In this episode, Bobby Blast aka DJ BLAST will be joining us to talk about how he developed his successful services company. Rooted in the melodies of Afrobeat and inspired by the culture of Hip Hop, DJ BLAST is an evolving festival, concert, and nightclub DJ. From diversifying his talent by working with fellow Nigerian artists such as Burna Boy and WizKid to curating crowds for Nas, Trey Songz, Ella Mai, and Pitbull - BLAST can do it all.

After graduating from Texas Tech University in 2015, BLAST moved across the country to Seattle, WA to both work at Microsoft and take on the challenge of shifting the culture so that everyone could experience music beyond what local radio stations could provide. The Lagos-native has entertained thousands in all capacities all from the center of the stage. Ranging from Afrobeat concerts to Hip-Hop festivals, BLAST has the ability to show both his deep African roots as well as his southern upbringing.

Find DJ BLAST Online:

• DJ BLAST's Website
• DJ BLAST’s Instagram
• DJ BLAST’s Twitter
• DJ BLAST’s Facebook

Cool stuff discussed during the episode that you should further explore:

• Design Programs that DJ BLAST was leaning into prior to evolving to his focus on music: Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop
• Book: The Art & Science of Respect: A Memoir by James Prince
• Podcast: Earn Your Leisure – Media Company for the Culture focused on business and investments
• Website: Business Insider – Keeps DJ BLAST abreast of the latest in Business, Technology, Culture, etc through this site
• Tool: io – Website that DJ BLAST uses to run BLASTography, it can do a variety of things including invoicing and contracting
• Quotes: “Do not tell yourself ‘no’ ”, “Fail fast”

Keywords: Legacy Hustle, LegacyHustle, Black Owned Business, Entrepreneurs, Hustler, Business, Black, AfroBeats, DJ, Photography, Black Designer

In this episode, Erayna Gamble blesses our stage. Eryana is a speaker, mental wellness champion and founder of Hooky Wellness— your one-stop for burnout relief. Personal experience gave her deep empathy for the challenges in the relief journey and set her on a mission to create practical burnout support that meets you where you are. She has a 15-year career building innovative consumer products across workspace design, consumer goods, and the tech industry. Erayna has an MBA from Indiana University, is a Global Wellness Institute initiative member, a contributing writer for Well+Good with guest appearances across publications including NPR Life Kit, Thrive Global, & Architectural Digest.

We had some sound issues on my line towards the end of the recording, please ignore the robotic voice and focus on the gems that Erayna is dropping, thanks for your grace!

Find Hooky Wellness Online:

• Hooky Wellness' Website
• Hooky Wellness’ Instagram

Cool stuff discussed during the episode that you should further explore:

• Book: Start at the End by Matt Wallaert
• Book: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
• Podcast: Speak Your Way to Cash by Ashley Kirkwood
• Magazine: FastCompany – World’s leading business media brand, with an editorial focus on innovation in technology, leadership, world changing ideas, creativity, and design.
• Tool: Canva – Erayna uses it for presentations or graphics
• Tool: Typeform – Erayna uses this to develop quizzes and surveys for use with clients
• Quotes: “Do it afraid” and “Do it with abundance in mind”

In this episode, we’ll be hosting the accomplished Dr. Christopher Gay. Dr. Gay is an accomplished, board-certified anesthesiologist and interventional pain specialist in Anchorage, AK. Originally from North Carolina, he attended Duke University for his undergraduate work and subsequently earned his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After completing his residency and fellowship training at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia University, he practiced as part of a large pain practice in Northern Virginia before moving to Alaska in March of 2015 to found the Alaska Center for Pain Relief Inc. He continues to enjoy living in the Pacific Northwest with his family.

Find Alaska Center for Pain Relief Online:

• Alaska Center for Pain Relief's Website

Cool stuff discussed during the episode that you should further explore:

• Spinal Cord Stimulation – Cutting edge service that Dr. Gay’s practice offers
• Medical Practice Loans – Dr. Gay shared his experience when he was exploring the community where he could open a practice of how a banker stopped by his hotel to introduce themselves and develop a relationship with him. It’s important that you shop rates and compare options.
• Knocking Doors – Dr. Gay spoke about the importance of getting out there and meeting providers or potential patients, may it be out at actual medical offices or in the community at events hosted by medical organizations such as American Cancer Society, etc.
• Book: Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Book: Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
• Tool: Upwork – A website that Dr. Gay uses to identify freelancers for the business
• Quote: “Good, better, best, never let it rest, until your good turns to better, and better turns to best” – Teacher from Dr. Gay’s past
• Quote: “Don’t be afraid to fail, but always have a contingency plan” – Dr. Gay

In this episode, we’re joined by Kamilah Campbell of The Pink Locket. Kamilah was born in Kingston, Jamaica and immigrated to the United States in the early 80s. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Trade with a concentration in English-Speaking Caribbean countries. Kamilah spent nearly 5 years working in Media and Entertainment at Viacom while completing her MBA focused on Media & Entertainment from Metropolitan College of New York. The Pink Locket was established in 2008, when it first launched its store on Etsy. Coming from a culturally rich background my inspiration comes from art, shapes, city landscapes and even my customers. The Pink Locket's jewelry pieces have been featured on various movies, television shows and media outlets such as Design Sponge, Etsy’s Editor features, Essence.com, Buzz Feed, Huffington Post, The Grio, Hallmark Channel, Lifetime TV and Netflix.

Find The Pink Locket Online:

• The Pink Locket’s Website
• The Pink Locket’s Twitter
• The Pink Locket’s Pinterest
• The Pink Locket’s Instagram
• The Pink Locket’s Tumblr
• The Pink Locket’s YouTube

Cool stuff discussed during the episode that you should further explore:

• Etsy – Kamilah was an early adopter of Etsy, don’t be scared to identify new routes or paths of exposure for your business
• 401(k) Loans – Kamilah spoke about leveraging this as an option to fund the business initially
• Family & Friend Support – There’s always reticence to incorporate family or friends, Kamilah embraced that in a way to train and teach the generations coming behind her.
• Flexibility
• Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Book: Trading in the Zone: Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline, and a Winning Attitude by Mark Douglas
• Podcast: Snap Judgement – A podcast focused on telling incredible stories
• Podcast: Carry on Friends – A podcast focused on the Caribbean American experience
• Podcast: InvestED – The podcast that teaches you how to invest with your values
• Tool: QuickBooks – Accounting software to help keep your business finances straight
• Tool: Facebook Business – Can create a lot of ads on Facebook and Instagram
• Tool: Facebook Groups: Meta Elevate HQ and Traffic Sales & Profit w/Lamar Tyler

For today's episode, we'll be talking to Kyle Maloney of Tech Beach Retreat. Kyle is a Technology Entrepreneur. In the last decade, Kyle has Co-Founded five Technology Driven Companies in the industries of Building Sustainability, Healthy Food, Local Business Search, Technology Business Convening and Digital Marketing. He has helped to raise over USD 10 Million in Funding across his ventures in the Caribbean. Kyle's companies have been written about in global publications like Forbes, Essence and Inc. Magazine and The Huffington Post. Kyle is also a NextGen Board Member of the Inter-American Development Bank (Trinidad).

Find TechBeach Retreat Online:

• Tech Beach Retreat's Website
• Tech Beach Retreat’s Instagram
• Tech Beach Retreat's Facebook
• Tech Beach Retreat’s Twitter
• Tech Beach Retreat’s LinkedIn

Cool stuff discussed during the episode that you should further explore:

• Inter-American Development Bank (Trinidad) – An organization that Kyle is a NextGen Board Member of and working hard to influence strong projects that will have an impact on Tech Innovation in Trinidad
• Book: Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice by Napoleon Hill
• Book: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• Productivity Tools – Kyle has so much going on with the different companies and ventures, his productivity is super important to him. He regularly tests productivity tools and shared a whole bunch for you to explore!
• Tool: Trello – Collaborate, manage projects, and reach new productivity peaks.
• Tool: ClickUp – All of your work in one place: tasks, docs, chat, goals, and more.
• Tool: Notion – Customizable workspace for the way you and your team works.
• Tool: Superhuman – Fastest email experience ever created
• ChefMade – Kyle’s sister’s is a chef who started a planned meal subscription service, check it out if you’re in T&T.

Keywords: Legacy Hustle, LegacyHustle, Black Owned Business, Entrepreneurs, Hustler, Business, Black, West Indies, Caribbean, Accelerators, Incubators, TechBeach, Innovation

Took a quick break (boo to COVID), but we're back!

Ashli Esteves-Nelson, Marika Esteves-Smith, and Reggie Nelson are the co-owners of Brown Butter Creations. This tremendous trio came together as a family unit to bring their vision and dream to life, fusing the culinary expertise of Marika with the business savvy of Ashli and Reggie.

Our guest, Ashli is a graduate of Hampton University and worked for Pratt and Whitney for over 15 years before deciding to leave corporate America to establish this Legacy Hustle with her co-owners. She’ll share the journey

Brown Butter Creations is a bakery in Glastonbury, CT that specializes in custom cakes, homemade desserts, and breakfast pastries. The business began in 2018 as an online bakery and over the years experienced significant growth through their pop-up shops. Recently they transitioned into a brick-and-mortar store that opened at the end of 2021.

Brown Butter Creations is located at 353 New London Turnpike, Glastonbury, CT

Find Brown Butter Creations Online:

• Brown Butter Creations' Website
• Brown Butter Creations' Instagram

Cool stuff discussed during the episode that you should further explore:

• The Amistad Center for Art & Culture – A dope museum in CT that anyone in the area should check out. This was where they got their start in June of 2018, at the Juneteenth Gala there.
• reSET – This is a food incubator program that the Brown Butter Creations team participated in. They are based out of the Hartford area and are focused on this region. If you aren’t in CT, but interested in a food business, be sure to Google “food incubator programs” to see what’s near you.
• Hands on Hartford – As the Brown Butter Creations team shared, they started online and due to CT regulations needed to bake their goods in a licensed kitchen, Hands On Hartford had a licensed shared use kitchen that they were able to leverage during the time before they had a brick and mortar location, where they would pay for the use by the hour.
• Cottage Food License – In some states, like CT, they may allow certain food businesses to operate out of a home, when the pandemic struck Brown Butter Creations was able to stay afloat by operating out of their homes. The link takes you to CT, but be sure to look online for one pertinent to your state you want to operate in.
• Pitch Competitions – By participating in a pitch competition, Brown Butter Creations received a lot of resource guidance from the hosting org. They shared a lot of grant opportunities.
• Tool: Square – Brown Butter Creations leverages Square for a number

Excited for this episode, Irnise is someone I met many years ago, who I’ve always held in high regard. She’s created a phenomenal business, which honestly might even be able to help you! Irnise uses her experience, training, and change management skills to develop cost-effective plans of action for her clients. She works with healthcare organizations and service-based businesses struggling to become sustainable or profitable. She identifies the key issues and uses the change management process to build a strategic plan that will help her clients go from struggle to stride and become sustainable and profitable in their business.

Irnise uses this process to address Implicit Bias, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and planned structural or cultural changes that may impact large amounts of people within the organization. As a graduate of Howard University and the Howard University School of Law, Irnise serves as an architect of social change for both the clients she does in her private practice and her organizational training. Irnise hopes to empower more people and organizations to embrace change and use it as a tool to become more effective and efficient.

Irnise currently resides in College Park, GA with her husband and two sons. Irnise enjoys traveling and reading business development books that help spark new ideas for her clients.

Find Irnise Online:

• Your Nurse Lawyer’s Website
• Law Office of Irnise F Williams, LLC’s Website
• 66-Day Business Bootcamp Info
• Your Nurse Lawyer’s YouTube
• Your Nurse Lawyer's Instagram

Cool stuff discussed during the episode that you should further explore:

• Healthcare Business Starter Kit – With Irnise’s knowledge around both the legal world and healthcare, she has created a business starter kit so that healthcare entrepreneurs can get started on the right foot
• 66 Day Business Bootcamp – Irnise has developed a bootcamp to help entrepreneurs from “struggle to stride,” it provides a comprehensive understanding of building a sustainable and profitable business.
• What it means to be “Resource Rich” – Focus on what you have, amplify where you have strengths and lean into leveraging those when you may not have certain resources (i.e. short on capital but have a strong network willing to help you in different ways)
• Book: The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, and Stand Out From the Crowd by Allan Dib
• Tool: Canva – Irnise uses this for a lot of her recording, she finds it super easy and very effective