October 5, 2021 • 45 mins
When Liz Abunaw saw the lack of grocery stores and other basic services on the West Side of Chicago, she used her MBA background to start a community-centered grocery service that not only pays tribute to the United States’ first farmers, but also ensures healthy produce is available on the West Side. 2020 brought not only the pandemic to affect Liz’s business, but also brought a national outcry for racial justice. And in the Spring/Summer of 2020 when Black Lives Matter protests were happening around the country in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Liz saw an uptick of sales in tandem with national campaigns to support Black-owned businesses. Roundtable guests: Pinky Cole, creator of Slutty Vegan and Keshia Knight Pulliam- actor and co-founder of the Fearless Fund.
Learn more about 40 Acres Fresh Market: https://www.fortyacresfreshmarket.com/
Learn more about Pinky Cole, Slutty Vegan and the Pinky Cole Foundation: https://sluttyveganatl.com/about/ ; https://pinkygivesback.com/
Learn more about Keshia Knight Pulliam’s Kamp Kizzy and the Fearless Fund: http://kampkizzy.org/about-us/ ; https://www.fearless.fund/
Episode Transcript: https://app.trint.com/public/b30416d0-0715-4233-a449-6e7237fd2960
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, everyone, and Wilma of All Drama and I'm m
r Raquel. So before this episode, stars, I have a
quig warning for everyone. Uh is everything okay? Yes, everything's okay.
Do not listen to this episode hungry. Oh yeah, for sure,
you're about to hear about fresh produce and saucy vegan burgers.
(00:23):
So if you have a snack, grab it now. Okay,
Now that everyone is probably prepared, letz get started with
something heavier than a snack. Mr was an incredibly dificul year,
as we know, but not even just with the pandemic.
There was so much more going on. Yeah, you're right,
and you know, when I think about and I definitely
(00:46):
don't just think of the pandemic. I mean, these have
been years full of social and political upheaval and Black
Lives Matter protests right and calls for abolition and creating
a police free future, and all of this became part
of the dominant public narrative in the wake of the
murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor and Ahmad are
Very and Macaya Bryant and Dante Wright and Daniel Prude,
(01:10):
and devastatingly, these folks are just amongst some of the
special and loved family members, parents, children, siblings, members of
this country who were killed by the police in the
last two years. So, in addition to the calls to
action to end police brutality, these protests ignited a long
overdue reckoning with systemic racism in all aspects of daily life,
(01:35):
and so many of us continue learning how to be
better allies. One small option became widely suggested that was
acceptively simple, supporting black owned businesses. Yeah, and so on
today's show, we'll speak with Liz Abuna, who is the
owner of forty Acres Fresh Market. Forty Acres is a
pop up market, a grocery delivery service and soon to
(01:58):
be brick and mortar store on the West Side of
Chicago which provides fresh produce and affordable products to the
West Side community. She'll share with us what inspired her
to start for the acres, along with highs and lows
of being a small business owner, and how the pandemic
as well as the protests affected her business. After speaking
with Liz, this week's roundtable conversation is with actress, entrepreneur
(02:21):
and investor Kesha Night Pollium and with Pinky Cole, the
creator of Slutty Vegan. Keisha co founded the Fearless Fund,
which invests in women of color owned businesses, and she's
also an entrepreneur herself. Pinky created Slutty Vegan, which is
an ecosystem of plant based burger restaurants in and now
there are three locations with more planned. She also started
(02:44):
the Pinky Coal Foundation to help bridge the generational wealth
gap and invest back into her communities. I love speaking
with Liz, and apparently our producers were on the co
with Liz before I joined, having a Bachelor debrief SESSH,
which I was so mad I missed because, let me,
I'm a bachelor kind of store. As someone who's actually
(03:07):
admittedly never seen a Bachelor episode, I say, you're not
living life. I know, I'm sorry. I still had a
lot of fun though, listening to all the drama being recapped.
I'm sure you did listen. Story starts now. Hi. My
name is Lizabuno. I am in Chicago, Illinois, and I
(03:28):
am the owner and operator of forty acres Fresh Market.
List so happy to talk to you. I was excited
to talk to you about your business model and what
inspired you to start three acres and I thought that
that's a good jump off point to talk a little
bit about you and what drove you to start this
as well. I am originally from New York. I moved
to Chicago in to go to grad school. And if
(03:52):
you don't know Chicago, it's really big and you really
only stay within a handful of neighborhoods. You don't go everywhere,
And every neighborhood that I've lived in it's always been
super well resourced with like grocery stores, banks, restaurants, just
basically all the basic goods and services you want in
a city at your fingertips. So one day back in
(04:12):
I get off the sixty six bus on Chicago Avenue
and I realized I need cash and I couldn't find
a bank at all, not even my bank, any bank
on this corridor. I couldn't find a CDs or a
Walgreens to like go buy one thing and then get
cash back from that, or do it at a grocery store.
And so I'm like, okay, that's food, commerce and health
(04:33):
that I can't find on a major commercial corridor. And
I'm looking around and I'm like, this is a black neighborhood.
The neighborhoods I've always been in, not predominantly black at all,
but in this black neighborhood on a major commercial strip,
I can't find basic goods and services. And that experience
did not sit well with me, and it opened my
eyes to inequality and inequity in Chicago and this tail
(04:56):
of two cities that's often talked about here. And so
I think that experience let me come back to where
I live with a new lens of looking at the
things that I just take as basic as why can't
this exist over there? And there was a produce market
that I shopped at all the time that had great,
(05:17):
inexpensive produce, and all of a sudden, I started shopping
there and thinking, why doesn't this exist over on the
West Side. Somebody should do that. Somebody should do that,
somebody should do that, And eventually somebody became forty Acres
Fresh Market. Where did the name forty acres come from?
I was applying for this alumni award from the University
(05:39):
of Chicago, and I was going to apply with this
idea of a fresh produce market on the West side
of Chicago that I needed a name for it. And
so I thought about what I was doing, and I'm like, okay,
it's about fresh produce, and I'm like, how do I
tie this to the land. And then all of a sudden,
forty acres and a mule came to my mind and
it evolved into forty Acres fresh Market. But the idea
(06:00):
it was to come up with a name that was
culturally relevant, that spoke to our history in this country
and particularly are tied to the land, because I find
it a cruel irony that the descendants of this country's
first farmers often live in communities where they can get
nothing that comes from the earth. And so I wanted
(06:20):
a name that said to us, this is for us,
we deserve this, this is our birthright, we should expect this.
Maybe share a memory or or a moment that made
you go, oh, this is where my passion is. This
is why I do what I do. There's been multiple moments.
When we started. I started with pop up markets, meaning
I went into an existing neighborhood space like a community center,
(06:40):
a church, and basically converted their community rooms into a
fresh produce market for the community, you know, like yeah,
Like I would just bring in tons of fresh produce
and set up tables and display it all, put up
paper price signs. It was it was very minimum viable products. Yeah,
(07:01):
it was ground level. I love it. Yeah. What are
some of the differences between the pop up market and
delivery service? Because I know, eventually doing the pandemic, you
had to be introduced to a new way of thinking.
How do you mobilize when people can commute in some
of these public community centers, and how do you evolve
that thought and see opportunity with the pandemic, those spaces
(07:22):
basically closed down on us because everybody was closed, so
we couldn't do our markets there. So it was March thirteenth,
we were supposed to have a market, we closed it down,
and we put on our website just order delivery. We'll
give you free delivery for the weekend. And orders started
coming in first really slow, and then we're like, wow,
(07:44):
we just got five orders in one day. We're like,
we've never gotten five orders in one day. And then
by a week later, we were getting like ten orders
a day, fifteen orders a day, and by the end
of the month we were doing more revenue in delivery
than we've ever done in pop up markets. And we
came up with a program called go go, which is
(08:05):
get wouldn't give one. So we knew that something was
happening with the pandemic, that people were becoming more food insecure,
and that some people who were immuno compromised and couldn't
go out and get food. So we offered the option
on our delivery site when you buy a box for yourself,
you can buy a box in five, fifteen or twenty
dollar increments for a family and need. And people just
(08:28):
started clicking that. We started getting delivery orders on the
North Side, on the South Side, downtown, and so it's
really kind of given us a mix of customers. And
what I thought was really cool is that on the
West Side of Chicago, because there are so few goods
and services, so much of the disposable income gets spent
outside the community, oftentimes in more affluent, predominantly white communities,
(08:52):
So you have money from black and brown communities basically
subsidizing affluent white communities. Now with US, you finally people
outside of the West Side shopping with a black owned
West Side based business that wasn't happening before. So what
are some of the inequalities regarding food accessibility that your
business at JESSEUS there are certain things that I think
(09:13):
are basic. There were things that when I was looking
for my apartment, I was like, I want to live
near public transportation. I want to live in walking distance
of some place where I can do my grocery shopping.
I want to live near pharmacies bank so I can
do my day to day stuff without having to get
in my car, without having to travel far. It's just
(09:33):
all right there at my fingertips. And in a major city,
I think that they should be expected in many black
and brown neighborhoods in Chicago, they are not. So the
neighborhood we operated and it's called Austin. Austin is the
second largest neighborhood both population and land wise. It's seven
and a half square of miles people. It currently only
(09:53):
has two grocery stores. It lost a grocery store in
the middle of the pandemic. Last December had three. It
only has to until we opened our store next year.
In comparison, Lincoln Park on the north Side has about
sixties six thousand people and in a smaller area and
over a dozen grocery stores for them to choose from.
(10:15):
So that's just one aspect. It's just like the volume.
I actually had a meeting with somebody from wind Trust
Bank yesterday and she asked, how can I support the community,
And I said, I don't even know how to answer that,
because from where I grew up, in my experiences, I
never thought of banks as community support. They were just
(10:36):
a part of the fabric of what was there. You're
not there, like you can run all these programs and stuff,
but ultimately support communities by being there. And in major
cities and even in rural areas too, a lot of
businesses have just foregone being there. They'll set up shop
like a mile away in a predominantly white neighborhood and
(10:58):
service the black can let you know clientele from the
neighborhoods where they refuse to go, and then tell the
people in those neighborhoods, Oh, you don't have enough business
to sustain us, And I just I call bullshit. It's
that kind of inequalities, like you'll take our money, but
you don't value SS consumers to be present where we are.
(11:18):
Maybe you can speak a little bit about how you
feel about it, knowing that you've also successfully become you know,
a solution for me. I didn't feel some responsibility to
go in and save a community or anything like that.
For me, my MBA mind was more along the lines of, like,
there's an opportunity here, there's a customer that's not being served.
(11:40):
How do I serve this customer? And I think oftentimes
in communities that are under resource, that are quote unquote underserved,
that are dealing with the legacy of segregation, that are
dealing with the legacy of redlining, that are dealing with
the legacy of white flight, the only solutions we get
(12:01):
our philanthropy. It's like, let me throw charity at this,
and I'm like, that has a place, But what about
bringing these communities into the larger, broader economy, the mainstream
economy that we all benefit from. There's people here, they
have needs, they have clothes on their back that they buy,
they have food in their stomach that they buy. Like,
(12:23):
why are we not treating these people and valuing them
as such? When I think about this conversation and I
reflect on some of those iconic moments in the protest
last summer, and what surface, which is support black owned businesses,
tell me a little bit of your perspective, and then
how do you feel about that considering what we just
mentioned we we benefited from that. We had two bumps
(12:46):
last year. The first one was in March when the
pandemic first hit, and you know, stores were out of
stuff and people also had a very keen understanding of
support local businesses. Then as that further kind of started
to waning after a couple of months, George Floyd Happens
and Brianna Taylor and a mod are very and the
(13:06):
Black Lives Matter movement comes to the forefront. I knew
when it was happening that this is a moment, so
get while the getting is good. I knew that people
will not sustain in that level of passion indefinitely. What
I will say is that I think people thought that
I can buy this one time from the black owned business.
I can post this hashtag, I can shout defund to
(13:29):
the police, and that's going to fix everything. And the
fact is you do not change fifty to sixty years,
hundreds of years just in different forms of second class citizenship,
of segregation, of economic segregation, of neglect, in three months,
(13:51):
in six months, in a year, in two years. And
so part of it is just like, why should I
have to capitalize on this moment? Why won't we get
in there and do the work, because honestly, the work
is not linear. It's not like I do this and
then it gets this result and then it's good forever.
(14:12):
It's not how any of this works. And it also
puts a lot of pressure on black entrepreneurs and black organizations.
How the supporting black owned businesses help the community as
a whole. And also we think about how we set
up the next generation of black owned businesses for success. Well, one,
I think that black owned businesses were mostly sole proprietorships.
(14:34):
Most of us, like cannot grow in scale. And the
thing you need for growth and scale our customers in capital.
When we can scale, like when forty acre scaled, what
did I do? I hired people, and black owned businesses
are far more likely to hire other black people. They
are likely to be small businesses, so small businesses tend
to spend their money closer to home. They may not
(14:57):
have all national suppliers, like all of our supply ers
are local, so those dollars start circulating within a community.
That sales tax stays within a community. There are primary, secondary,
and tertiary effects of supporting black owned businesses. When black
people have more money, they have more wealth, we become
(15:20):
a bitter piece of the tax base, like it benefits
society as a whole when our communities are whole and
healthy and thriving. And part of doing that is making
sure that we have an ownership stake in the homes,
the land, and the businesses. You feel that's the message
(15:41):
you could leave for future black business owners and understanding
not just the role and responsibility, but the excitement of
creating something that's going to eventually thrive within not just
your community, but do the crossover like your company. My
advice is think long and hard before being an entrepreneur.
Heard it's hard. I mean, honestly, I think entrepreneurship gets glamorized.
(16:05):
And I will say that I started my business after
having like a fifteen to sixteen year career, after going
to grad school. I was in a position where I
could focus a hundred percent on forty acres because I
had savings. I was in a position where I had
opportunities because I had cultivated a network through education and
(16:27):
my professional background. So my goodness, I would say, be prepared.
In the words of scar Um, it's something that you
prepare for. But I feel like if you do prepare,
and you have an idea and you have something to offer.
Start small, start, slow, build traction, gain supporters, and go
(16:47):
from there. It's very doable. But it's like having a baby.
I swear there are days where I'm just like, whose
idea was this? And how do I kick them? Because
they need to take over from me? But like, I
can't just get up and walk away. Now, you know,
I have employees, I have investments in this. UM. Once
the baby is born, you can't put the baby back. UM.
(17:07):
So I've heard the same way with the small business. Well,
I mean, I'm gonna leave it on that note. I
think there's a game more powerful to that visual. Okay.
So I want to say thank you for your service
and everything you're done in a continuous success and I
hope your business continues to thrive and grow and grow
and and make that national Thank you. I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on today. Wow, I mean at
(17:31):
least his resourcefulness, but also feel sadness at the lack
of services. She described on the website what about Us,
Though she took her NBA skills, identified the need in
the community and literally became the service to address that need.
I know Liz is such an inspiration and I learned
so much by hearing how the protest during the spring
(17:51):
and summer of impacted her business. But I think what
I take away most from Liz is that she has
a heart centered around community and being a community the resource. Yeah,
she definitely does. And I'm gonna have to take a
trip to Chicago and visit the store once it's open. Mr. I,
I'm not even gonna ask you. You're coming with me?
Heck yeah, I am. Yeah. And when we get back
(18:12):
from the break, we'll talk with Keisha Night, William and
Pinky Cole. We're here today with Keisha Night, Polleam and
Pinky Cole. Pinky Hi, Keisha Hi, I'm so excited to
(18:32):
be here with you today and um here your thoughts
about Lizza's story and about your various business ventures. So
Wilma want to kick us off. Thank you both for
being here with us. I'm excited to have this conversation
with you, you know, just to kind of kick things
off a little bit. What are your reactions from Lizza's story,
And let's start with you, Kisha. You know, it's not unique, unfortunately,
(18:54):
to a lot of people who aren't black, and brown.
It sounds so astonishing, but it's a very real reality.
Just the access to a lot of our communities just
isn't there, whether it's to fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy foods, banks,
you know, the things that many of us pick for granted,
just isn't there. So I really applaud her. I love
(19:16):
the fact that she's doing what she's doing. And you know,
especially how she has pivoted with just all the changing
of the times to create this delivery based and subscription
based model, I think is really awesome. And you know, yes,
she's creating something that is definitely serving in need within
communities who don't have the access, but like she said,
(19:39):
she's also creating an economic base that is then hiring
more black and brown people that people of all races,
of all socio economic backgrounds of locate, Like all of
these things are also able to support and are as
able to tap into. Yes, it is a black business,
but from what I've researched, because I started kind of
looking up and it looks super dope, that's a great product.
(20:03):
That's the other piece of it that she's doing something
she's feeling a niche, feeling a need and she's doing
it well, wonderfully, what are your reaction speaking, I agree, Um,
you know it's interesting. When I was listening to her story,
I'm like, this is my story. This is the story
of the modern woman entrepreneur who really goes into a
(20:24):
place to create access where there was never access. So
the real problem here is how do you create access
when access doesn't exist. I'm dealing with the same thing,
and just even through her energy, I'm like, damn, this
is like a big feat something that we had to
conquer every single day because, for example, Sletty Beacon asie business.
Obviously we're not a grocery store, but I can identify
(20:46):
with the idea of going into underserved communities, going into
places where the resources are lacking right and educating people
on why this is necessary, why you should understand that
knowledge is key and being better and living better will
make for a better bigger picture. So I command her
for what she's doing, especially in Chicago. Now is a
(21:08):
time for us as black and brown people to be
able to have access to those resources, and I applaud
her and other entrepreneurs that are doing that and being
so selfless in that because she doesn't have to help
people in our communities eat better. N we gotta do that, right.
She clearly is an educated woman. She could do other things,
but to be able to like put her whole self
(21:29):
into a space where she's providing opportunity through resources, that
just speaks volume. So like, I was moved by it,
and you know, that's somebody that I could definitely connect
with because we are on the same trajectory. M thank you,
Thank you so much, both of you for your thoughts
and thanks Pinky. You know it's it's so true. Liz
didn't have to be the person to become a community resource,
(21:51):
and yet she saw the need for a service, so
she decided to fill that space. Um. Which leads me
to slutty vegan, Pinky, which you just brought up. Um,
So what's the story with slutty vegan and why vegan
food in particular. First of all, slutty vegan is and anomaly, right,
So by definition, slutty vegan is a plant based burger
(22:11):
joint itselves vegan burgers, fries, and pies. But it's beyond that.
It started there, But slutty vegan is an ecosystem of
people who help other people reimagine food I created this
concept is simply off an idea in my bedroom, and
I made it racy and sexy because I wanted to
create dialogue and our communities that gets people excited about
(22:35):
infusing healthier options into their lifestyle, even if it started
at vegan burgers, fries and pies. Right, But how do
you do that? You gotta incorporate sex in it, because
sex cells. So as a form of television producer, I
took the two most important experiences in life, the sex
and as food, and I merged them together and I
created what you now know as one of the hottest
(22:56):
concepts in the country that serves vegan fair. But when
I say it's bigger than just vegan food, we really
put money back into the community. We provide access and
resources just like the young lady was talking about, and
we provide opportunity for other entrepreneurs through the foundation and
through all the things that we do. So I like
to call Sledgy Vegan a brand that happens to sell burgers,
(23:19):
fries and pies because we do so much for our
communities and we're such an inspiration to people who want
to either be entrepreneurs, who want to start foundations, who
want to put the money back into the communities to
help people succeed inside those ecosystems. Wow, that's amazing. Thanks
so much for sharing that, Pinky. Uh. You know, my
stomach is actually just literally grumbling. I'm gonna have to
(23:42):
come with Lanta soon and try burger um. And you
know you just mentioned community, and you also mentioned that
Sluwy Vegan isn't just a restaurant, but it's an ecosystem
that in turn supports the community. So can you describe
the neighborhoods where you've opened your restaurants and and why
it's important for you to channel funds and resources back
into these communities. Absolutely. So, I'm very intentional about everything
(24:04):
that I do with the brand, so it's surrounded by authenticity.
So I specifically go in food deserts, food insecure communities,
areas that lack vegan options, and areas that aren't as
attractive to big time developers. Why do I do this?
I do this because one, I want to raise up
the community. If I go into an area that's right
and the harder gentrification or just about to get there,
(24:26):
then I can raise the property value of that set community.
And then I can also support local businesses be able
to make more money because then I got a line
down a block. So if I gotta line down the
block and there in the area the nine times of
the tent, they're going to patronize the businesses that are nearby.
And then beyond that. I also play into the real
estate idea that not only do I own the business,
(24:47):
but I own the ground and the dirt. So I
buy the property and own it, so I get it
for cheap. So it's almost like, for example, I'm going
to Birmingham, Alabama, that paid seventy five dollars for two properties,
and that two properties is going to raise the value
of the neighborhood, beautify the neighborhood, help local entrepreneurs, and
be able to funnel money back into the community, which
(25:08):
is the ecosystem that I talked about. So we're very
intentional how we do that. You know, people may see
this as oh, lay yourself food. Now, it's really bigger
than that because in our communities for so long we
have been suppressed because we have black resources. So I
am being the change that I want to see and
showing people that YouTube can be able to create opportunity
(25:28):
around yourself around your business and within the community, and
it's been working. And I think that that's part of
the reason why Study Began has been so successful, because
we're intentional and mission driven about what we represent and
what we stand for and what we want to come
in the future for the business. Yeah. Yeah, what is
(25:52):
Fearless fun? You know, let's talk a little bit about
that and why inspire you to coll found it? Well,
one thing about me is anything that I do, it's
never about just lending your name or your voice too,
but it's something that has to have authenticity and synergy
with who I am as a person. You know, Pinky's
talking about being a solution to a problem. Liz was
(26:15):
talking about doing the same thing. But the reality is,
as black women in particular, that is what we do
when we see a problem. It's about being a part
of the solution and not continuing to be a part
of the problem thinking someone else is going to do something,
someone else is going to solve it. So specifically with Fearless,
then when we co founded that it was really about
(26:36):
solving an issue that we saw. We realized that, you know,
when it came to women of color and businesses, we
were the fastest growing, but we were the least funded,
and we had to change that dynamic. And the only
way to change it is to be on the other
side of the table and being an investor. And that's
what we did. And you know how we spoke earlier
about everything that went on with Black Lives Matter, but
(26:59):
it did create very special moment in time where so
many people's attention, and not only their attention, but their
pocket books were very much dedicated to supporting financially any
cause that had synergy with that movement. So, as a result,
Fearless fun we set out to solve a problem and
(27:20):
we had no clue, just trying to prove our thesis
of investing women of color investing in other women of
color business. At the precede seed in Series A level,
we were proving the thesis. Okay, we're gonna raise this
five million dollar fund, which is nothing in the venture
capital world. Now several years later, because of all of
these different movements and the attention that has been brought
(27:42):
to the plight, it's a thirty million dollar fund, which
still at the end of the day, isn't a piece
of the pie in terms of when you look at
the greater scheme of things. However, it's created a space
where we have brought light to an area, you know,
And that's the great thing about what I do. It's
not only doing the work behind the scenes, but when
(28:03):
you've been given such a platform of visibility as you know,
you know, when you're in front of cameras and acting,
people are so interested in what you have to say
and what you're doing, but really about how are you
going to use that platform to pay it forward? How
are you going to use that platform to create light
and visibility for the unseen and the unheard. And that's
what anything I'll do, I believe when it was the
(28:25):
Tamerin Hall, I've partnered with my ill Organics to do
a business school for entrepreneur as a program that's culminating
in us doing an amazing trip back to Africa, whereas
a million dollars from the scholarships that were given. So
for me, anything that I do there has to be
that piece that is very true, authentic and genuine to
(28:46):
who I am and also has that component of gift
back from my nonprofit, the Campkissie Foundation, which is over
a decade old, which is all about empowerment and self esteem,
for youth, to every part of me. There's so many
different tentacles. Having been working literally since I was not
months old, I'm grateful to be at a space where,
you know, I can really do things that I'm passionate
(29:06):
about that really have the opportunity to move the needle.
And you know, it's crazy how small of a world
it is when you're in this kind of world of um,
you know, like Pinky and I, for instance, like Clark
Atlanta graduate, Spellman College graduate, sore Roars are circles and
paths intersect in so many ways that it's amazing to
(29:27):
be able to know and support one another because really,
what it's about, you know, behind the scenes, how can
you champion? How can you do what you can to
ensure that we're all successful? Because one thing about me
is I always operate from a space of abundance and
recognizing that what's for me is for me, and what's
for you is for you, and there's enough for everyone.
(29:48):
Um that's the bottom line. How can we help make
each other great? We'll be right back after this break.
Welcome back to Essential Voices. Thinking you Care ad the
Pinky Cole Foundation. What is that foundation about? It. You
can tell us a little bit about that too. Well,
it's just a fomal way to just if I'd be
(30:08):
gifting all my money. That's real. That's now, it's real. Listen,
let me tell you something. As a kid, I saw
my mother help everybody. When I say everybody, like I
had cousins and sisters that I met for the first
time that lived in my house. I probably didn't live
on my own until I was thirty years old because
(30:30):
I saw how much my mother helped people, and I
absorbed all of that. So I became my mother. So
throughout my life, I was always helping other people. Um
as I've gotten older, I just love to see people
in So when I created this, like vegan, this is
just another opportunity to be able to continue to help
people and just to formalize it. So I started the
(30:51):
foundation in twenty nineteen, and basically the Piggy Co Foundation
is just a way to bridge that generational wealth gat
So we know the disparities in our commune duties already,
so I wanted to be a beacon of hope for
people who want to have opportunity but don't know how
to get it. So through that foundation, We've done so much,
and I'll just name a few of the things that
we've done. UM at clark Landy University paid the debts
(31:14):
off for thirty college students so that they can walk
across the stage. I partnered with Impossible Foods in Jamaine
dupri so that we can get people excited in our
communities about the election that we just had, so that
people can understand why it was so necessary. And I
believe that we helped to change Georgia blue. But what
else did we do? Uh local businesses in the area.
(31:34):
We paid the rents for those organizations so that they
didn't have to close in the middle of the pandemic.
We've given out thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables. UM.
We've partnered with the Steve Harvey and Marjorie Harvey Foundation
to provide lights for local families in Atlanta. We've done
so much. Just recently a partner with the local business
UM Big Dag Chiefe Stakes to provide black men who
(31:56):
make thirty thousand dollars or less with life insance that
they don't have to pay for. They get to choose
their beneficiaries and they get to choose their policies. But
I say all that to say that this is the
real success for me. So when you think about the
success of Slightly Vegan, and yes, Slightly Vegan does well.
We make money, a lot of people love the brand.
(32:16):
But what makes my valley leap is to be able
to know that I've been able to utilize my resources
and my platform to not people and we've been able
to do that through this foundation. I'm so happy at
the success that it has gotten so far, and what
it really did is defined us as a philanthropic movement
first that is a brand that happens to self food.
(32:37):
I'm just really excited about the impact that we've been
able to make. That's so amazing. Pinky, thanks so much
for sharing that. You know, you've worked so hard to
make an impact on your community and serve your community
by believing in yourself and your vision, and it sounds
like there's been so much incredible work behind the scenes
to get where you are today, and so maybe it
(32:57):
hasn't been the easiest path. It's just it's so inspiring
to hear about um and bringing the conversation back to Liz,
she shared with us some challenges that she and more
broadly that black and brown business owners and burgeoning businesses face.
And we also talked about how supporting black and brown
businesses bolsters the community ecosystems that you're talking about, Pinky,
(33:17):
and community building in general, like we're all talking about today,
despite a lack of investment into these businesses from the beginning.
So what systemic overhauls would you say should be undertaken
to address these challenges so that black and brown and
minority own businesses can thrive. And why don't we start
with you, Pinky, Well, for black owned businesses in general,
and I highlighted this a little bit, but we need
(33:40):
more money. We need funding in order to be able
to grow from a mom and pop to a business
that is scalable and these privadent when you firms and
big companies have to trust us with the money so
that we can continue to grow. I think that there's
a lot of trust issues when it comes to big
companies being comfortable with investing the capital into black owned businesses.
(34:02):
But I also speak on the idea that we also
need more resources so that we can be better entrepreneurs. Right,
So we talk a lot about access, because we let
access and information we kind of like fall a little
bit behind when it comes to our business and how
we grow our business, and all it is is a
matter of information. So if we can be provided that
(34:23):
information and that access and money, then I believe that
black owned businesses will be able to grow in the
way in which we know that they could. Yeah, and
I mean, honestly, Pinky has really covered the majority of it,
because that's what I was gonna say. It's the access
to capital, and it's the disparity in the knowledge gap. Unfortunately,
a lot of black and brown our first generation who
(34:45):
have graduated from college, which is the threshold where we
don't come from generational wealth. We don't have a legacy
or a trust fund that's going to invest in our
first business. We don't have the godfather who owns this
bank who can fast track the access to capital for us. So,
you know, that's a really big one. And then Pinky
(35:06):
also touched on you know a lot of times, even
if the capital is there, a lot of people are like, well,
why don't you just get it? But it's not always
that simple or that easy because you may not understand
the steps that are required to scale a business. What
does that word even mean, how do you if you're
looking for venture capital funding or if you're looking for
funding period, like, what is a series A a series?
(35:29):
What do these things mean? And how do I position
myself to be able to acquire these things? Or does
my business even need these things? We don't have to
talk about predatory loan rates like that's a whole another.
It's so systematically ingrained from every facet that is really
hard to in a snapchat identify it. It's from legislation down.
(35:51):
It's in terms of the tax laws. It's in terms
of the laws that are not only federal, but you know,
state understanding those things, understanding how to now the gate
through those things. You know, we haven't been privy to
that information. And a lot of this information isn't necessarily
found in a book, but it's passed down through life experience.
And if we don't have a connection to the people
(36:12):
who possess that knowledge, we don't have access to that knowledge.
That was one thing that we found in the beginning
days of raising for Fearless is you know, we're having
these meetings with these really high net worth individuals about
venture capital who look like us, who have no clue
what this is who we are having to educate about
this because it's hard enough trying to get them to
(36:34):
cut the check to support because I don't even know
what the hell we're talking about. And then a lot
of times people don't want to acknowledge what they don't know.
People are so afraid of looking like they don't know,
that they're not smart, that they don't recognize that you
can ask questions like the only way you're gonna learn
is to acknowledge what it is that you don't know.
(36:54):
You know, sometimes as a community, people want the appearance
versus being like, this is the reality of where I am.
It's good enough, I am deserving of it, but now
it's time for me to build upon this, or even
being vulnerable enough and understanding that it's going to be
a journey. It is sometimes for us, you know, the drill.
(37:16):
We gotta get up a little earlier. You know, we
have to swing a little harder, You have to walk
a little farther in order to get to where we're
at right now. Our ability to know that it does
take work. It may take double the work, but it
is possible for us to achieve it. Right, Let's get
out of that mentality like, well, it's because I'm not white.
There's always a little bit of that have empty conversation
(37:38):
and I don't know if it's passed down. Is that
is you know multi generational thing? Right? It is a
lot of times lack is in ways that we don't
even recognize on the surface. Like I know there's there
are in certain things that I had to do program
that admit for the good. Don't get me wrong, Like
my dad didn't mean it when he said, you know
(37:58):
money is is hard earned and easily lost or you
know different things like that. It creates is mentality and
we have to hold on tight. Its our drama. That's
what it is. And and it's not okay, right, and
we have a long way to go. It's funny that
we're talking about this because I'm gonna be totally transparent
and vulnerable here, Like it took me a long time
to understand like equity and like safe notes and all,
(38:20):
I'm like, what is that I don't understand what this is? Right,
I could have literally lost my business because people were
coming to me and I didn't know what I was doing.
And if we had the resources to your point and
are like programming is ky more programming in our communities
to teach us those things that they aren't teaching in school,
then I think that we would have a better advantage.
(38:41):
But again, like you said, woman, it's a two way street, right,
So we can go out and also research and find
because googling YouTube university was my best friends. Right. But
programming definitely will help our communities to be able to
better position ourselves in business. What advice would you give
entrepreneurs of color are looking to start a business that
(39:02):
addresses similar needs and serve the communities. And let's start
with you, Pinky. Well, first of all, money should never
be the driving motivation oftentimes an entrepreneurship, whether you're like
or white. We talk about business and we talk about
money first, right, But I believe that the businesses that
are the most intentional and operate through the ethos are
(39:24):
the businesses that are the most successful. So for somebody
who is trying to start a business, make sure that
it means something in your spirit that you are in
alignment with that business and it's bigger than you. Then
you create that business to serve a niche and to
serve other people. If you create a business to serve
other people. The money is going to come right like
you're gonna become a magnant of money. But focus on
(39:46):
being the gift that continues to keep giving, and that
business will immediately grow. That's the first thing. Secondly, when
you're starting a business, really work on the problems, the
pressing problems that people haven't found a solution to. At
People start businesses all the time. People start businesses that
have certain needs and communities. Look at the problems in
(40:07):
the communities and what you live in and focus directly
on one specific issue and master that issue and find
a solution to that issue, and then you can begin
to grow and say, okay, all right, this is also
happened in my community, and I want to change that.
But if you get some laser focus on what the
problem is in the community and which you live in
or you serve in, and work on that, then once
(40:27):
you have that and and you've really been able to
promote an uplift that said community, then you can continue
to add on problems and find solutions to those things.
But entrepreneurship is a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing
when it's mission driven. Well, you have intentions to a
business and makes you sleep better at night. You know
that you're walking in your purpose. You know that you're
(40:48):
helping other people win and creating opportunity and access and
resources to other people, so that the day that you
take your last breath, you know that you've created a
legacy for people, not just you in the fit, the
whole form, but the idea that the things that you
thought about creative change in the communities and what you
live in. I mean, Pinky, you hit the nail on
(41:09):
the head. There's not much more to say, but you know,
the one thing I would add is find a mentor
find someone who has done it that can guide you,
that you can learn from their mistakes, that you can
you know, bounce things off of. I feel that that's
really important. So often people say they want to do something,
but then they don't seek out the person who has
the blueprint. One thing I will add, when you are
(41:29):
asking what can we do to change the dynamics, vote
be a part of the process. There's such a level
of apathy among young people who are like, oh, it
doesn't matter, Oh it no mid term presidential Like all
of these you have to infuse yourself because a lot
of times we forget that our government, our representations of us,
(41:50):
our needs, our desires, and are there to protect us,
and we have to be a part of that process. Pinky,
I I'm so listen, so happy. I know m R.
And I are incredibly inspired by this conversation. Thank you
very much for your time today and your patients, and
very very excited for the world to listen to both
of your thoughts. So I thought we were just going
(42:15):
to Chicago to visit lists for the Acres Fresh Market.
Turns out we're definitely stopping in Atlanta on our way
back to California to stop at Slutty Vegan. You a
m R. Okay, do you even have to ask? Of course,
but wow, oh my god, what a phenomenal conversation. And
you know, Wilmer, you often talk about ecosystems here on
(42:36):
the show, so I really loved hearing Pinky use this
term as well, referring to how she sees her business
is so much more than a business capital b. Pinky
is sustaining a living, breathing ecosystem that bolsters her community.
And that's just so inspiring to hear it really is.
And how cool is it that Pinky was a recipient
of funding from Kisha's Fearless Fun. So this ecosystem continues
(42:59):
of black and brown communities helping one another to turn
dreams into reality. All three of our guests today talked
about the lack of funding that goes towards black and
brown or minority owned businesses when we talk about creating
a future we want to live in. One huge step
towards that is diverting funding to these black and brown
(43:19):
owned businesses, investing in the future where minority owned businesses
can thrive. Yeah, you said it, Wilmer. I couldn't agree more.
And just quickly, I want to take us back to
the beginning of our episode for a moment, because we
brought up abolition and police brutality and we're not just
glossing over those topics. In fact, in a couple of
weeks will have an episode that's all about abolition and
(43:41):
community organizing and black lives matter and so much more.
Thanks for bringing that up, in Mar, and thanks for
the reminder now coming in here to say that you
are essential voices. We want our listeners to know that
we're not glossing over such urgent topics. Which brings me
to what we have on deck for next week. Next
week was with Essential Worker Dr Lance Wineher, who is
(44:02):
a doctor for the Nation also known as the Navajo Nation.
And we'll have a roundtable discussion with the President of
the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Ness, and with Ali Young, activist
and founder of the Harness Program. Protect the Sacred. Essential
Voices with Wilma val Drama is produced by me m R. Raquel,
(44:23):
Alison Shano, and Kevin Rotkowski, with production support from Associate
producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers Wilmer val Drama, Adam Reynolds,
Leo Clem and Aaron Hilliard. This episode was edited by m. R.
Riquel and Sean Tracy and features original music by Will Risotti.
Special thanks to this week's Essential Voice Liz Abuna and
(44:46):
to our thought leaders Kesha Knight, Pollyam and Pinky Cole.
Additional thanks to Gracie Goodman, Max doubble Field, Rachel Garfield,
Kara Sacks, Niah Bakersville and Cammi Gutiatis. This is a
CLAIM and w V Entertainment production in partnership with I
Heart Radio's Michael Dura podcast Network. For more podcasts from
(45:07):
I Heart, visit the I Heart radio, app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, everyone, and Wilma of All Drama and I'm m
r Raquel. So before this episode, stars, I have a
quig warning for everyone. Uh is everything okay? Yes, everything's okay.
Do not listen to this episode hungry. Oh yeah, for sure,
you're about to hear about fresh produce and saucy vegan burgers.
(00:23):
So if you have a snack, grab it now. Okay,
Now that everyone is probably prepared, letz get started with
something heavier than a snack. Mr was an incredibly dificul year,
as we know, but not even just with the pandemic.
There was so much more going on. Yeah, you're right,
and you know, when I think about and I definitely
(00:46):
don't just think of the pandemic. I mean, these have
been years full of social and political upheaval and Black
Lives Matter protests right and calls for abolition and creating
a police free future, and all of this became part
of the dominant public narrative in the wake of the
murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor and Ahmad are
Very and Macaya Bryant and Dante Wright and Daniel Prude,
(01:10):
and devastatingly, these folks are just amongst some of the
special and loved family members, parents, children, siblings, members of
this country who were killed by the police in the
last two years. So, in addition to the calls to
action to end police brutality, these protests ignited a long
overdue reckoning with systemic racism in all aspects of daily life,
(01:35):
and so many of us continue learning how to be
better allies. One small option became widely suggested that was
acceptively simple, supporting black owned businesses. Yeah, and so on
today's show, we'll speak with Liz Abuna, who is the
owner of forty Acres Fresh Market. Forty Acres is a
pop up market, a grocery delivery service and soon to
(01:58):
be brick and mortar store on the West Side of
Chicago which provides fresh produce and affordable products to the
West Side community. She'll share with us what inspired her
to start for the acres, along with highs and lows
of being a small business owner, and how the pandemic
as well as the protests affected her business. After speaking
with Liz, this week's roundtable conversation is with actress, entrepreneur
(02:21):
and investor Kesha Night Pollium and with Pinky Cole, the
creator of Slutty Vegan. Keisha co founded the Fearless Fund,
which invests in women of color owned businesses, and she's
also an entrepreneur herself. Pinky created Slutty Vegan, which is
an ecosystem of plant based burger restaurants in and now
there are three locations with more planned. She also started
(02:44):
the Pinky Coal Foundation to help bridge the generational wealth
gap and invest back into her communities. I love speaking
with Liz, and apparently our producers were on the co
with Liz before I joined, having a Bachelor debrief SESSH,
which I was so mad I missed because, let me,
I'm a bachelor kind of store. As someone who's actually
(03:07):
admittedly never seen a Bachelor episode, I say, you're not
living life. I know, I'm sorry. I still had a
lot of fun though, listening to all the drama being recapped.
I'm sure you did listen. Story starts now. Hi. My
name is Lizabuno. I am in Chicago, Illinois, and I
(03:28):
am the owner and operator of forty acres Fresh Market.
List so happy to talk to you. I was excited
to talk to you about your business model and what
inspired you to start three acres and I thought that
that's a good jump off point to talk a little
bit about you and what drove you to start this
as well. I am originally from New York. I moved
to Chicago in to go to grad school. And if
(03:52):
you don't know Chicago, it's really big and you really
only stay within a handful of neighborhoods. You don't go everywhere,
And every neighborhood that I've lived in it's always been
super well resourced with like grocery stores, banks, restaurants, just
basically all the basic goods and services you want in
a city at your fingertips. So one day back in
(04:12):
I get off the sixty six bus on Chicago Avenue
and I realized I need cash and I couldn't find
a bank at all, not even my bank, any bank
on this corridor. I couldn't find a CDs or a
Walgreens to like go buy one thing and then get
cash back from that, or do it at a grocery store.
And so I'm like, okay, that's food, commerce and health
(04:33):
that I can't find on a major commercial corridor. And
I'm looking around and I'm like, this is a black neighborhood.
The neighborhoods I've always been in, not predominantly black at all,
but in this black neighborhood on a major commercial strip,
I can't find basic goods and services. And that experience
did not sit well with me, and it opened my
eyes to inequality and inequity in Chicago and this tail
(04:56):
of two cities that's often talked about here. And so
I think that experience let me come back to where
I live with a new lens of looking at the
things that I just take as basic as why can't
this exist over there? And there was a produce market
that I shopped at all the time that had great,
(05:17):
inexpensive produce, and all of a sudden, I started shopping
there and thinking, why doesn't this exist over on the
West Side. Somebody should do that. Somebody should do that,
somebody should do that, And eventually somebody became forty Acres
Fresh Market. Where did the name forty acres come from?
I was applying for this alumni award from the University
(05:39):
of Chicago, and I was going to apply with this
idea of a fresh produce market on the West side
of Chicago that I needed a name for it. And
so I thought about what I was doing, and I'm like, okay,
it's about fresh produce, and I'm like, how do I
tie this to the land. And then all of a sudden,
forty acres and a mule came to my mind and
it evolved into forty Acres fresh Market. But the idea
(06:00):
it was to come up with a name that was
culturally relevant, that spoke to our history in this country
and particularly are tied to the land, because I find
it a cruel irony that the descendants of this country's
first farmers often live in communities where they can get
nothing that comes from the earth. And so I wanted
(06:20):
a name that said to us, this is for us,
we deserve this, this is our birthright, we should expect this.
Maybe share a memory or or a moment that made
you go, oh, this is where my passion is. This
is why I do what I do. There's been multiple moments.
When we started. I started with pop up markets, meaning
I went into an existing neighborhood space like a community center,
(06:40):
a church, and basically converted their community rooms into a
fresh produce market for the community, you know, like yeah,
Like I would just bring in tons of fresh produce
and set up tables and display it all, put up
paper price signs. It was it was very minimum viable products. Yeah,
(07:01):
it was ground level. I love it. Yeah. What are
some of the differences between the pop up market and
delivery service? Because I know, eventually doing the pandemic, you
had to be introduced to a new way of thinking.
How do you mobilize when people can commute in some
of these public community centers, and how do you evolve
that thought and see opportunity with the pandemic, those spaces
(07:22):
basically closed down on us because everybody was closed, so
we couldn't do our markets there. So it was March thirteenth,
we were supposed to have a market, we closed it down,
and we put on our website just order delivery. We'll
give you free delivery for the weekend. And orders started
coming in first really slow, and then we're like, wow,
(07:44):
we just got five orders in one day. We're like,
we've never gotten five orders in one day. And then
by a week later, we were getting like ten orders
a day, fifteen orders a day, and by the end
of the month we were doing more revenue in delivery
than we've ever done in pop up markets. And we
came up with a program called go go, which is
(08:05):
get wouldn't give one. So we knew that something was
happening with the pandemic, that people were becoming more food insecure,
and that some people who were immuno compromised and couldn't
go out and get food. So we offered the option
on our delivery site when you buy a box for yourself,
you can buy a box in five, fifteen or twenty
dollar increments for a family and need. And people just
(08:28):
started clicking that. We started getting delivery orders on the
North Side, on the South Side, downtown, and so it's
really kind of given us a mix of customers. And
what I thought was really cool is that on the
West Side of Chicago, because there are so few goods
and services, so much of the disposable income gets spent
outside the community, oftentimes in more affluent, predominantly white communities,
(08:52):
So you have money from black and brown communities basically
subsidizing affluent white communities. Now with US, you finally people
outside of the West Side shopping with a black owned
West Side based business that wasn't happening before. So what
are some of the inequalities regarding food accessibility that your
business at JESSEUS there are certain things that I think
(09:13):
are basic. There were things that when I was looking
for my apartment, I was like, I want to live
near public transportation. I want to live in walking distance
of some place where I can do my grocery shopping.
I want to live near pharmacies bank so I can
do my day to day stuff without having to get
in my car, without having to travel far. It's just
(09:33):
all right there at my fingertips. And in a major city,
I think that they should be expected in many black
and brown neighborhoods in Chicago, they are not. So the
neighborhood we operated and it's called Austin. Austin is the
second largest neighborhood both population and land wise. It's seven
and a half square of miles people. It currently only
(09:53):
has two grocery stores. It lost a grocery store in
the middle of the pandemic. Last December had three. It
only has to until we opened our store next year.
In comparison, Lincoln Park on the north Side has about
sixties six thousand people and in a smaller area and
over a dozen grocery stores for them to choose from.
(10:15):
So that's just one aspect. It's just like the volume.
I actually had a meeting with somebody from wind Trust
Bank yesterday and she asked, how can I support the community,
And I said, I don't even know how to answer that,
because from where I grew up, in my experiences, I
never thought of banks as community support. They were just
(10:36):
a part of the fabric of what was there. You're
not there, like you can run all these programs and stuff,
but ultimately support communities by being there. And in major
cities and even in rural areas too, a lot of
businesses have just foregone being there. They'll set up shop
like a mile away in a predominantly white neighborhood and
(10:58):
service the black can let you know clientele from the
neighborhoods where they refuse to go, and then tell the
people in those neighborhoods, Oh, you don't have enough business
to sustain us, And I just I call bullshit. It's
that kind of inequalities, like you'll take our money, but
you don't value SS consumers to be present where we are.
(11:18):
Maybe you can speak a little bit about how you
feel about it, knowing that you've also successfully become you know,
a solution for me. I didn't feel some responsibility to
go in and save a community or anything like that.
For me, my MBA mind was more along the lines of, like,
there's an opportunity here, there's a customer that's not being served.
(11:40):
How do I serve this customer? And I think oftentimes
in communities that are under resource, that are quote unquote underserved,
that are dealing with the legacy of segregation, that are
dealing with the legacy of redlining, that are dealing with
the legacy of white flight, the only solutions we get
(12:01):
our philanthropy. It's like, let me throw charity at this,
and I'm like, that has a place, But what about
bringing these communities into the larger, broader economy, the mainstream
economy that we all benefit from. There's people here, they
have needs, they have clothes on their back that they buy,
they have food in their stomach that they buy. Like,
(12:23):
why are we not treating these people and valuing them
as such? When I think about this conversation and I
reflect on some of those iconic moments in the protest
last summer, and what surface, which is support black owned businesses,
tell me a little bit of your perspective, and then
how do you feel about that considering what we just
mentioned we we benefited from that. We had two bumps
(12:46):
last year. The first one was in March when the
pandemic first hit, and you know, stores were out of
stuff and people also had a very keen understanding of
support local businesses. Then as that further kind of started
to waning after a couple of months, George Floyd Happens
and Brianna Taylor and a mod are very and the
(13:06):
Black Lives Matter movement comes to the forefront. I knew
when it was happening that this is a moment, so
get while the getting is good. I knew that people
will not sustain in that level of passion indefinitely. What
I will say is that I think people thought that
I can buy this one time from the black owned business.
I can post this hashtag, I can shout defund to
(13:29):
the police, and that's going to fix everything. And the
fact is you do not change fifty to sixty years,
hundreds of years just in different forms of second class citizenship,
of segregation, of economic segregation, of neglect, in three months,
(13:51):
in six months, in a year, in two years. And
so part of it is just like, why should I
have to capitalize on this moment? Why won't we get
in there and do the work, because honestly, the work
is not linear. It's not like I do this and
then it gets this result and then it's good forever.
(14:12):
It's not how any of this works. And it also
puts a lot of pressure on black entrepreneurs and black organizations.
How the supporting black owned businesses help the community as
a whole. And also we think about how we set
up the next generation of black owned businesses for success. Well, one,
I think that black owned businesses were mostly sole proprietorships.
(14:34):
Most of us, like cannot grow in scale. And the
thing you need for growth and scale our customers in capital.
When we can scale, like when forty acre scaled, what
did I do? I hired people, and black owned businesses
are far more likely to hire other black people. They
are likely to be small businesses, so small businesses tend
to spend their money closer to home. They may not
(14:57):
have all national suppliers, like all of our supply ers
are local, so those dollars start circulating within a community.
That sales tax stays within a community. There are primary, secondary,
and tertiary effects of supporting black owned businesses. When black
people have more money, they have more wealth, we become
(15:20):
a bitter piece of the tax base, like it benefits
society as a whole when our communities are whole and
healthy and thriving. And part of doing that is making
sure that we have an ownership stake in the homes,
the land, and the businesses. You feel that's the message
(15:41):
you could leave for future black business owners and understanding
not just the role and responsibility, but the excitement of
creating something that's going to eventually thrive within not just
your community, but do the crossover like your company. My
advice is think long and hard before being an entrepreneur.
Heard it's hard. I mean, honestly, I think entrepreneurship gets glamorized.
(16:05):
And I will say that I started my business after
having like a fifteen to sixteen year career, after going
to grad school. I was in a position where I
could focus a hundred percent on forty acres because I
had savings. I was in a position where I had
opportunities because I had cultivated a network through education and
(16:27):
my professional background. So my goodness, I would say, be prepared.
In the words of scar Um, it's something that you
prepare for. But I feel like if you do prepare,
and you have an idea and you have something to offer.
Start small, start, slow, build traction, gain supporters, and go
(16:47):
from there. It's very doable. But it's like having a baby.
I swear there are days where I'm just like, whose
idea was this? And how do I kick them? Because
they need to take over from me? But like, I
can't just get up and walk away. Now, you know,
I have employees, I have investments in this. UM. Once
the baby is born, you can't put the baby back. UM.
(17:07):
So I've heard the same way with the small business. Well,
I mean, I'm gonna leave it on that note. I
think there's a game more powerful to that visual. Okay.
So I want to say thank you for your service
and everything you're done in a continuous success and I
hope your business continues to thrive and grow and grow
and and make that national Thank you. I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on today. Wow, I mean at
(17:31):
least his resourcefulness, but also feel sadness at the lack
of services. She described on the website what about Us,
Though she took her NBA skills, identified the need in
the community and literally became the service to address that need.
I know Liz is such an inspiration and I learned
so much by hearing how the protest during the spring
(17:51):
and summer of impacted her business. But I think what
I take away most from Liz is that she has
a heart centered around community and being a community the resource. Yeah,
she definitely does. And I'm gonna have to take a
trip to Chicago and visit the store once it's open. Mr. I,
I'm not even gonna ask you. You're coming with me?
Heck yeah, I am. Yeah. And when we get back
(18:12):
from the break, we'll talk with Keisha Night, William and
Pinky Cole. We're here today with Keisha Night, Polleam and
Pinky Cole. Pinky Hi, Keisha Hi, I'm so excited to
(18:32):
be here with you today and um here your thoughts
about Lizza's story and about your various business ventures. So
Wilma want to kick us off. Thank you both for
being here with us. I'm excited to have this conversation
with you, you know, just to kind of kick things
off a little bit. What are your reactions from Lizza's story,
And let's start with you, Kisha. You know, it's not unique, unfortunately,
(18:54):
to a lot of people who aren't black, and brown.
It sounds so astonishing, but it's a very real reality.
Just the access to a lot of our communities just
isn't there, whether it's to fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy foods, banks,
you know, the things that many of us pick for granted,
just isn't there. So I really applaud her. I love
(19:16):
the fact that she's doing what she's doing. And you know,
especially how she has pivoted with just all the changing
of the times to create this delivery based and subscription
based model, I think is really awesome. And you know, yes,
she's creating something that is definitely serving in need within
communities who don't have the access, but like she said,
(19:39):
she's also creating an economic base that is then hiring
more black and brown people that people of all races,
of all socio economic backgrounds of locate, Like all of
these things are also able to support and are as
able to tap into. Yes, it is a black business,
but from what I've researched, because I started kind of
looking up and it looks super dope, that's a great product.
(20:03):
That's the other piece of it that she's doing something
she's feeling a niche, feeling a need and she's doing
it well, wonderfully, what are your reaction speaking, I agree, Um,
you know it's interesting. When I was listening to her story,
I'm like, this is my story. This is the story
of the modern woman entrepreneur who really goes into a
(20:24):
place to create access where there was never access. So
the real problem here is how do you create access
when access doesn't exist. I'm dealing with the same thing,
and just even through her energy, I'm like, damn, this
is like a big feat something that we had to
conquer every single day because, for example, Sletty Beacon asie business.
Obviously we're not a grocery store, but I can identify
(20:46):
with the idea of going into underserved communities, going into
places where the resources are lacking right and educating people
on why this is necessary, why you should understand that
knowledge is key and being better and living better will
make for a better bigger picture. So I command her
for what she's doing, especially in Chicago. Now is a
(21:08):
time for us as black and brown people to be
able to have access to those resources, and I applaud
her and other entrepreneurs that are doing that and being
so selfless in that because she doesn't have to help
people in our communities eat better. N we gotta do that, right.
She clearly is an educated woman. She could do other things,
but to be able to like put her whole self
(21:29):
into a space where she's providing opportunity through resources, that
just speaks volume. So like, I was moved by it,
and you know, that's somebody that I could definitely connect
with because we are on the same trajectory. M thank you,
Thank you so much, both of you for your thoughts
and thanks Pinky. You know it's it's so true. Liz
didn't have to be the person to become a community resource,
(21:51):
and yet she saw the need for a service, so
she decided to fill that space. Um. Which leads me
to slutty vegan, Pinky, which you just brought up. Um,
So what's the story with slutty vegan and why vegan
food in particular. First of all, slutty vegan is and anomaly, right,
So by definition, slutty vegan is a plant based burger
(22:11):
joint itselves vegan burgers, fries, and pies. But it's beyond that.
It started there, But slutty vegan is an ecosystem of
people who help other people reimagine food I created this
concept is simply off an idea in my bedroom, and
I made it racy and sexy because I wanted to
create dialogue and our communities that gets people excited about
(22:35):
infusing healthier options into their lifestyle, even if it started
at vegan burgers, fries and pies. Right, But how do
you do that? You gotta incorporate sex in it, because
sex cells. So as a form of television producer, I
took the two most important experiences in life, the sex
and as food, and I merged them together and I
created what you now know as one of the hottest
(22:56):
concepts in the country that serves vegan fair. But when
I say it's bigger than just vegan food, we really
put money back into the community. We provide access and
resources just like the young lady was talking about, and
we provide opportunity for other entrepreneurs through the foundation and
through all the things that we do. So I like
to call Sledgy Vegan a brand that happens to sell burgers,
(23:19):
fries and pies because we do so much for our
communities and we're such an inspiration to people who want
to either be entrepreneurs, who want to start foundations, who
want to put the money back into the communities to
help people succeed inside those ecosystems. Wow, that's amazing. Thanks
so much for sharing that, Pinky. Uh. You know, my
stomach is actually just literally grumbling. I'm gonna have to
(23:42):
come with Lanta soon and try burger um. And you
know you just mentioned community, and you also mentioned that
Sluwy Vegan isn't just a restaurant, but it's an ecosystem
that in turn supports the community. So can you describe
the neighborhoods where you've opened your restaurants and and why
it's important for you to channel funds and resources back
into these communities. Absolutely. So, I'm very intentional about everything
(24:04):
that I do with the brand, so it's surrounded by authenticity.
So I specifically go in food deserts, food insecure communities,
areas that lack vegan options, and areas that aren't as
attractive to big time developers. Why do I do this?
I do this because one, I want to raise up
the community. If I go into an area that's right
and the harder gentrification or just about to get there,
(24:26):
then I can raise the property value of that set community.
And then I can also support local businesses be able
to make more money because then I got a line
down a block. So if I gotta line down the
block and there in the area the nine times of
the tent, they're going to patronize the businesses that are nearby.
And then beyond that. I also play into the real
estate idea that not only do I own the business,
(24:47):
but I own the ground and the dirt. So I
buy the property and own it, so I get it
for cheap. So it's almost like, for example, I'm going
to Birmingham, Alabama, that paid seventy five dollars for two properties,
and that two properties is going to raise the value
of the neighborhood, beautify the neighborhood, help local entrepreneurs, and
be able to funnel money back into the community, which
(25:08):
is the ecosystem that I talked about. So we're very
intentional how we do that. You know, people may see
this as oh, lay yourself food. Now, it's really bigger
than that because in our communities for so long we
have been suppressed because we have black resources. So I
am being the change that I want to see and
showing people that YouTube can be able to create opportunity
(25:28):
around yourself around your business and within the community, and
it's been working. And I think that that's part of
the reason why Study Began has been so successful, because
we're intentional and mission driven about what we represent and
what we stand for and what we want to come
in the future for the business. Yeah. Yeah, what is
(25:52):
Fearless fun? You know, let's talk a little bit about
that and why inspire you to coll found it? Well,
one thing about me is anything that I do, it's
never about just lending your name or your voice too,
but it's something that has to have authenticity and synergy
with who I am as a person. You know, Pinky's
talking about being a solution to a problem. Liz was
(26:15):
talking about doing the same thing. But the reality is,
as black women in particular, that is what we do
when we see a problem. It's about being a part
of the solution and not continuing to be a part
of the problem thinking someone else is going to do something,
someone else is going to solve it. So specifically with Fearless,
then when we co founded that it was really about
(26:36):
solving an issue that we saw. We realized that, you know,
when it came to women of color and businesses, we
were the fastest growing, but we were the least funded,
and we had to change that dynamic. And the only
way to change it is to be on the other
side of the table and being an investor. And that's
what we did. And you know how we spoke earlier
about everything that went on with Black Lives Matter, but
(26:59):
it did create very special moment in time where so
many people's attention, and not only their attention, but their
pocket books were very much dedicated to supporting financially any
cause that had synergy with that movement. So, as a result,
Fearless fun we set out to solve a problem and
(27:20):
we had no clue, just trying to prove our thesis
of investing women of color investing in other women of
color business. At the precede seed in Series A level,
we were proving the thesis. Okay, we're gonna raise this
five million dollar fund, which is nothing in the venture
capital world. Now several years later, because of all of
these different movements and the attention that has been brought
(27:42):
to the plight, it's a thirty million dollar fund, which
still at the end of the day, isn't a piece
of the pie in terms of when you look at
the greater scheme of things. However, it's created a space
where we have brought light to an area, you know,
And that's the great thing about what I do. It's
not only doing the work behind the scenes, but when
(28:03):
you've been given such a platform of visibility as you know,
you know, when you're in front of cameras and acting,
people are so interested in what you have to say
and what you're doing, but really about how are you
going to use that platform to pay it forward? How
are you going to use that platform to create light
and visibility for the unseen and the unheard. And that's
what anything I'll do, I believe when it was the
(28:25):
Tamerin Hall, I've partnered with my ill Organics to do
a business school for entrepreneur as a program that's culminating
in us doing an amazing trip back to Africa, whereas
a million dollars from the scholarships that were given. So
for me, anything that I do there has to be
that piece that is very true, authentic and genuine to
(28:46):
who I am and also has that component of gift
back from my nonprofit, the Campkissie Foundation, which is over
a decade old, which is all about empowerment and self esteem,
for youth, to every part of me. There's so many
different tentacles. Having been working literally since I was not
months old, I'm grateful to be at a space where,
you know, I can really do things that I'm passionate
(29:06):
about that really have the opportunity to move the needle.
And you know, it's crazy how small of a world
it is when you're in this kind of world of um,
you know, like Pinky and I, for instance, like Clark
Atlanta graduate, Spellman College graduate, sore Roars are circles and
paths intersect in so many ways that it's amazing to
(29:27):
be able to know and support one another because really,
what it's about, you know, behind the scenes, how can
you champion? How can you do what you can to
ensure that we're all successful? Because one thing about me
is I always operate from a space of abundance and
recognizing that what's for me is for me, and what's
for you is for you, and there's enough for everyone.
(29:48):
Um that's the bottom line. How can we help make
each other great? We'll be right back after this break.
Welcome back to Essential Voices. Thinking you Care ad the
Pinky Cole Foundation. What is that foundation about? It. You
can tell us a little bit about that too. Well,
it's just a fomal way to just if I'd be
(30:08):
gifting all my money. That's real. That's now, it's real. Listen,
let me tell you something. As a kid, I saw
my mother help everybody. When I say everybody, like I
had cousins and sisters that I met for the first
time that lived in my house. I probably didn't live
on my own until I was thirty years old because
(30:30):
I saw how much my mother helped people, and I
absorbed all of that. So I became my mother. So
throughout my life, I was always helping other people. Um
as I've gotten older, I just love to see people
in So when I created this, like vegan, this is
just another opportunity to be able to continue to help
people and just to formalize it. So I started the
(30:51):
foundation in twenty nineteen, and basically the Piggy Co Foundation
is just a way to bridge that generational wealth gat
So we know the disparities in our commune duties already,
so I wanted to be a beacon of hope for
people who want to have opportunity but don't know how
to get it. So through that foundation, We've done so much,
and I'll just name a few of the things that
we've done. UM at clark Landy University paid the debts
(31:14):
off for thirty college students so that they can walk
across the stage. I partnered with Impossible Foods in Jamaine
dupri so that we can get people excited in our
communities about the election that we just had, so that
people can understand why it was so necessary. And I
believe that we helped to change Georgia blue. But what
else did we do? Uh local businesses in the area.
(31:34):
We paid the rents for those organizations so that they
didn't have to close in the middle of the pandemic.
We've given out thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables. UM.
We've partnered with the Steve Harvey and Marjorie Harvey Foundation
to provide lights for local families in Atlanta. We've done
so much. Just recently a partner with the local business
UM Big Dag Chiefe Stakes to provide black men who
(31:56):
make thirty thousand dollars or less with life insance that
they don't have to pay for. They get to choose
their beneficiaries and they get to choose their policies. But
I say all that to say that this is the
real success for me. So when you think about the
success of Slightly Vegan, and yes, Slightly Vegan does well.
We make money, a lot of people love the brand.
(32:16):
But what makes my valley leap is to be able
to know that I've been able to utilize my resources
and my platform to not people and we've been able
to do that through this foundation. I'm so happy at
the success that it has gotten so far, and what
it really did is defined us as a philanthropic movement
first that is a brand that happens to self food.
(32:37):
I'm just really excited about the impact that we've been
able to make. That's so amazing. Pinky, thanks so much
for sharing that. You know, you've worked so hard to
make an impact on your community and serve your community
by believing in yourself and your vision, and it sounds
like there's been so much incredible work behind the scenes
to get where you are today, and so maybe it
(32:57):
hasn't been the easiest path. It's just it's so inspiring
to hear about um and bringing the conversation back to Liz,
she shared with us some challenges that she and more
broadly that black and brown business owners and burgeoning businesses face.
And we also talked about how supporting black and brown
businesses bolsters the community ecosystems that you're talking about, Pinky,
(33:17):
and community building in general, like we're all talking about today,
despite a lack of investment into these businesses from the beginning.
So what systemic overhauls would you say should be undertaken
to address these challenges so that black and brown and
minority own businesses can thrive. And why don't we start
with you, Pinky, Well, for black owned businesses in general,
and I highlighted this a little bit, but we need
(33:40):
more money. We need funding in order to be able
to grow from a mom and pop to a business
that is scalable and these privadent when you firms and
big companies have to trust us with the money so
that we can continue to grow. I think that there's
a lot of trust issues when it comes to big
companies being comfortable with investing the capital into black owned businesses.
(34:02):
But I also speak on the idea that we also
need more resources so that we can be better entrepreneurs. Right,
So we talk a lot about access, because we let
access and information we kind of like fall a little
bit behind when it comes to our business and how
we grow our business, and all it is is a
matter of information. So if we can be provided that
(34:23):
information and that access and money, then I believe that
black owned businesses will be able to grow in the
way in which we know that they could. Yeah, and
I mean, honestly, Pinky has really covered the majority of it,
because that's what I was gonna say. It's the access
to capital, and it's the disparity in the knowledge gap. Unfortunately,
a lot of black and brown our first generation who
(34:45):
have graduated from college, which is the threshold where we
don't come from generational wealth. We don't have a legacy
or a trust fund that's going to invest in our
first business. We don't have the godfather who owns this
bank who can fast track the access to capital for us. So,
you know, that's a really big one. And then Pinky
(35:06):
also touched on you know a lot of times, even
if the capital is there, a lot of people are like, well,
why don't you just get it? But it's not always
that simple or that easy because you may not understand
the steps that are required to scale a business. What
does that word even mean, how do you if you're
looking for venture capital funding or if you're looking for
funding period, like, what is a series A a series?
(35:29):
What do these things mean? And how do I position
myself to be able to acquire these things? Or does
my business even need these things? We don't have to
talk about predatory loan rates like that's a whole another.
It's so systematically ingrained from every facet that is really
hard to in a snapchat identify it. It's from legislation down.
(35:51):
It's in terms of the tax laws. It's in terms
of the laws that are not only federal, but you know,
state understanding those things, understanding how to now the gate
through those things. You know, we haven't been privy to
that information. And a lot of this information isn't necessarily
found in a book, but it's passed down through life experience.
And if we don't have a connection to the people
(36:12):
who possess that knowledge, we don't have access to that knowledge.
That was one thing that we found in the beginning
days of raising for Fearless is you know, we're having
these meetings with these really high net worth individuals about
venture capital who look like us, who have no clue
what this is who we are having to educate about
this because it's hard enough trying to get them to
(36:34):
cut the check to support because I don't even know
what the hell we're talking about. And then a lot
of times people don't want to acknowledge what they don't know.
People are so afraid of looking like they don't know,
that they're not smart, that they don't recognize that you
can ask questions like the only way you're gonna learn
is to acknowledge what it is that you don't know.
(36:54):
You know, sometimes as a community, people want the appearance
versus being like, this is the reality of where I am.
It's good enough, I am deserving of it, but now
it's time for me to build upon this, or even
being vulnerable enough and understanding that it's going to be
a journey. It is sometimes for us, you know, the drill.
(37:16):
We gotta get up a little earlier. You know, we
have to swing a little harder, You have to walk
a little farther in order to get to where we're
at right now. Our ability to know that it does
take work. It may take double the work, but it
is possible for us to achieve it. Right, Let's get
out of that mentality like, well, it's because I'm not white.
There's always a little bit of that have empty conversation
(37:38):
and I don't know if it's passed down. Is that
is you know multi generational thing? Right? It is a
lot of times lack is in ways that we don't
even recognize on the surface. Like I know there's there
are in certain things that I had to do program
that admit for the good. Don't get me wrong, Like
my dad didn't mean it when he said, you know
(37:58):
money is is hard earned and easily lost or you
know different things like that. It creates is mentality and
we have to hold on tight. Its our drama. That's
what it is. And and it's not okay, right, and
we have a long way to go. It's funny that
we're talking about this because I'm gonna be totally transparent
and vulnerable here, Like it took me a long time
to understand like equity and like safe notes and all,
(38:20):
I'm like, what is that I don't understand what this is? Right,
I could have literally lost my business because people were
coming to me and I didn't know what I was doing.
And if we had the resources to your point and
are like programming is ky more programming in our communities
to teach us those things that they aren't teaching in school,
then I think that we would have a better advantage.
(38:41):
But again, like you said, woman, it's a two way street, right,
So we can go out and also research and find
because googling YouTube university was my best friends. Right. But
programming definitely will help our communities to be able to
better position ourselves in business. What advice would you give
entrepreneurs of color are looking to start a business that
(39:02):
addresses similar needs and serve the communities. And let's start
with you, Pinky. Well, first of all, money should never
be the driving motivation oftentimes an entrepreneurship, whether you're like
or white. We talk about business and we talk about
money first, right, But I believe that the businesses that
are the most intentional and operate through the ethos are
(39:24):
the businesses that are the most successful. So for somebody
who is trying to start a business, make sure that
it means something in your spirit that you are in
alignment with that business and it's bigger than you. Then
you create that business to serve a niche and to
serve other people. If you create a business to serve
other people. The money is going to come right like
you're gonna become a magnant of money. But focus on
(39:46):
being the gift that continues to keep giving, and that
business will immediately grow. That's the first thing. Secondly, when
you're starting a business, really work on the problems, the
pressing problems that people haven't found a solution to. At
People start businesses all the time. People start businesses that
have certain needs and communities. Look at the problems in
(40:07):
the communities and what you live in and focus directly
on one specific issue and master that issue and find
a solution to that issue, and then you can begin
to grow and say, okay, all right, this is also
happened in my community, and I want to change that.
But if you get some laser focus on what the
problem is in the community and which you live in
or you serve in, and work on that, then once
(40:27):
you have that and and you've really been able to
promote an uplift that said community, then you can continue
to add on problems and find solutions to those things.
But entrepreneurship is a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing
when it's mission driven. Well, you have intentions to a
business and makes you sleep better at night. You know
that you're walking in your purpose. You know that you're
(40:48):
helping other people win and creating opportunity and access and
resources to other people, so that the day that you
take your last breath, you know that you've created a
legacy for people, not just you in the fit, the
whole form, but the idea that the things that you
thought about creative change in the communities and what you
live in. I mean, Pinky, you hit the nail on
(41:09):
the head. There's not much more to say, but you know,
the one thing I would add is find a mentor
find someone who has done it that can guide you,
that you can learn from their mistakes, that you can
you know, bounce things off of. I feel that that's
really important. So often people say they want to do something,
but then they don't seek out the person who has
the blueprint. One thing I will add, when you are
(41:29):
asking what can we do to change the dynamics, vote
be a part of the process. There's such a level
of apathy among young people who are like, oh, it
doesn't matter, Oh it no mid term presidential Like all
of these you have to infuse yourself because a lot
of times we forget that our government, our representations of us,
(41:50):
our needs, our desires, and are there to protect us,
and we have to be a part of that process. Pinky,
I I'm so listen, so happy. I know m R.
And I are incredibly inspired by this conversation. Thank you
very much for your time today and your patients, and
very very excited for the world to listen to both
of your thoughts. So I thought we were just going
(42:15):
to Chicago to visit lists for the Acres Fresh Market.
Turns out we're definitely stopping in Atlanta on our way
back to California to stop at Slutty Vegan. You a
m R. Okay, do you even have to ask? Of course,
but wow, oh my god, what a phenomenal conversation. And
you know, Wilmer, you often talk about ecosystems here on
(42:36):
the show, so I really loved hearing Pinky use this
term as well, referring to how she sees her business
is so much more than a business capital b. Pinky
is sustaining a living, breathing ecosystem that bolsters her community.
And that's just so inspiring to hear it really is.
And how cool is it that Pinky was a recipient
of funding from Kisha's Fearless Fun. So this ecosystem continues
(42:59):
of black and brown communities helping one another to turn
dreams into reality. All three of our guests today talked
about the lack of funding that goes towards black and
brown or minority owned businesses when we talk about creating
a future we want to live in. One huge step
towards that is diverting funding to these black and brown
(43:19):
owned businesses, investing in the future where minority owned businesses
can thrive. Yeah, you said it, Wilmer. I couldn't agree more.
And just quickly, I want to take us back to
the beginning of our episode for a moment, because we
brought up abolition and police brutality and we're not just
glossing over those topics. In fact, in a couple of
weeks will have an episode that's all about abolition and
(43:41):
community organizing and black lives matter and so much more.
Thanks for bringing that up, in Mar, and thanks for
the reminder now coming in here to say that you
are essential voices. We want our listeners to know that
we're not glossing over such urgent topics. Which brings me
to what we have on deck for next week. Next
week was with Essential Worker Dr Lance Wineher, who is
(44:02):
a doctor for the Nation also known as the Navajo Nation.
And we'll have a roundtable discussion with the President of
the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Ness, and with Ali Young, activist
and founder of the Harness Program. Protect the Sacred. Essential
Voices with Wilma val Drama is produced by me m R. Raquel,
(44:23):
Alison Shano, and Kevin Rotkowski, with production support from Associate
producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers Wilmer val Drama, Adam Reynolds,
Leo Clem and Aaron Hilliard. This episode was edited by m. R.
Riquel and Sean Tracy and features original music by Will Risotti.
Special thanks to this week's Essential Voice Liz Abuna and
(44:46):
to our thought leaders Kesha Knight, Pollyam and Pinky Cole.
Additional thanks to Gracie Goodman, Max doubble Field, Rachel Garfield,
Kara Sacks, Niah Bakersville and Cammi Gutiatis. This is a
CLAIM and w V Entertainment production in partnership with I
Heart Radio's Michael Dura podcast Network. For more podcasts from
(45:07):
I Heart, visit the I Heart radio, app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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