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Black Entrepreneur Experience
BEE 525 The Art & Science of Business: Sajdah W. Muhammad on Entrepreneurial Mastery
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A
Welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Experience podcast. Inside the business buzz and brilliance of Black entrepreneurs. Here is your host, Dr. Frances Arlene.
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Before we dive into today's conversation about building a resilient and successful business, let's talk about the foundation. Every high growth venture requires a plan for the unexp. Is your family structure as protected as your business plan? The best contingency plan for your home life is our DIY Legacy planning toolkit. Grab this simple roadmap right now at the link in the show notes and let's secure your legacy. Now on to the show. What happens in Vegas goes all over the world on Black Entrepreneur experience, episode number 525. 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. Frances Arlene. Our guest today is a dynamic force in business, an international developer, museum owner, author, podcaster and coach. Her latest book, the Art and Science of Business, is all about inspiring leaders to succeed. And please welcome Saja Wendy Muhammad.
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Thank you for having me here today. I really do appreciate it.
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B
I've given our audience such a brief bio. Why don't you fill in the gaps and share with our audience what you'd like us to know about you and your business.
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A
I'm a global thought leader and I say I'm an artist and business just happens to be my canvas. I've been studying business since I was a little girl, since my father used to call me his little mogul. And I went on to major in business, go into public accounting, and then do a lot of business development myself. I'm a hospital developer, museum developer, author, and I just love business. I believe that it's a path forward for us as African Americans as we begin to move into this next phase of our sojourn here outside of the continent. To me, entrepreneurship is critical.
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B
Let's talk about you being a serial entrepreneur and talk about that first business you started. What was it and how did you get started?
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It was babysitting. I would call that my first business. And then I think my brother and I started making these little comic books. But the first business was babysitting. I forgot about that.
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B
Let's talk about your adventures now. You have a lot on your plate. What is your passion project right now?
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My passion project right now is really just developing into that international and global entrepreneur that can be of service globally. I don't look at my life as an entrepreneur as something that's separate from me. So the concept of a full plate or project is just kind of how I decide to express myself. So right now I'm expressing myself with the book the Art and Science of Business and then with the museum which I'm sitting on the grounds of the museum that I've developed now. So I'm really focused on historic preservation of urban spaces that are important to our community here in Chicago and abroad, but primarily in the United States. Because one of the things that's beginning to happen that I've noticed as a real estate developer is that our history is being erased. Because as these areas regentrify, people begin to move in, they don't know the great people that lived in these spaces, especially as part of the great migration here in the United States of America. So that great migration from 19 to 1972 or so, it yielded a lot of creativity, a lot of of the pop culture and the business culture that we stand on today was born out of that movement. So that's just where I'm expressing myself now. Previously I was working very heavily in the health and wellness industry, building hospitals, massage and be clinic, that kind of thing. So it's just, it's an artistic expression, if you will, Dr. Francis.
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B
And thank you for that. And talk about the museum. How did you get into that personally? And I know you talked about which we are in an environment about erasing our history. Talk about the name of the museum, how individuals can support it. How did you actually to hear someone say I have a museum as an African American, physically own it, talk about that.
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I've been a lover of history since I think probably the fourth grade, since my first world history class. And then right after college I became a member of the Nation of Islam and worked and had that sojourn and that whole self improvement process. And about seven years ago, this beautiful property, which is the former home of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad showed up on an auction for sale. And I never planned on being a historic preservationist. I never planned on starting a coalition for black house museums or anything like that. But I just said it would be a shame for this history to go to waste. And especially with my love for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, I said I'm going to buy the house and create a museum. And so that's what I've been doing with this property for the past seven years. So if you want to support you, just go to Elijah Muhammad House.com and you can see all the great things that we're doing. I'm so proud that we just received a Preservation Excellence Award from the City of Chicago this past spring. It's a great feat for an independent museum because oftentimes our museums are funded usually by larger organizations that kind of, for lack of a better phrase, but water down or kind of erase a lot of the pain from our struggle. What's important to me is preserving these properties and drawing inspiration from what our ancestors experienced as they navigated into many of these urban areas around the United States and helping young people to see this is what they went through.
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B
Speaking of ancestors, I want you to have a monologue, and I want you to name a person, living or not. And this person has inspired you so much. Who is that person and what are you saying to that person?
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So the first one would be Annie Malone. She was actually the first black female millionaire that actually trained Madam. CJ Walker, worked for her. And she's especially important to me because of what she built. Her properties, her schools, the training, the number of entrepreneurs that she created. And if I could say something to her, I would just say, give me what you didn't get a chance to accomplish. And I got it because I know she went through a lot. There was a lot of pain, There was a lot of challenges, leaving things to people that maybe didn't carry on her legacy. And I would say to her that. That transference of wealth, that legacy doesn't have to be a blood relative. Give it to me and I'll take it. And whatever you didn't accomplish, I got you. That's what I would say to her. And then the second person that popped in my mind was Harriet Tubman, because one of the statements that she makes is that she could have freed so many more had they known that they were slaves. And one of the things that I'm finding In my work, Dr. Francis, is that, especially as I speak about business, because I've been on the other side of the table, starting out as in public accounting and then in consulting as a developer. I understand many of the forces that are against us. I can't say I understand all of them, but I've seen. I've seen a lot. And it's very challenging to convince people that we need to focus on our freedom in terms of entrepreneurship when we don't know that there's a problem. We've got a couple dollars. Many of us have a little business that we're starting, but we don't think about the unity and the nation building that we really need to focus on. So I often think about Harriet Tubman. And how she must have felt trying to free people that didn't even know that they were slaves. So what would I say to her is I would ask her what gave her the strength and courage to keep going. And if. If there's some way she could deposit some of that into me and so that I can have her effectiveness and her longevity and her success, I would be grateful.
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B
And speaking of business, give me three tips or strategies that you've learned in.
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A
Business, or I won't say number one, in no particular order, but one of the things is understanding how valuable you are and your culture is. We have a tendency in our community to mimic and mock other people. But we are inventors. We are developers. We are usually the one to see how to make things more efficient because we're the ones doing the work. And I think we have to have a little bit more faith in ourselves and what comes up in our minds and how successful we can be as individual entrepreneurs. And so being able to hang in there, have that faith in our own ingenuity. Secondly, making sure that we own and monetize our authenticity. So recognizing and understanding our authenticity, but owning it and then monetizing it. Our culture fuels the world and everybody around the world, they come, they take tips from us. You can go into any corporate setting. There's slogans and cliches and things that started in our community, but we are usually the last to value it. And then of those three, in addition to that, I would say be very specific when addressing leadership politicians about how they plan to support us as black people. Oftentimes we're not specific enough in our language. And so we kind of just melt into the multiculturalism, the minority piece of it. And so when contracts are being held handed out, we're getting, I think I read somewhere like less than 1% of those contracts, less than 1% of those opportunities. So things like DEI and all that, it's so watered down that we are not benefiting from it. My thing would be be very specific. And I talk about this in the book. There's a chapter on using specific language. And if I may, I'll give you an example. I was talking to one of our local senators, and he agrees with me in terms of being very specific. And so he was in a meeting, and he asked a relatively large corporation that is also supported by the city. He said, how much of your contracts are given to black people? And they kept saying, well, our minority numbers are such and such. Our multicultural numbers are such and such. Our black and brown numbers are such and such. And he kept saying, how much went to black people? And they said, I think it was something like of the 50 million that went to mine, went to minorities and DEI and all of that. When he pressed them, the number that had gone to black people specifically was $5,000. Oftentimes we lose our way because we're such loving people and we are so afraid that if we don't include everybody else that people are going to think that we don't like them. But because I love myself, because I love you, Dr. Francis, doesn't mean that I don't love other people, but it means that we have to start looking out for ourselves.
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B
Sajda, what is one lesson you wish you would have learned before starting your business?
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A
Stop worrying and don't be so, so insecure. I started out in corporate America and in the finance and auditing area. There weren't a lot of people that looked like me. I was smart and I think I got it early on, but I was timid. I was insecure because I didn't really know how to navigate that environment. And I think I probably would be a lot more aggressive. And even if I had to bulldoze my way a little bit more, I would have done it. But growing up, being that person that got the good grades kept my desk clean. I was trained to be what Michelle Obama calls a box checker. In checking those box and trying to get the good grade and do the right thing, I think I may have slowed my progress down and I think I may not have been. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't be as worried about being such a good studious corporate person as opposed to just going, look, you know, I'm getting ready to go for it.
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B
And talk about when you finally switched from corporate America to four time entrepreneurial ship. Talk about that day, quit. And what was that pivotal moment to push you into complete entrepreneurial ship?
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I don't know if it was a moment, but it was a process. As I mentioned, just in the field that I was in in business consulting and development, always being used kind of like the cleanup woman. Whenever there was a problem, give it to her. She got it. And then when I started trying to take on independent projects, I realized, Dr. Francis, that I was struggling to do for myself what I had done for years for them. I have built probably close to a little over a quarter of a billion dollars of businesses as a consultant, as a developer, traveling around the country and the world, taking projects that other people didn't want to take, trying to put my name on the map. And when I started just trying to do little small projects for myself, I was struggling and I had to really go deep inside of myself and say, what is going on with your self love and your confidence in yourself where you can make millions of dollars for somebody else, but you struggle to do that for yourself. What are the emotional barriers there? I started to really study and go deep in that. I became an emotional intelligence coach so I could really dig into my own mindset. And then slowly but surely I would say one thing that actually thrust me into it. When I was with a particular firm, they laid a bunch of us off. And Dr. Francis, they didn't even think enough of me to give me a non compete clause. Two of the clients that I was working on came with me and I found myself all of a sudden with these clients and I had to calm myself down. I think you know what to do because you was running the project anyway, like, what's the problem now? You just got to set up your back office so you know how to get paid and all of that. But I had to talk myself through that. I said, this is not. And I did say to myself, this is not, quote, unquote, traditional entrepreneurship. You've been doing this. This has been your client for three years. And then as I started to get more confident, I met my former business partner. We started building clinics, we built a micro hospital, wellness centers. I started a couple of massage envy franchises. So I started to get the hang of it. But it was a process. And even to this day, the programming is real. Because I was groomed to be that good girl, to get the good grades and check the box. And sometimes it's easier for those of us with that grooming to help somebody else than to do something for ourselves. So it's been a process.
- [16:25]
B
We talk a lot about structure. But think about this. If you couldn't access your phone or computer right now, who would step in? Don't leave a guessing game for your loved ones. Our $120 DIY toolkit takes the guesswork out of an uncertainty time. It gives you the step by step process to finally organize your digital assets, your financial accounts, and your family directives. Stop worrying. Find the link in the show notes to purchase your toolkit and get started today. Yeah, I like when you said that about that mindset and what was that pivotal moment. Because what's interesting is that when we talk about black women, African American women, which are the fastest to start a business, but when you look at financially where we end up like. And not just black owned female businesses, but most black businesses, they don't even make 50,000 a year. Tell me what you think the challenge is about around that. Is it the self love, the lack of self love, the lack of confidence, or do you think it's something else?
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A
The mindset, it's multifactorial. First of all, there's anti competitive and antitrust violations that are deployed against us every day. And I talk about that in the book. I talk about holding our politicians on a local stage, holding them accountable for making sure that they help us to address some of these anti competitive behaviors, whether it's in purchasing pricing, whether it's in rent contracts, whether it's in loans lending. But there's a concerted effort against us. When you couple that with the fact that many of us are oftentimes rugged individuals, it's very difficult to make the money that we're looking for when we're rugged individuals. The rugged individualism mindset is a flow former corporate business colonization type of mindset. Let me just do what I got to do so I can stay safe, so I can keep my family safe, so nobody whips or beats my children, so that we can get the extra fried chicken so we can move up on the hill. It's all about that. But if you notice with other cultures, they're very focused on unity and cooperation and cooperative economics. So in addition to what's been placed against us, it's the lack of cooperative economics. And then I would say the third thing is the mindset, which is sort of like a through line through it all. And until we get to that point where we get past those first two, but mostly the second one. Because nowadays today is a perfect opportunity, Dr. Francis. Because we're in an information age and everything's based on algorithms. It's not anymore about who you know and who you don't know. So much of it is algorithms. And if that algorithm is written to assume that you and I are going to go into business and we're going to be a rugged individual and we're going to be by ourselves, then we're going to fall right in line. And they already know and have already predicted. I've been on projects where they know how much you're going to make as soon as you get your license, as soon as you do everything that they know based on how your business is set up, what your financial projections are going to be. However, if it's me, you and several other people that get together, it don't have to be all of us when we talk about unity. But if there's 10 of us that come together and pool our resources and say, look, we're going to support one another, we're going to have trade services, whatever that looks like, then now all of a sudden we are disrupting that algorithm. And so that algorithm that set up you and I to where we could only make $50,000 a piece, now there's 6, 8, 10 of us together and we might be able to make $10 million because they didn't count on me not having to go to somebody else for marketing when I go to my sister. And this is what a lot of these other cultures do, especially when they come here to the state. So a little shift in mindset. The mindset is the through line, but specifically addressing those antitrust and anti competitive violations and then moving ourselves away from rugged individualism, which includes supporting black businesses. So you may have to drive an extra exit or extra mile to go support a business. But if you have a family, and let's say I was telling somebody the other day, I said I had people in town, there was 10 of us and I chose a black restaurant, a sister that I know that has a beautiful space. And the 10 of us came in there, we ate, we spent time. We don't know if that helped her make her payroll that week. We don't know if that gave her extra revenue to where now she's got a little cushion to make it a few more months. We don't know if those 10, 10 people now are going to turn around and bring other people into the business. There's a lot that happens when we start to really support one another like that.
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B
And do you find that you have there in Chicago or, and, or because you do a lot of international business, do you find that you have your tribe of 10 or is that something you're still working on?
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I have a good tribe, but it is constantly growing and evolving. And there's a core group of us that we all kind of support one another and do things together. And then there's some people who come in and out of the tribe where there may be some initiative we're working on. And we say, okay, this is a good person to add to the group for us to support. And then maybe the next event, they're not a good match. But I'm building especially internationally. I, and I'll say this especially about Africa. I love, love, love Africa, especially west sub Saharan Africa. And we have a love affair with Africa where we can't wait to get back there. We've always kind of felt like when we get back, they going to be like, welcome home, you know? And that oftentimes is not the case. And so what I tell my clients that I coach that before we start going to Africa, before we start working on stuff, let's make sure that we build partnerships. We got to go back and forth enough so that we build partnerships, we find people that we trust. So if you have a business or you have property over there and you have to leave it, there's somebody that can be entrusted with your assets or to look out for your stuff. Oftentimes what we do is because we're emotional when we go over, we forget that we have to build this circle of people that can be trusted and that we can work with. And it takes time to build that circle of people that trust and to learn how to do business in different cultures. There's a lot of things that we do in America and as Americans that aren't tolerated in other countries or that just aren't done. We have to learn those things as we travel internationally as well.
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B
Can you give us an example of that, specifically pertaining to Africa? Something that we do here in the United States that's not tolerated in Africa?
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A
Again, we're very individualized. We're all about the rugged individual. Even if we have a little business and I call it own our job and we're working and doing good, then when we get to Africa, we think that we can just pitch a tent and open a business. But there's so many factors and so many people. If you do that in certain parts of Africa, you would be kind of like a vendor or a person who's just selling, like one or two products on the street or something. But we have to be comfortable with cooperative economics. We have to be comfortable with building relationships and organizational structures so that when we go to those countries, thinking you're going to do it by yourself is just not going to happen. You're going to likely lose all your money. You're going to lose your office. It's not going to happen. Now, if you go into some countries where certain parts of Italy, for example, certain parts of Africa, even down to your attire, may make a difference in whether or not you can access certain spaces. We kind of in America, we wear what we want to wear. I was in Italy a few years back with a group, and we were all going to some of the cathedrals and temples, and half of the group couldn't get in because they wore shorts and Tank tops. And, you know, no offense, but there's oftentimes a decorum requirement in a lot of these. A lot of these countries, things like going out and being publicly intoxicated at a business event. A lot of us come from the corporate world, and that's what we do. There's the holiday party, there's the Christmas party. We all get out. We, you know, fun in this country is all around drinking. And I'm not saying that that can't be done in a lot of countries, but in a lot of countries, they. They're not. They're going to change the way they see you in terms of putting you in front of checks. If they see you doing that, they won't say anything to you, because as an American, they know that's what we do. But behind your back, they're going to say something about it because they're going to think that you're irresponsible. So there's. There's a lot of behavioral things, and you have to learn the culture. So taking time to study what is tolerated and what's not.
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Let's talk about opportunities and the worst moment in business, which I'm calling an opportunity. Talk about your. For you, your worst moment in business, and what was your takeaway?
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Several years ago, I started an entertainment business. So I love music and things like that. And so I thought, what if I start a business where I'm helping entertainers to learn how to build businesses around their talent? And I met so many great people, great artists, but the industry required some behavioral things that I wasn't ready to do. And that business failed miserably. And so I had to close the office. I went back into consulting. But why was it an opportunity? And I like your word for that, because it was at that opportunity that I ended up going to the firm that later helped me get to the point where I end up moving to D.C. and building the hospitals and stuff like that. But that entertainment business, it taught me a lot that when you go into business, you have to understand the personality of the industry and what is the dominant personality. And even if you say, well, I'm not going to be a part of that dominant personality, you have to at least be aware of it. And I was in a position where I was resisting that dominant personality, saying, look, it's about the art, it's about the expression. But it helped me to learn, Dr. Francis, another way to express the artistic side of myself. So even here at the museum, we do plays. We have a beautiful play that we're working on, we had a black opera that was amazing. It was called Black Opera in White. And so I'm able to now understand how to be creative. And so in the book, I talk about being creative even when it comes to problem solving, instead of just quitting and going, no, this ain't going to work. I can't do it. I said, well, you know what? I still love art. I still love music. How can I incorporate that? So even when I built a hospital in Maryland, I put an art gallery in there. So in there is all kinds of black art and tribute to black artistry and. And music and things like that. So when patients would come in, they see all this beautiful, colorful artwork and things like that. So I learned from that as an opportunity to be creative and. And use my gifts when it comes to art in another way.
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B
Absolutely. How do you make impact daily?
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A
My thing is, I always want to be an asset. I want people to meet me. I don't care if you just walk past me. I want you to say, there's something I got from her, she didn't take from me. She gave to me and poured into me. And what I'm learning is even to go deeper into that. I'm also learning more about how to receive myself as well. So giving is important, but understanding that flow of energy so that as I give, I also receive, and it fills me up as well. So anybody that knows me knows that my goal is to always be an asset.
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B
Speaking of the book, if someone's interested in purchasing the book, how do they purchase the book?
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A
The book is available on Amazon. You just look, just search artandscienceofbusiness. Or art and Science of Business. Or you can look for my name or you can go to the website. I put the website together, it's simply artandscienceofbusiness.com and there you can join the mailing list. There's a movement when we have networking events. One of the things that's been important to me is my book signings are also networking events. So I tell people, bring your business card, bring your elevator pitch so that you never know who you're going to meet there, who you can talk to, who may be somebody that that resource that you're looking for might very well be in that room. So I try to set up a lot of opportunities for that. And when you go to the website and get your book, there's an opportunity to join the mailing list and get notified when those events come to your city. But if you say, you know What? I want the book now. Just go to Amazon and then search my name or the name of the book and there'll be a chance in the book. In the back there's a QR code where you can still join the movement.
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B
And talk about writing the book. What was your inspiration and why did you write this specific book? The art and science of business.
- [30:54]
A
Dr. Science. Dr. Francis. My first book was called the Mind of an Entrepreneur. And this book I've been writing for about 10 years. And so when I would travel on those long international flights, a lot of times I would write and sleep. The writing that I started to do was just downloads that I felt like was coming to me from the universe. Like, God, how do we go to this next level? What's important for us? What's blocking us? What should we be thinking about? What is our mindset? What mistakes are we made? And I just kept posing those questions to the universe. And recently, like around June or July, it was like I just got this strong sense, finish it, put it out, finish it. And so that's what I did. And so we've been blessed. We've got some universities and some schools and some mastermind classes where people are going to start utilizing the book. And the book is designed to be a supplement to whatever you're already doing. So there's some people who say, well, I follow this movement or I'm doing that. I say, you know what? It's okay. We have to move away from what I call binary thinking. It's not, do you like Malcolm or Martin or Prince or Michael Jackson or Rihanna or Beyonce? You might like all of them, and you might be able to take something from Malcolm and take something from Martin and take something from Beyonce and take something from Rihanna and something from Prince and something from Michael Jackson. We have to get away from this again. It's a slave colonial type of thinking where everything's always this or that. Pick a side, and if you on the wrong side, then you're canceled. Well, let's create a platform where we're pulling from Powernomics with Dr. Claude Anderson. We're pulling from earn your leisure. We're pulling from the art and science of business, and we're putting together a platform that makes sense for us. So I designed the book that way to be a supplement, to be a motivation, to be a jumpstarter.
- [32:56]
B
Let's talk about your zone of genius. What do you think that is?
- [33:00]
A
My zone of genius, I believe, is my strong connection with God and recognizing the gifts that he has placed in Me or the manner in which he desires to communicate through me. And having a such a personal relationship where I pose those questions, get downloads, and I'm unapologetic about putting it out. So if I wake up and I get a download about something, then I go right on my podcast and go, look, y', all, this is what I got today. And so I call that my zone of genius. It's not just me, it's just interacting with a power greater than myself, which I believe is the only way that we're going to accomplish the things that we have set out to come to accomplish. We have to, I believe, tap into a power that is greater than ourselves.
- [33:51]
B
Talk about your podcast, tell us the name and how can they listen and how often do you drop an episode?
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A
Yep, it's the Sajda channel. It's on YouTube. S a j d a h. It's on YouTube. Or you can search my name. Sajda, Wendy Muhammad. It is on Friday and Saturday morning at 6am we call it the Sajda Coffee Talk. We got a close, tight knit group of people and we are always on there exchanging business ideas. I've been doing this podcast in a number of different capacities, I think since 2005. So there are a couple thousand videos out there about different business subjects and ways in which we can navigate the world of business.
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B
I want you to answer this question. If you conducted this interview, what is the one question you would have asked yourself? I want you to ask the question and to answer it.
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A
I think you hit it. The zone of genius. And I would go a little bit deeper into how I found faith and confidence in my zone of genius. And so I would ask myself, if I was interviewing myself, how did you do that? And I do a lot of coaching around that because all of us have ideas and a way in which God comes through us that is unique to us and our experience, experiences. And it is that interaction to me, that's our key. That's our key to success. That comes from our ancestors, that comes from epigenetics. You'd be surprised when you start researching your ancestry that these are desires that are still deposited in us. It's environmental or our environment produces certain things. What happens is the broader society monetizes that it could be a dance. And we don't, because we just don't have the confidence. And so how did I get there? It came from what we talked about early in the interview. The interaction in that corporate America setting where I realized I said these people ain't thinking about Me, they thinking about me in terms of a job, but they're not thinking about the other sides of me, the special parts of me. The part of me that makes me a great contributor. And so I just. I just really started being very interactive with God and saying, okay, what's next? What did you deposit in me? What did my ancestors not get a chance to finish? What did they not get a chance to do? And. And then I started studying myself and I said, where did the love of art come from? Where did the love of business come from? And I go deep into that with my clients when I coach people. And I do some of that in the book as well, to really help us to recognize and monetize who we are. And I always say to people, it's never too late, because here's the thing, when we're young, we really can't hear that good. It takes time. I heard the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan say, sometimes around 50, 60, you start hearing and you start getting it. I would tell anybody, start paying attention. What's that one thing that you always wanted to do? Or that one interest? What's that one interest that you've always had that just won't go away? And so I would dive into that.
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B
Absolutely. Let's talk about financing your business. How did you finance your business?
- [37:19]
A
So some businesses I financed myself, just bootstrapped myself. For example, when we built the hospital, we couldn't get a loan from the bank. We had other businesses. We were renting and we had several surgery centers, and we were trying to build this big micro hospital, $20 million project. Couldn't buy a. Had a. We owned the land and everything and couldn't get a loan. We had to bootstrap it up to about 16 million. And then we got a loan at the end for like 5 million or something like that. I tell us as a people, I've never, or I won't say never. I've rarely seen where we get this big infusion of cash. It's very rare if we don't learn how to steal away from our jobs. We got to borrow money. You may have to have. I've pulled money out of real estate before, properties that I may own. Pooling resources with other people, bartering. I have a good friend right now we're working on some workforce development training that we're going to be doing. And we're just like leaning on each other, bartering back and forth. We end up getting a big contract, and we'll use that contract to invest in the business. But I know it breaks a lot of our hearts because we want to be seen. We want somebody to invest in us. We want somebody to write us a check and say, go, you got this. But I would say less than 2% of the time, does it ever actually happen, not only for us, but including abroad? I did a, a South African Shark Tank type of program and every person came there was like, thinking somebody was going to bring them a check. I'm like, that ain't going to happen. You're going to have to figure it out. Because here's the deal. Nobody's going to invest in you if you don't have skin in the game. So nobody's going to say, hey, let me help you start a podcast. If they do, then they're going to own it. But if you got skin in the game, if you say, look, I've been doing this for X number of years. I got X number of followers, I've invested a certain amount of money. I can show you how much I've invested. I put $5 million into this project or whatever, and then somebody can see you got skin in the game, then here's the deal. It's a better situation. Why? Because if my personality and my ingenuity and my skin in the game is what is making what has gotten the project this far so far, then an investor coming in can make money in their sleep if they invest in me. Because I'm going to keep going. I'm driven, I'm passionate about it. And plus, you don't want to look for investors and people to give you money too early because you're going to have to give up more ownership. So find creative ways to finance what you're doing. There's vendor financing, for example. If you have a retail space, or let's say you're in dermatology and you do skin laser hair removal, you can finance those laser machines. So there's things like that, there's equipment financing, there's ways that you can do it and you can get there. And then once you get yourself built up enough and you got skin in the game, you could go to somebody and say, look, I need a million dollars, but you're only getting 20% because I've already put 20 million in it.
- [40:38]
B
Absolutely. What problem exists in the world today that you'd like to solve?
- [40:44]
A
I would have to say the massive amounts of racism and how it impacts us in a genocidal way, and the systemic economic genocide where every system we go to is rigged against us. My thing is just Leave us alone. We do good when we just. Just leave us alone. We'll get it together. We'll take care of the people that's cutting up. We usually do pretty good at that. That's somebody's son, somebody's niece, somebody's nephew. We'll take care of it. But that to me has to be one of the greatest sins right now, not only in the history of the world, but on the planet. The racism that is taking away our ability to live, taking away our ability to participate in business, which is the activity of life itself. If I could find a way to say, look, we have to. This has to be eradicated, I would do that.
- [41:43]
B
We've come to the part of our interview. It's called the rapid round of fun. I'm going to ask you a series of questions and I'd like you to give me very quick answers.
- [41:53]
A
If there's something you desire not to.
- [41:55]
B
Answer, feel free to say pass.
- [41:57]
A
Are you okay? I'm ready.
- [41:59]
B
What is your favorite comfort food?
- [42:01]
A
Potato chips.
- [42:03]
B
The last movie you saw.
- [42:05]
A
I don't get to the movies. I'll pass. You relax.
- [42:08]
B
Doing what?
- [42:10]
A
Meditating or yoga?
- [42:12]
B
Your favorite singer or rapper?
- [42:15]
A
Favorite singer is Prince. Favorite rapper is probably dmx. Your favorite dance song, It's Mariah Carey. Make it happen.
- [42:25]
B
What food you eat every week, no matter what.
- [42:28]
A
Navy bean soup workout or hit the couch workout.
- [42:33]
B
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, do business with you and feel free to to leave all of your social media handles and also how they can listen to the podcast and purchase the book.
- [42:53]
A
Thank you so much, Dr. Francis. So reach out to me on social media. It's all at sajidawendy Muhammad. Get the book. Get the book. Get the book. Art and science of Business. And if you Forget, go to artandscienceofbusiness.com Get a copy of the book. If you want to learn more about this beautiful museum, just go to Elijah Muhammad House. And if you want to book me for a coaching session, you just go to book sajdawendymohamed.com thank you, Saja.
- [43:21]
B
That is a wrap. Thanks again to our incredible guests for sharing their insight on building a resilient business. And remember what we discussed. Resilience. Start at home. If you're ready to protect the legacy you're building, not just the income, make sure to check out the DIY legacy planning toolkit. You can find the direct link in the show notes. Go get your peace of mind now.
- [43:52]
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.b. join us next Wednesday. And remember, green is the new Black, so keep your bank accounts and your business in the black.