September 30, 2022 • 31 mins
Careshia Moore is the CEO and President of Usher's New Look. This non-profit organization transforms the lives of under-resourced youth by helping them develop into passion-driven, global leaders.
Careshia discusses how she started from volunteering with the organization to becoming the CEO & president. The impact the organization has and its commitment to empowering youth globally.
Host IG: @itstanyatime
Guest IG: @tcareshiamoore
Business IG: @ushersnewlook
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by master Card and
bringing the Wealth Gap together with Green Hey, money Movers,
Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily podcast determined to
give you the keys to the Kingdom of financial stability,
wealth and abundance. Our next guest is an Atlanta hometown favorite.
(00:21):
I'll admit I'm a massive fan of her and the
organization that she is working with. She is passionate about
empowering youth and making sure no child gets left behind.
Quite literally, with the high success rate of her organization.
In fact, Money Moves please welcome the CEO and President
of Usher's New Look, Karashia Moore. Hi Karashia, Hi Taniel.
(00:44):
Thank you so much for having me on today. Oh well,
it is such a pleasure. I'm so glad to have
you on the podcast and to showcase and feature the
incredibly important and inspiring work you're doing here in Atlanta.
I would like to start off for those that are
unfamiliar with your organization, can you tell us a little
bit about Usher's New Look organization? Absolutely so. Usher's New
(01:05):
Look was founded in nine by Usher Ramon the fourth
and it was all about helping young people gain a
new look on life. And so we've been doing this
now for twenty three years, working with youth ages fourteen
through twenty four really helping them change their trajectory of
their lives through education, them identifying their passion and career exploration,
(01:29):
and along with that, really helping them understand how they
can give back to their community and most recently, infusing
financial literacy in the work that we're doing with our
young people. And so we have a hundred percent high
school graduation rate amongst our high school participants, about college
graduation rate within five years for our college participants. It
(01:49):
is truly a community of young people where they are
being inspired to be global, passion driven leaders. Wow. And
this is what I love because, you know, on Money Moves,
what we're really about is how we can help encourage, inspire,
you know, everyone from youth to seasoned executives to make
(02:10):
Money Moves. So I want to talk a little bit
about how you sort of came to this organization, and
then I want to segue into you know what youth
of today are passionate about. Are they thinking in terms
of financial literacy or is it just sort of like
it's another class that I'm going to take Because I'm
supposed to, but how did you get to Usher's new look? Right?
So I like to say my path was truly divinely
(02:32):
inspired and it was not linear at all. I started
out as an educator, and which just all have always
been passionate about mentorship and helping young people, you know,
be successful through education, and done it really all of
my life. Even going back to college and my first
job as an educator, I realized and it was so
evident to me the disparity and education based upon zip
(02:55):
code when you talk about access, opportunity, and exposure. My
first when I was teaching in Naples, Florida, which was
at the time the richest city per capita, but I
also taught in a town called in Maca le Florida,
two days a week, which was a small migrant community
where I tell people poverty like I've never seen it before.
And so having this sort of dichotomy literally day each day,
(03:18):
following each day um and seeing the resources that the
students lacked in the Mocha Lea, but the abundance of
resources that my students in Naples have the Ntenua. I
taught gifted students. All of my students were high i Q,
so no one could say it was ability, you know,
or i Q or any of these things. All of
these young people were super capable of doing anything that
(03:41):
they wanted to do. But I knew instinctively my students
in the Macha League we're having uphill battles because of
lack of resources. So my thought was there's always gonna
be great teachers doing reading, writing, and math, but I
knew that these other things, access in exposure would truly
level the playing field. So I went to law school
looking to child education. Yeah, practice law for a little bit,
(04:04):
but ultimately I truly felt called out to say, hey,
how can I help young people? And was introduced to
Usher's new look, and really, as they say, the rest
was history. I started volunteering and then you know, one
thing led to another working in their programs, and four
years ago my predecessor was leaving the organization and said,
I'm gonna recommend that you become the CEO. Went through
(04:26):
the board and I've been the CEO since. Did not
know I would end up here, but this is where
I needed to be. Obviously. Oh I love that because
that's a money move, you know, And that's why I
love sharing stories like this, you had a very unlikely
pack with you went from educating to you know, touched
in law and then put the time in you a
(04:47):
job that you were passionate about to now become a CEO. Absolutely,
and you know some would even say, right, you take
a step back to take two steps forward. Me leaving
the law firm was not the decision with my family.
I remember friends saying just write a check, you know,
and people that way. Um, but I knew ultimately where
(05:09):
my purpose was. I didn't necessarily know with ushers knew it,
but I need I knew I needed to be in
this space on a day to day basis, and that
required a little bit of courage. In fact, I resigned
from my friend twice in a year because I was
a little nervous about it, you know. And the second
time I said, it's it's not you, it's me. I
(05:29):
know I need somewhere else. And I often tell that
story to people, and I get people all the time
to come up and say, oh my gosh, I'm going
through this dilemma right now. I want to touch on
because I think you have a very unique perspective here
of the real dire discrepancies for you know, you talked
about these students in Naples, this wealthy zip code where
(05:51):
you would imagine these kids go home every day and
their parents are you know, C E O. S and
Fortune one thousand, you know, so they have this wealth
that they you know, grown up with, and then you would,
you know, jump in your car and you go to
this other zip code where it was the exact opposite.
Tell our audience what that looks like those kids in
I forget the town name. What was it? Immachaly? Amachaly
(06:14):
such a beautiful name. It's such a beautiful word. But
Amaly what are they? Yeah, like, what are they up against?
So can you paint this picture to our audience so
that we can really impress upon I think it will
help us understand the work that also you're doing with
Ustrow's new look as well. Absolutely, so you know, Naples, Florida.
(06:35):
This is this is a little joke. I like to say,
that was the first time I actually saw a maid
look like a million badlia right in the black world. Wow? Really?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, my kids would go You asked them, hey,
what did you do over the weekend? Oh, we went
to our private island. Um, you know, the parents were
there to support at the drop of a dime. And
(06:58):
this was the other thing at that school, you know
p t A. I remember them doing a backwards raffle
and the grand prize was like ten thousand dollars. What wow.
There are some p t as that don't even have
five thousand dollars and in the whole right, so they're
giving away ten thousand dollars. I was there part time
(07:20):
at the school. In my classroom, I was there part time.
The lights were off two days a week when I
was in the Machaly, but I had probably six or
seven computers that were assigned to my classroom. Now I
go to the Machaly two days a week. Again, like
I said, beautiful town, beautiful spirit. Loved it. The community
was great, but the resources were lacking. My parents got
(07:41):
over us at five am to go to pick whatever
the seasonal crop was. So we did school there differently.
To call in a parent for a conference during the day,
that meant they probably were gonna miss a day of
work right at night. Um. A lot of what was
happening in the Machaly. You had half charities other organizations,
(08:02):
but they were providing for those physical needs. That were
most pressing for the students and the families that we served.
You know, there were it was nothing. If you saw
students come, we had a a clothing closet and a
food pantry where if they you know, one of my
students came to school with two small soccer cleats on right,
and so how do you handle that delicately? These are
(08:24):
the types of things I've always been about, how do
we expose youth to things that maybe they don't have
readily accessible to them. It's also very big on service learning,
and so one of the things was that my students
in the Macola, they decided for their project as a class,
they wanted to paint a mural at the school. Yeah permission.
(08:44):
I got a mural artist to donate the resources as
well as her time to come and help them. We
just had to do it on a Saturday. So when
I got the permission, slips out and everything. The student
who actually drew out the sketch, he was an artist.
He came to me and said, Missed, I can't come
on Saturday because I go to work with my family,
so private island on the weekend, right on the weekend
(09:08):
that I think that paints a picture of sort of
just to the two spaces that I was occupying as
an educator at that time. M hm. So now fast forward,
you're with Usher's new look and you're in this position
where you're able to empower and educate so many children
in the Atlanta area, and you've now also added financial literacy.
(09:29):
Talk about why this is important to you, and I
know you basically just explained it, but what it is
that you really feel like at this age, the kids
they need to know they need to learn from your
organization because you know, sometimes it's just there's not enough
hours in the day for these working parents to go home.
I mean, they're not sitting at home talking about raw
bor o one case, and where they can you know,
(09:51):
put their money into crypto because there in some cases
out in the fields almost working picking a crop. That's right.
You know. We we have been really helping our young
people through our four pillars up until seventeen UM Talent Education,
Career in Service. That was the focus of it, obviously
(10:13):
to help our young people to develop. We realized through
doing some work one of our programs is called Powered
by Service and what it is is that our college
students go into middle schools and high schools and facilitate
this amazing four to five day workshop. I call it
an assembly on steroids, still talking about how you can
impact your community, all of these different things things your brand,
(10:37):
networking well. We partnered through Truest, we partnered with Omation Hope,
and we're doing added some budgeting activities into the Power
by Service day for these particular schools. We were in
d C and what we came back and realized is
that this is sort of the missing fifth pillar, right
those young people obviously had not been having conversations about
(10:59):
money and saving and credit and budgets, etcetera. So we
thought and said, how can we add this to what
it is that we're doing. And through a million dollar
grant with Truest. Wow, I mean shout out to that
foundation for just in this organization and what we've been
able to build and having to trust in us to
(11:21):
continue to do that. Um. We built this amazing youth centric,
very culturally relevant financial literacy curriculum that permeates throughout our
curriculum and what it has done is turned the minds
and the ideas on of our young people to money.
How do they save it? You know, we've been able
(11:43):
to actively provide our young people with funding to start
investment accounts. Our college students are actually trained to go
and train other young people. And I'll tell you. We
were in a little round Arkansas doing one of those
power by so Rich trainings and They're going through the
budgeting exercise and I'm just kind of rotating throughout the
(12:05):
room and i hear this young man say, I get it.
They're teaching us about our future so we can change it.
Oh my god, Oh my god, my heart right now,
ye listen, I'm like, yes, And I've been saying that
every everywhere, because that is exactly it. You to your point.
(12:25):
There's so many people that think, oh, kids should learn
all of these things from their parents. They should learn them.
I've actually had someone tell me those are things they
should talk about around the dining room table. Well, one
that's assuming that they have a dining room table. That's
assuming that they're eating dinner, everybody's at the table at
the same time, right, And that's assuming that that knowledge
is that expensive knowledge household. So that you mean, that's
(12:49):
where we see ourselves sort of walking alongside parents, walking
alongside schools, supporting our young people and gaining this knowledge
that they need so that they are not as step
behind and that they can really really see themselves in
these positions of wealth in the future. This is something
that I just love too, because you know, even when
(13:11):
we think of that, all the assumptions that people do
make today. You know a lot of folks come on
this podcast as well and they're like, well, my parents
didn't teach me this. They didn't know it either, and
so now it's kind of like, well, where is the onus? Right?
And so it's organizations like User's New Look that are
sort of picking up um, sort of picking up the
slack and really teaching it to to folks younger and
(13:34):
younger and younger, UM and and and this is just
why I feel like it's such an important part of
your curriculum. When we go back to your programming, you
have a significant success right high school graduation enroule in
college of your students are from first generation households. How
(13:55):
have you managed to keep the kids so engaged? I
friends who have kids that are like, oh my goodness,
you know the number one thing right now is engaging
teams getting but they're coming back, They're sticking with the
program and they're soaring. What is it about the organization
the curriculum that really gets these kids engaged and coming
(14:17):
back and with these high success rates. You know, a
part of our secret sauces that peer to peer. Un
L is built upon relationships. You will often hear our students,
you will often hear our staff. Even our board members
say refer to it as the un L family. It
is something blessed about this organization. It creates this environment. Well,
(14:42):
young people know they can come, they can be themselves,
but not only that, they're going to connect with other
young people. They may all not all be interested in
the same thing, but they sort of this um really
amazing community where they're supporting one another, they're building together.
This is not the just coming and look there's a
space for all of it. They're not just coming and
(15:03):
doing homework. They're not just coming in you know, watching
a movie or something like that. What they're having these
shared experiences. We bring in amazing speakers. They're actually doing
things and creating projects together in our Sparks Center here
and also we have a program in Brooklyn, New York.
So it's the same thing that's being created amongst these
(15:26):
or these these chapters, if you will, and then we
bring them together. So now it's New York meeting Atlanta
young people and that's all. Yeah, they feel like they're
part of something that's so much bigger than them. Um,
there's an opportunity for us to listen to them, to
hear what they are saying. We do something called expressions.
So it's about building up their confidence to express their
(15:49):
gifts and talent. I mean, it's just an environment where
we make it ready for them to learn the things
that they need to learn. And then what they'll say
is and even our valuations say, when you look at
where did you learn about careers and financial literacy and
college admission? You and Neil is highed as one of
the as the highest space where they're learning this. Oh
(16:12):
that's counselor's parents, etcetera. That has got to feel really good.
That moves the needle. You know, where did you learn
about that? Admissions S A T S. When do I
start doing them? You know a lot of the kids
that were serving in these communities our first our first
generation to go to college. So you know it's a
struggle for parents to you know, hold day on the floor,
(16:34):
get jobs get them into college. But no, when do
I apply? What do I need on a college application? Is?
It just gets more and more complex these days. You know,
I just couldn't help myself right there, because as soon
as you talked about the program expressions and I know
this is Usher's new look, I couldn't help it. I
started going, these are my expressions and sorry, money Movers.
(16:54):
I had to do it. I had to do it.
You'll have to excuse my singing. I want to pause
us there and talk about, you know, the other side
of being a CEO as well of a nonprofit organization
here in Atlanta. It's a huge job, it's a huge role,
and you have, you know, all these children and their
futures that you hold. Um, talk about that transition and
(17:17):
what was sort of the most surprising part from this
part for you. There's a lot of people in the
audience who do work in nonprofit, but um, what when
you look back across your four years as the CEO
has been the most difficult surprising piece. So, you know,
one of the first things that I'd like to think
when people think nonprofit, they think it's just do gooders
(17:38):
working in their passion, pulling on the hard streams. But
this is a business, you know, and making sure that
it operates as a business. We have an amazing foundation
that was started by those, um my predecessors, Sean Wilson,
any pet clip right, um. And so I often look
at myself as I'm adding on the second floor to
this house, as you will, what are some of those
(18:00):
things that we need? We have amazing programming, we have
the impact now as an organization. What are some of
the processes that we need. How do we build capacity
so that we're not overworking staff? Um? And you know
you hear people in nonprofits say, oh, I were ten
thousand hats, Well, that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
(18:20):
To bring in the resources and fund our business just
like any other for profit business. You know, you're not
gonna see the CMO of GE going out and selling parts, right,
and so to be the case with nonprofit. So really
raising the money so that we can build this capacity
(18:41):
and really truly operate on all cylinders with efficiency as
a business. And that's where I'm sort of heads down
in right now in taming. I'd love to hear you
say that, because you know, I think and we sort
of shifted from you know, looking at the children's side,
but to this, to the nonprofit side. But that is
such a natural and normal lives, refrained and nonprofits. I
(19:02):
wear all the hats, and you know, it's so busy
and there's just not enough capacity. And I love that.
This is what you're being intentional about. Like, you know,
if it's general Motors, he is not. I'm sure he has,
you know, a view into all areas of the business.
But to support our nonprofits at its best, we need
(19:22):
people to be able to do their job in the
best way possible. And a lot of this comes down
to being able to property, fundraise and have the funds
to support the business and staff so that everyone can
be their best. That's exactly right now. And the other
part that I'm really intentional about is us being experts
in our industry. You know, it's it's not enough just
(19:42):
everyone on our team. I tell people all the time,
I've never worked with such a passionate group of people.
That's just a new look. But it's not just enough
for passion. We need to be experts. Anyone should be
able to get on a panel or get you know,
if the news calls and talk about the work you
do UM and may here that we invest in our
team in that way as well. Yes, yes, So what's
(20:05):
next for Usher's new look You, I know you've launched
a couple of new programs and I'd love you to
talk a little about the Disruptive Disruptor Club, Disruptivator, Disruptivators. Yeah,
so in twos sixteen we coined this term disruptivator, which
is someone who uses their sparker passion to bring about
change in the world. And that's how we talk about
(20:27):
the youth that we serve, the disruptivators. We even have
a huge UM summit during the summer called our Disruptivators Summit.
And so one of the things that I told you,
we program in Atlanta as well as Brooklyn. Those are
our core after school programs, but we have taken this
powered by Service all over the world. We've taken our
programming all over the world. And one thing about the pandemic,
(20:49):
we were able to flip on a dime and virtually
and so we we literally had students from Barbados, Handada,
no that's home for you write from Dominican Republic to
join our sessions because there was such a need for
our young people to have that community. And what we
(21:11):
said is, okay, there's always people have said, how do
we get you and L at our school from DC
to California, etcetera. How can we create this? And so
what we've created is essentially you and L in the box.
We've collaborated with the labs Ferry Allen. They've built out
a virtual clubhouse for us, and what we've done is
(21:31):
created digital content that we are then putting into this clubhouse.
So say, if it's a school, a church, a home
school group, a community organization, they can sign up to
be a Disruptivator Club. We have about ten now um
and to grow and then they convene their young people
(21:52):
put on this digital curriculum. We also send essentially a
lesson plan that our students are doing in Brooklyn and
New York and they can facilitate it there. But those
students are now a part of the un L family.
They can attend our national programming like our first Friday
Scholarship sessions that we hold virtually on Fridays. They now
come to our Disruptivators summits during the summer. You know,
(22:15):
there will be awards for the Disruptivator Club of the year,
the disruptivator of the year, and they just really get
to plug in too. Un L. They are a part
of us as new book and that's our next, our
next phase, if you will, And in the ability to
scale un L in a way that's intentional. I often
think about it, Macholy and like I said before, a
(22:35):
lot of the focus was on addressing the physical needs rightly.
So however, a place like a Machole or small towns
in Georgia that don't have literally any resources, mentoring, uh
services anything right perfect for them so that those youth
can have access to these types of opportunities and knowledge
(22:56):
and skills as well well. I love that because you know,
there are are these great stories that are silver linings
from COVID that have allowed us to sort of reach
beyond our geographical borders and touch the communities that are
sometimes you know, they get a little bit forsaken. And
I think that's really important because that reach is is critical. Um,
can you tell us how many kids has Usher's New
(23:17):
Look touched in the twenty three years? Over fifty youths? Wow,
Usher's New Look And like I said, this is globally,
I mean South Africa, Camera, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Hong Kong.
We have been everywhere and as well as within our
(23:38):
own United States UM Toronto, Vancouver, serving youth. Yeah. Absolutely,
and so that is that's what we are. We we
can provide this information and this these experiences that we
provide to you translate UM across racial ethnic lines for
our young people. We we I will tell you we
(23:58):
partnered with the State Department UM and Marini in an
organization that works with them to serve over a hundred
youths from seventeen different African countries here in Atlanta as
they were on UM an excursion. And it was the
most fantastic thing for our young people also because they
got learning is relatable for young people their age wherever
(24:23):
you are. Wow, that's incredible. Oh my goodness, And I
just love the global reach. UM. That's that's really some
beautiful and important work. Okay, I would be remiss if
I didn't ask how is it working with Usher and
why he was so passionate about starting this organization twenty
three years ago. US was amazing. I will say that
(24:45):
he's an amazing entertainer. But what people should also know
is that he is he has a heart for this organization.
These young people. They call him Big Brother Almighty. Yeah.
All of the young people that go through they get
a code name, and that's his and it's been there,
you know, since the camp days. He is passionate about
(25:06):
young people finding their spark. One of the things when
he started the organization was that you would go and
ask students, Okay, what do you what do you want
to be when you grow up? Was an athlete or
an entertainer, you know, And his thing was, I want
them to see all the other things that they can
do in the same industry. It's okay to want to
be me, but if you want to be me or
(25:27):
the best athlete because that's the only way you think
you can generate wealth or you know, get get those
things to associate with success, that's a disservice. You need
to know all of the options that are out there.
And that really was the catalyst for the programming that
we do with us just New Look, with the career
Exploration and everything. A little known story is that he
(25:48):
and his mom, Miss Patton, they went into Judge Hatchett's
courtroom when he was you know, nineteen twenty and you know,
we're just thinking, how let's talk about how we can
impact the community. So they set in for juvenile proceeding
just to kind of see what are some of those
issues out there, and that's when they walked out of
that courtroom saying, you know, I see leaders in here,
(26:09):
you know, giving down sentences of community service. Why is
that a punishment? Um, all these different things. These kids
need to grief. And that's User's new look. So he
is still there. People asked all the time, is he involved.
He's still very involved. He'll walk in and the young people,
it's not like, oh, that's a big celebrity, that's Barty
and they know he's invested in their success. Oh that
(26:32):
is so wonderful. I love to hear that that's me.
And you know, this is something I think at Money Waves,
I really want people to understand. It's like, oh, oftentimes
people grew up to think that wealth was correlated to
oh you were a basketball star, you were a musician,
And there's so much more to There's so much more
opportunity that's available and within reach and possible. We just
(26:55):
need to show our kids the road maps, show them
the work that you're doing. At the CEO of with
me look as a lawyer, et cetera. And you know,
I feel like these are our modern day rock stars.
They might not be able to sing, uh, you know
a lot of them can't dance, but these are the
pathways in the roadways to success that you know by
highlighting you know, through Ushers and Look and Money Moves,
(27:17):
that we can really change the generational trajectories of our community.
So thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
We appreciate you so much. Before we leave, I want
to ask two questions. One, how can a kid sign
up for Usher's New Look? And how can you know
those who might have something to contribute to Usher's New Look,
whether it's in funds or their time. Um, can you
(27:40):
tell us how to connect with the organization? Absolutely so.
There our website has everything that you need Usher's New
Look dot org and we have a section on there
on the first page where someone can go in and
put their email address if they want to get involved,
and that comes directly to us and we send it
to the person that you know, if they want to
(28:01):
volunteer in programmings, someone will reach out to them. We
also have a big green donate button on the top
right of the stage. Yes, if anyone wants to support,
we are a five oh one C three organization UM
and we're fundraising and those resources go to our programming.
And so we we have women of Influence, we have
(28:22):
League of Men, or if they just want to give
a general donation, you can do that there. And then
for youth or parents who want to get their kids engage,
they can email info at Usher's new Look dot org
info at Usher's new Look dot org, and we will
be sure to get back with them and get them
the information that they need to participate. I mean, look,
(28:42):
we have our after school program, We're building out an
entrepreneurship youth accelerator, we have our Disruptivator clubs. There is
something for every youth at Usher's new Look. And you
know this is something else I I, you know, work
very closely and with UM some nonprofits in Atlanta as well,
and I really encourage people. Oftentimes they think they don't
(29:04):
have the time or they don't have anything to give
to these organizations or kids. But it is the biggest cliche,
but it is such a true asm for me. I
promise you will get ten times more back from spending
your time volunteering with these kids. It has been such
a gift to me. So you know, those of you
who are listening, reach out, you know, go to a
(29:27):
volunteer session and just spend some time giving back and
you will be blessed beyond measure. Blessed beyond measure. That is,
it is so true. Agree with you on that the
return on investment, you know it. And I tell people
all the time, yes we need financial resources, but that
human capital is important for us and our model for
our young people to see and to talk to and
(29:49):
to hear. Yes there, yeah, well Crea, before we leave,
tell us where folks can find you on your social
media channels or LinkedIn, whichever you prefer people to connect
with you. I am Kaishia more on all platforms Instagram,
Twitter as well as LinkedIn. Definitely want to join and
I love, you know, to getting conversations about education and
(30:10):
our youth and issues that matter to them, but also
just to meet people who are in this space and
interesting in supporting our youth in our organization. So that's
Kureshia more alright, money Movers, thank you so much. Kureshia.
You are truly a gem, and thank you so much.
For the work that you're doing to change the lives
of so many youth all over the world. Thank you,
(30:33):
Money Movers. That's all the time we have for today,
but make sure to follow Karashia more on all her
social media handles and make sure you check out Usher's
new look. Thank you so much for joining, and if
we have helped you make your money move, please make
sure to let us know by sending us alike, sharing
the knowledge, and or leaving us a review on Apple podcast.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
(30:55):
please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcasts of the log H
This episode is brought to you by master Card and
bringing the Wealth Gap together with Green Hey, money Movers,
Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily podcast determined to
give you the keys to the Kingdom of financial stability,
wealth and abundance. Our next guest is an Atlanta hometown favorite.
(00:21):
I'll admit I'm a massive fan of her and the
organization that she is working with. She is passionate about
empowering youth and making sure no child gets left behind.
Quite literally, with the high success rate of her organization.
In fact, Money Moves please welcome the CEO and President
of Usher's New Look, Karashia Moore. Hi Karashia, Hi Taniel.
(00:44):
Thank you so much for having me on today. Oh well,
it is such a pleasure. I'm so glad to have
you on the podcast and to showcase and feature the
incredibly important and inspiring work you're doing here in Atlanta.
I would like to start off for those that are
unfamiliar with your organization, can you tell us a little
bit about Usher's New Look organization? Absolutely so. Usher's New
(01:05):
Look was founded in nine by Usher Ramon the fourth
and it was all about helping young people gain a
new look on life. And so we've been doing this
now for twenty three years, working with youth ages fourteen
through twenty four really helping them change their trajectory of
their lives through education, them identifying their passion and career exploration,
(01:29):
and along with that, really helping them understand how they
can give back to their community and most recently, infusing
financial literacy in the work that we're doing with our
young people. And so we have a hundred percent high
school graduation rate amongst our high school participants, about college
graduation rate within five years for our college participants. It
(01:49):
is truly a community of young people where they are
being inspired to be global, passion driven leaders. Wow. And
this is what I love because, you know, on Money Moves,
what we're really about is how we can help encourage, inspire,
you know, everyone from youth to seasoned executives to make
(02:10):
Money Moves. So I want to talk a little bit
about how you sort of came to this organization, and
then I want to segue into you know what youth
of today are passionate about. Are they thinking in terms
of financial literacy or is it just sort of like
it's another class that I'm going to take Because I'm
supposed to, but how did you get to Usher's new look? Right?
So I like to say my path was truly divinely
(02:32):
inspired and it was not linear at all. I started
out as an educator, and which just all have always
been passionate about mentorship and helping young people, you know,
be successful through education, and done it really all of
my life. Even going back to college and my first
job as an educator, I realized and it was so
evident to me the disparity and education based upon zip
(02:55):
code when you talk about access, opportunity, and exposure. My
first when I was teaching in Naples, Florida, which was
at the time the richest city per capita, but I
also taught in a town called in Maca le Florida,
two days a week, which was a small migrant community
where I tell people poverty like I've never seen it before.
And so having this sort of dichotomy literally day each day,
(03:18):
following each day um and seeing the resources that the
students lacked in the Mocha Lea, but the abundance of
resources that my students in Naples have the Ntenua. I
taught gifted students. All of my students were high i Q,
so no one could say it was ability, you know,
or i Q or any of these things. All of
these young people were super capable of doing anything that
(03:41):
they wanted to do. But I knew instinctively my students
in the Macha League we're having uphill battles because of
lack of resources. So my thought was there's always gonna
be great teachers doing reading, writing, and math, but I
knew that these other things, access in exposure would truly
level the playing field. So I went to law school
looking to child education. Yeah, practice law for a little bit,
(04:04):
but ultimately I truly felt called out to say, hey,
how can I help young people? And was introduced to
Usher's new look, and really, as they say, the rest
was history. I started volunteering and then you know, one
thing led to another working in their programs, and four
years ago my predecessor was leaving the organization and said,
I'm gonna recommend that you become the CEO. Went through
(04:26):
the board and I've been the CEO since. Did not
know I would end up here, but this is where
I needed to be. Obviously. Oh I love that because
that's a money move, you know, And that's why I
love sharing stories like this, you had a very unlikely
pack with you went from educating to you know, touched
in law and then put the time in you a
(04:47):
job that you were passionate about to now become a CEO. Absolutely,
and you know some would even say, right, you take
a step back to take two steps forward. Me leaving
the law firm was not the decision with my family.
I remember friends saying just write a check, you know,
and people that way. Um, but I knew ultimately where
(05:09):
my purpose was. I didn't necessarily know with ushers knew it,
but I need I knew I needed to be in
this space on a day to day basis, and that
required a little bit of courage. In fact, I resigned
from my friend twice in a year because I was
a little nervous about it, you know. And the second
time I said, it's it's not you, it's me. I
(05:29):
know I need somewhere else. And I often tell that
story to people, and I get people all the time
to come up and say, oh my gosh, I'm going
through this dilemma right now. I want to touch on
because I think you have a very unique perspective here
of the real dire discrepancies for you know, you talked
about these students in Naples, this wealthy zip code where
(05:51):
you would imagine these kids go home every day and
their parents are you know, C E O. S and
Fortune one thousand, you know, so they have this wealth
that they you know, grown up with, and then you would,
you know, jump in your car and you go to
this other zip code where it was the exact opposite.
Tell our audience what that looks like those kids in
I forget the town name. What was it? Immachaly? Amachaly
(06:14):
such a beautiful name. It's such a beautiful word. But
Amaly what are they? Yeah, like, what are they up against?
So can you paint this picture to our audience so
that we can really impress upon I think it will
help us understand the work that also you're doing with
Ustrow's new look as well. Absolutely, so you know, Naples, Florida.
(06:35):
This is this is a little joke. I like to say,
that was the first time I actually saw a maid
look like a million badlia right in the black world. Wow? Really?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, my kids would go You asked them, hey,
what did you do over the weekend? Oh, we went
to our private island. Um, you know, the parents were
there to support at the drop of a dime. And
(06:58):
this was the other thing at that school, you know
p t A. I remember them doing a backwards raffle
and the grand prize was like ten thousand dollars. What wow.
There are some p t as that don't even have
five thousand dollars and in the whole right, so they're
giving away ten thousand dollars. I was there part time
(07:20):
at the school. In my classroom, I was there part time.
The lights were off two days a week when I
was in the Machaly, but I had probably six or
seven computers that were assigned to my classroom. Now I
go to the Machaly two days a week. Again, like
I said, beautiful town, beautiful spirit. Loved it. The community
was great, but the resources were lacking. My parents got
(07:41):
over us at five am to go to pick whatever
the seasonal crop was. So we did school there differently.
To call in a parent for a conference during the day,
that meant they probably were gonna miss a day of
work right at night. Um. A lot of what was
happening in the Machaly. You had half charities other organizations,
(08:02):
but they were providing for those physical needs. That were
most pressing for the students and the families that we served.
You know, there were it was nothing. If you saw
students come, we had a a clothing closet and a
food pantry where if they you know, one of my
students came to school with two small soccer cleats on right,
and so how do you handle that delicately? These are
(08:24):
the types of things I've always been about, how do
we expose youth to things that maybe they don't have
readily accessible to them. It's also very big on service learning,
and so one of the things was that my students
in the Macola, they decided for their project as a class,
they wanted to paint a mural at the school. Yeah permission.
(08:44):
I got a mural artist to donate the resources as
well as her time to come and help them. We
just had to do it on a Saturday. So when
I got the permission, slips out and everything. The student
who actually drew out the sketch, he was an artist.
He came to me and said, Missed, I can't come
on Saturday because I go to work with my family,
so private island on the weekend, right on the weekend
(09:08):
that I think that paints a picture of sort of
just to the two spaces that I was occupying as
an educator at that time. M hm. So now fast forward,
you're with Usher's new look and you're in this position
where you're able to empower and educate so many children
in the Atlanta area, and you've now also added financial literacy.
(09:29):
Talk about why this is important to you, and I
know you basically just explained it, but what it is
that you really feel like at this age, the kids
they need to know they need to learn from your
organization because you know, sometimes it's just there's not enough
hours in the day for these working parents to go home.
I mean, they're not sitting at home talking about raw
bor o one case, and where they can you know,
(09:51):
put their money into crypto because there in some cases
out in the fields almost working picking a crop. That's right.
You know. We we have been really helping our young
people through our four pillars up until seventeen UM Talent Education,
Career in Service. That was the focus of it, obviously
(10:13):
to help our young people to develop. We realized through
doing some work one of our programs is called Powered
by Service and what it is is that our college
students go into middle schools and high schools and facilitate
this amazing four to five day workshop. I call it
an assembly on steroids, still talking about how you can
impact your community, all of these different things things your brand,
(10:37):
networking well. We partnered through Truest, we partnered with Omation Hope,
and we're doing added some budgeting activities into the Power
by Service day for these particular schools. We were in
d C and what we came back and realized is
that this is sort of the missing fifth pillar, right
those young people obviously had not been having conversations about
(10:59):
money and saving and credit and budgets, etcetera. So we
thought and said, how can we add this to what
it is that we're doing. And through a million dollar
grant with Truest. Wow, I mean shout out to that
foundation for just in this organization and what we've been
able to build and having to trust in us to
(11:21):
continue to do that. Um. We built this amazing youth centric,
very culturally relevant financial literacy curriculum that permeates throughout our
curriculum and what it has done is turned the minds
and the ideas on of our young people to money.
How do they save it? You know, we've been able
(11:43):
to actively provide our young people with funding to start
investment accounts. Our college students are actually trained to go
and train other young people. And I'll tell you. We
were in a little round Arkansas doing one of those
power by so Rich trainings and They're going through the
budgeting exercise and I'm just kind of rotating throughout the
(12:05):
room and i hear this young man say, I get it.
They're teaching us about our future so we can change it.
Oh my god, Oh my god, my heart right now,
ye listen, I'm like, yes, And I've been saying that
every everywhere, because that is exactly it. You to your point.
(12:25):
There's so many people that think, oh, kids should learn
all of these things from their parents. They should learn them.
I've actually had someone tell me those are things they
should talk about around the dining room table. Well, one
that's assuming that they have a dining room table. That's
assuming that they're eating dinner, everybody's at the table at
the same time, right, And that's assuming that that knowledge
is that expensive knowledge household. So that you mean, that's
(12:49):
where we see ourselves sort of walking alongside parents, walking
alongside schools, supporting our young people and gaining this knowledge
that they need so that they are not as step
behind and that they can really really see themselves in
these positions of wealth in the future. This is something
that I just love too, because you know, even when
(13:11):
we think of that, all the assumptions that people do
make today. You know a lot of folks come on
this podcast as well and they're like, well, my parents
didn't teach me this. They didn't know it either, and
so now it's kind of like, well, where is the onus? Right?
And so it's organizations like User's New Look that are
sort of picking up um, sort of picking up the
slack and really teaching it to to folks younger and
(13:34):
younger and younger, UM and and and this is just
why I feel like it's such an important part of
your curriculum. When we go back to your programming, you
have a significant success right high school graduation enroule in
college of your students are from first generation households. How
(13:55):
have you managed to keep the kids so engaged? I
friends who have kids that are like, oh my goodness,
you know the number one thing right now is engaging
teams getting but they're coming back, They're sticking with the
program and they're soaring. What is it about the organization
the curriculum that really gets these kids engaged and coming
(14:17):
back and with these high success rates. You know, a
part of our secret sauces that peer to peer. Un
L is built upon relationships. You will often hear our students,
you will often hear our staff. Even our board members
say refer to it as the un L family. It
is something blessed about this organization. It creates this environment. Well,
(14:42):
young people know they can come, they can be themselves,
but not only that, they're going to connect with other
young people. They may all not all be interested in
the same thing, but they sort of this um really
amazing community where they're supporting one another, they're building together.
This is not the just coming and look there's a
space for all of it. They're not just coming and
(15:03):
doing homework. They're not just coming in you know, watching
a movie or something like that. What they're having these
shared experiences. We bring in amazing speakers. They're actually doing
things and creating projects together in our Sparks Center here
and also we have a program in Brooklyn, New York.
So it's the same thing that's being created amongst these
(15:26):
or these these chapters, if you will, and then we
bring them together. So now it's New York meeting Atlanta
young people and that's all. Yeah, they feel like they're
part of something that's so much bigger than them. Um,
there's an opportunity for us to listen to them, to
hear what they are saying. We do something called expressions.
So it's about building up their confidence to express their
(15:49):
gifts and talent. I mean, it's just an environment where
we make it ready for them to learn the things
that they need to learn. And then what they'll say
is and even our valuations say, when you look at
where did you learn about careers and financial literacy and
college admission? You and Neil is highed as one of
the as the highest space where they're learning this. Oh
(16:12):
that's counselor's parents, etcetera. That has got to feel really good.
That moves the needle. You know, where did you learn
about that? Admissions S A T S. When do I
start doing them? You know a lot of the kids
that were serving in these communities our first our first
generation to go to college. So you know it's a
struggle for parents to you know, hold day on the floor,
(16:34):
get jobs get them into college. But no, when do
I apply? What do I need on a college application? Is?
It just gets more and more complex these days. You know,
I just couldn't help myself right there, because as soon
as you talked about the program expressions and I know
this is Usher's new look, I couldn't help it. I
started going, these are my expressions and sorry, money Movers.
(16:54):
I had to do it. I had to do it.
You'll have to excuse my singing. I want to pause
us there and talk about, you know, the other side
of being a CEO as well of a nonprofit organization
here in Atlanta. It's a huge job, it's a huge role,
and you have, you know, all these children and their
futures that you hold. Um, talk about that transition and
(17:17):
what was sort of the most surprising part from this
part for you. There's a lot of people in the
audience who do work in nonprofit, but um, what when
you look back across your four years as the CEO
has been the most difficult surprising piece. So, you know,
one of the first things that I'd like to think
when people think nonprofit, they think it's just do gooders
(17:38):
working in their passion, pulling on the hard streams. But
this is a business, you know, and making sure that
it operates as a business. We have an amazing foundation
that was started by those, um my predecessors, Sean Wilson,
any pet clip right, um. And so I often look
at myself as I'm adding on the second floor to
this house, as you will, what are some of those
(18:00):
things that we need? We have amazing programming, we have
the impact now as an organization. What are some of
the processes that we need. How do we build capacity
so that we're not overworking staff? Um? And you know
you hear people in nonprofits say, oh, I were ten
thousand hats, Well, that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
(18:20):
To bring in the resources and fund our business just
like any other for profit business. You know, you're not
gonna see the CMO of GE going out and selling parts, right,
and so to be the case with nonprofit. So really
raising the money so that we can build this capacity
(18:41):
and really truly operate on all cylinders with efficiency as
a business. And that's where I'm sort of heads down
in right now in taming. I'd love to hear you
say that, because you know, I think and we sort
of shifted from you know, looking at the children's side,
but to this, to the nonprofit side. But that is
such a natural and normal lives, refrained and nonprofits. I
(19:02):
wear all the hats, and you know, it's so busy
and there's just not enough capacity. And I love that.
This is what you're being intentional about. Like, you know,
if it's general Motors, he is not. I'm sure he has,
you know, a view into all areas of the business.
But to support our nonprofits at its best, we need
(19:22):
people to be able to do their job in the
best way possible. And a lot of this comes down
to being able to property, fundraise and have the funds
to support the business and staff so that everyone can
be their best. That's exactly right now. And the other
part that I'm really intentional about is us being experts
in our industry. You know, it's it's not enough just
(19:42):
everyone on our team. I tell people all the time,
I've never worked with such a passionate group of people.
That's just a new look. But it's not just enough
for passion. We need to be experts. Anyone should be
able to get on a panel or get you know,
if the news calls and talk about the work you
do UM and may here that we invest in our
team in that way as well. Yes, yes, So what's
(20:05):
next for Usher's new look You, I know you've launched
a couple of new programs and I'd love you to
talk a little about the Disruptive Disruptor Club, Disruptivator, Disruptivators. Yeah,
so in twos sixteen we coined this term disruptivator, which
is someone who uses their sparker passion to bring about
change in the world. And that's how we talk about
(20:27):
the youth that we serve, the disruptivators. We even have
a huge UM summit during the summer called our Disruptivators Summit.
And so one of the things that I told you,
we program in Atlanta as well as Brooklyn. Those are
our core after school programs, but we have taken this
powered by Service all over the world. We've taken our
programming all over the world. And one thing about the pandemic,
(20:49):
we were able to flip on a dime and virtually
and so we we literally had students from Barbados, Handada,
no that's home for you write from Dominican Republic to
join our sessions because there was such a need for
our young people to have that community. And what we
(21:11):
said is, okay, there's always people have said, how do
we get you and L at our school from DC
to California, etcetera. How can we create this? And so
what we've created is essentially you and L in the box.
We've collaborated with the labs Ferry Allen. They've built out
a virtual clubhouse for us, and what we've done is
(21:31):
created digital content that we are then putting into this clubhouse.
So say, if it's a school, a church, a home
school group, a community organization, they can sign up to
be a Disruptivator Club. We have about ten now um
and to grow and then they convene their young people
(21:52):
put on this digital curriculum. We also send essentially a
lesson plan that our students are doing in Brooklyn and
New York and they can facilitate it there. But those
students are now a part of the un L family.
They can attend our national programming like our first Friday
Scholarship sessions that we hold virtually on Fridays. They now
come to our Disruptivators summits during the summer. You know,
(22:15):
there will be awards for the Disruptivator Club of the year,
the disruptivator of the year, and they just really get
to plug in too. Un L. They are a part
of us as new book and that's our next, our
next phase, if you will, And in the ability to
scale un L in a way that's intentional. I often
think about it, Macholy and like I said before, a
(22:35):
lot of the focus was on addressing the physical needs rightly.
So however, a place like a Machole or small towns
in Georgia that don't have literally any resources, mentoring, uh
services anything right perfect for them so that those youth
can have access to these types of opportunities and knowledge
(22:56):
and skills as well well. I love that because you know,
there are are these great stories that are silver linings
from COVID that have allowed us to sort of reach
beyond our geographical borders and touch the communities that are
sometimes you know, they get a little bit forsaken. And
I think that's really important because that reach is is critical. Um,
can you tell us how many kids has Usher's New
(23:17):
Look touched in the twenty three years? Over fifty youths? Wow,
Usher's New Look And like I said, this is globally,
I mean South Africa, Camera, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Hong Kong.
We have been everywhere and as well as within our
(23:38):
own United States UM Toronto, Vancouver, serving youth. Yeah. Absolutely,
and so that is that's what we are. We we
can provide this information and this these experiences that we
provide to you translate UM across racial ethnic lines for
our young people. We we I will tell you we
(23:58):
partnered with the State Department UM and Marini in an
organization that works with them to serve over a hundred
youths from seventeen different African countries here in Atlanta as
they were on UM an excursion. And it was the
most fantastic thing for our young people also because they
got learning is relatable for young people their age wherever
(24:23):
you are. Wow, that's incredible. Oh my goodness, And I
just love the global reach. UM. That's that's really some
beautiful and important work. Okay, I would be remiss if
I didn't ask how is it working with Usher and
why he was so passionate about starting this organization twenty
three years ago. US was amazing. I will say that
(24:45):
he's an amazing entertainer. But what people should also know
is that he is he has a heart for this organization.
These young people. They call him Big Brother Almighty. Yeah.
All of the young people that go through they get
a code name, and that's his and it's been there,
you know, since the camp days. He is passionate about
(25:06):
young people finding their spark. One of the things when
he started the organization was that you would go and
ask students, Okay, what do you what do you want
to be when you grow up? Was an athlete or
an entertainer, you know, And his thing was, I want
them to see all the other things that they can
do in the same industry. It's okay to want to
be me, but if you want to be me or
(25:27):
the best athlete because that's the only way you think
you can generate wealth or you know, get get those
things to associate with success, that's a disservice. You need
to know all of the options that are out there.
And that really was the catalyst for the programming that
we do with us just New Look, with the career
Exploration and everything. A little known story is that he
(25:48):
and his mom, Miss Patton, they went into Judge Hatchett's
courtroom when he was you know, nineteen twenty and you know,
we're just thinking, how let's talk about how we can
impact the community. So they set in for juvenile proceeding
just to kind of see what are some of those
issues out there, and that's when they walked out of
that courtroom saying, you know, I see leaders in here,
(26:09):
you know, giving down sentences of community service. Why is
that a punishment? Um, all these different things. These kids
need to grief. And that's User's new look. So he
is still there. People asked all the time, is he involved.
He's still very involved. He'll walk in and the young people,
it's not like, oh, that's a big celebrity, that's Barty
and they know he's invested in their success. Oh that
(26:32):
is so wonderful. I love to hear that that's me.
And you know, this is something I think at Money Waves,
I really want people to understand. It's like, oh, oftentimes
people grew up to think that wealth was correlated to
oh you were a basketball star, you were a musician,
And there's so much more to There's so much more
opportunity that's available and within reach and possible. We just
(26:55):
need to show our kids the road maps, show them
the work that you're doing. At the CEO of with
me look as a lawyer, et cetera. And you know,
I feel like these are our modern day rock stars.
They might not be able to sing, uh, you know
a lot of them can't dance, but these are the
pathways in the roadways to success that you know by
highlighting you know, through Ushers and Look and Money Moves,
(27:17):
that we can really change the generational trajectories of our community.
So thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
We appreciate you so much. Before we leave, I want
to ask two questions. One, how can a kid sign
up for Usher's New Look? And how can you know
those who might have something to contribute to Usher's New Look,
whether it's in funds or their time. Um, can you
(27:40):
tell us how to connect with the organization? Absolutely so.
There our website has everything that you need Usher's New
Look dot org and we have a section on there
on the first page where someone can go in and
put their email address if they want to get involved,
and that comes directly to us and we send it
to the person that you know, if they want to
(28:01):
volunteer in programmings, someone will reach out to them. We
also have a big green donate button on the top
right of the stage. Yes, if anyone wants to support,
we are a five oh one C three organization UM
and we're fundraising and those resources go to our programming.
And so we we have women of Influence, we have
(28:22):
League of Men, or if they just want to give
a general donation, you can do that there. And then
for youth or parents who want to get their kids engage,
they can email info at Usher's new Look dot org
info at Usher's new Look dot org, and we will
be sure to get back with them and get them
the information that they need to participate. I mean, look,
(28:42):
we have our after school program, We're building out an
entrepreneurship youth accelerator, we have our Disruptivator clubs. There is
something for every youth at Usher's new Look. And you
know this is something else I I, you know, work
very closely and with UM some nonprofits in Atlanta as well,
and I really encourage people. Oftentimes they think they don't
(29:04):
have the time or they don't have anything to give
to these organizations or kids. But it is the biggest cliche,
but it is such a true asm for me. I
promise you will get ten times more back from spending
your time volunteering with these kids. It has been such
a gift to me. So you know, those of you
who are listening, reach out, you know, go to a
(29:27):
volunteer session and just spend some time giving back and
you will be blessed beyond measure. Blessed beyond measure. That is,
it is so true. Agree with you on that the
return on investment, you know it. And I tell people
all the time, yes we need financial resources, but that
human capital is important for us and our model for
our young people to see and to talk to and
(29:49):
to hear. Yes there, yeah, well Crea, before we leave,
tell us where folks can find you on your social
media channels or LinkedIn, whichever you prefer people to connect
with you. I am Kaishia more on all platforms Instagram,
Twitter as well as LinkedIn. Definitely want to join and
I love, you know, to getting conversations about education and
(30:10):
our youth and issues that matter to them, but also
just to meet people who are in this space and
interesting in supporting our youth in our organization. So that's
Kureshia more alright, money Movers, thank you so much. Kureshia.
You are truly a gem, and thank you so much.
For the work that you're doing to change the lives
of so many youth all over the world. Thank you,
(30:33):
Money Movers. That's all the time we have for today,
but make sure to follow Karashia more on all her
social media handles and make sure you check out Usher's
new look. Thank you so much for joining, and if
we have helped you make your money move, please make
sure to let us know by sending us alike, sharing
the knowledge, and or leaving us a review on Apple podcast.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
(30:55):
please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcasts of the log H
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