Townrootz

#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.

#063 - Today we talk to Destiny Muhammad, AKA The Harpist From The Hood. Destiny has an inspiring story.  She grew up a military kid, but when her parents divorced, her mother moved with three little girls to Compton, CA.  An episode of I Love Lucy inspired young Destiny to play the harp, but that was not seen as a practical choice for a family navigating the welfare system.

After graduating from high school Destiny became a barber, opening up a shop near the projects where she grew up, but then she got re-introduced to the harp.

“And for you barbers out there, you know, barbering is lucrative - LUCRATIVE. So I'm doing well and thinking this is what I'm going to do.  In about 1991, I started dating a man whose best friend is a harp builder in a little town not too far from here called San Juan Batista. And in 1992, I got my first harp at the age of 30 and I started studying and eventually, I knew that I had had this dream and it was being brought back to me.”

She started taking lessons as a 30 yr old adult, playing next to children.  She moved to Oakland from LA in 1997 and began playing farmers markets to gain confidence and that is where she found her name by starting a session with…

“Jack London Farmers Market needs every Sunday rain or shine from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and my name is Destiny Muhammad, and I'm your friendly neighborhood Harpist From The Hood, letting you know it is all good - here at the Jack London Farmers Market. People laughed, I mean, so it stuck.”

Stick around until the end to hear how an “inner message from God” about 6-7 months before the pandemic hit, made her start preparing before the shutdown.

#062 - Today we talk to Charmeng Robinson, a local artist who creates handcrafted original pieces that connect with nature.  Charmeng’s pieces include acrylic paintings on canvas, timekeeper, clocks, handcrafted jewelry, coaster, dominoes, and more.

Though her late father painted, Charmeng did not take it up until 2020.  She taught herself via online tutorials and then lots of practice.

“I started taking some tutorials on Facebook and I met a young lady that was doing the painting. I was just admiring it and was like, ooh, I could do some of that for my family friends. And that was as far as my brain took it at that time. So I started taking notes on what to do, how to learn, how to mix the paint.”

At the beginning, Charmeng was uncomfortable calling herself an artist, but she gained confidence after her cousin displayed her art in his San Francisco barber shop, Gifted Crowns, and she started having success at pop-ups.

That led to several commissions including Sweet Fingers Jamaican restaurant in Oakland, the Oakland Roots, and becoming the sole vendor at the new Lululemon store in downtown Oakland.

Stick around til the end to hear about how Charmeng got hooked up with the Oakland Roots.

#061 - Today we talk to Derreck Johnson, Founder of the nonprofit The Black Owned Project 365, which runs the Lifeline Culinary On The Job Training Program, a fully certified apprenticeship program that trains and mentors recently incarcerated individuals so they can have careers in the restaurant industry.

The idea came to him while standing on the steps of the capital while his cousin, Kamala Harris, was being sworn in as Vice President.  But, this would not be his first rodeo.  He had experience with this population, hiring his first recently released individual back when he had an auto-detailing business, one of his early entrepreneurial ventures.

He found himself short-handed one day when the rain cleared up and a bunch of cars started showing up.

“I don't wanna turn this money away.  And one of the guys there was like, well, I can call the house and have some of my brothers come down.  I said, okay, please get them now. I'm just thinking he's calling his actual house. And his brothers were actually coming to work, but he was living in a halfway house.”

“they came in and they started working and I was like, hey, can you all come back tomorrow?”

Derreck ran his first pilot this fall.  He teaches them that the restaurant business requires hard work and you have to be consistent to be successful.  He believes one of the secret sauces of his program is access to him.  He works alongside them and does not give up on them if they stumble.

“I feel it does because they have a direct connection with someone that they would never have a direct connection with. Usually when they get into employment, you would not meet the boss. You wouldn't meet the person that's running the restaurant.”

Derreck still enjoys running his landmark Home of Chicken & Waffle restaurant in Jack London.  It is “must stop” for politicians and celebrities coming through Oakland.

Stick around til the end to hear about all the famous people who have visited the restaurant.

#060 - Today we talk to Kamilah Mitchell, Founder of Teas with Meaning, which is an Oakland based tea company centered on intention, purpose, and wellness.  After a cancer diagnosis in 2017, Kamilah took herself to Mount Shasta to relax.  While there, she realized she would be guided by nature rather than western medicine.

She learned that the herbs, roots, and fruits may be better for her healing process by not only helping her physically, but on her emotional and spiritual side as well.  She came back to Oakland and sat in community - having intentional conversations through tea time with her community.

“Tea time is a process - you have to let the water boil, you have to let the leaves steep.  So it's a process. And then that process, just being really intentional about what that slowdown and that self-care really looks like for me.”

Teas with Meaning was never intended to be a business, but just started to grow organically in 2018.  George Floyd’s murder brought national attention to the need to support Black businesses.  When Beyonce put Kamilah’s tea on her website, it sold out.

"I started bottling teas and when those teas made it to Beyonce's website, that created this, you know, buy black became a huge trend in 2020 - like it became a huge trend. So that helped with business a lot. Like I said, the right people seeing Teas With Meaning has always organically helped ease with meaning.”

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear Kamilah’s stories on her battles with western medicine and the healthcare system.

#059 - Today we talk to Charlese Banks, the creator and founder of The Town Experience, a platform that highlights the cultural events and as we call 'em, the town experiences that happen around the city.  She is hyper-focused on featuring local businesses, specifically black and brown businesses - letting the public know about grand openings and celebrations.

Charlese took a platform from one event and turned it into a business.  The inspiration of the platform came about when Afrotech, a conference for Black tech workers, came to Oakland.  Charlese was inspired to build around that weekend’s activities so that visitors could connect to locals and figure out how to do things that were outside of the conference and be able to take in the entire Oakland experience.

Charlese knows that Oakland is an experiential city.  People come here on vacation or a visit for some other reason and Oakland touches them.  Next thing you know, within a year they move here.

“everything about the city that makes it great - it is not something tangible. You have to come here to experience the city to get why people don't leave and why we choose to stay here.”

Charlese’s goal was to build a platform for visitors, but was surprised that the data showed most of her followers were locals who were not tapped into what’s going on around the city.  This was the interesting twist - she set out to develop an app for visitors, she ended up developing one for locals.

“A lot of the feedback I get - they're like, I love it because I'm finding all kinds of things that I don't necessarily see promoted in Oakland on your platform.”

“So that was the surprising pivot - I was trying to figure out how to make this a platform appeal to people that weren't from here and then turned out the market I needed to tap in was the localized market first because we weren't actually taking advantage of our backyard.”

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear about how Charlese’s key partnerships with companies like AirBNB and Visit Oakland have grown her business.

#058 - Today we talk to Melanie Graham, Founder & CEO of Social Equity Lab, an Oakland based boutique consulting firm that focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion, also on organizational development for nonprofits, corporate companies, startups, and governmental agencies - though Melanie says large nonprofits are the sweet spot.

Indicators that you need her are low morale, high turnover, and difficulty in recruiting. She loves to focus on the organizational structure to make a lasting impact.  You can do all the training in the world, but you must change the structures that allow the inequities to exist in the first place.

“looking at structures like, performance management systems or just like the hiring and recruiting process, just things that are very structural - I like to impact those because it'll really shift the culture of the organization. And frankly, it's easier to do that than it is to change people.  Behavior change can take a lifetime.  If structures change, people will change along with it.”

Melanie started the business in New York, about 5 years ago.  She moved to Oakland during the pandemic.  A Seattle native, she was drawn to Oakland’s history of activism and mobilization.

Many would assume Melanie finds it easier to work with west coast or Bay Area clients, but that is not necessarily the case.  Interestingly, she finds that people in other areas of the country are more open about where they are and more open about addressing the issues.

“organizations could be in a place where they think they're doing it well and don't think that they need this work or this support because, you know, listen, I'm from California.”

“working on the East coast might be a little bit more transparent with where they're at.”

“I would say the clients that I have in the South - their willingness to address it is a little bit more present."

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear Melanie talk about how DEI issues affect the bottom line.

#057 - Today we talk to Yahshimabet Sellassie, Founder & CEO of Yahshi Bakes, an Oakland bakery founded in 2015 when she was 12 years old.  Yahshi Bakes makes handcrafted, organic pastries from locally sourced ingredients, featuring the warming spices and flavors of her Ethiopian and Jamaican heritage - so lots of vanilla, cardamom, brown butter, coffee, ginger, chocolate, and more.

“I've always loved being in the kitchen. And so I knew from a young age that I wanted to have a cafe, and I naturally just found myself starting Yahshi Bakes because I couldn't keep myself out of the kitchen.”

Yahshimabet followed the lead of her entrepreneurial parents.  They told her - if there's something you love doing, make it into a business.  At age 7, she became seriously interested in learning how to cook and bake, making something new for her family to enjoy most weekends.  By age 12 she was on Food Network - when most kids were at basketball and soccer practice, she was in a cooking competition on national TV.

“Being on Food Network at 12 years old was super exciting for me.  I always dreamed of being on Food Network. It was one of my favorite channels to watch, and I used to make videos in my kitchen acting like I was on the show, so it was super exciting to be on there and cross that off of my bucket list sooner than I expected to. It was just really amazing to feel like I had the platform to share what I love doing with the world and reach an international audience of people.”

The pandemic shutdown unveiled the unpredictability of pop-ups and led Yahshimabet to develop a subscription box - starting with pastries and moving to cookies.  Surprisingly, she has a good amount of sales in New York so the subscription box allows her to reach those customers.

“I did a trial in October through December of 2022, and I was able to learn that the subscription model is actually a really good direction for Yahshi Bakes, and it allows me to have guaranteed sales in a way that popups haven't always allowed, like with the pandemic.”

Be sure to listen until the end to hear how Yahshimabet’s own dietary challenges led her to launch Yahshi Bakes.