.
[9:47] Speaker 3: I said, and I'm gonna open it up with this
[9:48] Speaker 3: hundred dollars. I know, I said, I know this person
[9:54] Speaker 3: may have thought I was crazy. They're one of my
[9:56] Speaker 3: biggest advocates now. But I'm like, I said, I wonder,
[9:59] Speaker 3: what tell you. I'm thinking, like she's like, this girl's nuts.
[10:02] Speaker 1: But I got one hundred dollars, I'll say, you're right,
[10:04] Speaker 1: We're gonna set this account up.
[10:06] Speaker 2: I mean she saw a year later the millions coming in.
[10:09] Speaker 2: She said, this girl really did what she said she
[10:11] Speaker 2: was gonna do.
[10:12] Speaker 1: That is incredible. So how did you go about it?
[10:15] Speaker 1: Like you said, it just started with words. What were
[10:17] Speaker 1: you telling people to make? Because I was.
[10:20] Speaker 2: Telling people my Where's mine?
[10:23] Speaker 3: I was telling people my vision and they were buying
[10:26] Speaker 3: into the vision. And I told I ran into somebody
[10:29] Speaker 3: named Rodney Sampson, known in Atlanta and like the tech
[10:32] Speaker 3: space Tracy Gray. These people ended up being on our
[10:35] Speaker 3: advisory board. But I just started telling people my vision
[10:39] Speaker 3: and they were like, Okay, it's a little far fetched,
[10:41] Speaker 3: but if you believe, and you sound like you believe,
[10:44] Speaker 3: we'll rock with you.
[10:45] Speaker 1: Wow. Now, what were some of the hurdles as you're
[10:48] Speaker 1: building us? I want to get into that because people
[10:51] Speaker 1: will see where you are now and it's like, well, it's.
[10:54] Speaker 3: Capital intensity that's first and foremost. You need securities attorneys
[11:00] Speaker 3: to even set it up, and you're talking about a
[11:02] Speaker 3: setup feed that's probably six figures. Yeah, a setup fee
[11:08] Speaker 3: you could find. I figured out how to cut every corner.
[11:11] Speaker 2: Trust me.
[11:12] Speaker 3: I was like, okay, can we figure out how to
[11:13] Speaker 3: set this stick for like fifteen.
[11:16] Speaker 2: I'm like, let me step this thing.
[11:19] Speaker 3: But as I was selling the vision, I started to
[11:21] Speaker 3: raise money and started to raise it from individuals at first,
[11:25] Speaker 3: and then from there I was at a family homecoming
[11:29] Speaker 3: and ran into somebody and I sold the vision again
[11:32] Speaker 3: and they were like, hey, we'll have our company come
[11:34] Speaker 3: down and meet with you. And they were our first
[11:37] Speaker 3: institutional investor, so it was a risk. And then after
[11:40] Speaker 3: LISK was like fifth third and I think Costco.
[11:44] Speaker 2: But the names were there, and when.
[11:47] Speaker 3: The wake of George Floyd hit in, a lot of
[11:50] Speaker 3: the commitments to the black community took place. We were
[11:53] Speaker 3: literally the right people in the right place at the
[11:55] Speaker 3: right time, doing the right thing.
[11:56] Speaker 2: Yes, so now Inbound is happening. So but mindra, I.
[11:59] Speaker 3: Spent three years of grinding, two years plus of no salary,
[12:04] Speaker 3: just trying to figure it out.
[12:07] Speaker 2: To get there.
[12:08] Speaker 3: So yeah, it was a lot of years of still
[12:12] Speaker 3: selling a vision.
[12:13] Speaker 1: Yes, And can you explain for people who don't know
[12:15] Speaker 1: exactly the mission of the Fearless Fund.
[12:17] Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, absolutely.
[12:19] Speaker 3: The Fearless Fund is the nation's first, or even the
[12:22] Speaker 3: world's first venture capital fund that's built by women of
[12:25] Speaker 3: color for women of color. Yes, we invest in women
[12:27] Speaker 3: of color co founded companies. And the reason why is
[12:31] Speaker 3: because women of color are the fastest growing entrepreneur demographic,
[12:35] Speaker 3: but unfortunately the least funded. You're talking only zero point
[12:39] Speaker 3: three nine percent of venture capital funds are going to
[12:41] Speaker 3: women of color in the US, while.
[12:43] Speaker 2: May it's over twenty percent of the US population.
[12:47] Speaker 3: So the stats are ridiculous.
[12:50] Speaker 2: That's why we do what we do.
[12:51] Speaker 1: Yes, And then you guys hit a roadblock, a huge
[12:55] Speaker 1: roadblock with the lawsuits.
[12:56] Speaker 2: That's an understatement, huge rob blake.
[13:00] Speaker 1: It's like, what is happening in that moment when it's
[13:05] Speaker 1: all happening, What is arian and Simone thinking, well, when.
[13:10] Speaker 3: Everything hit, if we have time, I'm gonna tex walking
[13:13] Speaker 3: through the day. So on August second, twenty twenty three,
[13:17] Speaker 3: the staff starts reaching out saying, these the reporters are
[13:21] Speaker 3: calling us about a.
[13:23] Speaker 2: Lawsuit we have said, I have no lawsuit. Like I
[13:26] Speaker 2: was just calm.
[13:26] Speaker 3: I said, you know what, just don't answer the phones,
[13:29] Speaker 3: keep going on with your day.
[13:30] Speaker 2: And they kept calling. I said, y'all, this is chat GPT.
[13:33] Speaker 3: They have us mixed up with somebody clearly like I'm
[13:36] Speaker 3: up here, blame it on chat GPT literally wow. And
[13:40] Speaker 3: I was like, they've got I said, it'll fix itself
[13:43] Speaker 3: because we don't have a lawsuit. Then they're like Ariyan
[13:46] Speaker 3: and we are beginning caused by the Wall Street Journal
[13:49] Speaker 3: and rots and very credible media outlets.
[13:52] Speaker 2: We're all over the news right now. And I was
[13:55] Speaker 2: just like, if there's a filing, can you find it?
[13:57] Speaker 2: Because lawsuits are public. They got a file it and.
[14:01] Speaker 3: Forty five minutes I got a call to have found
[14:04] Speaker 3: the filing.
[14:05] Speaker 1: Now, is that something your lawyer should have called like
[14:08] Speaker 1: when it happened or.
[14:09] Speaker 2: You just technically know?
[14:11] Speaker 3: So since COVID you don't have to serve people in person,
[14:17] Speaker 3: you can serve.
[14:18] Speaker 2: Them through email.
[14:19] Speaker 3: Wow, which I had not opened the email where they
[14:23] Speaker 3: were sending emails at it all. And even then I
[14:26] Speaker 3: still didn't open it. I found out much later. I
[14:28] Speaker 3: was just like, oh, I was being served through the internet.
[14:31] Speaker 2: I said, who does this?
[14:32] Speaker 3: You're like okay, But then I knew because I hadn't
[14:35] Speaker 3: accepted being served, that they were aggressively of course, also
[14:37] Speaker 3: looking for me. Yes, that's scary, it very very.
[14:44] Speaker 2: But I used my rights. Yes, I'm well equipped. I
[14:51] Speaker 2: used my rights.
[14:53] Speaker 3: So that day they found the filing and I saw
[14:57] Speaker 3: the top of the filing and it said unite State's district.
[15:01] Speaker 3: And that's when I said, oh my gosh, we have
[15:03] Speaker 3: a federal case. So I text Ben Crump emergency. I'm
[15:08] Speaker 3: hitting up everybody. I'm hitting up Derek Johnson, head of
[15:10] Speaker 3: the NAACP.
[15:11] Speaker 2: I'm like, y'all got to help. So I'm just going on.
[15:14] Speaker 3: Yes, I was like, I don't even know what happened.
[15:16] Speaker 3: Then I said who is this? And they're like Ed
[15:17] Speaker 3: Bloom and I was like, I know that name. They're
[15:20] Speaker 3: like the guy who stopped a.
[15:21] Speaker 2: Firmative action, I said at the Supreme Court. And I
[15:24] Speaker 2: was like, oh my gosh.
[15:27] Speaker 3: So I was thrust into this just overnight, like what
[15:30] Speaker 3: is going on?
[15:31] Speaker 2: So it was very abrupt.
[15:33] Speaker 3: They filed three things against our company, a temporary straining order.
[15:36] Speaker 3: I thought those were for like crazy ex boyfriends or
[15:39] Speaker 3: ex girlfriends. No, you can file a tro on somebody's
[15:43] Speaker 3: business and put them out of business. Yes, they wanted
[15:46] Speaker 3: us shutting down operations by August seventeenth, and I said what.
[15:51] Speaker 3: They were like, do y'all have an event coming up
[15:52] Speaker 3: the attorney's ass I said yeah, I said it's the eighteenth.
[15:54] Speaker 3: They said that said I said, oh my gosh, I said,
[15:58] Speaker 3: why am I serving these people? This is literally that's
[16:01] Speaker 3: when you know it's a spirit of fear. Yes, this
[16:03] Speaker 3: is literally a trillion dollar financial disparity as far as
[16:07] Speaker 3: funding to people of color. Yeah, you're worried about in
[16:11] Speaker 3: the big scheme of things. I am so proud of
[16:12] Speaker 3: what we've done. But you're worried about a couple hundred million. Yeah, Like,
[16:16] Speaker 3: you've got to be kidding me. This is a trillion
[16:18] Speaker 3: dollar issue. We're not even making a dip in this statistic. Like,
[16:23] Speaker 3: you've got to be kidding me. I'm that much of
[16:24] Speaker 3: a threat that you want to shut this down. But
[16:28] Speaker 3: prior to the Fearless Fund, the average fundraise for a
[16:32] Speaker 3: black woman was only thirty thousand dollars. Oh yeah, we
[16:35] Speaker 3: came on the scene cutting seven figure checks. So it
[16:37] Speaker 3: was very disruptive, but very needed.
[16:39] Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so this is man blowing all this is happening.
[16:45] Speaker 1: And then so you have to cut off everything. Yeah.
[16:48] Speaker 3: So if anybody doesn't know, the court case was for
[16:50] Speaker 3: alleged discrimination. They said we were being discriminatory, we were
[16:54] Speaker 3: investing in black and brown women and not white businesses.
[16:59] Speaker 1: You are kidding me.
[17:03] Speaker 3: And they said we were violating They claimed we were
[17:05] Speaker 3: violating a civil rights law.
[17:07] Speaker 2: I thought that was still part of the hoax.
[17:09] Speaker 3: Hello, I said, I did, I said civil rights. I
[17:12] Speaker 3: was like civil rights were put in place for black people.
[17:14] Speaker 3: What you're talking about? I said, Oh, this is gonna
[17:17] Speaker 3: get dismissed. They have this wrong. Yeah, oh my goodness.
[17:20] Speaker 1: And now with d DEI being cut everywhere, we tried
[17:24] Speaker 1: to warn everybody, did you yes?
[17:26] Speaker 3: I kept a post like yes, because we were the
[17:28] Speaker 3: first deiks. I said, sound the alarm, I said, we
[17:32] Speaker 3: are inaugural defendants and one of the most defining lawsuits
[17:36] Speaker 3: of our time. Please let people know this is real
[17:40] Speaker 3: and this is happening.
[17:42] Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. What happened with all the black women
[17:44] Speaker 1: that you were helping with their businesses?
[17:46] Speaker 2: But they still got their money? I know that's right.
[17:49] Speaker 3: And during the court case, I was still deploying. I
[17:52] Speaker 3: was still cutting checks left and right. I said, hey,
[17:55] Speaker 3: we're gonna keep this thing. Yes, I was still cutting checks.
[17:58] Speaker 1: Well, so where is fearless?
[18:00] Speaker 2: Woon? We still come checks now too? For the lawsuit
[18:03] Speaker 2: is permanently dismiss Praise God?
[18:05] Speaker 1: All good?
[18:06] Speaker 2: Okay, yes, permanently dismissed.
[18:08] Speaker 3: When was that September twenty twenty four, So it was
[18:10] Speaker 3: thirteen months, yes.
[18:13] Speaker 2: Of a federal court case.
[18:14] Speaker 3: So just mind you people here and they see what
[18:18] Speaker 3: went on in the media. I said, people have no
[18:21] Speaker 3: clue that fall was one of the hardest seasons of
[18:25] Speaker 3: my life. Yeah, that makes living out the car like
[18:29] Speaker 3: a piece of cakes.
[18:29] Speaker 1: Listen, I can. I can't imagine, but I can.
[18:32] Speaker 3: One of the hardest seasons of my life. Oh, I
[18:34] Speaker 3: had people coming from me, honey that looked just like
[18:36] Speaker 3: me and you. It was a mess. Oh, it was
[18:40] Speaker 3: a mess.
[18:41] Speaker 1: I can't imagine what in those moments. I know you
[18:44] Speaker 1: you speak very openly about your faith. How did you
[18:47] Speaker 1: lean in on those because I know You're like, Lord, Okay, now,
[18:50] Speaker 1: I know I'm.
[18:51] Speaker 3: Strong, but I knew the moment it hit when I
[18:53] Speaker 3: realized we had something real, I was like, God, your
[18:57] Speaker 3: hand is on this.
[18:58] Speaker 1: Oh.
[18:59] Speaker 3: I was like, I grew up around Rosa Parks. I
[19:01] Speaker 3: grew up around Coredas Scott King, I grew up around
[19:03] Speaker 3: Betty Shabba's.
[19:04] Speaker 2: I said, your hand.
[19:05] Speaker 1: You grew up around all those Yes, what.
[19:08] Speaker 2: Civil rights icons, just women's women in the movement. I said,
[19:13] Speaker 2: this is not my happen state.
[19:15] Speaker 3: I think it's crazy too, because now I sit back
[19:17] Speaker 3: and I'm like, I would have asked y'all so.
[19:18] Speaker 1: Many more questions, right, yeah, this, yes, And I was
[19:23] Speaker 1: a kid.
[19:24] Speaker 3: I will get I will go back to give me
[19:27] Speaker 3: two seconds you think is no, I'm in. So there
[19:30] Speaker 3: was one moment when I remember being about fourteen and
[19:33] Speaker 3: my mom was like I always travel with my parents.
[19:35] Speaker 3: They were like, you know what We're going down ahead
[19:38] Speaker 3: you and ask you it come down after us. And
[19:40] Speaker 3: I was like okay. They were like, you're coming to
[19:42] Speaker 3: Alabama and I freaked out. I said, I don't go
[19:44] Speaker 3: to Alabama.
[19:45] Speaker 1: No.
[19:45] Speaker 3: At this point, I'm well traveled. I've traveled country states,
[19:48] Speaker 3: all of it. There, I said, missus Parks has told
[19:51] Speaker 3: me about the clan and all these crazy people.
[19:53] Speaker 2: I said, I don't want to see mysel MoMA. Do
[19:54] Speaker 2: you have a gun down there? Like what is going on?
[19:57] Speaker 3: Like I don't like this, Like I didn't want to
[19:59] Speaker 3: go for anything, she said. She said, arian Coreta Scott King,
[20:03] Speaker 3: Juanita Abernathy, and Rosa Parks.
[20:04] Speaker 2: Are waiting on you.
[20:06] Speaker 3: And I told her I can see those old women anytime,
[20:08] Speaker 3: Lord forgive me.
[20:10] Speaker 2: But I was young and I had no appreciation of.
[20:13] Speaker 3: It at the time because this was just my life.
[20:16] Speaker 2: She was like a grandmother to me.
[20:17] Speaker 3: I'm checking on her after school, bringing groceries and stuff
[20:20] Speaker 3: like that. So this is not even like, oh my gosh,
[20:24] Speaker 3: it's my normal.
[20:25] Speaker 1: Yes.
[20:26] Speaker 2: Wow, And she.
[20:27] Speaker 3: Was like, Arian Simone, reed, you will get your behind
[20:30] Speaker 3: on that plane. So I got my behind on that plane.
[20:33] Speaker 2: How old were you then? I think I was like fourteen? Yeah, yeah,
[20:36] Speaker 2: I was fourteen.
[20:37] Speaker 3: Oh this was an anniversary for one of the Montgomery
[20:39] Speaker 3: Bust boycotts.
[20:40] Speaker 2: But yeah, I pulled on that. So yeah, my faith
[20:44] Speaker 2: is strong.
[20:44] Speaker 3: When it happened, I knew God's hand was on it,
[20:47] Speaker 3: and I was just like I knew my steps.
[20:48] Speaker 2: Had been ordered. I knew I was covered.
[20:51] Speaker 3: I said, okay, Lord, no weapon form against me shall prosper.
[20:55] Speaker 3: I said, any tongue that rises up against me, I
[20:57] Speaker 3: shall condemn. I said, okay, I'm gonna stand on your word.
[21:01] Speaker 3: I said, I believe you.
[21:02] Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe you.
[21:03] Speaker 3: Watch over it to make sure it's performed. I said,
[21:06] Speaker 3: I'm with you. So yes, my faith got me through
[21:10] Speaker 3: because I had no clue that through something like that
[21:13] Speaker 3: that even other people would try to attack you because
[21:15] Speaker 3: they think you're vulnerable. I was like, oh my gosh,
[21:20] Speaker 3: that's but we had a lot of support, So we're
[21:23] Speaker 3: gonna keep it positive, Sweetie. Always we had a lot
[21:27] Speaker 3: of support through the process, and I'm so grateful.
[21:30] Speaker 1: Now have you seen those people that came after you
[21:33] Speaker 1: since then and see and they see that it didn't
[21:37] Speaker 1: work and no weapon formed against you, so prospered.
[21:40] Speaker 2: He lays the table.
[21:45] Speaker 1: Yes, and yeah, I know that's right. Oh my god.
[21:51] Speaker 1: So let's go back to Rosa Parks Corretta Scott King what, Yeah,
[21:57] Speaker 1: this is crazy, Like it's funny. I was on the
[21:59] Speaker 1: phone yesterday with a friend and he was like, you's
[22:03] Speaker 1: looking like Rosa Parks And I looked at the camera
[22:05] Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, well, I can see it
[22:07] Speaker 1: because my glasses on and my hair was like it
[22:11] Speaker 1: wasn't like slick bgg, it was kind of like. I
[22:13] Speaker 1: was like, come on, biopic, Rosa.
[22:19] Speaker 2: It's funny you said that.
[22:21] Speaker 1: And then the moment says you're a child not realizing
[22:25] Speaker 1: the I mean that you're like around and everage to
[22:29] Speaker 1: do what you're doing. Now, God makes no mistakes. It
[22:32] Speaker 1: was already written. Oh my gosh. So where you are now,
[22:37] Speaker 1: you're still writing checks, the fearless fun is still thriving.
[22:41] Speaker 1: What are the initiatives that you're going after now that
[22:43] Speaker 1: you're over that hurdle?
[22:45] Speaker 3: Before we got to My staff even has me on
[22:48] Speaker 3: video talking about this. I didn't even notice it was
[22:51] Speaker 3: coming around the corner. I told them, mat I retreat,
[22:54] Speaker 3: I said, you all. When we finished raising fun too,
[22:56] Speaker 3: I said, I'm gonna actually take a step back and
[22:58] Speaker 3: get into more afficacy work. I said, I have to
[23:01] Speaker 3: stand up for this kind of work that we're doing.
[23:03] Speaker 3: I said, because we don't need the Fearless fund. We
[23:06] Speaker 3: need fearless funds, I said, we need more people having
[23:09] Speaker 3: the opportunity to do what it is that I do.
[23:11] Speaker 3: I said, So I'm gonna get into some more advocacy work,
[23:14] Speaker 3: I said, and we're going to have to make sure
[23:15] Speaker 3: that people are aware of what this racial disparity is.
[23:18] Speaker 2: And how do we actually fix it.
[23:21] Speaker 3: So I had no clue that this would turn into
[23:24] Speaker 3: the way it has and giving me a platform to
[23:26] Speaker 3: have a voice to speak about it more.
[23:29] Speaker 1: So, that's incredible. Yeah, are you do you do like
[23:34] Speaker 1: mentorship programs or young entrepreneurs that are trying to start
[23:36] Speaker 1: their own business.
[23:38] Speaker 3: Not necessarily try to start their own business, but the
[23:40] Speaker 3: second they have and we have a program called get
[23:42] Speaker 3: Venture Ready. Okay, so people who have started their business
[23:45] Speaker 3: and they're looking to get venture dollars. We have programs
[23:48] Speaker 3: for them so they can learn about their options and
[23:51] Speaker 3: venture capitals.
[23:52] Speaker 2: Not for everybody.
[23:53] Speaker 3: It's very aggressive and it's very fast venture capital. To
[23:56] Speaker 3: those of you all who are listening, it looks like
[23:57] Speaker 3: Shark Tank. So people say, hey, yeah, can you give
[24:01] Speaker 3: me five hundred thousand dollars. I'll give you ten percent
[24:04] Speaker 3: ownership of my business. And that's exactly what it looks like,
[24:07] Speaker 3: just like Shark Tank. Now that's some semi aggressive because
[24:12] Speaker 3: we're looking for you to exit in five to seven years.
[24:14] Speaker 2: Whereas we also have a loan program.
[24:17] Speaker 3: We have a two hundred million dollar loan program and
[24:19] Speaker 3: people can apply for five thousand dollars up to two
[24:23] Speaker 3: hundred and fifty thousand dollars if you just have fifty
[24:25] Speaker 3: thousand in revenue credit score six hundred.
[24:28] Speaker 2: So that's the criteria for that program.
[24:31] Speaker 3: And then at our foundation we have grants, so we
[24:34] Speaker 3: have multiple financing options depending on where you're at and
[24:37] Speaker 3: what is your desire to get done.
[24:40] Speaker 1: So say, y'all, as an entrepreneur, you are here we
[24:44] Speaker 1: go and I was coming to you to present my
[24:48] Speaker 1: business looking for funding. What are you looking for? Because
[24:53] Speaker 1: I know people like, but what do I need to
[24:54] Speaker 1: be prepared for when I go ask for this money
[24:57] Speaker 1: in this capital.
[24:58] Speaker 2: Well, there's four indicators.
[25:00] Speaker 3: Especially on the venture side. We do look for a
[25:02] Speaker 3: good brand story because you got to be to sell it.
[25:04] Speaker 3: Like I sold the vision and now we're here with
[25:06] Speaker 3: the fun. You got to be to sell it. You
[25:08] Speaker 3: need to have a strong team because that's nice. Once
[25:11] Speaker 3: you sell that story, it's like, okay, are you all
[25:13] Speaker 3: equipped to actually go execute on what you're selling to us.
[25:17] Speaker 3: You want to have a good product and you want
[25:19] Speaker 3: to have traction. So traction can look like anything. So
[25:22] Speaker 3: we invest in CpG, which is a consumer package good
[25:25] Speaker 3: and any type of products. We also invest in technology, but
[25:29] Speaker 3: with that being said, technology is very capital intensive, so
[25:32] Speaker 3: people may not have the revenue to say is traction.
[25:36] Speaker 3: They may have Oh my email list has fifty thousand
[25:39] Speaker 3: people on this wait list, that's traction.
[25:41] Speaker 1: Got it.
[25:42] Speaker 3: I've had this many downloads, that's traction. I've got this
[25:45] Speaker 3: many social media followers, that's traction. We know you have
[25:48] Speaker 3: people who are interested in what you're talking about.
[25:50] Speaker 1: Yeah, oh wow, okay, so let's be tun to the
[25:54] Speaker 1: person who's just got an idea before they even can
[25:57] Speaker 1: even get to you. What are some things that they
[25:59] Speaker 1: can do to build that social media presence, to build
[26:01] Speaker 1: the traction, to get the emails.
[26:04] Speaker 2: And you'd be surprised ideas get funded every day.
[26:08] Speaker 3: Wow, those are our four indicators we look at.
[26:11] Speaker 2: But ideas do get funded every day.
[26:14] Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, it's good to know you guys. Listen, you
[26:18] Speaker 1: need to hip airing up or hit the fearless found up.
[26:23] Speaker 1: So how would you define success when it comes to
[26:26] Speaker 1: being an entrepreneur because so many people feel like, well,
[26:29] Speaker 1: I'm not where Aaron is, or I'm not where Crystal
[26:31] Speaker 1: is or I'm not here. But where would you define
[26:34] Speaker 1: success so people can understand there's different levels and you
[26:37] Speaker 1: don't have to be oh.
[26:38] Speaker 3: Completely, but it's whatever your field of I wouldn't say
[26:41] Speaker 3: like field of influences. I define it as you know,
[26:46] Speaker 3: just impact. If you've changed one person's life, you know,
[26:49] Speaker 3: just by your presence and by what it is that
[26:51] Speaker 3: you're doing.
[26:53] Speaker 2: That's impactful.
[26:54] Speaker 1: No, for sure, Yeah, that is impactful. Has your ideal
[26:58] Speaker 1: of success evolved over the years?
[27:01] Speaker 2: Has it evolved?
[27:05] Speaker 1: It?
[27:05] Speaker 2: Probably has?
[27:06] Speaker 1: I know for me, like I remember where I would
[27:09] Speaker 1: say ten year.
[27:10] Speaker 2: Twenties and successful like a dollar amount.
[27:12] Speaker 1: Yeah, that was success. And then where I am now,
[27:14] Speaker 1: I'm like, that was nowhere near what I thought success was.
[27:17] Speaker 1: And then still today I'm like, I still have so
[27:20] Speaker 1: much further to go.
[27:21] Speaker 2: You know that is true.
[27:23] Speaker 3: I've always looked at it like, of course I'm always growing,
[27:26] Speaker 3: always evolving, always achieving always, Yes, but I still think
[27:32] Speaker 3: every level was successful.
[27:35] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[27:35] Speaker 3: So I get what you're meaning, what you're saying, like, oh, no,
[27:39] Speaker 3: I feel like I haven't made it.
[27:40] Speaker 2: I'm doing this, doing that, but you're successful. Yes, you've
[27:43] Speaker 2: been successful.
[27:44] Speaker 3: Yes, maybe because I just operate from like a pure
[27:48] Speaker 3: place of gratitude.
[27:50] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[27:51] Speaker 3: So yeah, I think so that was where I was.
[27:53] Speaker 3: Saber has evolved, Okay, I love that.
[27:56] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[27:56] Speaker 3: I wouldn' up said that was successful all those times,
[27:59] Speaker 3: but now I look back and say all of that
[28:01] Speaker 3: was success.
[28:02] Speaker 2: Yeah, I love Yeah, what.
[28:04] Speaker 1: Actually inspired you to even create the Fearless Fun?
[28:07] Speaker 3: Was it just seeing that promise I made to myself
[28:09] Speaker 3: in college? I had the experience of going to pitch
[28:12] Speaker 3: as a college student.
[28:14] Speaker 2: What was your major? I was a business major, but
[28:17] Speaker 2: I majored in business in high school.
[28:19] Speaker 3: Like we had went to a high school that had
[28:20] Speaker 3: majors too. So going through that process and seeing investors
[28:26] Speaker 3: do not look like you going through that process and
[28:29] Speaker 3: I'm talking about it.
[28:30] Speaker 2: I'm suited and booted.
[28:31] Speaker 3: Even as a college kid, and I'm giving them my
[28:33] Speaker 3: best at that time business plan. This before decks quote unquote,
[28:37] Speaker 3: we're around and I was like, this is not working.
[28:42] Speaker 3: I was like, there's got to be somebody who can
[28:45] Speaker 3: understand my story. There's got to be somebody who's going
[28:48] Speaker 3: to believe in me. And I sat there on that
[28:50] Speaker 3: floor amongst the inventory, and now, Sarah, don't you worry
[28:53] Speaker 3: about it, because one day you're going to be the
[28:55] Speaker 3: business investor you were looking for us.
[28:57] Speaker 1: I love that. Can you share a success story of
[29:00] Speaker 1: a business or entrepreneur that you guys have sewn into
[29:03] Speaker 1: and invested in? Oh honey, Plenty, please share it because
[29:05] Speaker 1: I'm excited to hear about.
[29:07] Speaker 3: You said, Plenty, I mean, we're investors. You know these
[29:10] Speaker 3: companies partake the lip bars Vegan. I mean, oh yeah,
[29:14] Speaker 3: I we got the hit list. Okay, we got the
[29:17] Speaker 3: hot roster.
[29:18] Speaker 2: I didn't know that. Oh yeah, we got all the
[29:21] Speaker 2: success stories.
[29:22] Speaker 1: Yes, that is amazing. So how did Pinky come come in?
[29:28] Speaker 2: I don't think she came in.
[29:29] Speaker 3: I was probably a uh slutified whatever they call it.
[29:38] Speaker 2: Oh. Yes.
[29:40] Speaker 3: And then I heard through her manager at the time
[29:42] Speaker 3: that they were having around a funding and I was like, oh,
[29:44] Speaker 3: you're gonna cut me in.
[29:45] Speaker 1: I know that's right.
[29:47] Speaker 2: He was like, I got you. I was like cool.
[29:49] Speaker 2: So that's how that happened.
[29:50] Speaker 1: Okay. And then Marissa the lip bar I just saw her.
[29:54] Speaker 3: She actually came to us, but I was there probably baby.
[30:00] Speaker 3: I don't know if it's week one, two or three.
[30:02] Speaker 3: I pledge Melissa, we have the same yep, we're a Delta's.
[30:07] Speaker 2: We have the same high school in common.
[30:10] Speaker 3: We were both from the same side of town in Detroit,
[30:12] Speaker 3: and then we both went to FAM You oh so y'all.
[30:15] Speaker 2: So I was not in her diligence process because I said,
[30:17] Speaker 2: y'all have to keep me honest.
[30:18] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[30:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, because I was like I was there week one
[30:20] Speaker 3: when she was in her studio apartment in New York
[30:23] Speaker 3: making Veigan lipstick from the stove. So I was like,
[30:28] Speaker 3: I got to step aside on this one.
[30:30] Speaker 2: No, there were times we think it was happening. She
[30:32] Speaker 2: was like, spash, I don't think it's happening. I said,
[30:34] Speaker 2: I don't know. They ain't giving me a good report
[30:36] Speaker 2: right now.
[30:37] Speaker 3: So it went on for like a couple of months,
[30:39] Speaker 3: back and forth, legal diligence papers, and then she called.
[30:44] Speaker 2: She said it's going to happen, and I cried.
[30:47] Speaker 3: I had never cried and we had invested, but I said,
[30:49] Speaker 3: this is somebody I saw day one built this business.
[30:53] Speaker 2: I said, I am honored to cut this check.
[30:56] Speaker 1: Oh see, I love hearing stories like that. And that
[30:59] Speaker 1: was another thing that he designed that it was written
[31:02] Speaker 1: since y'all were kids. Like what you know what I'm saying, Like,
[31:06] Speaker 1: that's crazy, that is crazy. How can people if they
[31:10] Speaker 1: want to get involved, if they have the money and
[31:13] Speaker 1: they want to just even donate to the fun how
[31:15] Speaker 1: can they do that?
[31:16] Speaker 3: Donations to the foundation are at the Fearless Dot Foundation.
[31:22] Speaker 3: Any information for the fund is Fearless Dot Fund f und.
[31:27] Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, Yeah, because I'm sure people listening are gonna
[31:30] Speaker 1: want to get behind this. Oh thank you, especially with
[31:32] Speaker 1: everything that's going on with DEI and our funsy and
[31:34] Speaker 1: cut everywhere you turn. How do you feel about the
[31:37] Speaker 1: boycotts on different companies?
[31:40] Speaker 2: Girl, don't get me started.
[31:41] Speaker 3: I'm not on social It's much lately. Yeah, but when
[31:46] Speaker 3: I have had to say a few things here and there,
[31:52] Speaker 3: I have a lot of feelings. I have told even
[31:55] Speaker 3: the black and brown brands at Target. I said, if
[32:00] Speaker 3: you can walk off the shelf the same way they
[32:01] Speaker 3: can cancel you, you can cancel them. Wow, I said,
[32:04] Speaker 3: And you all probably need to walk in your power.
[32:06] Speaker 3: I said, if I were you, I's in a collective
[32:09] Speaker 3: letter expressing your concerns that when I entered into an
[32:12] Speaker 3: agreement with your company, that these were.
[32:13] Speaker 2: Your value systems.
[32:15] Speaker 3: Yes, this is where things lined up. This is why
[32:18] Speaker 3: I chose to be in partnership with you. I said,
[32:21] Speaker 3: not have everybody sign it. And I said, because you
[32:24] Speaker 3: have now changed your values and I've entered into this
[32:26] Speaker 3: business agreement with you, my products are now being part
[32:29] Speaker 3: of a boycott.
[32:30] Speaker 2: That I wouldn't have wanted.
[32:32] Speaker 3: So I may have to sue you for financial damages
[32:34] Speaker 3: unless you want to change your values.
[32:36] Speaker 1: Wow, I need you to look.
[32:37] Speaker 2: So when we got to say how do I need
[32:40] Speaker 2: to break this email?
[32:42] Speaker 3: Oh, well, the bord of directors would have hurt from
[32:45] Speaker 3: me had I been in that position, their board of
[32:48] Speaker 3: directors in their c suites. You are sorry, and I
[32:50] Speaker 3: would have had a meeting. I know this, and I
[32:53] Speaker 3: would have had.
[32:53] Speaker 2: A check too.
[32:54] Speaker 1: Yeah, because I love I'm good friends with Tabith Brown,
[32:58] Speaker 1: love her, and even Monique Rodriguez, their brands are both.
[33:03] Speaker 2: On target Ship.
[33:04] Speaker 1: These are all my girlfriends, everybody, and I've seen them
[33:07] Speaker 1: get on Instagram and say, hey, guys, if you do
[33:11] Speaker 1: if you're boycotting, you're boycotting us. So if you're going
[33:14] Speaker 1: to go only shop black brands. But when I think
[33:17] Speaker 1: about it, and I feel like, if you just bring
[33:20] Speaker 1: in and make your own website and sell it yourself
[33:23] Speaker 1: and get a.
[33:24] Speaker 3: Josh say, y'all, can all walk out the door and
[33:26] Speaker 3: go start tire baby. Listen, all walk out the door,
[33:30] Speaker 3: all of them, and collectively, I said, you all make
[33:35] Speaker 3: them millions millions of money. I said, stand in your voice, yes,
[33:40] Speaker 3: stand in your voice exactly. So yeah, they Target would
[33:44] Speaker 3: have had a new announcement by the time I had
[33:45] Speaker 3: got done with them.
[33:47] Speaker 2: We would have saw a whole new press conference. I
[33:49] Speaker 2: already know.
[33:50] Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, yeah I was. I see a lot
[33:53] Speaker 1: of people doing the boycotts and pastors, everyone's getting behind it,
[33:57] Speaker 1: and I think it's very important to let our voices
[34:01] Speaker 1: be heard and show the power of our dollar as
[34:03] Speaker 1: a community.
[34:04] Speaker 3: Because even speaking of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery bus boycott
[34:07] Speaker 3: did not just end due to morality, it ended due
[34:09] Speaker 3: to economics.
[34:10] Speaker 2: They bled them out, so they were like, oh, we're
[34:12] Speaker 2: going to start this and fix some things.
[34:14] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[34:15] Speaker 3: So yeah, you exercise, you advocate with your dollars.
[34:20] Speaker 2: And I tell that to people all the time.
[34:22] Speaker 3: So if somebody does donate from watching this, thank you
[34:25] Speaker 3: all so much because you advocate with your dollars.
[34:28] Speaker 1: Exactly they do. How do you balance being a leader,
[34:32] Speaker 1: a business woman and an entrepreneur like you do a
[34:35] Speaker 1: lot of things and now you're in your advocacy bag
[34:38] Speaker 1: and you're all of I can imagine how you even
[34:41] Speaker 1: keep up with the day with everything you have going on.
[34:43] Speaker 1: How do you balance it off?
[34:44] Speaker 2: Well, I'm grateful for a great team. Yeah, I'm like
[34:46] Speaker 2: you too.
[34:47] Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I'm like we may be small, but we're
[34:50] Speaker 3: mighty and lean.
[34:52] Speaker 2: Yes, we are mighty.
[34:54] Speaker 3: So I've been blessed with great people, great advisors, great
[34:58] Speaker 3: team members. I have to really give it to them.
[35:01] Speaker 3: They keep my life in order so I can move
[35:03] Speaker 3: and flowing it.
[35:04] Speaker 1: Yeah, because I always see you around them, like she's
[35:06] Speaker 1: you always supporting everyone.
[35:08] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[35:09] Speaker 1: Years like we saw each other at Sarah James Roberts
[35:11] Speaker 1: book signing. Yes, and I saw your Will's book signing.
[35:15] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[35:16] Speaker 1: So you're always supporting everybody.
[35:18] Speaker 2: That's my joy I love.
[35:20] Speaker 3: I love seeing people succeed and I love seeing dreams fulfilled.
[35:24] Speaker 3: I love seeing people walking their purpose. Yes, yes, this
[35:28] Speaker 3: is this Earth is fun.
[35:31] Speaker 1: I love that what Roles has networking played in building
[35:36] Speaker 1: everything you've built today. Because I'm not the best networker,
[35:39] Speaker 1: I tell it, Sean all the time. I need you
[35:40] Speaker 1: to come with me because I will sit in the
[35:42] Speaker 1: corner and not talk to people.
[35:44] Speaker 2: But it seems like you have seen how you have
[35:46] Speaker 2: figured it out.
[35:48] Speaker 3: You know.
[35:50] Speaker 1: I even last night I went somewhere and somebody else
[35:52] Speaker 1: had to like take me to meet the people because
[35:54] Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be like, Hi, I'm Crystal, how are
[35:56] Speaker 1: you doing this?
[35:57] Speaker 2: And people know who you are?
[36:01] Speaker 3: I said, somehow it has still worked out. But I
[36:04] Speaker 3: get what you're saying. You're like, Okay, if you're not
[36:06] Speaker 3: like aggressively extrovert, if you're not that, I think you
[36:10] Speaker 3: I think you may have answered your own question because
[36:13] Speaker 3: you're like, Okay, I'm gonna bring an advocate.
[36:15] Speaker 1: With me that somebody that can say this is right. Yeah,
[36:19] Speaker 1: that's true, because I do have an issue with that.
[36:21] Speaker 1: A friend of mine said, you network. I'm like, no,
[36:24] Speaker 1: not the bus networker, like, and I'm a really yes.
[36:28] Speaker 2: The word itself doesn't sound organic, and I think that's
[36:35] Speaker 2: my problem.
[36:35] Speaker 3: I don't want to Yes, you don't want force relationships.
[36:40] Speaker 3: So I wouldn't even approach it from a networking standpoint
[36:42] Speaker 3: because I'm big on energy to if I rock with you,
[36:45] Speaker 3: I rock with you, and if I don't, I don't
[36:46] Speaker 3: and I'm really okay with it.
[36:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So I.
[36:53] Speaker 3: Would just say I'm coming to make whatever genuine connections, yeah,
[36:58] Speaker 3: or in the space.
[36:59] Speaker 2: That are there for me.
[37:00] Speaker 1: M I love that.
[37:01] Speaker 2: What is next for you? Oh God?
[37:06] Speaker 1: Because I know it's something. I know you got something
[37:08] Speaker 1: in your sleeve.
[37:09] Speaker 3: I mean, if we're talking business, I would say I
[37:13] Speaker 3: can sense a book.
[37:15] Speaker 1: I did it literally when you was like what are
[37:17] Speaker 1: you writing a book? If you were like, so, we
[37:21] Speaker 1: need a book, area, we need a book, especially talking
[37:24] Speaker 1: about groves of parks, and that was like your grandma.
[37:27] Speaker 3: Well the book is it isn't in the book because
[37:29] Speaker 3: the book is about picking up the mantle from where
[37:33] Speaker 3: our civil rights icons left off and preparing a prosperous
[37:37] Speaker 3: future for this generation.
[37:39] Speaker 2: I love it.
[37:40] Speaker 1: I absolutely love it. Do you have a title yet?
[37:44] Speaker 1: Mm hmm? Can the kids family get a little sneaky?
[37:49] Speaker 2: It's like not yet.
[37:51] Speaker 3: It's my I don't mind sharing it because it's I know,
[37:54] Speaker 3: even my agency is making an announcement.
[37:57] Speaker 2: But it's called Freedom to Be Fearless.
[37:59] Speaker 1: Amazing. Well, I have a like, it's not really announced
[38:02] Speaker 1: as a book club, but I do one book a month,
[38:04] Speaker 1: so I'll make sure I share that. Yes, absolutely, and
[38:08] Speaker 1: we'll read it absolutely. A goal of mine this year
[38:12] Speaker 1: was to read more because I just remember as a kid,
[38:14] Speaker 1: I would read all the time. I would stay in
[38:16] Speaker 1: my room and just like just going through the pages,
[38:18] Speaker 1: and I'm like, I do not sit down and read anymore.
[38:21] Speaker 1: So this year I started that and every month I
[38:23] Speaker 1: do a book.
[38:24] Speaker 2: Did that help you just dream?
[38:25] Speaker 1: It? Did? It did? Especially being from a SMA small
[38:27] Speaker 1: town like.
[38:28] Speaker 3: My small town success stories out of magazines and the
[38:32] Speaker 3: books I hear.
[38:33] Speaker 1: I just I literally was. When we were in LA
[38:37] Speaker 1: for Essence last week, I just said that I was
[38:39] Speaker 1: like I was talking to one of the marketing executed Essence,
[38:42] Speaker 1: and I said, Essence magazine was in my coffee table,
[38:45] Speaker 1: and it was also at our bathrooms because back in
[38:48] Speaker 1: the day, we would have these little baskets with magazines
[38:50] Speaker 1: in it when you go to the bathroom, and it
[38:52] Speaker 1: was Essence and Jed and Ebony. Those are the magazines
[38:55] Speaker 1: in there. So that was where I found my style inspiration.
[38:59] Speaker 1: That's where I knew what was going on in black
[39:01] Speaker 1: culture because where I'm from, it's predominantly white, So I
[39:04] Speaker 1: didn't have that exposure like all my friends were white,
[39:07] Speaker 1: Like I was the black kids sitting at the table
[39:09] Speaker 1: with all the white kids. So I didn't have that
[39:11] Speaker 1: exposure to our culture through except for through bt MTV
[39:15] Speaker 1: and the magazines. You're absolutely right, and it just it
[39:18] Speaker 1: showed me a whole new world and it got my mind.
[39:21] Speaker 1: I said, as soon as I can get out of here,
[39:22] Speaker 1: I'm getting out of here. And I did. Oh my god,
[39:26] Speaker 1: that's beautiful, thank you, thank you. You pour into everyone.
[39:32] Speaker 1: How do you pour into yourself?
[39:34] Speaker 2: Oh?
[39:34] Speaker 1: I do, she said, Oh I do.
[39:36] Speaker 2: Have I do often.
[39:39] Speaker 3: I'm even about to take off on a whole wellness
[39:42] Speaker 3: tripod wellness resorts. I'm talking resorts that make you sign
[39:46] Speaker 3: a contract that you can't get on the phone.
[39:47] Speaker 1: Oh I need to do that.
[39:49] Speaker 2: Oh yes, we should do that, I think.
[39:54] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, literally, I love this.
[39:57] Speaker 2: Oh I do. And a shot of nose she got
[39:59] Speaker 2: with one of her events.
[40:00] Speaker 3: I send her gift her for season spots like go
[40:04] Speaker 3: enjoy yourself. I said, go enjoy yourself. I'm very big
[40:08] Speaker 3: on being restorative, yes, because I know if I'm gonna
[40:11] Speaker 3: do all that, I have to pour into me.
[40:13] Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm very big on loving myself.
[40:15] Speaker 3: I get up in the morning, I pray, I have
[40:18] Speaker 3: a scripture, I meditate, I have affirmations, I say religiously.
[40:24] Speaker 2: You know I am intentional about loving on me.
[40:27] Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, And I'm proud of you for
[40:29] Speaker 1: that because I feel as black women, we pour poor, poor,
[40:31] Speaker 1: poor poor, and then we're I know, you can run dry,
[40:35] Speaker 1: literally run dry.
[40:36] Speaker 2: Yes.
[40:37] Speaker 1: So that's amazing that that you're intentional in that space.
[40:41] Speaker 1: And before we get out, I wanted to ask you
[40:43] Speaker 1: one last thing. Okay, you're a queen.
[40:47] Speaker 3: I am the queen of Dawa and cultivoar. You are
[40:49] Speaker 3: the queen of Dawa, yes and Cultivoar.
[40:52] Speaker 1: Where's that?
[40:53] Speaker 3: I'm the Ifer Coast it's right next door to Ghana, really,
[40:57] Speaker 3: so you can apply direct to a cry and you
[40:58] Speaker 3: can just hop on over.
[40:59] Speaker 2: To ib Wow.
[41:01] Speaker 1: So how did that happen?
[41:03] Speaker 2: That's why I said.
[41:03] Speaker 3: I knew I was gonna need some time if I
[41:05] Speaker 3: was gonna discuss this, but I'm gonna give it to you.
[41:07] Speaker 3: So I have always had an affinity for the continent,
[41:11] Speaker 3: and when you're talking about just ordered steps and divinity,
[41:15] Speaker 3: I never.
[41:16] Speaker 2: Saw this coming. I would always go over there in.
[41:18] Speaker 3: Big ball gowns and big head wraps and just enjoy
[41:22] Speaker 3: the fact that we come from kings and queen's and
[41:25] Speaker 3: I would just.
[41:28] Speaker 2: Savor in it.
[41:30] Speaker 3: And I remember one day I got this call from
[41:35] Speaker 3: one of our team members and they sit Arian because
[41:38] Speaker 3: I was building a school in Gotouvoir, and they said,
[41:41] Speaker 3: when you land, Astylus is gonna meet you. And I
[41:45] Speaker 3: was like, nah, I said, I'm wearing my hair naturally curly.
[41:48] Speaker 3: I just want to feel like, you know, I'm in
[41:51] Speaker 3: the Earth, Mother Earth. I'm just wearing my hair naturally curly.
[41:54] Speaker 3: And she was like, well, no, it's for your outfit
[41:57] Speaker 3: and I was like, oh no, when I get to.
[42:01] Speaker 2: The school, I'm putting on jeans and you know, the
[42:02] Speaker 2: polo top for the school. And she was like, oh
[42:06] Speaker 2: my gosh, she said, you don't know.
[42:09] Speaker 3: I said what she said, arian, they're crowning you queen,
[42:12] Speaker 3: and I kind of laughed and.
[42:14] Speaker 2: Got off the phone. I was said, oh, how cute.
[42:17] Speaker 2: I didn't take it as for real.
[42:20] Speaker 3: I took it as like this is an honor or
[42:22] Speaker 3: an award or something like that. It wasn't until I
[42:26] Speaker 3: got this long email that came through about the queen's
[42:30] Speaker 3: ceremony and her coronation. And then the queen addresses her people.
[42:35] Speaker 3: I'm reading this, said her people, A dresses her cortal.
[42:38] Speaker 3: I was like, wait a minute, this is me addresses her.
[42:42] Speaker 3: I was like, and then it's said in there that
[42:44] Speaker 3: the chief had prayed to God. I have Christian territory.
[42:47] Speaker 3: The chief had prayed to God and said this is her.
[42:51] Speaker 3: And I was just like, what now, this isn't even
[42:53] Speaker 3: spook you out. Much later I get ready to board
[42:55] Speaker 3: this flight. Ain't on the iPhone they have like these
[42:58] Speaker 3: news stories that pop up in the day. Yeah, the
[43:01] Speaker 3: news story said five royal tribes that were captured in
[43:04] Speaker 3: the slave trade. I was so freaked. I don't even
[43:07] Speaker 3: read that art of the time. I went back and
[43:08] Speaker 3: read it much later. Then a year about later at
[43:12] Speaker 3: one of our family reunions.
[43:14] Speaker 2: Now, mind you, I've done my DNA.
[43:16] Speaker 3: I just I always I never focused on the West
[43:18] Speaker 3: as much as I did the East. I was always
[43:20] Speaker 3: so surprised how heavy East I was, considering most people,
[43:24] Speaker 3: and yes, African Americans are very heavy West, yes, due
[43:28] Speaker 3: to the Transatlantic slave trade. So the fact that I
[43:30] Speaker 3: was like thirty five percent East of African, Ethiopian and
[43:33] Speaker 3: Retreat and all this stuff over there, I was like,
[43:35] Speaker 3: this is interesting.
[43:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't even look at the other side.
[43:38] Speaker 3: So I'm at a family reunion and my family's like lineage,
[43:41] Speaker 3: we go back eight generations and we're very heavy into
[43:44] Speaker 3: our family history, and they're doing a DNA test and
[43:47] Speaker 3: all that arie you know, we got Ivorian blood. And
[43:51] Speaker 3: I look and I said, oh my gosh, like even
[43:54] Speaker 3: if you see we have a family genealogist and you
[43:56] Speaker 3: can see it going up and up and up and up,
[43:59] Speaker 3: and I was.
[43:59] Speaker 2: Like, oh, this is freaking me.
[44:01] Speaker 1: Yeah, I was like, oh my goodness.
[44:05] Speaker 2: What is this.
[44:07] Speaker 3: I know exactly, but it was definitely It's truly an honor.
[44:12] Speaker 3: But it's not just a title, it's actually a responsibility.
[44:15] Speaker 3: These people are looking to you for leadership, Yes, they
[44:17] Speaker 3: are looking to you for vision. As queen, you work
[44:21] Speaker 3: with the government to help improve the welfare of the people.
[44:24] Speaker 2: So this is it's real.
[44:27] Speaker 3: Wow. And especially in African traditions, we have so many thrones,
[44:31] Speaker 3: like there's only I think twelve monarchs that are still
[44:34] Speaker 3: in power in.
[44:34] Speaker 2: The whole world now. But for Africans prior to colonialism,
[44:40] Speaker 2: you know, these were tribal lands.
[44:42] Speaker 3: Yes, this is being land that's governed by kings and queens,
[44:45] Speaker 3: you know, and still it's respected today over there. So
[44:49] Speaker 3: I land and paparazzis everywhere. I got on like a
[44:54] Speaker 3: poncho some sweats. I'm like, okay, get to the hotel.
[45:00] Speaker 3: They're like, what are you doing tomorrow? And I told
[45:03] Speaker 3: somebody I was gonna have a spot day. I told
[45:05] Speaker 3: you I was pour into me.
[45:06] Speaker 1: M m.
[45:07] Speaker 2: They said no.
[45:08] Speaker 3: They said, the head rap lady will be to you
[45:10] Speaker 3: at six point thirty and makeup is coming at six
[45:14] Speaker 3: I said, huh, that said you fee on National news
[45:16] Speaker 3: at eight am?
[45:17] Speaker 2: Oh my, what exactly?
[45:20] Speaker 3: I was like, what I said, you know what, You're
[45:21] Speaker 3: gonna surrender? I said, just go with it. Yeah, I said,
[45:25] Speaker 3: just go with it.
[45:25] Speaker 2: I get out there luckily.
[45:27] Speaker 3: On that trip, actually my first lady was with me,
[45:30] Speaker 3: Pastor Danielle Murphy, and she actually gave the sermon in
[45:33] Speaker 3: my ceremony and somebody translated it in French for the audience,
[45:38] Speaker 3: and before I gave my address, And there was so
[45:41] Speaker 3: many blooper moments, like oh, Christina Murray was there at
[45:44] Speaker 3: that trip, like, oh what's you?
[45:46] Speaker 2: Oh god.
[45:46] Speaker 3: She was standing up at times and the government was
[45:49] Speaker 3: like to sit down.
[45:50] Speaker 2: She said to this, I said, Christina was supposed to
[45:52] Speaker 2: be seen it right, Oh lord.
[45:54] Speaker 3: So it's all these different bloopers. The girl greets me
[45:56] Speaker 3: with these flowers, I curtsy right with her.
[45:59] Speaker 2: The queen to stand so it was so funny. But
[46:06] Speaker 2: I love the people.
[46:09] Speaker 1: Did you have to like take like a crash course?
[46:11] Speaker 2: Oh no. Yeah.
[46:12] Speaker 3: The moment I realized that letter was real, they were like,
[46:14] Speaker 3: you have government protocol tomorrow morning, because you need to know,
[46:16] Speaker 3: of course, how to address people. I'm even still learning
[46:20] Speaker 3: on the job to this day. I was just went
[46:22] Speaker 3: to go visit one of my girlfriends over there for
[46:24] Speaker 3: her brunch and she's like on arian and of course,
[46:26] Speaker 3: you know, do your title.
[46:27] Speaker 2: You're at the head table, and I was just like, okay,
[46:29] Speaker 2: I'm thinking, like I just sit at the head table.
[46:31] Speaker 3: I don't know that every time somebody speaks, I have
[46:33] Speaker 3: to stand up and I have to greet them. Wow.
[46:36] Speaker 2: So I'm always still.
[46:38] Speaker 3: Like learning on the job because French culture is very
[46:41] Speaker 3: big on protocol. Francophone countries and anglephone countries are a
[46:45] Speaker 3: little bit different. Like when I go to China, I'm
[46:47] Speaker 3: like all relaxed, just chilling.
[46:50] Speaker 2: I'm over at Coochdvar. It's like, okay, I already know
[46:53] Speaker 2: I have to be on wow. So but yes, it's
[46:56] Speaker 2: my honor to serve those people.
[46:58] Speaker 1: Yes, that is in Oh thank you, Oh my gosh.
[47:02] Speaker 1: We are in the presence of a queen. It's so crazy.
[47:05] Speaker 2: I was wondering.
[47:06] Speaker 1: I was like, how did that happen? So how often
[47:09] Speaker 1: do you have to go?
[47:10] Speaker 2: I go? Technically I go.
[47:13] Speaker 3: It seems like I'm in Africa so often, but I
[47:16] Speaker 3: am there in Dawa at least once a year.
[47:19] Speaker 2: I am on the continent sometimes every other month.
[47:22] Speaker 1: Wow.
[47:24] Speaker 3: We actually even at the fund and the foundation, so
[47:27] Speaker 3: eighty percent of our funds are domestic, twenty percent or international.
[47:31] Speaker 3: So I allocate grants through there. We have investments on
[47:34] Speaker 3: the continent. So yes, it's it's it's wonderful.
[47:38] Speaker 1: I love that. I do have a question. There's a
[47:40] Speaker 1: big misconception that Africa is not a place that you
[47:46] Speaker 1: want to move to. But I hear so many Americans
[47:49] Speaker 1: going back to Africa. Ghana specifically Ghana has done a
[47:54] Speaker 1: good job. How do you feel about that and is
[47:58] Speaker 1: that something that you feel people should look into.
[48:00] Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I even have Guanian citizenship. So Ghana has
[48:04] Speaker 3: done a great job with just marketing the year of
[48:08] Speaker 3: their return. And I would say this because they're like,
[48:15] Speaker 3: and what did you think when you got here?
[48:16] Speaker 2: And I was honest with them, you all oversold this place.
[48:20] Speaker 1: Now.
[48:21] Speaker 3: I've been back and forth to Ghana so many times
[48:23] Speaker 3: since then, I said, only because I'm somebody who's traveled
[48:26] Speaker 3: the continent. I said, I've been north, south, east west.
[48:29] Speaker 3: I said, so I know what Africa has offered. I said,
[48:32] Speaker 3: you all get enough so much tourism here. I said,
[48:34] Speaker 3: I did expect your infrastructure to be a little bit better.
[48:37] Speaker 3: I said, you go next door to Kotivoir and they said,
[48:39] Speaker 3: we already know.
[48:40] Speaker 2: It's gorgeous.
[48:41] Speaker 3: So like Ibjina is called Paris of the West. Like
[48:43] Speaker 3: I mean, it's Ivijian. I mean the beaches. Ivery coast
[48:46] Speaker 3: is known for their white sand beaches, all of it.
[48:49] Speaker 2: It's gorgeous.
[48:52] Speaker 3: So I will say this, I think that any black
[48:54] Speaker 3: person should have that experience of being on your own land.
[48:58] Speaker 3: There's nothing like it. I think that they should know
[49:01] Speaker 3: the culture, the history. It's part of who we are. Yes,
[49:05] Speaker 3: So I do encourage that. I encourage even.
[49:07] Speaker 2: If you want two places.
[49:08] Speaker 3: You know, it may be inexpensive to have a summer
[49:10] Speaker 3: home out on the continent and then come back, you know,
[49:13] Speaker 3: So I definitely encourage it. And like I said, God
[49:19] Speaker 3: has done a good job of making it easy for people.
[49:21] Speaker 2: Right.
[49:21] Speaker 1: What about safety? Because I went to Johannesburg with Tyler
[49:25] Speaker 1: for the Global Citizens Festival and they were telling us,
[49:28] Speaker 1: don't have EarPods in your ears, don't be on your
[49:31] Speaker 1: phone in the car.
[49:32] Speaker 3: I don't stop at the red lights after when it
[49:33] Speaker 3: gets dark. Yes, I love Johannesburger a few times.
[49:36] Speaker 2: Is it like that?
[49:37] Speaker 1: And not even know if all Africa's like that? You
[49:38] Speaker 1: have other parts where it's war no, whe I.
[49:41] Speaker 3: Will say this, it's fifty four countries. So no, it's
[49:44] Speaker 3: definitely not all like that. Africa has everything that you
[49:46] Speaker 3: will find in the world. You're going to find paradise,
[49:49] Speaker 3: you're going to find Third World and you're going to
[49:51] Speaker 3: find city high skyscrapers oliver like you saw in Drouble.
[49:55] Speaker 2: So you're going to see everything.
[49:57] Speaker 1: You did see everything because job like thirty like to
[50:00] Speaker 1: Suedo where YEP lives and then is like you're passing
[50:05] Speaker 1: huts in like.
[50:06] Speaker 3: Correct all of it. But the level of beauty is unmatched,
[50:14] Speaker 3: you know. So you're going to see all of it
[50:16] Speaker 3: and those of us who can and we can come
[50:19] Speaker 3: and do things to help make it better. The investment
[50:21] Speaker 3: opportunity is huge. I sit on the board of Steve Madden.
[50:25] Speaker 3: Our number one store right now is our South African store,
[50:27] Speaker 3: are you Yes, We've expanded to the continent and Steve
[50:30] Speaker 3: Manner has some cute clothes.
[50:31] Speaker 2: Now I didn't know that. Yeah, just started making there.
[50:35] Speaker 2: It's on Revolve.
[50:36] Speaker 1: I see it all the time.
[50:37] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm like Steve Madden.
[50:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, y'all have some really keep it up. That's really cy.
[50:43] Speaker 2: But I love serving on the board amazing I do.
[50:47] Speaker 3: But Africa has so much to offer investments, opportunities.
[50:52] Speaker 2: I even know people in your field.
[50:54] Speaker 1: I have a friend, She's been very open. Gail Bean
[50:57] Speaker 1: has a house in Acre.
[50:59] Speaker 2: Yes, a cross.
[51:00] Speaker 3: But let me tell you there are people who couldn't
[51:02] Speaker 3: get through the door here, but got through the door there.
[51:05] Speaker 3: I'm talking folks you wouldn't know who they were. And
[51:07] Speaker 3: now I got millions of followers, and I'm just like,
[51:09] Speaker 3: oh my gosh because of the opportunities on the continent.
[51:13] Speaker 1: And I love the TV and film industry. They're like that.
[51:16] Speaker 1: Some of my favorite shows are in Africa. You a
[51:18] Speaker 1: Blood and Water watch Oh my goodness, Pola. Yes, I
[51:22] Speaker 1: met the other sister. I said, next time, Oh, I
[51:25] Speaker 1: love it. Last year, yes, I love it.
[51:29] Speaker 2: I'm like you, Yes, Blood and Water. I just watched it.
[51:32] Speaker 2: She's like, yes, that's one of my favorite so good.
[51:35] Speaker 1: Yeah. And the production quality is fantasy second to is incredible.
[51:39] Speaker 3: Now South Africa, it's eighteen to one. I have a
[51:42] Speaker 3: girlfriend there. Yes, she runs actually an agency, a talent agency.
[51:48] Speaker 3: Used to work at Innerscope. Now that she's there, her
[51:50] Speaker 3: and her husband and their kids. She said, Arian had
[51:52] Speaker 3: I known I could get stuff at this level for
[51:54] Speaker 3: this price, She said, I had three more kids. Wow,
[51:57] Speaker 3: she said, I'm just past childbeard, but I would have
[52:00] Speaker 3: had three more.
[52:01] Speaker 2: Kids because she's like my house staff. You know, it
[52:03] Speaker 2: is very expensive. They have so much help. Oh yeah.
[52:06] Speaker 3: I walked in the door. They pulled off champagne everything.
[52:08] Speaker 3: I'm at this gorgeous house of hers And I said, girl,
[52:12] Speaker 3: what does this cost? She said about five hundred thousand,
[52:15] Speaker 3: she said, but you know this over there in America
[52:19] Speaker 3: would have been millions.
[52:20] Speaker 1: Yes.
[52:22] Speaker 3: Wow, so eighteen in Africa.
[52:26] Speaker 2: That's not your favorite place where I am queen.
[52:29] Speaker 3: I will say this, it's not a still it's a
[52:31] Speaker 3: little midget midget less.
[52:34] Speaker 2: No, it's midget less, but it's you don't see.
[52:36] Speaker 3: It, so it's not you're going to get that feeling
[52:38] Speaker 3: of Oh no, five hundred thousand.
[52:40] Speaker 2: It's five hundred.
[52:40] Speaker 1: Thousand, right, got it?
[52:43] Speaker 2: God? Yes, wow, I love that, Aaron.
[52:46] Speaker 1: I really enjoyed this conversation. I have to.
[52:48] Speaker 3: I feel like we're just sitting in your house, Yes,
[52:51] Speaker 3: just having us a good time in our pajamas.
[52:54] Speaker 2: Yes, we'll have to do that again.
[52:56] Speaker 1: Yeah, and really have a good time.
[52:58] Speaker 3: Yes.
[52:58] Speaker 1: Before we go, I want to play a game of
[53:01] Speaker 1: this or That's okay?
[53:03] Speaker 2: Are you ready.
[53:04] Speaker 1: All right, let's see we got angel versus seed investment.
[53:11] Speaker 1: You said angel, angel investment or seed investment.
[53:15] Speaker 2: And I pick one one or the other. Yeah, okay,
[53:18] Speaker 2: what's the outcome?
[53:22] Speaker 1: She is such a business when she's like, no, what.
[53:25] Speaker 2: Just say just pick one seed investment.
[53:30] Speaker 1: Okay, success versus failure?
[53:36] Speaker 2: Said, success versus failure.
[53:38] Speaker 1: And this could be a have a caveat.
[53:40] Speaker 2: I know, because people will pick failure because they actually
[53:42] Speaker 2: get to learn from it.
[53:44] Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking.
[53:46] Speaker 2: She's like, I don't want to fail. It's not a
[53:50] Speaker 2: bad thing though, so it's like, yikes, I'm gonna go
[53:53] Speaker 2: for success. Keep going.
[53:54] Speaker 1: Okay, let's do it. Cash versus crypto.
[53:57] Speaker 3: Okash, I'm a old school I'm like cash, I'm real old.
[54:01] Speaker 1: I have not gotten into I don't trust it.
[54:03] Speaker 3: No.
[54:03] Speaker 2: I did do crypto, and I made a lot of cash.
[54:06] Speaker 3: Really yeah, I took most took most out. This was
[54:09] Speaker 3: I was in it very early early on.
[54:11] Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
[54:12] Speaker 1: It's something that I just really couldn't get into it.
[54:14] Speaker 1: And I guess because I'm very old, I won't.
[54:16] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but it's cash. If I got you, I know,
[54:19] Speaker 2: that's right.
[54:19] Speaker 1: Okay. Investing versus saving.
[54:22] Speaker 2: I already know I'm investing.
[54:23] Speaker 1: Period.
[54:23] Speaker 3: I don't have the discipline to save. I have the
[54:26] Speaker 3: discipline to invest. Don't get me wrong, I have a
[54:27] Speaker 3: saving yeah, but I am so disciplined. When I see
[54:31] Speaker 3: that money going up, I just want to add, yeah,
[54:35] Speaker 3: I have.
[54:35] Speaker 2: A discipline for that, right.
[54:37] Speaker 1: I love that last one sneakers versus heels. I think
[54:40] Speaker 1: I know this one.
[54:41] Speaker 2: I'm a heels.
[54:42] Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say I know this one.
[54:44] Speaker 2: Yes.
[54:48] Speaker 1: So to end the show, we have what is called
[54:50] Speaker 1: positive outcomes, where our listeners right into us and we
[54:53] Speaker 1: give them advice. You ready, all right? So Carol Lee? Right?
[54:58] Speaker 1: How can I balance my role as a give and
[55:00] Speaker 1: continue supporting others while setting healthy boundaries to protect my
[55:04] Speaker 1: own well being and foster a more positive dynamic within
[55:08] Speaker 1: my family? So you are a giver and you're supporting,
[55:12] Speaker 1: but you want to set boundaries. I've dealt with this
[55:16] Speaker 1: where I'm constantly giving and giving and you realize that
[55:20] Speaker 1: you're giving isn't helping people learn the lesson?
[55:23] Speaker 2: Oh it could be enablement it very much, and then
[55:25] Speaker 2: turn to entitlement.
[55:26] Speaker 3: I don't think that people who are givers should ever
[55:31] Speaker 3: stop giving because I'm a giver. Yeah, I think you
[55:34] Speaker 3: have to be mindful of who you're giving to.
[55:36] Speaker 1: That's it.
[55:37] Speaker 3: Yes, because by default we're gonna give, absolutely, because that's just.
[55:42] Speaker 2: Who we are and how we're wired to be. Yes,
[55:45] Speaker 2: but you have to be mindful of who you're giving to.
[55:48] Speaker 3: So I think the boundary more so is is where
[55:51] Speaker 3: I'm giving going to bear fruit?
[55:53] Speaker 2: Right? Yes? And if it is not, then that's not
[55:57] Speaker 2: I'm not giving right right? Got it?
[56:03] Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you, my gosh, it's fascinating. Yes,
[56:09] Speaker 1: thank you for sharing everything with us.
[56:11] Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Of course
[56:14] Speaker 2: I could be here all day.
[56:15] Speaker 1: You know, I'm saying, I'm glad we did this because
[56:17] Speaker 1: we have not gotten to talk. We've seen each other
[56:19] Speaker 1: in passing so many times and never got to really
[56:22] Speaker 1: sit down.
[56:23] Speaker 2: This is amazing.
[56:25] Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and we cannot wait for that book out
[56:28] Speaker 1: that super excited you're thank you, my goodness. I absolutely
[56:39] Speaker 1: enjoyed my conversation with Arian Simone. There were so many gems.
[56:43] Speaker 1: I mean, she touched on financial literacy, she touched on entrepreneurship,
[56:48] Speaker 1: she touched on adversity in her journey and how she
[56:50] Speaker 1: kept pushing and I think my biggest takeaway from Arian
[56:55] Speaker 1: would be to honestly look more into my heritage and
[56:58] Speaker 1: my lineage to see where I'm from. Her talking about
[57:01] Speaker 1: Africa and her being a queen in Africa was so
[57:05] Speaker 1: inspiring and it inspired me to really look deeper into
[57:08] Speaker 1: my ancestry. For all they say, you don't know where
[57:12] Speaker 1: you're going until you know where you come from. Thank
[57:19] Speaker 1: you so much for tuning into today's episode of Keep
[57:21] Speaker 1: It Positive, Sweetie. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review,
[57:25] Speaker 1: and share this with someone who could use some positive energy. Also,
[57:29] Speaker 1: don't forget to write into our Positive Outcomes listener letter.
[57:32] Speaker 1: You can write in at keep It Positive Sweetie at
[57:34] Speaker 1: gmail dot com. You can follow me on all social
[57:37] Speaker 1: media platforms at love Chris Orinee, and you can follow
[57:40] Speaker 1: our show and keep up with everything at Keep It
[57:42] Speaker 1: Positive Sweetie. And remember, guys, no matter what life throws
[57:46] Speaker 1: at you, stay focused, stay confident, and as always, keep
[57:49] Speaker 1: it positive.
[57:50] Speaker 2: Sweeties.
[57:51] Speaker 1: I'll see you guys next time.

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