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We Need More

We Need More

By Jeanelle and David

We Need More is a podcast driven to provide more positive representation in our community by interviewing professionals and business owners. Our audience is geared towards future entrepreneurs of all ages - specifically in the African American community.

Our guests provide background on their profession or business, their inspiration, peaks and pits of their journey and the legacy they want to leave behind.
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Rondel Holder - Founder & Creative Director of Soul Society 101

We Need MoreJun 13, 2019

00:00
50:26
Jerri Evans - Owner of Turning Natural
Oct 22, 202048:00
Dr. Gina Paige - Founder of African Ancestry

Dr. Gina Paige - Founder of African Ancestry

African Ancestry is a company that helps expand the way people view themselves and the way they view Africa!

African Ancestry is the world leader in tracing maternal and paternal lineages of African descent having helped more than 750,000 people re-connect with the roots of their family tree. With the industry’s largest and most comprehensive database of over 30,000 indigenous African DNA samples, African Ancestry determines specific countries and specific ethnic groups of origin with an unrivaled level of detail, accuracy and confidence. 

In 2003, Dr. Gina Paige co-founded African Ancestry, Inc. (AfricanAncestry.com) and in doing so, pioneered a new way of tracing African lineages using genetics, and a new marketplace for people of African descent looking to more accurately and reliably trace their roots. Paige travels the world helping people demystify their roots and inform on identities so that they may better understand who they are by knowing where they’re from.

Visit African Ancestry - AfricanAncestry.com

Aug 19, 202032:33
Jimmy Wise - Owner of Wisecuts Barbershop

Jimmy Wise - Owner of Wisecuts Barbershop

Jimmy Wise is the owner of Wisecuts Barbershop and Barber School. He dropped by with the crew of We Need More to share practical tips on how his idea of opening his own shop became a reality. We even learn about the haircut he received from his mother. Press play to find out how that turned out. Jimmy shares steps if you desire to open up your own barbershop. WISECUTS IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE BARBERSHOP. Wisecuts brings flavor and a vibe to the barber industry that you can't get anywhere else. Barbers are part of a hand-picked team  that are passionate about our craft.  Wisecuts are an elite men's club of sorts where people from all walks of life are welcome. Wisecuts is a corner stone in the neighborhood and a place where knowledge is passed on from generation to generation.


ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Wisecuts Barber School believes that every person who has the desire and determination to become a barber should have that opportunity. That belief inspires instructors to prepare students to not only be effective barbers, but to also pass the Virginia licensing exam. The goal of our high quality program is to provide each enrolled student with straightforward practical instruction and an energetic learning experience. The graduate of Wisecuts Barber School will have the foundation to pursue their desired career goals.

Visit Wisecuts Barbershop and Barber School

https://www.wisecuts.com

Jul 02, 202023:06
Brandon Frame - Founder of TheBlackManCan

Brandon Frame - Founder of TheBlackManCan

Brandon Frame is a visionary leader, social innovator and mentor. He is the Chief Visionary Officer of TheBlackManCan, Inc. an award winning and internationally recognized non-profit and digital media platform focused on celebrating, educating and inspiring boys and men of color. Started as a blog, over the last seven years TheBlackManCan has evolved in a conscious social community that reflects positive images of black boys and men of color.

Brandon Frame is the Deputy Director of Social - Emotional Learning at The Urban Assembly, Co-Founder of the award winning twitter chat #hiphoped and the Author of Define Yourself, Redefine the World: A Guided Journal for Boys and Men of color and the children's book My First Tie.

For his service to his community, Brandon has received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major Award, Change Maker of the Year and was named Next in Class in the field of Education by Black Entertainment Television. Brandon’s work has been featured in the Black Enterprise, Boston Globe, Essence, CBS, and NBC. Brandon pursues excellence with impeccable effort in all that he does. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and resides in Bronx, NY.


Visit TheBlackManCan website

https://www.theblackmancan.com

Apr 01, 202025:09
Samantha Josaphat - Founder of Studio 397 Architecture
Mar 26, 202047:39
Kier Gaines - Creator of Kier & Them

Kier Gaines - Creator of Kier & Them

Kier & Them is a multi-passionate millennial family featuring Kier, a mental health professional, his wife, Noémie, an intellectual property lawyer, and their sassy 2-yr-old daughter, Emery. Do we look familiar? You may have seen us online already - Emery’s french fry dance or our surprise engagement. Over the past two years, we have grown to over 58,000 Instagram followers and 17,000 YouTube subscribers.

The mission is to showcase non-traditional love and marriage, millennial family and parenting, and home and lifestyle while focusing on the importance of mental health through comedic, but thought-provoking digital content. Their content will make you think, cry, and most likely break out into a belly laugh.

Official Website www.kierandthem.com

Mar 19, 202049:36
Khadijah Robinson - Founder of The Nile List

Khadijah Robinson - Founder of The Nile List

In this weeks episode, meet Khadijah Robinson, the founder and owner of The Nile List. A Southern girl through and through, Khadijah was raised in Savannah, GA and Montgomery, AL. Her life is a manifestation of the Issa Rae phrase, “I’m rooting for Everybody Black.” After graduating from Spelman College, and receiving her J.D. from Harvard Law School she decided to practice law in Washington, D.C. 

On March 1, 2020, Khadijah launched her new endeavor: The Nile List - a one-stop-shop for Black brands; making shopping with Black businesses quick and easy, and full of variety. Nile makes shopping with Black businesses quick and easy, and full of variety. 

Nile is here to fill the gaps in knowledge of customers who want to shop with Black businesses, but don’t know where to look or, don’t have the time to go looking! More importantly, it’s here to streamline the process of buying Black -- which will now be just as easy as buying from Amazon. You shouldn't have to sacrifice convenience to support your peeps.

More on The Nile List

https://www.thenilelist.com



Mar 05, 202036:15
Erica Buddington - Founder of Langston League

Erica Buddington - Founder of Langston League

Erica Buddington is a career educator, based in Brooklyn, New York. Complex Magazine called her the “most fire teacher ever.” She left her post as Director of TRUCE Media and Arts at Harlem Children’s Zone to found Langston League. She’s been a teacher, grade team lead, Dean of Students, and/or curriculum designer at Uniondale School District, Uncommon Schools, Harlem Children’s Zone, and Capital Preparatory Schools.

Buddington has an extensive background in youth development, assisting many organizations with content that improved site culture and student academic/creative progression. She’s designed culturally responsive history and social justice curriculum for entire networks, summer programming, after-school initiatives, speaker series, and more. Buddington is known for learning experiences that heighten student retention, engagement, and mastery.

Buddington is currently immersed in a Freedom Fellows Institute Fellowship and is in the process of designing a unique school experience for middle school students. She also facilitates professional developments and designing curriculum for clients like Google Code Next and Medgar Evers Literacy Center, and coaching a number of educators.

Langston League is a multi-consultant curriculum firm, specializing in teaching educators to design and implement culturally responsive and sustaining instructional material and professional development.

More on Erica Buddington

https://www.mostfireteacher.com

Support Langston League

http://www.langstonleague.org

Feb 20, 202030:34
Destinee Swindell and Duclas Charles - Founders of Strivers' Row
Aug 15, 201942:47
Jasmine Jones - Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Cherry Blossom Intimates
Aug 08, 201941:58
Lauryn Fanguen - Challenges of Black Immigration

Lauryn Fanguen - Challenges of Black Immigration

Lauryn Fanguen - Shares with We Need More about the challenges of being a black immigrant in America. 

Aug 01, 201930:10
Kaine Hampton - Entertainment Lawyer

Kaine Hampton - Entertainment Lawyer

Kaine Hampton is an Entertainment Law attorney; he served as Counsel with the Global Entertainment division of Viacom Networks, servicing MTV, VH1, BET, and Logo Networks. In this role, Kaine works to execute agreements for on-air and off-air productions across the Viacom Media Network channels and platforms, specializing in large-scale live music events, scripted, and unscripted programming, including shows such as MTV Video Music Awards and BET Awards.

Prior to this role, Kaine served as a Business Analyst with Music World Entertainment, in which he worked closely with the legal department and production teams on digital content exploitation projects for artists such as Beyonce, Chaka Khan, and Johnny Cash.
In, At the Crossroads: The Intersection of Synchronization Licensing and Musician Advocacy, Kaine discusses some of the challenges songwriters and licensees face under the Copyright Act. Further, In City University of Hong Kong’s Journal of Law, Technology and Public Policy, Hampton discusses the challenges and advantages that social media has presented for employers, article entitled, Trending Topic: An Effective Analysis to Determine Employer Ownership of Social Media Accounts.
He is a member of the ABA IP Law –Young Lawyers Action Group and National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications.
Jul 25, 201945:50
Anika Hobbs - Owner and Lead Curator of Nubian Hueman & The Black Love Experience
Jul 11, 201946:34
John Ledbetter - Founder & CEO of Sunchase Media

John Ledbetter - Founder & CEO of Sunchase Media

Sunchase media is short-form video production company located in Washington DC.

Sunchase Media uses video to tell the stories of people, of companies, of products. Whatever your story is, they want to tell it. From the moment of an idea’s conception to the very final color correction before screening. You provide the inspiration, and they'll provide the creative direction and a full production staff to make your project happen.

Follow on instagram @SunchaseMedia

sunchasemedia.com

Jul 04, 201937:27
J'Vonn Forbes - Owner of 548 Construction, Real Estate Investor & Developer

J'Vonn Forbes - Owner of 548 Construction, Real Estate Investor & Developer

J'Vonn Forbes shares his story growing up in Philadelphia, graduating from the campus of Morehouse College and launching non-profits to better serve communities across the nation. This episode, we focus on the story behind the development of one Forbes' many companies, 548 Construction.
Follow J'Vonn Forbes on Instagram @iamjforbes
Jun 27, 201950:06
Ronald Draper - Owner of the RD Showroom, Art Educator & Activist

Ronald Draper - Owner of the RD Showroom, Art Educator & Activist

Ronald Alexander Draper is a visual artist born and raised in Harlem, New York. The NAACP and Urban League award-winning artist and Art Educator also serves as the Director of Contemporary Arts and Culture at Harlem Hospital Center, creating displays for individual spaces across the 200,000 square-foot campus.

Draper, who specializes in custom-tailored artwork for both residential and commericial spaces, uses a multitude of artistic materials and extremely deliberate decision-making to create one of a kind art experiences. Draper moves beyond traditional thinking, creating new combinations with materials, pushing his artistic messaging to new heights and allowing his work to be a dynamic presence for the space in which it lives. His multi-sensory artistic style teases the senses. His artwork will please your sense of sight and appeal to your sense of self.

Draper owns and operates the RD Showroom in the Port Morris section of the South Bronx. As the first Black-Artist-owned gallery in the Bronx, Draper is working to add to the narrative around the idea of an artist being in control of their own destiny.

Follow on Instagram @RonaldDraper_Art

https://www.ronalddraperart.com

Jun 20, 201953:35
Rondel Holder - Founder & Creative Director of Soul Society 101
Jun 13, 201950:26
Ashley Rouse - Founder & CEO of Trade Street Jam Co.

Ashley Rouse - Founder & CEO of Trade Street Jam Co.

Trade St. Jam Co. is a chef, woman and minority-owned business that started in a tiny apartment in North Carolina on Trade Street. Our passion for all things food grew into something more: a company built on the foundation of culinary innovation. We strive to share our 10+ years of culinary knowledge in the form of a small batch jar that can be used in cocktails, salad dressings, BBQ sauces, marinades, pan sauces & more. Cooking should be fun and reflective of the person at hand, but what it shouldn't be, is complicated.

Website: https://www.tradestjamco.com

Instagram: @tradestjamco

Jun 06, 201941:00
Marjuan Canady - Canady Foundations of the Arts

Marjuan Canady - Canady Foundations of the Arts

Marjuan Canady, a native Washingtonian with Trinidadian/African American roots, is an award winning entrepreneur, writer, performer, director, educator and producer for both film and the stage.

Marjuan is a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and holds a B.A. in Theatre/African American Studies from Fordham University and her M.A. in Art Politics from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Her work has been highlighted in international publications such as, The Washington Post, The Trinidad Gaurdian, Blavity, Black Enterprise and Huffington Post.

Marjuan is CEO of her multimedia production company, Sepia Works. She is CEO/Author/Co-Creator of the children's media brand Callaloo and is founder of Canady Foundation for the Arts.


https://www.marjuancanady.com


Apr 04, 201901:08:49
Brandi McAlister - Pray The Impossible
Mar 28, 201944:07
Jerron Hawkins - President Obama Mentee & Reach Foundation

Jerron Hawkins - President Obama Mentee & Reach Foundation

Howard University student Jerron Hawkins was recently honored during the Obama Foundation’s first national My Brother’s Keeper Rising! conference by being granted the opportunity to share his social justice story on President Barack Obama’s Instagram account. Hawkins, a political science and economics double major, has been associated with the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Alliance since its inception, in 2014. My Brother’s Keeper was launched by President Obama as a call to action to close opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color. Since then, Jerron has started his own non-profit: Reach Foundation - establishing a productive and uplifting culture for collegiate minorities.
Mar 18, 201901:01:29
Music & Passion with Eric Hall

Music & Passion with Eric Hall

Eric was exposed to music at an early age. Blessed with a musical family, his Mother a singer and pianist, his father a trumpet player, and his older brother on the trombone, it was only right that he followed suit. Being exposed to artist such as Stevie Wonder, Take 6, Earth Wind and Fire, and Grover Washington Jr. Eric decided to pick up the Flute and Saxophone.


Aside from touring and performing for artist, Eric also produces. In 2012 he produced a song for Madonna off her MDNA Album. Since then Eric has produced for the R&B superstar group Bell Biv Devoe, New Kids On The Block and Hip Hop artist Rick Ross. Eric just finished doing the film score for a brand new series called “Black Lady Goddess”. He also started his own company called Natural High Productions.

Mar 14, 201953:49
Philip Garner - Garner's Garden
Mar 07, 201936:34
Tamra Sease - Queendom Come

Tamra Sease - Queendom Come

Tamra Sease is an unfiltered author and craver of Christ. She prides herself in evolving into a versatile essayist, freely writing on various topics from the depths of her heart. Tamra lives to empower women to own God’s truth and practically apply principles of scripture in order to propel God’s daughters toward their purpose. 

A graduate of Hampton University and McDaniel College, Tamra is the proud daughter of Tillman and Madeline Sease and eldest sibling of Jacqueline Octavia and Brandon Tillman of Bowie, MD.

Feb 28, 201901:10:25
DJ Economix - A Conversation on Music & Coffee

DJ Economix - A Conversation on Music & Coffee

DJ Economix is a creator of the moment. Hailing from West Philadelphia, he discovered a passion for music at an early age. It wasn't until he finished school with an undergrad and graduate degree in Economics that he realized his passion was much more than a hobby. Thus creating the name Economix.

Economix currently displays his talents in New York City, Philadelphia and the Washington DC (DMV) area. He specializes in various genres of music. Including hip-hop, r&b, top 40, reggae to name a few. He has performed at a variety of events (clubs, private events and weddings).

Economix wants everybody to leave one of his parties or events with a lasting memory of the music. His goal in his own words is to "kill the party" and make sure the crowd, the venue, and his clients enjoy every moment of the event. He prides himself in his attention to detail through his music selection and the awareness of his surroundings.

Feb 21, 201956:00
Mahalia Jessup - C'est Belle Events
Feb 14, 201901:05:23
Sean Williams - The Dad Gang

Sean Williams - The Dad Gang

Sean Williams is changing the way that Black Father's are viewed.
The founder of The Dad Gang showcases active black fathers who aim to defy the misleading negative stereotypes that surround it. "We’re here to show the world that black fathers do exist and take an active role in raising our children."

His goal is to encourage, support, share tips and experiences that can help fathers from all walks of life become better #DadGoals #TheDadGang everyday.
Let’s change the narrative.
Feb 07, 201942:21
Shaquana Robotham - BrideHive & The Brand Label

Shaquana Robotham - BrideHive & The Brand Label

The Brand Label is a fashion line created for women in search of who they are today and who they are destined to become through their unique sense of style and creativity. Inspired and designed by two women, Shaq & Nola sought to create garments that would allow women to express themselves while remaining true to who they are. We want our clothing to exude all the things we aspire for women; authenticity, self-confidence and individuality. As women, we should not be defined by society or social media popularity. We should be defined and empowered by our brand. That’s what makes us fascinating, that’s the real you. The woman wearing our garment will tell a story, her story, about who she is and what her brand represents and that’s the most important story we could ever tell. Motto: Let your brand be defined by your story… Let your style be defined by your creativity… Let your life be defined by your legacy…. Forever embrace being you… ~The BRAND

Jan 26, 201956:43