New Majority Ventures (NMV) hosted a town hall at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in downtown D.C. providing a space for minority entrepreneurs and business-owners to learn from seven-figure-earning DMV success stories. NMV provides feedback and technical training for growing companies that can provide marketing prioritization skills and hiring skills. They also announced the launch of their app that leverages their training modules for mobilized use.
The most remarkable aspect of hearing directly from these founders was seeing how humble they were about their rising stardom. Not due to the cameras on them, rather, it was clear they learned the importance of trust between workers and executives. Invest in your team. You can’t grow your product if people don’t believe in the purpose you have set out, and therefore you must also convince people you’d like to hire why your company is different from the white noise in a vast pool of apps and other existing user platforms.
Business owners show their dedication in different capacities, according to personal entrepreneur Jasmine Simms. It was interesting to hear how she as a coach sees programs more in line with cooperative values whereas business owners often come to her with a one-track idea.
Kayla Howard, who directs research projects at NMV, asked wedding planner Jennifer Allen and Simms, the coach who advised her, what their breakthrough moment was. The two responded that shifting from liability—referring to financial obligations—to scalability of a business was key. Money was not the pressing problem as much as the level of brand effectiveness. Having a vision to scale your business, like broadening your audience and finding partners who will amplify your products, differentiates a founder who might not get past start-up to become a fully fledged CEO.
It’s important also to intermingle with other CEOs and business leaders to find shared human experiences. This might sound simple but the panelists expressed how it can be hard to look past differences when meeting other founders. Entrepreneurs glued to their vision all have a considerable amount of personal priorities, too, i.e. loved ones and responsibilities to attend to. During the talk, a well-established visionary discussed how balancing their kids’ schedules and partners’ schedules was a refreshing commonality they discovered sharing with other founders they met. They used an empathetic lens between other leaders in order to depreciate the competitive nature of founders that might have otherwise kept them at a distance. Meeting other entrepreneurs at workshops and events has the potential for new partnerships. These can help maximize one’s brand and provide an opportunity to learn from other leaders about how they balance their calendar.
Helping people “made me pay it forward,” said Naomi Brown of over 100 employees in her company.
And last but not least, founders encouraged audience members to avoid the tunnel vision that so easily comes with being focused on a goal for a significant time. Are you paying attention to the current demand? If not, they explained you are complacent in the market. Train yourself along with employees to see what the current environment is lacking.