The New Black Wall Street (with Dr. Charlene Sims)

We have a powerful discussion with Dr. Charlene Sims about financial freedom and literacy within the Black community. Dr. Charlene shares insights from her book “The New Black Wall Street,” which focuses on sustainability, collaboration, and the essential knowledge needed for successful entrepreneurship. Discover the importance of discussing financial literacy with children and the need for community support in business ventures. Dr. Charlene also touches on the significance of creating generational wealth, overcoming business challenges, and the value of self-help and community-oriented initiatives. Don't miss this enlightening conversation aimed at inspiring and equipping the Black community to achieve financial stability and success.

00:00 Welcome to the Liberation is Lit Podcast

00:14 Introducing Dr. Charlene Sims

00:41 Dr. Charlene's Academic Journey

01:42 The New Black Wall Street

03:32 Challenges of Entrepreneurship

05:08 Importance of Financial Literacy

09:19 Community Support and Financial Stability

10:53 Making a Direct Impact

14:08 Current Reads and Recommendations

16:47 Upcoming Projects and Final Thoughts

20:28 Where to Find Dr. Charlene Sims

21:07 Closing Remarks

Dr. Charlene’s Book

The New Black Wall Street

Books Mentioned in the Episode

A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir Manifesto by Rachel E. Cargle

Where to Find Dr. Charlene

Facebook

Time is of the Essence on Instagram

Thank you for being part of the Liberation is Lit podcast! If you have stories to share, want to suggest topics, or just want to connect, find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @liberationislit or visit our website at liberationislit.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review! Remember, your voice matters, and together, through the lens of stories, we're making a difference in the world.

Transcript

0:08

Hey y'all. Welcome to the Liberation is Lit Podcast, where the power storytelling the force of Social change. I'm your host Tayler Simon, and I am thrilled to be here with Dr. Charlene Sims to talk about financial freedom, financial literacy, and especially when it comes to the black community. We're excited to talk about her book. Hello, Dr. Charlene. How are you this morning? Great morning, my dear. I am wonderful. Thank you. How are you? I'm great. So, to kick off our conversation today, can you tell us a little bit about yourself as an author and a little bit about your academic background? Yes, ma'am. First thank you for having me. It, this is such privilege to be afforded, so I thank you. My academic background, I have an associate degree in legal studies. And computer information systems. I, my undergrad, my bachelor's degree in legal studies. I have a master's in public administration and of course my doctoral degree in business administration. And it goes on from there. So I, I haven't quit as of yet. I know myself, I'm trying to fight the urge, Urge the black woman urge to get another degree. But these student loans are like, you need to sit down, just read your books and be content. So speaking of books, can you tell us about your book, the New Black Wall Street and the inspiration behind it, and how does this book in your studies influence the work you do today? Yes, ma'am. The new Black Wall Street is actually my dissertation. I, prepared for my doctorate and, it is with regard to sustainability, collaboration, networking, all of the financial literacy, aspects of entrepreneurship and becoming a business owner. So, the book entails a lot of different, topics surrounding business ownership that I think we should, or I perceive that we should, be prepared, be prepared for, excuse me, when considering entrepreneurship and in my, my, work today. I am engaged with the public, I encounter various people from different walks of life, and I see more so now that are to become business owners. More minorities are wanting to become business owners and in order for us to be lucrative. Business owners, I believe that, you know, there is some things that we should know how to, what may, what obstacles may be waiting for us or, and or how do we overcome those obstacles? Or what can we do to be proactive instead of reactive? And I know personally as an entrepreneur, I have faced those challenges as well. And I think the biggest issue for me that I'm facing is how much to charge for, for sustainability for both the business, but also myself. Yes. in the podcast you can see bookshelf behind me, but it collapsed last week. Because I have a bookstore inside of my house. But this one is my personal shelf that's just overflowing. But I, I have to realize I have to keep a roof over my head for both these books and myself. So I am always trying to find that balance of, because I'm very community oriented of how much to, give away free to the community, but also like making sure I'm able to pay for this, for my head, for these books in myself. And in addition to that, just thinking about, i, I know in like my personal life, I'm afraid of debt. So I've been kind of doing this entrepreneurship debt free and I am so appreciative of the community for leaning in for support, could not do it without them. So that, and the business side was a learning curve for me to say the least. I come from a social work background, so I did not grow up with a lot of that financial literacy piece and how to run a business, how to be an entrepreneur. So why do you think it's important to talk about financial literacy, especially in the black community? I believe it is imperative we discuss financial literacy, especially with our children. We have to just set the tone because with us and those, our older siblings or cousins or, you know, family members, our parents could not teach us what they didn't know. So it's up to us to find the information, to gather the information and be able to apply it to what we want to do. And so, I think it's very important that financial literacy and is is discussed. You know, we need to go back to the dinner table and have those family meals and discussions. How was your day? You know, things like that. And let that the financial literacy come into play because we can't leave it to the school system. We can't leave it to someone else to do it. It's our job and it still takes a village. And so, it's not in schools like that. So it's up to us, you know, schools, and I'm not downplaying the school system, you know, I, I wanna make that clear. Not downplaying the school system or any person or group. I believe that it's only, they only scratch the surface. In school. So in order for us minority groups to build our own Black Wall Street, we have to know the fundamentals. have to, it's good to have a, it is great to have a good foundation because if the foundation is stable, when you're building up, that will be stable. But if the foundation is rocky or you're not, are gonna encounter some things along the way, but again, being. instead of reactive. You know, reading is fundamental. People don't, there's a plethora of information material that people don't like to actually pick up and read. They want it, you know, some people want the microwave, they want it right now. They want the quick version, but it's the oven bait that has all of the information. Everything meshing together as it should and just, you know, combining and, and making the dish tasteful, should I say. But, I think financial literacy is very important for in the black community, for us to discuss and let people know. How do you get there? How do you get there from to financial stability you're not there already? What steps are to be taken? You know, and it needs to be said by people who've gone through the process. Because if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, then I'm quite sure there's some things that you can still share with folk. But someone who's actually been there, done that. Has more perspective and I believe they have more compassion and empathy to the people they're explaining it to so that they get it. You know, you take your time because everyone doesn't learn on the same level. Everyone just isn't there yet, but helping to get others there to financial stability, which will, and creating generational wealth. I don't wanna leave that out creating generational wealth because poverty is easily passed on, but we have to create that wealth and so that we can continue to build and to help our, familial bond be strong and tight and help those others in the community and not gatekeep. Yes, I love everything you said about just being community oriented and even when you said that the school system sometimes falls short in teaching these skills, because I remember in my economics class I wrote Mother's Day cards. And we played the stock market game and that was it. That's all I remember from that class in high school. And so it is up to the village to share knowledge and being able to even pull resources because, the demographic that you mentioned earlier about being born of privilege, they have a lot of the wi wiggle room to make mistakes. They can take risks when starting business. For us, it's like, okay, it's this or nothing. Like this is part of survival. Or I'm doing entrepreneurship in addition to working a full-time job because I can't make ends meet. And so it's a lot of, community building and knowledge sharing and support too, because not only do you need that support when learning how to start a business, you need that support when you start a business with like people sharing and purchasing and things like that. So that's super important too. And so I know that this is really important work and it can kind of feel overwhelming to Be able to share all this information. What keeps you going in this work and, what keeps your passion ignited? Well, I was told once, not long ago that you know not to try to save the world right now. So there are a lot of things that we can fix or we can play a part in to being fixed, such as, unsheltered persons out there, you know, how can we help them? For those who are in need of food, like in food deserts, how can we help them because, enough food to go around. There's not a food shortage. There's enough to go around and like, if we think of some things that we can do for those who may be less fortunate because we don't know, the person sitting next to us could be a paycheck away from being homeless or hungry. And we need to help everyone who we possibly can or who we come in contact with. If we see there's a need or know there's a need, why don't we meet it so we can give out, blankets, we can give out bags, we can give out, cook a, maybe a hot meal and set up somewhere and serve it. You know, there are things that we are able to do and although we can't fix everything at once. can, whatever your passion is, we can work on that. Whatever your passion is, we can operate in that area. So whether it is cooking a home cooked meal, maybe giving out some free haircuts and just however can do our civic duty. Operate in our civic duties, to give back to the communities. And you know, I heard you mention like being community based and giving back, like, a book we can set up and I see in some neighborhoods they have like the little house set up and have books in there. You can come by and Yeah, the little free libraries. Yes. And I love it. I absolutely love it. But whatever your passion is, and my passion is being in a position of help to assist in any way that I can. Yes, ma'am. I love that and I love what you said about we, we can feel overwhelmed trying to do everything at once, but there's so much direct impact that you can make. Just like you said, handing out food or changing somebody's day by giving them a blanket or like supporting them. And I think personally for me, that is kind of what keeps me going is me being able to see the direct impact on like the interpersonal level. And I know that. Is just as important as fixing systems and systemic things. So I, I love that advice. What have you been reading lately? I am all over the spectrum, my dear. From poetry to I really love self-help books. That's what I love we all have something that we can work on within ourselves, with us versus looking at someone else to try to pick out faults. Everyone has them. None of us have arrived, so I love self-help books that make me realize things about myself and that need to work on or, better myself in and so we can all be better. And, poetry, one of my favorite poet is Maya Angelou because she is such a brilliant, brilliant mind. And I honestly wish I had the pleasure. To speak with her at least once. Not now. You know, don't come talk to me, Maya, but I say That's I I love May Angelou too. And, have you read the book, A Renaissance of Our Own by Rachel E. Cargle. I have not. I have not, but it's on my thing, my list. Yes, yes. I, I recommend that book to every single black woman I encounter because, and I think you would like it too, because it's kind of self-help. It's, memoir, it's, well, it's, the full title is a Renaissance of our own a memoir manifesto on reimagining, and it's about just black women being able to reimagine the the lives that they want for themselves. And I love Rachel Cargle too, because she is one of the black women entrepreneurs that I very much look up to the way she was able to build her. I don't wanna say empire, but build her platform on both having public education be accessible, but also her nonprofit, the Loveland Foundation of giving free therapy to black women she is awesome. And she talks about her entrepreneurship journey and stuff in her book. So highly recommend that to any black woman out there who loves self-help, and is thinking about entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship. Yes. So yes. My last question for you is what coming projects do you have going on? Well, I do have a few more books to pen and they're up here. I just need to get 'em out on paper. Some both fiction and nonfiction, but I will share with the world the story of my life and each of us have a, has a story to tell. So, I'll share that and I'm quite sure it can help someone else. It can be a testimony, to help someone else along the way who may have, or who may encounter some of the same issues as I have without a test. There's no testimony and, what we know isn't just for us, to help somebody else. We need to disseminate the information and to help others. That's what it's all about, love and charity. so, I have a couple of things that will hinge off of the new Black Wall Street. And one in particular is gathering the information and putting it out there about the black wall streets that have or do exist. So there, there's more than one, you know the one, the famous one in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And we want to get that story told as well because there are people who don't know and that will, it's only a piece of the puzzle that will show us. From where we came how we used to dress and carry ourselves in the business mindset that, you know, our ancestors had. And, just to move on and matriculate through life and just build, build on what you have, build on what you have. Everyone wasn't created to be rich. I mean, you know, we, and we are rich in other ways than financially. If you have good health, you're rich. If you in your right mind, you are rich. If you have love and people who genuinely love you you can call friend. You're rich. So we have to look at being rich and more than money, and we have to learn the value the dollar versus being in love with money, which is the root of all evil, which can cause you to go left. Once you, you should be on the straight and narrow. Money is a. It's a motivator. I understand that. And it takes money to run a business. It takes money to live. We have to keep good character and just persevere and keep our eyes on the prize, you know? And when we come into the knowledge of who we really are. And to get ourselves together. If this changes, then the whole scenario changes, but we have to have a different mindset and carry ourselves in a way that is pleasing to the most high, if I may say, That was just so amazing advice. Thank you so much for sharing all of that with us. And I will link the, where you can get the book, the New Black Wall Street, especially from Liberation is Lit. And support Dr. Charlene. And where can listeners keep up with you and your work? Do you have any social media website? I am on Facebook under Charlene Sims. I always will post any new and upcoming things that I have there. I am a business owner as well. Time is of the essence, LLC, which is a legal document prep business. So, if anyone wants to look me up there, I'm on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. I will link all of those in the show notes so you can find Dr. Charlene. Thank you so much again for sharing this wisdom and this great conversation. And thank you listeners for being a part of the Liberation is Lit Podcast. If you have stories you wanna share, so you wanna suggest any topics or just wanna connect with us, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at Liberation is lit. Or visit our website, Liberation is lit.com. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. And remember, your voice matters and together through the lens of stories, we're gonna make a difference in the world. Until next time.