Black Entrepreneur Blueprint 558 - Jay Jones - The 3 Keys To Black Economic Empowerment (The Realest Take You Ever Heard)

[00:00:12] Welcome to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint, the number one podcast and resource for Black entrepreneurs. I'm your host Jay Jones and Black Entrepreneur Blueprint was created specifically to educate and inspire Black entrepreneurs to launch, build and grow successful, sustainable businesses. Join us as we help build an economic power base in the worldwide Black community by building and supporting Black owned businesses.

[00:00:41] If you're currently an entrepreneur or want to be an entrepreneur, you're invited to join us each and every week here at Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Welcome to the BEB family and get ready to elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint episode number 558.

[00:01:08] I'm your host Jay Jones and today we have another outstanding and informative show in store for you. Today's show topic is the 3 Keys To Black Economic Empowerment The Realest Take You Ever Heard. 3 Keys To Black Economic Empowerment The Realest Take You Ever Heard. Today guys we're getting super serious when it comes to economics and Black Economic Empowerment.

[00:01:33] There's a quote I always say and it's, there's no revolution without economics. There's no revolution without economics. Economics runs and fuels everything. And today we're going to talk about the importance of Black Economic Empowerment and I'm going to give you 3 Keys To Actually Create That.

[00:01:54] So today we're going to talk about moving our people from where we are, which is the bottom of the economic totem pole to the top. And if you don't know it guys, we're in a war and it's an economic war. And if you look at today's political landscape where Trump and his cronies are trying to get rid of everything that is trying to level the playing field like DEI and other policies and procedures, I'm telling you it's a war.

[00:02:24] And if you're walking around oblivious to it, you need to get your head out of the sand and understand that there is stuff that we can do. And we're going to discuss and dissect all of that today. So I'm going to ask you before you even listen to this episode to share this episode with all of your network. It's, it's super imperative guys that we change not just the narrative, but we change the reality of where we are on the economic totem pole.

[00:02:54] Now, before we get to today's show content, let me just share a few things with the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint family. First and foremost, I want to welcome all first time listeners to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Welcome to the BEB family. Please stick around until the end of today's broadcast. And I'm going to share all my social media contact information and resource links, such as the link to my new revised revamped website, blackentrepreneurblueprint.com.

[00:03:23] Guys, make sure you go to the website, hit the learn tab, which is a dropdown. And we have all types of resources to help you elevate your entrepreneur IQ, move you from point A to point B. So we have things on marketing, e-commerce, strategy and mindset, scaling your business, real estate, all types of free resources.

[00:03:46] So go to blackentrepreneurblueprint.com and take advantage of all the content and the whole ecosystem of Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Now, let's get ready for today's content. So today, guys, we're going to be raw and a little uncut. So because I'm super passionate about this, I'm super passionate about us, you know, the black community worldwide, not just here in the States.

[00:04:12] This topic is of paramount importance, guys, when it comes to changing our economic outlook. So please share this with your entire network. I don't care if the people work nine to five, if you're an entrepreneur, your entire network, not just the United States globally. Please share this episode. We want to get this good word out, guys, and it's time to get active. It's time to activate and actually put some of this stuff into play right now.

[00:04:41] So we're going to talk about the three keys to black economic empowerment, the real estate you ever heard. These are my personal opinions from being a serial entrepreneur for over 25 plus years, successful serial entrepreneur, and also being a business coach for over 20 plus years. So I've seen the gamuts, guys, the highs and the lows. And I've been there. I've walked a walk.

[00:05:07] You know, I've almost lost it all twice, but I was blessed to be able to come back and build two separate multimillion dollar businesses. And once again, there's nothing out there that I haven't seen when it comes to economics and entrepreneurship in my experience and in my personal life in general. The first thing I want to do is kind of lay a foundation. And I looked up some information on Nielsen and some other sources about where we are right now. And I'm just going to read this.

[00:05:37] According to recent projections, black economic buying power in the United States is expected to reach approximately 1.98 trillion by 2025, highlighting the growing economic influence of the black community. Now that's 1.98 trillion with a T. This estimate is based on data from Nielsen and other market research firms analyzing trends in black consumer spending. Now the growth trajectory.

[00:06:06] This represents a continued increase from current levels, indicating the potential for further economic power within the black community. Now companies are increasingly recognizing the need to cater to black consumers to their significant purchasing power. So that's a foundation. That's currently where we are right now in 2025. We're looking at 1.98 trillion dollars in spending power.

[00:06:36] Now I've heard people say that there's no such thing as the black dollar. So I'm about to shut that nonsense down right now. So if there's no such thing as the black dollar, there's no such thing as the white dollar, the Asian dollar, the Latino dollar. The dollars that you control are your dollars. Okay. So if you designate your dollars to go to black owned businesses, guess what?

[00:07:02] You're helping support your own community just like everybody else does. But us. Okay. We all know about the circulation of the dollar in the white community. 15 to 18 days Asian community. It's like 20 something days black community six hours. So don't give me that nonsense that there's no such thing as black dollars.

[00:07:25] Because if there's no such thing as black dollars, there's no such thing as white dollars or Asian dollars or Latino dollars or wherever your ethnicity is. But when you are able to aggregate, and this is what we're not doing. When you're able to aggregate and you have a plan to spend money with your own community, all that does is help support and grow that community.

[00:07:51] You know, less than two cents of every dollar is spent on a black owned business. This is black folks spending less than two cents of every dollar. Just imagine if you multiply that from two cents to 20 cents. What kind of difference would that have in our community? And we're going to break all of that stuff down. Let's talk about key number one, which is change your mindset. Key number one is change your mindset.

[00:08:18] And under this, I have several bullet points. So the first thing you have to do, you have to change your mindset about money, right? Money is used as a tool to build wealth, not by depreciating products. This is from the mindset of economic empowerment. Yes, a lot of people spend money on depreciating things or products or whatever. Now you can't help it. You buy a car. Guess what? It's going to depreciate as soon as you drive it off the lot.

[00:08:47] We understand that. But your mindset about money should be used as a tool to build wealth. Okay? Use that change in mindset to build wealth. What can I take this dollar and do with it to help me build wealth? Here's a little side note. And I teach some of my clients this all the time.

[00:09:08] So when you get a chunk of money, a lot of people, the first thing they want to do is go buy something, pay off bills, which is fine, or do other things. But how about take that money so you can start making money. So when you get your tax refund, instead of going and buying dumb stuff, why don't you go and invest it in a business or whatever to help generate income? So you may get a $10,000 tax refund, right?

[00:09:38] Instead of paying off, you know, everything and you're back down to zero, take the money to help make money. So then you can pay off your bills or other things that you need to do. All right. We have to change the long term thinking that we have versus the short term thinking. So change your mindset. The first thing is about money. The next thing that you need to change your mindset about is consumerism.

[00:10:04] Guys, we are super consumers when we also need to be producers. Now, everybody in the world is a consumer because you have to buy things to live. But you need to balance out the ledger by also becoming a producer. Now, you don't have to necessarily start your business as a full time business. You can have a part time business. You can have a side hustle.

[00:10:30] But become a producer along with being a consumer. When you're totally in that consumer half of the page of that ledger, guess what? You don't have a chance. Everybody is coming at you with all their products and services. And all you're doing is consuming. You know, this country, the United States was built on the physical labor of black folks.

[00:10:55] Now it's continuing to be built on the actual economic labor of black folks because we're giving all our money to other ethnicities. So when they talk about the American dream, guess what they're talking about? You're the American dream because they know they can continue to produce all types of BS products and services. And if it has the right name, your simple Simon ass is going to buy it.

[00:11:22] So once again, guys, stop being a consumer 100% of the time and start being a producer. Another thing about mindset, guys, don't believe the lies about black owned businesses being inferior and selling inferior products or services.

[00:11:42] Now, and I'm going to get into this deeper later on, but I just want you to have that same critique for every business you go in versus black owned businesses. You see, we've been sold a bill of goods. We look at the media, social media. Oh man, he's black owned businesses charge too much. We're going to get into that too later on. Oh, they're not good. They open two minutes late.

[00:12:08] Now, when you start listening to that and following that, guess what is doing is dividing and conquering. And once again, that's the whole plan. They want you to despise black owned businesses as much as they do. And guess what? A lot of our dumb asses do. You don't even give a black owned business a chance. And if they mess up just one minuscule or iota, that's it.

[00:12:34] You're going to be sitting there talking all kinds of nonsense about the business. And it really, it infuriates me because when you find a good business, how much do you talk about it? You know, there's an old saying that, that bad news travels fastest, two times fastest good news. So don't believe all that hype and the lies about black owned businesses being inferior or selling inferior products. Now, if they are, it is what it is.

[00:13:03] But don't just assume that from the rip. Another thing about changing your mindset, guys, understand the master plan from the other ethnicities and the media. I just touched on this. They don't want you to support your own businesses. Think about this. What other ethnicity do you see or ethnicities do you see going around talking or bad-mouthing their own businesses? You damn sure don't see Asians doing it.

[00:13:32] You don't see Indians doing it. You don't see Latinos doing it. You don't see white folks doing it. We're the only ones doing this nonsense in public. Now, if you need to have a private conversation with a business owner, that's one thing and that's fine. But everything you think doesn't have to go on social media. Everything you think, everybody doesn't need to know. So think about the master plan.

[00:14:00] And all of this social media, I'm telling y'all, it's not real. Not all of them. There's things that are put out there on purpose. When you talk about the elections, you talk about, you know, China infiltrating the elections, the previous election. And things are put out there on purpose. The media shapes and controls narratives. So understand, and I touched on it earlier, guys, it's a war going on.

[00:14:28] And if you think everything is hunky dory, you got a, you got another problem. You got more problems than listening to Jay Jones and black entrepreneur blueprint. You got a lot of study in the deal. All right. Cause it's a war going on. So don't believe all that hype. And the last thing I want to say about changing your mindset is. I did an episode title. Here's what they think about you about two years ago. And what it was, it was an excerpt that.

[00:14:56] That, uh, one of the B E B family members actually played me. And it was talking about a Chinese construction company that was in Jamaica. And the foreman of the Chinese construction company wouldn't hire black folks, native Jamaicans. And he was saying to one of the guys, one of the Jamaican guys, you guys are the dumbest people out there.

[00:15:20] You let us come over here, take over your country, build all this stuff, you know, owned by, by the Chinese. And you're not making any money. They're literally coming over and taking over. They're not hiring people of Jamaican descent. And they're X, they're extracting all the resources. So it's an episode you can look at, uh, look it up, go to Google black entrepreneur blueprint. Here's what they think about you.

[00:15:48] So here's what they think about you guys. They think that you're going to continue to buy from people that don't give a damn about you and treat you like garbage. The mindset that, that I see a lot of us have is, you know what you talk about the black owned stores versus the white owned stores. You can go into a, uh, a Chinese corner store, right? Get your chicken wings or whatever. They throw the change on the counter. Guess what happens?

[00:16:17] You want to pick it up like some happy go lucky nut. And you'll be right back in there the next day, buy some more chicken wings, right? Now for brother or sister through you to change on the counter, you'd have a problem and be yelling like hell all over social media. So once again, look at the critique. Are you critiquing other businesses like you're critiquing black businesses? Here's what they think about you.

[00:16:44] They know that it doesn't matter what they say or do. Your simple Simon ass is going to still patronize the business. It's almost like, uh, Jim Jones, right? So Jim Jones, the rapper went into Gucci a couple of years ago. He walking around on Instagram talking about, oh, they not giving me my champagne. I'm trying to spend 25, 30 racks, blah, blah, blah. They not treating me right. What kind of nonsense is that?

[00:17:12] Where you're begging somebody to take your money that doesn't want your money. It's akin to going up to the counter, right? Buying a product out of a store. They spit in your face. You give them the money. We thank you very much. I'll be back next week. It's the dumbest shit that I've ever seen. Giving your money to people that don't care about you.

[00:17:37] Don't even want your money and excuse the expletives because I get ant when I'm talking about this because these are things that we can change. These are things that we can change, but nothing's going to change unless you change your mindset. First, you're giving fools money that don't respect you. Don't even like you. They're extracting money out of your neighborhoods and communities.

[00:18:02] So when we walk around, we in North Philly or wherever we are, and all we see is blight. Other people coming in and they see, they see dollars. That's the reason they're opening up stores all in our community. They're extracting the resources that are in that community and they're taking them out. So the first key guys is you have to change your mindset. Recognize and understand the playing field. Recognize and understand the game.

[00:18:32] Recognize and understand that this is a war. This is an economic war. We already know there's a racial war going on. We see what's happening right now with Trump as he, him and his cronies, like I said, are trying to dismantle everything that the civil rights act from 1964 and 65 have put into place. They're trying to go back to states rights. You know what that means is right? Oh, let's, let's shut down or take away big government.

[00:19:03] Let the states determine what's right. So when you get out there in them Yankee state, I mean, not Yankee, them Southern states, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, all of that stuff. And they have the ability to change the state laws and regulations. That's what they're talking about. It's a war out there. And we're sitting around worrying about some dumb stuff when we need to be focusing on building economics. There's no revolution family without economics.

[00:19:33] Remember that economics is the foundation for everything. And we're going to get into that a little bit later. But key number one, change your mindset, change your mindset, change your money, change your mindset, change your situation. Now let's jump to key number two, the importance of building successful, sustainable black owned businesses. Sustainable is the key word.

[00:19:59] We don't want to build businesses that last for a year, two years and go out of business. Now, sometimes that happens, but we have to be more diligent when it comes to building the foundation of your business. And many times, unfortunately, we don't have the resources to build a strong foundation or we don't know how to build a strong foundation. So let's talk about the importance of building successful, sustainable black owned businesses.

[00:20:27] Number one, you got to move from super consumer to producer. Once again, stop being a consumer and now be a producer of goods and services. Okay. The next thing you want to look at is circulating dollars in our own community and becoming self-sufficient. We just talked about that a little earlier. The dollar stays in our community, six hours, if that. Let me give you this example.

[00:20:55] So you understand because a lot of it guys is not done on purpose, but we don't even think about it. And I've used this example in a couple of episodes before. Just say you bring home a thousand dollars a week, right? So you get paid Thursday night. So Friday morning when you wake up, that thousand dollars net is sitting in your account. First thing you do when you get up Friday morning, you go and you fill your tank up with gas, right?

[00:21:23] You put $60 in the tank of gas and guess what? It's probably not a black owned gas station, right? While you're at the gas station, you know what? Why don't you grab some coffee and a little breakfast? That's another, say, $15 that you just put in, that you just spent at that same location. It's Friday lunchtime. You guys been working hard that week. You go out to lunch. You spend, say, another $35 on lunch, right?

[00:21:52] Now you come back to the office. You finish out your day. It's Friday. Man, you know what? I'm going to go eat out. I'm going to hit a restaurant, a bar, whatever. Have some dinner and drinks. You spend, what? Just say, I'll go easy, $150 on that, right? If my calculations are correct, that means you spent $260, which is 26% of your take home pay within eight hours.

[00:22:20] And all 26% of that or $260 didn't go to one black owned business. Now the thing is, you probably never even thought about patronizing a black owned business because you're doing what you just normally do. But that's one of the reasons, guys, why we need to build black owned businesses and we have to build sustainable black owned businesses. So now that you have options that you can spend your money with a black owned business.

[00:22:50] And we're talking about the number two, the importance of building successful, sustainable black owned businesses, circulating dollars in our own community to become self-sufficient. Now, healthy businesses, guys, allow us to hire people. So when you patronize and support a black owned business and that black owned business grows, guess what they're going to need? They're going to need more help.

[00:23:17] Now, statistics show that most ethnicities hire people that look like them, people that they are comfortable with. So that's why when we look at the workforce right now, we have people in positions of power that don't even merit being there. How many times have you thought that your boss was an idiot? And it's not because of what they know. It's who they know and who they are.

[00:23:44] So now when you're able to own the business, you can control who you hire. And it's a cyclical thing. So now you're giving opportunities to people who may not have had opportunities before. In my first mortgage business, I had over 50 plus employees.

[00:24:04] And many of my loan officers couldn't even have gotten a job at some other mortgage companies, most other mortgage companies, because number one, the way they look skin color, unfortunately. And many of the loan officers we hired had absolutely no training whatsoever in the industry. But we wanted to give people our people an opportunity.

[00:24:31] So, hey, if you got the right attitude, the right mentality, you ready to hustle, we're going to give you that opportunity that many other mortgage companies won't. And it's funny because we've hired. I can't even count the number of loan officers back then that we hired that didn't even get an interview with other mortgage companies that they applied to.

[00:24:51] So when you control that the business and you continue to grow, you have the opportunity to impact lives of other black folks. So I don't get mad when I go into an Asian store corner store and all I see is Asians. Why go into the Indian supermarket and all I see is Indians working there. Guess what? They own the business. They can do what they want.

[00:25:17] Stop sticking your hand out, waiting for somebody else to feed you. We're going to talk about that a little bit later, too. So key number two, the importance of building successful, sustainable businesses. It moves you from super consumer to producer. It helps circulate dollars in our own community to help us become self-sufficient. It is a healthy business allows you to hire people that are like you.

[00:25:46] And last but not least, take control of your own destiny and not be dependent on having somebody else feed your families. All right. This is something that's that's big, man. And I'm going to give you guys a real life example. But I did an episode titled the power of entrepreneurship. If you don't feed me, you can't starve me. And it's episode 537. And if you go to the website, I'll have the link there.

[00:26:12] Go to black entrepreneur blueprint dot com in the show notes of this episode 558. I'll have the link to that. So basically what I'm saying is if you don't feed me, you can't starve me. But think about this, especially the breadwinners out there for their families could be men, women, whatever. If God forbid somebody deems or determines that, you know what? We don't want you on the team anymore.

[00:26:42] So we're going to fire you. It could be warranted or unwarranted. Right. But somebody else literally has the determination and your destiny in their hand. When you go into an interview and you sit across that desk, they're either going to stamp validated on your forehead or get out of here. Right.

[00:27:05] If they don't think that you're the fit for them or their company for any particular reason, valid or invalid, they control your destiny. I have a friend from years ago who lost his job during the economic recession. And a lot of people did. And I saw that strong brother turn into a crying, mealy mouth man.

[00:27:32] And it hit me. And it's like, yo, when somebody else controls your destiny, you have no power. That's why I'm saying if you don't feed me, you can't starve me. So learn how to feed yourself. And I felt bad for the brother, but I'm like, man, you got, you got a man up, bro. I get it. That's why you never, I don't care who you are. You never just have one income stream.

[00:28:02] You could love corporate America to death. They could be paying you out the ass, right? You making crazy money. Guess what? It might be your turn to get cut. Right. And now that income that you were living off of, if you didn't save it or invest it wisely, you could be ass out. Right. But if you have another stream of income, then you don't have to worry about somebody else feeding you.

[00:28:30] That other stream of income could be real estate. It could be your investments. It could be a side hustle, whatever it is. If you don't feed me, you can't starve me. It's all about taking control. And that's the importance of building successful, sustainable black owned businesses. It's not just for vanity sake. It's about being able to control your own destiny.

[00:28:55] Not having to have another, another person or another entity be the, be all that ends off for you living or, or, you know, living well or, or, or living like shit. You gotta be able to understand how important that is. So when you see other black owned businesses out there, support them because they're trying to take their destiny in their own hands. They don't want somebody to feed them because they don't want anybody to be able to starve them.

[00:29:23] You understand what I'm saying? This is, this is serious business. What we're talking about today, guys, is the three keys to black economic empowerment. The real estate you're ever going to hear. So we talked about number one key is changing your mindset. Key number two, the importance of building successful, sustainable black owned businesses. Key number three, support black owned businesses. All right.

[00:29:49] I talked earlier, guys, put the same scrutiny you do on black businesses as you do on other businesses. And if you truly do that, you're going to see something that, that you probably don't see. We're so used to, oh, it's a black owned business. They got to treat me super well, which most of black owned businesses will try to do. But you expect something different from a black owned business than you expect from any

[00:30:18] body else or any other ethnicities business. You go into a big department store and they following you around, you know, thinking you're going to steal something, but that's okay. Oh yeah. I expected that. You go to the Chinese store and get you, your chicken wings over there and they throw the change on the counter. Oh, that's okay. I expected that. You go to a black owned store and somebody look at you the wrong way you think. And now it's all over social media.

[00:30:44] So I need you to put that scrutiny to other ethnic businesses. The same as you do to black owned businesses. I want you to really be cognizant of that when you go into these other ethnic stores, right? Or the big box stores. Think about it. You probably don't think about it because you're so accustomed to it, right? But you go into a black owned store. Now you get super sensitive. Your spidey senses is tingling.

[00:31:11] You're looking for anything you can point out to validate why you should not use or go to or support black owned businesses because you've been brainwashed by media, social media, and just the whole narrative of the United States. Divide and conquer. That's what they're trying to do. So put that same scrutiny on other businesses. And I really want you to think about it. What are you going to, what do you accept from other businesses that you, you won't accept

[00:31:40] from black owned businesses? All right. And don't think just because they're black owned business, they owe you anything. They owe you good service and good product. Just like any other business. Another thing about supporting black owned businesses. Don't expect black owned businesses to give you discounts and hookups just because they're black owned, you know? Oh, brother, man, brother, man, brother. Nah, man, they got to run a business also respect that.

[00:32:07] So when I just had a contractor come out here to my house to look at something of some work we were going to get done. And it was almost like he didn't want to give me the price. And I was like, bro, I understand you have to make money. What is your price? Right? So I'm not looking for a hookup. I'm just looking for a fair price. Okay. That's another thing, guys.

[00:32:34] Don't expect any of these hookups or special discounts because you black. Another thing I want you to understand is why pricing in a black establishment may be different than other elements. And this is an Asian cooperative. So one of the keys to, especially retail locations, is buying power. So many times you have cooperatives. So I know in Philly there's an Asian cooperative. There's an Indian cooperative.

[00:33:00] And when they buy for their stores, they buy as a cooperative in bulk, which allows them to get reduced prices in terms of their wholesale price. so the corner agent store may sell wrap snacks for a dollar fifty the black store may sell wrap snacks for a dollar sixty not because they're trying to get over on you but if they're not

[00:33:25] in a cooperative buying group their cost per unit is going to be higher you know you look at barbershops right in philly you got a barbershop damn near on every other corner now i'm not into that space but to me it would make sense that there should be cooperative buying groups for black barbers so when they need raises they need uh the different supplies they go in as a group and now

[00:33:51] that group gets a better per unit cost and so don't just think because prices are higher it's because they you know people are trying to gank you that's not the case in most occasions so remember that another thing is um i was talking to a uh buddy of mine a chinese brother i used to go to college with good friend of mine his father is from new york city and he's in the import export business so his

[00:34:21] dad owns all these little like uh chinese convenience stores in queens and in brooklyn and stuff and he was talking about how it didn't even matter if the chinese store was next to a black store white store any other store and if the chinese stores prices were higher all the chinese people were still going to patronize that chinese store because they understood the power of of the economics about

[00:34:50] supporting your own now black folk you know you got two stores a chinese store and a black store on the corner like i said chinese guys selling wrap snacks for 150 the brother's selling them for 160 oh man i ain't going in there man he trying to get us and you know he overcharging his bye bye bye and he's going to the chinese store when the chinese people will tell you they're not gonna they're not gonna support any

[00:35:17] other store but their own regardless of what it costs because they understand the long game they understand the impact of circulating those dollars in their community right and so once again based on all types of social conditioning slavery once again divide and conquer separating the family not working

[00:35:40] together building mistrust between us as a people you know those are some of the things it's a social construct that is unfortunately been built up in in a lot of us over the centuries and it was done by design guys it wasn't uh by accident it was designed and so that's why you have to be super intentional

[00:36:05] about supporting black owned businesses right and i mentioned earlier only two cents of every dollar that a black person earns in the united states goes to a black owned business so and when we go out to walmart all these giant food wherever the hell you go shopping they're not owned by black folk most

[00:36:29] people buy the same stuff every time they go shopping like i do shopping for my mother she's she's old i know exactly what she likes what brand she likes and all that good stuff and every time i go shopping for i buy that stuff so how about doing this find several black owned brands that are online if you can't find them in the store and you buy directly from them so just take a portion of what you buy as opposed to

[00:36:58] just going to the store and buying uh some seasoning breadcrumbs from somebody else go buy lefties which is a black owned company out of out of maryland has some amazing chicken and fish seasoning now you can buy it through the store or you can go to their website and buy it so these are the things that we can do to be intentional to go and support black owned businesses for example uh black hair care

[00:37:24] products right as opposed to going to the korean hair care store go online to the direct consumer that sells the product design essentials or whoever and buy directly from them so you're actually supporting that business now before we get to the last segment of the show guys let me just share my social media contact information and resource links super quick everything i'm about to tell you is on

[00:37:52] the website black entrepreneur blueprint.com i mentioned the website go to the website hit the learn tab there's a drop down anything that you need to learn for free to help elevate your entrepreneur iq go there the learn tab has scaling your business marketing e-commerce strategy and mindset real estate side hustles anything you need go to black entrepreneur blueprint.com if you want to get in touch with me

[00:38:18] anything long hit me on my email j jones at black entrepreneur blueprint.com j a y j o n e s at black entrepreneur blueprint.com facebook black entrepreneur blueprint instagram i have two ig accounts first one is j jones for real j a y j o n e s the number four r e a l second one is black entrepreneur blueprint

[00:38:43] twitter or x you can connect with me at j jones 001 j a y j o n e s 001 linkedin just type in j jones black entrepreneur blueprint i should come up also subscribe to the youtube channel i have additional content on youtube that is not on the show so go to youtube type in black entrepreneur blueprint and hit that subscribe button now for all you first time listeners we drop a new episode every monday morning 5 a.m

[00:39:12] eastern standard time this is 558 weeks in a row so we don't miss a week i don't care if i'm sick traveling or whatever so make sure you hit the subscribe button to wherever you're watching this or listening to this so you'll be alerted when new episodes drop now let's get back to the last segment of the show so today guys we talked about the three keys to black economic empowerment

[00:39:37] we talked about key number one changing your mindset key number two the importance of building successful sustainable black owned businesses and key number three supporting black owned businesses and all of this stuff has to be intentional because we've been so programmed that we're not even thinking about it you know when i gave you the example of getting your paycheck on friday morning

[00:40:03] you spent 26 percent of your weekly paycheck didn't even think about a black owned business because you're so used to doing what you're doing so everything that we need to do guys is intentional and i know it takes a lot of work but that's what we need to change our socioeconomic position when it comes to the totem pole 1.98 trillion dollars a year come through black

[00:40:28] hands just in the united states we're not talking about canada north the rest of north america and the rest of the world just imagine what would happen if we aggregated those resources and demanded change dl hugley made a comment several years ago and i'm paraphrasing he said the only time white people or other people pay attention to us is if we're entertaining them or we're stopping that money flow right and

[00:40:56] that's real talk we got to make people pay attention family just think about this we spend so much money on luxury goods uh hair care beauty supplies nails weaves and all of that stuff we can shut down major industries just like the montgomery boycott back with martin luther king during the civil rights area

[00:41:19] literally could shut it down so as i mentioned earlier when people say there's no such thing as a black dollar don't bring that nonsense to me i don't want to hear it because when you control those dollars they're your dollars to put wherever you want the issue is that we don't aggregate we don't work as a community you know and once again a lot of that was due to social engineering

[00:41:44] but why do koreans control the beauty supply industry is because it's intentional they decided that that was an industry that they were going to control they decided to buy up all the beauty supply places they decided to kick out other manufacturers and get korean beauty supplier manufacturers

[00:42:08] to supply their stores and i was reading an article probably about eight to ten years ago about a black uh hair flat iron manufacturing company out of los angeles that was actually kicked out of of all of these beauty supply chains or stores nationwide because they were black and what they did was they created a knockoff of the black owned flat iron company

[00:42:36] and put that into the store and the news article was saying that they were telling people oh that's a bad flat iron we got something better but once again that is something that is intentional so they control the whole beauty supply industry it's so bad that the magazines are actually written in korean and english because that's how much control that they have and what do we keep doing we be right in there buying all

[00:43:06] of this shit up right then complaining about you know the industry whatsoever as opposed to trying to make inroads into the industry we talk about the beauty supply industry the nails the weaves all of that stuff that black women are spending tens and hundreds of millions of dollars a year on and we don't control any of it and that's something i'm not in that space but that's something that we really need to look at so

[00:43:34] we can start controlling that you're getting your nails done who's who's doing that it ain't black folk getting your eyebrows done who's doing that it ain't black folk but we're spending all of that you're getting your weaves done now we do have some some sisters and and black businesses in the weave space more so on the retail end as opposed to wholesaling and selling the weaves to stores because i know there's

[00:43:59] some companies black companies that do that but by far it's mostly asian companies that are supplying the weaves to these different stores and the hairdressers so once again we're big or super consumers in that space and we're not producers in that space so here's what i want y'all to understand and if you don't take anything away from this show which i don't know how you can't

[00:44:25] there's no revolution without economics there's no revolution without economics economics controls everything economics controls politics politicians create policy and if you don't believe me you don't know a damn thing about how politics work so when you have these political action committees

[00:44:49] that grease the palms of the politicians to make sure that they enact policies that are favorable to those political action committees that's how economics controls politics so just like your grandma's been living in a house in north philly for 50 years now the developers come over and they

[00:45:12] create a political action committee and they want to rezone that area for commercial now the the property taxes your grandmom is paying is is three thousand dollars a year because now it's rezoned guess what those property taxes at 25 grand a year and grandmom who's retired can't afford that so now that part of

[00:45:35] north philly is now called northern liberties right and this is real stuff right here so what happens is because you didn't want to vote you let these developers get get in bed with the politicians and now grandmom's got to leave and they're not even giving her a real price for the house they're going to give a bottom level price for the house they're going to knock it down and these developers are going to build

[00:46:02] these high rises and these apartment buildings and they're going to make a killing because you numbskull said that you don't believe in voting and that's don't get me started that's a whole nother show so anybody out there talking that dumb shit about not voting you got to be insane especially for your local elections your local elections control your property taxes they control your schools that your kids go to

[00:46:30] they control the zoning all of that stuff but you want to be oh i'm going to i'm revolting i'm not going to vote who do you think you're helping you're not helping yourself it's counterintuitive it's ridiculous so there's no revolution without economics so economics controls politics that controls policies

[00:46:54] economics controls the media the things that we see you know there's only several big media companies that control damn near all the media that we see so the narratives that are created are narratives that they want you to think they want you to think black owned businesses are no good because now you're not going to support your own you're going to go somebody else's business and support their business

[00:47:23] economics controls education why do you think they're trying to dismantle the uh the education system right now they don't want to go to school with you and guess what they don't care if your school's got computers books or whatever or even heat because they're going to create their private schools or charter schools and their kids are going to go there

[00:47:46] economics controls everything if you can't if you can't control the the policies and procedures in your community you can't control can't control the school system in your community you can't control the health care system in your community you can't control the media in your community guess what you don't have a community you living on somebody else's land

[00:48:12] i'm telling you right now they just had a big thing with the 76ers trying to build a stadium right by chinatown downtown in philly now it actually got passed but the sixers pulled out and they decided they're going to stay in south philly but you should have seen the galvanization of the chinese community and what they were trying to do to keep that stadium

[00:48:36] from going down there and disrupting what they have so in philadelphia and i'm sure in all major cities that have a quote-unquote chinatown they just don't have chinatown in name they own the buildings in chinatown they own the banks in chinatown they own the venues in chinatown they own the restaurants in chinatown

[00:49:01] those restaurants buy their supplies from chinese wholesalers everything you see in the chinese restaurant comes from a chinese wholesaler the chopsticks they're not buying them from anywhere else the rice that they use the food everything is a vertical it's self-contained and that's where we need to be we're so busy and so happy trying to you know get in where the white folks are in

[00:49:29] that we lost our mind that's why back with black wall street we had to be self-sufficient that's why we had those all of those businesses we had industry we were able to do for self now you got fools that can't rub two nickels together buying red bottom shoes they buying pocketbooks they ain't got no damn money in because they want to look like they got money instead of having money and it's the whole mentality

[00:49:59] and mindset guys that we have to change we have to be intentional you probably got people listening to this right now who got a 95 inch tv and got a leak in their roof you got people right now whose cars cost more than a house listening to this and i'm not trying to degrade anybody but you got to get your mind right you got people right now that can't pay their electric bill but what they drip they got on is worth five

[00:50:27] thousand dollars i see some of these fools out here on uh on instagram yo what's your drip cost fools over here spending five hundred dollars for a t-shirt three thousand dollars for a pair of raggedy ass jeans and you can't tell who the designer is five hundred dollars for a hoodie you know two thousand dollars for a pair of ugly ass sneakers because instead of being good you want to look good

[00:50:56] and that's what we got to change the mindset stop trying to look good for somebody that don't care about what you got or don't even care about you period and you're trying to impress people that don't give a damn about you if that's not stupidity i don't know what is you got to live below your means real money is funny i was in long island this weekend at my in-law spot and they live out near one of the

[00:51:22] old vanderbilt estates and we were just talking about old money old money doesn't have to prove nothing they don't have to drive a car they can't afford they don't have to have all the flashy latest designer stuff because they got money they have it you want to project that you have it right and you may be well off and i'm not saying don't buy nice things but you buy nice things when you can afford nice things

[00:51:51] like i said if you can't pay your electric bill and you you behind on your your your youtube tv bill they about to shut that off and you out here buying dumb stuff with traveling oh i'm going to dubai you got your priorities mixed up you got to lay the foundation first lay the foundation and reap the rewards in the long game it's not a short-term game family it's a long game we're talking about the

[00:52:21] three keys to black economic empowerment change your mindset key number one number two the importance of building successful sustainable black owned businesses and key number three support black owned businesses now there's if you like designer brands there's a ton of black designer brands out there you can support but you want to make sure that everybody knows that you got gucci on right gucci

[00:52:50] don't give a damn about you you saw the sweater they put out years ago with the big lip sweater it was a turtleneck it was offensive but you still got fools in here supporting gucci once again dl hugley said the only time they pay attention to us is if we're entertaining them or we messing with their money you start messing with their money people are going to pay attention but as long as you continue to take

[00:53:16] whatever they give you they can kick you in the ass and you still dying to give them money you think they're going to change no and this is one of the biggest problems and it's not just for the young folk it's for the old folk too because there's a saying there's no fool like an old fool that means you've been dumb a long time so we have to be super intentional about what we do with our money who we spend

[00:53:44] our money with and understand how to support and why we're supporting black owned businesses now i'm going to challenge everybody right now make a list of some of the products that you like and when you do your regular shopping because i know people shop online so don't tell me oh there's no black owned businesses near me you damn sure shop on amazon and online so find several black owned businesses that you like their products or services and every time you

[00:54:13] go shopping when you normally go out to do your food shopping or whatever go and support that business order something hair care whatever it is support that black owned business because all we got is ourselves guys nobody's coming to help us you see the political and the economic climate right now trump and these nuts are trying to do everything they can to dismantle the civil rights acts

[00:54:39] they're trying to go back to states rights they're trying to like he said make america great again i guess from a white perspective that was probably slavery right when we were non-competitive but we have everything that we need at our fingertips right now to change the balance of power so the the country once again even just the the demographics there's going to be more people of color in the united

[00:55:08] states within the next 20 to 25 years i believe the study says so one of the things that we have to do is be intentional about where we spend our money when we can aggregate it we can control things no there's no revolution without economics it controls politics it controls media it controls health care

[00:55:31] it controls education the civil rights act back in the 60s was funded by black businesses and churches yes we had other outside entities helping too but they were the primary givers to fund the marches the the education all the the literature everything that we needed to help make a change we've gotten so comfortable now

[00:55:56] that we're falling back i'm not gonna i'm not gonna call this brother's name out excuse me he's pretty big on social media and i like what he's doing but i saw this one dude talking about um should i buy this ten thousand dollar louis vuitton or gucci uh short set and i'm saying to myself man number one you too old for that dumb shit okay number two why would you do that what is what is the functional value

[00:56:26] of a ten thousand dollar uh pair of shorts and shirt it's nothing super different than anything else and get i get it if you got the money and you want to spend it that's cool but if you're struggling if you're trying to have these aspirational thoughts that this is going to make you happy guess what it's not what's going to make you happy is you have a money in your bank account you building a black

[00:56:53] owned business you supporting black owned businesses you getting your finances in order and start to think about that i talked about early in the day money is a tool to build wealth it's not a tool to to be stupid with so even if you don't make a lot of money if you're frugal if you're diligent with your savings and investing you can retire a millionaire i don't care what you start off with it ain't what

[00:57:20] you make is what you keep right so stop blowing your money on dumb dumb stuff i understand that you need to have a life and you need pleasure in your life i get it sometimes you gotta splurge sometimes you gotta go out to dinner when you know you shouldn't go out to dinner been there done that more times than than i can count but i always knew the long game was to build wealth and be able to control my own

[00:57:45] destiny and the only way that i was going to do that this is just me personally if you got a a high paying job and you enjoy what you do keep doing what you're doing there's nothing wrong with that but just recognize and understand that you're not controlling your destiny so i knew that my destiny called for me to take control of everything that's just who i am so yeah i've gone through some hard

[00:58:12] times i told you almost lost it all twice but i'm built like that not everybody is built like that i was able to be blessed and come through that but i knew deep down inside that i've always been an entrepreneur after i left corporate america so i'm living my truth i'm living in my genius which is the intersection of my passion and my talent the key is most people don't know how to monetize that genius so most

[00:58:38] people if they had their druthers people that are getting up going to jobs they can't stand working with people they don't like if you had a choice to live in your genius which is the intersection of your passion and your talent and you can monetize that 99.9 percent of the people would say yeah i'm raising my hand i want that that's what black entrepreneur blueprint is all about it's helped

[00:59:03] building an economic power base in the worldwide black community by building and supporting black owned businesses the whole ecosystem is designed for that and that's why it's super important guys for us to be intentional when we talk about this stuff so i'm going to say this guys because it's true we get more and more downloads each and every week because of you the black entrepreneur blueprint family

[00:59:27] the beb family i appreciate you guys so much please continue to spread the word about the podcast the ecosystem the online courses the books everything designed to help you elevate your entrepreneur iq also please remember to share this episode with your entire network entrepreneurs people that work nine to five grand moms grandpops aunts uncles cousins relatives your whole network because i think it's

[00:59:55] super important that we become intentional about building our economic power base remember it's not about you it's not about me it's about us it's about building an economic power base in the worldwide black community by building and supporting black owned businesses love you guys see you same time next week peace