#066 - Today our guest is Ayodele Kinchen, a gifted and self taught artist, designer, and visionary.  With a keen eye and talent for design, she finds joy creating wearable art that transforms the everyday woman into a Queen, and aims to design pieces that heal, encourage, honor, and beautify the mind, body, and spirit.

Her business started by making things for herself - handmade goods like jewelry, home decor, clothing, and handbags.  People started asking, “Hey, where'd you get that from?”  So she started making stuff for other people.  But, when she started making waist beads, her business exploded.

“I have been wearing them since I was a child.  I knew and understood the traditional practice of wearing them so I felt if I decided to actually make them for others, I can equip people with additional knowledge and context behind why they're worn.  So I felt really good about adding that to my collection of goods, however, once I added that as a collection of items that I would include under my business name, it took off like crazy. And it's basically, it took over my entire business making handbags and jewelry and everything else.”

We thought we were talking to an artist, but found out we were talking to a culture keeper, a change maker, a healer, and a counselor.  Ayodele’s customers love her, evident by the repeat bookings for private parties.  But, the best compliments have come from the women who told her she literally changed their lives, one actually calling her a healer.

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear how Ayodele bet on herself - leaving her full time 9 to 5 while pregnant with her 3rd child and never looking back. 

#065 - Today we talk to Carol F Burton, Founder of The Jeweld Legacy Group, a nonprofit consultancy based here in Oakland.  The company is named after mother - Jewel.  After a career in nonprofit management Carol saw an opportunity to work with nonprofits and public systems to provide support, technical assistance, resources, and show them how to partner in much more efficient ways to create more self-sufficiency.

“so that at the end of the day, our communities would look a little different, that our communities would have what they needed to do for themselves and they were not reliant on governmental agencies.  And so that requires community-based organizations and grassroots organizations and faith-based organizations, advocacy organizations, and it requires the government, which is our cities and counties, to work better together so that our folks are doing better and they have the resources that they need.”

In addition to consulting with nonprofit organizations, The Jeweld Legacy Group does executive coaching, strategic planning, and they host and plan meetings around the intersection of homelessness, public safety, mental illness, substance use, incarceration and any of the other issues that impact African-American communities.

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear Carol talk about how using an executive coach is akin to using a coach in an athletic competition. 

#064 - Today we talk to Toshia Christal who does not sleep - she is an artist, jewelry maker, painter, photographer, and licensed cosmetologist - a true Renaissance Woman.  She is a creative person at heart and cannot be reduced to any one medium.  She has a brick and mortar space at 2911 Fruitvale Ave to display all of her creative works.

Toshia was crafty as a child, but she always thought of them as hobbies.  When she was injured on her job in 2008, she decided she did not want to go back to a job she did not like.  It was time to turn those hobbies into a business.

“I was like, these hobbies are sustainable, right? These hobbies are my business. And so being at that disabled moment, I took the opportunity to realize that I didn't wanna go back to the job that I was at.  It was not fulfilling for me. And let me take the opportunity to officially go to school, get my cosmetology license, and become licensed. And that's kind of how it all started rolling. Yeah, I always knew that I didn't wanna work for the man - a nine to five system that did not really feed my soul.  So it was the perfect segue into entrepreneurship.”

As an Oakland native, Toshia is proud to be an Oakland small business owner.  She credits a number of grassroots organizations like Womens’ Initiative, Akoma, Black Cultural Zone, and Kiva for helping her get her start.

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear Toshia talk about why confidence is so key to being an entrepreneur.