This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Jason Smith sits down with Stephanie Chick, owner of the professional coaching firm Deliver The Package, about how entrepreneurs can unleash their unique genius in order to more effectively lead their companies and lead more fulfilling and productive lives.
Chick, author of Deliver The Package: Simple Truths to Help Set Your Genius Free, has coached top executives at major corporations including Pepsi, Xerox, American Express and HP. She believes that her methods for bringing out the best in her clients in corporate America are no less effective for CEOs of smaller businesses.
“I encourage my clients to stay curious about what life has in store if they simply follow their own path–not someone else’s,” Chick says. “I’ve learned that unleashing your genius is about trusting yourself, even when it doesn’t make sense to anyone else and scares the daylights out of you.”
Also, UBR Contributor Renita D. Young talks with veteran sports agent Bill Strickland, founder and CEO of Blackwave Media Group, a multi-portfolio management company in entertainment, sports, marketing and online media. Born in South Central Los Angeles, Strickland discovered a passion for sports early, and was eventually drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He would go on to blend his love for sports and business to become recognized by Black Enterprise as one of the most powerful African American figures in sports management, including serving as president of the basketball division of IMG, the world’s largest sports management company. During the course of his career, Strickland garnered numerous industry accolades, including being named on the “100 Most Powerful People In Sports” by The Sporting News.
In addition, in my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, I address the alarming issues raised by The Pew Research Center report, released last week, showing that our nation’s recent Great Recession expanded the White/Black wealth gap to record highs, with Whites holding $20 in assets for every $1 held by Blacks, the worst ratio since they began recording these figures in 1984. Closing this Black wealth gap is key to the continued progress of African Americans toward full equity and participation in the national and global economies. And it is critical to the future economic competitiveness and security of our entire nation. The question is: How do we do it? See my latest Off My Chest blog entry, “How To Close The Wealth Gap: Step 1,” for more of my take on what we must do to achieve this goal.
And finally, every week on UBR, you’ll get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.
If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with me at BE Insider, the social media network for people who are serious about Black Enterprise. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each week for UBR Spotlight, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.