On this episode of Black Tech Green Money, we hear from industry titans Courtney Adeleye (The Mane Choice) and Monique Rodriguez (Mielle Organics) on navigating the controversial waters of acquisition and what it really takes to transition from a community favorite to a global powerhouse. Meanwhile, a new guard of tech-founders—Candace Mitchell (Myavana) and Dr. Tiffany St. Bernard (HairDays)—explain how they are training algorithms to diagnose scalp health and personalize care. And, Ciara Imani May (Rebundle) breaks down the chemistry of comfort, revealing how banana fiber is disrupting the toxic synthetic hair market. This is the business of beauty, engineered.

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Bryan Myers is President and CEO at [solidcore].

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Lauren Underwood is the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 14th District and, when she won in 2018 at 32, became the youngest Black woman ever elected to Congress. The direct line between a community's health and its ability to build and keep wealth, from the woman who built the Momnibus on receipts, not feelings.

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Stefanie Brown James is Co-Founder and Senior Advisor of The Collective, the largest network of organizations in the country dedicated to building Black political power. Through The Collective and its family of PACs and its education fund, she has helped raise more than $50 million from over 200,000 donors and helped 417 Black leaders win elected office.

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Christian Menefee is the U.S. Representative for Texas's 18th District in Houston. He now sits on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

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Millions of books got scanned for AI training, then discarded. The real question isn't legal, it's civilizational. Will Lucas on the difference between information and history, why AI only knows what survived, and what we're letting disappear because we assumed somebody else would save it.

He also has a new book out, Survive and Advance: Lessons on Living a Life Without Compromise, which is available now.

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Derek Lewis is a strategic thought leader and transformational executive, and was the first-ever President of Multicultural Business and Equity Development at PepsiCo North America.

He also has a new book out, Survive and Advance: Lessons on Living a Life Without Compromise, which is available now.

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Carter Cofield and George Acheampong are financial experts behind Melanin Money, dedicated to helping Black entrepreneurs and professionals build lasting wealth. Together, they're building the #1 Financial Education Community Designed to serve aspiring Melanin Millionaires.

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Justin J. Pearson is the Tennessee State Representative for District 86 in Memphis, and famously stopped a billion-dollar oil pipeline as an organizer, got expelled from the statehouse as one of the "Tennessee Three" and won his seat right back, and is now going head-to-head with Elon Musk's xAI over the pollution it's putting on Black Memphis.

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Anyone you admire in business could be on your Board of Advisors. On this episode, I'm going to teach you how to get them.

Key Topics

• AI-powered mentorship and advisory boards
• Historical mental models and practices (Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale)
• Building a personal board with four key roles
• Using transcripts and source material to deepen AI advice
• Levels of AI board setup: quick project, detailed knowledge base, full system

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