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Black Entrepreneur Experience
BEE 497 Dr. Latanya White Unlocking Wealth by Helping 10,000 Businesses Build Scalable Systems
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Dr. LaTanya White is Unlocking Wealth with 10,000 Business Leaders Cultivate Unstoppable Persistence and Build Scalable Systems for Lasting Success as Founder of Concept Creative Group. Info: Let's Connect and Engage: Leave a Today on what you...
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Experience podcast. Inside the business buzz and brilliance of black entrepreneurs. Here is your host, Dr. Frances Richards.
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B
What happens in Vegas goes all over the world on Black Entrepreneur experience, episode number 497. Thank you for joining us as we elevate the Black Entrepreneur experience by interviewing CEOs, thought leaders, innovative thinkers and black entrepreneurs across the globe. I'm your host, Dr. Francis Richards. Imagine helping over 10,000 business leaders develop entrepreneurial persistency and build scalable business systems that translate into transferable wealth. Dr. Latonya White is doing that and more as a thoughtful leader, a trailblazer, researcher and founder of professional development firm Concept creative group. Welcome, Dr. White.
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C
Thank you so much. Dr. Richards, thank you for having me. I'm excited about our time together.
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B
I am excited because wealth, generational wealth and raising capital, black entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs, all of that is resonating with me. But I'm giving our audience such a brief bio. Why don't you fill in the gaps and share with our audience what you want them to know about you and your business.
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C
Thank you so much. I guess the best place to start is to share with the audience. I actually I taught entrepreneurship in the academic setting for 11 years, so just a little over a decade. I was teaching at a historically black college for the most of that. But I did have a short stint teaching entrepreneurship at a predominantly white institution. And I learned quickly that my role, and I think I've since accepted that the purpose and the calling on my life is to be of service to black founders and their families. So I took that drive and that passion and this curiosity about why aren't more students at the time? Why weren't more students enrolling in this entrepreneurship class? Like, how can I really create impact? How can I change lives if I don't have the access to the audience that I feel like I must be called to serve? And there was some administrative differences about access to the entrepreneurship course at the college that I was teaching. But Dr. Richards, I was advocating from such this heart centered place. I didn't have the logic or the research or the evidence to prove or to advocate for why it should have been easier for students to get access to this course. And that's how I ended ended up in grad school. I mean, six years, a mountain of student loan debt to prove a point. But I am thankful for the doctoral journey that I went on because from my experience as an entrepreneur and an entrepreneurship educator, I now have the research, the evidence and the influence to inform policy, to inform curriculum. And certainly I Think my deepest pleasures to help shape and inform how our families look at and talk about wealth. I think that's the hardest part is to talk to each other about money when we've been conditioned to think it's such this taboo topic. So I'm excited to share some of those proven practices.
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B
Who is your ideal client?
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C
My ideal client is a black founder. Typically I serve first generation black wealth creators. So not that anyone or not that everyone has to be the founder or be the entrepreneur because I also find that I inspire and impact people who are, you know, working full time jobs, but who are focusing, concerned and committed to creating economic mobility. So is that person a wealth creator? Who? Someone who has the identity as a wealth creator but doesn't always have the tools. So I work with colleges and universities, small business development centers, technical assistance providers and incubators and accelerators to get me access to get me in front of that ideal audience. The black founder, the first generation wealth creator who has some influence in their families around what are we going to do to create economic mobility and economic legacies for each other?
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B
What is something that we as consumers, we don't know about wealth, that we should know about wealth?
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C
So this question, one of the things that's come through my research is one thing we don't know about wealth is that we've been conditioned to think that wealth is only quantifiable, that it's only money, except we celebritize. A lot of people really hold in very high esteem the Rockefeller family, right? Generational wealth. They are the epitome of what generational wealth is. But my question to people who in conversations around wealth is the Rockefeller family has not had a core business. So not like AR Media company, not like the Walmart. They haven't had a core business since 1911 after the United States brought the antitrust lawsuit against them. But their family, after over 100 years, remains among America's 25 wealthiest families. So the question is, can it really only be about money? What I've learned through my research and what I've actually done with my own family and in the dynastic wealth family retreats that I facilitate is transfer this knowledge that wealth and true wealth transfer what we call dynastic wealth, which maintains within the family for three consecutive generations, there is more than just money. There's family identity, family values, family recipes whose name is on the deed to grandma's house, like these things are part of how other families define package, protect and pass down wealth. So we've been conditioned to Think that wealth is only money, but that's. It's just a blatant mistruth.
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B
Dr. White, take us back. Tell us the story. How did you get on this journey about entrepreneurial ship, black wealth, and wealth transfer?
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C
Honestly, I know that my story starts on my 13th birthday. My birthday is close to the holidays, January 2nd, and my mom was working at the busiest post office in Miami, you know, and this is. This predates Amazon. So the post office was very busy during those times. So my grandmother had raised me for much of my formative years, maybe 4 or 5 to about 11, 12 years old. And so now at 13, I spent that birthday alone. And I remember because my mom was at work. And I remember making this promise to myself that I would never have to choose between work or my family, as I like to admit now humbly, and my infinite teenage wisdom. I thought my mom was choosing work over me. I thought she was intentionally choosing to be a part and away from me. And it wasn't until I began studying the black wealth experience during my doctoral program, the failure of the Freedmen's bank and Plessy versus Ferguson, redlining the gi, all the things that have prevented my grandmother and great grandmother from creating and passing wealth down to my mother, where then she wouldn't have to choose. That was when I learned that she actually didn't have a choice. And so that was a catalytic moment for me where, as I saw my daughter, who was I think maybe 6 years old at the time, walking past me as I was doing work, and I was shaken out of that stupor that said she didn't have a choice, but I do, because when we know better, we do better. And I had to work towards my daughter's future instead of being beholden to my mom and in the past of my elders. And that was really how I got on this journey.
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B
Thank you for that. You talk about making impact. Tell us a story of one of your clients. You don't have to say the name or only reveal what you can, that you have really inspired and impacted their journey in their life.
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C
Absolutely. So a friend, colleague, professional colleague and client of mine recently, so this may have been three years ago, experienced the loss of three family members within a span of 18 months. One of those, and prior to that, I think. I think she said in 2011, another uncle had passed, but in these last 18 months, most recently, mother, grandmother, and another aunt or uncle, and she was just jarred. Like, your entire existence and identity begins to be called into question. And when you experience such loss What I share, how I teach people to be a quote, good client, is providing them with the insights, this historical context. As I shared the black wealth experience over the last 150 years and where are we today? There's a lot of discussion about the racial wealth gap. And by 2053, Black Americans will have zero net worth. But one of the things that I share is what are other families doing? What are these high net worth, ultra high net worth families doing to package, protect and pass down their wealth? And through that educational process, I talked about dynastic wealth, what it means to call together a group of black people to talk about money. The inner healing that needs to take place before I can go to grandma and auntie and uncle and talk about money. And also the outcomes of that, when we are able to have these healthy, psychologically safe conversations about money and death and succession planning and wealth transfer, that turns into a family constitution. It turns into a family trust. We began working on our family retreat. And so what my client has done just in the last. So she had had her experience, her grief experience about three years ago, she and I met a year and a half ago. So in the time span that she and I first met and from where she is today, they're working to their drafting their family trust. They are calling in as a family, they're identifying their family identity, identifying their family wealth assets and protecting them in a trust. And that is the biggest accomplishment, hearing things like that, where, yes, we learn, but do we implement? Because it's the implementation that actually changes.
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B
And creates someone's listening and they're saying, Dr. White, how do we get to that point of calling in our family trust? We can't even call each other and have a conversation.
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C
Completely valid question. One of the first steps that has proven to get the conversation started and I would be remiss if I didn't share even in my own experience with my family. We're four years in and we're still, we're still doing the work. So this work, first, it won't happen overnight. Second, there is inner. Like we have to accept that we have our own work to do, our own inner work, our own healing, and that we have to do first. But the actual tool that gets people talking. I developed a wealth personality quiz as I was entering the data collection phase. I needed to learn how to collect and analyze data. So I used my family as my guinea pig and created a quick survey, a brief survey, because I really just wanted to know, well, where was everyone's mindset when it came to wealth. And one of the questions was, what's your vision for wealth? Because a part of my family identity, we're Christian, we're spiritually led. I asked this question because the word says, well, where there is no vision, the people shall perish. So my question, what's your vision for wealth? And there were about 25 adults that answered the survey, responded to the survey. 50% of them responded with what vision? And so for me, it was very disorienting. So I connect with the listeners in the audience because we're first generation wealth creating family as well. And it was not normal for us to talk about money. It was not normal for us to accept our own mortality and talk about death. But that quiz, when people saw the responses to our collective responses and saw that 50% of us highly educated, like I've said, mountains in student loan debt, real estate professionals, health care professional educators, but 50% of us had no vision, that's what kind of opened the door. That first part I would say is just start a conversation. And even this wealth personality quiz, it's just a link that can be shared. No one has to know. All of the responses are anonymous. But when you get together on football Sunday, when you're in the group chat, talking, doing Monday morning quarterbacking, you can ask, well, what did you think about your wealth personality quiz results? So that's the first step, I think secondarily. Dorothy A. Brown, who is a professor of tax policy at Emory University, she authored a book titled the Whiteness of Wealth. Whiteness W H I T E N E S S of Wealth. And it was that book that helped everybody see. So it wasn't just the entrepreneurs in the family, it was the retired couple, the newly married couple, the couple sending a child off to college. They all got to see themselves on the journey and having some responsibility to building and contributing to the family wealth.
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B
Talk about motherhood and entrepreneurial ship.
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C
I am a full time, full time founder, full time entrepreneur and my daughter Sparrow, she was actually in virtual school for two academic years ago in her second grade year. That was probably the most rewarding and challenging time of my entrepreneurial experience until she went back to brick and mortar school. So a large part of my clients, I would travel to them for speaking in person, training and workshops. So she would travel with me and it was very fulfilling. She got to see so much of the world. Even in my Fulbright appointment in Tunisia, she traveled with me and she was with me for two weeks in Tunisia. She's very extroverted and I am a Textbook introvert. So that is a different kind of clash. But as an extrovert and as a 9 year old, a 10 year old, her need for attention and engagement and interaction. And even in sometimes when I'm in client meetings, like virtual meetings, you can see me looking past the camera because she would be walking by or she's over here sending me note. And it is challenging, hands down is challenging. But it also creates this opportunity for her to see a model of what it means to create like literally from scratch. So as she and I talk about her wants versus her needs, we can, she can correlate with, well, how much time does mommy have to work in order for me to get this thing and what is my role? So my question back to her often is, what's your role to contributing, to earning, to get this thing or to travel to this place? So it provides this opportunity to really help shape her understanding how wealth is created, how money is generated, and how do we use our gifts, how do we use our talents and how do we leverage the purpose that we're here for to create the lifestyle that we want.
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B
You were talking about generational wealth and having those conversations, and one of the sayings is everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. Talking about our mortality and death and setting things up. What advice would you give to have those difficult conversations?
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C
Absolutely. In the work that I do in the consultations, I acknowledge that while most of us in the black community are just getting to, just getting to the idea of generational wealth, what we're talking about actually takes us beyond generational wealth. It takes us to looking at three generations down the line. It takes us to consider the passion, skills and abilities of every family member. And when we're talking about wealth transfer, literally built into the concept is the idea that I have to let go of something. And in this case, I am transitioning, right? I have to be prepared and I have to prepare my family for my inevitable transition and preparing for that and having those conversations and not that it will ever be easy. And because again, that means we have to own and accept our mortality in this process. There is another book that my family and I relied on, which is titled Entrusted, is written by two estate planning attorneys. And these, we work through those exercises to really identify who do we want future generations who we may never meet, who do we want them to know that we were, how do we want them to know what we wish for them, what we hope for them. And that is what goes into the family constitution, the family constitution. Then becomes this governing document for the family trust. Now, in dynastic families, and by definition a family reaches dynastic status once the wealth or the assets have been controlled for three consecutive generations. On average, that's probably about 75 years. That's a lifetime. If I have the opportunity to have a vision that goes beyond my lifetime, I have the responsibility to work towards putting something in place for whomever the beneficiaries of that vision will be. And so in owning my own mortality, in each of us, owning the idea that I will transition from this earth and go on to the ancestral plane. But how do I want my grandchildren to think about me? How do I want my great grandchildren to think about me in generations beyond that? And so really being aware of every decision that I make is going to impact someone that I may never meet. Can I make the best decision for them?
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B
Advice you wish you had followed Cash.
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C
Flow planning Cash flow projections Cash is queen. And in my business, as I share, most of my clients are institutional because what that does is it, it allows everyday people who maybe I price myself out of the market for them. They can get access to me through a technical assistance provider, small business development center, college or university. But those clients, different from direct to consumer clients, those clients will put you on 30 and 60 and thank God I've never had this experience but 90 day receivables. And I like the cash flow that is not flowing in that time. And what has happened is I'm working on this project, working on client deliverables, but don't have the capacity to continue to build the client pipeline. So once the project ends and the invoice is net 30 waiting on that cash flow to be processed. Now that's the gap where I'm starting new client engagements. Advice I wish I had taken was I don't have to accept the terms that they give me. I can negotiate the payment terms. I can say these terms include a 50% deposit up front and then the balance is billed in 45 or 60 days. I don't have to bill you month to month and wait 45 days every month to be paid for the work that I've already done. So that's the advice that I wish I had taken to do more cash flow planning. I love it.
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B
I want you to have a monologue. I want you to name this person, living or not, and they've impacted your life so much. Dr. White, who is that person and what are you saying to that person?
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C
That person is my grandmother. She recently transitioned this year in May but we had been doing this work. So family is all, all spread across Florida, have a cousin in Los Angeles. And we would get on Zoom. Starting in the pandemic, we started getting on Zoom. We started out with five days a week, then we went to three days a week. And I think by the last year and a half, we were meeting two days a week. But we were always at least once a week talking about our family dynasty. What do we want to leave? What do we want people to know about us? What do we want them to know? They can't spend the money on, like, those kinds of things. But my grandmother, she was 91 years old when she passed away, so she had been doing that work with us since she was in her late 80s. And she is what we call the matriarch of our dynasty. So as we were doing our work, we decided as a family that people who were eligible to receive distributions from our family trust were her descendants through blood, marriage or adoption. So my monologue to Grandma is, I thank you so much for your wisdom, your vision, your love, and for being a model for what it means to be a life long learner. Till her very last couple of months, she was on with us and she would close out our Zoom meetings with a song, a hymn, and it really demonstrated for four generations, down to our youngest little cousin who was 1 years old. Every time Grandma sung, he'd be moving all around. But when Grandma started singing, she had his full attention. And that talked to us about what it means to pay respect to our elders. And so that's who my monologue would be to.
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B
That's very profound. Who are your top two mentors and what lessons did they teach you?
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C
Wow. So Nicole Colber is one of my mentors. She is the founder of the BO Collective, Black Owners and Women's Collective, which I'm a member. The Bo Collective is comprised of over 200 black women business owners who represent the top 1% of business owners in America for, I think, 26 states, 24 industry verticals, but mixed vision. I sit in our meetings and I wonder how, like, how did you get this? How did you have the vision to bring black women together in a space that is so psychologically safe, it is so uplifting and with the goal of teaming because as small business owners, as black business owners, especially those in the procurement space, you might have the capability, you might have the past performance, but you are often going to be met with, oh, you don't have the capacity that we need to fill this project. Nick's vision for The BO Collective is to make that argument null and void because now 214 black women business owners can work together to demonstrate elevated capacity. So what Nick has demonstrated to me and has taught me is that I never have to accept the limits that someone puts on me. I never have to accept the limits that are put on my business. I would say another mentor would be. Everyone thinks of Oprah, naturally, but just the business acumen and the revenue streams. One of the things I looked at is how do people become billionaires in America? And most billionaires outside of real estate or fintech are in consumer products. So people are becoming ultra wealthy because they're creating consumers of products for Oprah and the Oprah Winfrey Network. Her products are consumable, but it's communication. It's something that literally is adding value to your life and just kind of closing the loop on impact. My goal, my wish, my dream is to make sure that, like, I leave this earth with everything I was given, but in a way that has transformed lives in a very positive way.
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B
There are so many brands and businesses, and you talked about Oprah, so we want you to give us another one that are dominating. Talk about a brand or businesses dominating.
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C
And you admire and why Rihanna Fenty brand. I admire the brand because. And there is argument that, you know, she's not 100% owner, but still she's gotten to billionaire status. Again, it's a consumable product. But what I love about her brand is the marketing messages are so inclusive. You could find every shade of melanin, every size, shape, freckle, dimple. You can find everything represented in. In her marketing messages. There are even models that have prosthesis, prosthetic limbs as a part of her campaign. And that speaks so highly to how much she values who her customers are. I deeply appreciate that part of her brand, but also the horizontal integration. She's gone from makeup products to clothing to streetwear, lingerie. The integration of it all. Like, you could literally dress in your entire outfit for the day in Fenty products. You gotta admire that.
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B
Dr. White, you came from academia, and a lot of individuals find it hard to come out of that marketplace into entrepreneurial ship. What was your strategy and your secret sauce for that?
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C
I never saw myself as an academic. I was presented with the opportunity to come into academia because of my entrepreneurial background. I was asked to serve as the. I own a bartending company. I have a degree in wine, spirits and beverage management. And as a part of our hospitality services, we provide bartender training, bartender staffing, and custom cocktail development. I had been working a housewarming party for a high profile attorney in the area. And he went to college with one of my old professors who happened to be serving as the interim dean at the school that at the university we went to. So she asked me to stop by the office. Let's explore some ways for you to just give back to the students as an alum. And I was asked if I would be a guest speaker for the entrepreneurship class a couple months after that housewarming party. And you know, Dr. Richards, in retrospect, I wonder if that was an audition, because I went into the class and I literally. She introduced me, the professor of that class introduced me to the class. And then she left. And I was on my own for 75 minutes trying to figure out how to engage this class. Class of entrepreneurship students. And what I did was share my lived experience as an entrepreneur. These were the mistakes that I made. This is what I would do differently. This is what I would suggest you consider before you actually execute or implement. And so if that was the summer of 2010, I was made an offer to come and serve as an adjunct professor in the fall of 2010 and the following spring, am I interested in a visiting professor position? And I said, I'll figure it out. I don't know how to teach entrepreneurship, but as long as I'm one chapter ahead, I think I'll be okay. And so I was figuring it out every semester, really just making sure that what I learned, I was transferring that knowledge. And I did that for 11 years. But I also, in my head, like, quit three times. So it was only the third time. After I had defended my dissertation, I felt like I had learned too much to continue operating the same way. And I kind of felt the walls closing in on me. And that's when that purpose, that impact, I gotta get out. And so that's when I transitioned. But I never saw myself as a professor. I never saw myself as an academician. I saw myself as an entrepreneur coming into the academy to transfer knowledge and lived experience. I like that. Thank you.
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B
You talked a little bit about legacy, but when it's all said and done, how do you want to be remembered?
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C
I want to be remembered as the person that helped black founders and their family know that they belong in a space and in a conversation about wealth. By and large, we don't have the identity as wealth creators. And I want to make sure that people know you belong here. Wealth is your birthright. Now let's make sure you have the tools to get what you have been, what has been destined for you. That's how I want to be remembered.
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B
Advice you wish you had followed.
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C
Well, besides the cash flow, taking the cash flow. I'm still working through this one. Dr. Richards. Social media engagement. As I look on LinkedIn and Instagram, I'm not on Facebook that much, but the social proof is rampant. And I wonder how much more impact could I be making if I weren't so averse through social media and things of that nature. One other thing as a very valuable piece of advice is always have, no matter where you are, always have a call to action. Find a way to stay in touch with the people that you're creating impact with in 2023. As I kind of look back on all the speaking engagements and interviews that I've done, I know that I touched or interacted with at least 5,000 people in 2023 alone. But because I wasn't calling people in, I was so accustomed to depositing knowledge and then the students would leave and then I just have to start all over again. I never translated that or converted that to how do I convert this to a sale? Because let's be clear, there will be no dynasty without financial wealth. We financial financial wealth is still the basis of the dynasty. And so really, having a call to action in your work as an entrepreneur, where you're bringing people into your universe and adding value that way instead of just relying on social media.
- [34:18]
B
And what can we do right now to support your business?
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C
Wow. Well, I would love to invite the listening audience. Please connect with me on LinkedIn. That way you can follow the dynastic wealth family calls. We have those every Sunday from 5 to 6pm Eastern where we're unpacking the dynastic wealth framework. What does this mean for your family? How does this look in your conversations with estate planners? That would be a gift to me to have more people join those calls.
- [34:51]
B
Thank you. And so if they connect on LinkedIn, they will be able to get the information to join the call.
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C
Yes, yes, yes.
- [35:00]
B
Thank you for that. Dr. White, what is your zone of genius?
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C
I'll have to say the zone. Once I learned my zone of genius, that is when I decided to leave the university. But my zone of genius is making complex concepts more accessible. In a nutshell, I easily translate very complex ideas like black wealth and wealth transfer into a way that more and more people can understand and again feel like they belong in those spaces.
- [35:38]
B
And then your objective is once you transfer that knowledge, it's about implementation, execution. Yeah, Dr. White, if you conducted this interview, what is the one question you would have asked yourself? I want you to ask the question and answer.
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C
Dr. White, how is generational wealth different from dynastic wealth? And my response to that. Generational wealth, when we think about it, is typically focused on only one form of wealth and being transferred in maybe one or maybe two directions. So typically we're looking at financial assets that we'll pass down to our children and hopefully our grandchildren. Dynastic wealth focuses on three generations, four directions of wealth transfer, and five types of wealth. So we are exponentially behind if we continue to only think in this one dimensional framework about wealth transfer as generational instead of as dynastic, where I can build the family trust that packages, protects and passes down my assets and my wealth, my family wealth, for three consecutive generations and then this next generation for three consecutive generation and the third generation. So dynastic wealth has a much longer impact. Dynastic wealth allows me to transfer wealth down to sparrow, across to my sister, across to my cousins, and up to my elders. And then of course, there are the five forms of wealth. Financial wealth, spiritual wealth, this wealth of knowledge, intellectual wealth, and relational wealth. And that's the difference between generational wealth and dynastic wealth.
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B
I love that we've come to the part of our interview. It's called rapid round of fun. I'm going to give you a series of questions. I'd like you to give me very quick answers. If there's something you desire not to answer, feel free to say pass. Are you ready for the rapid round of fun?
- [37:53]
C
I am ready.
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B
What is your favorite comfort food?
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C
Pizza.
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B
You relax. Doing what?
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C
Watching tv.
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B
The last movie you saw?
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C
The Wild Robot.
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B
Your favorite singer or rapper?
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C
Mary J. Blige.
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B
Your favorite dance song?
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C
Pass. So many.
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B
What food you eat every week, no matter what. Salad, Work out or hit the couch.
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C
Oh, man. Don't let my trainer hear, but hit the couch.
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B
Dr. White, thank you so much for joining us on Black Entrepreneur Experience podcast. Before we let you go, share with our audience the best way for them to connect with you and to do business with you. And feel free to leave all your social media handles.
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C
Perfect. Thank you so much. So all my social handles, I am Meet Dr. White on LinkedIn and Instagram. Remember to connect on Instagram so you can join me for the dynastic wealth family calls and the best way to do business with me. You can explore what those offers are@meetdoctorwhite.com.
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B
Thank you, Dr. White. That's a wrap.
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A
Thank you for listening and subscribing to Black Entrepreneur Experience. We would love for you to leave a review and rating on itunes and share with your friends. For show notes and more episodes, go to www.bepodcast.com. join us next Wednesday. And remember, green is the new Black, so keep your bank accounts and your business in the black.