[00:00:00] Lisa Yancey: Hi, everyone.

Lynnette Kaid: Hello everyone.

June Wilson: Welcome to this episode of Getting Unstuck.

Lisa Yancey: Getting Unstuck is a conversational series that the founders of The We’s Match launched to open and deepen dialogue between Black women entrepreneurs and investors.

Lynnette Kaid: This is a conversational space of truth telling about where investors and entrepreneurs get unstuck–

Lisa Yancey: –when it comes to scaling Black women businesses.

June Wilson: Black women are high performing bad ass–

Lisa Yancey: –Bad ass–

Lynnette Kaid: –Bad ass innovators who are not reaching revenue potential in the marketplace because of under-investment–

June Wilson: –and limited places to get trusted advice about what to do to scale.

Lisa Yancey: Our role at The We’s Match is to create an online and offline community that is 100% dedicated to the business growth and personal well-being of Black women entrepreneurs, full stop.

June Wilson: Full stop.

Lynnette Kaid: Full stop.

June Wilson: Through this Getting Unstuck series, we aim to have some real talk–

Lisa Yancey: –that leads to more investments and revenues. With that said, let’s get started.

June Wilson: Let’s get started.

Lynnette Kaid: Let’s get started.

Lisa Yancey: Alright. Hi everyone. Welcome to this episode of Getting Unstuck.

Today’s episode of Getting Unstuck is with the founders of Getting Unstuck, who I am going to ask to introduce themselves now.

June Wilson: I’m June.

Lynnette Kaid: Hi, I’m Lynette Kaid.

Lisa Yancey: And I am Lisa Yancey.

And today, for this episode of Getting Unstuck, we’re calling this series about “We the People.” We’re living in a revolutionary time. And it’s–typically we wouldn’t, we don’t know when these are coming out, so we don’t give the dates, but this moment is so magnificent and important that to state that today is June 8th of this recording. Yesterday, Minneapolis’ council voted to just completely disband and redo their whole police department. There’s been, um, an uprising, an empowerment, a recharge around the world after the death of George Floyd. There’s been a calling to say the names of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and others, countless others who have been killed, murdered by the hands of the police. So today we’re going to talk about We the People.

And it was interesting, as we were preparing for this conversation, we went back to thinking about the framers of the Constitution and what sparked that inquiry. And we were looking and thinking about, we know we did not get to this moment without it being intentionally designed.

And as we thought about, well, where were the intentional designs that led to this particular country? We thought about the framing and the Constitution that was created in, or ratified in 1781, the Articles of Confederation. And for the actual Constitution, the delegates got together in 1787.

But these were, they were talking about “We the People” where the Preamble starts with,

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

1781 or 1787, when it was signed, that “We the People” was not WE, none of us as Black people in the United States. We were not even considered people. We were considered chattel, we were considered property. And then when we started to be considered, we were a fraction of people. We were three fourths of people. And so when we’re talking about generational poverty, amassing generational wealth, dealing with inequities that persist in this country around this notion of domestic tranquility, common defense, i.e. the police, promote general welfare and secure the blessings of Liberty– they are doing it for the people whom they were talking about in the late seventeen hundreds. So what are we doing about this today? So I’d like to open up this discussion with my partners. And my first question is, if we were never considered in the original design, [00:05:00] is an amendment enough to position us for success?

June Wilson: Uh, No.

Lynnette Kaid: I say no. Because what are you amending? What are you amending?

Especially an amendment that can be taken back in the next administration, in the next conversation. Um, can you amend something that wasn’t designed for you? Right.

June Wilson: I think we believe, I mean, there is this concept that–and really, I I’ve been thinking a lot about this because last night I watched “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” and he, at the end of it, he had this amazing, powerful woman–and apologies, I didn’t get her name and it wasn’t listed–who spoke about the social contract and this idea that, you know, we have a social contract, or there is the belief that there is a social contract. So if one party and another party, and she, she makes reference to Trevor Noah talking about this.

So, you know, in the social contract concept, uh, if there’s a disagreement between parties, then someone comes in, an arbitrator, or the police, to sort of adjust and make that contract whole, um, you apply pressure and sort of have rules to say this, no, this isn’t working, and this is how we come to agreement, so we can come back to equilibrium.

She beautifully articulated, when the person who’s to come in and make the peace kills you, there is no social contract. The social contract is broken. So this idea of being able to amend something that’s broken. Hmm, unless you are willing to build it again, you touch on this Lisa with the Minneapolis police department, you know, you got to break it down. To just amend something that’s broken, continues to have it be broken, is what we’re finding.

So I say no. No, amendments don’t work. They cannot work.

Lynnette Kaid: You know, the Constitution to me is like a dirty ass carpet.

And, um, we go through every couple of decades where we lift this carpet up, something happens that allows us to see how much dirt, maybe not even how much dirt, but some dirt that’s under the carpet. Um, and then we, so far we shake it out, right? This is what I think amendments are, is to shake the dirt off a little bit, and then throw it, throw the carpet back down there. Right?

And we’ve been doing this for a long time, this shaking the dirt out of the carpet. And we’re at the point where you– It’s so filthy. It kind of, it started filthy, I mean, the carpet itself is weaved in the blood of the natives and the blood of the slaves brought into it. So, um, it’s just maybe altogether time to throw away the carpet.

Lisa Yancey: Mmm.

Lynnette Kaid: Maybe we need teak hardwood floors. I don’t know. It may be easier to clean.

Lisa Yancey: I mean, I love some teak. And in thinking about this idea of what you’re saying, it’s just blowing it up, right? Because this idea of amending, amending presumes that the core essence, the core materials that were included are still worth preserving, right. So the amendment presumes that there’s, there’s a value in the preservation of the thing, and perhaps it needs buffed or it needs to be shaped or re-imagined in a different kind of way, but re-imagined means imagining it still from that source, still from that thing that’s worth preserving.

And I hear you. I hear you in that regard. I hear, I think about, you know, earlier I said it’s June 8th. That means that for Black folks, our actual liberation is June 19th, is Juneteenth, which is coming up, not July [00:10:00] 4th. And so this, all of this We the People in the–and We the People particularly is of interest to this conversation about getting unstuck.

I want to tie it to why we are even talking about this right now, before we blow it all up. Because I do think there needs to be some explosion. Um, and without– because we know the patching, the patchworking isn’t working, because it allows us to continue to mask and not get to the dirt that you’re referencing, not get to the crud, not get to that filth that still lives within the fibers.

Um, but in tying this to a company as ours, dedicated to Black women entrepreneurs, where we hold the mantra that we are one of we, right. So this idea of “We the People,” and we were never of that people, then all the language of rights and liberty and ordained and general welfare, we were never considered at that point.

And then we were almost like added on maybe in the footnote. And maybe some people read the footnote, maybe some people don’t read the footnote. But others hold the intention of who that we, and as we are talking about 100% dedicated to Black women entrepreneurs, thriving, building generational wealth, um, disrupting generational poverty, moving beyond these very low revenue medians, that data is reporting on Black women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of various races and ethnicities.

Moving beyond that. The whole wealth, welfare, general peace started in a frame in 1787. And here we are in 2020. Wondering, how did we get here? And there’s been tons of other stuff, the GI bill, tons, right? So it’s– But the tons of other pieces and opportunities where wealth has continued to be built in this country after emancipation, post reconstruction, was still tied to the core fabric of that carpet that you’re referencing, and that general welfare.

And so I’m curious to your thoughts around even this notion of “We the People,” then, to we, as The We’s Match, the people now, and in The We’s Match, building an ecosystem of different people, connected to the single agenda of a hundred percent of Black women entrepreneurs, thriving, contributing in a massive way to themselves, to their businesses, to their communities and to this broader economy, how do we connect and what messages should we be sharing particularly to investors? Uh, many of them perhaps, and to entrepreneurs and the WeMakers too, and understanding, um, how and why we’re here and how that connects to the stuckness, um, that have been perpetuated over, over centuries.

June Wilson: I love it when we can just take a breath and absorb the question. Um, for me, you know, in this work and why this work is so important is that we know Black women are forming businesses and we are under-invested in and seen as not having strong, viable, commercially viable business and that we don’t have the business acumen or we don’t have the strategy. So therefore we are dismissed. And therefore, somehow we don’t get a share of the marketplace in the same way.

And so for me, in coming to The We’s and having this commitment to an ecosystem, if you are already not seen, to get someone to see you, is really hard, rather than creating a new system that works for you. And so in that it’s like, how do we, and the work that we’ve begun to do is how do we begin to engage and have conversations with a new type of investor, an investor who not only sees the return, but sees the return in multiple ways, not just monetarily to their own pocket book, but sees the return and what it does for helping build wealth and address wealth inequality in Black women and among Black families. An investor who sees [00:15:00] that the system doesn’t work equally across the board.

And so for me and our commitment to creating an ecosystem, because those investors are out there, there are committed, educated and, and white folks, not just sort of Black investors, but white folks with wealth who can begin to see that something isn’t working. And it’s our job to build relationships with them, to have them build relationships with our WeMakers, our Black women entrepreneurs. Because when we talk about the we, it will take all of us collaborating, consorting together, putting our heads together and believing in each other’s own agency. We talked about that last time. Like it takes us to believe– it doesn’t have to be perfect. I don’t, your model doesn’t have to look like the way it works, but I know that we can get there and I’m willing to build the relationship, invest the dollars, invest the time, work with you to get there.

And when we could do that for each other, we’ve already seen the power of even just listening and talking to each other of what that does to elevate our confidence, to allow us to like, yeah, we got it, we got you, and you got this, and you can do it.

Lynnette Kaid: There’s a big breath to take behind that as well. Yeah, I think it, it takes me to, um, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, something to the effect that it is more difficult today, because we’re struggling now with genuine equality and it’s easier to integrate a lunch counter than to guarantee livable housing or a solid job, and I’d like to throw “and get investment” behind that, right? It’s easier to guarantee the right to vote than it is to guarantee the right to live in decent housing conditions.

So that becomes where I think the challenge goes to the investors that we’re talking about. Cause you could just simply throw statistics behind it. Um, Jumaane Williams at a memorial that I was at recently, said, if you want to figure out how to, how to change this shit, follow Black women.

Because the statistics behind what Black women are doing in this country to build a business, a backbone of what’s moving forward. So you see the thing about talking about, to the people of capital and you can’t be talking about capitalism if you’re not talking about capital.

So how, and if we get down to just basic economics, who’s creating, and the fastest growing sector of economics in this country, you want to bet on Black women. And so I don’t think you have to go far from looking at things that you, uh, use to prove things from you. Right. So if you want to get to the change, let’s just go to basic, uh, what’s basically happening around numbers. Yeah. And, and so I think those are the things we can start to challenge in this moment with The We’s Match to investors, is that it is, it’s not just the moral fight, and argument, which in some ways is easier for people to go rally for, somebody’s neck is being crushed in nine minutes to death, and we should be outraged and we can feel outraged. That’s a moral fight we can fight. But we’re talking about is starting to shift from just the moral I’m outraged about that to actual, uh, spread of equality or getting to equality, which is something about how we’re going to change the economic structure, redesign, rebuild the economic structure of this company, uh, country.

And so, we don’t have to– You know, these playbooks have been written. We don’t, we don’t have to reinvent this shit. We just can pay attention to what’s happening in the Black woman community, which is why I think for us, we knew in trying to build our own thing, this had to be a thing that came out of The We’s Match.

This is The We’s Match and creating a company, a platform. And which we know will create real change in our communities, in our, in our country and our world, [00:20:00] simply–and it ain’t simple–but simply by betting on Black women.

Lisa Yancey: I’m going to call in your t-shirt, Lynette, and the conversation on Black Wall Street. Particularly because a week ago today, so June 1st, was the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre.

Lynnette Kaid: Yep.

Lisa Yancey: We’re talking about, so we are pretty much on the doorstep, of a century later, four generations from the complete abomination in that town. Rosewood is another example, but in this– there are multiple thoughts that are happening with me. Um, so if you bear with me for a second, one of them, I’m still holding Lynette talking about the dirty ass carpet of the Constitution. And so I will say to those of you whose whole insides went on, like, high alert, ready to discount that as an idea, ready to discount that as ludicrous and crazy, how dare, how dare, how dare you even say blow up the Constitution? Everything hinges on the Constitution. That is absolutely right. Everything hinges on the Constitution and until you, all of us, particularly those who haven’t been forced to be uncomfortable and adjust to that framing and the, the bountiful fruit that came from that framing for those for whom that framing was intended because it worked, it worked for those people. That was intended.

And there have been then nice treats. Suffrage, awesome. Civil rights, awesome. But not really, right? Like that’s what amendments do, right? They don’t, they, it was never a part of the original design. It’s like adding an accessory that could fall off. Cause it’s not the core anchor.

So I’m holding that we’re almost a hundred years from a community in Tulsa that built wealth, amassed wealth, organized, and it was taken, it was taken. And here we are a hundred years later talking about wealth inequality, inequities, median income of wealth in the future at net zero, white wealth 10 times that of Black, like all kinds of data.

So I will say, we have to begin– for you, those of you who are watching this, who are like, all right, I’m ready to be uncomfortable. You have to first acknowledge that “We the People” was not all people. And that everything that flowed from that then thus created disparities. And if we’re going to– I’m not even going to say right the wrong, I’m going to say, do the truth telling that Getting Unstuck is about. If we’re going to have the truth telling that Getting Unstuck is about, we need to acknowledge that truth. Because all our strategy and the plans come from that acknowledgement, not from this fake masking, this desensitizing, this let’s make it as nice as possible for the comforts of those who have benefited from these disparities.

I need for you to like, pull your bootstraps up, to be ready to sink into the mud of that dirt that Lynette talked about. So I’m holding that and holding that, knowing that in this week alone, in the past seven days, we had both the anniversary of Tulsa Massacre. Breonna Taylor didn’t make her 27th birthday.

And then, and here we are, and we’re talking about Black women. So also tying in what June referenced, around not only the need, it is an absolute necessity for us to then reframe, be the framers of the new kind of Constitution that’s going to yield the intended outcome that we seek. That benefits all.

But not to cater, we’re not here to cater to the comforts of those who are like, if you make me feel good, then I will contribute to the cause. We need– We’re not doing that. We’re not doing that.

That’s all over. And if you really are a part of, if you’re really one of we, you wouldn’t even expect that. And if you’re really one of we, [00:25:00] you will check yourself and you will have those honest conversations with yourself of saying, why do I feel uncomfortable and say, thank God I’m feeling uncomfortable. And I notice it. I notice I’m feeling uncomfortable. Maybe I’m on the, on the, on the brink of some breakthrough. Cause I need to break something. I need to feel some pain. I need to be on the cutting edge. feel a little blood to know that I’m getting to some other side. That is– that is the level of unstuckness.

So we’re not here trying to sanitize this conversation and the core of the unstuckness that gets to generational wealth versus the generational poverty that we’ve been experiencing, that gets to greater real estate and capital and assets that’s held by Black women. That’s held by communities of color versus the generational discrimination of housing that we know of.

We’re talking about a change of where that whole policing, the disruption of policing, seeing it for what it is, they’ve been doing the job that they’ve been sent out to do for centuries. And that is to control the property of which they feel they have a hierarchy. It is supremist behavior. Name it! Name it, and let’s lean in, because we not only have the innovators, the businesses, the savvy, the ingenuity, the dauntlessness, the ideas, the strategy to shift this shit with you. And without you. We not only have that, but we have it to build it even in this existing economy. We have to reclaim and change the frame and expectations to get to the transformation and out of the transactions and looking and taking a close look at what we hold so dear that we put our– that some of us, Lynette talked about last week, she didn’t–but some of us have put our right hand on our hearts to say, “I pledge.” And we’re saying to get to the unstuck we’re talking about, we need a different pledge.

Lynnette Kaid: Yeah. Let me be clear about the bloody, stained, dirty, filthy carpet. You know, you said something that made me think, we have leadership right now that blows that carpet up all the time, you know, that has complete disregard for that piece of paper as well.

June Wilson: That’s right.

Lynnette Kaid: So, I think we’re already there.

Lisa Yancey: Yeah. But the thing about that piece of paper, right?

Like the thing about this is why it’s so important. I think it’s a great conversation, to talk about and go back to the Constitution when we’re talking about getting unstuck. And I think, I don’t know, what are we at, 27 amendments right now? Don’t quote me. I think we’re at 27 amendments. At least the last time I remember we were at 27 amendments.

The reality is all of those amendments have not, and still do not equally apply. That’s even the problem that even the amendments aren’t equitable, and aren’t evenly distributed. If a Black man has a gun pursuant to his Second Amendment right? He can die. With all the licenses, with all the paperwork. That’s why we have to be real clear, speak truth to the inequity, speak truth to where power currently lives and this way, and reclaim our own power, reclaim our own power, recognizing– And that’s right, because that piece of paper that you’re talking about, Lynnette, sets the framing and the backdrop of a culture.

And that culture is shaping our experiences and agency. And we are challenging that redesigning that and inviting others to come in with us.

June Wilson: It’s funny as I’m listening and, you know, and thinking about the Constitution, I mean, the reality is that supremist ideologies will never allow you to feel safe.

You will never get to safety. You will always be afraid that someone is there to take it from you because a supremist ideology cannot be held. It cannot sustain. There will always be someone who will try and seek to overturn. And I’m not talking about Black [00:30:00] people are trying to overturn and take over white people. We are just asking for equal rights, equality. And we, the system isn’t working for us, the system wasn’t designed for us. So this supremist ideology to think that it can hold is a lie and it’s a lie to yourself. And we are going to continue to see the unraveling of the idea. The ideology is wrong, and it is not a place where you can remain safe, period.

And that is the hard part, watching what’s going on in the streets and watching the battle between police and protestors. It’s about looking at giving voice and saying, I will not be killed anymore. My people will not be killed. We will tear this down before we accept this anymore.

If you haven’t seen yesterday’s, John Oliver’s, um, “Last Night Today,” I think that’s what it’s called, watch the very end of the woman he has talking because she said, and this is my framing, I don’t know if these are her exact words, but my takeaway is basically, it’s a good thing that what we’re fighting for is equality rather than revenge.

Lynnette Kaid: Yeah.  Yeah. That’s one of the powerful Stokely Carmichael quotes. Yeah. That is, you’re lucky we are just asking for equality and not revenge.

Lisa Yancey: Yeah. Hey, lean in. Change is now. Change is now. We are in a new era. We are in a new decade. 2020 has shown up for change, period. And so be ready, be a part of the change.

Go to our site, TheWesMatch.com. We welcome you to join us while we build this platform and community. I, as one of we, we, as the founders of The We’s Match, are very clear that this is 100% dedicated to Black woman entrepreneurs thriving.

You can find the link to our website below. You’ll find more information there on how to get involved. And while we build this together, we will see you on the next episode of Getting Unstuck. And we hope to hear from you directly within The We’s Match community. Thank you.

June Wilson: Thank you.

Lisa Yancey: Bye.

Lynnette Kaid: We out.

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