B.O.O.S.T. Podcast
B.O.O.S.T. Podcast
Black Capitalists: Redefining Market Access with Dr. Rachel Laryea | EP165
What does it mean to redefine market access in ways that puts people first; centering Black communities and lived experience? Dr. Rachel Laryea explores how cultural capital, storytelling, and visionary wealth-building strategies can reshape access to opportunity and expand who is seen as belonging in the world of capital and scale.
Drawing from her book Black Capitalists, Dr. Laryea shares lessons entrepreneurs can learn from both historic and contemporary figures, while offering bold ideas for redesigning systems to make market entry more equitable. Listeners will walk away with practical strategies to tap into new markets while honoring identity, community, and ethical entrepreneurship.
Substack: https://blackcapitalists.substack.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rachel-laryea-83a44aa1/
Website: www.rachellaryea.com
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When it comes to market access, we have to really think about it in terms of, especially when you overlay the sociopolitical climate that we're in, to question and a reality of the fact that the Calvary isn't coming. It's really up to us to think about the solutions that are going to be in service of us.
Kelly Leonard:That was Dr. Rachel Laryea. Dr. Rachel is a Yale-trained anthropologist and racial equity strategist at JP Morgan Chase. She founded Kelewele , a Brooklyn-based brand celebrating African culture through travel and plantain treats. Her work on race, money, and ethical entrepreneurship has earned recognition from NSF, Ford Foundation, BET, and the New York Times. In this episode, she shares strategies to tap into new markets. I'm Kelly Leonard, and this is the Boost Podcast.
Announcer:Welcome to the Boost Podcast, the podcast created to ignite your business and career potential. In each episode, host Kelly Leonard and her guests dive into one aspect of Kelly's Signature Boost framework, ensuring you get practical, actionable insights, tips, and takeaways to build your brand, optimize relationships, obtain more leads, secure thought leadership space, and tap into new markets. And now, here's Kelly Leonard. Dr.
Kelly Leonard:Rachel, welcome to the Boost Podcast. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Excellent. And so for folks who are hearing your name for the first time, tell them a bit about yourself.
Dr Rachel Laryea:Yes, so I am Dr. Rachel Laryea. I do a few different things and wear a few different hats. My day job, I am a wealth management researcher, JP Morgan Chase. I'm also the founder of a lifestyle travel brand called Kelewele, where we make plantain-based sweets and snacks. That's all plantain-based and plant-based as well. And we also offer um travel stays to East Africa currently, an island called Mafia Island. Most recently, I'm the author of Black Capitalists, a blueprint for what is possible, a book really all about race, money, and how we can participate in the economy in a more equitable way, uh, where everyone has a better chance for a more equitable future. Um, and yeah, that's a little bit of the work that I do and what I've been up to.
Kelly Leonard:Awesome. I love it all. I mean, we only have like 15 minutes, but I'm like, I'm gonna need a second or third or two for three minutes because there's so much to unpack. Um, but I know a lot of what I wanted to focus on right now is really because of just the time that we're in and the importance of economic mobility in particular. And so I know black capitalists um challenges traditional narratives. And so, how do you define market access in a way that really centers black communities?
Dr Rachel Laryea:Yeah, I think when it comes to market access, we have to really think about it in terms of, especially when you overlay the socio-political climate that we're in to question and a reality of the fact that the Calvary isn't coming. It's really up to us to think about the solutions that are going to be in service of us. And in order to really do that, because it's so nuanced and so complicated, it starts first with our set of beliefs about what we feel we are entitled to, um, in terms of what wealth we feel like we can achieve. It also starts in understanding fundamentally what capitalism is, what are the tools of capitalism? Um, it's certainly the case that the Black community, especially in the US, but also globally, has had a very particular kind of relationship historically to capitalism, especially being the labor force in the creation of Western capitalism, but never the beneficiary of it. And so it's a question of how do we reconcile that history with this present moment and everyday real desires of wanting to pursue intergenerational wealth, right? People are talking about how can you secure the bag in this time that we're living in. So, how do we sit with the tensions and contradictions embedded in that? But it starts first, as I mentioned, with understanding what capitalism is, understanding that there is potential and possibility for social good within that context, because when you're talking about market access, you are talking about creating more equitable access to the market so that more people can have access not only to the tools of capitalism, but also what it can produce, which is ultimately more choices in terms of our everyday and how we can access thriving lives. And so those become some of like the fundamental steps that have to be taken in order to achieve market access. It's really about how do we relate to capitalism, how do we relate to each other within the context of capitalism, how we've been conditioned to relate to each other, and how do we move in capitalism in new ways that counter kind of how historically we've engaged in capitalism in order to create new outcomes that can lead to greater market access?
Kelly Leonard:Love it. And so one way that we can gain access is through, of course, entrepreneurship. And so when we think about entrepreneurs, what what lessons can entrepreneurs learn from the wealth-building strategies of the visionaries that you profile in your book?
Dr Rachel Laryea:Yeah, it's a great question. And I would say when it comes to black capitalism, as I define it in the book, based off of years of research studying people and how they do it in ways that are really positioned towards communal uplift and social good, it's really about how individual actors or a collective reposition themselves within the economic system in order to achieve social good. And so when you talk about the different entry points that we have into capitalism, one entry point is entrepreneurship. And so if you're an entrepreneur, you've got your entrepreneur hat on, and you're thinking through the lens of black capitalism, you're thinking about how can I reposition myself within this economic system in order to achieve social good. That means you're asking yourself a different set of questions than you would if you were just a capitalist. Because if you're just a capitalist, you're thinking about private ownership, you're thinking about maximum profitability. And so you start to see the problematics inherent when you're just focused on those two things. If you're about maximum profit, that's gonna come at the expense of your labor force. You're squeezing as much profit out of that relationship as possible. But if you're practicing black capitalism, your end goal is social good. And so you're asking yourself, how can I be sensitive not only to my bottom line, because I'm an entrepreneur, I'm in the business of also being profitable. We know that. But also valuing people for who they are intrinsically as people, and not making their value solely attached to their output and what they can provide you from a business perspective. And that's gonna require some level of sacrifice. That might mean that you don't make maximum profit, but you can still be profitable, right? That might mean that you have to be really intentional about how you build a culture for your business that really values people and puts them first, right? And so you're not reproducing the harms of capitalism, which are exploitative, extractive, you know, it disassociates people from the value that they create. And so this mindset will change the set of behaviors that you produce as an entrepreneur, which are challenging. I think what I'm offering is not easy, you know, it requires us to operate at a different standard based on our critiques of capitalism. But that is the blueprint for how you do this more equitably and really show up in relation with each other rather than as an individual seeking profit as you might kind of normally think about it within the framework of capitalism that we're familiar with.
Kelly Leonard:So it's interesting when you mentioned um it would require us to operate at a different standard. And the truth of the matter is that we are held to a different standard. So it's almost like we're already accustomed to it. So it's like, okay, now we need to just apply it and have a greater amount of just intentionality because also what I hear in what you're sharing is it's like we almost you have to slow down in order to do some of what you're saying, we have to just be super intentional and just and slow, slow down. Like I know that urgency is, you know, that's yeah, yeah, that's the whole thing too. Um, and we, you know, so so it's just like, yeah, just being in this place of intentionality. And so how do um cultural cultural capital and lived experiences shape the way that black founders, and especially when you talk about, you know, this operating at a different standard, how do they shape um the way black founders really can tap into new markets?
Dr Rachel Laryea:I mean, we've always been at the forefront when it comes to culture. You know, we drive that. And so I think that's part of the promise in the framework of black capitalism, is when we know and we really kind of own that leadership position that we've always had in terms of leading the direction of cultural shifts. If we then apply a lens of, okay, ownership is important when it comes to preserving capital, preserving assets in a way that's going to be intergenerational, in a way that's going to protect and build wealth over time for our communities. And then you overlay also the social good piece, that's where you really start to unlock some really incredible potential. You know, it's like all of the inner workings are there, but I think it's we need a unifying principle to really execute against it in a way that's going to, again, be in service of all of us. Because I think where we would do a disservice to each other is to, you know, be at the forefront of leading culture and art and creativity and all these other elements, entrepreneurial or otherwise, but divorce it from what really matters, which is communal uplift, which is really around this reality and the fact that my success is interdependent to yours. It's not the case that I can really be successful if that's predicated on your suffering in any way. And so that we really need to change that framework in order to tap into the full potential of what we've always done and how we've always innovated and shown up by any means possible. But um I think that's gonna be the really pivotal piece that will make a difference.
Kelly Leonard:And so what I also hear in this is it's a lot of like learning, unlearning, relearning. Exactly. And we know the power of storytelling. And so I'd be curious from your perspective, what role storytelling can play in shifting these perceptions of who belongs in the in the world of capital and and scale.
Dr Rachel Laryea:Yeah, you know, I was just listening to a podcast the other day, and that kind of really popular maximum about um you can't be what you can't see. But I also think there's an element of it's hard to be what you can't hear, even, um, to even have the stories communicated about how we can do this. Because, you know, people, and I talk to people all the time now where they're like, oh, black capitalists, black capitalism, I don't know. But for me, the most exciting part is that there's evidence for it. You know, this is not just some theory that I, you know, made up in grad school or something. There are people who are doing this who have been able to achieve incredible success and not just monetary, but really kind of communal, creating networks and social cohesion on account of believing that you have to put people first. You have to be in community in order to really be successful. And so that is the offering. That's really the story, you know, in order to show a blueprint, as I say, a different way to navigate this moment that we're living in. We know that what we've inherited in terms of our economic system is wildly imperfect. Yeah. We know we have a long ways to go. We're not there yet. So we're in this in-between space. And so stories become the best way to give us a model and an evidence for how we can hopefully start to get a little bit closer to that future state that we're all wanting to get to.
Kelly Leonard:So when you think about the future, let's rewind a bit though, also and think about the past. And so if you could redesign one system to make market entry more equitable, what what would it be and why?
Dr Rachel Laryea:Oh my gosh, that's such a great question. I think as someone who works in corporate America, work at the biggest bank in the country, um, I think access into financial services, the financial industry is a crucial space that I would want to redesign. I think how we think about um recruitment, where we recruit talent, how we even consider who is talented versus not. I think there's also you see the kind of bifurcation around technical skill sets versus quote unquote soft skills and certain ones getting prioritized over others. And when you overlay just, you know, the prevalence of AI and still a lot of uncertainty about how that's going to change the kind of future of work and the landscape of corporate America, I think there's so much that can be done in terms of how do you really create an ecosystem whereby there's more market access and just knowledge sharing when it comes to the financial services. And for someone like me who works in wealth management, and I spend a lot of time understanding the beliefs and behaviors of high net worth affluent clients, I think just access to that knowledge is something that needs to be democratized. And so that's where I would start on account of the fact that that's my bread and butter, you know, right today. Um, but yeah, so much potential there.
Kelly Leonard:Wow. Wow. So, Dr. Rachel, for for folks who are listening and perhaps would love to just be in community with you, what's the best way for them to learn more about you and the great work that you do and grabbing your book and all that? The good stuff.
Dr Rachel Laryea:The good stuff. Yeah, I would say my Substack. Um, it's Black Capitalism. We use it all the time, writing pieces, sharing different events that I'm doing. I've been actively on my book tour, and so that's just a great way to stay in touch with all of the happenings um and even get tapped into you know the Killer Willy business and all the other things that um I've been up to. So definitely say Substack.
Kelly Leonard:Awesome. Thank you for that. I am so grateful that you were able to find time. I know you're a busy, busy person, so I appreciate just you just imparting the inspiration and the wisdom that you did with our listeners. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
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