I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THIS MUSIC
I think one of the hardest things to kill is a corrupted mindset. I hate the feeling that we can see a young black person doing well for themselves financially and be so eager to find the deceit in them. “It must be a scam their doing” or we’ll throw some shade on them and say “we’ll see how long they can keep it up.” Did you know that the lifespan of a dollar in the Asian community is 28 days, 19 days in the Jewish community, and approximately six hours in the African American community? How is the best selling beauty supply by your house owned by an Asian family and you live in a Black community? We make their pockets fatter, while they take all the money they made from us right back to their families and distribute the wealth and knowledge to their offsprings (whom will eventually probably recreate the same scenario in another community and reap the same benefits.) African Americans can feel so entitled when it comes to our own businesses. We search for any loophole we can find to not pay the full price of our own products, but don’t mind paying the full price for some other big commercial brand. As I mentioned in my blog “Saving For Dummies” “We are much more willing to give money to companies that charge $300 for a shirt and belt, but get mad when a black business charges us $30 for a t-shirt.” We must change our mindsets and begin to network within each other brands and use the resources and connections we all have to help boost each other businesses to grow and reach another level of success, rather than one brand blowing up and undercutting all other local brands to go work with the white man and leave their community the same way its been for the last 30 years… Never underestimate the power of a group of young black entrepreneurs all on the same mission to GROW.
Storytime, so buckle up… A few weeks ago I attended a meetup in Dallas for photographers, videographers, creatives, and models that my brother had sent me from Instagram. Upon arriving at the event I was pretty happy to see the majority of the people there were Black individuals with many different talents. I was happy to see us collaborating in a FREE event and exchanging each other skillsets to benefit one another in a positive manner. I met a videographer named Tim, which happened to be perfect because I was in the works of creating my short film “Bruce vs Kory” and needed someone to shoot it. Later as the event went along I met another dude named Ken who was a creative. He was like me and heard of the event and wanted to come out to see what was happening and also see if he could network plus meet some new people. We began talking and even exchanging info on both of our businesses. He told me he had a podcast called “Blacks and Facts” and showed me what they do and I reciprocated his energy by telling him about Arkham Thoughts. I let him read the blog “20/20 Hindsight” to give him a glimpse into my world that I live in. We were still talking as he began to skim through the blog, then he complimented my style of writing and even asked for a second of silence so that he could really take the time to read the blog thoroughly. At the end of him reading it, he was so impressed that he asked me to collaborate with his brand for some content. I saw this as a great opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and take a step in a direction I wasn’t accustomed to. Working with another black brand who also is tapped into the market of our mother country Africa was a great experience and almost felt like a bridging of the gap, not to mention they are young black entrepreneurs working to grow their brand, as I am as well. It’s important to share yourself with others because you never know who they may know and they never know who you may know as well. Long story short I had already been hoping and praying that when I went to this event I would meet someone that was meant for me and both of us came across each other and was there for the same reason. It all felt aligned and meant to be and the results of that encounter resulted in the video below…
Connect with your peers. Don’t be so closed off with your craft that you exclude your own community from experiencing you as well. Networking amongst young black entrepreneurs is a great skill to learn, the amount of collaborations that could come about from you just reaching out is unlimited. I understand some may be on another level than other brands, but why shun them because you moved up a level? That sounds like a house slave mindset to me… There is enough money in this world for us all to get a taste of living a fancy lifestyle, but nahhh, we’d rather keep all the information for ourselves then drop subtle comments like “You got to keep grinding” when someone asks how you made it. Drop the rope down and actually give out some real free game and allow someone else to use your blueprint as a ladder for them to come up as well. Nipsey Hussle once said “I taught all my homies how to fish. Some caught more than others. Some said they rather be fed. Some passed me up in the process. But at the end of it all, I know I ain’t hide the game from my people and I’m real for that.” In the wise words of Kendrick Lamar “You ain’t gotta lie to kick it”
-KoryH