Why Black Entrepreneurs Struggle to Build Generational Wealth

[0:00]  I mean especially from your role as a CEO there's a ton of responsibility on you to be able to meet the needs of the community how do you kind of feel about that responsibility that weighs on your shoulders it's incredibly frustrating um because again it's a choice we don't have to live this way right like this isn't a thing that has to be it's not like oh we don't have any other option like we this is a choice that we make as a society um but kind of spinning all the way back to you know where we started is the way I look at it is all right how do I I choose um forward right like how do I choose progress so taking the hand that we're dealt and what we have here um how do I begin to make a difference from my the sphere of influence that I have and you know how does the league do that and we and we have right like so we set out to um to

[0:49]  be able to pay for and to seek funds so that we could provide intensive tutoring um outside of school uh for those students who are not proficient um and I have goal of being able to reach over 30,000 of those kids um in seven to eight years right and so if we did that you know we'd be able to cut the deficit of proficiency um in half I think for a lot of us in service and that's not just nonprofit but I think about government service I think about a whole host of different organizations and institutions that if we actually worked as if we were trying to put ourselves out of business we would have a very different Paradigm um and we would have a very different outcome but I don't think that enough of us think about things in terms of like what if I was

[1:37]  working to actually put myself out of business and so that's the kind of ethic that I bring to the league and that I try to instill in my staff to say let's think about what if we if we didn't have to solve this problem in perpetuity but like what if we could actually resolve the issue and so how do we position ourselves how do we um frame our programs how do we think about our our inter our interventions in such a way that don't essentially prolong the problem but essentially resolve it all right guys welcome back to a

[2:27]  brand new episode of the heart and hustle podcast now we have an incredible leader sitting across this digital table with me here today I've got Lyndon PRI who is the CEO of the Louisville Urban League an organization that's been around for 105 plus years now not only is this man the amazing leader of this organization but he has progressed from being a grant writer to CEO Lyndon welcome to the show man thank you for having me man it's a pleasure being here so I want to ask you a question if someone had to describe you work not related how would you be described it's an interesting question I hope that they would describe me as caring compassionate um Community oriented and fun I like the fun why would you be considered as a fun guy um

[3:16]  you know I like to enjoy myself i' say I say all the time that life is hard enough as it is um and so I do my best not to make it any harder for myself or for other folks um and so I I am really a big believer in finding Joy wherever I can um and helping other people um to find Joy where they can that is um you know something my my mother in particular was really big on she's just like if you can choose happiness then then why wouldn't you um and so every moment of of every day that I have the opportunity um I want to make the choice to be happy to have fun um and enjoy life as best as POS you know Lyndon a huge part of my

[4:03]  entrepreneurial Journey has been in the mental and Behavioral Health space back in 2017 I was having such a tough time in building my tah Health business that I had a really tough conversation with myself I said you know what if nobody's going to believe in your business the only thing that you're going to be able to control is your mindset and so in January 1st of 2017 I did an initiative called 365 days of positivity where I'd hop on social media and record a simple video that was like Hey today's going to be be a great day control the things that you can control and always choose positivity one of the things that I found in my time in doing that is people started to call me toxically positive they started to really bash me for looking at the world in an optimistic way my question for you is do you think there's a such thing as toxic positivity especially when you're a leader of an

[4:50]  amazing organization and we've got good people around us what do you think you know I don't know that I would Define anything as being toxically positive but I do probably understand the critique that may have come for folks um because I think I have been and encountered people who do not understand or do not acknowledge the realities of life right and so they don't want to to deal with the difficult things that are happening around them or around the world um and they want to push that narrative off um on to others at times and that's certainly not to say this what you were doing but I've certainly been in in in space with people who don't you know want to do that I think we saw that in in 2020 and at other points um where you know

[5:38]  the world was at um in Conflict around certain things and so for folks who were dealing with Co um you know you know particularly who maybe have had it in very real real sense around them you know dealing with death and sickness and all of that sort of stuff right like choosing positivity for that individual for those communities might have been really hard for those who were dealing with civil unrest and for black people who were fighting for their lives out in the street against police brutality and other injustices and things like that choosing positivity um was not necessarily the order of the day um and so I think that when you have that type of disposition that is devoid of reality and what people are actually experiencing that is when it becomes incredibly problematic because then it

[6:27]  seems as though you're not actually listening to other people that you're not engaging people where they are and what they're dealing with um and that's not that's not you know a way for us to go throughout life um and how we should deal with our neighbors and the the thing that I did in response to a lot of that Lyndon was I created a framework that I now kind of Express it's called practical optimism I mean let's kind of go back to like 20120 right when things were going on in our societies and our communities and we were seeing so much unrest there was an easy way for us to get kind of caught up in all the negativity and contribute to that but one of the things that I tried to do was okay this is the situation I recognize that there has been harm done I realize this is not ideal but we can still choose to look at the optimistic side of this opportunity that sits in

[7:15]  front of us what do you think about that practical optimism no I like that like I for me it is about all right where do we choose progress right and so maybe it's not you know for in My Lens necessarily about positivity but it is where do we go forward from here um because we don't have to necessarily dwell in you know in the hurt or in the pain or in the despair right like I don't think that that's necessarily a healthy place to live either right like it's it's okay to go there like we have to I think that's a part of emotions but um once you've acknowledged those feelings and you've you've you've confronted those things then it's about all right where do we where do we go from here what does forward look like for us and so I think that is that is absolutely on point in terms of you know what's practical what

[8:04]  makes sense um and how do I begin to put one foot in front of the other um towards a more positive end goal I mean what does that you know and what does that actually look like I think it's a really powerful thing when we can articulate uh what positivity is and what positivity means for me for my family for my community um for my organization whatever that is um I think we have to be able to do that I had a a CEO on the podcast the other day from an organization in New York and she said something really profound to me she said often we think that our careers are going to be ladders but what we often find is they're more like spiral staircases they take us around and we get different experiences that end up taking us to our end goal as the CEO of the Louisville urban center uh or the Urban League I'm Excuse me I recognize

[8:52]  that you started as a gr writer but what about the before story to that lynon what kind of things did you do in your early career on that spiral staircase that gave you the experiences and then brought you to this organization yeah so my background is in higher education um so prior to coming to Louisville Kentucky prior to working at the Urban League um I was working at Texas A&M University I was working um in higher education particularly on um you know student development and student program side of things and so um or what we would call from a um discipline standpoint student affairs um and for those who are familiar with student affairs or for those who have you know who had the opportunity to go to college and enjoy that space um I got to do the fun stuff and I got to work with people

[9:41]  um and students while they were on their Journey um towards you know adulthood and quote unquote real life um and in that journey I got to do a lot um I got to experience a whole host of things in terms of working directly with students who were you know again coming into their own and trying to figure out what life was like who they were going to be what they were going to be what they believed in what their purpose in life was going to be um figuring that out helping them to make career choices and and decide um what impact they wanted to make on the world I was also doing programs programs for an entire University of 60,000 plus students um late night programs Housing Programs um leadership programs U Multicultural diversity education programs all of that

[10:28]  sort of stuff working with Community um organizations and community members um outside of the university and building Partnerships there um and doing a lot with professors other administrators president of the University board members um the Board of Trustees a whole host of different things and so the beauty of you know being a student affairs professional um by and large most of us get uh to truly go around that staircase we truly get a variety of experiences um even in within one job or one job setting um that you don't typically get you know if you are in a corporate job or or just in a regular organization outside of that you don't get exposed to all of the many different things um that I've been exposed to in

[11:16]  my career and so it it was truly a blessing and a benefit because in coming to the league even starting where I did um I had the benefit of saying I've done a whole lot of stuff I've managed grants I've done budgets I've fundraised I've done all of the things that ultimately led me to where I am today I mean it's a it's an amazing uh it's an amazing experience right one of the things I've been mentioning on the podcast recently is it seems like the Masterpiece lynon who sits across from me is made up of many different brush Strokes that have created the individual who sits across from me and hearing just about the impact that you had and creating foundations for students right the experiences that they had that built up into something bigger is something why I so admire leaders in higher education because we're impacting the Next

[12:03]  Generation and now with you guys as you know the Urban League being around for 105 plus years I want to talk a little bit about kind of the mission of the organization so in our previous conversation you talked about you know the core mission is addressing systemic inequities in education housing employment and civil rights why is this something that's so important to the league and then how are we fulfilling on this Mission man yeah so again L our Urban League is here to promote um equity and Equitable opportunity uh for black people and other marginalized populations and we do with programs and services and advocacy across our pillars of jobs Justice Education Health and housing and black business and it is you know as a historic civil rights organization it is critical because unfortunately one those are those

[12:52]  disparities are still very real today right like we are still seeing them um across all of those pillars in all of those areas um and so we've got to be an organization that is working to root those things out um and to you know benefit those who were who were disproportionately impacted there um but I think it's also important for you know Society um as a whole you know and not just here in Louisville um but you know Kentucky and the greater us and so we are one of many Affiliates in the National Urban League movement that is doing this work in areas um all across the country country and collectively you know we are trying to push um Equitable change you know for for those that we serve to ensure that this country honestly lives up to its Creed and it is

[13:40]  a place that is you know abundant with liberty and justice truly for all people um and so we are out here to to ensure that that that happens I want to talk a little bit about your perspective as the leader of the organization and being a part of the larger Urban League what are some of the we talk about systemic inequities and things like that but let's get really Tactical for the audience here what type of challenges are we seeing in today's communities of 2024 when it comes to you know education housing employment because a lot of people are living in places and I'm not going to say this for anybody who's not you know too sheltered on the podcast who tuning in but there are a lot of disparities depending on the communities that we live in so let's kind of get tactical and break this kind of stuff down and you know educate the audience on what's happening out here yeah so you

[14:27]  know here in Louisville for instance you know in our Public School System um 70% of our students um are not proficient in math and reading um and so it is a district that is largely has a large um black population as well as you know in other ethnic minority populations um and so that's that is a challenge we know that um across the country that black kids still lag behind in terms of uh graduation rates in college attainment um and then ultimately college graduation um and so those are things that are are significant issues and you know for the person who's going to say like oh well this is the problem with Public Schools well no it's not actually

[15:16]  um and that's not to say that public school systems are necessarily perect perfect however what you have to understand is is the systems behind that so this country by and large Most states but certainly here in Kentucky has had a precipitous drop of funding towards public education over the years and so public education funding is not what it was 10 years ago it's not what it was 15 years ago it's not what it was 20 years ago um we are funding public education less and so that is a problem um and that is something that unfortunately you know is going to impact the quality of Education that you have um we also have to talk about things like teacher pay which um while people will say like oh it has increased it has not kept with the rest of society in terms of what we pay um our Educators and so that

[16:04]  means it's going to be hard for people to go um and be teachers I used to tell my students all the time they're probably some of the best teachers right now are working in corner offices and accounting firms or um or in hospitals or other places because that is where the world sent them as opposed to sending them to the classroom um because teaching truly is a gift and it is an art and there are some people who absolutely have it but because we don't pay teachers we don't respect teachers the way that we should they never get out doing it right so these are disparities in the space of Education in terms of housing we are still um you know denying uh black and brown people and poor people the opportunity to purchase a home and that's not that's before we get to things like red lining where literally for decades um black people and other marginalized

[16:50]  populations could not purchase homes right and so if we and we do here in this country still believe that housing and owning a home is one of the essential cornerstones to wealth building um for a family and for multiple Generations well if you've been excluded from that process then how much are you not how much are you not able to then um you know take hold of that reality of put passing on generational wealth you have been essentially excluded from if not you know delayed in your opportunity to attain the dream um that is you know promised by America so we still seeing those types of things we still see housing discrimination of all forms and not to mention we just have an affordable housing crisis in which homes have have become incredibly expensive

[17:39]  and it's very hard to even get into a house um today um in general even if you're working a full-time job and doing all of these sorts of things right like so those are those types of disparities that we we have going on I mean business Saint you know we're seeing lots in terms of um the lack of investment for for for black startups um and for black Founders to be able to to benefit from what's out there for what it needs to be an entrepreneur right to be able to get those first loans to be able to get the technical assistance or the resources um the accounting the the the taxes what all of the things that go into being a successful business are things that are hard to come by um if you don't fit into certain boxes and so we've got to do more and we've got to do better about

[18:26]  erasing those disparities fixing those gaps I want to I want to back up a little bit and I want to talk about education so you had mentioned that our teachers are not being paid enough this is something that's very interesting to me because I have a lot of friends now who are older in their late 20s early 30s who are teachers and are administrators and admin I would say staff in different education systems and they talk about how challenging it truly is to be able to meet the need of the students on a limited budget I've always thought that if we were to think about this education space rather than pushing people into the corner offices of healthare systems or different types of businesses what if our Educators were paid competitive High salaries 150,000 200,000 then they were based on incentives to be able to drive top

[19:13]  talent back into the education system to inspire and impact this next Generation doesn't that seem like that would be a different way to get it done it seems like we continue to do more of the same and expect a different result which is the definition of insanity it absolutely is and you're absolutely right right like if we made teaching as attractive as you know accounting banking um you know being a lawyer or or some other profession then we'd absolutely have a different type of um outcome when it comes to to education in our society but I think you know in their lies um the problem is that we we do not value and we have for years begun to devalue education um in this country um we are

[20:03]  starting to treat education more as a privilege rather than a right um and that is incredibly Troublesome um for a whole host of different reasons but I think the big ones is one we're excluding lots of people um from that but I don't think that people recognizes what that is going to do to us as a as a society and as a country um and uneducated people um is is an incredibly dangerous thing and I think that there are some who believe that as an opportunity to manipulate um and to capitalize on people and sure that will happen um and it is happening right now um you you don't have to look very far to see how there are different individuals companies corporations

[20:51]  taking advantage of the fact that you know that a lot of um our populace is not as well educated as they need to be but ultimately what we have to remember is that there will come a day when uh the majority of those folks will be responsible for the well-being of the country um and so what does that mean um and how good are we going to be when the rest of the world said oh no we are going to continue to Value education we are going to put a premium on it and we are going to ensure that our kids are the smartest on the planet um and so what does that ultimately mean for a country um where we've decided that's not the priority it's it puts organizations and the community in an incredibly tough space Because unless we've got organizations like the Urban League that are going to step up and I

[21:39]  would say contribute to the fact that we have deficits in education everything else like that it has to feel incredibly stressful I mean especially from your role as a CEO there's a ton of responsibility on you to be able to meet the needs of the community how do you kind of feel about that responsibility that weighs on your shoulders it's incredibly frustrating um because again it's a choice we don't have to live this way right like this isn't a thing that has to be it's not like oh we don't have any other option like we this is a choice that we make as a society um but kind of spinning all the way back to you know where we started is the way I look at it is all right how do I choose um forward right like how do I choose progress so taking the hand that we're dealt and what we have here um how do I begin to make a difference from my my

[22:29]  the sphere of influence that I have and you know how does the league do that and we and we have right like so we set out to um to be able to pay for and to seek funds so that we can provide intensive tutoring um outside of school uh for those students who are not proficient um and I have a goal of being able to reach over 30,000 of those kids um in seven to eight years right and so if we did that you know we'd be able to cut the deficit of proficiency um in half and that's one organization right like that's just me saying that's what the urban leads commitment is and that's what we're going um to try to do and so that's where I I I find my passion and my motivation is you know I I can I can dwell in you know in the despair um and I can you know I can live there or I can

[23:19]  figure out how we get something done that's going to actually make a difference in the lives of these kids and their families nonprofit CEO burnout is a huge challenge often because of the big problems that we're trying to solve and often you know when we establish goals they often are a destination a Finish Line or an event but when we do it wrong they turn into Horizons meaning we take one step towards them and it seems like they move one fo farther away from us how are you kind of staying grounded in the element of accomplishment that doesn't turn the big goals that the Urban League has Into The Horizon that keeps moving farther away as you step towards it well I mean I think one is being serious and honest about what the finish line is for us so using education in particular as an

[24:06]  example I just said if we can if we can hit that goal um then I will reduce the deficit you know the the opportunity or the achievement Gap um here in Louisville by by half or better um and that's my goal and I don't have necessarily a goal beyond that it's not to say like oh let me go get the other half um now I may if if I'm able to do that but that's not where I am it is let me get to have and then let me make sure that along the way as well as once I reach that destination that I turn back to the district to the city to the state and everybody else who says that they care about kids and say what are you going to do if I'm willing to take on 50% who's going to get the other 50 right like that's the way that we should um be thinking about in terms of this Coalition mindset and really calling

[24:54]  people to the carpet to say here's what I'm willing to do what are you willing to do do and how do we work that out and how do we do that together so I think that's one way um that we that we try to Stave off this idea um of of a horizon but it also starts with having you know a realistic understanding of what we are going to doing it's you know for me one of the big things that I I talk about all the time um particularly as a nonprofit leader and somebody who's doing service work is I think for a lot of us in service and that's not just nonprofit but I think about government service I think about a whole host of different organizations and institutions that if we actually worked as if we were trying to put ourselves out of business we would have a very

[25:42]  different Paradigm um and we would have a very different outcome but I don't think that enough of us think about things in terms of like what if I was working to actually put myself out of business and so that's the kind of ethic that I bring to the league and that I try to instill in my staff is say let's think about what if we if we didn't have to solve this problem in perpetuity but like what if we could actually resolve the issue and so how do we position ourselves how do we um frame our programs how do we think about our our inter our interventions in such a way that don't essentially prolong the problem but essentially resolve it like we actually are trying to solve a problem so that it is a problem no more

[26:29]  um and I think if we did that if we actually approached um our work in that way then it'd be a fundamentally different thing um if you know and again that's not just the Urban League I think that would be everybody you know if Healthcare institutions said we want a world without sick people like how much different would that change the way in which we approach Healthcare right you know and it's not to say because somebody is going to obviously say like well somebody you can't control everybody being sick no you probably can't but you could dramatically reduce the amount of sick people we had if we decided that we want a world with no sick people like if we wanted a world you know without gun

[27:18]  violence like if we decided that that was going to be a thing that we said like we want zero gun violence how might that change the way in which we attack those policies and those procedures and the way in which we think about Society right like it it just it's a very different thing when you set the audacious goal of actually solving the problem and whether you actually do it or not doesn't necessarily matter because you're on the path to doing it and you will dramatically reduce the the whatever the disparity is that you're looking at um if you just tackle it from a position of we're going to end this thing as opposed to we're going to work on this thing and I think far too many of us are in a space of well I'm going to work on that and I don't I don't I don't want to be working on this forever

[28:06]  I don't want to be working on these issues for the rest of my life I actually want them to be solved I don't I don't want my kids to have to deal with these things um and whether or not I'm I'm successful in that that's a totally different story but I'm gonna work like hell to see to it that they don't and that's the way I'm going to approach the work if you change the incentives you change the outcomes and it seems like a lot of organizations today I hear a lot of criticism when it comes to nonprofits that are structured to combat homelessness in cities like San Francisco as an example and they've made no incremental change the problems have gotten worse but the people who are running these nonprofits continue to take money from these large grants and everything else and it seems like we are working on the problem rather than

[28:54]  trying to solve the problem and I love the fact that you really touched on that man that was super powerful um you also mentioned something that I really kind of want to double click on which was the topic of redlining I want you to kind of educate the audience on what redlining is so we can truly understand that disparity and discrimination when it comes to things like housing yeah so the quick version um and red lining was actually birthed in Louisville Kentucky um but what red lining is is there was literally a map of the city um and institutions and really a handful of privileged institutions and privileged people um and this is going back into the the 30s 20s and 30s and really maybe even before but what they essentially did was Drew lines around different communities in the city and

[29:42]  they said hey if you are um this type of person be it black um indigenous um or or other um living in these types of communities you um are not allowed to to purchase a home um in this community or or receive a loan or do um or receive insurance or all sorts of different things open a business and for a while those things were law like they were actually inscribed in law in different cities um States all over the country right like red lining started in Louisville but I mean it happened in Chicago and New York and lots of different places um certainly down south but what is more in about that is that as things like Civil Rights Act and

[30:31]  other things became popular the laws went away however there was still practice there were still people Banks and other institutions um Realtors developers all of that still using these Maps um as a guide for where things would be built um where things would be built invested in where loans would be given um and so then there became kind of this soft Jim Crow that happened um and that existed and quite frankly in some places still persist today and so right now in Louisville if you were to look at the old redlining map of Louisville and lay it down on top of Louisville today and if you were to look at disparities in terms of where the worst Health disparities are where the worst income disparities are it would

[31:19]  almost match up exactly with those red lining Maps um so even in 2024 um those things would still exist that c certain people still live in certain places those places are still disinvested in um those still places still experience the highest rate of disparities all of that sort of stuff along the lines of these Maps um and so it's it's an incredible thing um to really think about and consider because there are people who would have us believe that these disparities are unintentional or they're just happen stance or coincident like oh how did that happen or even worse what we tend to do is we tend to blame those communities well if they would just do X Y and Z then things would be better um and they don't realize that all of it um was absolutely intentional that it was

[32:08]  absolutely designed to be the way it is um and I think once we not just recognize that and accept that for the fact that it is um but then actually begin to work on it from that perspective um that's the only way we can get better because if it was done intentionally the only way you can undo it is to be just as intentional um and I think that there are a lot of people who don't seem to understand that they think that oh okay now that the laws are gone that organically it's just going to improve no this was done intentionally and if we're going to undo it we have to be just as intentional um in our remedies and in our Solutions yeah this is really interesting to me because we're talking about unspoken rules right that people still are abiding by and influencing and

[32:57]  reinforcing in societies and it has such gigantic impact when we talk about this happening in the 20s and the 30s and maybe before that right one thing that pops into my mind is I say wow that really was not that long ago and I feel like people think about because we're so distracted with everything that's coming at us every single day that these type of discriminatory policies and systemic issues are things of the past but we still have organizations that are combating this sort of bias today and that's jaw-dropping on yeah no I mean we have a really bad concept of time in this country um we we tend to think that things were a very long time ago um and and they just simply were not my father um got rest of Soul was born in

[33:43]  1933 right like so I am but you know a generation removed from um active red lining I am but two generations removed from slavery right like so it it is not these things were not that far that far long ago I mean um you know we just had the passing of James Errol Jones right like and so he was born in 1931 right like it's not these are people who are still with us they are still Among Us um these memories are are still actively there and being able to and able to be told in first person um from people who live through this discrimination um in these these very harsh realities and so we we've got to do better about you know understanding you know truly the the the

[34:31]  closeness of time but I would also submit that that's also intentional right like that narrative that we that gets pushed around is like oh that was so long ago why are you still talking about it you know that was decades ago etc etc right like that narrative is very much intentional it is designed to get people um to forget um or to dismiss or uh to diminish you know the realities that we live in uh but you know we we've got to actively fight against that sort of stuff because it's it's dangerous and is damaging to the cause you had mentioned in our previous conversation that one of the things that I got really excited about was your Center for entrepreneurship and how that was birthed out of the civil unrest once

[35:19]  again that we experienced in 2020 which was four years ago talking about it wasn't that long ago let's talk about what happened during that time and why it was the birth of the center for entrepreneurship with you guys yeah so here in Louis Kentucky we are um the home of of Briana Taylor um who many will know and remember uh was killed by police who entered her home unannounced um and and shot and killed her um in the dark um and so that happened in March of 2020 um and people as the news began to spread fled out into the streets um in protest for for justice for her life and to to know more to understand more because all we really knew at that time

[36:07]  was that this young woman should not be dead um the details of it were were coming out and leaking out slowly um but everyone was quite certain that the initial stories by the police were not accurate um and that she did not um deserve to die not that anybody deserves to die but she certainly um was on the wrong end of police violence while that was happening um on the night of June 1st um police who you know had been you know handling protest in the street um sometimes brutalizing protesters and doing other things um came into the West End of Louisville was place where most um a large it is largely black um it is

[36:58]  a historically black part of town um but there were no protests happening in the West End of L all the protests were happening in downtown in the city center um but not in the West End of glal uh but the police um rode in um with the state troopers in tow um on a Thursday night to uh essentially you know harass um folks who were just out and who were enjoying themselves on a Thursday night um sometimes cruising happens if you're familiar with that um folks we just out having a good time um police rolled in um in an attempt to to squil the crowd and in doing so um started unprovoked firing rubber bullets wildly into the

[37:50]  crowd um and a a Community member um who will own the restaurant there um David mcy uh you know stepped out of his his establishment um and you know amidst the chaos fired you know he had a weapon he fired it into the air I think because he didn't know that the police were there um or that's believed that he didn't know that the police were there um the police then switched to live ammunition um and fired upon him and killed him um a group of leaders have been meeting throughout the pandemic um uh black leaders we we at the Urban League had organized um some regular calls about how do we honestly how do we just

[38:39]  continue to serve during the pandemic where do we find toilet paper where do we find paper Towes all of that sort of stuff we were meeting regular um the morning of David mck's death we happen to be on a call talking about it um and long story short we came to the consensus that that this was just no longer acceptable we no longer would be okay with the way in which the city um and authorities were treating black people um and it was time for us to be able to take control of our own destiny um and the Destinies of our of our community and so that day um we started to work on a document which was initially essentially A List of Demands um but that simply said this isn't

[39:27]  working um we can't trust you all um and we need to be able to invest in solutions that work for this community um and our organizations need to have the right to to administer those those programs and services because many of them were already happening we just needed to be able to scale them and move forward and so we did that across a number of different pillars but one of those happened to be um black businesses because at at the time and still currently um Louisville Kentucky which is about 22 23% black um had less than 1% employer owned businesses that were black owned um and so there had been a an incredible disparity of investment in Black entrepreneurship and so we said that needs to change and we need to do

[40:16]  something about that and what we set out to do honestly was to create an ecosystem um that works for black entrepreneurs and black business owners and so all the things that our white counterparts would typically be able to have access to access to Capital um access to technical assistance access to Professional Services and those sorts of things we said we're going to build an ecosystem that provides that uh free of charge uh for black entrepreneurs and black business owners and we did and so we partnered with um each other several organizations that were doing that work um and then we also partner with with other organizations like the sbdc and um and some white Le organizations who were down for the cause and we built an ecosystem where we serve hundreds um or

[41:06]  really over a thousand now of entrepreneurs who are looking to start their own um business or to scale and sustain their own business and so we are providing technical assistance Professional Services like you know tax assistance accounting marketing all of that sort of stuff for these entrepreneurships as well as dedicated coach um to be able to help them along their journey and we recognize that not everybody is going to succeed um because entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart um and it's not something that everybody's built to do um but everybody should have an opportunity to explore that option and so if they so choose and they should be able to do that free of discrimination um free of harm you know free of you know just just uh obstacles

[41:55]  and so we wanted to be a able to make that happen and we have and I'm incredibly proud of what has been built um in such a short period of time and looking forward to seeing it grow I mean it's an it's an amazing Mission the things that you guys have been able to accomplish by creating a foundation for people to be successful I almost think about it as something like an on an enablement platform right that enables opportunity enables connection enables access to resources that can put people on so they can actually execute on their dreams which is so important and you're right I mean entrepreneurship is not for everybody um a huge majority of self-started businesses fail so how are you trying to help the Next Generation recognize the balance between I would say traditional employment right and being the entrepreneur that everybody sees on social media who's making a million dollars in their first 10 days

[42:43]  of business which doesn't really seem to be a real story to me how you kind of doing that yeah so we have we have honest conversation so our business coaches you know sit down with folks who who have a dream and or even folks who you know cuz some people have already ventured out and they've started something and they've invested some money and they're they're they're going um but they have really honest conversations around like do you what are your goals what are your intentions and what is the reasonable likelihood that you know you're going to be able to to get there um you know and so that's kind of where we always start is what's the reality that people are dealing with and what do they need in order to get there um and so more often than that people are like yes I want to do this

[43:31]  and I want to go and we say okay cool then you've got to you know some steps that you've got to take you got to be able to put together a b business plan you got to be able to have some some measurable goals you got to make sure that your credit's right you got to start getting your balance sheet together get your accounting all that sort of stuff we do that um but then we have other people who are you know really confront confronted with the reality like ah this really isn't for me um and that's the beauty of you know being at the Urban League where we got all these other departments um and so it's like all right cool let's go find you um a place of employment where you can grow and Thrive because there is no shame in being you know a W2 employee right like that there's no harm in that there are people who are absolutely successful and living their life um doing that as well so let's go find you a career um that works for you and that that fits your passion and that allows

[44:20]  you to do um what it is that you want to do and so we we pass those people off but it really is about having very honest conversations about the reality of particularly around running a business and being an entrepreneur and I think sometimes to you know your point the world likes to make that seem super easy I'm like oh all you got to do is just have an idea or just put in this paperwork and you know start your LLC and you can do that overnight yes you absolutely can but that has absolutely nothing about have being a successful business owner right like it is it is incredibly incredibly hard and I you know I'll just share this you know we have goals for the center right like and and part of one of our goals is 500 um to create 500 successful businesses now

[45:12]  you know when I say like we we've already helped 1500 plus entrepreneurs telling people like oh you know 500 doesn't seem like a high goal but for us success we had to Define what success is and so for us success is um that they are profitable so that means that they are turning a real profit um at the end of every year that they are sustainable um because that is a thing which means you are going to be able to exist in perpetuity um and then the biggest thing is that the owner is taking home a living wage right and so for those who don't know like being profitable is is one thing which isn't always that hard there are a lot of businesses that are profitable that they they technically

[45:59]  turn a profit at the end of the year they in the black that's one thing being sustainable that's a step up right like so can you turn a profit year overy year is something else right like that is a that's a different type of Journey but still there are some people who are able to do that but that third piece of being able to take home a living wage from your business it is incredibly hard um there are so many owners and Founders um who who have been in business literally for decades and still aren't able to pay themselves a living wage out of the profits of their business um and so that is an incredibly hard thing and it speaks to how difficult it is to actually be an entrepreneur and to be successful at it and so people need to understand that right like because I

[46:46]  think sometimes people get caught up in maybe the first part is like oh yeah I have a business and it's profitable that's cool and maybe they hear the second part is like yeah I've been profitable for the past five 10 years but do you hear the third thing which says and I'm taking home a living W like CU because those things don't happen as often as I think we think it's disconnect it's a huge disconnect um but we don't talk about it right like and so that is part of what we try to do here is we try to have those really honest conversations around like no this is hard it is a grind it is you are everything when you are an entrepreneur you are everything you are the CEO you are the janitor you are the accountant you are in everything in between right like understand that and you've got to deal with everything that comes with that and not everybody um wants that

[47:35]  that that type of stress and that's okay like I think we have to be understanding that that's okay that's not that doesn't make you a failure that doesn't make you you know anything less than it's just that's the reality some jobs are not for everybody and that's all right what you're talking about here is the highest form of compassion when we have honest and trans transparent conversations with people who we truly care about that is the highest form of compassion and that's something I heard from a CEO named gin who was just recently on the show he talked about often when we think about low compassion we think we can just kind of fluff people up we can encourage them but we know that they have a huge cliff in front of them and if you're not willing to point out the cliff event then that is not a form of true love that is not a form of true compassion that comes in the form of talking to your team appropriately

[48:23]  talking to people who you trust and being able to lean in with that advice that is more real than ever and so I really appreciate that perspective it's uh it's very powerful here's a here's an interesting question for you you know what got us here is not going to get us there over the last couple years we've seen an explosion in the use of things like technology artificial intelligence how is the Urban League thinking about the use of things like AI to be able to engage with the community exchange trusted good information and become a trusted Center where people can lean on without having to weigh down your team with all the other tasks that they're doing how you thinking about that stuff yeah you know we're having real honest conversations around how AI can make us you know more efficient more effective be able to reach more people whether that be in from a a marketing standpoint of being able to help design flyers and

[49:12]  those sorts of things which seems relatively simple but is really important um to you know how we respond to messages honestly like one of the biggest use for AI is responding to emails people are using that to be able to automate and to be able to make that type of response time fast and quick and easy and so that's huge um and we're talking about how we do that efficiently and effectively and consistently right like because that's one of the things with AI being as new as it is consistency and ensuring that you know the types of response and the types of work product that AI is putting out is consistent um and is you know meeting the needs and the brand and and the quality of standards that you know an

[50:00]  organization has and so we're really having to to make sure that as we implement it and we're doing it very slowly uh you know as as I would have it to be done very slowly because we want to be intentional and we want to make sure that we get it right because there are perils to AI as well and we've got to make sure um that we don't fall into too many of those those those potholes along the way um because that can be damaged ding damaging to the organization but more importantly damaging to those that we serve one of the biggest opportunities for leaders today is to cast a vision so large that other people can find themselves being successful in that Vision what is your vision for the work that you guys are doing at the league for the next five years paint that vision for us um my vision for the organization is is for us

[50:51]  to truly be able to scale um you know to to hit population level impact um with our programs and services but not scale for scale sake but to the extent that we are able to solve problems that we are actually able to resolve some of the major issues facing our community um here in Louisville Kentucky there are things that we're working on today that I hope and pray that I am not working on in five years or seven years um that we can truly say we have moved on to something else um not because we quit but because we resolved something and we can now go do something else as part of our tradition we end our episodes with a question that came from a previous guest

[51:41]  so the question is from a CEO of a community service organization out of um Kansas City Missouri large organization there one of the things that he said was often something that limits organizations from truly growing and fulfilling on their mission is a lack of willingness from leadership to invest into their team members so they can become the next generation of leaders of the organization so the question for you lynon is are you prepared to make the investment into your staff oh 100% um that is when I transitioned into this role um about a year and a half ago um one of the things that I did particularly in our budget was I through um a good chunk of money into professional development um because

[52:31]  I absolutely believe in uh people own honing their Craft um I think that people have to be the masters of their Craft um because it's not just good for them but it is good for the organization so I want folks to be the best at whatever it is that they're doing as they possibly can and I have um kind of an open application process around people um who work here who when they say hey um I found this opportunity I'd like to explore if you can justify it as being you know beneficial to your work product then let's do it if we've got the financing to be able to to make it happen then I want to do that because I absolutely believe in people being the absolute best that they can at their Craft um and hopefully that leads to

[53:21]  somebody um being ready and prepared uh to be able to come and sit in and seat when the time comes and so we have to always think about succession and succession planning and we have to be you know really intentional around preparing you know the next generation of leaders and the last thing I'll say about this and this kind of speaks to um something you said earlier and this is something that I believe when I was working with students is I'm really big on pulling back the curtain on things um I think one of the other things we do in this Society is we like to we like to perpetuate hazing um in a sense for for young employees um like oh because I had to do it then you need to do it or you know because you know this is what was done to me or what and it's I I I hate

[54:10]  that I think it is the dumbest thing in the world like if I gotten to a place and I've learned shortcuts and secrets to be able to make something easier or to make a job better or whatever the case may be why in the world would I sit on that why would I why would I say like oh yeah you need to go through this hoop um and jump over these hurdles uh before I give you the answer like I just think that it's so dumb um but we do that a lot um in society here and I just I just refuse to um let let's again all the way back to the beginning life is hard enough like like it's gonna be hard enough by itself why am I making it harder um I'm just not going to do that that is not something I'm volunteering for well everybody that's been another

[54:57]  amazing episode of the heart and hustle podcast this amazing CEO lynon prior sits across the table for me once again the Louisville Urban League go ahead down in the description and find more information about this amazing organization Lindon man thank you so much for the time today really appreciate it thank you I appreciate