SUPPORT IS A VERB w/ DR. KEY HALLMON

by someone much further down the road. The majority of help Dive been getting in my life for the past it Team sixteen years have been directed from people that I came up with, whether it's the Shocks Lose, whether it's the Delicia Butterfields, whether it's you know, John Johnson's, whether it's you know what I mean, Chris Higgs. Like these are people who six was a little He helped me, he put me on. But if we look at it, you know, we talked about it all the time, like

we were learning that through learning together. I look at the people around me and the people who's who helped me. They were definitely ahead of me, but they weren't Jimmy I V. You know, they couldn't just kind of check and just saved my life. We had to literally work, you know, learned together, and I needed them to guide me to get to those places. You know what I mean. I will say that, and then I looked at my peers like a Volicia Butterfield, Christie Henderson. Any help that

I need, I could just reach out for them. Yeah, I mean, that's my network. And we came up together, came from nothing. So I was telling to be your net worth determines your net worth, right, So at the day, yeah, you could like it. Moving up is a is a good thing, you know what I mean. If somebody can help you, who's who's who's in position to help you? If if a if you're able to get to a puff or get to a you know, go be cocks whoever. Right, it's cool, you know what I mean. But at the

end of the day, I can help you get the point. B. But the people that you surround yourself with all the words, is gonna be your your direct anchor, you know what I'm saying, Because you're not the way to call me for every little thing. I can't call card days for every little bit. So I can't call Jimmy Ivan or not. You know, I can't call you know man anything, anything I gotta issue with anything. I want to bounce off anybody as I can bounce off. I could call Chris Easy,

I would call Alicia Easy. I could call j Q Easy. I could call John Tay Easy. You know. I mean, he's all people that we all came up together. The importance of having people around you and creating your network around you is I mean, it's necessary because you might you know if you don't, you know when the valley is hit and you out there by yourself. Who my valot is said I was. I was in a good space because I wasn't there by myself. I have people who came up with and we can help each other

and want each other. Though I'm on Lucas and this is black tech, clean money. I'm gonna introduce you to some of the biggest names, some of the brightness of mind and brilliant ideas. I feel black in building simply using tech to secure your bag. This podcast is for you. Dr Key Hallman is the founder at the Village Market, a t L who's mission is to support the sustainability of socially conscious, community minded black entrepreneurs and black owned startups.

I ask Dr Kid about the secret sauce to the blueprint getting black entrepreneurs from different industries in the same commercial space with the goal of not only building their businesses, but our businesses. I think the blueprint is together. I don't think I've created something that hasn't been done, and I would tell you in twenty sixteen, I wasn't up against what we're all facing right now, and that's being forced to be online so pre pandemic. I was teamed like,

we need to see each other in person. We need to figure out how to use our best gifts. Like if if your gift is whatever it is, will and my gift what is whatever it is. My whole thought belief is that you're more powerful if I drawn with you and you're drawn with me. And so even in this e commerce space, I think there are some very unique opportunities for entrepreneurs, artists and great minds to collaborate. And a lot of that comes from conversations like this.

So when we think, when we have these type of conversations, then we start to understand, like what you're really about, because what I know especial about black Folks is always much more than just a T shirt. It's always much more than than than the hair care products. There's a story, there's a legacy behind that, and there's also an aspiration

to create something that we've never seen. So the point of entry to me and collaboration, especially in this digital space, is getting on zoom, getting cute, getting the lighting together, and having a conversation about how we got started, what we're doing, and what we can do together. I think those unified efforts in these most intimate ways and also convenient ways of being able to communicate, helps us start to establish what the partnerships look like in the twenty

first century. Now when the world opens back up, there's nothing like being in the space in a room that synergy that you all do it at afro Tech, at Glavity, we do it at the Village Market. There's nothing like that vibration of being in a space of collaborative minds to a future thinking but also who are so thankful to being a present moment together. There's nothing that's nothing

like that. So I look forward to being in that space where we can comfortably convene together, but in the meantime, how we can collaborate is literally doing what you and I are doing right now. And I've asked you this question before, but I want to make sure that people really get this next answer, because what I don't want people to leave here with after they hear your beautiful words today, but I don't want them to leave with is the idea what I'm gonna go support black businesses

because you don't go to Target to support Target. You just go there because they got what you need. And so how do we get over this idea that we have to quote unquote support that our businesses need to support versus they're looking for their consumers and they I'm shopping there because they provide val you indeed, and good question, and because I do truly believe support is a verb. But I also know there's a count of narrative how

we talk about words, and words have power. So when you go on to buy from black it's because you want the best on your body, want the best in your house. So I think it's the way that we think about and how we're normalizing our intentionality of making sure we find in support of black owned business that we intentionally buy from a black owned business. That's different than support support says I can take it to leave it.

When those things that we want, we heavily pursue those, even if it's not conveniently around the corner for us. So I think we start thinking about about black businesses. What we've seen due to centuries of redlining and things like that, it's not as quote unquote convenient to find those black owned businesses, and so we're thinking about, like, how do I do that in such a way. I

have to go and support and do this thing. But what I tell the entrepreneurs in the village, and as I tell entrepreneurs who are in this space, I mean, folks are missing out if they're not rocking your product. Both are not People are missing out if you're not the black owned doctor that's taking care of their kids, if this is not the black owned school that's educating

your young folks. And I think it's so it's the way that we talk about ourselves is the way that we start normalizing the narrative of what it means to just be about black business. And I think that's beyond quote unquote supporting, because that sounds more philanthropick in nature, and rather than making it just a part of our lifestyle and what we do. What did you do at the village to ensure the narrative around doing business with black owned businesses was changing, because you know, we have

this whole thing. You know, I can't do business with black folks because they ain't got good customer service, the whole thing. What did you do at the village to make sure, I, look, this is a place of excellence, and how did you how did you both inspire that with your your vendors um and then how did you shape that narrative with the people who would be coming

there to shop? Yeah? Good, super good question again, and so even before we get to the vendors, even before we get to the consumers, I made sure that I had a good team. I made sure that I had a really good team that understood like what we were striving to build, because then it had to these thoughts had to outlive me. Then we began to work with entrepreneurs, brands, i e. Vendors, and so our job is if you ever had issues with customer service, let us help you

out there. And so that programmatic piece before we are, before we would do a marketplace, we work with entrepreneurs over a course of thirty thirty to ninety days to prepare them what I said, to just be ready to be overwhelmed by a village of people who are seeking to buy. And so I think that programmatic components what made sure that the insurance that when you came to the village market that these are these entrepreneurs, these brands are well prepared to meet you, well prepared to make

sure that the POS systems are in place. Were prepared to make sure that the meller system is locked in so you can be able to communicate with them after that, and that you have enough product, that your branding is there that you're marketing there. And so that was that multi pronged um process of ensuring that the entrepreneurs were prepared to meet the village. And then the only thing that we told the village that you don't want to

miss this. If you think you've seen the movie, were kind of nothing like experiencing it, because that's what the village market is. And I think, again, I am I'm a former educator, but I truly understand the power of words. But when you beyond words, then you have to be

able to meet that with a moment. I made sure that the Village Market literally dripped an excellence from the art on the wall, to the brands that were showcasing, to the musicians that were playing and I and I showed the plethora of what it means to be in a black artistic space, from jazz brent bands, to kid drummers to tap dancers to live art. All of that is inside of the Village Market. And so I think when we talk about excellence, excellence, it's not siloed. It's

not a it's not a single narrative. And so it should be beyond just entrepreneurs. We should create whole experiences. But before we create that experiences, we have to make sure that the entrepreneurs are prepared to meet their consumer because at the end of the day, the only way

that we can really ensure economic mobility we have to buy. Well, let's talk about that program, like what what do you do when somebody comes to you with the fantastic product on its face may not have the operational excellence, Like, talk to me about that program, you know whatever that when you's heavy word, that's curriculum, But talk to me about what that looks like over those you know, periods of times where you're taking them before you put them

on the floor. They're going through this process, sure, and so the curriculum is our word former teacher and me, So we really build a curriculum around this. And also that point of entry for us first is the application and then we've created an amazing group break where we are. I have a council of thirteen scores who rotate every every ninety days who are looking at applications and we're

looking at different things. We're looking at entrepreneurs to make sure that they have a way to uh that the audience and their buyers can buy outside of the Village market, meaning they have an e commerce space that their separation between their personal life and their brand identity and if it's merging, is merging in ways that makes sense. Um. That is also very clear on message of what we're doing. We're truly striving for the up, the up mobility for

all of us. So we're looking at these things that once entrepreneurs get accepted into the Village or get accepted into our Elevate program that's running now, then they then entrepreneurs have one on one meetings and interviews with business coaches and so the questions we ask what are your wildest dreams and what is it? What is it gonna take you to get there? If target is your wildest dream, is it all is the only target because it's the only thing you've seen? Or are you afraid to go

build your own thing? And so we we want to know those answers because that helps us create a place based curriculum that makes sense to that entrepreneur. And so one once the entrepreneurs are accepted into the village, and once in the village, you're always a villager. Don't believe in the council culture. Here we prepare. We make sure

that those entrepreneurs have honestly everything they need. So if there is if there's a gap in their website, if they're not checking, if they don't have s c OH in place, if they're not looking at the analytics in their analytics, if they're not understanding their numbers, we have classes and workshops around that, and then we do the big reveal um and that is all before the pandemic.

Since the pandemic has happened, all of that has changed, and we have our Elevate program that runs every day for so proprietors and so at the end of the elevated program UM entrepreneurs have an opportunity to be in our new retail space located upon City Market that's open seven days a week. And but will the catalysts of what we do and what makes the Village market extremely special. We don't just throw entrepreneurs out there like we're literally

hand in hand. We're on this journey together. If you if we grow, that means you have UM And there's honestly we what's so special about our work. And I think other black lead organizations just not enough spaces created when entrepreneurs can test, refined, fell forward, failed, completely flat on their face, and then have counsel around them to help them solve some of these big problems problems by where capital problems, by where scaling operations problems. Was I

just have no idea what I'm doing. I thought I just wanted to sell a candle. Now I have all these thousands of units that's going out of the door, and I have to grow to meet this moment. And so what we do is just make sure wherever the moment is, that they're somewhere in the village that can meet them where they are. This is a phrase you used in there, and you called the upper mobility, and I think too too often when we hear that phrase,

it's just about economics. And there's also a point that you talked about, you know, uh in other interviews I've read, when you talk about our food is import and our education is important. Can you talk about your idea of upper mobility with all those things holistically? Yeah, when you said the word, I think our mobility anything over is holistic. I think the only way that things can move it must create a complete circle. And so for me, the first point of entry is mental health. So before we

talk about economics, before we talk about even education. If the mind isn't well, then it's hard to dream something bigger for yourself. It's it's also hard to dream something bigger where you can actually believe that collaboration won't cut you out of the deal. And so it's like training our minds that think differently, training our minds to understand the general generational curses are very real thing, but we

don't have to live and stay there. So we work hand to hand with a number of mental health practitioners, and we've done this for years to ensure that entrepreneurs and we start normalizing what therapy is, and so we can start literally trained here to start building. Now, the upward mobility is mental health, making sure that entrepreneurs have the resources, the technical, technical assistance, to education and place.

Then we start focusing on how the trust scale of business, because what I don't want to happen is that we rescale and then everything everything is thriving except for us, that the money is sitting in the bank account. And and this is the most isolated we've ever felt, the most heartbroken and lonely we've ever felt, and also fear of even outgrowing where we are. And I think all of that goes to a place of wellness. Um, if entrepreneurs are like myself, the things I'm doing well, I

have no relationship to it. In my family, UM, first generation, my sister and I college graduates, first generation entrepreneur in this way, with the exception of my great grandparents being entrepreneurs in Mississippi. But in the way that I'm doing it,

I haven't. I haven't seen this before. And so another part of that over mobility is understanding that to be outward you have to have peers of like mind and and like intention and like enthusiast them to help you figure this thing out that many of us are experiencing for the first time. I would imagine you've had this experience.

But I talked to a lot of people who run like small business and maybe they make candles, maybe they you know, do shade better like you just whatever, you know, the thing that they can whip up in their kitchen, And too many of them in my mind, because I want to get your opinion and I don't want to, like, you know, spoil the water before I put this over to you. Just you know, they're happy with just selling a few, They're happy with just making enough with their

things to say they did a thing. What do you think is the root of that number one? And this is something that needs to be solved, And if so, how do we solve this idea that we can only be as big as this? Yeah, I don't know if it's a thing that you solve like an equation. I think it's a journey of wellness. I think as we love ourselves more, we know the capacity and wish that

we can achieve things. I think we are almost sometimes a little afraid that if this grows to something else that's more exposure to me, This more opportunity for me to fail. Limited thinking is something that is ingrained due to deep oppression. It's hard for us and many people to start visualizing themselves being like a mogul in the industry because they have never seen and they think that's only for a select few that has to be in sound a certain way and come from a certain thing.

But all of it again goes to mindset, and mindset is only that relationship to environment. And so the solution is, how do we nurture our environment, how do we nurture ourselves that it can be more than it can be more than a candle. We can literally create the jar that every coundle needs. We can create the wax that

I'm sure I'm soory free. I'm hoping sort candles and and and all these countles out there that people are looking for, that we can be, We can be on the manufacturing in so, I think that proximity of seeing people who have done it. And I shared this to a good friend of mine um just this past weekend. He talked about the things that he wanted to do and the reason why he believed he can do all these things just because he's had a vast number of

experiences that's being so close to proximity to it. And so I don't think the solution is something is one plus one equals too. I think it's the journey of understanding that there's a parts of us that need to be healed, parts of us that we don't even know how great we can be our And I actually talked to my doctor and she shared that many of us have no idea how great we can feel because we've

never experienced being a healthy before. And I think visions and aspirations are the same, so it'll be a side hustle because you don't know you can do anything else. And I press upon everyone that the gift of vision is already anointed. I won't folks to truly understand that everyone everyone does not get the vision to create a path for themselves. And when you get it, you don't even have to worry about imposter syndrome. You have already been given the first thing that you need, and that's

the seed of a big vision. So just I mean, go after it. I unapologetically go after everything that is in my mind because I know that it is divinely protected. What I don't do is go after things that I know are not for me though, and you can feel it. I love that. I love that. Um. How closely tied is civil rights? UM, social equality, closely health disparities to

economic power? And I want to ask a specifically of you, because you know you like almost self proclaimed social entrepreneurs, which means you're not just in it for the money. But how closely tied are those things to economic power? Yes? I mentioned earlier about redlining, and that was created to

literally starved communities. And so if a community does not have a place where people can eat healthy foods, if there is no way the kids can be educated, then that that community would always be a as and deserters with without things that people can do to survive and live, and so economic mobility, that whole picture again, all of that has to be included, and that social entrepreneur in me, I'm always thinking about beyond the foods that we're eating,

what type of foods are we eating and what is it doing to our bodies? What type of things are we reading, How we're educating our children, how we're educating ourselves, Because what is going to take and what is going to require for us to really move our community forward. Is that we're thinking about all these things all the time. Now, you don't have to be the magician. You don't have to be the one that has the magic in that area.

That's why we have the village. But I do think comprehensive development, comprehensive community building and thinking about where we can be ten fifteen years from now. It's gonna requires to start thinking about the foods that were eating again, what's happening in our communities, why it's not happening in our communities, But then taken and honestly for black folks to know that this was created by design, and we know how something is designed, you have a much better

way of being able to tackle it. But it's not something that can be tackled overnight. It is going to require people to separate their privilege because sometimes we're super happy to be at the table we saw, happy that we outside of that neighborhood that we grew up and I get it. But the but the thing about growing up in the neighborhood, of growing up in the country Mississippi like I did, and knowing that those spirities exist. Those of us who have have an opportunity to get out.

Then our job is to do is to literally go back. And if you think about the Civil Rights movement, the leaders understood their call, they understood their charge. We think about the great migration from Mississippi to Chicago. My family left miss left Mississippi, go to Chicago. But they were supposed to go to create a better pathway, create a better life. And so what we can't do is to understand that we're supposed to create something better, then we

just stopping. We never go back. So over mobility truly has to do with how we think about our positioning power and leveraging it to bring the community forward. I want to talk about this social entrepreneursial thing because again, like this is not something This is not a business you build just because you're a billion people are gonna using You're gonna be this trillionaire like you know, Jeff Bezos.

Although you can do well while doing well. I want you to talk about how that works because there I would imagine if there is aspiring doctor keys out there who in their other town, may you know, think about putting together a market or doing something else, but they haven't not not yet figured out how to do well while doing well talking speaking up, Yeah, so I mean you said it will you can? You can do well while doing well. Um. The goal is to not stay

where we've always been. It's all right to make money, it's not right to being authentic, it's not right to just do things for the money. Um. But in order for us to seek any sense of economic liberation is going to require many of us to start making money and put that money together to build things that we have never seen. So with those social entrepreneurs like myself out there, I can just tell you what I've done.

I can only speak about from my own experiences. I made sure that the village was very it was very clear on what our intentions were. But I made sure that in the background of that that I had a comprehensive business plan with verticals in place. What is the nonprofit arm and what is the for profit arm? And

it's okay to exist in both spaces. They're doing good to do good, But then that for profit is to make sure that you can bring your team on that that I have nephews who are who i I'm hoping one day that I can hand something out to them, and when it comes to land value and things like that. But I can't do that if I'm only in the space of doing things out of place with my heart and I'm not thinking about what is that financial impact

that financial game. But one thing that I don't compromise and I'm and I'm hoping no social entrepreneur or any black entrepreneur, I don't think you ever should compromise your people. And I know that's hard. I know it's hard when things come at you and you're like, man, this is good. But we all have that intrinsic thing that happens inside of us when we know that something is deeply out

of alignment. That level of discomfort that we have to live and experience when we do things out of alignment is not worth it. All money, as our grandparents to say, not good money. To leave that not good money over there and make some really good money and make sure you hire a really good team, because once you hire that really good team, then you're able to scare your business.

But it put the verticals in place to make sure that the revenue model is solid, make sure there's enough after your revenue models is solid, and you can go out there and if you want to give grants and things like that. But it's hard to give from a place where you don't have things. You see, I'm sure a lot of small businesses who just aren't ready to

be in the village market. And I'm wondering what are some of those things that people don't have in place that they're not even ready yet for that I talk and talk about some of the tactical things it should be doing, you know, to be able to be ready for whether whether it's a village market or just doing

business period, things that you need to do. Yeah, so um for any entrepreneur in the village or wherever you the first part to make sure you prepare to make sure your your business is legit So have you have you done all the things that legitimizes your business, like that's the Instagram blue check. I guess have you got

your business license in place? Because there's gonna come a time where you where, especially when we get this bank and stuff together, that you may need access to capital, you may need a line of credit, you may need along and so what they're what the first thing is they're going to ask you for is how many times will you foul taxes? And you can't sit with a

blank stare. So the only way that you can foul taxes, you've got to make sure you have a legit businesses in place and a lot of And I understand the intimidation factor of that, but getting get legit meant and getting your certification is not It's not a hard process. It's just sitting down and doing um starting there. That's the first step of making sure your business is legit and then just being very clear on what are those

short and long term goals. And I will say your short term goals don't have to be the same what you see as the highlight reel of some of the people who you look up to on Instagram. I mean, if we're catching a highlight reel, you miss in all the years that they had to put in to even create the highlight reel. So I wouldn't even assess that

I would put that as the long term. But in a short term, do you want to make sure that your your brand identity is solid, these colors that you're choosing, these words that you're using, that voice and brand voice, Like what are you about if people never see your face but met your company, what do you want them to see? That's the stuff that you start thinking about, who is that customer, Who is that customer that would go that would shot from you during the pandemic asthetive pandemic,

start considering who that person is. And then from a very tactical sense, I recommend everyone getting an accountant and getting a small business attorney. And there's organizations like the s b A that you can work with, and that's throughout the country. To make sure that you have those two people in place. I find that to be number one,

because they're gonna make sure how I started this. They're gonna make sure that you are legit because you have to be prepared for when the great day comes, when all the algorithms clide together and you see yourself popping. You gotta be prepared for that customer overflow. It is going to happen if you continue to push at it

and work at it um. But I really want to share again, beyond those tacticals senses, it is so important to disconnect from social sometimes because if you would look at the progression the highlight reel of other people, you constantly feel that you're feeling, You're constantly feel that there's no space for you. That is oversaturated that I can't do it like this person. And as long as you're watching that, that is stifling what you can truly be

and what you can truly become. So another because another tas to a sense of getting prepared as getting unplugged. You have to be clear on what you're striving to be old and why you're striving to build it, and then you start creating your plan behind that. But my advice for those first investments, and this is just what I did. I got my accountant, I got my small business attorney, and now at the place where I can

hire somebody who's always there. But at first, these are just contract the folks who I could afford U when it was important. But what you get to the place where you're able to keep these people on staff. Um there, I just said. Atlanta is a special places. It is just it's a special place, especially for black people. It's a special place. And it's not like to me, like rocket science, that this works in Atlanta, because Atlanta's they're wing you and plus Atlanta it's gonna work. How does

this work outside of Atlanta? So if if if I am you and I'm trying to grow, or I am aspiring you I'm in the town that's like, Okay, how do you build community around commerce and black vendors in consumers? How do you do that outside of the Yeah, in fair question. So I also think Atlanta is a very special, special city. But if you take the word Atlanta the way Atlantis were comprised of people, every community, every city has people, Every city has folks that that's like Dr

KEI and like Will. Now we may have our own flavor to it, but there's people out there who want to be disruptive and want to do things that they've never seen before. You get all those disrupted people in the room together and you started thinking of the master plan. And this is in basevill Mississippi, where I'm from um to Ohio to Detroit. You can do the same thing. All like mind, people need to start getting the room and talking together, talking about insecurity so we can go

on and get that out of the way. Started talking about these big plans that we have and what we can do collaboratively together and what connections we have, because then we bring those connections together. Now we have a working ecosystem in our in our community that we can start plug and play. But I truly believe Atlanta it has all the secret sauce, But Atlanta has the secret sauce of people who decided to bring their sauce together in order to get something done. And so do I

think this can happen in Mississippi? Yes? Do I think it can happen across the country. It doesn't matter if the city is hot Atlanta are not. I really do. I think it all deals with the people that you are in close proximity. And it takes how what you and I are doing today. It takes communication, It takes authenticity, It takes talking about things that we are not subject to, talking about a whole lot those things that make us insecure,

and then we start working together. Before we ever start working together, having these conversations and saying like, what's like, what's the goal? Because the regardless of how well I may be doing, how well you may be doing well, none of us are doing well. Not one of us, none of us individually have can even imagine the potential of where we can be if we keep our minds

that strong and continue to work forward and work together. So, yeah, collaboration, city to city conversations, um, getting those networks in the room, all the plugs and the community get them, getting them all in the same room and understand that the only way we can conquer the thing, it has to be done together. Black Tech Green Moneys in production of Black Dy Afro Tech on the Black Fact podcast Networking I

Hired Media. It's produced by Morgan Dubon and me Well Lucas, with additional production support by Love Beach and Raven near Born. Especially thank you Michael Davis and sakasavon Yon you know like the Wine. Yes that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and other technis, weapons and innovators at afrotech dot com. The video version of this episode would drop the Black Tech Green Money on YouTube next week, So tap in enjoying Black Tech Green Money. Leave us

a five star rating on iTunes. Gonna get your money, Peace and love