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A
Hey, you there. In the baby registry rabbit hole, the thing experienced parents agree on. A Nanit Smart baby monitor, one camera, one app for video, breathing, motion monitoring and personalized sleep insights all in one place. Check in from anywhere, get real time safety notifications and capture every sleepy smile and goodnight kiss. The best part? Those insights help you get more sleep. Starting night one, add it to your registry or shop@nanit nanit.com. Welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Experience podcast. Inside the business buzz and brilliance of Black entrepreneurs. Here is your host, Dr. Francis Arlene.
B
What happens in Vegas goes all over the world on Black Entrepreneur Experience episode. 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. If you're building wealth and value from the boardroom to the kitchen table, today's guests bring it all together. Meet Lavasia Davis, known as the wealth architect. She's helping families think beyond income and building lasting legacy. Welcome.
C
Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
B
Dr. Francis, 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?
C
Certainly. So as expressed, I'm Lavasia Davis. I am founder and principal of LS Advisors and it's a private wealth management firm dedicated to providing institutional style wealth management services to first generation wealth creators. But those first generation wealth creators are usually very specific if they are executives that are experiencing high income for the first in their family, navigating complex equity compensations to business owners or first generation entrepreneurs that have built significant value within their company and now they're trying to convert that value to long lasting wealth. And we bring the wealth management solution to help both of those type of people achieve their wealth goals.
B
Let's talk about how did you get there? How did you get specifically in that industry?
C
Yes. So I'm here by way of both. I'll just say divine intervention is how I always share it. I was on track to go to college to be a doctor and a medical doctor. In that journey I was able to meet my lifetime partner, my husband, who had an entrepreneur bug naturally inside of him. And of course through vision painting, he helped paint this picture, this dream of the life that we were going to live and it was centered around entrepreneurship. So in his pursuit, I started off as support. But through that journey it was so much that we didn't know. We also were the first Generation, at least within our proximity, trying these new things, taking on different levels of risk, and you just don't know what you don't know. So in my effort to support or fill the gaps of what we didn't know, I wanted to learn those things. Which was more the financial side. It was more about the financial management, cash flow management, understanding how to convert that value or that money we were making inside the business into income for us. And from there I was like, you know, I think there's other entrepreneurs probably struggling with this same dynamic. And I started out just helping entrepreneurs navigate that space. However, life also threw a traumatic experience my way, where we lost a family member, a very close family member, my brother. And it just brought devastation more. Not just emotional, but financial as well. And that financial devastation was just a big eye opener for me, that there's too many circumstances or situations where families can't support themselves financially, either in traumatic situations or even in good situations. Needing to pay for weddings or needing to help someone buy a home or pay for higher education or cultural experiences, all of these things that take resources. So because of those two experiences, not only did I dedicate to entrepreneurs and helping them actually build that wealth outside of their business, but helping families come together and create family wealth that can last for multiple generations.
B
I love that. And sorry for the loss of your brother. Yeah, thank you for being so authentic and transparent in that situation. One of the things that I've seen over the years is how are you talking to individuals? Because a lot of times we don't want to talk about that death. Do want to talk about the good times, planning for the weddings and those things. But even financially planning those things can be a little bit challenging. How are you cutting through the noise or the resistance?
C
Well, fortunately, I think we stand in a very different environment right now. Once upon a time, those conversations were taboo or challenging to have, but due to rising generations, those conversations are becoming way more explicit, like direct, about money and wealth and succession. And what are we supposed to do in these emergency situations? The conversations are actually attracted already, thankfully. I love the progress that we're making because it, it was a point in time where that was a fight to have those conversations. But now they're a lot more open. Now it's not so much about navigating through the resistance, it's more of the first part you said of the noise. Because now we're inundated with information and now we're like, do I? Should I do this? Does this apply to me? Do I? And navigating information is now a lot harder than it was to break those barriers that we once had of. No, we don't have those type of conversations.
B
And I like that when you talked about navigating information because I believe with us and we'll talk about AI. We're in a season where you don't know what's true and what's not true. How do you help your clients to vet the truth?
C
Well, we believe in counsel strongly. Vetting the truth comes with a sound counsel board, people that you that with experience that you can run this information by. It's a philosophy and a principle that we stand by, which is why we aim to be that council board for our clients in every aspect of their wealth, as wealth is made up of multiple domains. And now you're trying to figure out how to piece all these domains together without the expertise. So instead of you trying to vet it yourself, you just have the council board that can easily deter information or practice discernment. Yes, this is true. No, this is not true. Yes, this applies to you. No, this doesn't apply to you. This is that potential outcome. And being able to have that ping pong conversation is, I think one of the most important aspects of planning period. You need to be able to run these ideas by someone, advice you wish you had followed. Understanding that hindsight is insight, which was foresight, that was something that was shared with me at a very young age, but I didn't comprehend it that I do today. And let me tell you how I receive it today and how I would hope someone receives it as they hear it. When we say hindsight, we're thinking about looking back and when we're thinking about insight, we're thinking about the present moment and foresight into the future. But being able to put those in perspectives, hindsight are those who have experience and wisdom and things they've already gone through ahead of you. So always seeing authority or someone with experience as hindsight that you can benefit from that can give you insight to your current path that you can use as you navigate your journey. And I didn't understand that when it was told. And now I treat experience and wisdom like gold. I'm just like, if. Because you're going to get it too after this. Like Dr. Francis, I want to know, I want to know what you know too. But I love hearing about your challenges that was there along your way, what you would have done differently and how I can apply that today. So if I would have captured that at the time it was told to me, who knows how much further I would be. But that is just advice. I wish I could have comprehended a lot quicker.
B
And let's translate that into entrepreneurial ship. What is something you wish you knew before starting the business that you know today?
C
That's tricky because entrepreneurship only action brings clarity. You really don't know how you're supposed to do things until you attempt to do it and see that you did it wrong and then you have to go back and correct it. It's difficult to get insight without the experience. So I love how we had to learn along the way. I'm not sure if there's something that I wish I knew at the start, but I just wish that my decision framework was tight earlier. How to make decisions, if anything else had a decision making framework earlier in your entrepreneur journey can save you a lot of time and a lot of mistakes, but you have to kind of go through them in order to develop your skill. Like what am I good at? And what weaknesses need to be filled.
B
I love that because a lot of times we as entrepreneurs, we stay in this analysis to paralysis state because we don't understand that. And that is a value bomb. When you said that only action brings clarity and we think that if we ask someone else or if we it's the doing that's going to bring the clarity. And we think we're going for perfection. And sometimes we have that fear or imposter syndrome that we don't move forward. So that was really amazing that you dropped that value bomb. And I want you to have a monologue. I want you to name this person, living or not, that has inspired you so much. Who is that person and what are you saying to that person?
C
I am heavily inspired by Carla Harris living. So Carla Harris inspires me as a woman in this male dominated industry to lead with my authority, with my assertiveness and to not feel bad about it and to take charge. And to all of the different values that I've learned from her along the way, the care for everyone in the room, not just higher ups or those that are in higher positions, the leadership qualities that you have to have, the dedication that you have to have. I've stemmed a lot of that from Carla Harris. So I just say, if anything, I want to express gratitude. Thank you for carving the way. Thank you for taking the steps in 15 inch snow so it's easier for me to come down the road. And that monologue is gratefulness. It's gratitude. It is an exchange of that hindsight. Like tell me what you know that I Need to know now. And just using that as building blocks and holding that information near and dear,
B
you left a little gap that I want you to fill in. When you talked about you were supposed to go to grad school, go to med school, at what point did you pivot and did you pivot into more college? Did you pivot into corporate? Or did you pivot straight into supporting? And you guys went right into entrepreneurial shit.
C
At the time, we owned a head hunting business is what it's called now. We did staffing and recruiting and there was a lot of administrative work at the time. We didn't have AI, so it was a lot of administrative work at the time. So it started out as support in that way. But once I realized the complexities of what we really needed to know, that's why the pivot started to happen. And it just was now, no, I have to be more of an executive role over here, not just an administrative supportive role. So it happened so fast. At least now it seems like it happened so fast. It was like all a blur. And it was over 15 years ago now I'm telling my age, but because of that, it just was like school. Then it was time to register for classes again. And that registration didn't happen at that time. And now I'm working more and more in the business. So it was full from college to entrepreneurship.
B
Talk about marriage and entrepreneurial ship.
C
It's all I know because my business partner in the beginning was always my husband. And then once we realized that family is a business again, when I started to take on the idea that we have to help more families, once we realized that, oh, marriage and business goes hand in hand. I say it all the time. We're not just mom and dad of our children. We are founder and co founder. We are CEO and cfo. And we have small employees per se that we are trying to help promote and elevate in our family business. And now it's like marriage is not just about our love and connection and our union under God. It's also about our commitment to the succession of the children that we brought into this world. So marriage and business is all I know.
B
I love that. And talk about motherhood and managing a business.
C
I've been very fortunate in that aspect for several reasons. Entrepreneurship started before we had children. So that means even though it was a challenge, we still had a little bit of control. So we didn't have our. We didn't. Our children didn't have to go to daycare and we. I didn't have to take those sacrifices early as a mother that most mothers are uncomfortable with, like, leaving our babies with people and stuff. Like, I didn't have to do that. However, once growth came knocking and it did require me to make some sacrifices, I was fortunate enough to have made some strides where I could retire my mother and I could get her direct support and nurturing my children and didn't have to bring strangers or outside help or anything like that. So that's why I say it's a divine path, because God has always provided a solution to what it seems like mayhem at the time. So my mother was able to support when I had to take extended trips for traveling for work or just scaling companies, any of that, my mom was able to step in. So. But it bleeds right into our family business concept as well. But it just worked out for the better, so. And now I have four young ladies. They're small, they range in age, but now I have four of them. That's like, no, I want to be a CEO or I want to run a company or I want to do. And they. When they have their imaginary play, they're pretending to be me.
B
Awesome. That is awesome. Talk about your top two influencers in life or business and what lessons do they teach you.
C
A lot of my influence came from close proximity, so I don't have, like, famous ones when it comes to that. My grandmother was. Was very influential in my life. I spent a lot of time growing up with her, and she had this way. She was a smaller lady, no taller than 5 foot, but she had this big energy that just demanded respect and just attention that I was able to just witness for a long time. So she really influenced me to be able to be assertive. Femininity doesn't always have to come with getting ran over or walked over or anything like that. Like, you can lead with power as a woman. But then the other influence really came from my parents because they're from two different sides of the tracks. My mother went to private school. She was just a nice homegirl. My father is a different side of that dynamic. And it gave me, like, this twofold personality where I like to call it a parallelogram. I don't know if you remember geometry. You remember geometry and the parallelogram. And it's like the square that has a little bit of a lean. That's how I like to describe myself. And those. All of those influences are what you're seeing today. Being able to lead, being able to relate, being able to navigate motherhood, all of that comes from Those two influences. So if I had to list the two most powerful influences, it would be that's the grandmother on my father's side, my father's mother, and then my parents.
B
Awesome. Who is your ideal client?
C
So our ideal client is typically first generation founder of a privately held business. So if you have created a company in substantial value, typically doing like a million dollars or more in EBITDA or profit, that is where complexity starts to kick up a bit. Most people don't know when their net worth hits a certain threshold, when they need to start adjusting their planning style. A lot of the times they stay in personal finance. We need to get to wealth management. So clients that have that value, that do that type of revenue, that are typically in the highest tax bracket, have valuable estates, have children that they want to receive their assets, have paid an exorbitant amount in taxes, and have no idea how to take that money that they built inside their business out of it is who we have benefited the most.
B
Awesome. And you have had many success stories. Share and only share what you can share. Share a story that sticks in mind of successful clients that you had. Yeah.
C
So particularly when there is executive that's transitioning from high W2 income into entrepreneurship. And for these particular sets of clients, it was their couple. So they are one still an executive. And then once transitioning into entrepreneurship and the amount of tax that they have paid over a short period of time, we'll just say five years, was well over $1.9 million. Well over that. And we were able to put a plan in place that took them from paying over $1.9 million in taxes and saved them over $986,000 in taxes alone that they can now reinvest. So that turned into another $1.6 million back into their wealth that they would have otherwise paid to the government. And it just came from integration of wealth. Many entrepreneurs or high income executives have siloed advisors. They're all working in independent capacities. One may manage your investments. You might have a state, a planning attorney that did your will five years ago. You may have some a financial advisor or someone who provides you insurance plans. But their capacities are limited because they only know those individual things. Not knowing that when those domains don't collaborate and they don't integrate, it creates gaps. And money falls between those gaps, small amounts or large amounts. And now just through integration, bringing all of those moving pieces into one plan, into one coordination can create those dramatic savings and create a substantial amount of wealth that you can actually pass on to your Children to give them the opportunity to start ahead versus what we've experienced in multiple generations where we're starting behind the starting line.
B
And what is something we, as consumers, we don't know about wealth building that
C
we should know that your wealth is a business. And whether you are in business ownership, entrepreneurship or not, your wealth is always a business that requires oversight, management and measurement of return on investment. Just like you have to have a business that makes money, you have to have a place or a business for your money to grow and be preserved. And that's going to pass the baton over to the next generation. And as long as you don't see your wealth like a business, you will never treat it as such. So you won't bring in the necessary executives, you won't bring in a necessary business plan, operational plan, you won't do those things because you think it's just personal finance, savings, debt management, income and expenses. When it's really about tax minimization, estate planning, investment management, asset protection, these are all aspects that need to be managed in your wealth business.
B
I love that. And one of the things that's always puzzling is how individuals that are very the 1 percenters and how they can have so much wealth, so much income, yet they pay the least amount of taxes. And individuals who are barely getting by, just like you were saying, they're paying absorbent amount of taxes. And how do you, we're not telling you to avoid taxes, but how do you put in tax strategies that you are paying less taxes or that you are redistributing that to a wealth strategy?
C
Absolutely, because we. That's why you want to think of your wealth like a business and think about how it can contribute or expand. So those tax benefits come from. They're not free. Those tax benefits or the ability to minimize your taxes comes from you contributing capital in other ways. So it's who much is given, much is expected. So your charitable and philanthropy efforts matter if you're giving back, yes, you should receive a tax benefit for that. If you are investing in infrastructure that's going to support the community, yes, you should receive a tax benefit for that. So that's still money that has to be invested in a tax plan. So look at your wealth business. Where can I put this money that's going to help expand and make an impact and instead of just giving it to the government, there's always ways like that. But unless you're willing to fund those strategies, there's not very many ways to minimize your taxation. And that's what is challenging when we're for lower income levels is because there's not enough money to go around to do that, to be able to pay your day to day living expenses and have money to put into these other categories where they can make a big enough difference to minimize your taxes. And that's hard. So that's why families need to come together with resources and we can go further together. And you speak about 1% and that 1%. All you have to do is make over $250,000 to be a part of that 1%. It's not limited to just billionaires. There's not very many people that's making just that amount. So it's not, it's not a lot to have to be in that 1%. But if you can collaborate resources in your wealth business, just like you do with business partnerships, that gives you more capital to work with, more capital to spread around, more tax benefits to take advantage of.
B
Just like you said that wealth is a business, marriage is a business and business is a marriage. If you have a partnership, how do you vet those individuals strategically for growth to happen and for wealth to expand?
C
It's more of a tactic because family one, let's define family. It doesn't have to be by blood affinity. It can be who you have direct affinity to. If you've had a relationship, a friendship, a kinship over 20 years and this is someone that you value and trust, that can be considered your family. When we're talking about vetting them, we want to go a little bit further. Not so much as like a vetting process that probably could be the terminology for it. But skill set, it's about skill set. What are you strong at that I'm weak at, or vice versa that we can now provide balance. And that can. That goes back to my example, my mother, of when I retired her, it wasn't because she's going to lose that income. That was money that I would have had to pay for childcare anyway. So practicing our family economics is, hey, we retire you from having to go work and earn income elsewhere and this becomes your income source. And I'll circulate that money to you. Because my mother has been a caregiver for over 40 years. She's naturally a nurturer. That's her skill set. So I wasn't taking her out of a comfort zone. I just shifted how she made her money and now that's a shift in income from me. That's income that I don't have to get taxed on because I shifted it to my mother that's in a lower tax bracket. So that's a strategy. Find the skill. How can you connect an income or some type of capital source to that skill is it's not my skill, I'm not really good at it or it's a skill that I'm missing and build it into the family economics or the wealth business. So vetting stealthy, to me that sounds like can you do what you said you were going to do? But if you have a relationship with someone, you already have an understanding of what they can do. Now it's just about thinking outside the box on how you can apply that to the wealth business.
B
I like that. What would you say your zone of genius is?
C
Strategic planning. I am a. I like to see things on a big board and then see the moves. And certain if we work, if this move takes place, what's going to happen next? What's the next three moves? So I'm the strategic planner, both in structure, investment planning, insurance planning, being able to pull all those pieces together, which has led to our experience of managing multiple domains. That's why we could get into discussing estate planning to a degree because we're not attorneys and I want to imply that, but just from a structural standpoint. Strategic planning, especially when it comes to building the family business for the first time, it is just my forte. I was thinking about another word, but I think that's a better word to eat.
B
I like that. Thank you for that. What is the takeaway from this conversation? What do you want the audience to leave with?
C
I want the audience to leave with. Wealth management is no longer a luxury, it's a requirement. Majority of our wealth is lost not through just bad investments, but because the lack of succession planning. In order to have a succession plan, you have to have something to plan around. So the only way we're going to do that is by creating wealth, cultivating it and keeping it in the most tax efficient way in order to transfer it over so it's no longer a luxury, it's no longer limited to those that are of, I'll say the 01%, even those in that 1% because remember that's only over 250,000 need wealth management and for multiple, all of those domains that I've listed throughout the conversation.
B
And for those who are listening, at what point should you start having those conversations?
C
Immediately. Immediately. Because as long as your wealth business is going unmanaged, that's wealth that's slipping between your fingers that you're losing every single day. So you need to have conversations with advisors and understand what type of advisor are you? Are you a specialist that only focuses on one area of my wealth? Or do you have multiple expertise where you can manage multiple pieces of my wealth? And you're going to need that quarterback. Unless you feel like you can quarterback it. Unless you feel like, hey, I can speak the language of estate planning attorneys, CPAs, investment managers. I don't mind learning that language or taking the time to teach myself a new skill. But there let me take a step back and even phrase it like this. The only way wealth is going to be created in a family and kept in a family as if there is a CEO and the family business leading with intent, intentionality leads to wealth. It's also what I would leave the audience with.
B
I like that there are so many brands and businesses that are dominating. Talk about a brand or business that's dominating that you admire and why I
C
don't get to see brands dominate enough for one to come to mind. But I do have brands that I admire.
B
Okay.
C
And I'll give a domestic and a global in different cultures. So domestically I absolutely admire the Luster's pink moisturizer. That is a third generation black owned family brand still located in Chicago, Illinois. And anytime a family was able to create something and keep it for three generations when majority of wealth is lost in the first generation is admirable. And I can appreciate it and love for that to be more of a topic of conversation on a broader scale, on a global scale, in a different culture. I abs the Prada family. What they've been able to achieve without selling out, they still are privately owned is also admirable because what most people don't realize is this large economy, our GDP, over 70% of it comes from private family owned businesses. And that is who's driving economic movement, economic mobility. So when we are encouraging family enterprise, it's not just because of the blood affinity, it's because that is where wealth is held, maintained, kept and it's what is able to distribute or at least demonstrate some form of control. And that's what wealth requires, control. So two brands, domestic and global, I admire them for some of the same reasons. So that's to let you know whether you want to support like a black owned brand that's been around for that long. I still use Lusters to this day, so I admire it both through the product usage and the structure.
B
Thank you for that. If you lost everything and you had to rebuild in 30 days, what industry
C
and why I would still be in the Financial services industry. One is anytime that you're a problem solver and anytime you're a problem solver that can save someone money or make someone money, you're in a position to be able to start over at any time. So I would still choose financial services.
B
I appreciate that. If you conducted this interview, what is the one question you would have asked yourself? I want you to ask the question and answer it.
C
How do you work with family or build wealth while taking losses? Maybe losses in relationships, maybe financial losses. And my answer to that would be, losses are more lessons that are necessary along the journey. And the best thing you can do is rather than let those losses instill fear or make you feel like you have to stop or change or give up on people creating like this place of refuge that those who are going to have to come the journey after you, if that is your children, if that's your, your younger siblings, if that is just people that you aspire influence, giving them a comfort space or a refuge space that they can recover from those losses, because losses are inevitable. And you. Most cultures have places of refuge. They don't have to take those losses and wear them on their back. And now they can never recover because, hey, you have a recovery space over here. Whether that is, hey, we have money over here for you, or we have a place for over here for you to live, or we have counselors here if something happens to a relationship, we have therapy. We have instead of it creating a place of refuge so the losses don't scare you and you can recover from them quicker.
B
I like that. Thank you so much. What was that aha moment that you knew your business was going to be successful? Because you talked about earlier on about the pivot that you started in one industry and, and you made a shift and even talk about that shift and the pivots.
C
So my aha moment came once I recognized the lack of integration when it came to wealth management and planning. But I got that from someone with hindsight. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a strategic planning team and I was creating the insurance plans in this group and they were serving one family. And there was no separation between the professionals. Everyone was in one room showing their solutions and how these solutions needed to work together. And the person that was leading it had been doing this for over 40 years. And I asked, like, how do you coordinate wealth in this manner? And without hesitation, he said, do you want to learn this? And I said, yes, show me everything. And the fact that he took time to show me those things over Years over time, like over a span of time. That was the aha moment for me. Like, oh, I have guidance, I have the drive, I have the skill. Oh, this is going to work. So that was my aha moment. Pivoting was more of a reaction. It was a reaction at the time of what was happening. Like it's while I was in school and my husband was struggling with, you know, just all of the moving parts of his business and then just stepping in for support. That was just me reacting to that need. And then losing my brother and watching my mother not afford to grieve, she had to go right back to work because the resources were so limited on being able to. To bury him or her, to take time off work, to heal. And not only did we not have that individually, but collectively it was like, oh, now I have to help families not be in this position. Was a reaction. So this like I, I'm just responding, understanding that things are not happening to me, they're happening for me. And I'm just, I'm just taking it as okay, God, your will is sending me this way and reacting to that. Now I probably can be a little bit more proactive now, but my pivots came from reaction.
B
And so if I hear this correctly, is that moment of pain propelled you to where you're at, not only the passion piece, but also in terms of purpose.
C
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
B
Thank you for that. What is something that you need that you don't have that would help you move the needle forward?
C
You know, I think in this time, I think I would benefit greatly from having more senior married couples around. Like the reason why I think that can move the needle forward because the strength of your marriage makes you the strength of the. The individual is the strength that you're able to put out into the world like your output. So I think that, and this could just be an individual experience, but I've heard it amongst a small sample size that married couples don't have a whole lot of other married couples to counsel with because marriage is so tough. And I just think that that's helpful. That would, it just creates clarity. Okay. So I think that's one thing that can help move the needle forward of surrounding us with other married couples that have more longevity than us.
B
I like that. Thank you so much. 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 question and 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?
C
I'm ready.
B
Your first job, McDonald's. Your favorite comfort food, cake. What food you eat every week, no matter what cereal. Your favorite singer or rapper.
C
So my favorite rapper is Lil Wayne. I don't have a favorite singer.
B
Your favorite dance song, any line dance
C
song, anything that got a line dance to it is all my favorite
B
workout
C
or hit the couch like a gym workout. Yeah, I struggle there, but I consider line dancing. I'll line dance in my living room and that'll be a workout for me.
B
Absolutely. Well, we want to 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 reach you, to do business with you. And feel free to leave all of your social media handles.
C
Thank you. So thankfully all of my social media handles are my name. I'm sure there'll be a spelling provided, but it's L A V A I S H A last name Davis D A V I s on all platforms. LinkedIn, Instagram threads as well as Facebook that all of those profiles also have direct links in them where you can learn more about our firm, Los Advisors or if you're ready to take a step further if you are in that description that we went through today of the type of clients that we serve, how to set up a time for us to have a conversation as well. So all social media platforms as well as any of those links that's available in those profiles, thank you so much.
B
That's a wrap.
C
Thank you for listening and subscribing to Black Entrepreneurs 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.
A
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C
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Podcast Summary: Black Entrepreneur Experience – Episode 548
Episode Title: Building Generational Wealth & Legacy with LaVaisha Davis
Date: May 6, 2026
Host: Dr. Frances A. Ince, Chief Encouraging Officer
Guest: LaVaisha Davis, Founder & Principal of LS Advisors (“The Wealth Architect”)
This episode of the Black Entrepreneur Experience features LaVaisha Davis, an accomplished wealth advisor dedicated to empowering first-generation wealth creators—executives and entrepreneurs—with the tools and strategies necessary for building and sustaining generational wealth. Together with host Dr. Frances Ince, LaVaisha shares her journey, practical approaches to wealth management, and extensive wisdom on entrepreneurship, family enterprise, and the importance of integrating personal values with financial goals. The discussion offers inspiration and actionable insights for aspiring and established entrepreneurs alike, especially those navigating complex financial landscapes for the first time.
Shifts in Money Talk Culture ([05:04])
Counsel and Wisdom Sharing ([06:23])
Action Brings Clarity ([08:51])
Decision-Making Frameworks
Monologue to Carla Harris ([10:22])
Family Influence ([15:23])
Marriage as Family Business ([12:50])
Motherhood Balance ([13:47])
Ideal Client Profile ([16:58])
Success Case: Integration for Savings ([17:57])
Redistributing Wealth ([21:30])
Vetting Partnerships ([23:39])
On integrating wisdom:
"I treat experience and wisdom like gold. Because you’re gonna get it too after this." – LaVaisha Davis ([07:58])
On moving forward in business:
"Only action brings clarity." – LaVaisha Davis ([09:35])
On legacy and marriage as enterprise:
"Marriage and business goes hand in hand...We are founder and co-founder, we are CEO and CFO, and we have small employees per se that we are trying to help promote and elevate in our family business." – LaVaisha Davis ([12:50])
On wealth as a family enterprise:
"Your wealth is a business. As long as you don’t see your wealth like a business, you will never treat it as such." – LaVaisha Davis ([19:48])
On collaboration:
"If you can collaborate resources in your wealth business...that gives you more capital to work with, more capital to spread around, more tax benefits to take advantage of." – LaVaisha Davis ([22:50])
On influence:
"I want to express gratitude. Thank you for carving the way. Thank you for taking the steps in 15-inch snow so it’s easier for me to come down the road." (Monologue to Carla Harris) – LaVaisha Davis ([10:22])
@LaVaishaDavis on LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, and FacebookThis conversation is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, business owners, and families looking to understand and implement strategies for lasting wealth and legacy.