Another Black Business Jumps on the Bandwagon to Buy BET
The battle is on for ownership of BET.
News broke last week that media moguls Tyler Perry and Byron Allenhave their hats in the ring to buy Black Entertainment Television, which would have Black ownership after a lengthy hiatus. But new names have also set their eyes on ownership.
According to the New York Times, Group Black is in talks to purchase the network. The Miami-based media company is working with CVC Capital Partners, a private-equity firm based in Luxembourg, with more than $100 billion under management. To become the frontrunner in the bid, CEO Travis Montaque, is reaching out to elite Black businesspeople and artists to team up.
Its bid is not known, however, with contracts that size, there is no surprise that the company recently put in a $400 million bid to purchase VICE Media, according to the Wall Street Journal.
This exploration of ownership of BET can be looked at as a refreshed initiative to support Black-owned and controlled media companies. Thanks to streaming services, BET and networks alike have been losing traditional TV viewership over the years, with BET’s average daily audience decreasing about 20% over 20 years. Its annual profit fell to $205 million last year from $319 million in 2013, not including streaming service, BET+, or the network’s studio business.
Group Black, along with Perry and Allen, are hoping to get things back on track as there is a need for independence and connecting to the Black audience.
Lauren Williams, who started a Black journalist-controlled nonprofit, Capital B., said companies are tired of answering to white people.
“There’s real interest in having the independence to do the things that you want to do for your community and not having to answer to white people to do that,” Williams said.
“Black ownership is important in commercial enterprises because Black people should be profiting from Black products.”
All three parties are still in early talks. Paramount could back out and decide not to sell BET.
Black Leaders in the Wealth Education Space Step Up
Within the Black community, there’s a wealth of educators and coaches who has been working for years to help people improve their financial situation, but sometimes they don’t get the same credit as their white counterparts.
A few weeks ago, entrepreneur and sales coach Grant Cardone made headlines for comments over whom he identifies to be 50% of his audience: Black people. He shared that he targets Black people under 40 by employing “street terms,” “not big nomenclature,” and “keeping everything tight and simple.”
His statements during his interview with Lara Trump were problematic for several reasons. Every Black person under 40 is not from the streets. There’s also a negative connotation associated with “the streets,” a term often used about Black people. Someone with a 50% Black audience that brings him millions in income annually should know that. In addition, his statement implied that Black people under 40 are not intelligent or educated enough to understand financial information and need to be addressed in street terms.
In the past, Cardone has made statements that show a lack of cultural sensitivity. For example:
We can invest in learning from coaches and educators who are knowledgeable and culturally aware, not people who see us as dollar signs. Often, we quickly elevate white male leaders and overlook the ones who look like us and who have been doing amazing work for years.
“We cannot be funding the businesses and livelihoods of racist people,” says Rachel Rodgers, founder of Hello Seven and Author of We Should All Be Millionaires tells BLACK ENTERPRISE.
We can align with knowledgeable leaders who also respect us and our community.
Black business and financial coaches to know
Tiffany Aliche, “The Budgenista,” is an award-winning financial education teacher and author of The New York Times bestseller, Get Good With Money. She has helped over 2 million people improve their finances through her Live Richer Academy. In 2019, The Budgenista Law made financial education mandatory in middle schools in New Jersey.
(Image: Instagram)
Rachel Rodgers is a best-selling author who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs scale their businesses to well beyond six figures. Hello Seven currently has a membership community of over 2,500. Rodgers has been in business for over a decade, serving small businesses first as an attorney and now as a business coach, after noticing a lack of coaches serving historically excluded communities.
(Image: iHeartMedia)
Earn Your Leisure is a financial literacy media company founded by Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings, and Michael Macdonald, providing endless resources to help people elevate their financial situation. What started as a podcast at the intersection of financial literacy and culture has now developed into a movement to provide education and entertainment worldwide.
(Image: Instagram/TeriIjeoma)
Teri Ijeoma is the founder of Trade and Travel. Ijeoma, a former school assistant principal, has helped over 30,000 people learn how to trade in the stock market. To date, her course is the most popular in Teachable’s history.
Dr. Jatali Bellanton is an investment banker turned financial literacy educator and real estate investor. She has spent the past decade teaching adults and kids about money and wealth building. Her Kids Who Bank curriculum has been taught in close to 300 schools nationwide.
How to protect our communities from culture vultures
We have to do our due diligence when selecting who we want to learn from. Should we trust every Black person to be our coach or educate us? No.
“You have to do your due diligence to make sure that the people you choose to learn from are experienced, have respect for you and your identity, and care about helping you. The best way to know that is to speak to folks who worked with that coach and see what their experience was like,” Rodgers says.
When looking for someone to guide you on your wealth-building journey, here are questions to ask yourself, according to Bellanton: “Have they created the success you would like to achieve? Do you align with their teaching style? Do you agree with their risk tolerance level?”
Once we have done our research, we should value the expertise of the people who look like us just as much as we would that have a white male like Grant Cardone.
We can learn from people from different backgrounds, but who we choose to learn from should respect us and see us as more than a dollar sign.
Farnoosh Torabi, host of the So Money podcast, has repeatedly used her platform to have uncomfortable conversations with her majority white audience about the racial wealth gap and how to close it.
(Image: Instagram)
When asked to name a few coaches who are invested in closing the wealth gap, Rodgers didn’t hesitate.
“Pamela Slim, she is an incredible business coach and mentor who is a champion of the causes that affect people of color and has mentored so many young Black entrepreneurs, myself included,” she says. “Susan Hyatt is a coach and expert in real estate and entrepreneurship who has shown a real commitment to using her privilege to direct attention to issues that matter to Black people way before 2020.”
“I would love to see Black coaches who are serving majority Black communities stop putting white men on their stages,” she adds. “We have such a wealth of expertise and knowledge within our own communities, there is no reason why a Black community needs to learn from a white male entrepreneur. I have a personal policy not to put straight cis white men on my stages. The whole world revolves around them; they can find another stage. My stage is reserved for the brilliant speakers, coaches, and experts who share my values and come from a historically excluded background like me.”
Powerhouse Black Women Execs Share The Secrets to Finding The Career Path That’s Right For You
BLACK ENTERPRISE kicked off the first full day of the 2023 Women of Power Summit with a panel discussion aimed at helping women fine-tune their career paths.
Not everyone’s professional trajectory looks the same, and it can take years before serving in a role that fuels your passions. That’s why BE brought together four powerhouse women in business to speak candidly for our session, “The Career Path That’s Right for You,” hosted by Accenture.
The discussion was moderated by Traci Otey Blunt, founder & principal of Blunt Group Strategies, with speakers Cleo V. Belmonte, managing vice president, chief counsel – Governance & Securities at CapitalOne, Tamara Fields, Austin Office managing director, South Market Unit Chief Operating Officer at Accenture, and Nicole Monson, senior vice president, Equity and Engagement at The Estée Lauder Companies.
The panel of Black women executives shared how attendees can navigate career breaks, transitions, or even 180-degree pivots to get where they want to go.
Yolanda Friend, Inclusion & Diversity managing director at Accenture, North America, gave the opening remarks where she explained the concept of “PIE” in the workforce. It’s a model that focuses on a worker’s Performance, Image, and Exposure to the company.
According to the PIE model, only 10% of career success is tied to performance, 30% to your image, and 60% to your company exposure. Meaning, “it’s not enough to just put your head down and do the job,” Friend declared. You have to be ready and willing to get comfortable with being uncomfortable as you work to stand out in all the right ways.
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right,” Friend said.
Belmonte, Fields, and Monson shared their journey to getting into the executive-level positions they currently hold, which include tales of facing life crises, learning the difference between a mentor and a sponsor, and knowing how to handle pivotal moments in your career.
“I made choices in my career by running to something instead of from something,” Monson shared.
She also shared the three key ingredients to finding a career path that’s right for you:
Learn who you are.
Learn what is important to you at different stages in your life (because it most likely will change over time.)
Pursue number 2 un-relentlessly. Get to a place where you can pursue the things that are important to you.
“I have taken pay cuts in the pursuit of peace and happiness,” she admitted.
Attendees asked the speakers questions to gain industry insight and guidance for their professional journeys. The empowering discussion was just one of many at this year’s Women of Power Summit.
Jason Derulo Drops $5,000 Tip, Helps Nebraska Waiter Pay for College
It was a blessing to be working this shift last week.
A restaurant worker’s heart was beating really fast after singer Jason Derulo surprised him and another waiter with an astounding $5,000 tip. The meal was $795.99, a 630 percent tip! Safe to say, it wasn’t a standard gratuity.
According to Insider, 24-year-old college student Jordan Schaffer, and the other server were working a shift at Charleston’s Restaurant in West Omaha, Nebraska, on March 5 when Derulo and his party entered.
“None of us thought he was coming in,” Schaffer said after the singer’s security approached them. “We were all joking, but I genuinely thought it was an elaborate joke.”
Schaffer posted a video of the memorable moment to his TikTok page.
“You guys are really awesome,” Derulo told the waiters in the video.
Scahffer extended a personal message of gratitude to Derulos at the end of the video. “Hey Jason. Thank you. You just paid for a semester at my college. I can’t say thank you enough,” he said before showing the receipt with the tip amount.
The waiter has worked at the restaurant for two years and said Derulo’s group turned out to be some of the most polite people he’s ever served. He split the $5,000 with the server that helped him. His share of the money went toward his engineering studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha.
“Thank you for taking such great care of our fam. Keep spreading the love bro,” Derulo wrote after seeing Scahffer’s video. Derulo also reposted the clip of the encounter to his personal TikTok, which has gathered over 1 million viewers.
“Blessed to be a blessing,” the singer wrote in the caption tagging the waiter’s page.
KETV reported that the award-winning artist was in West Omaha town following a business venture: buying a stake in a new Omaha women’s volleyball team.
Black Architect Who Was Told She’d Never Make It In the Field, Encourages More African American Students to Pursue the Career
This Black woman is an architect for one of the world’s most prestigious firms and wants to see more representation in the field.
After a professor proclaimed she would never become an architect because she was Black and a woman, Pascale Sablan, who is now a licensed associate principal at Adjaye Associates New York studio, is encouraging students to pursue the field by amplifying the work of architects who are women and people of color.
Reportedly, Sablan founded Beyond the Built Environment in 2017, a platform that hosts virtual and in-person panels and exhibits featuring the work of underrepresented architects.
The Great Diverse Designers Library also provides interested students with a database to conduct research and view the work and identities of diverse professionals.
During Sablan’s time as an architecture student at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture in New York City, the teenage freshman was one of the only two Black women in her class, and her passion for advocacy was stirred up after a white professor singled them out in front of their peers.
“These two will never become architects because they’re Black and because they’re women,” she recalled the professor saying after asking her and another Black woman student to stand in the classroom.
“I was surprised that a professor…would make such a strong proclamation,” Sablan said. “And I was also humbled by the fact that my peers were quiet and silent about it.”
The architect was licensed in January after 13 years of working and exams, leading to her promotion with Adjaye Associates, a firm credited for some of the world’s most extraordinary buildings, founded by lead architect Sir David Adjaye, behind works such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
“I represent my gender and my ethnicity, and therefore I have to show up and show out to the maximum degree. I can never let my performance be the reason why opportunities are reduced or eliminated for people like me, and instead must be the reason for their multiplication,” she said.
Despite adversity, Sablan obtained a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Pratt and a Master of Science in Architectural Design from Columbia University. She is the current president of the National Organization of Minority Architects and the youngest African American inductee of the AIA College of Fellows.
‘Hi Auntie, We Love you’: Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors Show Love to Angela Bassett After Oscar Loss
The hard part about any awards ceremony is when our personal favorites don’t win. Black America got a taste of that last night.
Many viewers of the 95th annual Academy Awards were disappointed Angela Bassett, 64, did not win the Oscar for supporting actress for her role in the successful Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. And that includes two movie stars.
Later in the program, the two main actors for Creed III, Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors appeared as presenters and acknowledged the What’s Love Got to Do With It actor before announcing the winner of the next award.
Jordan, in his introduction, as in the Black Panther movie, repeated his first words to her when he said, “Hey Auntie.”
Immediately after Jordan said that Majors looked at Bassett and said, “We love you.”
Bassett, who became the very first actor to receive an Oscar nomination for a Marvel movie, was a sentimental favorite to win. Instead she lost to another veteran actress,Jamie Lee Curtis, who won for Everything Everywhere All At Once, the night’s big winner.
This nomination was Bassett’s second one. She was nominated in 1994 for her portrayal of legendary rock and roll singer, Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It, but lost to Emma Thompson in Howard‘s End.
It’s not Bassett’s work has been completely ignored. Last month, she won big at the 54th annual NAACP Image Awards, grabbing the entertainer of the year award and two additional statuettes: best actress in a drama series for her role in 9-1-1 and best supporting actress in a motion picture for her role as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Shaquille O’Neal Reportedly in Hiding to Avoid Being Served in FTX Lawsuit
Last November, FTX, the second-largest player in the crypto space behind Binance, filed for bankruptcy, crippling the cryptocurrency landscape.
TNT announcer and NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal was among those named in a lawsuit in December pertaining to his involvement with FTX. Now, he is reportedly trying to avoid being served.
According to the New York Post, the Papa John pitchman is evading being served the legal papers for a class-action lawsuit filed against him and other celebrities like basketball star Stephen Curry and football legend Tom Brady who endorsed the failed cryptocurrency company.
The lawsuit was filed FTX investor Edwin Garrison, who says his crypto account went bankrupt after “being exposed to” the endorsements by the celebrities.
Attorneys for Garrison claim that out of all the celebrities in the lawsuit, O’Neal is the only one who has avoided the lawyers.
“It is really astonishing the measures he has gone to avoid service of our complaint,” attorney Adam MoskowitztoldForbes. “The irony is that the admitted facts against him are probably the worst against any of the FTX Brand Ambassadors.”
Garrison’s attorneys singled O’Neal when they wrote in an email to the defendants: “We have spent great efforts (4 different service companies) trying to get you all served with our Complaint. Only one, however, has chosen to evade service, in order to draw out these proceedings or to otherwise attempt to avoid answering for these allegations.”
O’Neal previously stated that he was only a celebrity being used for an ad.
“I have nothing to hide. If I was heavily involved, I would be at the forefront saying, ‘Hey.’ But I was just a paid spokesperson, O’Neal said in December 2022.
O’Neal told CNBC Make It that his friendship with Curry is a big reason he agreed to participate in FTX’s advertising.
Betta Have My Money! How Silicon Valley Bank’s Fallout Affects Black-Owned Startups
The shakeup at Silicon Valley Bank has put small business owners at a standstill, especially Black-owned businesses.
Over the weekend, news hit that the financial institution crumbled suddenly, leaving customers scrambling for answers. The bank announced that customers will have access to all their deposits soon and have set up a new facility to give banks access to emergency funds. However, some business owners are looking for help.
Take Tiffany Dufu, for instance, CEO and founder of The Cru, a startup helping women achieve their personal and professional goals. When the startup founder found out about what happened at the bank, her world shattered. She took to LinkedIn and in an emotional confesssion in an airport bathroom, discussed how the bank’s failures are affecting customers.
“My company, Cru, like many out there, banked with SVB, and needless to say the last 72 hours has been intense,” Dufu said. “I think I’m in the bathroom crying because it was already intense for me.”
Her heartbreaking testimony is one of several realities small business owners are facing during these trying times.
Reports say SVB was a vulnerable mainstay for the startup economy, a main product of the decades-long era of cheap money, but that’s not an excuse to leave their customers without answers when they are already struggling to survive.
“It was already intense trying to recruit beautiful, talented people to come and work for you when you don’t quite have the salary to compete with other companies,” Dufu says in the video “How do I keep myself sustained?”
Some Black-owned business owners don’t seem to be worried, thanking the government for “stepping up” in this disaster.
But for startups like Cru, the work to repair is just getting started. “If you know a founder who has been impacted by this debacle, please reach out to them,” Dufu pleads. “Let them know you care and that you’re there for them. And please, please invest.”
Johnnie Walker Blended Scotch Whiskey Marks Red Carpet Season With a Tribute to Trailblazing Women Filmmakers and a Call to Watch More Women Made Films
Women filmmakers make up only 24%* of the top filmmaking roles in the industry, so as a brand with a longstanding commitment to progressing gender equity, this awards season, Johnnie Walker is celebrating women trailblazers who changed the fabric of film, and enabling future generations of women filmmakers, by leaning into one of Hollywood’s most iconic symbols – the red carpet.
As part of the Johnnie Walker First Strides initiative, and in time for the pinnacle of awards season, the brand has crafted a piece of art symbolizing the red carpet in honor of the many women who have broken and continue to break barriers so future generations of women were seen and celebrated walking the red carpet.
The avant-garde work spotlights seven filmmakers for their boundary-pushing contributions to culture, including:
Ana Lily Amirpour made her directorial debut in 2014 and immediately tore the mainstream to shreds with her distinctive creative vision and stylistic sense of adventure.
Janicza Bravo is an acclaimed writer and director known for breaking boundaries in both cinema and television.
Christine Choy is an electrifying artist behind and beyond the camera.
Julie Dash was the first African American woman to have a feature film receive a wide theatrical release and has continued to innovate in the worlds of cinema, television, and fine art ever since.
Claire Denishas created an inventive body of work and is widely recognized as an inspired director and screenwriter with a vivacious and trenchant perspective.
Wanuri Kahiu is an acclaimed filmmaker, speaker, and science fiction writer whose work champions the need for fun, fierce and frivolous African art.
Gina Prince-Bythewood is a wildly prolific director, writer, and producer, and longtime advocate for equal representation in the industry. Her films are known for their authentic, character-driven narratives
The carpet debuted at the 16th Annual WIF Oscar Party, which Johnnie Walker presented as a sponsor of to help honor all 65 women, in front of and behind the camera, who have been nominated for an award this year. Learn more about this year’s nominees and how WIF is recognizing their work by visiting womeninfilm.org/voteforwomen.
“The stories being told by women deserve to be celebrated, and we need to see and hear more of them,” said Sophie Kelly, SVP Whiskies at Diageo North America. “As we roll out our own red carpet in partnership with WIF, Johnnie Walker is proud to recognize all the incredible trailblazers, whose voices are shaping culture and the entertainment industry, and we hope our continued work inspires others to join us in taking steps towards a more equitable future.”
To further uplift women in the industry and inspire future generations of bold women storytellers, Johnnie Walker is supporting the mission of WIF, the nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for gender equity in the screen industries. Tied to a larger initiative to be announced by WIF next month, the partnership will set out to dismantle barriers and carve paths to spotlight and support women storytellers.
“We recognize and celebrate the contributions of women in the industry to encourage and inspire more women to become filmmakers,” said Kirsten Schaffer, the Chief Executive Officer of WIF. “Johnnie Walker is a brand that has shown its commitment to advancing gender equity and we’re proud to have them as our partners helping to build a world that values women by empowering them to tell the stories that shape our culture.”
Johnnie Walker’s support will help WIF equip emerging women filmmakers with the experience, skills, and connections needed to achieve their goals. The collective ambition is to build the pipeline, sustain careers and advocate for industry change that closes the gender gap, fosters safe working environments and ultimately achieves parity for women.
Understanding women-led films get made when more people watch them, Johnnie Walker teamed up with MUBI, the global distributor, streaming service and production company, to offer unlimited, 30-day free subscriptions. Consumers 21+ can start watching and discover new women-made films by visiting www.mubi.com/johnniewalker.
To learn more about Johnnie Walker’s support for women in the film industry and the filmmakers featured on the carpet, please visit www.johnniewalker.com/firststrides.
Meet the Mom, Dad, and Two Daughters Providing Black Families With 6 and 7-Star Luxury Travel Experiences
Meet Glenn and Amanda Goring and their two daughters, Brooklyn and Lexington, the owners/operators of a successful luxury travel business called In-Style Travel. Mom and Dad book the accommodations, curate travel itineraries, and serve as travel concierges for the luxury travel packages offered. Meanwhile, the two daughters serve as travel influencers and video bloggers for their company’s YouTube channel, LittleMissTravelers. Together, this family travels in style and aims to show the world that luxury travel can be a wonderful experience for everyone including Black families with small children.
Both licensed pharmacists, Amanda from New York and Glenn, originally from Canada, met while attending the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. The couple has been married for 13 years.
They were travel enthusiasts and enjoyed traveling together before becoming parents. To their dismay, the travel agent they first encountered after their first daughter, Brooklyn, was born tried to discourage them from traveling with their two-month-old baby. The travel agent immediately informed them of the services the resort would not provide to accommodate the new parents. Undeterred, the couple took it upon themselves to plan their itinerary and enjoyed a life-changing travel experience.
When thinking of all the other Black parents who may have been similarly discouraged, Glenn and Amanda became inspired to officially launch In-Style Travel to curate luxurious travel packages intended specifically for Black families, looking to enjoy international and domestic travel with children of all ages.
Amanda, a professional speaker and seasoned thought leader on self-care, planned many of the family’s travel destinations to keep up with her speaking engagements. Understanding this niche has led the family to begin customizing premium luxury experiences and curated retreat packages for healthcare entrepreneurs, as well as Health & Wellness coaches under their In-Style Travel brand. Amanda has even become a certified member of CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association), Disney, Marriott, ACCOR hotels, among others.
After having launched their In-Style Travel brand full-scale, the global pandemic challenged the family’s best intentions in 2020. The dramatic decline in worldwide travel hurt profits for the family’s travel business. However, they continued to keep up with their travel commitments. With laptops and Wi-Fi connections, the family could adhere to what was required to travel the world, document, and report how the pandemic was affecting excursions and travel experiences, if at all.
They’d return to questions; the same questions were usually on everyone’s mind. How do you travel the world with such small children? How is this possible? The family launched the #LittleMissTravelers video blog and Social Media presence, featuring their little Black girls, traveling the world in braids and ponytails, as a way of reporting back and sharing details of their experiences on YouTube for their clients, followers, and subscribers.
Amanda explains, “Their education is always a priority. So, amid nationwide school closings during the Pandemic, we ensured the girls kept up with their assignments. Plus, as part of every trip, we schedule time with a local educator who can teach our girls about the local culture. In the Maldives resort, their Kids Club teachers taught the children the language, and we scheduled and assigned a Thai teacher to our villa for instruction in Thailand. Travel is one of the best forms of education. The girls now attend a mixed culture school that encourages our family’s travel schedule and prepares lessons for them to take when traveling abroad.”
In-Style Travel provides premium luxury accommodations at exclusive, exotic 6 and 7-star locations and 5-star vendors around the world. “We understand this is your dream vacation,” says Amanda. “We set up your itinerary, and provide your driver. We also brief you on the information you need. We let you know who the US consulate is, and connect you with the concierge at the destination. We are an on-demand service. We aim to offer families a completely hassle-free experience. We require flight travel protection with your booking. So, hypothetically, if you miss your plane, you receive a credit toward the next flight. We are there for you before the journey. While you are there, we are there with you every step of the way. And we send you gifts! We don’t just send you invoices and tickets; we customize your excursions and offer a premium, high-touch experience. And that’s why 4 out of 5 of our clients return as repeat business.”
And, according to Amanda, In-Style Travel emphasizes their travel accommodations are luxury because there’s a misconception that luxury travel experiences are not for kids. “We are here in business because luxury can be for anybody,” she comments.
Learn more about In-Style Travel services and plan your next retreat, visit the website InstyleTravelLLC.com
