BLACK WALL STREET - The Commodity of Personal Resolve — GLOBAL I AM ARCHIVES

GLOBAL I AM CONVERSATIONS (ARCHIVE SERIES)

Clifton L. Taulbert

From the Mississippi Delta to Black Wall Street: Building Communities That Endure

Long before "purpose-driven leadership" became fashionable, Clifton L. Taulbert was living it.

Born in the Mississippi Delta during the era of segregation, Taulbert transformed the lessons of a small rural community into a global philosophy of leadership, entrepreneurship, and human dignity. His Pulitzer Prize-nominated memoir, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, introduced millions to a world where character, resilience, and community were the greatest forms of wealth.

In this timeless Global I AM Conversation, Taulbert reflects on the values that built not only families, but businesses, neighborhoods, and nations. Drawing from his celebrated work Eight Habits of the Heart, he reminds us that trust, generosity, accountability, and service remain the true currencies of lasting success.

Today, as President and CEO of Freemount Corporation and Roots Java Coffee, Taulbert continues to demonstrate that commerce and conscience can walk together—connecting African coffee growers to global markets while helping organizations cultivate stronger leaders and stronger communities.

His journey—from the Mississippi Delta to Tulsa's historic Black Wall Street—offers an enduring blueprint for entrepreneurs, executives, educators, and anyone seeking to build a life of significance rather than mere success.

"Being a good person is the best gift you can give your children... Being principled really speaks to your better self."
— Clifton L. Taulbert

This archival conversation is more than an interview—it is a masterclass on resilience, values, and the quiet power of principled leadership.

The Culture. Our Capital.

The Culture. Our Capital.

Global I AM Conversations is an ongoing and archived podcasts of the world's builders, artists, entrepreneurs, thinkers, innovators, public servants, and cultural architects whose lives remind us that people—not capital—remain our greatest investment.   

Hosted by Patrick A. Howell, Founder & CEO of Global Market Intelligence & Media (GMIQ).  Co-hosts include Max Rodriguez of the Harlem Book Fair, Bill Huston of Crowd Max and Tara Frater, a wealth advisor and attorney in Barbados. 

Discover more conversations, articles, podcasts and global stories at GMIQ.

"The future belongs to those who invest in humanity."

Global I AM Conversations
The Culture. Our Capital.
© Global Market Intelligence & Media (GMIQ). All Rights Reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Being a good person is the best gift you can give your children, your cousins, and your Aunt Minnie that you only see once a year. Being principal really speaks to your better self.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hi, I'm Tori Reed, the CEO of Victory and Noble, as well as the executive producer for Getting Deals Done, along with William Broton. Getting deals done is about one of three dynamic intentions. Number one, the success mindset, which is about the visionary doer as well as the dreamcatcher. Number two, systems, what it takes to get deals done in the world. And number three, power, how big things are done in the world. Getting deals done is about impacting humanity one deal at a time. Our shows are produced for the busy executive in under 20 minutes with voiceovers that aim to clarify, inspire, and raise your collective business IQ. We hope the show will leave you supercharged with capital energy, focused with purpose, and ready to do your very best by being your best. Welcome to Getting Deals Done with Patrick Howell, my partner and a tenured financier, as well as someone who knows a thing or two about getting the deal done.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Blockchain and cryptocurrency are the way of the future. Both technologies are redefining the digital landscape in both investing and personal finance. With the disruption of 2020 and new norms settling into how we do business every day, Southern California's Thomas Carter, a futurist and founder of Dealbox, is at the forefront of the revolution to change the way entrepreneurs and investors do business. This is a time for new beginnings, new frontiers, and outside conventional thinking and manifesting. Find out more about us at dlbx.io. That's dlbx.io.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

The metaphysics of business is about our principles and applying them to our endeavors to create prosperity. How does the business world work, right? How do some people in our midst rise to become leaders, manifesters, and creators of industry, billion-dollar companies, and live lives of opulence and seeming unending wealth? Before there were constructs of MBAs, asset classes, business school balance sheets, GDP, mergers and acquisitions, there have always been dreamers, builders, and visionaries guided by their principles, passion, and ideas. Coupled with the focus with purpose, as well as the blind ambition of passion, these combinations of human qualities have always and will always create the worlds we live in. The world we live in is created by masters of those invisible dimensions of principles, visions, and dreams. Clifton Talbert is a modern American Renaissance man. He is an American author, global impresario entrepreneur, best-selling author, and architect of communities. He's just about done it all. At the youthful age of 76, he's more important to the new millennium than he may ever know. He is best known for his books Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, and Eight Habits of the Heart, Embracing the Values That Build Strong Communities. He is an oathmaker and a legacy holder of Oklahoma's proud Black Wall Street legacy. A former Oklahoma banker, Talbert, is president and founder of the Fremont Corporation, a consulting company focused on human capital development and organizational effectiveness. He believes we should never underestimate the power of our influence on the lives of others. He has lectured at Harvard University, the United States Air Force Academy, and was selected by CNN at the turn of the millennium to represent one of the many voices of the community. He is currently the CEO, president, and founder of Java Coffee. Welcome to Getting Deals Done, Clifton. Thank you. It's my pleasure being with you. It's wonderful to have you here today. The first question that I want to ask you is what is the legacy of Oklahoma's Black Wall Street to the American economy in 2021?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

The impossible is possible. Relationships matter. Not being afraid to discover who you really are on this human journey. And I think that to me is what is symbolized by what I call the entrepreneurs of the gumptioneers of Black Wall Street. Because keep in mind, you are only 56 years removed from slavery. And all of a sudden, you incarcerated emotionally and physically to some degree for 246 years. But yet, 12 years after that incarceration of place and time and all of that, 1877, African Americans had built their first town, Nicodemus, Kansas, that still exists today. So the map was being laid for all of those who were now no longer enslaved. Who am I? What can I accomplish? And that to me is what Black Wall Street does. It really provides you an inside look at who you are rather than what the external world will say who you should be.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yes, and not only for our African-American community, but also for the United States of America and also entrepreneurs and businessmen who many times sit there and face tribulations and trials that are beyond comprehension and have to get up from their own mishaps in order to forge a way forward. So Black Wall Street is critical to our legacy, not only as a country, but also as free enterprisers and capitalists. Being a business creative requires that you are always open to opportunity. It also requires that you are resilient. The Tulsa Race Massacre took place beginning on May 31st, 1921, exactly 100 years ago. Clifton Talbert, a prominent resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a legacy holder for Black Wall Street there. He is a multimillionaire, entrepreneur, CEO of Roots Java Coffee, and CEO of the Fremont Development Corporation. He is the embodiment and spirit of Tulsa, Oklahoma's Black Wall Street's resilience, a quality that all entrepreneurs must possess: preternatural perseverance and resilience. What role do values, ethics, principles play in doing great business?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

At the end of the day, the whole human family, we were interconnected. And we literally depend upon each other. Because you know, you buy a product, you have no idea how many hands have touched that product before it comes to your table or to your home. So the whole idea of being able to understand values that define you when no one is looking, those are the types of values that really helped you to create what I would call a world that is reflective of your better self. In a book that I wrote called Eight Habits of the Heart, which is down every continent in the world, it pulls out eight traits. And those traits are so incredibly important. And one of my prized letters is from John Wooden, the famed basketball coach. I didn't know him. He had read the book, Eight Habits of the Heart, sent a letter to a Fortune 500 executive and said to him, You gotta get this book into your business. He said, I started reading it and couldn't put it down until the last page was gobbled up. The first habit is nurturing attitude. And when you think about that, you think in terms of a mom or a dad with their child. But nurturing attitude has to do with the unselfish use of time. Because when you're driven by selfishness, the outcome and the output of what you're doing is not always of an advantage to others as well. But when unselfishness drives your action, it changes everything. Then, of course, there's dependability. We hear that word all the time, but very seldom do we think of it as a quality that we can become, where our word is what it is. You give your word, you keep your word. Oftentimes the problem that we face is not because the words, the right words weren't given, is just that we decided not to keep the words that were given. Therein brings about another set of problems. So the idea of understanding our character and understanding who we can become by virtue of what we do, that hasn't changed. We are the conversations we hold, we are the associations that we associate with, we're all of these things that bring into our lives this plethora of people and relationships and conversations. So the eight habits of the heart speaks to those issues. This is who you can become. Not what you can learn, but who you can become. And that's where the change takes place.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

In his article, Entrepreneurial Thinking and Your Resolve, Clifton notes that personal resolve can move mountains. Just as he has outlined unselfishness, dependability, he notes as a leader, the success of the organization has to be a resolve. This marks the success of entrepreneurs. The embrace of personal resolve is deeply embedded within the entrepreneurial mindset. If you never give up, you never lose. You seem like somebody who has been principled and followed a set of guides and followed a set of ethos in order to maximize your output and found great success in America. Do you think that following principles and being a good person is contradictory to being a multimillionaire or being a multi-billionaire in America?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Being a good person is the best gift you can give your children, your cousins, and your aunt many that you only see once a year. Being principled really speaks to your better self. And it does not mean that you're not getting a lawyer if you need one. It does not mean that you're not reading every page of the document you're going to sign. It doesn't mean that. But what it does mean is that in the throes of doing business the right way, I am going to be equally concerned about the outcome for the person with whom I'm working as well as myself, not just looking out for me. When I was a kid, I remember growing, as you know, grew up in the Mississippi Delta. And one of the things that still hurts me today, you know, I'm a kid. I go to work for this new boss, and she says to me, I want this garden to look perfectly. Fine. That's what she should have said. But this is where she got me. She said, Now I want you to work as hard as you can. I think I was being paid 35 cents an hour. And I want you to work as fast as you can. Now, but working as fast as you can meant I got it done in less than an hour. So for all of that work, I made maybe 15 or 20 cents. And I always remember that never put another person in a position where they cannot maximize their potential as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Basically, looking out for other people's best outcomes, the same as you know, that essential principle of do onto others as you like to do unto yourself. What you're talking about is doing great business, but also being a good steward, a good citizen as well. And that's important.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah, doing good business is great. That's what I try to do. And I learn every day things that I know or don't know. But at the same time, I realize there should be a set of attributes that I subscribe to that will keep me close to the commitment that I have made. And I try and associate with other guys and girls that are working in fields of business similar to what I would do to see how they are doing as well. We can also learn from each other. What's your bottom line? My bottom line would probably be leaving a message that is not written. But when someone wants to talk about Clifton and he's no longer here to add to that conversation, I would want that bottom line to be he was really a good guy. He was fair and he cared about people.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

It's essential to your success as well as to organization under your stewardship. What do you want your company to look like? What are you willing to do to ensure your success in the marketplace? As a leader, you are always sending signals. As a leader, you are always being watched. Do you think that it's possible that America in the coming century or will ever be rid itself of institutional racism?

SPEAKER_02 13:06

I think that the history of who we are and who we were remains. But it remains an opportunity to change. And I think the journey that we find ourselves on will be one that circumstances will require change. And generations born differently at a different time, a different place will see their role in life to be different than perhaps their parents saw their role. Things that we would have accepted as the norm. I often tell young people, I am the history that you talk about. That was the only world I knew was legal segregation. Racism was a way of life. Cotton was perceived as royalty. Sharecropping was a, to me, an extension of slavery. So that was the only world I knew. But within that reality, there was another reality, and it was called the Transforming Power of Community. My great aunt was the game changer that got me to this conversation today, some 60 years later. You're gonna always find a collection of game changers who have come among us for the express purpose of moving us more closely toward that more perfect union.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

What it brings to my mind is the strength and the resilience of America's most essential commodity or asset, which is the African-American woman. I have the divine fortune to be birthed by one such woman. I have the divine fortune to have a partner in Tori Reed. And then we see, you know, on the larger stages, the Kamala Harris's and the Stacey Abrams. These are the ones that are known. The ones that are not known are just as powerful, if not more powerful. Can you talk just a little bit in concluding about the contribution of your grandmother and also these women that have helped bring us to our current station where we are right now?

SPEAKER_02 15:10

I was fortunate. It was my great aunt who raised me. She said you would get an education. And that seemed to be a regular statement, but I'm the guy at the house and the fields are there to work. And she said, even if we don't have food to eat, you will get an education. I went to the library in my town, and the library door was closed in my face. They didn't know that a PUDIC nominated author was standing in front of them. They saw a black kid with the wrong color, and I couldn't go in. My great aunt went home to her house, sat in her rocking chair, wrote a letter to every black college she could find an address. Send me your old books. The books came to the post office box 145. And she created a library in her front room. Saturdays, I had to go there at one o'clock to read college books. I'm in a second grade, third grade, fourth grade. And I remember telling her that these books are not the books that I should be reading. I can't pronounce the words. She looked at me like I was crazy. She said, if they can write it, you can read it, and slammed the door and walked out. That's the type of person that gave everything to make sure that I would be here for this interview with you some 60 years later.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

In his conclusion to his article, Entrepreneurial Thinking and Personal Resolve, Clifton talks about the role of personal resolve that is deeply embedded in the entrepreneurial mindset. Indeed, what are you willing to do to ensure your success in the marketplace? If Tulsa, Oklahoma's Black Wall Street is answering, that means anything it takes. Clifton Talbert is the modern legacy of that power generation of entrepreneurs, free enterprise thinkers, and capitalists. This legacy goes back thousands of years to the ancient empire of Mali with King Montamusa, the wealthiest man in world history. Clifton Talbert's decency, ambition, verve, and moxie are all essential elements to the successful entrepreneur skill set. The spirit of O.W. Gurley and Black Wall Street lives on in Clifton Talbert. Indeed, it lives on in all of us, and we all are and have been up to the task of building a better world from ideas, goods, and services. I challenge America to her highest ambitions, not only as a proud black man, but also as a successful free enterprise capitalist.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Getting Deals Done. Each show is engineered as meditation on success by the same team that has brought you success meditations on the art of life, as well as being your very best self, with our flagship program, Here's to Life, with Tori Reed.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

I am Amu Beme Vege, the founder of Afrobees. Afrobees is looking forward to working with our new American partners, Victoria and Noble. Our mission is to bring Africa, the Caribbean, America, and the diaspora together with inspiring and educational programming. Find out more about us at ubeznewstv.com and one.africa. That's wan.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

We look forward to bringing you another dynamic offering globally every two weeks. Be sure to join us for our virtual mastermind forum. And remember, prosperity is a state of being, not a ledger line on your bank account.