← Black Entrepreneur Experience
Black Entrepreneur Experience
BEE 530 Melva LaJoy Legrand | Lead with Purpose, Creativity & Impact
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Foreign.
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Podcast Announcer
Welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Experience Podcast Inside the business buzz and brilliance of Black entrepreneurs. Here is your host, Dr. Francis Arlene.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
Before we dive into today's conversation about building a resilient and successful business, let's talk about the foundation. Every high growth venture require a plan for the unexpected. 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 five of 3:30. 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. Are you ready to stop thinking about your vision and start creating real impact? Then you're in the right place because today we're joined by Melva Lajoy La Grand. Melva is the visionary CEO behind Lajoy Creative and and she's a 12 time award winning entrepreneur known for taking great ideas and turning them into powerful transformative experiences. If you want to learn how to lead with purpose, creativity and serious results, stick around. Melva Secrets are next. Welcome Melva.
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Thank you so much. What a wonderful introduction. Thank you for having me.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
Well, we are so excited. 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 them to know about you and your business.
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Welcome audience. I'm grateful to be here. A couple of things I would say Lajoy Creative and the reason why it's named Lajoy, which stands for Lovejoy and is truly my middle name is that this work has been the love and joy of my professional life. In recent years this business has morphed into really being a creative collective and our focus is to storytell and to organize gatherings for organizations who are doing tremendous mission forward equity work across the globe be it concert, a gala convening conference. I am proud to say that we truly do it all except Dynam direct fundraising and shout out to my fundraisers because we need your partnership. But Lajoy Creative is truly a collection of dynamic creative Experts based in D.C. and New York in servicing clients globally.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
What's the backstory? How did you start Lajoy Creative?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
I would have to take you back to 2007, which in the US right. The writing I think was on the wall about the 2008 recession. And I said to a colleague of mine, I was working at a nonprofit doing amazing work as their first event planner. And I said to my colleague who is the graphic designer, I don't really know if we're going to have the same level of projects moving forward, anticipating the recession, me and that individual, her name is Julie Jules, if she hears this, endeavored to talk with other associations in the Washington D.C. area that we knew were having their annual conference. And I hit the pavement and said, hey, I could be your logistics expert. She can do the design, hire us. And that's really how it started. And over the years we started as a conference agency, but over the years you evolve, right? And so I'm gonna fast track it to 2019, which was another critical moment at this point, still doing conferences, shifting into galas and receptions, but I was also caretaking for my late father. And so I was actually slowing down, but still wanting to keep a steady Drumbeat. Go to 2020 and we lose everything. I lose everything because of COVID But during that time, the creative of lajoy Creative started to take formation because we started to ghost write commercials about vaccinations about or for hybrid events. And that's how the creative piece took shape. And then Fast forward to 2025 and now we're a full fledged agency that does all of those things, reflecting our journey from 2007 to modern day.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
Who is your ideal client?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
My ideal client. And I'm grateful to be at a space in place where we. I prioritize vetting clients. But first and foremost, we are looking for organizations and individuals who do work that we believe in. And so when I say mission focused work that could be education, equity, that could be juvenile justice. We also have cadre of clients in the energy space. So we're not sector specific. It's really about values alignment. I would say that we currently work with nonprofits and associations about 50%. And the other 50 really would be corporate. But what the constant is, is that there's a values alignment.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
What problem exists in the world today that you'd like to solve?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Gosh, I feel like that could be a podcast on its own, but focus on industry specific. I think there are two problems, actually. One post Covid, we saw a lot of tal talented professionals leave the hospitality and events industry. We have a challenge and an opportunity to cultivate the next generation of leaders. But in order to do that, we need to continue the lessons we learn from COVID about work life balance, which is sometimes sent in my industry Factually, on a more global scale. I think that the world, if I can be so broad to say the world is in a deficit as it relates to uniting around our similarities. Which is why I think events are so critical, because people need their people. And people, I would argue, even though we do hybrid events need to be in community with their people. I think we're seeing, we're continuing to see post Covid people who feel isolated or there isn't enough culture or there isn't enough support around a lot of causes that could heal our world if we could get together more and talk around similarities versus getting stuck in our differences. And I would love to be able to solve for that.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
I would like you to have a monologue. I'd like you to name this person, living or not, and they've inspired you so much. Who is that person and what are you saying to that person?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Maybe two. But I'll tell you the first one that came to my mind and it may have changed on another day, but this is who I'm thinking of. I want to say thank you to Cheryl Lee Ralph, the original dream girl for me as a brown skin, black woman with curves and as someone who has an amazing mother who normed for me that my skin color, that my shape, that my features were beautiful. The first time that I can remember seeing that magnified in a public way was Sheryl Lee Ralph. And so I want to thank her for being public and bold and exceptional in her beauty, in her talent and in her spirit. I would also like to say I'm so grateful to have witnessed what you've done now with Abbott elementary, which is beautifully written and how you showed up in a spirit of humility when you won your Emmy, but also that every time that I've seen you that you are always talking about believing in yourself, self love and encouraging me to continue forward. Thank you so much to the original dream girl. She was the original. For people who don't know that, Cheryl.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
Lee Ralph, and we'll let you take a second person.
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
The second person that I would lift is personal to me and that is my grandmother Ola, because she did not get to see who I would become. Granny Ola, I did not know as a kid that you were so tough, but you were actually illiterate and you held me to a high standard with my work ethic. She was a maid. And I want to thank you for never complaining. I want to thank you for checking my work even though you didn't understand it. I want to thank you for biting My tongue. When people treated you poorly and I was mad then you told me to be better than that. And I also want to thank you, Gran. When I was excited at the possibility of following in your footsteps, excuse me, as a maid, because I thought that was, and it is honorable work that you said often that you had vision that the world would do more with me. Granny, you were right. The world did a whole lot with me. And it's because you loved me so much. Wow.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
So powerful. Thank you for that. What was the moment, Melva, or that experience that made you realize entrepreneurial ship was your path?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
I actually think. Sorry to do two, but there are two moments. One is there was a moment. Some people have heard this story early in my career where I was not fully who I am today in terms of my voice and confidence. And I was working an event. And a gentleman who was on the board of this particular organization called me a delightful colored. He said to me, I've never seen a colored like you. You're so smart. And it shook me because I was scared. I didn't know how to respond. And there was a woman. So his identity was white. Not to say that whole white people are that way. He just happened to be white. And there was a white woman who corrected him. And she said, actually, that's not how we talk to capable people. And she opened doors for me, business doors that were instrumental for me. That was the first time. The second time was many years later. I would hear from a client, off the record. I was so excited to win a piece of a business. And so post that they did a debrief. And during the debrief, they had three takeaways. And the second one was that they should have paid me. And what this client told me, off the record, was, I need you to know you were so grateful for the work, almost like desperate, like, because I was so happy. And you were in the room with someone charging double. And she said to me, she said, you're in the room. I'll never forget this. Start acting like it. Wow.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
And that's amazing that you said that about starting your business and knowing your worth, your takeaway from that. And how did you level up from that?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Well, it took some time because here's the thing. My mom was right. The standard is what you allow. So I would find out pretty quickly that I was being hired because I was so affordable. So the minute I tried to shift to what it should have always been, there was that initial, well, what happened? This worked. And da, da, da, da, da. And Then this is the season of entrepreneurship where small business ownership people do not want to talk about. And it's the weight. Sometimes you have to wait for your worth. And I waited because once you've heard that you're in the room at a certain dollar amount, you now can't ignore that anything below that is negating my worth. And so it took a few years to get to that point. And now. So fast forward to now. I have a tremendous bookkeeper who rather than attaching emotion to my business, and I do care about this business, it is emotional. But what I appreciate about having a financial expert is that I am not a hobbyist. I am not a hobbyist. And so my financial expert can run the numbers and factually, without emotion, tell me what it costs for my intellectual property.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
I like that talk about the financial advisor that you hired, whether it's an accountant, cpa, that strategy. How long did it take you to move into that strategy?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
I want to say I encourage people not to do what I did initially, which was rely on the very well intentioned advice of family members who were just good with money, inevitably were free. That's how it started. Right. But now I would say six or seven years I have had. They are both CPAs. I have a financial advisor who deals with the bookkeeping side of things. And then I have someone who, which can forecast my revenue for the year, how we manage cash flow. Inevitably someone is late. Right. Like how can I make sure I can hit payroll? So that is very important. And then the second individual, who is equally important, also a cpa, is my tax advisor and also the individual I lean on for investment portfolio recommendations. And then the third person I consider critical, and she has been with me since the beginning and at a larger scale now, is my attorney. Because anything that you make I believe unless it is contractually protected, it's falling into the mindset of a hobbyist. It really, really is. And so every year, to her credit, my attorney evaluates the agreements that we have with projects to see, based on what we learned from last year, should it be updated. And one of the clauses that we updated recently, and I'm very proud of this and I think more businesses should do it is a code of conduct policy. Because here's the thing, I am in a service business. I take that responsibility quite seriously. But I am actually never was your servant. So you're expecting me to show up to meetings on time unless there's a significant life circumstance, you're expecting me to converse with you during business hours, a weekend 11pm text is not short of an emergency how we should be conducting business. And so we lay that out in the agreements.
- [17:35]
Dr. Frances Arlene
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
This may not be a popular answer, but it's a factual one. There's a couple of things in 2003 I want to say. I'm thinking if it was three or two was the first time I made one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. I fired a client and I was terrified to fire a client, as I imagine any business owner would do because they did exactly what I thought they would do. Right, Talk about it, shift the narrative, all of the things. But ultimately I decided that my father, my parents had all of these one liners. But my dad was right, all money is not good money. Because in addition to letting go of that contract, and even though I was owed the last payment, I actually didn't want it and thankfully I actually didn't need it. What I needed more than anything was my mental health and my peace. I valued that over any blowback. And what I want to say about that situation is it gave room and space for projects that were alive. The second thing that I do, and there are three or four, is we do vet. And I vet every single client. Now, I don't always get it right, but every single consultation, I am the one that does it. I am the one that is thinking through the skills and capabilities of my team and deciphering if it's a good fit. And then for my team, and we're all remote now, I'm trying to cultivate a jovial culture that operates in excellence. And so I celebrate them. I call them joy drops. So those are some of the things. And we have mental health days and all of that. But I would say the biggest thing is being okay with choosing peace over money for money's sake.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
And speaking of mental wellness, and you talked about the joy drop and different days off, what else do you do to keep your mental wellness intact?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
So for Me, it is a comprehensive strategy. It is not a secret that I have a faith orientation, which is very important to me, my faith practice. I am a Christian. It is also very important to me, particularly after losing my father May 7th of 2021. I am a lifelong student of therapy, and I realized that grief, and that was my first loss of a parent, was something that I needed, some tools and capabilities in a organizational way. I am unapologetic that we do not work in the vast majority of December. And I'm not just talking about two weeks. On average, we get about four weeks off. Because for me, my time with my family, my extraordinary husband, my spitfire mother, my cousins, that family, that time fuels me to be the best leader, the best CEO that I can be. So those are just a couple of things. And the last thing I will do, which, which is not to say anything bad about any of my clients, is this year I picked back up boxing.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
I like that. Thank you for that. And our sincere condolences for the passing of your father. Say his name.
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Melvin.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
Okay, thank you. How do you define success today? And how has that definition changed over time?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Success, to me, and I feel this with every fiber of my body, is about service. And it changed. I can tell you when it changed. It changed when my father died. So when my father. When we buried my father, people did not talk about what he did professionally, which he was a janitor, a truck driver, and then ultimately teacher. They talked about who he was as a husband of 57 years, who he was as a dad, and I was his only child, and then who he was as a servant. And since I have the honor of hearing my father's name, I am clear that success, yes, you should achieve material things. You should be able to pay your bills. Absolutely. But if you are not serving, if you are not contributing to something that will have impact when you are gone, I think you missed the point. And for me, I don't know that early on I would have even considered that, because like many people, you're on the money chase or you're on the material chase. But now, at this time in my life, I want less because I want to leave more. And I am crystal clear on that. And I want to leave more because I have high hopes for the world that we live in. But I also see tremendous, I mean, amazing capabilities in the team that I manage. And I know that when the La Joy sphere, when it's time for me to hang it up, I know that the La Joy sphere, which is what I refer to my Team as they're going to do amazing things. And to me, that's the point. The service and the give back.
- [24:24]
Dr. Frances Arlene
Speaking of legacy, when it's all said and done, how do you want to be remembered?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
I would like to be remembered as the survivor. I would like to be remembered as a servant, and I would like to be remembered as someone who gave without wanting a gig. And I think also I want some of my messiness to be remembered. Times when I failed, the times when I had to rebuild. Because I think sometimes the stories we hold on to or how great people were, and that can be true. But I would hope my story would magnify how important Grace is and for me, how good God has been in my life. And if I've done that, if I do that, I think I would have honored my father's legacy, Melvin, and honored the calling that has been placed on my life.
- [25:37]
Dr. Frances Arlene
Talk about marriage, love and entrepreneurial ship.
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
I think in life, one of the most important decisions you will ever make is, is who you will do life with. And in my case, it came in the form of a French man by the name of Emmanuel Claude Andre Le Grand. And because of that, it has given me the gift of this beautiful culture. So I live between D.C. and Paris, this beautiful language. But it has also given me a business advisor who has no agenda other than to support me. I am not someone who could work with my husband full time. He knows that, we know that. But I am someone who has the blessing of having a safe sounding board who loves me without condition. I would also add that for business owners, if you are married, I think it's important to bifurcate and keep your business in your business. Right. And have times when your marriage is your marriage. And for me, the hierarchy is always clear. I will always choose Emmanuel before any business endeavor. Always. Doesn't mean I don't work hard. It doesn't mean I don't care. But it starts with him. And because he is such a safe space and because he is my friend, it allows me to be. I am the best I have been in business. I've only been married four years. And in those four years, I have won those awards, I have traveled, I have expanded the business. And I think it's because love, the right love expands you.
- [27:41]
Dr. Frances Arlene
I like that. I like that. So is your advice keep the business off the bedroom?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Oh, 100. Well, definitely that it has no place there, but I. And we'll leave that there. But I think the larger point is I find that with some of my emerging Professionals or my mentees, they're so eager to get married. And I get it. Marriage is beautiful. What's more important, just like I talked about the business weight, it's equally, if not more important to wait on the right one. The wrong one, which I've had, will tell you everything you can't do and why, particularly for women. But the right one, even if, you know, I won an award last week, I'm in Paris, my husband stayed, I went. The right one is cheering you on and not making it about them. At least in a male, female dynamic or their ego, they're thrilled.
- [28:46]
Dr. Frances Arlene
I love that. If you lost everything, Melva, and you had to rebuild, in what industry and why?
- [28:54]
Melva Lajoy La Grand
If I lost everything, I think I would go all in to one of two things. Either I'm big on Tuesday, I don't know why. I would either finally write the book that or books or series that are in my head all of the time and try to make that work, being a part time, I don't know, working at a bookstore or something like that. Because I believe stories are vital. I believe history is vital. And writing saved my life as a child. So that is my why. The second thing I could see myself returning back to if this career wasn't an option, is education. I think the best articulation of freedom, possibility, curiosity, all of the things the best of us is in our children and the children would be my why.
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Dr. Frances Arlene
Let's talk about failure. You use the word failure, some say opportunity. Talk about failing forward and what lesson? Tell us the backstory and what was the lesson that you learned from that?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Right or wrong, there's so much material there, but I'm going to take you to 2024. I was very excited, I'll never forget it. And I was excited because for years I had been working on a significant contract and I had the indication In December of 2023 it was coming to fruition. So the contract was issued. I saw it in the system. I remember the date in 2024 that I was going to announce it. And this was Ruby Business has the one. This was the contract where I was going to have to hire up. This was the one. So early in the year I started seeing meetings on my calendar. I'm like, yes, yes, yes. I was writing job descriptions, all of the things. And I can see my invoice, the deposit going through the system. I was feeling very confident. So I started to spend a little, started to spend a little, just a little, celebrate in advance. And then on a Wednesday I got a Call from a black woman who was in an executive position. And she said, can you call me? And I thought, I can call you at any time. Forget about that. Nine to five, you're in the contract. And she told me that it was going to be announced the following week. Company was going bankrupt. And she said. And I said to her, got it. But you're still going to clear my deposit, right? And I said, your team is scheduling meetings with me, so we're still. But I'm still getting my deposit, right? And she said, I shouldn't be telling you this. The team doesn't even know, but I know what this means for you. As a small business owner, I felt sick because I was spending a little more than a little bit. I have always known not to spend what you didn't have. But I was so excited because I thought, it's finally here. I'm so close. And I have to be honest, I went through a depression where a friend helped me. And so the obvious lesson was, don't spend what you don't have. But the bigger lesson was, or reminder was, melva, you've been here before. Pick yourself up. Figure it out. To figure it out. I stopped paying myself. I did not tell the team until later in the year. And I put my head down and I did the work and I pushed through. Whatever, doubt, imposter syndrome, whatever you want to call it, I pushed through and I did the work. Fast forward or failing forward to February of 2025. I grew the business by 30% by doing the work.
- [32:57]
Dr. Frances Arlene
I love that. Talk about your top two influencers and what lessons do they teach you?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
Probably one is very private, so I'll just call her Dr. M. She was a woman, a black woman that I desperately wanted to work with. So desperately that when she didn't hire me the first, I applied four years later just to work with her. She taught me she was an exceptional writer. I mean, just a phenomenal leader. But for me, she gave me two gifts. One, she gave me the gift of understanding what empathetic leadership looks like. She was firm, she was driven, she was fair, she was empathetic. And I would see that. And much of my management style is modeled after her. The second thing she gave me as a gift is I've always been a very good writer, but she held me accountable to my tone. And so she reminded me that before you send that email, maybe walk to their office, maybe express your intentionality. She refined my emotional intelligence because sometimes when we do it all the time, we send the email, we Think, oh, they've got it, but do they really? Have you checked your tone? And so even now, even when it's not in vogue, I call and check in. The second woman was early in my career, I was very nervous. It's not a secret I was severely insecure. But I was always willing to learn. But I always wanted to be in the background. Like, just don't look at me. I'm going to be in the clipboard. Don't look at me. And she pushed me to lead a project, and I was terrified. So terrified I almost got sick in the bathroom. And years later, I asked her why. You know, I knew I was scared. And she said, if I did not push you, you would not have swam. And so I give her a lot of credit because. And there's so many black women, and not just black women, but in those two examples, black women who loved me and saw me before I could see myself.
- [35:23]
Dr. Frances Arlene
I love that. Thank you for that. Melva, if you conducted this interview, what is the one question you would have asked yourself? I'd like you to ask the question and answer it.
- [35:36]
Melva Lajoy La Grand
After all the awards and where you are now, what keeps you going? Or what keeps you grounded? And I would say, what keeps me going? I feel a huge responsibility to carry out what I believe is a calling on my life. I no longer, Yes, I want my business to make money. Yes, I want it to pour into others. I just can't ignore it. Almost like I'm on fire. That this business is mo is meant to do something to positively impact people, and it would be irresponsible to ignore it. And what keeps me grounded is. To your point earlier, I know that right now it just happens to be my turn, but there have been many times in life that it wasn't my turn. And I imagine in the future, like my grandma would say, life comes to us all. And so I think what keeps me grounded is knowing that as quickly as I rise, I can fall and have to rebuild. And so I strive to never think so highly of myself that I'm out of touch.
- [37:07]
Dr. Frances Arlene
We've come to the part of our interview. It's called Rapid Fire Questions. I'm going to ask you a series of questions, and I'd like you to give me very quick answers. If there's something you desire not to answer, feel free to say past. Are you ready for the Rapid Fire questions?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
I am ready.
- [37:26]
Dr. Frances Arlene
What's the first thing you do every morning? The one book that changed your life?
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Melva Lajoy La Grand
My journal.
- [37:35]
Dr. Frances Arlene
Who is your favorite rapper or singer?
- [37:40]
Melva Lajoy La Grand
Rapper. Tupac Shakur singer Sade Coffee or tea.
- [37:46]
Dr. Frances Arlene
While building an empire?
- [37:49]
Melva Lajoy La Grand
Coffee.
- [37:50]
Dr. Frances Arlene
What's one app or tool that you can't live without? WhatsApp if you had to pitch your business in one sentence, what would it be?
- [38:04]
Melva Lajoy La Grand
Storytellers Curating experiences for organizations worldwide.
- [38:11]
Dr. Frances Arlene
Entrepreneur you'd love to have dinner with, dead or alive.
- [38:16]
Melva Lajoy La Grand
I believe his name is Jesse Collins, the award winning producer for super bowl bet. You name it.
- [38:26]
Dr. Frances Arlene
Melva lajoy La grand 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 do business with you. Leave all your social media handles and any information that they can use to support your business.
- [38:47]
Melva Lajoy La Grand
Thank you so much and thank you for such a lovely conversation. I really enjoyed the Rapid Buyer and thank you everybody for listening. You can be in community with Lajoy Creative through the following methods. Instagram, Lajoy Creative, YouTube, Lajoy Creative and LinkedIn Lajoy Creative. To be in community with me, please see me on Instagram at B E L A J O Y F U L which is at Be joyful. Thank you so much.
- [39:24]
Dr. Frances Arlene
Thank you. That's 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 tool kit. You can find the direct link in the show notes. Go get your peace of mind now.
- [39:53]
Podcast Announcer
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.beepodcast.com. join us next Wednesday. And remember, green is the new Black, so keep your bank accounts and your business in the black.