October 23, 2025 • 6 mins
Omi Bell is CEO of Black Girl Ventures
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm gonna take that question one level deeper. Is you know,
because they're running it, no matter what you're doing, it's
gonna be hard, and especially in those early days especially,
And so at what point do you know it's hard? Yeah,
because it's supposed to be hard, but let me keep going,
or it's hard because I probably shouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I think the thing about strategy is time.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Like strategy is about time, So you can have like
good ideas you can have you say, I'm gonna you know,
you have a great to do list, but you're not
being strategic if you don't have time attached to it.
So when I started Black or Avengures, prior to this,
I had a T shirt company and I was doing
that and I was rocking and row and I worked
myself out of poverty with that T shirt company. So
let me backing up a sept to my story. I'm
(00:43):
a computer scientist. I had great jobs, but I had
two children. Have my first job when I was seventeen,
my second child when I was twenty one.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Now, I didn't.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Grow up in any and the way I grew up
was very middle of the most middle middle class, but
as an adult because I now had these two kids,
went the school, all of that. I ended up on
Section eight, ended up food stamps, government assistants, all of that,
just to keep things going. America's not built for a person,
a single person with children.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
That's just the reality. And so But I had good jobs.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I was a kay through to ive educator, I worked
at a patent trademark office, you know, things like that.
But I still couldn't afford to live. Entrepreneurship was really
my way out. I had gotten laid off twice. Me
and my fiance broke up. I realized I'm not going
to get married now, I have three children, and I'm
not going to go back to anywhere where anybody can
ever come to me and say I'm laying you off.
(01:35):
But you know, people can only see your actions, they
don't have your vision.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I knew who I was.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
What it looked like on the outside was crazy, and
people were like, what would you do. I build a
TP in my living room and rented it out on Airbnb.
People was like, what is she doing? I said, I'm
never going back to work for anyone unless the conditions
may make the most sense for me.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
But you won't be able to come in and say
you lay me off.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
So in that case, I was looking at like, how
am I going to build with whatever I have? And
so I learned to print T shirts. I started a
T shirt line. It took off, We made Essence Magazine.
We traveled all up and down to East Coast vending
and I worked and then I ended up getting deals
(02:17):
with like Google and Amazon. I worked myself off of poverty,
paid for my kids to go to school, like all
those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
And then Blacker Adventures came up for me because I
need a community. I'm not a peron.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I didn't just want to be head down that. It
never worked for me, but I had a contract with Google.
So I was doing work with Google, bringing in community,
training entrepreneurs, and I was starting up Blacker Adventures. Blacker
Adventures wasn't bringing in as much money, so I said,
I gotta give it. I'm gonna give it three months.
I'm gonna give it all I got for three months.
If it don't take off for three months, I'm letting
(02:50):
it go. And I think it's important for people to
wrap time around what you're trying, so you and don't
keep trying the same thing for the whole time, right, Like,
give yourself a time window. Okay, I'm gonna go at
this while I work. Hello, please be working while I
have some men come coming in. I'm gonna go at
this as hard as I can for six months.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah yeah, yeah, So I got to ask. So I'm
formulating this question as I speaking, because you just said
a couple of things that I want to dig deeper on.
Like you talked about like you worked yourself out of
poverty by building this business's t shirt line. That you
talked about the work you do with Google with training entrepreneurs.
And my first thought was that one me is different
(03:33):
than the one me that is now. And what about
that on me that was probably new in business or
hadn't been wildly successful yet, says to Google, I'm gonna
go train entrepreneurs on your behalf.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
This is you're good at this, you know, like not
everybody's good at it.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
What's interesting about the difference between that only and this
on me is I was way more willing to take
more risks right now. I have so many partners, I
have so many alliances. You're not going to catch me
on anybody's social media talking bad about anybody you know.
And that's a hard place to be in. Right, It's
a privilege because I get to I honestly have been
(04:24):
blessed enough for these brands to allow me to do
the work I feel like I want to do. That's
a blessing. Not everybody gets that. They're not dictating what
I do. They say, even with our relationship with TikTok,
came to them, they said, hey, we like what you're doing.
Let's talk. We started talking. I said, look, this is
what I want to do. I want to put together
a fund that would give out marketing money to entrepreneurs
(04:46):
because that's the one thing that creators don't have, marketing dollars.
They said, okay, I said, I want to do storytelling
around it. So we did two seasons of a podcast
called The weigh In Series, and they also worked was
we went through a TikTok exceler as.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Well to learn how to use a platform. More so
where that brands go through.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So all of these resources that came to me, I'm
trying to learn and give it back all the time.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I'm trying to like take what I got.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And give it back so that me then didn't have
anything I had nothing to lose. I had no money,
I had no alliances. I was like that, ba, I'm
gonna do whatever. When I started to work with Google,
they were launching a brand new program and again network
I was already a Google supplier, so.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I was already doing business with them.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
The person I was doing business with them through said Hey,
we're starting this new program where we're going to train entrepreneurs.
We would love to have you a part of it.
I said, okay, the parameters wire loose.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Now what a program is now is way.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Different than when I started, because they still have it
a digital coaching program. But it's different now if they
in fact, if they still have it. But again, I've
been privileged enough, busted enough. I'll say to work with
partners who say here's what we want, go do that.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
At that moment, I got to create eight.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I got to think of how I wanted to do it,
and that was a space that honestly, working at Google
shifted a lot for me.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
It taught me how to be a leader. It also
helped me.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
They gave us access and privilege that our average contractors
didn't have. So I've been a Google offices all around
the world. Also just looking at the way they have
treated their employees. And I'm not here, I'm not caving
for Google, but I'm just saying that, like, it taught
me a lot to see this idea of like.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
We treat you well and you'll do the work well.
We'll feed you, you.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Can take a nap, you can go for a swim,
you could you know, whatever, you getting the work done,
We're gonna get things done for you. And that helped
me adapt as a leader. And I was like, who
I am now
I'm gonna take that question one level deeper. Is you know,
because they're running it, no matter what you're doing, it's
gonna be hard, and especially in those early days especially,
And so at what point do you know it's hard? Yeah,
because it's supposed to be hard, but let me keep going,
or it's hard because I probably shouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I think the thing about strategy is time.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Like strategy is about time, So you can have like
good ideas you can have you say, I'm gonna you know,
you have a great to do list, but you're not
being strategic if you don't have time attached to it.
So when I started Black or Avengures, prior to this,
I had a T shirt company and I was doing
that and I was rocking and row and I worked
myself out of poverty with that T shirt company. So
let me backing up a sept to my story. I'm
(00:43):
a computer scientist. I had great jobs, but I had
two children. Have my first job when I was seventeen,
my second child when I was twenty one.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Now, I didn't.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Grow up in any and the way I grew up
was very middle of the most middle middle class, but
as an adult because I now had these two kids,
went the school, all of that. I ended up on
Section eight, ended up food stamps, government assistants, all of that,
just to keep things going. America's not built for a person,
a single person with children.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
That's just the reality. And so But I had good jobs.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I was a kay through to ive educator, I worked
at a patent trademark office, you know, things like that.
But I still couldn't afford to live. Entrepreneurship was really
my way out. I had gotten laid off twice. Me
and my fiance broke up. I realized I'm not going
to get married now, I have three children, and I'm
not going to go back to anywhere where anybody can
ever come to me and say I'm laying you off.
(01:35):
But you know, people can only see your actions, they
don't have your vision.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I knew who I was.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
What it looked like on the outside was crazy, and
people were like, what would you do. I build a
TP in my living room and rented it out on Airbnb.
People was like, what is she doing? I said, I'm
never going back to work for anyone unless the conditions
may make the most sense for me.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
But you won't be able to come in and say
you lay me off.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
So in that case, I was looking at like, how
am I going to build with whatever I have? And
so I learned to print T shirts. I started a
T shirt line. It took off, We made Essence Magazine.
We traveled all up and down to East Coast vending
and I worked and then I ended up getting deals
(02:17):
with like Google and Amazon. I worked myself off of poverty,
paid for my kids to go to school, like all
those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
And then Blacker Adventures came up for me because I
need a community. I'm not a peron.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I didn't just want to be head down that. It
never worked for me, but I had a contract with Google.
So I was doing work with Google, bringing in community,
training entrepreneurs, and I was starting up Blacker Adventures. Blacker
Adventures wasn't bringing in as much money, so I said,
I gotta give it. I'm gonna give it three months.
I'm gonna give it all I got for three months.
If it don't take off for three months, I'm letting
(02:50):
it go. And I think it's important for people to
wrap time around what you're trying, so you and don't
keep trying the same thing for the whole time, right, Like,
give yourself a time window. Okay, I'm gonna go at
this while I work. Hello, please be working while I
have some men come coming in. I'm gonna go at
this as hard as I can for six months.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah yeah, yeah, So I got to ask. So I'm
formulating this question as I speaking, because you just said
a couple of things that I want to dig deeper on.
Like you talked about like you worked yourself out of
poverty by building this business's t shirt line. That you
talked about the work you do with Google with training entrepreneurs.
And my first thought was that one me is different
(03:33):
than the one me that is now. And what about
that on me that was probably new in business or
hadn't been wildly successful yet, says to Google, I'm gonna
go train entrepreneurs on your behalf.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
This is you're good at this, you know, like not
everybody's good at it.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
What's interesting about the difference between that only and this
on me is I was way more willing to take
more risks right now. I have so many partners, I
have so many alliances. You're not going to catch me
on anybody's social media talking bad about anybody you know.
And that's a hard place to be in. Right, It's
a privilege because I get to I honestly have been
(04:24):
blessed enough for these brands to allow me to do
the work I feel like I want to do. That's
a blessing. Not everybody gets that. They're not dictating what
I do. They say, even with our relationship with TikTok,
came to them, they said, hey, we like what you're doing.
Let's talk. We started talking. I said, look, this is
what I want to do. I want to put together
a fund that would give out marketing money to entrepreneurs
(04:46):
because that's the one thing that creators don't have, marketing dollars.
They said, okay, I said, I want to do storytelling
around it. So we did two seasons of a podcast
called The weigh In Series, and they also worked was
we went through a TikTok exceler as.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Well to learn how to use a platform. More so
where that brands go through.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So all of these resources that came to me, I'm
trying to learn and give it back all the time.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I'm trying to like take what I got.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And give it back so that me then didn't have
anything I had nothing to lose. I had no money,
I had no alliances. I was like that, ba, I'm
gonna do whatever. When I started to work with Google,
they were launching a brand new program and again network
I was already a Google supplier, so.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I was already doing business with them.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
The person I was doing business with them through said Hey,
we're starting this new program where we're going to train entrepreneurs.
We would love to have you a part of it.
I said, okay, the parameters wire loose.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Now what a program is now is way.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Different than when I started, because they still have it
a digital coaching program. But it's different now if they
in fact, if they still have it. But again, I've
been privileged enough, busted enough. I'll say to work with
partners who say here's what we want, go do that.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
At that moment, I got to create eight.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I got to think of how I wanted to do it,
and that was a space that honestly, working at Google
shifted a lot for me.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
It taught me how to be a leader. It also
helped me.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
They gave us access and privilege that our average contractors
didn't have. So I've been a Google offices all around
the world. Also just looking at the way they have
treated their employees. And I'm not here, I'm not caving
for Google, but I'm just saying that, like, it taught
me a lot to see this idea of like.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
We treat you well and you'll do the work well.
We'll feed you, you.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Can take a nap, you can go for a swim,
you could you know, whatever, you getting the work done,
We're gonna get things done for you. And that helped
me adapt as a leader. And I was like, who
I am now
Host
Will Lucas
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